Page 97 of The Two Halves of My Heart

It was Maddison.

People started to take notice, moving in closer to take a look and the din started to gather momentum. It was nothing like the cheering and support at the fights I’d witnessed at The Club. These spectators expected blood—sizing up the victims below.

“Oliver?” I asked, not sure of what question I needed answering.

“He’ll see us,” he replied confidently.

Maddison stood, looking out and scanned the faces in front of him, the same routine as when I’d been to watch other fights, but we were too far away. His eyes moved back and forth over the hoards in front of him. A bright light beamed down above him, illuminating the cage, but it didn’t help Mads find us, and he wouldn’t all the way up here. The screen repeated the image in close up, and I saw the look of hope on his features.

He was looking for me, and he wasn’t going to see me unless I did something.

“He can’t see, Oliver. We have to get closer. Come on.”

I tore off back the way we’d come, down the stairs and past the mountain. People stood shoulder to shoulder, all edging closer now the action was building, but I found a way through. I barged and pushed, and with determined steps, forced a path. Oliver kept a hand on my shoulder, lending me his strength. We knocked people and shoved past until we were closer to the ring, but Maddison had turned away from the crowd and wasn’t looking for me anymore.

“Maddison!” I screamed through the noise and jumped up and down, making myself as big as possible in the masses.

It was no use. Maddison was looking the other way—right at his opponent who’d joined the ring. The man was a monster. Legs twice as big as Maddison’s, his neck like that of a bull, chorded with muscle. He made Mads look like a boy.

I jostled for a better vantage and looked towards the roped-off section of floor between the spectators and the ring. I thought about running through it; the bouncers wouldn’t be able to stop me in time to make Mads see me. Then the nightmare of the last fight returned—when I’d been the distraction. He’d blamed me for that, and I couldn’t risk that with who he was facing.

As I weighed up the options, a groan from the crowd forced my eyes to the screen, just in time to see an arc of scarlet fly from Maddison’s mouth. He’d stumbled back with the force of the strike.

The guy came at him again, pounding his fists into Maddison’s face and body. He stepped away, retreating before rounding on him with his own fists. They battled, trading punches one for one, but I’d seen the shock that went through Maddison’s body every time he took a hit. This was killing him, the sheer size of the other guy making it impossible for him to make a stand.

Pain speared through my chest at what he was going through. The light hanging over the ring painted a sinister scene as pools of blood littered the matting and only grew in number. All the blood was Maddison’s.

“Oliver, when will they stop?” A squeeze of my hand only met my plea as I fought the urge to turn away and bury my vision of Maddison’s torture. Another punch bruised Maddison’s face, and I finally caved and turned to Oliver and wrapped my arms around him.

“Make it stop,” I sobbed. This was worse than anything I’d witnessed before. But I couldn’t shut my eyes on him. I saw the screen on the other side of the room, and I could make out the movements of what played out. Maddison righted himself, steadying his feet and pulled himself tall, but the other fighter just smiled. He pulled his arm back and smashed the heel of his palm up into Maddison’s face, crushing his nose.

A collective gasp from the people around me preceded a second of eerie silence where I watched Maddison’s body go limp and give way beneath him, dropping like a puppet with broken strings. The thud of his weight hitting the mat made me jump, and Oliver’s arms constricted around me as he watched on.

My eyes kept focused on the screen. “What happened?” I whispered. “Is he okay?”

But the seconds ticked on, and Oliver didn’t reply. I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to bear what was coming next.

Oliver still didn’t answer.

Screams and shouts exploded all around and added to my confusion. The need to see Maddison, to check on him, overruled everything in me that told me to stay where I was. My body took over, the fight or flight response kicking in, and I struggled out of Oliver’s grasp and turned to the ring. People rushed all around, but through the chaos, I could see the ring, and his body, still on the ground.

“No. No. No.” I started to shake my head. He needed to see me. He had to know that I was there for him. That I cared. My legs powered me forward with a new determination, and I broke through the people in between me, and where I needed to be. I crossed the barrier, looking for a way to Maddison.

Steel arms locked around my waist and stopped me in my tracks.

“You don’t want to see him, Grace,” Leo’s voice strangled out the words.

“No, I need to. I have to…” The energy drained from my limbs as I tried to free myself, and I watched as Leo nodded to someone before he let me go. I fell away, but Oliver was there to catch me, pulling me back into his embrace.

People swarmed into the ring, and I lost sight of Maddison. Oliver picked me up and carried me to the side, where we sat down on a wooden bench. My arms gripped onto Oliver for dear life. Tears clouded my eyes, turning the scene into a watery mess shielding my vision. The details of what had happened to Maddison was what I both desperately wanted to hear and yet couldn’t stomach comprehending.

Movements and noise faded as I waited in a status of nothingness, cocooned in Oliver’s arms. If I opened my mind to the reality around us, I’d break, and I wasn’t sure how I’d make it through.

“Grace?” A man appeared in my line of vision, but he was blurred and fuzzy in front of me from the water distortion.

“Who are you?” It was my thought, but Oliver’s words.

“It would be best to get you out of here.”

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