Slave, Kade, you mean to say slave.
“And one who can keep a fuckin’ room clean,” Kade added. “Look at this mess; you were supposed to clean it before I got back.” He gestured a hand at the room; he hadn’t noticed—or cared to acknowledge—Drusilla had cleaned everything else and left only the fabric where it was before.
“This is my work,” Drusilla told him. “It will be gone by the time you return from the fights.” My gut told me she was referring more to herself.
“It better be.” He took me by the hand and said, “I saved her from having to fight—she would’ve been killed that night, no doubt—and this is how she repays me.”
I said nothing.
Drusilla glowered at him with his back turned.
“Good-bye, Thais. I wish your love well, and that he is victorious tonight.”
I swallowed hard; tears stung the back of my eyes, but I was getting better at holding them down.
“Thank you,” I said.
I wanted to wish my friend farewell, and tell her I hoped her plans to escape would work out this time, but I could not say such things in front of Kade.
“I’ll see you later,” I said instead, and maybe Drusilla understood what I really meant.
The air was rife with smoke: cigarettes and trashcan fires and marijuana and something chemical and foul I could not place. The arena was so packed with people that the potent stench of heavy perfume and body odor and thick sweat made my stomach turn and my head swim. And as Kade led me to the bleachers, and I looked out at the crowd, I was awed by the number of people in attendance. Paducah still didn’t seem as populated as Lexington, but almost every single person that resided here I thought had to be present in the moment.
The ‘arena’ was the gym of an abandoned high school, with tall dingy brick walls with scaling bleachers on both sides that almost reached the ceiling. People packed every seat, and stood shoulder to shoulder beneath the bleachers and all around the room in every direction, even blocking the four exit doors. And they packed the gym floor, leaving just enough space for the fighters to battle it out.
The area was brightly-lit with several solar-powered balloon lights mounted on wheeled contraptions, set up all around the basketball court.
I sat with Kade fourth row from the bottom, and as Kade carried on conversations with those around us, I tried to keep a low profile by acting intimidated by all the noise, when, in truth, I was afraid only for Atticus, and he was all I could think about. Past the busses. Take the road with the accounting office on the right—blue building. One block, turn left. Humane Society. Fighters locked in cages. Locked in cages. Locked in cages—
“I hope you’re not as fragile as you look!” Kade shouted over the noise, breaking me from my thoughts.
I’m not, I wanted to say, but instead I shouted back, “When will Atticus fight?”
Kade shot into a stand and thrust his fist into the air as the first two fighters entered the area out ahead. He yelled obscenities, pumped his fist a few more times, and then took his seat again beside me. Those all around me sat back down in unison, clearing my view of the arena floor again.
“I don’t know,” he answered over a wave of excited shouts. “But you should forget about him. It’s his first time, and the first fight is always a fight to the death.”
Yes, I’m aware of that already; no need to remind me.
“And he wasn’t lookin’ too good when we found you,” he went on, “so his chances aren’t great.” His hand jutted out, gesturing at the fighters. “These two are first-timers,” he said. “One of them will die tonight”—he made a sudden noise under his breath that resembled laughter—“I bet you can guess which one.”
I tried hard not to think about Atticus’ fight, and rather to focus on his escape, but it became impossible to do when I took in the sight before me: two men, one as skinny as a rail, the other like three large men combined to make one, walked in a wide circle; the skinny one trying to stay out of the other’s reach.
“This doesn’t look like a fair fight.” I was thinking out loud rather than talking to Kade. “This isn’t right.” I couldn’t believe they’d pitted the small one against the other.
“It’s anything goes,” Kade said. “Fair, unfair, right, wrong, it doesn’t matter—that’s what makes it so entertaining!”
I turned to face him.
“Entertaining?” I echoed with bite in my voice. “These are people’s lives you’re gambling with—how can you live with yourself?”
Kade smiled over at me. “Easily”—he shot into a stand again—“Come on! Do something already!”
The smaller fighter was backing up against the crowd as the giant went toward him; panic twisted his face…Wait, his face…Why does he look so familiar?
I leaned forward, trying to get a clearer view of the man, but no matter how hard I concentrated, he was too far away and blocked by too many people to get a decent view of him.
A man sitting to my left stood bolt upright, nearly knocking me over.
“Hit him! Hit him!” Saliva flew from his lips. “Come on!”
I shuffled the flowing ruffles of my long skirt underneath my thighs to keep the man from sitting on them when he sat down again; I wiped away the sprinkles I’d felt land on the top of my arm.
“Stand up so you can see,” Kade told me and offered his hand.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to watch,” I said, but he grabbed my hand anyway and pulled me to my feet.
I focused on the back of the head of the woman in front of me, but when the giant fighter’s hand collapsed around the smaller fighter’s throat like a vise, I watched the fight with paralyzed horror instead, unable to tear my gaze away.
The man lifted the other off the floor by his throat and the volume of the bloodthirsty crowd went from excited to boisterous; the man to my left stomped the bleacher floor so powerfully it shook like an earthquake and I was forced to grab onto the nearest person for balance. I released Kade’s arm as quickly as I’d touched it, hoping he hadn’t noticed, and he was so fixated on the fight I was glad he probably hadn’t.
The small fighter fell fast toward the floor, his legs out in front of him, the man’s hand still around his throat, and when he hit, the back of his head made a popping noise I could hear over the shouting voices and stomping feet on metal.
My hands went over my mouth with a sharp, horrorstruck gasp; my eyes shot open as far as they could when all I wanted to do was shut them completely; and my legs felt almost too weak to hold up the rest of my weight and I nearly lost my balance. It took three seconds and the fight was over, an innocent life snuffed out by a barbaric new world.