“You heard me, Maksim. Put me in the ring tonight at the Elite circuit.”
More silence. I can hear him blinking through the phone.
“Alex… you quit three years ago.”
“I don’t care.”
“What the hell’s going on with you?”
“Just get me a fight. I want someone who hits like hell. Someone hotheaded. Someone with a taste for blood.”
The words fall out sharp. My pulse is pounding. I don’t know if it’s adrenaline, fury, or heartbreak masquerading as both.
I hear Maksim sigh on the other end.
“You’re serious.”
Dead serious.
“I’ll call you back in ten,” he says, his voice quieter now, edged with concern.
The line clicks.
***
I don’t wait for an introduction.
There are no names here. No rules. No mercy.
This place isn’t built for theatrics—it thrives on silence, blood, and broken bodies. The small crowd doesn’t cheer for favorites. They cheer for damage and more money in their pocket.
High above the cage, in the shadows behind one-way glass, a dozen men sit like kings in designer suits. The real audience. The ones who keep this place alive. Billionaires. War profiteers. Retired cartel bosses. Men with too much money and not enough conscience—paying for ringside carnage the way others pay for golf memberships.
They sponsor the fights. Bet fortunes on who bleeds first. Who screams. Who dies.
They don’t just watch violence.
They feed off it.
And down here? The ones who fight?
Ex-convicts. Ex-soldiers. Men with nothing left to lose and who would kill for money, and other men who are just bloodthirsty and monsters like me.
I step into the cage—not a ring. There’s no canvas floor, no ropes. Just rusted steel beneath my boots and red stains that never dried. Blood clings to this place like memory.
The metal door slams behind me, and I’m locked in.
The other guy’s already inside.
I don’t know his name. I don’t care to.
He looks like he crawled out of a grave and brought the dirt with him. Bare-chested. Scarred. He’s grinning widely, like he’s been waiting his whole life for someone like me.
Good.
I don’t need a fair fight.
I need pain.
