Percy nods.
“Let me see you do it.”
Percy lifts his fists in front of his face, and he’s so goddamn tense I could knock him over with a single finger.
He’s going to die in the pit.
“Wider.” I walk toward him, kicking his feet apart with my shoe. “Weight on the balls of your feet, not your heels. You stand like that, you’re gonna be on your ass before the first hit. And it’s concrete out there, not a padded mat.”
He adjusts, and it’s marginally better.
“Good. Tuck your chin. Elbows in.” I move him into the position I want to see, and he does it all without complaint.
But his body is trembling.
I circle him, the way Benny did, and I hate myself for the parallel. But this is different. This isn’t about ownership; it’s about keeping this kid breathing.
“What’s your full name?”
“Percival. Percival Galois.”
“Galois,” I repeat. “You got family besides your dad, Percy?”
He shakes his head.
“He know what you’re doing?”
“Doubt he’d care either way.”
I know what it’s like to have a piece-of-shit father who couldn’t care if you live or die.
“Keep it that way,” I say. “The less people know, the safer they are.”
“Safer from what?”
I hold up my hands, palms flat. “Hit me.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Hit me.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Try.”
He throws a punch. It’s weak, more of a tap than a strike.
“Rotate your hips. Power comes from your core, not your arm.”
We go like that for a while. After about an hour, Benny comes back and hugs Percy to his side like he gives a shit.
Watching him slip so effortlessly into the role that used to be Freddy’s makes me sick.
When they leave, I unwrap my fists, the tape pulling away from my split knuckles. Underneath the red-stained white, there are scars that never quite heal. Bones that have set wrong and ache when it rains.
I toss the bloody tape into the bin and roll my shoulders, feeling the familiar pinch in the left one; just another tick on the map of scars my body has collected like destinations.
A rib that tweaks if I move the wrong way, a knee that cracks when I bend, and a molar that isn’t real anymore.
