Page 13 of 4 Corinthians

“He won't fight back,” she finally said as she circled me. “I can't fight him if he won't fight back.”

“Then attack!” Ruben yelled. “You are playing games, Corinthians. You know how to fight, how to move around people. You’ve fought your cousins and kids in the neighborhood. Hell, you’ve fought me! Fight him, or I’m putting Psalms in the ring, and no amount of tears will stop me.”

Corinthians stopped moving and turned to look at her daddy. “I can't fight if he won't fight back!” She pointed at me. Her little chest was heaving, and even though it was slight, I could see her shaking. “I need him to fight back!”

“Uri!” Robert called my name, and I glared at him. “My pet has requested you fight back. You made me a promise, remember?” He smirked. “I stood on my word; you must do the same thing, or I will follow through with my promise.”

“She’s little,” I told him, even though it was obvious. “I will hurt her.”

“I want you to.” Robert chuckled and shook his head. “I want her bruised and bloody.” He licked his lips and smirked. “I want to see her in pain, struggling to move. I want her little body to be weak and worn out.”

“I-“

“Please,” she pleaded. Her voice was no louder than her sisters’ was earlier, but I heard her loud and clear. “I need you to fight me or they’ll put Bug in here.” She shook her head. “I can't let them do to her what they do to me.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Please. I won't ask you for anything else but this.”

“I’ll-“

“I won’t ever ask you for anything else, Uri,” she said. Her eyes filled with tears. “I promise. Just fight me. I don’t care what happens to me. I-I-I-I-I’m nobody.”

Hearing her say she was nobody angered me. She was somebody. She was important. She was the girl who had come into the warehouse and fought. She bit someone’s throat out. She was fighting to protect her sister from their parents. She was somebody!

“Never say that again,” I told her. “No matter what they do or try to tell you. Don’t believe them and don’t say it again.”

“Then fight me!” she yelled. “Fight me so I don’t have to!”

“Uri!” Robert yelled and hit the ring with his fist. “Fight her, or I will send your brother in here to do so, and it will be a death match! One of them is going to have to walk out of that ring alive, and the other I will feed to the damn hogs! It’s your choice!”

“Please,” Corinthians whispered. “Just fight back.”

Sighing, I wiped my hands over my face and nodded. “Okay,” I said as I dropped my hands. I rolled my shoulders, and Corinthians squared up. The first punch she threw, I sidestepped, and when she pulled back, I hit her, not as hard as I would’ve hit someone else but hard enough to make her stumble back. Her nose started bleeding slowly, and I felt bad.

“Stop throwing your punches and fucking hit her!” Robert yelled as he hit the mat again. “Make her bleed!”

“I’m sorry,” I said to Corinthians. The next series of punches left her stumbling and confused. I kicked her in the center of her chest, and she flew into the ropes and bounced off. She landed on the mat, facing me. A tear fell from her right eye, and her nose and mouth were bleeding.

“Get up, Corinthians,” her daddy angrily yelled. “Get up!” She slowly pushed herself up from the mat and wiped her nose and mouth with her forearm. “Now fight him!”

“Break her!” Robert yelled. “Break her so I can put her back together and make her perfect for me.”

My eyes filled with tears, and I took a deep breath. Corinthians swayed on her feet. “Stay down,” I said loud enough for only her to hear. “Please stay down.”

“I can’t,” she mumbled.

***

“Robert wants you to fight that girl again,” Kenbral announced. “She was being brought out when I was coming in.”

I didn’t need to ask him who he was talking about because he never said her name. Every time we saw each other over the past few days, Corinthians was all he talked about. Robert made him her sparring partner. “I’m not fighting her again,” I told Kenbral as we sat in our cages. My next fight was supposed to start soon, but Kenbral and Robert bringing up Corinthians threw me. I hadn’t seen her in weeks, and not because I didn’t want to. After our first fight, Robert had me returned to my cage, where I sat for the next few weeks before he let me out. I didn’t even know what day it was. Robert was upset that I had prolonged our fight. He wanted Corinthians to have the full experience of a real fight against someone bigger, stronger, and out of control. To prove a point, he locked me in here, only allowing me to be out when I had a fight or punishment.

“You have to,” Kenbral moaned. He’d been fighting nonstop. Robert knew that putting me in here and having him out there would make me angry. He was right; it did, but not with anyone besides him. Kenbral lay on his side, eyes swollen shut and lips busted. He’d gone against one of the Franklin brothers earlier. It wasn’t a death match, but Robert always wanted them to end in death. If Kenbral was in here, it meant he didn’t kill whoever he fought. “He’s not going to stop until you do.”

“He can’t make me,” I said, shaking my head. I didn’t move too much because I was in a new collar. This one had spikes on the inside, and if I moved too much, they would pierce my skin. I’d already been cut once and didn’t realize it until I felt blood rolling down my neck. To be safe, I decided to sit still.

“He will kill me if you don’t,” Kenbral mumbled. “Just to get you to do what he says, he will kill me, and you know it.”

“He won't kill you,” I told Kenbral. I smiled as I opened the doors. “He won't kill you because then he won't have anything to hold against me.”

“He has her.” Kenbral coughed, then laughed. “She’s all he talks about. His pet and the things she will do for him.”