Cherreads

Chapter 2 - Chapter 1

The sword whizzed through the air and clashed against another blade. Alex's deep green eyes met her adversary's dark ones, their faces nearly touching—one smooth and hairless, the other circled by a thick dark moustache—breathing in each other's face. Then with a quick movement Alex pulled away, twirled around and brought the blade of her dagger to her opponent's throat, while her sword blocked his. Shouts rose from the bleachers. The air was heavy and warm and the commotion from spectators made it even more stifling. Alex was motionless; the shouting voices encouraged her to kill him. Her eyes did not stray from those of the man in front of her. Tense muscles under dark, tight-fitting clothes, shiny arms under white neon light. She put pressure on the blade until a trickle of purple blood welled up on the man's olive-skinned neck. There was rage in his eyes. 

"Surrender," she said, her voice cold and firm. When there was no response, she pushed harder on the blade. Blood dripped down onto the man's chest, then slid between his bulging pectoral muscles. His jaw tightened and his lips pulled back to reveal his teeth, a gesture which was quickly followed by a growl, then the sound of his sword as it fell to the ground with a metallic clatter. 

"The winner is Hu!" roared a voice. There was thunderous noise and the spectators lifted their hands toward the ceiling of the large warehouse. The man who declared the winner stood up from a throne-like chair and lifted his arms skyward as well, the sleeves of his cream-colored jacket sliding downward to reveal his chocolate-colored skin. "Draken has surrendered!"

Alex lowered her weapons and turned to the wild crowd, then to the dark-skinned man. She left the arena, passing through the crowd that opened to let her through. A hand landed on her shoulder and she spun toward the man who had touched her, her mouth pulling sideward in a silent snarl and her eyes cutting through him. The arm pulled away immediately in the confusion of bodies and limbs.

When Alex entered a small corridor, the voices and noises became muffled, echoing softly off the dirty white walls. Sporadic neon tubes hanging from a maze of piping on the ceiling illuminated her way. She hadn't yet reached the end of the corridor when a man ran up behind her. Alex turned and took the envelope he held out. She opened it and checked the sum. His partially bald head was shiny with sweat, and he passed a checkered handkerchief over it, then wadded it up and stuffed it in his pocket. "Great fight this evening!" he said, looking up from his one meter fifty to her additional twenty centimeters. Her light brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and a few strands had escaped and hung on the side of her face. When she lifted her eyes from the money, he immediately lowered his. 

"It's all here," Alex said. "You can go. Say hello to Daddy Jo for me."

The man nodded and returned to where he came from.

At the end of the corridor there was a blue metal door. Alex opened it and entered a room illuminated by a metal lamp and containing only a worn wooden bench, a hook on the wall and a dented, green metal locker. She opened the locker and pulled out a gym bag. Inside it was a towel which she used to wipe the sweat from her face and the blood from her left arm. With a roll of gauze she bandaged the superficial wound on her forearm, then changed out of her sweaty tank top and into a clean t-shirt and a black leather jacket. She pushed open the door to the outside and went to her motorcycle. Her black Triumph Speed Triple was parked on the pavement right next to the exit. She pulled on her matte-black helmet, revved the motor, and drove off. 

***

It was dark and silent around Lennon Street. Two streetlights out of three didn't work and had been out for what seemed like forever. Few cars war parked along the sides of the street, some of them burned out relics or stripped down chassis, every useful spare part taken away long before. There were no shops open, only dark, sign-less storefronts with metal grilles locked tight at the ground floor of the brick buildings. 

When Alex pulled up in front of her apartment building, she opened the metal garage door and pushed her motorcycle inside. The door slammed shut behind her. She took off her helmet, undid her ponytail, and let her hair fall free onto her shoulders. She lifted the rolling door on the freight lift, stepped inside, pulled it back down then pushed the button for the top floor as she leaned against the mustard yellow lift. The neon light flickered between the second and third floors, and went out when she got to the fourth. Alex gave it a quick thump and it came back on. She stepped off the lift, crossed the walkway and fumbled with the key to the steel door that led to her apartment. The door had once been painted ivory but now was dark grey. Shutting the door behind her, Alex dumped her gym bag on the floor and headed toward the bathroom, peeling off her clothes as she went and dropping them on the sofa. The water from the shower nozzle came out cold and she waited for it to turn hot, finally stepping under the spray and letting it wash away the sweat and the smell of stale breath and smoke that clung to her skin. She passed her hands through her long hair and closed her eyes, enjoying the return of heat to her body. The warm water eventually eliminated the chill in her bones and the fatigue in her mind. 

***

When she stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, she left a cloud of steam behind and headed toward the sitting room, rubbing her hair with another towel. The wound on her arm was little more than a scratch but she put a band-aid on it, then pulled on a grey sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. In the kitchen, she opened the fridge. There was a pizza box but, when she lifted the lid, she saw it was empty. She dumped it in the trash and started rummaging through the shelves. Nothing. She turned her attention to the cupboards, opening them one by one. In the end, she found a packet of breadsticks and a jar of peanut butter. No telling when they'd been purchased. She checked the expiration date and went back into the sitting room to sit cross-legged on the sofa. She turned on the TV and zapped until she found a rerun of Scrubs. Resting against the sofa cushions, she watched the program and devoured her dinner.

More Chapters