I see him grimace at the nickname I've given him, and we wait for the announcer to tell us when we can start. When they give the signal, Zoltan rushes at me. I sidestep and trip him, causing him to stumble but not fall. I shove him down with my mechanical hand, and down he goes. I follow suit, and begin to pummel him. Zoltan blocks against my throws, and lands a knee into my groin. This causes me to fall down grimacing, and Zoltan begins to attack me. He tries to bash my head in, but I avoid his blows. But then he wraps his metallic fingers around my throat. Zoltan begins to squeeze my throat, as he does so I begin to punch him in the side with my own mechanical hand. He does not let go of my neck, so I hit him where it'll hurt the most. That gets his hands loose, and I get him off me. When I do, I begin to punch him over and over in the gut. I don’t stop until I hear the announcer call out, "and the winner is Zeke" I let Zoltan drop to the ground, he is not moving. I raise my fists above my head and begin to walk to the exit. Leaving the ring, Doc grabs ahold of me and pulls me aside. I ask, "How did I do?" Doc answers, "Good enough, you were brutally cold" "Was I?" "That's going to be your gimmick, cold dangerous. Zeke the Freak" I am never going to like that name Doc begins to lead me to betting area. We receive our winnings and leave. As we leave I ask, "How often are we going to be coming here?" Doc says, "Every Friday night" I sigh, not looking forward to my future. Time passes quickly enough, each week spent working hard then working for Doc. Ollie and Josh not asking about my new bruises and cuts when they see me in the morning after a fights. I notice I’m getting more sluggish and tired as the weeks go by. I’m up against the same old same old, and I was holding my own. But things are slow, and she gets some good shots on me. Until eventually, knocking me out. When my eyes open up, I'm staring up at the ceiling light. Moving my head, I find I am within a hospital room. Sitting beside me with his head slumped is Shawn, he's asleep. I try to reach out to him, but my body is racked with pain. Eventually, I see his eyes fluttering open. Shawn stares at me while asking, "How do you feel?" I struggle with my answer, "Like shit" "You look like shit too man" "Not like you look any better" "Cheeky bastard, you are already healing up nicely" "What, are you doing here?" "Doc told me what happened, I thought I could help a bit" "I lost" "You were working too much, you over exerted yourself" "No, I was slow" "Because you've been working your day job, and working for Doc at night. How much sleep do you get on a weekday?" "Enough"
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTIxNjAyMw==