Underground

12

I stared at Jonathan's back as he walked away from me and then looked over at Charm who was listening to whatever Joel was whispering in his ear. I looked at the stations in front of me. Anything I picked up could potentially kill Charm. William and Carter noticed my hesitation and walked in the middle of the room. "What's wrong, Ryder?" William shouted so everyone could hear.

"I can't do it, sir."

He glared at me, "Can't or won't?"

I took a deep breath before looking him in his eye and saying, "Can't."
William crossed the floor and stood in front of me, glaring. "And how, Ryder, do you fucking expect to pass the graduation exam if you can't attack this man?!" He shouted. "You will use these same weapons! Or would you like it if I made you fight, Rodriguez since you two are so chummy?!"

Not Mitchie. William huffed and moved away from me, glaring at Charm. "You have five seconds to attack her or so help me, Edwards, I will beat the living shit out of you so bad your grandchildren will feel it!" He shouted and it made all of us flinch. Charm looked at William and then at me. I took up my fighting stance as he started walking towards me. I wasn't about to be his punchbag. Tommy shifted uncomfortably as if he wanted to do something but I knew he couldn't.

Charm circled around me before stepping forward to punch me. I sidestepped him and hit him behind his leg and jabbing him in his throat. He gasped and stepped back into one of the stations. "Point for Ryder!" Jonathan yelled out. I put my hands back up as I saw Charm get himself up and come back at me. He lunged for me but this time when I tried to side step him he kicked me in my side and hit my nose. I gasped falling to the floor. Tommy and Nicholas moved around a bit as if looking for an opening to intervene. I glared at Tommy who flinched. I don't need saving! Charm grabbed a weapon off of the table and ran at me with it. I back flipped into a standing position and started to carefully watch his weapon. The bitch grabbed a sword!

"What do you do when you enemy as a weapon and you don't?" William asked. "Combat training 101, Ryder."

I remembered Alex's instructions as Charm swung the sword at me and I ducked underneath it and connected my elbow into his arm, raising my leg up to kick him in the stomach and then face. I took the opportunity to grab the sword and take up a defense position with it. "Point!" Nicholas shouted as Carter tossed Charm another sword. I glared at him and he shrugged.

"A sword fight. Haven't had one of those in a while," Jonathan chuckled and I heard Joel grunt. Charm gave some weird battle cry as he lunged for me and I raised my sword up to stop his. The clashing of our swords were the only sounds in the room and it drew a lot of attention. I reached around my sword and punched Charm in the face. He fell back clutching his nose.

"Let's go, Edwards. I don't see a scratch on her yet! You're playing with her," William yelled.

Charm ran at me again and this time threw me into one of the stations. I hit my back and flipped over the table with everything landing on me. "Foul!" Tommy shouted but William shook his head.
"We aren't going by the basic rules. Continue!"
I heard Charm's boots stomping towards me and I groaned. That table hurt like a mother—
"Argh!" Charm swung his sword directly at my head and I rolled over to the side and jumped up. I looked around for mine and once again I was weaponless and no one planned on supplying me with a sword. "You really tried to hit me just now," I gasped and Charm just smirked. He ran up to me and I held my hands up in defense and when he reached me, he ran into nothing, an invisible wall and flew back past Carter and into an actual wall.

I stared wide eyed at an unmoving Charm and then looked over at Mitchie who slowly tried walking to me. "Jus...it's okay, babe—"

"Don't move!" Jonathan? I looked at him and he nodded to Carter to go look at Charm. When Carter gave a thumbs up, Jonathan grabbed William by his collar and shook him. Everyone but Mitchie and Devlin started backing up when I looked at them. They are afraid...of me?
"Jus?"
I turned back to Mitchie who kept inching closer to me slowly, with her hand out. "What's wrong?" I asked softly.