Shortly after I got home from shopping with Faith I hear the front door slam as Will comes home. I'm hiding up in my room, as I've learnt it's best for me to stay out of there way as much as possible. Will stumbles about the kitchen, I assume looking for alcohol, and then finally slumps down in the living room, which is where he will spend the night before he finally passes out on the sofa. So far the evening seems pretty normal, however Lynda doesn't show up when I expect her to, which starts to get me concerned. What have they got themselves into? What 'job opportunity' made us move here?
"Rachel!" Will eventually shouts up to me, "I'm hungry!" Which is my queue to get up and make dinner. After looking in the fridge I decide to make a simple bolognese, which I know Will likes so hopefully will prevent a beating tonight. I have a fight tomorrow so I could really do with preventing bruises before it.
After I've finished cooking, I plate it up and serve it to Will in the living room. As I walk in I see the state that he has caused. There's empty vodka bottles and beer cans scattered everywhere, it looks like the aftermath of a frat house on a Friday night - or at least what I imagine it is like. Will has always drunk a lot, but I've never seen him this bad. I know it is coming up to Mum's birthday, so he will be struggling, but I can tell there's something else on his mind. I try to give him a comforting look when I pass him his food, but he snatches it out of my hand without even looking in my eyes. Even after everything he has done to me it still pains me to see him like this. I know I shouldn't care, he doesn't exactly treat me like his daughter, but to me he is still my Dad. He is still the guy who would chase me around the house as a tickle monster, who would dress up and play princesses with me, would sit on tiny chairs and pretend to enjoy my tea parties. It breaks my heart to look at him now and see how much he's changed.
"What? Bitch." He snaps, which means me out of my trance.
"Oh-er-nothing.. Sorry.." I mumble as I walk out of the living room. I quickly grab my food out of the kitchen and return to my room. Lynda still isn't back, which is strange as I haven't seen her for days now. Although I can say if she has gone for good I won't miss her, I just don't want Will to blame me again.
I finally manage to calm my racing mind and drift into a peaceful sleep, looking forward to releasing some of this confusion in the fight tomorrow.
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I wake up to the hellish sound of my alarm screaming at me, bringing me out of my peace. I lay there silently for a few minutes, trying to listen if there's anyone in the house. All I hear is silence, which I am glad about. I hop in the shower and get ready for my day ahead, I have to try and find something to keep myself busy until this evening . I decide to start to read one of the new books I got yesterday with Faith, which I am excited for as it'll be a completely new story for me to get lost in.
Before I know it my room fills with the warm, orange glow of the setting sun, which reminds me to start getting ready for this evening. I finish the chapter that I am reading and set the book down by my bed. I grab my bag with my costume in it and head downstairs, being careful to make sure that no one is in the house. Thankfully, I make it out the house with no issues and I decide to jog down to the warehouse so that my muscles will already be warm by the time I arrive. On my way there I realise that Xavier's Mustang wasn't outside, I wonder where he could be, but then again it's not rare for him to be out in the evenings.
As I get closer to the warehouse I start to hear the shouting and screaming, and the excitement starts to build within me. I quietly slip into one of the side entrances and find Mr Scott. He sees me from across the hall and waves me over, looking around me first I slip my hood up and keep my head down as I walk towards him. I still don't know the area or this community well enough to keep my guard down yet. As I reach him he walks with me to the fighter's changing rooms, and he describes who I'll be fighting against tonight. Apparently it's a guy called Elijah, he's about 6ft and well built, Mr Scott says that he's pretty experienced, but that he is confident I will beat him relatively easily.
After a quick warm up, I place a black mask over my face, grab my hoodie and pull the hood up. I'm in my standard black shorts, black sports bra, and black hoodie, but I keep the hoodie zipped up. Soon I hear my name being called up against Elijah's, Exterminator Elijah, and the Brit in me can only cringe at it.
At the start of the fight he lunges at me, obviously trying to catch me off guard but my reactions are too fast and I step out the way. Him lunging meant that he opened himself up to me, so I take the opportunity to get a punch in. It has a bigger effect on him than I expected as he leans forward from the punch, so I take an opportunity to get a knee in as well. He then grabs me by my waist and throws me to the floor, clearing trying to over power me on the floor, but I manage to roll out of his grip and jump back up, ready for him to lurch at me again, he's definitely more offensive than defensive, so I know it'll be easy to get punches and kicks in. Just as I predicted, he runs at me, his right fist pulling back behind his head, which gives me advanced warning and opens himself up, I block his punch and swing my leg up to hit him in his side and I hear him grunt as I kick the air out of his lung. I can tell I'm angering him, which I want, it means he's not going to think as clearly. We go back and forth for a while, he manages to get a few punches in, but I've got his nose bleeding and I think I gave him a broken rib. We're both dripping with sweat and panting heavily, and I can tell Elijah's legs are starting to give out on him as they struggle to hold up his muscular body. I dig deep to find one last burst of energy and go bat shit crazy at him. I hurl punch and knees at him, eventually finishing him out with a round kick to the side of his head. The crowd cheers with glee at the good fight we gave them, but Elijah is out cold.
The referee steps into the ring and lifts my hand up, officially declaring me the winner. I scan the room to see a bunch of middle aged men cheering, however one face then catches me off guard and I feel panic rise within me.
Xavier. Fucking. Knight.
Well shit.
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Xavier's POV
It was a serious fight night for Faith tonight, so the team and I all show up. Faith has nights across the whole night so we know we're going to be there a long time. We all grab drinks and grab a table near the back. The fights are a good place for me to recruit, you get to see some real talent, and you know everyone here isn't a snitch more importantly.
Most of the fights are boring, standard punches, few bloody noses, but nothing that catches by eye. I'm grabbing another drink when I hear the announcer shout "Silent Shadow!" and I look over my shoulder to see a small girl, hood up, against a 6ft giant. I'm immediately interested to see how this fight will go down as I saw this 'Silent Shadow' a while ago and she screamed talent.
The fight starts and I see her reaction times are insanely good. She throws punches and kicks so quickly you barely have a time to register it. I look over at Archie, he's my right hand guy when it comes to the 'business'. We both give each other the knowing look, we have to somehow talk to this girl.
She of course wins the fight, the referee lifts her arm up to declare her the winner. She finally makes eye contact with the cheering crowd. Her eyes drift to mine, and even though her hood is up and mask is on, I'd recognise those blue eyes anywhere.
Rachel. Fucking. Ambers.
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A/N - Sorry this update took a while, its assignment season at uni! But hopefully the wait was worth it, serious progressions happening! Next chapter will be up soon hopefully - fingers crossed
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Loving the Broken
RomanceRachel Ambers is not your normal teenager, she has and abusive father and step-mother. They beat her black and blue everyday because they blame her for her mothers death. When she was 5 her mother died in a tragic car crash She hates everything abou...
