MAN IN A BOX (THE COMPANION CHRONICLES Book 4) by Joshua Todd James

Author:Joshua Todd James [James, Joshua Todd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hard Rolls Press
Published: 2022-01-30T20:00:00+00:00

twelve

I don’t remember much of what happened after my fight. Max hauled me out of the hole while people clapped me on the shoulder, and Harlan shouted something in my ear. I’m pretty sure he was pleased, given by his reaction, but I was numb to nearly everything. I recognized this particular numbness, however.

I’d felt it when I first took the life of a corrupt police officer, just after Sylvia died. I hadn’t grieved for her, I hadn’t mourned her yet. I didn’t know I was capable of such emotion at that point. In fact, I hadn’t been, then. That would come later. At that point, I was unaware of my own potential, and men came to take me from the police station where I was being questioned, but first, they shot a police detective, then tried to force me to fire a bullet into his body, too. To blame me for the murder, I know now. But at that point, I couldn’t allow it to happen.

Daniel, the detective, hadn’t expired yet, shot one of the corrupt officers himself, and told me to run. And I did, but while struggling over a weapon with the officer remaining, the gun went off and killed that man. And though I ran, and kept running from that day onward, I was shattered in a fashion I could not foresee at that time. Everything had changed for me at that point. I was numb, in shock to it, but it was clear nothing would be the same after that. And it wasn’t.

And now it had happened again. I returned to the holding pen, and Max attached me to the bar that held all of us. He gave me two of my pain pills, and I dry-swallowed them. I sat down next to Cody, my face blank. But he knew. He knew what had happened to me.

“I told you.”

I didn’t respond. I noticed Lucius in a similar state, now that the excitement of just surviving had worn off. I wondered, as if viewing myself from afar, if this was the beginning of losing my mind.

I didn’t pay attention to the rest of the fights, though there were many. I just sat in the dirt as sunset turned to night, and the air cooled around us. The roar of the crowd receded, distant, like a headache one could remember from earlier.

Cody finally fought, near the end, as befitting the headlining bout. They dressed them like gladiators and fitted them out with short swords and small shield. The battle between the two was protracted, bloody, and close. Cody came out on top, in the end, but just barely. Wounded and bloody, they carried him out of the box and immediately went to work stitching him up as people screamed with joy at the fight.

I felt glad Cody had survived, but from the look on his face when they brought him back, I wasn’t sure if he felt the same. He plopped down in the dirt next to me, oblivious to his bandages, and simply sighed, his eyes faraway.

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