Damaged

Chapter 2

Chapter 2- Luke

John throws an elbow strike trying to catch Luke off his game.  Luke counters with a jab and then a cross, catching John off guard.  Luke smiles devilishly at John just before he grabs John’s arm and puts him in an arm bar and then finally a choke forcing John to tap out. Luke shakes his head at his friend standing across from him in the ring.

“When did you become so predictable? I knew you were going to go for an elbow you always do when you think I am not paying attention.” Luke asked. 

John smiles back, shakes his head saying, “it seemed good at the time”. They both get out of the ring and head for the showers.  Training three hours a day is beginning to get tough, but Luke knows that if he is going to become a professional fighter after high school, he needs it.  After getting cleaned up they grabbed their stuff from the locker room and begin to head home. They make plans to meet again the next day at the same time for more training. They part ways from there with john getting in his car and heading home. Luke lives just a few blocks away and usually walks home after training. It is a good cool down process and allows him time to think about what he can improve on.  Luke walks a couple of blocks and started to turn onto walker street when he hears what he thinks is a faint scream. He stops and listens for a few minutes. When he is sure it was nothing, he begins to start walking again. He doesn’t make it but a few feet when he hears the noise again. This time it is loud and there is no mistaking it, it is a woman screaming and she is screaming hard too. Luke takes off in the direction of the screams trying to find where they are coming from. As he comes up on a little Italian restaurant the screams get louder. He turns down the alley just behind it and the screams suddenly stop. He slowly creeps down the alley and hears what sounds like an angry male voice yelling. He walks faster but quietly down the alley. As he reaches the dumpsters, he sees three male figures holding down a young woman or maybe a girl. Her clothes are torn, her face is badly beaten, it is already swelling and the boy on top of her has his hands wrapped around her throat. Luke looks down and sees her eyes beginning to roll into the back of her head. Luke knew he had to get their attentions away from this girl or they were going to kill her. He hollers at them causing them to all turn to look at him. The two guys holding the girl down get up and head towards Luke just before the douchbag choking the young girl gets up. Suddenly Luke is surrounded by three guys all looking for a fight. This is fine with Luke he just got done training for three hours, but his fighting technique could still use some work. He broke the nose of the first guy almost instantly when the guy came at him. That guy was obvious, it was easy to see how he was going to attack. The second guy actually grabbed a pipe. That didn’t bother Luke he grew up street fighting, he figured one of them would try something stupid and sure enough they did. The second guy stalked slowly towards him. Luke studied his opponent for a second before he pounced on him, catching the guy off guard, Luke grabbed the pipe with enough force to knock the guy to the ground. The assailant crawled backwards stunned before he jumped to his feet and ran away. After running the first two guys off the asshole attacking the young woman reached into his back pocket and pulled a knife but it was no use. Luke was tired, ready to go home and worried about the young woman. He grabbed the pipe and used the jerks head as target practice. One swing and the guy went down like a sack of bricks. He watched as the young woman's final attacker laying still on the ground for a minute to make sure he wasn’t getting back up. When he was sure the guy was knocked out,  Luke approached the young lady who was disoriented and confused. She was frightened and tried to back away from him. He slowed his moments and approached her more cautiously, starring into her dark chocolate eyes.  After assuring her she was okay and that he was going to help he tried to walk her to a phone, but it was no good. She could barely stand on her own and her breathing was labored. Luke stopped to look her over and try to help her steady her walking when he realized suddenly that she was bleeding from between her legs. Before he could ask her if she was okay she passed out and Luke was forced to grab her to keep her from falling. She didn’t look good, and he knew it would take too long for an ambulance to get there. He scooped her up and decided to carry her to the hospital. When he walked in he yelled for a doctor and placed her on an empty gurney laying in the hallway. He explained to the nurse what he had walked up on and the nurse rushed the young woman into the back.  Luke sat in the waiting room for what felt like an eternity waiting to hear if she was going to be okay. He gave his statement  to the police officers that the nurse called. He told them about the two running off and where he left the third guy in the alley. Finally 5 hours later the nurse came out. The young lady had no id and Luke didn’t know who she was so they listed her as a jane doe until they could find out who she was. Since they didn’t know who she was or if she even had family, they allowed Luke into her room after surgery. She was asleep when he walked in so he remained quiet as to not wake her. The nurse told him she had three broke ribs, a broken jaw, broken nose, some internal bleeding that they had to stop as well as other injuries they wouldn’t go into detail about. Luke sat there with her almost 2 hours until she finally woke up. He was holding her hand when she started to wake. They looked at each other for a long but brief moment getting lost into each other’s eyes. She couldn’t talk because her jaw was wired shut but Luke didn’t need to hear her voice. There was something in her eyes that made him want to protect her and he couldn’t quiet explain it but when she looked at him something pulled at him, but he couldn’t explain what it was. Luke shook his head and just gave the young woman a sweet smile. When the doctor came in to see her, Luke left the hospital hoping the girl would be okay. He was leaving for training the same day and wouldn’t be back for a week. When he got back, he went by the hospital but the girl had been released to her family. Thank God she had family he thought. The nurse wouldn’t give him any information and wouldn’t even tell him her name. He hadn’t heard from the police about going to court, so he decided to go by the station. Maybe he could find out her name and more about her that way. When he arrived at the police station¸ the detective told him they weren’t going to need him to testify in court. The security camera of the bank next to Cappanello’s caught the crime on camera. He was going to go away for a long time. Luke inquired about the girl but since she was a minor, he couldn’t give out her information. He told Luke if she asked about him that he would give her his information but that was the best he could do. Luke walked out of the police station feeling defeated. He wanted so badly to see this young girl who already had his heart with just one look. As Luke headed home, he rationalized it was better off this way. She looked very young, too young for him. He was trying to get into MMA professionally, he couldn’t get into trouble for messing around with a minor. He said a silent prayer that she was okay, and he headed home. Tomorrow was an interview about setting up his first professional fight.