Writer’s Note: A while ago now, I wrote a novella. It was something that I had always wanted to do, and something that you’d probably be likely to spot on a really geeky bucket list. For as long as I can remember, I have always loved writing. Back on my Pentium 256 (or whatever the hell it was), I would sit for hours and type and type and type. There have been many failed projects that I have undertaken, some I finished (ask me about my screenplay that’s collecting dust) and others I didn’t (like a weird serial-killer fiction piece).
I guess the biggest thing for me with this novella was finally being able to actually finish something and publish it. Wow, that was like nothing else in the world. Although it was self-published, and not overly successful, last year I released “Keyboard Warrior.” It was supposed to be the first of a three-part series (yeah, the other two parts will come one day).
I am releasing the novella in its entirety over the course of a few days. I guess, for me, it’s less about trying to make money out of this, and more about sharing a passion. So, read. Share. Enjoy.
It was a true testament to how Dave’s mind really worked. Jamie came last, and she knew that. It wasn’t that he was a horrible person. It wasn’t that he was selfish. He had all the right intentions in his mind, though his presence on social media and the forums was the one thing that would lead him on a path where he could live comfortably. Financial stability was Dave’s end goal, and no matter how much physical and emotional comfort he had to give up, he was going to get it. At this rate, he would probably die trying.
Dave had slept for hours. It was easily the best sleep that he had in recent memory. He got up from his bed and made his way out towards the bathroom. He was still limping a little bit, but his pain had ceased for the most part. Once he got into the bathroom, he looked at himself in the mirror. He still had swelling and bruises around his nose and eyes. After a few moments of admiring himself, he sighed and walked out.
Never had he really had to look at himself in such bad shape. Even after his fights, he would not usually look like that. The biggest thing that hurt him was that someone was able to do that to him—that someone was able to take advantage of him. In his mind, Dave was ready to get back into the gym. Despite what anybody else had told him, getting into the gym was going to be the only thing that would take his mind off everything else that was causing him to second guess what he was doing with his life.
Taking all of about five seconds, Dave reached into his cupboard and pulled out his old gym bag. He stuffed a pair of shorts into the bag and made his way for the front door. With each step he took he could feel the pain shooting up through his legs. Whilst he may not have felt it when he first woke up, he sure was feeling it now.
“Nothing a bit of sparring won’t fix,” he said to himself as he walked out the front door.
It was a bright, sunny and beautiful day once again. There was a sense of déjà vu as Dave made his way down the street with his bag over his shoulder. It took a matter of minutes for him to get to the gym, where he saw Christian pulling up in his black Lincoln Navigator. Dave waited by the front gate as Christian got out of his truck. Dave knew what was about to come and he braced himself as Christian got closer.
“What the hell happened to you?” Christian asked as he took his dark sunglasses off.
“It’s a long story,” Dave replied, looking down at the ground and trying his best not to make eye contact.
“Well, you better start fucking telling it, Dave. What did you get yourself into?”
Dave took a deep breath as Christian stepped in a little closer, a look of concern combined with frustration on his face.
“I entered what I thought were the trials for FFA. Turns out it was a con. I got jumped and ended up in the hospital,” Dave muttered.
“You never told me you got the call to try out for FFA,” Christian shot back.
“I never got a call…”
Dave knew what was going to come next. Christian had warned him before about getting too involved with the internet, and Dave knew all too well how Christian was going to react when he found out exactly what had happened.
“It was something I found online,” Dave said quietly. He still had his head down, but he could feel Christian’s stare going right through him.
“Online?” Christian’s face started to go red. He was trying so hard not to lose his cool. “Online?” This time he voice was getting louder.
“Yeah, online. I got an email and I signed up, thinking that they were the trials,” Dave explained.
“Don’t you think that if you got an invitation to some trials, that I, as your coach, would have told you?” Christian yelled.
“I just thought that it was a last-minute thing. I guess I didn’t think it through very well,” Dave finally looked up at Christian, who was getting angrier and angrier.
Christian shook his head as he turned around and started to walk towards the entrance of the gym. “Go home, Dave,” he yelled out as he got to the front doors.
“But…”
Dave was quickly cut off by Christian. “No buts, Dave. Get out of here. I don’t want you training here anymore. You just never learn. If you aren’t going to listen to me about something like that, I can’t trust you to listen to me inside the cage, and I sure as hell can’t trust you with this team or with my business.”
Christian opened the doors and slammed them behind him, leaving Dave standing out front with his bag over his shoulder.
He was in shock. Never did he think that this part of his life would fall into such turmoil. That gym meant everything to him. It was his one-way ticket to making a name for himself. Yes, Christian had warned him before, but to him that didn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter what he did in his personal time.
Dave threw his bag on the ground in frustration. He didn’t know what to say or what to do. He went to walk towards the gym, but stopped himself.
That won’t do any good.
He stood there out front of the only place that had offered stability in his life. Dave reached down and picked up his bag, turned his back on the gym and started to walk home again.
“Christian doesn’t understand how the new age of the sport works,” Dave said to himself, trying to justify to himself that he hadn’t done the wrong thing.
I will show him. I can make it on my own, and I will be more famous than he ever was.
The idea of fame and fortune was starting to cloud Dave’s judgement, yet he couldn’t see it happening before his eyes. There was a reason why the best fighters in the world trained with the best coaches that they could find. There was a very good reason why they would leave their careers in the hands of managers that knew the business. But all Dave could see was the quick fix in front of him. All that he could see was social media and MMA forums.
Yet again, he found himself in front of his house. He walked in and tossed his bag in the kitchen. He wasn’t going to need that for a little while. Dave went straight for his laptop and fired it up. For many this kind of behaviour would get old. A life full of repetition, a life full of pressing “reply” and worrying about views, tweets and followers. Even though just moments ago he was told not to go back to the place where he made his living, he didn’t seem to be fazed. All that mattered to him was what he had missed out on in the few hours that he was away.
On his internet browser, Dave opened up Twitter. It was full screen, and his heart started to race as he logged in. It seemed like his heart would race at the oddest of times, but since he hadn’t been holding his phone with him all day, he hadn’t had the luxury of having Twitter on the go. The browser loaded slowly. There it was, that little blue light that let him know that someone cared about him.
He clicked the icon and, lo and behold, there was something there.
Spam accounts.
His heart sunk. Things just weren’t going right today, were they? His high expectations as to what was going to happen in the world of social media were not being met. This was becoming all too common. Each time that it happened, it came to Dave like some kind of shock. He wasn’t famous yet, wasn’t even a blip on the radar, yet with each new day he seemed to think that something would change. This wasn’t what he needed at all.
He quickly closed the browser and opened up the ProFighting.com shortcut on his desktop. This would at least make him a little happier. He scrolled through the website and to the forums. He looked at his subscribed posts and found that there was nothing new about him. His threads had seemingly disappeared, no new action in days.
He had an urge to toss his laptop across the room. It wasn’t an easy urge to control. Why wouldn’t anybody follow his career? Why didn’t anybody want to see his fights? Why was he invisible?
The questions just replayed themselves over and over again in his mind. This wasn’t how his life was supposed to be. Dave refreshed the main page of the forum again and up popped a notification informing him that somebody had sent him a private message. He clicked through the link and read the message from a user he was unfamiliar with.
Prez12 says:
Hey Dave. Heard you are looking for a fight in the Orlando area, we have a show next week. It’s at Welter, $250 to fight and $250 for a win. It’s against Richard Trebal. He’s 2-3, you can check out his profile here.
Dave ignored the hyperlink. He didn’t care who Richard Trebal was, didn’t care what he looked like and, in fact, didn’t even care about the money that he was going to get paid. All that he cared about was that he was right and Christian was wrong. In the fight business, everything revolved around the internet now. A smile came to Dave’s face as he clicked the button to reply and began to type.
I will take the fight. Just let me know where and I will be there. Thanks for the chance.
As he sent his reply, Dave didn’t even consider that this could be exactly the same situation that he had just been through. This could have been a scam that someone else was running, yet all that he saw was a chance to fight and all that he really cared about was that somebody had asked him to take a fight. It was an unbelievable feeling that of all the fighters in the area, he was the one that they wanted. It took everything that had happened earlier out of Dave’s mind—the accident, Jamie, Christian, it was all starting to become a distant memory. The important things were that he now had a fight and that somebody knew who he was. Soon enough, so many more people would too.
He closed the lid of his laptop and reached over to his phone. He just wanted to call Christian to tell him the good news, but then he remembered what had happened not even an hour ago.
“I need to get training,” Dave said to himself as he put his old cell phone into his pocket. With Christian so angry at him, it was going to be hard to train at the gym that he calls a second home. Perhaps a sincere apology would help things along? Or was it time for Dave to find a new gym to train at? His heart was torn. On one side, Christian had given him the chance of a lifetime to allow MMA to be his life’s passion, but on the other hand, he just wasn’t open to the way the sport was heading.
A short-term fix was all that Dave could come up with.
It was time to tell Christian that he was right. It may not make a difference, but Dave didn’t care. He would do anything that he could to ensure that he had the absolute best preparation available to him for his fight. He exited through his front door, leaving his house once again.
As Dave stepped out the front door, Christian’s truck pulled up in his driveway. Dave was going to use the short walk to the gym to plan exactly what he was going to say, but now he was thrown off-guard here and didn’t know what to say. He walked towards the Navigator as Christian stepped out.
“Look…,” Christian started. “We need to work this out.”
Dave stood and waited. Perhaps he wouldn’t even have to apologise to get back into the gym. After taking a pause, Christian continued as Dave awaited what he was hoping was going to be an invitation back to his second home.
‘I know that you did what you did because you have this crazy-ass idea that you know better than everybody…”
“It’s not that at all,” Dave interrupted.
“Let me finish,” Christian cautioned.
Dave nodded.
“My way of doing things may be a little different to where the sport is heading, and I can appreciate that. You really need to keep yourself grounded, though, Dave. This isn’t going to be something that can just happen overnight. There is so much more to it,” Christian watched Dave, who was nodding his head attentively. Christian smirked as he kept on going with his lecture. “I want you to be the best fighter you can be. Going out and getting yourself beaten senseless isn’t going to help you, and it’s sure as hell not going to help me… I am happy to bring you back to the gym…”
Dave pumped his fist in celebration. To Christian, it seemed that Dave was grateful and over the moon that he could return to training and just couldn’t hide his happiness. In reality, it was more of a feeling of relief on Dave’s part, because Dave didn’t have to go crawling back now.
“You need to listen to me, though, and you need to assure me that you won’t go doing things behind my back,” Christian said. “I have your best interests at heart and I don’t want to keep investing my time in you for you to go out and get yourself killed. Agreed?”
Christian stood there and waited as the thoughts ran wild in Dave’s head. Should he tell him about the fight offer? Or should he just keep it to himself in case it makes Christian change his mind? Should he admit that he was on his way to apologise? Or would he just see if he could keep Christian in the dark about his newly “signed” fight?
“Agreed,” Dave said. He had made his decision. If he were going to be able to keep on trying to pursue his dream, he would have to keep some people in the dark.
“Go in and get your bag, we need to get back to the gym,” Christian instructed.
Dave obliged straight away. He couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. Everything seemed to have changed for the better, and in such a big way. Dave went into his bedroom and picked up his bag. He looked down at the laptop that was lying on his bed.
Time to make what could be the biggest decision of his life. Of course, it never really should be a decision he should have to make, but his mind worked in such a mysterious way. Dave leaned over, grabbed his laptop and stuffed it into his gym bag. He turned around to walk out of his room. There was Christian, standing in the doorway.
“You don’t need that thing,” he bellowed.
“What thing?” Dave asked, trying to play dumb. Perhaps there was a slight chance that Christian didn’t even see him put the computer in his bag.
Christian stepped in closer and pulled Dave’s bag out of his grasp.
“We spoke about this not even a minute ago,” he said as he reached into the bag and pulled out the laptop. “You don’t need this.”
Dave looked down at the ground. He couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. All he had to do was focus on being in the gym instead of all the other distractions, but he just couldn’t do it. Running through the events again, there was no real reason that the laptop should have made its way into the gym bag. He hadn’t exactly taken it to training before. The fight he had agreed to was already starting to affect his judgement.
Time to lie.
“I was only taking it so that I could give it to you,” Dave shot back.
“Really?” Christian had a look of amazement on his face. He didn’t know whether to believe Dave or not.
“Yeah. I wanted to make sure that you knew how serious I was. If you had my laptop, then there is no way that I could get on there and lose focus,” Dave explained.
Christian was a little dubious, and why wouldn’t he be? He knew that Dave could get on the internet through his phone just as easily as his laptop. He accepted Dave’s excuse, but not without another stern warning.
“You can’t be getting involved with that shit again. You don’t know who is on the other side of the screen, and even if they are legitimate, you don’t know that it’s going to help your career. We need to do this the right way. We need to fight our way to the top,” he instructed as he handed back the bag, without the laptop.
Dave once again nodded his head and took his bag in both hands. He watched closely as Christian held the laptop under his arm. The way that Dave was looking at him was much the same as the way a father looks at someone else handling his newborn child. Christian turned away and headed towards the front door.
“Let’s get this show started,” he shouted as he made his way through Dave’s house.
Reluctantly, Dave followed suit. In hindsight, lying may not have been the best answer. Dragging his feet, Dave eventually got to Christian’s Navigator. He opened the door and tossed his bag in. It took everything that Dave had inside him not to grab the laptop off the back seat and put it inside his bag. He shut the door and looked over at Christian.
“It’s going to be worth it,” Christian said. Dave sat there and nodded his head slowly.
Christian started the truck and pulled out of the driveway to make the short trip to the gym. It was one of those car rides of complete silence. Everybody can relate.
Once the two arrived at the gym and the truck came to a halt, they both just sat there. Once again, it was an awkward silence. Dave took a deep breath, and then let out a sigh.
“It’s not the end of the world,” Christian said as the two exited the vehicle. Dave reached into the back seat and grabbed his bag, once again eyeing his laptop.
“Aren’t you going to take it inside?” he asked as Christian made his way straight for the gym entrance.
“It doesn’t bother me, Dave,” he replied as he stepped through the front doors. Dave stood there in shock. This was a piece of his personal property and Christian just didn’t care what happened to it. The lack of empathy that Christian was showing towards him was starting to take its toll on Dave. Maybe it was time to confess. Hell, it’s not like Christian was going to be able to stop him from fighting on a show.
He reached over to the laptop and pushed it into his bag. He slammed the truck door shut. Instead of following Christian into the gym, Dave began to walk back towards his house. He couldn’t face what he had just done.
The internet had won again. This time it was a first-round TKO.
“I know you grabbed it!,” Christian yelled out.
Dave stopped in his tracks. He took a deep breath and turned around to face the music.
“Just get in here,” Christian said. That was a little bit different than what Dave had expected. However, he wasn’t going to argue. He walked towards the front of the gym and made his way past Christian, who didn’t take an eye off Dave the whole time. It felt like such a long time since he had stepped foot inside the gym. The itch of training had really gotten to him.
Without even thinking about it, Dave started down the hallway. His stride quickened as he opened his locker-room door and placed his gym bag on the ground. It had become a race against the clock. Although the fight he had signed up for was days away, there was only a limited amount of training he could put himself through before the weigh-in. As Dave walked into the sparring area, he noticed that the gym was empty.
“That’s strange,” he said to himself as he continued to walk through the gym. It was usually the peak time for training, but there was not a single person in sight. As Dave turned, he was met with a kick to the stomach that sent him down to the mats.
It was Christian.
Dave pushed himself up off the mats and held his stomach. He had taken bigger hits than that before, but this one caught him off-guard in a big way. Christian stood there with his hands up. He looked ready to fight.
“What are you doing?” Dave pleaded as he dodged an incoming right hook.
“If you aren’t going to do what I say, then I am going to have to teach you a lesson,” Christian said as he hit Dave’s left leg with a kick.
“We aren’t fighting,” Dave said as he tried to circle away.
“That’s not your choice to make!” Christian yelled as he shot in and took Dave to the ground with a perfectly executed double-leg takedown. From there, he worked himself straight into the mounted position.
In a fight, this quick sequence would be near impossible, but without Dave fighting back or doing anything in the way of defending himself, Christian pretty much had full reign to Dave’s body. He began to slap Dave across the face from his mounted position.
“Defend yourself!” Christian screamed as his open-handed slaps started to become punches.
“No!” Dave yelled back as Christian laid down shot after shot. Blood started to trickle from Dave’s nose, and Christian was beginning to get even more frustrated.
“If you can’t handle yourself, I’m not going to let you fight for this gym ever again!” Christian screamed as he continued to deliver punch after punch to Dave’s head.
That was the last straw. It was all the convincing that Dave needed.
Dave bucked his hips and was able to get Christian out of his mounted position. Christian started to work harder, trying to keep Dave on the ground, but Dave kept wriggling around. Dave started to throw some punches at Christian from the bottom position. All the time spent in the gym was starting to pay off as Dave was showing that he could work well off his back. Christian worked around into side control and was trying hard to secure Dave’s arms, but Dave just wasn’t letting up. He knew that he had to work smarter, not harder, in order to get Christian off him. Dave lay there as Christian continued to work his arm.
It didn’t take Dave long to find his opening. Christian could only work that arm so long before he started to tire himself. With every last ounce of strength that he had, Dave pushed himself up off the ground and forced Christian to sprawl. Dave remained there momentarily and started to work a takedown. Christian was getting more and more tired as the offence from Dave started to get more aggressive.
Dave got the takedown and he found himself in guard. He wasted no time as he started to wail punch after punch onto Christian. All fighters know that the best position is mount, but Dave didn’t care. Christian was there and all he had to do was keep throwing punches. He didn’t even care if they connected, he just wanted this whole thing to be over.
As Dave continued to throw his punches, Christian started to move. He couldn’t escape, however, and eventually gave in.
“Okay, okay. You have proven yourself,” he said as Dave started to slow down.
Dave stopped punching. He stopped moving altogether. He relaxed his legs and fell back onto the ground. He was panting heavily. This was the hardest he had gone on the ground in a long time. Dave just lay there and looked up at the ceiling. So many thoughts were running through his head. There was so much that he wanted to say, and at the same time, there was so much that he couldn’t say.
“I think we need to have a long talk,” Christian said as he pushed himself up off the ground.
“Talk?” Dave asked. He was confused, and rightfully so. After all that, Christian still wanted to try to work something out?
“I know about the fight,” Christian confessed.
The look on Dave’s face said it all. Surely, everything was going to come crashing down now. He took a step back from Christian and lowered his head. He wasn’t sure whether to feel ashamed or stand his ground. He had already planted the thought in his own head that it didn’t matter what Christian thought, that this was his career and things were going to move forward no matter what stood in his way.
“And?” Dave screamed.
A smirk came to Christian’s face as he stepped in closer to Dave.
“You aren’t fighting,” he whispered as he pushed past Dave and started to leave the gym.
“Screw you!” Dave shouted in reply. Christian stopped and turned back around to face him.
“I am warning you, do not go to that fight,” he said with the same smirk on his face.
“You aren’t going to stop me,” Dave said as he pushed past his mentor. He stormed out of the gym and didn’t look back.
It’s not worth the hassle
Dave could always find a new gym where people appreciated his willingness to fight, he could always find somewhere else to devote his life to.
“They’ll see,” he said to himself.
Another day began in an all too familiar fashion—in front of the computer. Dave sat there with his eyes glued to the screen. He clicked, he smiled, he clicked and he frowned. There wasn’t too much to his life at this point. The upcoming fight burned its way right to the front of his brain. It wouldn’t go away and deep down he couldn’t really work out whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
The show is taking place at The Venue at UCF on Friday night. Rules meeting is at 4pm. We’ll do the contract signing at Elite Sports Management on Columbo on Monday at 10. My cell is 716-452-3110.
Dave read the message to himself over and over again.
Friday night.
Friday night.
On Friday night, he would finally get the chance to show everybody. To show Christian that he had what it took to take the next step in his career. There wasn’t a single bit of doubt in his mind. He was winning this fight. He was winning it convincingly. Then he would finally get his shot.
Friday night.
He pushed the lid of his laptop down and got up out of bed. He looked at his watch and realised he only had half an hour to get to the contract signing. No time for a shower, no time for a suit. A first impression can make or break a fighter in this industry, and Dave knew it. Better to be on time than to be late.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started to dial the number for a taxi. He kept his eyes glued to the screen and headed for the front door.
As he opened the door, his eyes centred on the path towards his front porch. Right in the middle of the path stood Jamie.
He froze.
“I’ve got somewhere to be,” he said abruptly.
The look on her face said what anybody else would have been thinking if they were there. As she turned away, he could tell that she was upset. He knew that look. He had seen it so many times before.
“Wait,” he shouted.
Jamie stopped. She stood there with her back to him. The sobs began, and Dave walked over. Most men would make some attempt to comfort the crying mother of their unborn child. Dave just stood there, almost as if he didn’t know what to do.
“You know this isn’t my thing,” he started.
“What!? What is not your fucking thing?” Jamie screamed.
That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Her reaction caught Dave a little off-guard, and he stood there and stared blankly.
“I thought that you would give a shit about us. I thought that you would wake up to yourself. Maybe grow up and realise that not everything can be about you being the next Wanderson Silver—”
“It’s—”
“I don’t care, Dave. I just don’t. Names, styles, fights, training regimens—I don’t care about any of it. Not once have you called to ask how I am. Not once,” she shouted back at him. The tears were beginning to roll down her face now. Her face was beginning to change colour to an almost stop-sign red.
“I have been thinking about you. I have been busy. I have this—,” he began. Once again, he was interrupted by the screaming of Jamie.
“Let me guess. You have a fight? You have a chance to put your career on the right track? Fuck your career, Dave, and FUCK YOU!” The sobs became almost uncontrollable again. She tried to storm off. She didn’t want to be there anymore. Instead, she crumbled to the ground, her hands over her face, crying and crying. The sobs would were heartbreaking, but Dave was too fixated on looking at his watch.
He looked down at her. The love of his life was beginning to seem a little out of reach. He couldn’t risk it. He only had fifteen minutes to get to the contract signing. He leaned down and put his hand on Jamie’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered in her ear as he reached back down to his phone to continue to call the taxi.
It would have made sense during the taxi ride to reflect on what had just happened. Instead, Dave sat there, refreshing his Twitter timeline over and over again, waiting for someone, anyone, to mention him and his upcoming fight. Jamie, the pregnancy and everyone else in his life were nothing but an afterthought.
Jamie had come back to seemingly make things right. To raise a family the right way. Once again, he pushed her away. With each swipe down, the timeline refreshed, yet there were still no mentions of the fights on Friday.
Surely, someone must know that I am fighting. Surely, there is a website out there looking to interview me.
The taxi pulled up at what looked like a set of offices. After paying the driver, Dave stood outside and took a deep breath. He had been in a very similar position before, not too long ago. His career was almost taken from him. This time he wasn’t going to let that happen. Looking around the perimeter of the building, he hunted for any obvious signs of a trap. There were cars in the parking lot this time. There were people all around the building. It looked normal. It looked like he wasn’t going to be taking another trip to the emergency room.
Walking up through the front of the building, Dave was met by smiles. A lot of smiles. The people here were genuinely friendly. It was good sign after good sign. He pushed open the door at the front of the building and made his way to the right, the only way that the corridor permitted him to walk. Through one more door, he found the receptionist. She sat there with a headset on, talking away. He stood there for a moment before he felt a tap on his shoulder. Dave turned around, ready to fight, and was met by a middle-aged man wearing glasses. The man extended his hand as Dave stepped back a little.
“I’m Simon. I’m the operations manager here at Universal Events,” the man said with a sense of pride.
Dave extended his own hand and shook Simon’s hand.
“I’m Dave. I’m not sure I am in the right place,” he said cautiously.
“You are here for the contract signing right?” Simon replied quickly. He released Dave’s hand and began to walk further down the corridor. Dave follow him. He had no choice, really.
“Yeah, for Friday night,” Dave said as he continued to follow.
The two got to an office door and Simon opened it up. He motioned for Dave to walk through, and Dave obliged. In front of a large mahogany desk sat a leather chair. There were photos of Simon with various high-level athletes hung on the walls of the small office. Dave stood there as Simon scurried behind the desk and sat in the chair.
“Please take a seat,” Simon said.
Dave nodded and sat down. He looked across the desk at Simon, who was moving some folders around.
“This is a lot more serious than anything that I am used to,” Dave said as Simon pulled out a piece of paper from the folder.
“We like every athlete to be given the star treatment, Dave. That’s what we are about,” Simon replied as he placed the paper in front of Dave. “This is your fight contract. Take a read over it and sign along the line at the bottom. We also require a copy of your ID and for you to initial the top of the page.”
Dave read over the contract. It was nothing that he hadn’t seen before. Contracted weight, no taking a fight twenty-one days prior, and so on and so on. In Dave’s opinion, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. He didn’t even finish reading the fine print before he put his pen to paper. It wasn’t even about the terms and conditions of the fight. It was about his opportunity to show the world. It was about his one step closer to the big leagues.
“And your ID?” Simon asked.
Dave nodded his head and reached into his back pocket. He pulled his wallet out and handed Simon his shiny new ID, it had only been replaced just weeks earlier, it hadn’t yet suffered any wear and tear. Simon leaned over to the photocopier to the right of his desk and made a copy. He handed the ID back to Dave and grabbed the contract.
“The weigh-ins will take place here at our offices on Thursday. Please be here at 5 p.m. for a 6 p.m. start. Do you have any questions?” Simon asked as he stood up from his chair.
Dave shook his head and followed Simon’s lead.
“Thanks for taking the fight. We look forward to seeing you Thursday.”
Simon extended his hand again, and Dave once again obliged with a handshake. Dave turned and walked out of the office. It was all so professional, so much more than any other fight he had taken before. This was the dawn of a new era for Dave. As he walked out of the offices, he reached into his pocket for his phone.
No new notifications. No new emails. No new Facebook likes.
“After Friday, they will care,” he said to himself as he walked out of the complex. He dialled the number for a taxi and stood there waiting. As the time passed, a thought crossed his mind.
Jamie.
He didn’t think that he was ready to be a dad yet. There was so much left for him to do. So many fights left for him to fight.
“If only things were different,” he said to himself. If things were different, then perhaps he would have been able to provide for his new family. If things were different, then maybe he would have focused on what could have been perceived as more important.
Fighting is important.
Fame is important.
Money is important.
I’ll show them all.
The taxi pulled up and Dave jumped in. As he provided the driver with his address, Dave sunk back into the passenger’s seat and gazed out the window. Everything was tuned out. The radio, the jabbering of the taxi driver, even the sound of the cars alongside them on the road. It all fell on deaf ears.
All that was going through his head was just one thought. It was not long now until his dreams would be realised.
It was only a few short days until Dave found himself back at the offices. He thought to himself that it was going to look a little bit strange that he was going there by himself. No manager. No corner. No team to speak of. Dave was in this for himself and himself alone. In hindsight, it might have been a good idea to at least invite one person along.
Hindsight is a bitch of a thing.
He walked through the offices once again. There were no smiles, no nods, no nothing. It didn’t even occur to Dave that this was the polar opposite of what he had experienced just four days earlier. Maybe he was too early? Maybe he’d gotten confused about the time of the weigh-ins?
Dave continued to make his way through the offices. The lights were on, but nobody was home. That cliché seemed to ring true right now for Dave. It made sense to go to the only place he was familiar with in the complex, so he made his way towards Simon’s office.
That’s when the lights shut off.
It’s happening again.
It didn’t take long for Dave to end up on his back. Punch after punch. Kick after kick. There were three of them, or it could have been four. Dave couldn’t tell. All he could do was try to cover up. With each blow to his stomach and head came a useless cry for help. All of a sudden, it stopped. Dave moved his hands away from his face and tried to find his bearings. Standing above him were three men, all in ski masks. They just stood there and stared at Dave, who must have looked like a helpless puppy.
One of the men nodded his head slowly, which resulted in Dave being hit simultaneously in the back and side of the head by the other two men. Dave fell back to the ground. He couldn’t bear to get up. He just didn’t want to. How could he be so stupid again?
Dave was picked up by two of his assailants and tossed against the wall. The third, who was seemingly the ringleader, walked up to him. He stood there and put his face right up close to the bloody mess that was Dave’s face. Tears mixed with blood were rolling down Dave’s cheeks. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go.
“Christian told you to not take the fight,” the masked man said with a laugh. Dave coughed as he was met with another punch to the stomach.
“Who… are… you… ?” Dave struggled to utter the words between deep breaths.
“It doesn’t matter,” the reply was firm, fierce and overpowering.
Another nod, and Dave found himself on the receiving end of another barrage of punches. It was almost getting to be too much. He tried to fight back, but every inch that he came off the wall was an inch he found himself pushed back against it.
A chuckle came from the ringleader.
“There’s no use fighting it,” he said as he reached into the backpack that was sitting by his side.
Dave let out a groan as he fell down to his knees. There was nowhere to go. He was just going to have to take the beating again. He tried to pull himself up, but was quickly pushed back down. The ringleader pulled a hunting knife out of his backpack and brandished it right before Dave’s face.
That’s when it all changed. That’s when the realisation came that this was serious and that Dave had made the mistake of his life.
“Please, don’t do it,” Dave pleaded.
Another chuckle came as the knife was pressed up against Dave’s face. The blade was being pressed right into his cheek, up until the point that it drew blood. Dave tried not to shriek in pain, but it was useless. He was scared for his life, and his attackers could tell.
“You just don’t get it do you?” the ringleader asked as he looked down into Dave’s helpless eyes.
“I don’t… understand…,” Dave stammered.
Another small laugh, and then it came. The knockout blow, so to speak. The knife was driven right into Dave’s back. He screamed as the blade penetrated his skin. He fell to the ground, trying to clutch it, but it was no use. It was the most pain that he had ever been in. He was certain that where he was laying was where he was going to die.
“Call the paramedics. Hopefully, he doesn’t die,” the ringleader instructed as he turned his back and began the short walk away from the carnage he had created.
The pool of blood started to get bigger and darker. Dave tried to clutch the wound, but he just couldn’t lift his arms up. Dave was beaten. He was broken. As the sirens in the distance started to get louder, he was sure that there was no chance he would get through this.
It all came crashing down.
Weeks passed. Months even.
Nobody had come to visit. Nobody had even called to ask how things were. It only took a matter of months for Dave to feel how he had made others feel as a result of his unhealthy obsession.
Jamie had since moved on. She had found a man that would love her and treat her right.
Meanwhile, Dave had nothing. He literally had nobody. He sat there, in the wheelchair that he was now bound to due to intense spinal injuries. He sat there, with his eyes glued to his computer monitor, a smile on his face. He sat there, and he typed as he watched the embedded video in the forums.
That shit sucks
He’d gone full circle.
Dave. The “keyboard warrior.”
His obsession had won. And this time, there would be no rematch.