Learning to Block
This is my first short story. I'm not sure if its any good... Please comment, any input would be incredibly helpful! Thank you ^_^
"Walking out of a battle field is less stressful then you would think. Your senses are always heightened from the battle, so you never have to worry if they are wrong. The main thing you have to worry about is getting out of the field itself. Once your out its easy as pie until the next battle."
Master was telling me this during training one day, my current Master is an old war veteran and wants me to be the best boxer in the world. I am a servant to those Worthy of Me, an organization built for kids like me, with no place to go, and no memory. I am one of the few, under my Master's power, to have a natural talent for fighting.
"Yes Master. May I know more of your battles, Sir?"
"Another time Son. Remember when you get punched to keep your block UP boys!"
While everyone else took a slug to the face or blocked, I dodged a faction to the right, my natural instinct always tells me to dodge. I was rewarded with a side kick to the gut. Its enough to get me on my knees, but it really isn't as bad as the other kids moan it is. I take worse then this from them.
"You never dodge, not once! We have been over this a thousand times! Dodging is for faggots and pussies! Dodging shows your weak, damn it!"
Another kick, but this one is to the head and slams me into a wall. I hate my body, it deserves this pain for forcing me to dodge. Master is rarely this angry, but its for a good reason. This is the 98th time I've dodge, out of 37 blocks.
"You think your tough, faggot?" he yells "John, Mack, Sam! Kick this brats ass!"
This is my favorite part... Master lets us fight three against one; its supposed to be a punishment, but I love it all the same. During these fights you don't have to use boxing, I do anyway so I can learn to block instead of dodging. As the brawl begins I always have to re-measure my opponents, because we train so much all of us change body types almost weekly. John is skinny this week, a few weeks ago he was over weight, his punches are weak because he cares too much for his weight then his strength. Mack is fast, but only a little stronger then John, he's proud of his speed and always maintains it, even when we train for the heavy weight class. Sam is the strongest in class, I used to say we were evenly matched but I started training for speed and lost about a 5th of my strength.
They surround me before I'm even up, I'm moving slowly and I'm dizzy but that will pass. I'm halfway up when I sense the first punch aimed at my face, I block this one and close my eyes. They know I want to learn to block so all three attack at once, a kick to my gut, another punch at my face and a punch to the back of my head. Easy to dodge, just move a few inches to the right... No! Block all three, you -must- learn to block. I can't decide how to block any of them but manage to block the one to the back of my head.
After the pain hits from the other two I can't stop the bloodlust. My own punches land on the neck of Mack and the abs of Sam, with my eyes still closed I got them mixed up; if it had been switched it would have made for an easy match. Now I just pissed them off. The fight goes on for 15 minutes before Master steps in. I'm still standing, but John has been moaning for a while, I open my eyes and realize I had hit him in the Adam?s apple during the fight. Mack and Sam have red marks over their arms and shoulders from me punching when they punched.
Sam has part of his pants ripped from where he tried to dodge and ended up moving into a kick from Mack, his eye is swollen, that will give him a pair of black eyes from when we last fought. Mack is just staring at me, breathing heavily. Blood is running down his face and over his eye, and I can see the slightest thread of control he has over his rage. If I were to move a fraction of an inch he would lose it and throw the punch his arm keeps twitching for.
I can take a beating and keep going, I need to crack my knuckles but not before Master comes over. We broke the wall and hit another kid in the class. He's crying, but no one cares. As master walks over to me I can see the rage in his eyes, and I know I'm about to get hit, I feel the pain before I see the kick. I smile as I black out, finally I can relax.
As I wake up I feel the burn of a powerful workout, like I get if I work out overnight instead of sleeping. This burn feels too powerful though, not light like the burn of muscles. This burn feels like fire... It is fire! All around me has been set ablaze! I have enough sense to get the hell out of there, but the path isn't easy. Wood creaks around me as I try to escape. What is left of a wooden beam falls on me and I block it off to the right. When I get to the door I jump through it with all my might.
I smash into pure muscle and am repelled back to the doorway. The porch?s seems to be made out of fire, the smell of burning wood is thick in the air and the smoke has me choking. My master is blocking the only exit out of the roaring flames.
"You pansy! You refuse to block, yet you always win your fights. Today you fought two of our best, and won without even breaking a sweat! You refuse to do anything but eat, sleep and train! Your not human! You have to die!"
He's yelling as the punches start, he's frantic. He really believes I'm not human? ... Have I trained too hard, or is it just my natural talent? I'm blocking his punches, I never fight my Master, how am I doing this? I catch his next punch, its moving so slowly, like time is freezing. The fire is still burning, I need to move him, and fast. I take the punch and push it behind me while blocking his next fist. His weight carries him behind me, exactly like I wanted. As I breeze past him into the street and get a wonderful view of the starry night sky, I take what feels like the first breath of my entire life.
"Help me! I order you to help me asshole! Now!"
I turn to see my Master stuck in the house, he's trapped. Where are the other kids? They can help him. I look around and notice a spot of red near the dojo. Once my eyes adjust to the dark I see that the dojo is covered with blood. So much blood... I can't help heaving up my lunch. The dojo is covered with body parts everywhere, body parts of children. All my team mates are scattered in pieces, eyes are watching me from horror stricken faces. There is blood on my hands, but its not mine, its from where I grabbed my masters fist...
"Help me! I am your Master, I order you to help me, NOW!!"
"You are no longer my master, you have violated our contract, you may die."
What am I saying? A contract? I'm only 12, what kind of contract can a twelve year old have with some old war veteran, he's just my boxing coach... What is happening... It feels like I'm... Drowning in fire... My head...
Master grabs onto a sword that is still burning at the hilt and throws it straight at my head but I... No, my body hits it back at him right on the hilt and it stabs into his shoulder. My body is walking towards him now and I can see a faint shadow over my Master's head. Its getting clearer as I get closer, its an orb now, a small round orb that's hovering in the air. Fire, pain! Why are you walking into the fire you stupid body, get out of there! I snatch the orb, and now I see that it was never a shadow... Its darkness of the orb seems to consume the light from the flames around me. My body takes the orb and eats it... It tastes like the sweetest like pure delight, the sweet taste is so over powering I feel it through my whole body, it feels so good, like every pore on my body is having its own orgasm.
When the feeling passes I'm in the street, cops are yelling and screaming at me, and the fire has been out for hours. Everyone I knew is dead, murdered, and the last person I knew alive... I killed. I should feel guilty, scared, ashamed, or even surprised, but I'm not, in fact I feel hallow. Save for the powerful taste still lingering on my tongue and the need to get back the feeling of devouring another delicious soul once more...