9

❦𝓡𝓸𝓼𝓮❦

"Are you ok, Cupcake?" Isaiah whispers out gently. I peel my eyes away from where the man disappeared and look over at Isaiah whose eyes are roaming over my body in concern.

"I-I need to sit down." I stutter out weakly.

My legs feel like they are going to collapse beneath me. "Ok. Sit right here." He gestures to a parking curb.

I stumbled over my feet trying to walk the short distance to it, Isaiah placing a gentle hand on my shoulder to keep me upright.

I would think that after what happened I would have shrunk away from his touch. But I found so much comfort in it, that when I made it to the curb and he let go of me, I was surprised that I didn't want him to.

Isaiah sat beside me as I focused on breathing normally again, he didn't say anything as he waited patiently for me to sort myself out.

"Thank you." I whisper out after a few minutes of sitting in silence. I don't know what else to say to him. He just saved me from two guys who would have done such horrible things to me, but all I can manage to say is a measly 'thank you'.

"Did they hurt you?" He asks in a quiet but deadly voice.

"I'm ok now." I reply, because I don't think I can manage enough words to explain anything that just happened.

And I was ok now, he made it so I was ok, and I'll be forever grateful to him for that.

"I don't like what that answer implies. But I'll leave it for now." He states.

"Are you here with anyone?" He questions, I shake my head no and he lets out a grunt of disapproval.

"How about you stick with me tonight then?"

That actually sounds like a grand idea. My brain is still a little fuzzy and the last thing I want is to be alone right now. I give him a quick nod, still not quite finding my voice and send him the best smile I can force onto my face.

"Ok, let's get inside then." He offers me a hand, and I place my small, still slightly trembling hand in his much bigger firm one.

Isaiah pulls me to my feet and when I look up at him, he's got a sorrowful smile on his face and my stomach sinks.

He knows something bad happened, anyone could tell from the way I look. But having Isaiah look at me like that, makes me feel shameful for what I let happen.

He starts to lead me away from the front doors and around to the side of the building. I use every second to get over what just happened. So that when he looks at me, he sees normal Rose, not the utterly broken Rose I currently am.

"We're going to the VIP entrance." He clarifies, I would have been curious as to why we are heading away from the main entrance, but my mind is not quite there, so I didn't even really register what we were doing.

"Ok." I speak up, testing my voice. It sounds better now, not so defeated.

Isaiah leads me to the guy guarding the VIP entrance.

"Name." The guard grumbles out like he hates his job.

"Isaiah Brown." He replied.

"Your name's not on the list." The guard says after he flips through the papers in front of him.

"It should be, check again." Isaiah bites out as he glares at the guard.

"It's not on here. Next!" He dismisses Isaiah and calls for the next in line to step forward. Isaiah lets out a list of profanity under his breath as he rubs his face aggressively.

"You let me in the other night. You know, I know the fighters, so just let us in." He ordered but the guard looked less than interested.

"I don't care. Can't get in without being on the list." He doesn't even look at us as he says it, the people behind us say their names and are let in.

Isaiah pulls me away from the guard and angrily yanks his phone out of his pocket and starts typing away.

"Is everything ok?" I question. Isaiah is fuming and I'm surprised I don't see steam coming out of his ears.

"Yeah, I'm just letting Blake and Ace know how much of an ass they are." He grunts out, hits send and shoves it back in his pocket.

"Sorry, Cupcake. Looks like we are average Joe's tonight." He says apologetically. Everything's happening so fast I can hardly keep up.

"It's ok." I say, making my voice as normal as I can.

"Blake's gonna hate himself after he finds out." He grumbles. I'm very confused at this point, but just keep quiet, I don't know if I can handle any more information anyway.

He grabs my hand again and leads me to the front of the building, buys two tickets and a water then leads us inside.

The place is packed, it's hot and humid and I inch myself closer to Isaiah. We stop at the back of the crowd as he scans the area.

He turns his attention to me for a second. "Here, your voice is hoarse." He says handing me the water he bought. I didn't even realize how dry my throat is from all the heavy panicked breathing I was doing earlier. I take the water and gulp it down as Isaiah scans the area again.

"Stay close and don't let go of my hand." He says as his grip on my hand tightens and he heads into the crowd pulling me behind him.

I throw the now empty water bottle into a garbage can we pass, then keep my eyes focused on Isaiah's back.

I don't like crowds, so I try to zone everyone but Isaiah and I out as he pushes through them on a mission to get somewhere.

The deeper we go the louder it gets and the worse it smells. It smells like sweat and blood and it makes my muscles tense with anxiety. I'm so out of my comfort zone, but the strong hand pulling me along keeps me from running in the other direction.

Isaiah and I break through to the front of the crowd, I can finally see what everyone is gathered around. It's a huge fighting cage and my whole body freezes as I see the two guys throwing fists at each other.

One of the guys lands a punch on the other causing his head to whip painfully to the side, blood flies out of his mouth and onto the mat. I cringe and turn my head away, I can't watch that, I don't do well with violence, I don't like watching people get hurt.

But the crowd loves it, voices boom all around me as people cheer or boo at the fighters.

"You ok?" Isaiah yells over the voices at me, a questioning look on his face.

"I don't really like crowds or fighting." I admit, I can feel my face heat up slightly in embarrassment. How lame does he think I am? All the stuff at his house, then he saves me from the guys out front, and now I'm telling him I don't like crowds.

"Fuck." He curses. "Ok, I'll try to get you into VIP. Less people and if it's still too much I can take you to his locker room." He rushes out and before I can even question whose locker room he's talking about, we are on the move again.

He's walking at a pace I have to jog to keep up with, and every time he looks over his shoulder to check on me, I see the worry on his face grow.

I must not be hiding my unease as well as I think I am.

We make it to what I assume is VIP. One whole side of the fighting cage is blocked off all the way to the building's wall, and the only entrance area is chained off with a guard in front.

Isaiah slows his pace and we eventually come to a stop in front of the guard.

"Fuck, of course it has to be you working security today." He grumbles to the guard.

"The crowd is out of hand today. I don't have time for your shit, so leave." The guard yells at Isaiah, and I flinch back at his aggressive tone.

Isaiah pulls me closer to him so my shoulder is pressed against his arm. "He won't hurt you." He whispers down at me.

"Look, I need to get to my friends. I'm not trying to cause trouble, but this is important so just let us through." Isaiah tries to bargain with the guard.

"Leave." He yells louder. I see another guard working near the actual ring look over and start walking towards us.

Isaiah leans down to me. "He isn't going to let us in, but I'll distract them and we can hop the chain and get you to the locker room. Once in there, they won't be able to touch us." I don't like this, and I don't think this is going to end well.

Isaiah has a look in his eyes that screams trouble, and I don't think there's anything I can do to stop what's going to happen.

Isaiah looks at a spot on the ground in front of the guard's feet, causing the guard to look down to see what he's looking at. Then Isaiah pulls out a bouncy ball from his back pocket and throws it at the wall behind the guard.

What kinda plan was that? He missed him completely!

My confusion is short lived as the ball bounces off the wall and hits the guard in the back of the head, he turns around to check out the threat.

Isaiah grabs my hand and takes off running towards the entrance to VIP, my head whips back from the force of his speed, and I wouldn't be surprised if I get whiplash from it.

This is a stupid plan.

We are almost at the entrance when the guard starts to turn around and my heart starts to race in fear.

Is this something we could get sent to jail for? Oh no, I don't want to go to jail!

I pump my legs faster to keep up with Isaiah but by the time we get to the entrance and Isaiah starts to hop over the chain it's too late. The guard is already onto us and within seconds has Isaiah pinned against the wall with his arms behind his back.

I feel hands on me and my body freezes, no, not again. I whip my head to look behind me and expect to see the face of my attacker once again, but I'm met with the now pissed off guard that I saw stalking over from the fighting cage.

"Shit. Ok, I'm sorry that wasn't very cool of me. I'll be chill, just let me go." Isaiah says.

"Not gonna happen. Your ass is out of here for the night and if I had my way I'd ban you for life." The guard spits.

He harshly pulls Isaiah off the wall and starts to push him towards the exit.

Isaiah's eyes snap to mine. And his complexion pales as his eyes scan over my petrified body. Everything is still kind of fuzzy to me, my limbs tingle, I still haven't fully come back from the panic I was in earlier and it's making this situation worse than it should be.

"Fuck. Cash, can you let her into VIP? Just her, I'll leave no problem if you let her in, man." He pleads with the guard who is forcing Isaiah away from me.

"Shut the fuck up." Cash growls at him.

"Isaiah!" I yell out panicked as the guard who was holding me pulled me in the opposite direction of him.

Isaiah's eyes become frantic as he tries to get out of Cash's hold, but Cash just continues to push him towards the exit. I can hear Isaiah cussing up a storm long after I can't see him anymore, but soon even his voice is gone and I'm left being dragged to the front of the ring where the guard originally was.

"Don't think you're getting off the hook." He begins. "You're still getting kicked out. But the fight everyone has been waiting for is starting in less than a minute and I'm not going to miss it becauseof a little punk like you." He grunted, his hand still gripping strongly on the top of my arm as we stood facing the ring. We are so close that if I reached a hand out my fingers could touch it.

The crowd goes wild, the noise level so high it hurts my ears. Out comes the first fighter, he's wearing nothing but a pair of blue basketball shorts and some black shoes.

His fists are wrapped and he pounds them on his chest as he runs around the cage, the majority of the crowd shouts boos as he does it. Then he settles in a corner as the next fighter makes his way into the cage.

He wears red shorts,a black shirt and shoes. His hands are also wrapped but he doesn't engage with the crowd at all like the other guy did, instead he just rolls his shoulders and cracks his neck.

A whistle blows and the men start circling each other. As they make their way around the ring my heart stops.

It's Blake, the other fighter is Blake.

My mouth dries, I try to swallow but I can't, it's like a desert in the middle of summer.

Blake's opponent throws the first punch, but Blake blocks it with his arm. Blake's face is deadly, his eyes that were a steely blue are now a dark gray as he observes his opponent.

My breath hitches as his opponent tries to punch him again, Blake steps to the side and dodges it again, but this time he sends a fist right back and it lands on his face.

My stomach twists as nausea builds up at the sound of Blake's fist connecting with the guy's face. Blake lands another fist on the guy's stomach causing him to slightly crouch over in pain.

He recovers quickly though and throws multiple punches at Blake, he manages to block most of them, but Blake takes one hit to the side of the face.

I taste bile in my mouth as I try to stop myself from throwing up, this is too much in one day for me to handle.

Blake attacks his opponent, punch after punch, and when Blake reaches out and knees the guy in the face causing blood to splatter across the ring I look away.

No more, I don't want to see anymore right now. I try to get out of the grip that's holding me in front of the ring, but it won't let go.

"Stay still." The owner of the hand growls at me, but I can barely hear him over the crowd. It feels like I'm forced to stay there for hours as fists pound into flesh and people scream out in excitement.

I refuse to look up, I'd either see Blake beating the life out of someone, or someone doing that to him. And I don't want to witness either right now.

The crowd goes even more wild as I hear a body hit the ground.

"That was a damn good fight." The guard says, astonished. I take a deep breath and lift my head up, praying that Blake is the one left standing.

My body relaxes a little when I see Blake holding his arms up in victory, but my stomach turns again as I see the blood splattered across his face and his own blood dripping from his nose.

"Alright. Time for you to go." He says. I feel the pull on my arm as he tries to take me away but my feet feel like they are glued to the ground as I continue to look at Blake.

He has a little smirk on his face as he looks over the crowd. A look so completely different than any of the ones I saw the other day.

Then our eyes meet, and his smirk drops.

He drops his hands that were just held high in victory and looks at me like he's seeing a ghost.

The guard pulls harder on my arm and I go flying back into his chest. "Listen here, I don't want to manhandle you, so do as I fucking say. Move." He growls as he pushes me into the crowd of celebrating people.

I do what he says and start walking towards the exit, but I look over my shoulder one last time before I'm too far in the crowd to see anything.

Blake's hands are fisted by his side and his face is red with anger, his eyes are focused on the hands that are on me pushing me away from him.

And then I lose sight of him. My body is crashing against others as the guard rushes us through the crowd. If it wasn't for his hands I would have been pushed to the ground by now.

To many people, to many hands on me.

I'm alone again, even though I hated what was happening just moments ago, at least I could see Blake. But now he's gone, Isaiah is gone and I'm surrounded by hundreds of people I don't know.

I start to shake as blood pounds in my ears, I feel a tightness in my chest and with each step we take it only binds tighter.

I can't do this here, I need to get out of here. But the crowd seems to be never ending.

I see the doors up ahead, I need to get out there, I need air. I can't breathe, each breath I take burns like I'm inhaling fire.

We passed the doors and the hands that were holding me, pushing me, guiding me to the exit, let go.

I stumble forward as the door shuts behind me. I try to walk, but my feet fight against me and I fall to the floor.

My already scraped knees dig into the pavement but I don't feel the pain. My stomach turns once again and I'm dry heaving.

My body desperately wants to vomit but I haven't eaten today so my stomach doesn't have anything to throw up other than the little bottle of water that I drank earlier.

"Cupcake!" A voice calls out but it's muffled and sounds far away. I hear more voices but they get quieter the more I gasp for breath, hands touch me but I can barely feel them.

My eyes catch a bit of red smeared across my shirt, blood. Not my blood, it's blood from the body that now lays unconscious because Blake knocked him out.

Blood from when Blake kneed him in the face so hard it sent blood flying so far that some of it landed on me.

I claw at my throat, unable to suck in a breath, my face feels wet, I think I'm crying, my head feels dizzy and I sway to the side. My body collides with another.

And then the world goes dark.