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HALEIGH

“You think after you win this fight, I’ll let you go?” Carmelo Silva cackles, standing directly in front of the doors to my cell.

For two years, I’ve been his prisoner. I was never allowed out of the cell. Not unless I was to go to the fights. Even then, I was transported in a cage.

Carmelo is a possessive bastard. Never allowing me to do anything unless he says. I struggle to remember what it’s like to live outside these walls. Maybe that’s what he was planning for all along.

I have one fight left to the contract I was forced to sign. Forty fights. That’s what he required of me. All of them to the death.

I’ve fought to survive. Even when I didn’t want to. With each fight, my soul has left me tattered and shattered.

I should have known better than to sign the contract. I should’ve let Carmelo kill me two years ago instead of agreeing to what I consented to.

“That contract will be complete,” I tell him, doing my best to hold my head high.

“The contract doesn’t say I can’t amend it. I will be doing just that, Haleigh. You’re mine, and I’m not about to let my favorite pet walk away.”

“Then I’ll lose my last fight on purpose.” I refuse to be his pet any longer.

Carmelo cackles loudly and strikes me across my cheek. “You think you’ll just lose on purpose and die? After fighting for two years, hilarious.”

“I’ll do it.”

“No, you won’t, Haleigh. You wanna know why? Because if you don’t win, I’ll go after your sister next.”

Never before has he threatened my sister. A sister that I haven’t seen since I was taken four years ago. Two years before I was given to Carmelo. It was he who offered me the contract. It was he who said I could have my freedom from the hell I was living in.

How does he know about my sister?

There’s no hiding my turmoil from him at the mention of her, and he gives me a grin, knowing he has me in his clutches. I’d do anything for my sister. She’s the best sister a girl could ask for.

I don’t know if she ever looked for me, but I hoped that she did.

Her and my brother.

The last I knew of my brother, he was in the Army and deployed.

My last memory of him is something I try not to think about.

I was so mad with him because he refused to listen to me regarding his girlfriend, and I knew I was right.

I told him that since he didn’t want to believe me about the whore, then he didn’t need me around him.

It was the day before he deployed.

A month after that, I disappeared.

“You win this fight, Haleigh, and though I might not let you go, I won’t make you fight any more. We’ll come to a new set of terms,” Carmelo states calmly and strokes my cheek where he struck me.

“Fine,” I grit out and turn my back to him to look around my cell.

This has been my home for the past two years. I ate, trained, showered, everything in this ten-by-ten cell.

I’ve not had any of the simple pleasures of reading, watching TV, or even being able to see the outside lights. Carmelo made sure I took vitamins to keep up my strength.

“Your next fight will be in a month.”

I don’t bother to look back at him. I just stand there and wait for him to leave me.

As much as I wish I could go back in time and change the past, I can’t. Maybe this is where I’m supposed to be. Maybe this is my punishment for the sins of my past.

I didn’t think I’d done anything so horrible to earn the hand I’ve been dealt, but then again, who am I to question what’s right or wrong? I’m not fate. I’m not destiny. I’m nothing more than a slave in this life. A life I’ll never be free of.