A weight lifted off my leg. Mauler was no longer on top of me.
In a single quick step, Mauler lunged for Cindi, closing the distance between them. His open hand nearly grazed her. She managed to slip past the strike. He landed on his forearms and rolled into a crouch, cat-like. She found her footing on an incline at the base of the canal a few feet away. Her face was as red as a tomato, blood rushing to it to pool at the nose and cheeks. Her breathing steadied. Her makeup reminded me of the punks we ran into at the skatepark, eyeshadow runny and dark.
Even with her speed, her instincts--some of which I couldn't believe was even possible--she hesitated. To make that next move. Mauler watched intensely. If you were to tell me the man standing right in front of us was the reincarnated shell of a panther, I'd had said you were crazy, but now, maybe I'd think you'd have a point.
He waited for her to make her next choice. A retreat, a strike, a feint. Like a predator waiting for their prey to run or fight back. She saw a hungry eagerness in him. A man out for blood.
He stepped forward. "Where is it?" His arms hung loose, ready to snap forward.
"Where's what?" Cindi shot back. She was stalling. Buying time.
He waited patiently for a moment, then said, "Don't play dumb with me. I know you two have the Hypercube. I've come to collect it."
"Hyper-what?" Cindi asked. "What the hell are you talking about dude? A couple of whiny brats like us don't know anything, man. You got the wrong kids."
"I know what you're trying to play at," he said while pointing at her. "I've seen it all before." I shifted underneath as he closed in on her. As he probed forward I propped myself up on one knee to watch the scuffle. The two of them circled each other like dogs in a pen. "Keeping it for yourselves would be stupid. That's some pretty high-end tech you stole."
"What would you know?" she asked. "High tech? Maybe try the dumpster, dipshit."
"I know a lot more than you think. Why don't you hand that thing over? The two of you took on a whole bunch of us back at the lot, disrupted our operation, organized a little heist as payback for what a few of our lackey's did to you the other day. You even gave Mayday a run for his money for crying out loud." His tone reminded me of a coach looking to recruit a strong player for his team. "Tell you what. Why don't you hand over the Hypercube and I'll put in a good word for my boss. He'd make you a Saint if I said so."
Obviously, she wouldn't have taken a deal like that. It was nice of him to offer at least.
"Fat chance," Cindi said. "Can't think of something I'd want to do less. Even if I had whatever it was you said. Hype-cube."
"Hypercube," Mauler growled.
"Hyper-pube or whatever."
"Come on. Don't you want in on the stuff we've been cooking? You look like someone who knows their way around a fight. You'd do well in our ranks." His tone sounded genuine. If it had been anyone other than Cindi, I could imagine it working.
Tired and anxious, Cindi spat out, "I don't care! Stay the hell away from us or I'll give you the same treatment we gave 'Mayday'. The full ass-whooping experience."
Another lunge. It happened in an instant. A flash of faux-fur and denim and Mauler was a few feet closer now. Cindi dodged, just as she did before, but slower.
"You talk too much," she said, laughing. "If you plan on beating the shit out of us, just go and do it already--" Mauler punched her square in the nose. Dimples of blood splattered on the concrete. It had happened so quickly, so violently, that I could hardly believe it, even after witnessing it with my own eyes. He towered above her as she hurdled to the ground. An impish grin stained his face.
"Fuckin' dirty," she said, almost as if she was more angry that he hadn't let her talk than from the actual blow itself. A small streak of blood dripped from her nose.
Mauler laughed. "This is too easy."
A few feet away, Cindi's baseball cap had fallen off and landed in a shallow puddle. He stomped on it with the force of a spurned child. The cap crumpled beneath his boots.
"You dick!" Cindi shouted. She jumped back up onto her feet. After wiping the blood from her nose, she leaned forward and like a pitcher skipped forward before throwing a right hook.
Mauler caught her with his right hand and jabbed her with his left. The motions flowed succinctly into each other.
Like before, Cindi's head reeled back. His second punch landed. But not the first. A surge of pain trickled down my spine, as if the feeling could transmit like a virus. She remained upright on her feet, back to the street. She glared at Mauler through a mess of hair and dirt and smiled.
"I can do this all day," she gloated. She spat a little blood at him. Blood pocketed his face. He still held on to her. He tried to deliver another light jab. Cindi ducked and twisted around so his grip slipped from her hand. He lunged to close the distance again, but she side-stepped just quickly enough. He was so quick before that he must have underestimated her ability to recover. I realized that I was goggling them so I began to get up on my feet.
"Stay down," Mauler ordered. "Unless you want a beating too."
"I can't keep getting stood up by Cindi 'The Crazed' Seiko."
"I don't remember that nickname," she said.
Almost immediately I regretted getting up. Mauler towered over the both of us. He must have been over six feet. Toned muscle unlike anyone we've had the pleasure of running into before. In that moment, I became intimately aware of my own physicality, and its mediocrity. We wouldn't stand a chance if he wanted to fight for real and not just toy around with us.
We won't survive brute forcing this like how we've tried to deal with Brady or the other kids in the past. I wasn't sure Cindi understood that. Though, I have underestimated her before.
She was doing far more in holding out on her own than I realized possible for any one of us. Lynn, Raiden, Me, or even Jesse. It was impressive. That punch alone would have sent me into orbit, let alone unconscious. It was almost like she had an unnatural reserve of energy that she suddenly decided to tap into. Even with the blood dripping from her nose and dirt staining her clothes, she was ready for a fight.
"What did you call it? A Hypercube?" I asked.
Cindi's attention switched to me. She had something like an inquisitive look crossed with a glare, as if to tell me to shut up and run. Mauler turned back to me.
"Yea, you have it shorty?"
"I know where it is," I said. He thought about it. Even for a moment. I did too. Of giving it up and letting all this shit just blow over. Seriously, why the hell did I care so much anyway? Some dumb glass case we found on the beach. There's no telling that any of this mindless violence actually meant anything.
Cindi rushed as his back was to her, but she was too slow and he dodged her like a panther in a concrete jungle.
"Go!" Cindi shouted at me. "Go find Lynn!"
"I'm not just going to leave you here alone with this freak!" I shouted back. What was she doing risking her butt like that? What if he tried to hurt her for that sudden call out?
"Why won't you listen to me!?" She shouted, louder.
"No!" I said again, reaffirming my decision. "No. I can't do that!"
"You—you idiot!" She stammered out. "Would it kill you to fucking do what I say!" She was pissed now. I listened and heard the tremor in her voice. The little cracks that began to form. She was terrified. Why hadn't I realized that sooner?
Mid assurance, as I was about to say it was okay, Mauler swooped in and lodged a real haymaker on my right side kidney. His punch knocked the wind out of me. As the feeling sunk deep beneath my skin, I began to struggle to stand. Soon enough, I felt the ground rise to kiss my face once more.
"Hey!" Called out now to Mauler himself. "I'm the one who has it alright! He has nothing to do with this." What was her plan? To beg with him? But why? Why me?
"It's—oh god," I choked out. "Fi—" He kicked me right in the stomach. I pulled my legs in to block another hit but he just kept kicking.
"Stop! Please," Cindi pleaded.
When Mauler had enough of it. He lowered to meet me, turned me to face him as he started to punch me. The sounds of his rock-hard fist slamming into me, beating my shoulders, my chest, my face. It was enough to make me wish I had just let that guy from before get to me first.
The punches started to sound like walls bursting, debris falling. Static shifting.
"Stop it," Cindi pleaded again.
"You know why they call me Mauler?"
I couldn't say anything. I could only taste my own blood. I felt powerless. I was powerless.
"It's because I mauled one of the previous heads of the Royals. 'Kid was only twenty, but I did some dirty work. Stuff that gets written down in medical journals. They still can't find all the pieces."
He leaned down to my ear. His breath felt hot and musty, like a dog's. Cindi shouted even louder now, but her words were drowned out in a deluge of white noise. The world faded. "In this world there are those who maul, and those who are mauled. You just happened to pull the short straw."
"I said ENOUGH!" Cindi's words sparked something in me. As if I had been resuscitated through a violent burst of energy. Her voice rang out into the void, filling the empty with material reality. Her efforts, her voice gave form, real tangible form. That's when I felt Mauler's weight lifted off of me, like a collar ripped from my neck.
"You fucking dare?" Mauler started to berate. His words were cut off in a violent, vengeful rapture. Ripples in the air descended down on him, lifting and tearing the heavy man away from me, releasing me from his bondage. Wind—or was it sound?—pulled on my clothes and lapped at my skin. I could now breathe easier, see clearer. And I saw the man who had beaten me bloody crumple into the concrete, ripped and torn clothing from where his skin met the grainy concrete leaving trails of dark red ink, like a letter written for the denizens of hell.
What just happened?
What the hell was that?
Was I dreaming? It didn't feel like I was dreaming.
Had I finally slipped under the deep end?
Was my psyche so unambiguously split that I was currently succumbing to some sort of psychosis?
I rattled my brain for any conceivable logical conclusion that I could come to in order to explain what had just happened. A mini tornado materializing in the middle of Easttown. A helicopter flying above us using the lift from its blades to toss Mauler's body like a ragdoll. I even entertained the thought that I had imagined some invisible, camouflaged super soldier coming to my rescue. But no, the Mauler laid face down across from us. Relishing in the pain. Cindi and I alone the victors.
Or not.
"Hey!" Cindi shouted. Not to me, this time. Behind us, she called out towards the bridge that rose above our heads. A short figure stood at the edge, her arms waving at us. Or was it two figures?
"Hey! Up here! That was badass!" Dharia shouted. Her voice carried across the canal. She was so loud that she could have woken up the whole neighborhood. "How the hell did you do that?" She watched us intently, with wide-eyed shock. Did she see everything?
Lynn stood beside her, peering down at us. A look of horror slowly gave way to relief. At least I thought it was relief. I found it difficult to recall if I could see him all the way down here.
Cindi fell to her knees next to me. Worry drained the color from her cheeks.
I said, as loud as I could, and through a bloody jaw. "Bad-ass."