Society

Chapter 25

Lucy lead me over to two railing which were fixed to the floor.

"Hold onto these and start walking, you probably won't need them but use them anyway. I'll leave you in Amanda's hands now, good luck."

With that she left and the room was quiet. I looked back round to Amanda who was looking at me with such a large grin that I felt myself squirm beneath the pressure of her gaze.

"Hi, so this is the first time we've met. I'm Amanda, I probably won't see too much of you but you never know."

I cringed at the thought of having to spend a long time with her, she was just so overwhelmingly happy.

"We'll start you off with just a simple walking exercise, take the bar's and walk yourself across them and back again. You can do it without the bars but don't push yourself."

She nodded at me expectantly and I moved forward from where Lucy had left me standing. The pain in my side was a lot less painful than a day ago, I walked to the bars and felt the pain increase a little with every step but it quickly subsided to a dull throb. I looked at the bars and left my arms at my sides, ignoring Lucy's earlier advice, I walked along and quickly crossed the short distance of the bar's, I winced as I turned round feeling the pain quickly increase but continued and it soon dulled down. I finished my set task and turned round to face the beaming Amanda.

"Well done, that was very good. Now we're going to have you do some tasks developed to test your competence outside of the chalice."

She led me to a board which had a few targets drawn on them.

"Knife practice?" I asked her quietly.

"Yes, it's just to test your arm movement and things like that."

I picked up a knife and placed myself in front of the board. I aimed the knife and braced myself knowing the pain that would follow in the knives path. I let go of the knife and it landed squarely in the centre of the board accompanied by a sharp twinge in my side but ignored it and faced Amanda once again. She looked slightly dismayed that I was completing her tasks so easily; at least it put a damper on her grin.

"You're doing so well, how about we try a more difficult task. This one is to test your combat skills."

She lead me over to a large sandbag, I felt a reluctance creep into my mind. I walked up to the sandbag, unsure about whatever task I was to be presented with.

"Ok, now what you're going to do is complete a series of moves on this sandbag. The first one will be a kick to the side, let's try the one that you used in your test."

I looked at her in disbelief. She expected me to do something that difficult in the state I was in.

"I'm sorry I don't think I can do that just now."

Her smile seemed to drop slightly but was still present.

"Of course you can, you've been able to do everything here so far and you want to get out of here don't you."

I flinched at the tone of her voice, she had lost the happy tone she had been using and had now adopted a slightly menacing tone. I felt my body tense in preparation for a fight, even in my current condition I think I could take the small girl out.

"Look, lady. I can't do that, walking a few feet and throwing a knife is nothing like this."

Amanda now dropped her smile completely and her face darkened.

"Don't' be such a brat. Kick the damn sandbag."

Her voice was filled with menace and I readied myself to kick something but not the bag.

"I'm not kicking it, I wouldn't be able to do anything else after it, what's the point?!"

I was now shouting at her, she was getting on my nerves and my old habits had begun to kick in.

"You stupid brat, if you don't kick it I'll kick you instead."

Although she was small I took her threat seriously the look in her eyes warned me that she was dangerous no matter how deceptive her looks may be.

"On you go then, try it. I am not kicking that, I don't mind beating the crap out of you."

She made a strange hissing noise through her teeth before she launched herself at me, she knocked me over but I was quickly on top of her pinning her to the ground.

She was thrashing around from beneath me and her nails scratched my cheek, I could taste blood in the corner of mouth from where she caught me. I grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and lifted her torso off the ground before slamming her back into the ground. She didn't give up she continued to fight against me and her knee caught my side causing me to fall off of her and onto my back at which point she scurried to her feet and stood above me. She looked down at me and repeated the same strange hissing noise that she had before she attacked me.

"You should have kicked the damn bag you stupid bitch."

She then lifted her foot and slammed her foot into my hand which was covering my ribs. The pain shot out from my ribs, coursing through my body like I had been stabbed in many places at once. I screamed as the pain caused my vision to become fuzzy. All I heard was the blood pounding in my ears and my own screams, Amanda continued to stand on my side but I could no longer tell how hard she was past the pain. I heard a slam and Lucy and a man ran in dragging Amanda off me. I continued clutching at my side as my screams died down but the pain still shot through me. I saw Lucy above me, trying to calm me down. I pushed her aside and forced myself to my feet, I staggered toward Amanda who was now being held down by the man. As I reached her the man backed away slightly. Lucy stood a few feet behind me. I walked until I was above her; she looked up at me with hate in her eyes.

"Bitch!" She spat at me. I screamed at her and launched myself at her, akin to how she had done to me. I pushed her to the ground, punching her until both my fists and her face were bloodied, I felt arms tugging on me but I was too angry to pay any attention to them. I continued to punch Amanda who might as well have been unconscious for all I knew before I felt myself being thrown across the room. I snapped back to reality seeing the man who had thrown me from Amanda crouching beside her before I slammed against the wall blacking out as the pain hit my head and shot through my body.