Chapter 9

I’m so overconfidant that I hardly get my hands up in time. Then she’s coming at me with a front kick and my stupid, cocky ass can’t do anything except cross my forearms in the shape of an ‘X’ as they bear the majority of the force of her kick. Now it’s my turn to be thrown back, on top of the heavy wooden night stand as I sit hard on the thick ceramic shards of the now smashed lamp along with the assorted other clutter that Donnie had failed to put away. Seeing what she thinks is an opening Beverly then rushes forward apparently intent to pounce on me in the same way that I previously pounced on her but the situations are not the same. Ironically, her second attack works to my advantage for I didn’t take the full force of a kick straight in the stomach and I’m facing Beverly unlike when I attacked her where I made sure she was facing the other way as quickly as possible. And so I make a fist and then stick out the knuckle on my right middle finger and as Beverly prepares to start delivering her own version of the ground and pound, I piston that fist and protruding knuckle directly into her ribs, over and over again.

“AH! ARH! AH!”

Beverly gives a short sharp yelp of surprise now each time my knuckle drills into her already bruised ribs as each blow now makes her hesitate just long enough that I can fire off another punch. Then, with my left hand, I grab the edge of her gi and, as I pull it towards me, she does what I expect. She grabs it as well in an attempt to keep it closed and then tries to back off. For below her gi is just her undergarments and those are something she doesn’t want exposed. She pulls me off of the nightstand and, as she continues to back up and try to break my grip on her jacket, I’m able to kick out hard with my right foot. It connects with the inside of her right knee and her leg bends unnaturally outwards. With another cry of pain she collapses and then looks up at me from the floor. For a moment I swear I see her eyes pleading with me to stop, for me to have mercy but then, as quickly as it appeared, that look is gone and in its place is the anger and fierce determination that preceded it. This time I don’t pounce for the ground and pound. For better or for worse, I’m back to being cocky again and I figure I’ll go ahead and let Beverly get up. I’m having too much fun toying with her as she tries to kick my ass to want to end the fight this quickly.

“Take your time Bev,” I now say casually as if we are old friends, “but, just so you know, you better keep fighting because if you give up then I got nothing less to do but beat the crap out of your son.”

I don’t actually have any desire or intentions to hurt Donnie at all. Hell, I’m not even really interested in hurting Beverly, I only want to humiliate her and do so in front of her son. That’s my desire, to draw out this fight as long as possible and to see if I can keep Beverly from landing another single strike. If I can do that, if I can toy with her and block, deflect or dodge her every attack only to then successfully counter attack, well then my dream will come true.

“If you touch him, I’m gonna kill you,” Beverly says from down on the floor but now she’s getting up slowly. Unfortunately for her, her injured knee is on the opposite leg from her injured foot. So now she’s got two legs that are less than 100% and I’m curious to see how she performs as her body is slowly broken down. Luckily for me, Donnie’s bedroom is not large enough for long, sweeping techniques as between Donnie’s desk, his bed, nightstand and dresser, Beverly doesn’t have that enough room to really take advantage of her much longer legs and arms. So she’s forced to close the distance and, once she’s standing again this is exactly what she does. Maybe it is because her legs are now bothering her but Beverly next attacks with a reverse punch, why she chose this I don’t know because it seems super easy to counter.

She’s telegraphing all of her moves so I can tell exactly what she’s about to do before she even does it. Her right arm comes rocketing forward and, as it does, I quickly pivot out of its way. Beverly’s full power strike goes sailing harmlessly past me as my left hand clamps down hard on her wrist. I then step forward with as much force I can muster as my own right fist shoots out again and again. Each time it makes a solid connection with Beverly’s ribs and she yelps in pain, fear and surprise. After three or four strikes she’s ready to attack again, most likely with another spinning back fist and so, before she can, I let go of her wrist and step a few feet away. I then raise my hands with my palms to the ceiling and lift my fingers up in a gesture that says ‘come on, come get me, and god bless her she doesn’t hesitate but instead does exactly that. Beverly then tries again with a Front Snap Kick aiming right for my thigh. I guess she thought if she was going to have to fight on injured legs then it would be best if I did too. But again she telegraphs her attack before she ever makes it and this allows me to catch her shin with my hands as I then twist my hips and kick out, bending back Beverly’s left knee, the one on which she is now supporting all of her weight, further than it was ever meant to go. She cries out again, this time a little louder and, for a moment, the expression on her face is one of fear and pain but, to her credit, her leg doesn’t give out from underneath her as I now drop her other leg. I’d step back again and give her the ‘come get me’ gesture again but there’s only so much room to retreat in Donnie’s smallish bedroom and besides I think Beverly needs a lesson in retreating before I do so again. So, instead I rush forward, not like a martial artist, not even like a boxer but just like the street fighter only this time I’m attacking her defenses with a flurry of punches that batter her wrists, hands and biceps and keep her arms flying out to the side as I strike the insides of them and keep her from using them to counterattack. Finally, I throw a hay maker right into one of her breasts and, from what I am told, a woman getting hit in the breast is almost as painful as I guy getting hit in the balls. Now she staggers back and doubles over. She’s still standing, just bent at the waist as one of her battered arms comes up and her hand covers the breast I just punched. She looks up at me with a look of shock on her face as her mouth hands open and her gorgeous red lips form an ‘O’ of surprise and that’s when I leap forward again, shoving her backwards with all the force I can muster sending her sprawling back on her shapely ass as the back of her head bangs hard against the wall behind her. I’ve pushed her back as far as I can and where, just a few moments ago I almost had my back up against the wall and wasn’t able to retreat any further, now it’s Beverly who has been pushed back as far as possible and can’t go back any further. For a moment, I almost leap on top of her and go in for another round of the old ground and pound, only this time I want to target her arms and just pound them into submission. I figure that is going to need to happen anyway before our battle is through. But if I do that now I’m thinking that our fight is over and having Donnie watch as I make a joke out of his mom and all of her best efforts to defend herself is turning out to be just too darn enjoyable. I’m not ready for the action to end and so, instead, I stare down at Beverly and taunt her some more.