Zayn's POV
The second the bell rang, I was out of my corner and going towards Liam. He seemed to have the same idea for me, but I dodged his heavy swing right out of the start. I threw a big hit to his stomach and backed off. I knew it wasn't time for that yet because I saw the way Liam was standing and blocking himself. Just off of that I knew this would be a long fight.
We circled the ring just watching each other until I just stood where I was. My gloves were up and I was on my toes ready to move if I needed to. Liam came forward to me and swung, but I once again dodged it. This time I threw a fake hit with my left and when he leaned to his right to dodge it, I hit him as hard as I could. That's when I let my body do what it knows how to do. Liam hit me a few times, but it only stung before we both backed off each other. The bell rang again, signalling the first round was over and it was probably the most boring round of boxing ever witnessed. Neither of us were even hurt, but the hate that was going between us in electric waves only showed that there was so much more to come.
"Zayn, when you have him in your hitting range you don't need to hold back. He's ready for it and so are you. You've trained with endurance and stamina. You can let loose now because he's probably not going to be able to last as long as you can." Mark told me as Harry took out my mouth guard. Louis gave me water and squirt some on me as well.
"Get out there and fight like you fucking mean it. Show him what he wanted." Mark told me just as the bell rang. I looked at Harry, but saw his eyes were focused on Liam and full of fear. That made my blood boil.
I've never wanted anyone that I cared about to be afraid. When I was back in Bradford and those gang members were trying to get to Niall and he ran into me, I hated seeing the fear in his eyes. I knew I needed to do all I could to fix that. Now was no different. Harry ment a lot to me. He was my brother and all I knew was I never wanted to see him scared of anything.
I turned to Liam and let my fist fly as hard as I could. His cheek cut open and started bleeding. I only faintly heard the crowed grow wild at that. I made Liam chase me so he could even try to get a hit on me. He bearly even punched my stomach while I was beating up his left cheek that was bleeding. He didn't even flinch as I tried to hurt him more than he was.
I made a mistake as I was going after him. I didn't have any of my left defence up so Liam swung hard. My left ear was ringing and I didn't know what I was even doing anymore. I just felt my back hit the ropes of the ring and Liam continue to hit my face and my sides. I put my gloves up, but I was beyond confused about what I was supposed to do.
"Hit him, Zayn!" I heard Niall scream so I went with what he said and started using my right fist to get him back. My aim was extremely off, but I got his nose in one of those hits and got it to bleed. I hit it with my left hand, making his hot blood splattered on to my face. He started trying to hit the left side of my face again, but I got enough wits to dodge him and run for my life to the other end of the ring. He came after me, but I just threw another sloppy hit to his nose and waited for him to come back at me. He tried to, but his hits were too far from me. He couldn't get close enough to me so we both just took turns throwing misses because something happened that got us both off our game.
I went to my corner after the second round and just sat there looking straight at Liam. Louis started cleaning me up, but I didn't even move. Mark was talking to me, but I tuned it out. Harry was trying to get me to focus on something, but the only thing I was focusing on was Liam Payne across the ring from me. He had an egotistical smirk on his face as he realized I was looking at him. That only made me want to knock him out even more.
However, knocking him out didn't come easily at all. We both took turned beating each other bloody, black and blue for eight more rounds. I wasn't feeling pain anymore. I was feeling beyond pissed off that Liam hadn't even hit the floor yet. I took more of my anger out on one of his eyes. It was dripping blood and swelling up. I felt like I was holding my own injury wise, but Louis was showing me differently. He would wipe off amounts of blood from my cheek that I had never seen before. The thing was, I couldn't feel if I was hurt. I was shaking with anger and adrenaline.
The ninth round started with me going straight to hit Liam in the jaw as he returned the same him simultaneously. He grunted while I went after him with nearly everything I had in me. I went after him with the anger I had that he was the only reason I was here. It was because he was dragging me along like a fucking puppet. All these years he's taken from me because he never left me the hell alone. He wanted this fight and I was giving him what he wanted. He was also giving me what I had signed up for. That was getting hit with punches that were like getting hit right in the face with concrete. I thought we would have been more civil, but we were animals ripping each other to shreds hit by hit.
The bell rang for the round to be over, but neither one of us stopped. Liam grabbed me by one of my shoulder and pushed me to ground. I flipped us over and tried to punch him, but he ended up getting my arms tangled. In the end, we were wrestling for dominance for this rivalry that's gone on far too long. Eventually, Mark pulled me off him and the referee had to get Liam out from under me.
"I'm done with you, Malik! You're nothing! You've been nothing since you started this! You're fucking worthless!" Liam screamed at me. That was the last thing that I needed to hear before I absolutely snapped. Instead of Liam telling me I was worthless, I heard my father telling me that as he beat those words into my five year old body.
"Zayn! Get a grip! Pull yourself together!" Mark yelled at me and littereally picked me up and threw me back in my corner. Louis got to work on cleaning my fresh cuts whole my body trembled with anger.
"He... I can't... I don't-" I tried telling Mark, but my mind was having a hard time putting words together. Harry poured water on me and put a cool cloth on the back of my neck. I turned to look at Niall and saw he was standing up pulling nervously at his big sweater he had on to cover the tummy he still had. I mean, he had a baby only three weeks ago. He's not going to look normal yet. Just the sight of him calmed me, but it also made me want to get back up and fight Liam even more. I turned around and felt Mark slap my cheeks to get me back from where my mind was wandering.
"You have to knock him down in this round. Not a knock out if you can't, but beat him down. Show him who's match this is and how he's going to play it." Mark said before the bell rang for the tenth round to begin. I jumped up and ran to go hit Liam as hard as I could for his past comment.
He took the blow and stumbled back. I didn't give up on my hits until he pushed me back and begin going after me. I dodged a hit then slammed my left hand into his head then punched him in the stomach hard enough for his feet to leave the ground. His knees hit the floor, but he got up and gave me a beating ten time worse than what I gave him. I was just able to stay on my feet.
I ducked and punched, but Liam wouldn't let off me. I only felt woozy when he punched my ribs, but that was enough for him to take over the fight from there. He lifted his arm at one point that I was struggling to catch my breath and we made eye contact that seemed to stop everything. I begged him to lay off for a second so that this could be a fair fight. He looked at me like he was wanting me to just go away. Honestly, I would die right here if I had to. Liam punched my stomach, but it was like he just tapped me before backing off.
I took that opening and went after him. I wanted this to be over. I didn't know if I wanted to go down with this fight or if I wanted to win. My thoughts were racing telling me that after one of us goes to the ground, there will be no more of this. It will be gone and I didn't want that. I also didn't want to be drug around by him for the rest of my life. I wanted to end it and a small part of my mind wanted him to end me. I got a blow to the face just as the round ended that left me dazed and stumbling back to my corner. I felt Niall's cold hand slip around my arm that was just dangling next to me.
"You have to stay with me. Please, Zayn. I love you and I need you to finish this fight for me. Please, I'm begging you!" Niall yelled at me. That woke me up from my dark thoughts and I couldn't let them pull me under. I wanted this to end so I could still have my family that I took each beating for. I'd let Liam Payne skin me alive if it ment they had all they needed. But I knew my brand new little baby girl needed me so that would have to wait for another day.
Round after round went, but I felt I was just getting stronger. We got to the fifteenth and final round. Both of us were unrecognizable. I was covered in blood from my cheek that was not even worth fixing. My nose had been beaten in so badly that I couldn't even breathe out of it. Liam's eye was swollen shut and his nose was bent at a weird angle as it dripped blood non stop. He had a black bruse forming on his left temple and a cut above his eyebrow that was mixing with blood and sweat.
Liam and I both exchanged hits back and forth. All of them were powerful enough to knock us down, but both of us had different goals in mind. He wanted to win because that's the shallow thing he wanted in his life while I was doing this to put all my demons to bed. I wanted everything to be gone. I wanted my father to be gone. I wanted the need to be a boxer to be gone. I wanted the visions of Harry nearly dieing in my arms to disappear forever. Each hit I threw was a way for me to get rid of everything that was holding me back.
Liam fell on his side with one hit then popped back up so I could knock him down again. He got up and hit me, but I didn't have a stance good enough because I slipped in blood that was on the floor, but I got up cussing under my breath because I wouldn't have fallen if we weren't bleeding all over the place. Liam looked amused so I punched the look off his face. I didn't stop there. I continued to pushed him back up until he had his back against the ropes. He was trying to block, but I hit him in all the places he was already weak to make him weaker. That's what he did to me and has done to me for ten years. I got Liam squared to the center of the ring and pulled back my left hand. I saw in his eyes that he knew this was nearing the end. I knew we only had a few seconds left on the clock before it went to judges decision about who won. I just didn't trust if I really won or not because Liam's words still rang through my head telling me I was worthless.
As I let my left fist fly for the final hit I would ever give Liam Payne, I suddenly pictured all that I had been through leading me to this point. I was a child in Bradford getting beaten by my father as my mother stood by and watched. I was abandoned and forced to find food and take care of myself. My grandmother was there one minute, left for the store and the police were knocking on our door telling me she had been murdered. Then I was fighting in the streets with people that thought they could pick on me until I broke their nose to show them I wasn't just a skinny looser of a kid. Mark showed up and gave me confidence in didn't know I had. I saw myself in the drug store getting to meet Niall Horan. The images of our drunken night together flew by and before I knew it is was standing in my old flat with Niall showing me a positive pregnancy test. Next came all the fights. The many fights that I never even once hit the ground. Then the birth of my first born after gaining the world title. My past was flashing through my mind, I heard Ethan's loud laugh and saw Ezra's eyes burning to be where I was. It all ended at the thought of my daughter in my husbands arms. My fist connected with Liam's right temple that was already back and blue and he was on the floor not even a minute later. He was trying to get up, but he looked at me with the only eye that wasn't swollen shut and I saw he finally accepted that he was done.
The crowed went wild as the referee ended at the count of ten. I hit my knees and covered my face with my gloves as I realized it was all over. I looked up and saw Harry and saw Harry helping Niall into the ring, pushing him through the crowd of people that were trying to get to me. I stood up shakily and went to pull him in my arms. We both just stood there sobbing and holding each other. I may have been the one to be receiving each hit, but I knew by now that Niall felt each hit too.
"We did it." I mumbled to him. He shook his head and turned to kiss my cheek. I pulled back and looked at his eyes that were shinning bluer than I've ever seen. It was true that I didn't win this alone. I couldn't have made it this far without this man in my arms.
There wouldn't have been everything that I had right now. Suddenly, all the cameras that were being pushed into my face disappeared and it was just me and my husband. And I was okay with that. I didn't need these leather gloves on my hands. I didn't need to feel the adrenaline from a fight. All I needed was this man in my arms looking at me like he could see the future we had that I was afraid to go to. But I knew the love we had would get us through everything that was to come. We had out love other for every bump and unexpected turn in the road. After all, our love did get us through the rematch.
A/N: so this song has been inspiration for me for a while now! Give it a listen and you'll be crying like I am right now!
I have to say, this book was completely unexpected from me. I didn't plan on doing a sequel to The Fighter, but here it is and I've never been more proud. This work was so hard to write because I had to actually sort out my emotion with these characters rather than just throw them out there. I'm just really proud of this book and I hope you all enjoyed it.
Speaking of you guys, thank you so much for being so supportive of this book. I want each of you to know, whether you're a silent reader, a voter or commenter, I want you to know that you are a huge reason why I'm still writing. I know I don't always take time to reply to your answers at the end of the chapters, but I feel like I know you all just by getting to see what you like. I like to think we're all friends that are there for each other and support each other. You all have supported me and I hope I can always do the same in return for you.
Thank you for being here and reading this! I really mean it when I say I love you! I have a new book out now called Addict. The prologue is up so go check it out after the epilogue! Comment/Vote!
-Bri ;)