The pounding in my head would never cease as I watched Oliver take down Cat. It looked like it was getting easier for us to take down one another, mostly because Eric would add onto his cruel and unusual punishments if we refused. Yesterday Jane was dangling over the chasm when she refused to fight Cade, and then when Boyd refused to fight Quincy, Eric went up to him and dragged him into a small closet for around an hour after he beat him.
I barely remember being woken up this morning, but according to Sasha, Eddie knocked me out cold and I was left unconscious for about 15 hours. The only thing I remember was Eric harshly yanking at my sheets and splashing a cup of ice cold water on my face, he yanked at my hair, and then dragged my sorry butt out of bed while I was still out of it.
"Mercer, you'll be going up against Bailey," Eric's voice directs towards me and my head snaps in his direction. I feel pain shoot through my head like a bullet and I have to take a moment to compose myself before harshly glaring in his direction that he's still making me fight under these conditions. But then again what do you expect, it's Eric.
I watch as Eddie pummels Ben to the ground making Ben's body go limp. I grew up with every single one of these kids, I always knew them to be so kind and caring and well... Amity for crying out loud. Now I see what Eric can do, he turns the best into the worst and kills any good in anyone. Maybe the best way to defy him is to still be kind despite what he's done.
"Alright Mercer, Bailey, in the ring," Eric sighs while looking around obviously bored with everyone because apparently us beating the crap out of one another isn't entertainment enough for him. I step slowly into the ring giving Eric one last death glare before turning to my tiny opponent. Despite her being only about an inch taller than me she still is probably about 50 pounds less then me, while I sport curves and a chest she is built like a stick and her slick straight dark brown hair doesn't help.
To my surprise she is quick to attack first, swinging almost a perfect left hook at my face but my instincts kick in right away and move my head out of the way before she can hit her mark. At the sudden movement my head spins and my world dips slightly to the side, there's not doubt I have a concussion and Bailey knows this and will defiantly use it to her advantage.
She takes another swing and this time hits her mark, sending my head snapping to the side and my body crumbling to the ground. The padding of feet fills my ears as I see her figure hop off the mat, I don't blame her for what she did, if I was in her position I wouldn't have done anything different, quick and mostly painless.
"You keep going until the other can't continue," Eric's voice fills my head from all sides and I can't tell if he's to the right or left of me.
"I don't think she can... sir," Bailey's strong voice addresses Eric and I know she doesn't want to fight me. This time heavier footsteps meet my ears and seem to echo all around me and I feel my heart stop for a moment when I see Eric's pierced face right in front of mine.
"Get up," he says calmly crouching down by my fallen figure. In one swift movement his hands are gripping my shoulders and I'm yanked upwards.
"Stand up," he orders with finality in his voice. Gritting my teeth I push aside the nausea that's swarming and pressing on my body as I stand on shaky feet.
I soon see the fear filled eyes of everyone around me, I guess I've gotten used to seeing them this way and I can tell by the tone in Eric's voice he's close to snapping. Bailey meets my eyes and her big brown eyes stare at me with regret and then I see her small figure charging at me.
As if out of instinct I grab her shoulders and throw her to the ground, the world sways and I can no longer rely on my eyes so I rely strictly on touch as I place my first punch. I know it's sloppy and probably pretty weak but at least I made a hit. I feel Bailey's tiny hands claw at the arm holding her to the ground as I place one more strong punch.
In a second my eyes clear up and I see blood dripping down her face and a dead look in her eyes. Did I just kill her? was my first thought. That is until I watch as her chest rises and falls, that's when I realize this is the first person I've ever knocked out.
"Alright we're done for the day, Cade take Bailey to the infirmary," Eric commands and everyone's quick to rush to the door, "Mercer, you stay." I stop mid-step and take a deep breathe trying to control my anger towards him.
Yesterday we got along pretty well, mostly because I was unconscious for over half of it. And today, well today was a combination of him forcing me to do the worst exercises when everyone else got a break, making my mental state even worse, and the occasional sly comment from me to him. I stalk on over to him slowly as his arms cross over his chest making him seem even more intimidating and causing his muscles to bulge out of his t-shirt.
"Yeah?" I ask and try hard to focus on him. I'm way to tired to argue and my head is still throbbing from the blow I took.
"Come with me," he says and brushes past me while gripping my bicep firmly.
"Where are we going?" I ask hazily while dragging my feet behind me and I got a deja vu moment from when he dragged me down the halls back when I got 'rescued'.
"To the infirmary you'll pass out soon if we don't get you checked up on," he says while glancing back at me and looking my figure up and down, "Yeah you look like shit," he finishes off.
"But I'm hungry," I whine and my thoughts go back to how I hadn't eaten since lunch and I barely ate anything then because my head hurt, and on top of that I hadn't eaten 15 hours prior.
"You can eat after the doctor checks up on you," his voice is final and angry and at that moment I realize I have little to no energy plus he's actually right.
The whole walk I was being dragged and it felt like I had two left feet while he never slowed and never sped up walking like a machine. When we finally did make it to the infirmary I let out a breathe as I saw Cade and Bailey in the corner. Bailey woke up and the nurse was talking to her about something while they both stared at the women in fear. Probably because she looked like she was about to strangle them with her shaved head and tattoos covering her whole body making her into a piece of art.
"Lynn!" Eric shouts getting the girl's attention, Cade's and Bailey's eyes travel to mine and I give her an apologetic smile in which she returns and I can't exactly tell if it's the Amity in her or if she actually understood my situation like I did to her's.
"I want you to check her up," he motions to me and I notice how she doesn't even give Bailey a second glance but rather trudges towards me while rolling her eyes at Eric. Well looks like I'm no the only one who's annoyed with him and is willing to show it.
"Look here," Lynn orders and waves her finger in the air. I've done this a thousand times before, let's just say standing up on a horse 24/7 causes some accidents. I watch her finger move back and forth as a flashlight blinds my eyes, Eric stands right next to me, arms crossed while looking with a strict face down at me like I'm his delinquent child.
I went through a couple more concussion tests and somewhere along the lines Cade and Bailey leave without a second glance in my direction and I start to get that feeling in the pit of my stomach that you get when you know that someone is angry at you. I've only felt this feeling a few times and that was when I called Stacey out on a lie and she wouldn't speak to me for a week, the other time would be when Ryley stole a book from the library and she cried and screamed at me.
Now I don't exactly know what they'll do. Ignore me? Scream at me? But then again I didn't exactly do anything that I wasn't supposed to do, she attacked me so I attacked back. We've all been turning on each other and I've started to notice groups were forming, Stacey had a few people with her, Cade and Bailey have stuck to each other like glue, and Sasha and I, well we've been sticking with Louis and Nate's always been close by.
"Yeah you've got a pretty bad concussion, I suggest if you want it to heal right you shouldn't do any physical activities for about 2 days, and no fighting either, not for about a week," as she says this I hear Eric scoff from behind me.
"Well then what can she do? Sit on her ass all day watching?" I can tell he's pretty pissed now. Yeah I'm pissed too that I'll have to train longer than everyone else, especially if it's alone with Eric.
"Yeah, that's exactly what she'll do, if you want her to be as dumb as a doornail or as dead as one then sure put her in the ring again!" Lynn snaps and with that flips around and walks into what looks like a doctor's office. Eric soon mumbles profanities under his breathe before scoffing and dragging me out the same way he brought me in.
"Can I eat now?" I mumble while he yanks me away from the infirmary. Before he can answer I get another head rush and suddenly I'm on my hands and knees.
"Mercer?" I hear Eric's voice say from somewhere above me.
"Mercer! Mercer hey wake up!" his voice continues but this time I feel his large hands on my torso and I don't exactly know if he's there or if I'm just dreaming.
"Eric?" I mumble before slipping off into a dreamless dead sleep.