Light Throughout The Night Chapter 11: Devastation
Posted:
2023-03-10 At:
5:30 am:
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Chapter 11: Devastation
Glow's Final Battle was replayed on the Jumbotron, repeatedly, over and over while she sat in the examination room. At the end of each replay the crowd erupted with cheers, cheers easily heard inside the examination room. With each set of cheers, more and more tears drenched Glow’s cheeks.
Glow stayed in the examination room just long enough for the halls to empty. As soon as the coast was clear, she slowly stood, pausing a few times to let the pain subside, before exiting.
Glow didn’t go to the locker room to change and shower. She wasn’t about to deal with the other competitors. The gossip. The questions. The laughing. The pity. She went straight home.
Usually Glow took the train home. Not this time. She didn’t want to deal with the passengers either. She didn’t want to deal with anyone feeling and looking the way she felt and looked, knowing she was an emotional disaster. She didn’t want to deal with all those who were cheering at the sight of her sprawled out on the canvas.
Glow slowly walked down the halls, at times woozy, seemingly disoriented. Her mid-section was tender, severely hurting. She took slow, small steps, wincing in pain, supporting herself against the walls as she walked. She walked to a rarely used back exit to call a cab. She took a seat on the curb, weeping, waiting for the cab to arrive.
Only electric, small modified golf cart type cabs are allowed inside Wonder. Glow took the electric cab to a second cab just outside city limits.
The cab ride home wasn’t much better than her thoughts of the train ride. The driver kept staring at her, examining her bruises, yearning to ask questions about the battle. Glow didn’t make eye contact, only staring straight ahead with a serious look on her face. He didn’t say a word.
When Glow arrived home, she hoped Lady was still at work. She couldn’t face Lady after her embarrassing defeat. She wanted to go straight to her room. She had to be alone.
The apartment was empty. Gingerly Glow walked to her room, locking the door behind her, before burying herself under the covers in bed.
Glow couldn’t stop thinking about the fight. Her thoughts were just as painful as the actual fight. She couldn’t block out images of news stations featuring dramatic highlights of her taking a merciless beating.
Those thoughts brought tears to her eyes. The tears kept flowing when she thought about customers at local businesses gossiping, laughing at the ruthless beating she suffered.
She remembered the screams of excitement from the crowd while she was getting pounded. Her worst fears became a reality. Glow was devastated both emotionally and physically.
She curled up under her covers, squeezing her pillow as tight as possible. She couldn’t hold in her emotions, frantically shaking, crying at times uncontrollably for hours, before eventually falling asleep.
Lady found out what happened at work. Customers and bystanders were gossiping about the fight. They didn’t know Glow was her roommate.
The gossip was harsh. The loss stirred up tasteless, scathing drama.
“The skill classification is fixed! How could a competitor at the same level as another competitor last less than a minute during the Final Battle?”
“Cause they don’t measure the power of a punch a competitor can take!”
“They’re supposed to be tough, grueling battles.”
“Yah, that battle was grueling, grueling to watch! I don’t think I’ve ever cringed while watching a Final Battle.”
“Did you see the Final Battle featured on the Jumbotron?”
“I turned away for a second to get a drink. I turned back and that chick was sprawled out on the canvas. What happened?”
“Venom knocked that broad into oblivion!”
Lady, defending Glow, snapped back at a few! Heated exchanges followed!
Her boss, knowing the situation, quickly pulled Lady into another room. Lady bit her lip, working in anger until her shift ended.
While at work, Lady tried watching highlights of the fight on the news. She couldn’t. She turned the tv off before the highlights finished. She couldn’t stand seeing Glow take the type of punishment she took.
When Lady arrived at their apartment, she entered quietly, then went straight to her room. She did the same the next day, leaving for work as quiet as possible.
Glow was fast asleep. She didn’t wake until late the next evening. When Glow did wake, she was still in immense pain. Her breathing was labored. Each breath painfully pushed against her swollen ribs. Her ribs were throbbing. Each throb shot agonizing pain throughout her body.
After lying in bed for a couple hours, Glow feebly walked to the kitchen. She grabbed a pint of ice cream, sat at the table sulking for hours. After stuffing herself with ice cream, Glow put her head down between her arms, replaying the previous day’s events, over and over, only sitting up to wipe tears from her eyes.
Hours later, Lady was set to arrive home.
Glow knew she would have to face Lady. Excluding Beckie, Lady wasn’t anything like the people from her past. Lady didn’t care if she won or lost. Lady simply cared.
Because Lady cared, Glow's loss was even tougher than when things went wrong in the past. In the past, if something went wrong, Glow removed herself from the situation. She started working at another job or slept on a different street. Then, eventually when enough things went wrong, she removed herself from society all together.
Things were different now. Someone truly cared about her. That’s something she’s not use to. That’s something she probably won’t ever get use to. Glow didn’t know how she’d react when Lady arrived home. She was embarrassed and hurt. She tried to pull herself together.
When Lady did arrive home, Glow focused on the ice cream she was eating, just giving Lady a causal hello.
Lady pulled up a chair next to Glow.
Glow’s eyes were still puffy, bloodshot and glossy.
Lady began talking, “Hi sweetie. Are you ok?”
Pouting, Glow answers, “I’ve been better.”
Lady asks, “Could I see your ribs?” Glow lifts up the side of her shirt. Glow’s ribs are deeply bruised. Lady softly presses her fingers against them. Glow grimaces.
Lady takes hold of Glow’s hand, “I saw what happened. I’ve been around long enough to know, sometimes things don’t always go the way their supposed to go. You’re still a novice. It’s difficult to deal with all the situations presented inside the cube.”
Glow quickly answers, trying to hold back the anger she has with herself, without much luck, “Yah, so isn't she!” Her anger and emotions caused her to grimace in pain as she spoke.
Lady continues, ignoring Glow’s tone. “Those types of hits are very rare and usually the result of at least some luck. She’s a very good and very tough fighter. She won the fight. That’s all.”
Glow talks, “I didn’t even put up a fight. She knocked me out in a sport designed to prevent knockouts. That’s pathetic! I should have taken the elbow better.
The broad who beat me, she’s the same waitress who messed with me in the preliminaries. Everyone in the crowd was cheering for her, even before the bout began.
All the people who saw the fight in the arena, on tv and on the news, now only know me as the chick who got knocked out within a few seconds.”
Lady talks, “That’s all they know. Eventually, they’ll see there’s more to you than the few seconds they witnessed. The crowd doesn’t know you. If they did, their reaction would have been different.”
Lady squeezes Glows hand. “You’re not alone anymore. I’m here if you need anything or just wanna talk.”
Lady gets up. She walks to the fridge, smiling as she puts another pint of ice cream in the freezer. “Just in case you need something else to eat.”
Glow smiles wearily.
Lady walks over to Glow, giving her a kiss on the cheek before going into her bedroom. Glow’s eyes started tearing minutes after their conversation began. Lady decided to give Glow time to herself.
As great as Glow felt to have spoken with Lady, she was still devastated. She grabbed as many bags of chips as she could carry, before going to her room, locking her door, hiding under the covers where she spent much of the next few weeks.
During the next few weeks, Glow only ate chips and ice cream. When Lady came home from work, she heard Glow crying through the bedroom door as she passed by her room. Lady didn’t disturb Glow. Lady knew Glow needed to get the emotional pain she was feeling out of her system.
Sometimes Glow tried watching the two matches of her Mom wrestling and episodes of G.L.O.W. Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling. She could only watch them for a few minutes before she broke down in tears.
She threw things across the room. She yelled at the top of her lungs. Glow was distraught. She was furious with herself.
“No wonder my life turned in to a disaster. I failed on the grandest scale! In a way no other ever failed, against a fighter of equal talent! No wonder I lived half my life on the street!“
Glow imagined her Mom looking down from Heaven, watching the bout, thinking, her daughter, the laughingstock of the country.
Glow thought about all the people who hated on her throughout her life, laughing as she got knocked out. “I did a good job proving them right!”
Glow’s delt with, and overcame a lot of tough situations. The one thing she couldn’t deal with, was letting the people who cared about her down. She felt like she did just that, in the most humiliating fashion. She crawled back in bed, falling asleep in tears.
After a couple weeks passed, Lady began trying to get Glow out of her room. When she cooked dinner, she walked outside Glows door, “I’m making dinner.” Then, in an excited tone, “It’s only your favorite meal, pasta with meat sauce and garlic bread.”
Glow wasn’t ready to leave her room. She’d say something like, “I’m too tired.” The next day Glow found the plate saved for her in the fridge.
Lady did the same thing the following day, with the same result.
After a few days, Lady took a different approach. “Glow, wanna watch a movie with me?”
Glow, “Nah, not now.”
After several weeks, Glow knew Lady wasn’t going to give up.
The next night, Lady set up another movie, “Glow, wanna watch a movie with me?”
Glow didn’t answer.
Lady continues, in a sad tone, trying to guilt Glow out of her room, “I guess I’ll watch the movie all by myself.”
Lady made a bucket of popcorn. Then sat on the couch, letting out a loud sigh as she sat.
Glow was realizing how much Lady cared. A few minutes later, Glow came out of her room wearing baggy sweatpants and a sweatshirt, giving Lady a dirty look. “Ya know, you’re annoying.” Lady smiles as Glow takes a seat next to her on the couch.
Lady covers them both with a blanket, flips on the movie as she shares popcorn with Glow.
The two sat quietly, eating popcorn as they watched the movie together. When Lady sensed Glow getting tense, she reached over to gently massage her shoulders for a few seconds.
An hour into the movie, Lady hears a loud grumbling noise.
“What’s that sound?”
Glow answers, feeling a little guilty, “My stomach growling.”
That irked Lady. In a definitive tone, “I think it’s time you take a break from sulking. Tomorrow, I’m going to cook a healthy meal. I hope you decide to eat with me.”
After the movie, Lady turned to Glow, “Me and you, we’re family now. A real family. Not like what you experienced. You’ll always have a place next to me. Don’t forget that.”
Glow ate with Lady the next night. Soon thereafter, she began spending more time out of her room, spending more time with Lady. She was becoming a semblance of the Glow Lady met in the locker room. Glow was feeling better physically as well. Just as the E.M.T.’s said, her ribs were healing, though, taking longer than she would have liked and still soar.
Glow kept eating healthier and began exercising in her room, often using her exercise sessions as a way to vent, a way to let out the anger she had with herself from her loss, and the anger within herself from her past.
Keywords: Light Throughout The Night, Chapter 11 Devastation, Glow, Lady, Book, Fiction, Blog Post, Sulking, Embarrassed, Persistence, Loyalty, Emotionally Distraught, LTTN, Devastated, Woozy, Bruised, Harsh Gossip, Emotions
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