It's been two weeks since the... uh stabby incident.

And Alec has particularly been on my case about my whereabouts so that I don't wander around the underground arena, till I'm completely recovered.

Ryder and I, well, we've gone back to normal, as normal as it can be. We've been spending time with each other and the whole group, and he's been, not so subtly, acting extra protective.

Everytime we meet, he quickly scans me from head to toe to make sure I have no new injuries and I have to reassure him that I'm fine and he doesn't have to worry.

Neither of us has brought up the events of Wednesday, which I'm glad about, as that could make things awkward between us and I definitely don't want that to happen right after I got my best friend back.

The prank war has been going on in full swing which included him, exchanging all the sugar in my kitchen with salt, then me, locking him up in a bathroom at school and let's just say, it was fun watching him have to explain to the principal why he had to take down the bathroom door.

"Ow ow OW." Lexi groaned once again, landing on the ground in a heap.

"Sshh keep it down." I whisper yelled, before grabbing onto the branch of the tree right out of my room's window.

I landed very gracefully on the ground, making Lexi look at me with a deadpanned look.

"Remind me, why did I agree to this, again?" She asked, grabbing her bag.

"You didn't." I said with a smile. "I forced you."

"Congratulations! You've unlocked a new level of bitchiness." She cheered with fake enthusiasm.

"You love me." I chuckled, swinging my arm around her shoulder before we move towards her car in the middle of the night.

Okay so maybe I haven't been completely truthful and maybe I've been going behind everyone's back to go to the arena, at night after everyone goes to sleep.

After that e-mail from King, I realised that it's better if I make my intention known and that can't happen if I stay home, according to Alec's wish.

In fact, that would be completely opposite to being safe, if I don't go out, where I can be seen, they'll come after me and gangs can stoop pretty low, when they want something. I don't want to drag the people I care about, in danger.

It's the fourth day that we're sneaking out of the house, like this and it has been pretty convenient, now that I got our fights scheduled for slots after 10 at night.

Due to my injury, I haven't faught for the last three days, but Lex has and she has kicked some serious ass.

Now that the wound is pretty much healed up, I had Ron schedule a fight for me today which has finally had the blood pump in the right direction in my body.

'You have issues.'

I know.

*****

"Are you sure about this, dude?" Dylan asked again, looking out of the car window, making me groan.

"Yes. God, yes Dy, for the hundredth time."

"I don't know man, maybe you're just being paranoid, since... you know, you're in love with her." Cole said, munching on a bag of potato chips in the backseat.

Just when I'm about to retort, we hear it. We see a very familiar car emerge from down the street, making us duck our heads to look less suspicious.

"Oh my god you were right. That is Lexi's car." Dylan yelled, once the car passed by mine, with his eyes wide. "Step on it, dude. Go go go!"

I rolled my eyes, already peeling out of my driveway, following the white car at a safe distance.

"Damn! This is wild." Cole said leaning forward, obviously excited about the situation. "Where do you think they go to, this late at night, anyway?"

"If I knew, would I be following them like a creep?" I said, rolling my eyes.

"No. But you obviously have something in mind, if you decided to be that creepy, instead of just confronting her about it." He said in a knowing tone.

Damn! Why can't he just be dumb like Dylan?

"No. I have no idea. I haven't thought much about it, it's only been three days."

Now that was complete crap.

From the first day, I saw Lexi's car pull out of their driveway, so late at night, this is all I could think about.

I've wanted to confront Miles about it but remembering out conversation from Wednesday, I knew I wouldn't get a definite answer. So, I decided it would just be better if I followed her wherever she's been going and see for myself.

For some reason, I have this feeling that I'm not going to like whatever it is and I've even thought of leaving it and her alone but after watching her go out so late for the past three days, I couldn't control myself anymore.

And no, I'm not a creepy stalker who sits by his window, spying on her. I just happen to have a direct view of her house and I happen to have binoculars with me, everytime...

God I'm pathetic.

'Self realisation is the first step towards sanity.'

After driving for about 15 minutes on the road, their car took a turn into a dark alley and I frowned before following them.

Their car suddenly came to a stop at a small distance from a giant tunnel which was somewhat a way to something underground.

My frown deepened as I saw them get out of the car with gym bags slung on their shoulder.

Lexi noticed our car, behind theirs at a little distance, and squinted to see more clearly, making Dylan duck behind the dashboard, a little too dramatically.

"Get down, you dorks!" He whisper yelled as we looked at him deadpanned.

"It's the middle of the night man, what do you think they are? Bats?" I said in the same tone.

"Besides, our headlight is on high beam, we're probably blinding them of their human vision too." Cole said nonchalantly.

Cole was proved right as Lexi gave up and looked away blinking, when Miles said something to her, making her roll her eyes.

They then walked towards the tunnel and inside it, with no hesitation, making me stiffen.

Out of every bizarre scenario I imagined, this was the least expected one, for sure.

I thought, as I looked around to see that we're not even on the main roads. We were on a mud road, attached to a broken sidewalk with the giant tunned on the other side.

There were small cottages at a distance but there was no sign of civilization there either, or maybe it was just too dark to see anything.

I squinted to see a few cars parked at a distance, a sign, that the girls and we weren't the only ones here.

A pit grew in my stomach as I gathered how eerie this place actually is for the girls to be at, in the middle of the night.

Cole knocked on the window signalling me to snap out of it and get out of the car.

We exchanged silent glances before starting to walk towards the tunnel entrance through the slip road. From where we were, the inside of the tunnel was pitch black, which was definitely not a good sign.

"Do you think someone should just stay out here?" Dylan said, nervously looking around, before looking back at the tunnel, shaking his head. "Nevermind. The outside isn't any better, anyway. I'd rather die with you guys, than alone."

My footsteps didn't falter as I kept walking, with only one thing in mind : Miles.

She's in there, and she walked in with zero hesitation which meant she comes here a lot and I don't know what to make of all this information.

So we kept walking.

After walking for about ten seconds into the tunned, we saw a small light and walked closer to see a lantern on a wall, pointing out a turn to the left and there was a slightly opened iron door.

This is it.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Cole nodding in encouragement, making me turn to the door and slightly pull it open.

People.

A lot of people.

That's exactly what I saw when we entered.

There was an iron staircase attached to the door and after exchanging confused glances, we walked down the stairs and into the crowd.

"Well, this is interesting." Cole said looking around, and dodging someone's elbow that was about to hit his face.

The atmosphere in here was in total contrast of the outside. There were people all around, drinking, lounging, chatting and what not.

But despite that, this place was pretty eerie, people looked unapproachable and there was a metallic stench of fresh blood in the air, making me scrunch my nose.

"I'm glad I didn't stay outside!" Dylan cheered taking a swig of his beer. "Did you know this place has free beer?!"

Cole smacked him in the back of his head as we noticed how much attention his little discovery broadcast had gained.

"We're not in a play park Dylan. Shut up!" Cole whisper yelled, looking around cautiously.

"Of course we're not. That place doesn't have beer." He said, completely oblivion to the gravity of the fucking situation.

I rolled my eyes at that and motioned the boys to follow, as we continued to walk in deeper into the place.

This place was dimly lit, just enough for people to see the person standing next to them, the rest was dark enough for people to be visible as shadows, and I feel like that was the point.

But in midst of that, what caught my attention was a rink. Right in the centre of this place was a rink which was brightly lit and my steps faltered as it came into view.

It had no mats or synthetic surface, just thick ropes tied around an elevated concrete floor.

"Uh that doesn't look like fun..." Cole said in a small voice as we noticed the smudges and patches of blood around the concrete floor.

Even Dylan stopped drinking his beer as his eyes land in the direction we're all looking at.

I gulped, not wanting to jump into conclusions.

Suddenly a guy, with a mic walked into the rink. "And now, for the much awaited fight of the night. On one side we have the challenger, SKULLS!" He yelled into the mic as a buffed guy walks into the rink, looking around.

I turned to tell the boys that we should find Miles and get out of here, when the announcer's voice stopped me.

"And on the other side we have the champion, MILES!"

My eyes widened, along with the guys as I snapped my head back to look at the rink so fast, that I think I gave myself a whiplash.

And of course, I saw Miles, walking into the rink, her face void of any emotions.

I have no idea how I was even standing, as my body had gone limp as I looked at her with my jaw on the fucking floor.

What is she doing?!

'She's in an underground fighting rink, do the math.'

That guy is like 6 feet tall! She'll get herself killed.

'Not if she does this a lot.'

The referee blew the whistle making me snap out of my trance.

When I saw the guy, skulls or whatever his name is, advancing towards Miles, I almost ran towards the rink to beat some sense into that guy when two heavy arms stopped me.

I looked to the side to see two guys holding me from going close to the ropes, with security written on their t-shirts.

I was just about to scream profanities at them when a sickening crunch made me look up at the rink, expecting to see the worst.

It was quite surprising, but definitely not what I expected. The guy was on the floor holding his sides and his bloody nose, while Miles stood over his form with a small smirk.

I stopped struggling as I felt Dylan and Cole come forward and grab me out of the security guy's hands and pulled me slightly back.

"You good, man?" Cole asked.

"Look at his face brother, does that look good to you?" Dylan retorted.

We then turned to watch the match instead, with that being the last option, anyway.

Miles moved forward, and did a roundhouse kick right in the guy's face as soon as he was on his feet making him stagger back as blood started flowing out of his nose and on the floor, like water.

She stood there with so much confidence that it looked natural on her.

Then I remembered watching her fight at school. The way she kicked Jason's ass, with zero effort, stopped his punch in mid air, pulled him back by his hair like a ragdoll.

She does this a lot.

A loud whistle brought me out of my trance again and I focused towards the rink again to see Miles sitting on the guy's stomach and punching his face left and right, without missing a beat, as some guys ran in to pull her up and away from the limp body of the guy.

"KNOCKOUT!" The referee yelled, as I noticed that the guy hadn't gotten up or opened his eyes.

A few guys slowly carried him away.

I turned to look at Miles who stood in the rink with her chest heaving up and down as she breathed heavily. Her eyes held fiery rage and it made images of a 14 year old Miles, flash before my eyes.

I noticed the contrast between them and that made me realised how much these three years have changed her.

"You don't think Em took offence in the fact that I called her m&m, do you?" Dylan asked in a shaky voice as we saw the 6 feet tall opponent of Miles being carried away and got a look at his beat up face.

I hope he has a picture of his old face, for memory.

"I hope she did." Cole said, placing a hand on Dylan's shoulder.

We saw Miles walk out of the rink, towards Lexi, who we now noticed was standing beside the rink this whole time.

Lexi brushed a finger against a bruise on Miles' face, making her wince as another guy interrupted their conversation and looked like was talking about something important.

Miles excused herself from Lexi and walked away with that guy making me frown as I moved forward again.

Only this time the security guy's weren't there and I walked a little too close to the rink.

"Ryder?!"

Fuck.

I turned to look at a bewildered Lexi, looking back at me and then her eyes shifted to something behind me and she squinted before placing a hand over her mouth in disbelief.

"Dweedle dee and Dweele dum, too?!" She shrieked, rushing towards us, panicking. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Dweedle what?" Cole said, moving forward, while I pushed him back, rolling my eyes.

"We followed you." I said, crossing my arms.

"Followed us?" Her eyes widened in disbelief as she looked around, before grimacing. "You know what? Let's take this outside, I don't think we should be here any longer."

"Why?" I asked, frowning but she just started walking out towards the staircase. "Hey! Miles is still in there. We can't leave her alone." I said, catching up to her.

She looked back at me with her eyebrows raised. "Trust me, she'll be fine. You're the one you should be worried about."

We walked all the way out towards where our cars were parked and I couldn't help but notice how Lexi kept looking around, cautiously.

"So... Do you fight too?" Cole asked, finally.

She stopped as we reached the cars and turned to look at us. "Sometimes, yeah." She sighed.

"Listen, I know this is too much to see and process but it's really not my place to be doing the explaining. I'm sure Em would do a better job at that." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "You shouldn't have come here in the first place." She said under her breath.

"And it's our fault, to be curious about where our friends sneak off to, every night?" I said, narrowing my eyes at her.

"Yeah? Well what did you expect when you followed our car in the middle of the night, huh?" She whisper yelled, for some reason, even though there was no one around.

"Oh I don't know. But this was definitely not it." I said in the same tone.

"Didn't you think that Em was trying to hide this for a reason?" She said and I couldn't reply. "Do you really not trust her?"

"I was worried okay?" I said, exasperated.

Cole placed a hand on my shoulder as a sign to calm down.

"Anyway, I'll tell Em about this and she'll talk to you, but you need to leave right now." She sighed, motioning to my car.

"No way am I doing that." I scoffed.

"Ryder, this is not the time to be stubborn." She gritted out, looking around. "Emily is going to kill me, along with the three of you, if she finds you guys lurking around here."

"I've received similar threats from her before, I can handl-"

"Well well well, what do we have here." A voice cut me off, followed be a man walking out of the shadows, looking pretty beaten up. "Just the person I was looking for."

Lexi tensed as she turned to face him, extending her arms forward in caution. "Brody, we don't want any trouble." She said carefully.

The man laughed and brought up his hand towards Lexi, making all my muscles tense as I notice the shiny device in his hand.

A gun.

He was laughing like a maniac, pointing a gun at Lexi. "You've caused enough trouble little girl, you and your psycho bitch of a friend." He spat on the ground.

His laughter ceased as he tilted his head looking at Lexi. "I was kicked out of the gang because of you sluts." He yelled, looking like a total maniac.

I wanted to do something, to at least pull Lexi back, but the gun was pointed right at her and the man didn't look one bit of sane to me.

I gulped as his eyes shifted to us, standing behind Lexi, making her continue in a rush. "If- if you want, w- we can talk to Mr. King. I'm sure he would listen to Miles."

"Who do we have here?" He said looking at us, completely disregarding what Lexi just said, with a menacing smile. "Friends, huh?"

I could feel the panic radiate off of Lexi. "N- no no no not friends, I don't even know them."

I frowned as I noticed the man's cynical smile growing another inch.

"Seriously? This, again?" A voice cut through the air from the side, making us freeze.

And his smile fell.