Kinged(64)

I felt a bit dizzy taking in the drop. Everyone told me not to look down, but I couldn’t help it. If she was below me, I’d always look down. The trees looked like green blobs thousands of feet away, and I could make out roads and streams in the distance. It was unlike anything I had ever seen in Philadelphia, and it made me feel something I couldn’t quite express. I couldn’t believe we had only been climbing for a few months and were already tackling such difficult walls, but Darcy was an incredible competitor and pretty damned athletic, as it turned out. She had a hunger for the thrill, almost as much as I did. I savored the fear that coursed through my veins and gave me the final strength I needed to keep pushing further.

After the fight, I was nearly dead. I finally caved and saw a doctor, which was apparently paid for by Shane Green. I had three broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken nose, bruising all over the place, and a lacerated throat. The guy didn’t ask questions, and I guessed there was some extra money flowing his way to keep his mouth shut. He told me that my fighting days were probably over, at least for a while. I agreed. For a while.

I reached up again, grabbed another rough edge, and pulled myself up. My feet easily found purchase, and I paused a second, mere feet from our goal. I breathed deeply, savoring the clean smell that flowed into my lungs, and exhaled. The sun was bright and low and the short breeze was cool against my damp skin. I loved the outdoors, as it turned out, and found it was easier to deal with my addictions out in the clean space of the West. I couldn’t say why that was, but I found my demons were quieter.

They never found Michael, or at least they hadn’t before Darcy and I left. I guessed they never would. Michael probably had an escape plan the whole time, and when he saw me standing over his fighter, he knew it was time to eject. The piece of shit disappeared, though I couldn’t blame him for running. He was a dead man if he had stayed. I would have made damned sure of that. Sometimes I remembered his smug grin, and the way he pulled Darcy out of her apartment, right under my nose, and I felt my blood begin to boil. I would have done anything to find him and make him pay for what he did to her, but I knew I never would. Ruining his life and his position had to be enough.

It took a while for Darcy to get over what happened. I gave her whatever space she needed, but I wasn’t ready to give up on her completely. One day, after a month, she asked me if I wanted to run away with her. A week later, we had everything we owned packed away and we were driving across the country. We were both free and ready to put the violence and the pain of the city behind us. Neither of us had any serious connections left, except for Darcy’s friends Amy and Shane. We eventually made it to their wedding, which was satisfyingly fancy. I felt out of place in a tux, but Darcy insisted that I looked great.

We drove for weeks when we skipped town, and we had no idea where we wanted to go. We drifted from motel to motel, learning more about each other, and exploring each other’s bodies. I had never met someone as smart, sexy, and alive as Darcy, and she made me want to be a better person.

I reached up again, grabbed another ledge, and climbed. I could see the lip, so incredibly close. I moved up again, reached, and slipped my fingers over the edge. I grabbed and pulled myself, using my legs and core to support my weight, and slowly shifted my body up and over.

I shuffled onto the top plateau then rolled onto my back. My heart was pounding out of my chest with exertion and adrenaline. I felt better than I ever had, lying on the top of that cliff, and I looked up at the beautiful, clean blue sky and forgot myself and the world around me, lost in my own sense of accomplishment and joy.

After driving, we eventually stopped in Colorado, out near Boulder. There was no real reason for it, other than we had run out of money, and we were ready to start putting down roots. We both loved the flat beautiful expanses and the clean mountain air. Life was easier for us in Colorado. At first, Darcy worked as a waitress until she found a job working for the University of Colorado at Boulder doing PR for them. It didn’t pay as much as Adstringo did, but she loved being on a college campus again and loved her coworkers. I found a job at a nearby gym, working the front desk at first, but I quickly found out that I was good at motivating unmotivated people into working out. My personal training career was solid and satisfying. We lived comfortably in Boulder, among the hippies and the college kids.

I didn’t fight anymore. I would have, but I didn’t need to. Instead, we channeled whatever rage or sadness we may have felt about what happened to us into rock climbing, hiking, snowboarding, and more. We wanted to live, and there was no better place than the vast plains and huge mountains. Darcy sometimes still had nightmares, and I held her while she shook in my arms until she calmed down, and we went back to sleep. I would be there for her until the day that I died.