hearts

chapter 17|Cas

"I believe these belong to me"

I greedily opened my arms and collected the money of all the people I was sitting around me. My mouth turned upwards and the jealous huffs, cold glares, and gasps of disbelief that filled their faces.

I feel alive.

Someone came up behind me to collect the money and put it in a bag, adding it to the large collections of bags that sat around me, leaving barely enough room for my feet to sit. I'd been here for hours, maybe more, just beating people at their own game.

It was pretty easy at first, most of them were rookies, their emotions showed on their faces as they had not mastered a poker face. It was quite simple to read them and I quickly wiped the cash in front of them clean.

As I began to beat people I caught the interest of older and much more experienced people who wanted to try and, and I quote, 'put me in my place'. I found much satisfaction in wiping their bank accounts dry.

Who would've thought that gambling would be so therapeutic?

"Who's next!" A girl that stood near me shrieked.

I had gained quite a lot of 'fans' whilst I played. But I suspected they were gravitating more to my money than my newfound winnings. As people began to take their seats I stood up and waved them off. "I think I'm done for the night".

Angry protests reached my ears but I ignored them and started grabbing my bags of cash. Well, as many bags that I could carry. I settled with six and another 8 were still left lying on the floor. I glanced at them before looking over to the money-hungry people that sat around the table before shrugging.

"Split the rest between yourselves"

They immediately pounced on it, almost splitting the bags in two as they fought for the paper inside. It was barbaric, to say the least. I could feel myself coming back to my senses, I was no longer limping and the world wasn't spinning anymore.

The bright lights that were in the casino hurt my quickly approaching headache and encouraged me to head back down to the dark club. I glanced out one of the windows to see darkness staring back at me.

Wow, we've been here the entire day.

I guess this place wasn't as addicting as Hibi implied it was.

As I reached the bottom floor I immediately winced at the loud music. Goodness I need to get out of here. My eyes caught sight of the staircase I saw Hibi go down earlier and I immediately started heading for it. It was far from easy manoeuvring through the crowd of people on the dance floor.

On one hand, I had to dodge the lust-blinded people that were practically having sex with clothes on and on the other, I had to avoid the grabby hands that were directed at the bag of money in my hands. More than once did I have to smack some wondering fingers away.

Heavens help me I shall never return to this kingdom again.

But I got there. I glanced down the staircase sceptically before shrugging and started to make my way down. I had to keep in my disgusted grimaces at the bloody walls I passed as I made my way down the stairs that were practically falling apart.

As I continued walking I started to hear screams, and no not the terror-filled ones. These were encouraging cheers that seemed to get louder as I approached the ground floor. And I was not prepared for what I saw when I got there.

Blood. Everywhere.

Bodies, unmoving, cast out to the floor as if their lives had no use.

I dropped the bags of cash on the floor as I had to hold my mouth to keep in the vomit that was sitting at the edge of my lips. From what I saw it was like a fight club. People were huddled in the middle cheering on someone but from what I was seeing they also looked like shit.

It smelled horrific.

Blood. Sweat. And a complete and utter lack of humanity.

I steady walked closer towards the crowd, making sure to avoid touching any of the people. Who knows where they'd been. Everyone was so huddled up to the main ring that I could barely see what was happening, and that's saying a lot considering I'm usually able to see almost everything.

I shoved someone who was blocking my line of sight and they immediately started protesting. I shot them one hard glance and they immediately swallowed their theatrics. I turned my head back to the fight and I felt my body freeze over.

Hibi.

She stood in the middle of the ring fighting someone. If you could even call it a fight. She was plummeting a guy half her size into the ground with nothing but her bare fists. He was bloody and bruised all over whilst she looked like she barely had a scratch, in fact, as far as I could tell all the blood she was covered head to toe in did not belong to her.

So this is what she was talking about.

The crazed look in her eye made me sick to my stomach. She looked out of control and wild as she brought fist after fist to the poor man's face. He didn't even seem to move to try and stop her as she smacked his head left and right. She looked possessed.

I looked around for anyone who would be humane enough to stop her but as my eyes passed the faces of the people around me I could see nothing but pure enjoyment on their faces. They considered this entertainment.

The more I watched the more I knew I had to stop whatever was going on. Before she killed somebody.

I quickly shoved past all the people in front of me to get to the ring. They didn't seem to want to stop me either as they considered me someone new to fight. A new opponent they could watch fight for their lives in a meaningless ring.

I got in the ring and I saw Hibi stiffen.

A crazed smile broke on Hibi's face and I visibly gulped. "I see a new challenger has joined" She chuckled. Her eyes darted over to everyone outside the ring causing them to cheer "You're going to regret ever stepping into this place" She cackled.

I walked closer to her. I didn't feel fear but I was uncertain. Before I was sure that Hibi would not hurt me intentionally unless she had a damn good reason to but I doubt her sense of reasoning was clear right now.

She moved to her feet. Kicking the body of her last opponent aside. He didn't even move as he continued to lay limp on the rubber stage. Her back was turned to me and her hair was down her back, her body was covered in a layer of sweat but she seemed far from tired as she started laughing softly.

"Why don't you tell me your name?" She mused "Give me something to laugh about when I'm beating your face in".

I raised an eyebrow. Before I could take another step closer a fist was flying to my face. I caught it easily between my fingers and held her wrist tight. "Hibiscus"

Her eyes were filled with contentment and absolute utter rage but once she saw me her features softened. Her tight fist softened in my hand and I loosened my grip on it. Her stance relaxed and her eyebrows fell. Confusion and surprise-filled her face.

"Cas?"

I ignored the people that had quietened around us. They seemed as confused as she did. As realization slowly washed over her face, regret poured into her eyes and my face hardened. I tightened my grip on her wrist once more and clenched my teeth together.

"We're leaving".