Maya hurried home after her shift at the Walmart. Her father knew the exact time her night shifts were scheduled to end and he had given her thirty minutes to round up whatever she had to do and hurry home or face his punishment. He still punished her anyway each time she got home, just for the sake of it but Maya knew it would be worse if she actually got home after the allotted time.

He was getting old and with that came more frequent drinking and less attention to the method he used to met out punishment on her. He had stopped caring about preventing bruises from forming on her skin and so he mostly just lashed out at her with his belt. She had gotten used to the beatings and the occasional torture, it was something she had come to expect daily. What did break her heart was the look of utter despair on the face of her mother each time her father was torturing her and her mother could do nothing about it. Lately he had started hitting her mother with so much viciousness that Maya actually feared for her life but no matter how terrified she was, how much she just wanted her and her mother to be free, she never called the police, never told a soul. Her father had taught her well, snitches ended in ditches.

She couldn't understand what was going on as she drew close to her house, the wailing siren, the neighbors who were gathered around her house trying to peek in and the officers who were all over the place. She hadn't snitched. She hadn't snitched, Maya kept telling herself as she saw an officer lead her father out of her house in handcuffs. His nose was broken and the glazed - over expression on his face meant he had been drinking - that was nothing new, what was new was the presence of the police men and the neighbors.

Ignoring the stares and her pounding heart, Maya pushed past the small crowd and headed for the front door of her house. She had to see her mother, had to make sure that apart from the normal belt marks and bruises sustained from punches, her mother was okay. She had to make sure her mother was still breathing, she had to....... Her own breath was coming out in gasps as fear clouded her vision. She was stopped gently by one of the policemen before she could get in and she tried in vain to shrug off his restricting hand.

"My mother - I need to make sure my mother is okay." She said but she could barely hear her own voice as her words came out in choking gasps. The hand stayed firmly on her shoulder, offering comfort and also preventing her from entering while the policeman explained something about her mother's corpse not being a pretty sight and then Maya blacked out.

Maya woke to the sound of whispered voices. She opened her eyes gradually to see a police woman arguing with a nurse by her bedside, she was in a hospital. They both paused when they saw she was awake then the nurse threw up her hands as if in resignation and walked out, leaving Maya with the policewoman.

"Good morning Maya, how are you feeling?" The policewoman said kindly but Maya eyed her skeptically. "It's okay, you can trust me - my name is Rachel banks from the CID." The woman added, seeing the look of distrust on Maya's face but Maya still eyed her warily.

Seeing that Maya was not ready to talk, the woman continued. "I'm just going to ask you a few questions, see if your opinion corroborates with your father's statement okay?"

Maya nodded

"Okay, how would you describe you mother?" Rachel said and Maya frowned. "Would you say your mother was stable or would you describe her as unstable?"

Maya was silent for a while as she tried to draw the courage to open up for once about everything, the beatings that she and her mother had to receive, the torture, everything but she didn't. She wasn't yet sure that her father would be locked away for good and he had taught her, snitches ended in ditches and so she didn't snitch. She knew what he father was trying to do, look for a way to make it seem like her mother was unstable and maybe pass of the homicide as suicide or self defense. She knew he would need really good lawyers to do that and he couldn't afford any but she did not put it past him. In the meantime however, she had to make sure she said nothing to contradict his story, even if it meant betraying her mother. Her mother was dead, her father still breathing and she couldn't afford to snitch on him.

Maya kept a straight face as she looked up at Rachel. "My mother was highly unstable, I think she had split personality disorder, she was always claiming to be different people and she was always either attacking me or my father or trying to commit suicide. It's been like that since I was little."

Maya waited until the policewoman had gone before she allowed the tears to fall. She needed an antidote for the pain, it was too raw, too new. She needed to dance but this time not alone. There was an underground dance arena she had stumbled upon on her way home from her night shift at the wall Mart once, she has finally found the courage to try out as a new member of any crew there. Hopefully, her father would either not be granted bail or would not even be able to afford it.

Gabriel stood in the underground combat dance arena and watched his crew as they practiced by challenging each other into dance battles that involved artistic wrestling, with the fight dancers performing dance moves as they threw their opponents, the members of his crew were all in top shape. The Power, an annual tournament they had won seven consecutive times was around the corner and even though he was never worried, he still kept raising the notch at their practice sessions until they were practically their own competition.

The fight arena was his get away from the obligations that awaited him at home as the only don of one of New York's most wealthy billionaires. He always felt the pressure, the silent stares, he knew everyone was wondering if he really had the 'Di Marco' in his blood since he was adopted and he also knew his parents and his many relations secretly wished he had been their blood instead of a mere adopted son and so because of that he strove for perfection, carrying out all his assignments with a ruthlessness that was almost singular to him. He ruthlessly cut down opponents and contemporaries and he was not known for leniency when he was crossed, he had no stomach for men who could not man up and face the consequences of their actions. It was what he would do if it were him. It was simple, if you miscalculated enough to step on the wrong toes you should be ready to dance to the beat of their tune, yet all that was left behind as soon as he stepped into the fight arena, his family name, the wealth and connections the responsibilities. Here it was just him and his talented crew members and the only consequence one could face here was eviction from the crew. He was reluctant to try out new members - to make the game more challenging, he had always brought in one new member and evicted another old one few weeks before the tournament but this year he just didn't want to deal with a new face, not because he was of the challenge but rather because even though he wouldn't care to admit it, he had bonded with the crew and didn't want to evict anyone of them.

"Gabe you've been turning down people who come for try outs with us this season." Bryan his assistant and the closest thing he had to a best friend said from behind him as the rest of the crew finished for the day and got ready to go home.

"Well then," Bryan continued. "Aren't you going to keep up with your tradition this season?"

Gabriel shrugged. "We'll see - come lets fight..... dance style of cause and please try to beat me."

Bryan laughed. They both knew that it was close to impossible to beat Gabriel in combat dance. He signaled to the Latin American musicians are who were already parking up gear to let them know they had to play for one more match then he got on the ring and did that - tried to beat Gabriel.

When Maya got discharged, she acted as if on auto. Her feet's moved on their own accord, her mind was far a away, in a world where there was room only for beat and rhythm. Gradually, she numbed the pain with her mind, killed her ability to feel until she felt nothing at all. She needed to get to the hide out she had stumbled upon once on her way home, she had to get there. Something in her told her she would not be accepted, would still not be understood but that was the only place she could be herself.

The dance arena was really a building that spilled out into the open. Within the building, she could see two dancers ....... battling, she had no better word. Their half naked bodies moved so rhythmically, their bones could be made of water and yet they fought she watched them exchange kicks that had to have hurt, yet they did it all to the beat of the music some Latin Americans were playing.

It didn't take long for her to notice the better fighter. They were both good but the blond stood out. Entranced, she watched the flow of his muscles as he performed feats she could only dream of. He seemed to be toying with his opponent, drawing him out then schooling him but his movements belied his expression, when she got a glimpse of his face, she saw anger, a bored kind of anger. He seemed angry with his opponent like he expected more, wanted more. She sucked in a breath and decided to get closer then for one brief moment, he threw his opponent down with a kick and whirled around to face her. Their eyes connected and he gave a slight shake of his head. Before she could even understand what he meant or convince herself that she hadn't imagined it, he was facing his opponent once more.

Maya drew stares as she got closer and especially from two burly looking men she was sure were bouncers. Looking around, she noticed she was the only woman there and the men around were either picking up belongings here and there and heading out or staring at her with lust written all over their faces. For the first time in her life, Maya felt a new kind of fear, one she had never known before.

Afraid to turn her back, she backtracked out of the arena and headed home as the tears blinded her eyes. Rachel, the policewoman had told her she could stay at her place till the police were through with her own house - but she didn't want that. Her father had always been cruel to her, tortured her at will but when he was not doing that, was left alone. Free to live inside her own head. She didn't want the policewoman's pity, the stares she knew she would get. The subtle offers for a session with a psychologist. She didn't want that, she had been strong for so long - had been strong all her life but she had a sickening fear that if she accepted the smallest hospitality, read meaning into the briefest kind gesture to her, she was going to crack and they would be no one but her left to pick up the pieces of her life when she had to be strong again to survive her father. So she avoided people's pity and people in general, she had to be strong.

Maya walked through the traffic, crossing the road at a green light, unsure even where to go. She wasn't sure the police were through with her house and she most definitely could not go back to the hospital - well not unless she got hit by a car. Hopefully, she would be blessed enough not to wake up.

Maya was still fantasizing about how blissful it would be to close her eyes once and for all when it clicked. She didn't even border to hide the smile that broke out across her face. She had not been accepted at the arena because she was a woman. If she were a man or even a boy, a lean masked boy, no one would even so much as glance her way. With renewed hope, she dug her hand into her pocket and fished out Rachel's number, she could endure her pity if only for the chance of getting accepted in the arena.

Gabriel sat in his office, swiveling his chair while he read the morning paper. It as the Daily times and a feature showed an article about a murder that had taken place in his family's New York hotel, the same one he managed. The incident had taken place before he was born and yet with all the current issues his family were facing in business, the Daily had to pick that moment of all times to do an article on it.

The murder was of a young Italian woman who was believed to be connected to a mafia family. According to what he heard, she had been the son of a Capo who had broken the Omerta - an oat of silence when questioned by the police. The Capo was executed, Mafia style and his family would have been allowed to live but his very smart twenty one year old daughter had gathered or stolen privileged information she was planning to give to the police in revenge. She had been lodging in the Royalty hotel in New York under a false name and cheap disguise when she was brutally murdered by people the police suspected to be part of the mob. According to the police, they never did get the information the young woman would have given them and that crime joined the rest in the long list of unsolved murders.

Gabriel felt no sympathy for the girl, she was a mere story to him - a story that had happened before he was born what he cared about was the inconvenience her death had been causing and was still causing his family. Some people had even rumored that his family was connected to the mob after the incident, it didn't help that they were Italian. It was difficult to find immigrants who became so rich over such a short period of time, especially if the were Sicilian but his grandfather had migrated to the country some Sixty years ago and had struggled, made a name for himself. Gabriel was damned if he was going to let that name get rubbed in the mud.

The murder had happened thirty years ago, yet the Daily saw it fit to rehash it at a moment when a new hotel had just been built in New York. It was possible the editor was being bought by the owner of the new hotel or that he was simply doing it out of spite or even more ridiculous, a warped feeling of obligation to readers. Gabriel had met journalists like that in the past, people who delved up other people's secrets, destroying lives and careers and yet believing they were bound by some stupid honor code to provide the truth. He picked up his phone to call the editor, he was not going to let his hotel get sacrificed on the alter of some editor's honor code.

His father beat him to it, already with the phone in his hand, he answered at the first ring.

"Gabriel, have you read the Papers this morning?" His father did not waste time on pleasantries.

"Yes." Gabriel answered simply. He knew his father was not done talking and he didn't want to interrupt.

"I want you to call the James Fisher - the editor. Find out what he wants."

Gabriel nodded then remembering that his father could not see him, he answered. "I will do that." There was no point in telling his father that he had been about to call the editor, somehow that would have sounded like he was giving excuses.

"And just know that some people sometimes do not know what they want, sometimes they think it's justice but they actually just want money, bear that mind."

Gabriel nodded again. This was his father's way of saying everyone had a price. He totally agreed with his father, he had bought a countless number of people with his money. He didn't even bother to answer his father, the line had gone dead as soon as his father had given that last piece of advice. Gabriel decided not to call, if he was going to buy the editor, he wanted to see the merchandise first.

The editor of the Daily times was a smallish man that kept fidgeting with his hands, touching here and there, either twirling a pen or spinning a letter opener till Gabriel got irritated and asked him to keep his hands still, he obeyed immediately. After one sentence from the man, it became obvious that he had been bought as Gabriel had suspected by the opposition. The ease with which the editor switched sides at the offer of bigger money and a little bit of threat thrown in for good measure was pathetic but Gabriel has known just anyone could be bought at the right price.

Leaving the office, Gabriel realized that he felt disappointed. He had secretly hoped the man would have had some honor code binding him to publish the truth or some nonsense like that, he had been looking forward to a challenge, had wanted to debate with him, to discuss, to have a conversation where for ice he was not calling all the shots simply because of his money. It was the way of the world, his father had once told him, the world had only two sets of people, the haves and the have nots. The haves owned the have nots and that was the system of things. His father had not added that it was possible Gabriel's escape from being among the have nots was his adoption into the Di Marco family.

After finishing up at the office that evening, Gabriel headed for the dance arena. Somehow, even his own get away had started to bore him, he hadn't yet been able to find a dance fighter who could beat him, not even Bryan.

Bryan was in the ring when he arrived, battling - or he was more like teaching a young boy who had a mask on. The boy didn't look like anyone Gabriel had seen before and he was curious. After the fight ended and Bryan shook hands with the boy, they both headed over to him.

Gabriel did not wait for an introduction. "Bryan. You've decided to turn this into a ballet school huh? Are you giving classes now?"

Bryan ignored the questions. "Gabe this is Buck, a new guy trying out to join the crew. Buck, this is Gabriel, leader of the crew and owner of the dance arena."

"Nice to meet you sir." The boy extended a hand.

Gabriel ignored it. "Buck? Like your parents actually named you that?" When the boy opened his mouth to reply, Gabriel raised a hand. "Don't bother answering me, I don't care because you wouldn't be joining us anyway, from what I saw, you can't fight. You're supposed to beat Bryan not learn how to fight right there in the arena."

"Gabe-" Bryan started to say but Gabriel cut him off.

"Why do you even have a mask on, do you think this is some kind of cult?"

"He said he has scars he doesn't want anyone to see." Bryan replied.

"Let the kid talk Bryan." Gabriel snapped, to the boy, he continued. "If you can't even speak for yourself, how do you intend to face me as an opponent in that ring?"

"Bryan has already answered for me." The boy replied, "I have so many scars."

"Nobody gives a fuck about your scars - look around you, all everyone here wants to do is fight." Gabriel as pissed, there was something so vulnerable about the boys voice, he sounded like a teenager. "How old are you."

"I'm old enough." The boy replied with a bit of defiance.

"I wouldn't ask again." Gabriel could feel the hint of warning and danger creep into his voice and he laid it on thick for good measure.

"Twenty one! I'm twenty on years old." The boy replied. He sounded terrified though he did not break eye contact with Gabriel.

"Well twenty one, you wouldn't be joining us today- or forever, we don't need knew members." Gabriel dismissed him and strode forward into the ring. Leaving Bryan to talk to the boy, he challenged four men from different crews then stepped into the ring. With any luck, they would be able to beat him.

Bryan waived them away. "Still looking for someone to beat you Gabe?" "Well what's that to you?" Gabriel retorted. "It's obvious you can never beat me."

"And if I do?" Bryan was smiling good naturedly.

" If you do, your little boyfriend gets a spot with us."

" He's not -" Bryan started to say then thought better of it. Showing any form of irritation at being called the boy's lover would cement the name. Taking off his shirt, he joined Gabriel in the ring.

Immediately after they shook hands, he took Gabriel down with kick and watched his friends eyes light up in surprise. He waited for Gabriel to stand before he attempted to take him down again, this time, his friend deflected all his attacks and sent him flying down with a kick then it was like their previous matches over again, at the end Bryan was on the floor, unable to get up, with his body ridden in pains.

Disappointed once more, Gabriel climbed out of the ring. He parted the boy on his shoulder.

"Sorry kiddo, your savior was just not much of a hero."

" Then I'll fight you!" The boy shouted and Gabriel slowly turned around to face him. "Give me one month with Bryan and I promise to beat you."

Gabriel walked up to stand in front of the boy, while he watched the boy shrink further into himself - if that was ever possible yet he could see the determination burning out from the boy's eyes. He lifted his hand to take of the boy's masked but restrained himself at the last minute. "Fine Buck. You get a month starting from today and when you loose, I don't t see you around this arena or I'll have you arrested. I'm I understand."

The boy started to say something then replied instead "Yes sir."