SimpleGuy
Struggler
THIS STORY HAS A LOT OF NEGATIVE THEMES. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED
Part 1
"One of you is gonna get gutted right now! Teach you all a lesson not to cross me!" The man who was threatening them was short and not very muscular. Nicodemus was much larger and built much more sturdy. Considering this Nico stood slowly and walked quitely, not breaking eye contact with the man, and stood before him. Looking down at the man he slowly and calmly grabbed the wrist of which held the hand that held the knife. "Someone is gonna get hurt huh?" He asked calmly even though adrenaline was pumping through him harder than ever before. The three behind Nico were his cousin, his cousin's girlfriend and the girl Nico was trying to start a relationship with. They were out trying to buy some weed when they stumbled upon this man.
Nico saw that this put fear into the man's eyes and said to him, "What are you afraid of? Your the man with the blade." With that Nico, still moving slowly, pushed the knife into his own free hand sinking the three inch blade all the way through down to the hilt. This sent uncomprehensible amounts of pain into him but he showed nothing to the man holding the knife. The man was now breathing heavily and shaking, "Come on man what the hell are you doing? Let me go!" Nico let him go and he fell back dropping the weed and leaving the knife in this large man's hand. The three behind Nico were also visibly shaking by what he had done. It hurt more than anything he had ever done before but he kept what cool he had left and said to his cousin, "Give him the money."
His cousin, Jacob looked at him with even more startled than before but then threw the small wod of cash at the dealer. Nicodemus took hold of the knife, pulled it from his hand, knealt down, and handed the knife back to the dealer. "Next time don't bring a knife. People may be afraid of the knife but they will never be afraid of you..." With that the dealer bolted leaving the stunned party where they were. Nicodemus grabbed the drugs and threw them to his cousin saying nothing more than, "Lets go home."
The drive home was tense from what had just happened. To stop the bleeding Nicodemus tied his shirt around his hand. The girl he was trying to be with sat next to him in the back and held him close as tears fell from her face. "Nicodemus why the hell did you do something like that?! You could have just as easily beat him you didn't need to hurt yourself like that?!" Nicodemus answered, "I'd rather it be me than any of you Aariel. You know that." Aariel cried and cried saying, "It never stops hurting me though."
Nicodemus held her attemping to console her. This hadn't been the first time he had willingly taken the pain for her or for his other friends. Back at his house Jacob and his girlfriend left seeing as nobody wanted to get high after that ordeal. Aariel stitched up his hand just as she had stitched him up many times before. "Jacob may not be as strong as you but that doesn't mean he can't take some of the pain instead of you taking it all over and over. Your gonna kill yourself." Nicodemus attempted to lighten the tension by saying with a smile, "Hey if I die at least I could die knowing I cracked the toughest nut ever." The inside joke made her laugh a little as she replied, "Shut up before I slip and rip you up even more."
Nicodemus had been trying for years to get her and he recently succeeded at marrying her. She didn't make it easy for her but neither did he in his own special way. "Tell me the speech you gave me the night after our wedding." said Aariel as they lay together in bed. "I'm not one for theatrics. I can't be that guy that makes you feel like your in a romantic storybook. I'm not your prince charming and I'll never pretend to be. I can't promise you the world, the stars or even your happiness. What I can promise though is that I will always be there for you. I will always try my hardest to make you smile and I will always try my hardest to let no harm come to you." He held up his hand, "As you can see." She laughed a little a held him tightly saying, "Even when we can't afford to send you to the hospital to get real stitches you still make me laugh." Nicodemus turned over and held her with his good hand, "I try."
They slept the night away. A blood and tear soaked night ended with a few smiles and laughs. That night is the night they slept away.
Part 2
Money had been tight recently but it was the last stretch of Aariel's college years so they tried to hold out. Nicodemus had not that much direction career wise but he loved staying strong. He stayed strong specifically so that he could protect his friends and his wife like he had done so many times before. As of late though Nicodemus had spent more time working than he did with staying fit. He had to so that he could keep the two of them affloat. On his off days he trained hard at the gym, sometimes too hard, and this is when it happened. Because of his injured hand he couldn't really work out that arm so he worked on his legs, back, and chest. He ended up injuring his back at the gym. Nothing in the bones just in the muscle but it was to the point to where he looked like an old man.
For the next few weeks he had to move slow and constantly fight the pain. His wife continuosly asked him, "Honey why don't you take a day off?" or, "Your killing yourself like this." While these did effect him he was used to her worring and never really paid too much attention to it. He knew in his mind that he could deal with the pain. He was young and healthy so the pain was only annoying for those weeks.
One day during this week Aariel came home crying. Nicodemus stood from his chair slowly and with the assist of his arms asking, "Hey come on whats wrong?" She ran to him and held him saying, "I failed! My classes I failed them!" Nico held her tighter. He knew what this meant. "All that money. All that time. For nothing!" She said as she tightened her grip on him. He looked up with tears in his eyes, for no thing other than her own sadness. They had spent so long getting the money, so long working through the hardships, and it hurt to see her cry. It hurt him more than his back, more than his hand, and by God it hurt more than the damn ringing in his ears that had started when his back started hurting.
The pain would never stop and he could see it in her eyes. He could see the sense of failure that blinded her. From the time she got home to the morning he lay staring at her a week later. His back was now hurting him quite a bit less but still hurt enough for him to have to slowly sit up. He looked down at his hand that took the blade and saw no blood but a thick scar. Then he heard the ringing. The ringing that hadn't haulted since his injury. Why this injury? Why not any other? Why was this one so unique that it altered his ears? For a time he handn't focused on it and it haulted but on this morning it returned with a vengeance. The ringing wasn't quite that loud though it was enough to give him that itch of annoyance that he hated so.
Later that day when she finally awoke from her slumber his wife stood before him, smiled a void smile, and walked out the door without a word spoken.
Part 3
He didn't quite know why she left him but he understood it in a way only he could describe as, "An overwelming pain that made my ears ring even more than before." While partially true seeing as it did make his ears ring just a little bit more than usual this was only because he was left to his own silence. He was left alone unable to hear even her sobs when he needed to hear something other than the pounding itch in his head. Either way though self indused or not the ringing surged harder than before. To drown out the deafening explosions he joined an underground fight club to focus more on the physical.
The physical came naturally to him much more than the emotional or even spiritual. He was never as religious as most people and while he was a believer he much more enjoyed stories of the physical such as Samson rather than spiritual ones that were hard to grasp. Even with his still sore back and hand he was a natural at the fight club and while he didn't fight for money the small sum they did pay him was well earned and he was greatful. In the emotional turmiol mixed in with his recent physical injuries he took out all his frustration on his opposition which granted him a reputation for being borderline deadly in the ring.
There at the fight club he met a man of whom he could easily call a friend. The man was much, much bigger than Nico though he seemed to be that of a gentle giant. He was six feet and seven inches and was easily three hundred and seventy five pounds. His name was Sid and he would go on to train Nico in being less of a reckless fighter who was driven only by rage into a skilled combatant who could channel his rage into a spark of victory. Well he woke up in Sid's bed that night with a gag in his mouth and an acute sorness. An acute sorness that hurt him more than physically.
As he sat there in the hospital with a doctor looking up his ass he contemplated how exactly he got here. The last thing he remembered was shaking Sid's hand and after that the next thing he remembered was Aariel leaving him. Most other things were a blure. As he sat there writhing in his own guilt, pain both physically and emotionally, and pitty he wondered what he did wrong? What he truly messed up at? As he attempted to sleep the ringing in his ear lingered higher and higher getting deeper and deeper in depth, length and power. He was about to scream when he shot up from his bed, sweating harder than he ever had before but ironically less pain than usual. The pain he felt wasn't in his back or in his ears but only in his hand. As he sat there in his bed at home he went to look down at his hand and saw Sid's head in place of his hand. Sid's head looked at him startled and said, "Love you."
That startled him more than anything else in his life and he awoke again not to a start but to a light shaking from his wife. "What are you doing darling? You were shiverng hard, and your sweating very bad. You ok?" Nico looked at her and sat up, his back didn't hurt, his ears didn't ring and his hand was still wrapped. "You should go take a shower. We won't buy any weed from that dealer anymore I guess it fucked you up a bit too much."
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