Lucky Luciano’s Disastrous Descent into a Hopeful Hell

by Ivan Martinez

Part I: Mistake

Luciano stood in a room somewhere, no walls but the ceiling went on and on and on. His mind felt hazy, and his ears felt as if they were going to burst. Luciano knew that this wasn’t where he actually was. He was only dreaming and he would soon wake up. He was looking around to see where the exit to this place was when he felt the blood begin to drip from his mouth, then his eyes slowly began to open. The cheers of the crowd around him finally reached his ears and only grew louder and louder, the stomping of the crowd’s feet shook the fighting ring he laid on. Luciano began to make out the feet of his opponent, the man who knocked him to the canvas in the first place.He was on the other side of the ring prematurely celebrating his victory as the referee continued his countdown. Something welled within Luciano’s chest, he couldn’t quite tell what it was but it pushed him to his feet regardless. The fog in his head only began to clear as Luciano assaulted his opponent from behind and it was only when the ref called the match in Luciano’s favor did he realize just how big of a mistake he just made.

The cold LED light of the room only served to wash out the colors of the dull room Luciano sat in. He held a napkin to his mouth to stop the bleeding, Luciano eyed his luchador mask, it sat on the cold metal table in front of him staring at him. His mind wandered as he waited, no thoughts but a deep lingering fear in his heart. After all, why did he care about winning that match so much? This wasn’t an official wrestling ring, no this was a dinky underground mma ring hidden under a some restaurant in the Bronx. He was the only fighter down there who used a mask and the only one with a ring name so what was there to lose? Luciano snapped to attention as the door to the room opened. A single man walked in, Luciano recognized this man as the promoter of this ring and the one who ran the betting table. The man closed the door behind him and eyed Luciano for a moment until he broke the silence. “What’s your game here?” “Huh?” “No no no no, I’m serious. What the hell were you thinking?” Luciano looked down at his mask once again. “W-Well Mr. Hebihara, the thing is… I wasn’t.” “Yeah I assumed as much.” The man, Ishiki Hebihara, walked toward Luciano and stared at him in the eyes. Ishiki's face was close enough to Luciano’s so he could see Ishiki’s eyes through his red tinted glasses. “I don’t think you understand how much money we lost thanks to your blunder. All you had to do was play out the match and take the fall at the end of the 4th but you couldn’t even do that. You might want to start thinking about how you want to be buried, but in the meantime the boss wants to speak with you directly." Ishiki moved back a step and walked out of the room. Luciano had never met the boss of this ring, all he knew was that this place was run by a gangster called Enlil. Luciano knew he had messed up before but now it's starting to dawn on him just how bad it really was.

Ishiki returned to the room and bowed in reverence to a group of 5 that walked in after him. All of them wore scars across their faces, all except one. He was the most ethereally beautiful man Luciano had seen, but the longer he stared at this man, the more inhuman he seemed. This man, who Luciano has surmised was Enlil, sat down in the chair in front of him. “Lucy, Lucy, Lucy… tut tut tut, what are we going to do with you?” He spoke softly and with a strange rhythm that almost goaded Luciano into a false sense of security. “You lost me a lot of money tonight you know… when I saw you get up. Oh! I felt my heart sink straight into my feet, y’know that right?” Luciano tried to speak up. “Sir! I-” “I’m afraid there’s no getting out of this one Lucy-boy. What’s done is done, all that’s left is to figure out how you’re gonna pay me back.” “I-I’ll work sir! Please give me another chance!” Ishiki scoffed from the corner. “Oh yeah you’re gonna work all righ- Ow!” One of the scarred people elbowed Ishiki before he finished. Enlil leaned back in his chair “Please Ishi, let’s be civil.” He looked back at Luciano. “Look, this is how it's gonna work. You’re gonna work for me in my own ring until you either pay me back twice over or you die.” “E-Excuse me?” Luciano was confused, he knew these mob men were ridiculous but twice over? And what did he mean by his own ring? “What do you think I own this place? No no no, please give me some credit at least. I just borrowed this place as a sideshow, the real moneymaker is somewhere else and you’re gonna be one of the new fighters. Now all we have to do is make this official. Ishi!” The fear in Luciano’s heart only grew and grew but what happened next blew everything else out of the water.

As Ishiki approached his boss he took out a handkerchief from his suit pocket. Enlil got up and began dry heaving until a large lump formed in his throat, it moved up his throat and into Enlil’s mouth until it dropped onto the table and rolled for a little bit. An eyeball dripping with saliva stared back at Luciano as Enlil wiped his mouth with Ishiki’s handkerchief. Luciano almost jumped out of his chair but was stopped by the largest of the scarred people who came in with Enlil. With his hands forcing Luciano into his seat, he could do nothing but watch as Enlil explained the purpose of the eyeball to him. “I know it's a little gross but please bear with me. Y’see this right here is an insurance policy, if you were to break the rules of the contract I’m about to explain to you in any way, I will know and I’m sure you don’t want to find out what happens next.” A cruel smile made its way across Enlil’s face as he continued. “Along with that, it also tells me where you are at any given moment so you won’t be able to run away either but I’m sure you’re smart enough to know that that's a bad idea. I’m sure you don’t believe that this thing right here tells me all of this but I’m sure you will see even stranger things at my arena. Now all that's left is to make it official!” Enlil motioned toward the eyeball, as its pupil changed. It narrowed almost like that of a cat’s. “I wish to form a contract with one… Er what’s your name again?” Ishiki stepped forward and whispered into Enlil’s ear. “Ah yes, with one Luciano Gomez so that he will come to work for the great fighting ring called Babylon until he pays back his debt to me twofold, dies or an agreement is reached between the two of us.” The pupil of the eye that sat on the table began to expand until the entire eyeball was pitch black then the darkness was broken as the white of the eye resurfaced and it returned to normal. Thoughts raced through Luciano’s mind but they all led back to the last part of the contract. “What was that last bit? You didn’t say anything about an agreement earlier.” “Ah, I’m actually glad you caught that, it’s just something I added to the contract because one: I’m not an unreasonable guy and two: the ability wouldn’t activate if I didn’t. The contract has to be at least somewhat fair for it to work and that’s the least amount of power I need to give you for this all to work. It’s not like I have to agree to anything though.” Enlil looked as if he was having fun, one of his scarred entourage chuckled “O-oh.” That was all Luciano could say as he slumped into his chair feeling defeated. Enlil grabbed the eyeball of the table, wiped it off on his suit and popped it into his mouth. One loud gulp later, Enlil began to walk out the door but he stopped to speak once more. “Oh, Lucy. You’re gonna wanna get used to this type of stuff soon, a large portion of the fighters at my ring have er, “been to Peru” as they call it. I’ll be rooting for you!” The last part felt almost like a slap in the face to Luciano. Enlil and his entourage walked out of the room, leaving Ishiki and Luciano alone. Ishiki began to explain to him the specifics of Luciano’s new job but he wasn’t listening.

Before he knew it, Luciano was sitting on the steps of the restaurant where the ring was, dejected and alone. Dawn began to break as Luciano got up and began to walk home. He replayed the day’s happening’s over and over again in his head, how could he be so stupid? What was up with Enlil and that weird eyeball he threw up? And what did Peru have anything to do with any of this? It didn’t take long for the day to become overcast and as the clouds covered up the sun just as it began its trek across the sky, Luciano had a feeling that he wouldn’t see the sun again for a long time.