Lucky Luciano’s Disastrous Descent into a Hopeful Hell

by Ivan Martinez

Part V: hrggggggggggg

Luciano looked himself in the mirror, he had been fighting for his life every week for the past 6 months and his body had changed drastically. Coming out of the shower, his drenched hair fell down his face and reached much farther than it had previously. The calluses on his knuckles had only gotten thicker with time on the leathery skin that covered his hand. Scars and bruises covered his body and heavy bags sagged under his eyes. All the bruises on his body made it difficult for him to sleep at night. His musculature had only gotten more pronounced in time, his body had become accustomed to the beating it’d take every week. Luciano walked out of the bathroom in his dingy little apartment, it was about 10 o’clock in the morning. Before he had to go to his day job, Luciano decided to relax and watch tv for a bit but as soon as he crashed on his couch, he passed out. Luciano was jolted awake by a shooting pain in his stomach, his youngest brother Jorge jumped on him while he was asleep. “Luce!!!! Wake up sleepyhead! You weren’t at the bus stop so we all walked home together!! Is dinner ready?” “Ah, what? Why are you home? What time is it?” Luciano checked his phone, it was just after 5. He had slept through his shift. “Oh no… Hold up, lemme get started on dinner.” Luciano struggled to get off the couch and began to cook. His siblings crowded around the dinner table. The day continued as normal until finally nighttime arrived.

Luciano arrived at the venue at the usual time, he had a match today and because of his fat nap earlier he felt better than usual but that didn’t mean much. It was all business as usual down there. Eventually it came time for Luciano’s fight. An annoying feeling began to worm its way into Luciano’s heart, as it did before every fight. Fear. He held his mask in his hands and it radiated a warm feeling through his arm. This was the real reason he wore a mask. As Luciano put it on, the fear began to melt away and a fire began to burn in his gut. He was no longer Luciano Gomez, the down-on-his luck family man. He was now Lucky Luz, the invincible luchador from the fighting arena Babylon. In the ring, Luciano scanned the audience. He was looking for Rowan, ever since his loss to Olympia his appearances at the arena became less and less frequent. Rowan had been spiraling further and further downward. Last time Luciano saw him was from the spot he was standing. One month before, from the corner of the ring he spotted Rowan. Unshaven, messy and with a beer bottle in hand. Luciano looked for him afterward but all he found was a pile of vomit and the shattered bottle outside of the venue. Luciano performed as usual that night, his high-flying moves captivated and wowed the audience. Ending with his opponent in a beautiful stranglehold. It was business as usual for Luciano as he exited the ring and as he took off his mask all the strength in his body fled. He felt deflated afterward and all the fatigue began to catch up to him.

Luciano stayed behind in the venue once the night ended. It had been 6 long months, surely with the size of the venue and the type of people who gamble here his debt would be over by now. He’d overheard Ishiki talking about the profit numbers a while back and frankly, the numbers mentioned startled him. Luciano approached Ishiki while the arena was closing up. “H-hey man… I was wondering, I’ve been here a while a-and I’m sure that I’ve done a good job here s-so I was just wondering how m-” “Go home Mr. Gomez.” Ishiki looked back at Luciano with a cold stare. “B-but I just wanted to kno-” “It's our policy down here to let our fighters know when their contract is done ourselves, if no one has contacted you then just keep your head down and keep working.” “But!” Ishiki didn’t have to say anything, all he had to do was stare daggers at Luciano and he backed off. Luciano sulked back to the warm up room to pick up his things and as he walked out of the venue, Luciano ran into Alex who sat on a bench not too far from the exit. Without saying anything, Luciano sat down next to Alex. The night sky seemed much brighter than it usually would after just coming out of the dark underground train station and for a moment, the two men stared at the stars above. Alex was the first to break the silence “Well you look like sh*t.” Luciano couldn’t help but burst out laughing harder than he had in a long time. Wiping the tears from his eyes, Luciano responded “Yeah well, I can’t exactly say I’ve been able to adapt to things down there too well.” “Hah, you’re not the only one with that problem. Over the years I’ve seen many people come and go with the same type of problems as you’re having. Some people just aren’t built for this sort of thing.” “Well that’s the thing, I thought I was. This ain’t the first arena I’ve been in, but the people here are much more…monstrous.” “I get what you mean. It’s much harder for a normal person to keep up down here.” “...How do you do it? I don’t know much about the other Scars but you seem…different from them.” Alex looked back up at the sky above, stroked his mustache and sighed. “Do I? I guess there are some differences between them and I but at the end of the day we are all pretty similar. I…don’t like violence, I hate hurting people but all my life I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. The day I got these scars is the first day I felt like I was alive. I’ll never forget the feeling of the blood dripping down my face and the beating of my heart ringing in my ears. Every time I get in the ring, I get that same feeling in my soul, the feeling that that’s where I really belong, I haven’t really been getting very many challenges recently though.” “I… can’t really relate to that. Every time I get into the ring, I feel my knees buckle and my hands begin to shake. It happened before too, but here…here it's only gotten worse.” Luciano buried his face in his hands as he continued. “I’ve had nightmares where I die in fights, daydreams that I’d be fighting when I’m old and brittle. I’m just so tired of all this. I…I just want my family to be happy. I just want to see my siblings grow up and be successful. I don’t want to do this anymore.” Alex laid a hand on Luciano’s back. “Not everyone is suited to this sort of thing. Let’s go talk to the boss, I’ll see what I can do for you.” “Really? You’d do that for me? Thanks man.” Luciano got up from the bench and the two men headed back into the arena.

Entering the office, Luciano and Alex found that only Enlil and Priam were there. “Boss, we need to talk.” Alex strode in straight towards Enlil. “Of course of course, anything for you Alex. What do you need?” Alex tried to explain Luciano’s situation as best he could, Enlil listened intently. Once Alex finished, Enlil got up from his desk and began to pace around the room. “Tsk, tsk, I really would like to help y’know but I can’t! We made a contract, Lucy. Contracts have to be followed through or did you forget that you were the one who screwed me over in the first place? You’re just getting a taste of your own medicine now. Plus why would I give up one of the most popular fighters here?” Alex looked distraught, Luciano figured this would be this case from the beginning but it couldn’t hurt to try. Priam laughed to himself “You wouldn’t be the first person to ask him something like this.” Enlil walked over and picked up Priam’s puppy, Agamemnon. “Now go on, get out of here I have urgent business to attend to.” Enlil sat back down at his desk and began to play with the puppy. Luciano thought back to his first encounter with the mobster and was hit with an idea. “Enlil, you’re all about spectacle aren’t ya? I heard the scars haven’t gotten very many matches recently too. So how about it, Lucky Luz vs the Scars? If I’m able to run the gauntlet and beat all 4 of them then you let me go. If we come to an agreement then the contract can be changed right?” Alex turned toward Luciano with a distressed look while Enlil’s eyes flashed like a wildfire. “I’m surprised you remembered Lucy-boy, hahaha. Even in your state you still have the gall to challenge me? I like that. Sure why not, let's see if you can beat even one of them. Alex why don’t y-” “I’ll do it, I’ve been meaning to get a workout in some point soon.” Priam got up his chair and approached Enlil, he picked up his dog from Enlil’s lap and began to pet him. “Perfect, let’s have the match next week, I’ll get Ishiki to start promoting it right away.” Luciano and Alex left the office together. “Well that went better than I thought, haha.” Luciano was much more relaxed than Alex thought he’d be. “Luciano, do you know what you’re getting yourself into? This is unheard of! Do you have a death wish?” “Don’t worry about me Alex, think of this as Lucky Luz’s swan song.” “I-I don’t want to have to fight you.” “Well this is something I decided for myself, I wanna go out of here with a bang and this is the best way for you to help me do it, don't ya think?” “No! I don’t!”

“Forgive me if this is impertinent to ask, boss but why’d you take him up on his offer?” Enlil sat back in his chair, pondering Priam’s question. “Well… Lucy’s contract has been done for a while now and the boy looks like he’s on his last legs. Might as well give the people some fun before he up and dies on us, eh?” Priam looks up at the ceiling and cocks his head. “Y’know what, fair enough. Hopefully he’ll put up some fight next week. Wait, what was that Aggie?” Priam, still holding his dog in his arms, brings him up to his ear. The puppy didn’t do anything nor say anything but Priam was intently listening to the little guy. “No, no, no. no. You don’t have to worry Aggie, Daddy’ll win just like he always does… Of course I can do this! Why are you so pessimistic?…Well now that’s just rude!” Priam continued his one-sided conversation with Agamemnon. Soon the games would finally begin.