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A Short Story : A Story?

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“Fuck,” Neil hissed as a sharp pain shot through his hands, his phone dropping to the concrete with a clang. Neil looked down at his hands, wrapped in thick, white gauze, and tried not to think of the dull throb in his fingers. He ached for a cigarette and wondered if Andrew would swat at him if he tried to grab the carton between them. “Maybe next time someone charges at you with knives you’ll do what you do best and run away .” Andrew tilted his chin up and blew a steady stream into the night. Smoky ash mingled with the cool, September breeze, enveloping them in bright, golden embers. “It was Renee,” Neil said mildly, wincing slightly as he flexed his fingers a little too aggressively. “We were sparring.” A few weeks ago during warmups, Neil had mentioned his desire to learn how to fight and tonight Renee had finally taken him to the basement of Fox Tower for his first lesson. It had been a while since he had held a knife in any sort of threatening manner, which was now evident in the number of cuts and bruises he had sustained, and if Neil were being honest, he hadn’t been completely sure what he was capable of. Which wasn’t much, or so Renee told him. “How can you be a successful fighter if you’re afraid of your own weapon?” But that wasn’t true. He wasn’t afraid, he was apprehensive. Neil knew how to use knives. He knew exactly what blade to use and how sharp it needed to be to bleed a person out in minutes. Holding a knife again joggled every single training

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