Chapter 130: Jonathan XI—Seeing Red
"What were you wanting to get?"
Jonathan glanced at Freddy as they pushed into the souvenir store. "I forgot I was gonna get Elena a jersey as a surprise, Mom gave me the money for it before the game. I wanted to surprise her with it."
"Oooo," Freddy said. "I was trying to figure out what was more important to you than overtime."
Jonathan sighed. Elena seemed to like Freddy a lot. What was worse, having a girl who hates your family or loves them too much? Why should he be jealous? It was just Freddy! Freddy was still like... like a little kid and Jana still bossed him around! There wasn’t any threat from him at all!
Jonathan decided to just forget it as they were walking back to the seats and the jersey was safe in a plastic bag in his hand. He had had a nice time with Elena, stuffing popcorn down the back of her shirt until Mom had taken it away from them. And the feel of her face pressing into his shoulder, her scared fingers... All of that was for him! And Elena hadn't once thought to talk to Freddy.... well mostly because he had asked Jana to take Freddy’s seat but that wasn’t the point! Elena liked him and not Freddy!
"What’s not the point?" Freddy asked.
Jonathan looked at him. "Eh?"
"You said, ‘but that’s not the point’. What’s not the point?" Freddy repeated.
Jonathan felt a little cold. "I said that?" he asked. "I mean out loud?"
Freddy nodded. "You do that sometimes. I think you’re talking to me but you’re just talking about stuff, I thought you knew."
Jonathan groaned. Now he was talking to himself? Like some crazy person? It was bad enough that his goalposts had started to whisper to him earlier in the year now he was.... ARGH!
"I’m sorry," Freddy said quietly. "I shouldn’t have bugged you."
"Naw," Jonathan said as they stood at the top of the stairs. "It’s not your fault that I’m going schizo... SON OF A BITCH!"
Jonathan could not believe the way Maltby had slammed his dad into the boards. The frigging nerve of that asshole how dare he.....
"Woah!" Freddy gasped, "Look it Dru!"
Jonathan could see Maltby and Drury slugging away at each other and everyone was just screaming around them. Jonathan couldn’t remember seeing Drury ever fight like this before! In his dad’s defense? Hmm why couldn’t Dru come over instead of Danny?
The boy’s kept their eyes on the fight as they slowly made their way down the stairs. Jonathan couldn’t really tell who was getting the better of this fight, but it sure as hell was going on long! The refs had to break this one up soon... Oooo how was Mitchell doing?
Jonathan peered down at their seats and he couldn’t see anyone through the standing bodies. He figured Mom was taking care of him. And then CRRRRRRACK!
"Jonathan!" Freddy gasped and Jonathan’s blood went cold too. The crack blossomed up the glass looking like a sketch of a tree and within the instant both Drury and Maltby fell through the pane of glass. The sound silenced the audience as it shattered and sent sparkling shards of glass into the air with them.
Mom.
"Come on!" Jonathan barked and before he could take many steps he was crushed in a swarm of bodies on the stairs, blinded to what was happening and they were almost there!
"YOU HURT MY DADDY! YOU’RE HURTING CHRIS TOO!"
That was Jana’s voice, Jonathan thought. Please don’t let her be hurt! He thought.
"Glass everywhere!" a voice near him said.
"Shit and there’s kids down there!" another voice said.
"One of them is bleeding!"
That was all Jonathan needed to hear and then the sound that cut him to his soul.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
He knew that tin whistle scream of his sister, and it was a terrified, angry, violated scream. The screams got louder and louder and all Jonathan could feel was his heart in his throat as he shoved his way through the people around him and finally he broke through into freedom and what he saw burned his eyeballs until he could see only red.
He saw Mom hunched over the seats, a smear of red in her hair and she was obviously protecting Mitchell. He saw Drury sitting on the ground a dazed look on his face, his hands on his head as if he were trying to steady himself. And standing was Kirk Maltby, his face was pale and there were smears of blood on his face and in his hands, high in the air he was holding Jana, his sister, his princess, his whole friggin reason for living. And she had blood on her, and her face was red and she was screaming and there were tears streaming down her face. The whole sight gave him the impression of someone trying to hold a screeching kitten. Elena had her hands tangled in her hair and she was screaming, "Let her go!" What the hell was Maltby doing to his sister?!
Jonathan glanced quickly at the ice and saw just about everyone entangled in fist fights or trying to break up fights, his dad was rolling on the ice with Cujo and Joe was yanking Forsberg from on top of Chris Chelios. Jonathan knew it was up to him!
"GOD DAMMIT GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF MY SISTER!" Jonathan howled and he ran down the rest of the stairs. Maltby heard him and dropped Jana when they made eye contact causing the girl to scream even louder.
"Easy kid!" Maltby said holding his hands up. "I was just trying to keep her from cutting herself on....."
Jonathan didn’t think twice before running into the row of seats above him and launching himself into the air and he smacked into Maltby’s chest. "Oof!" Maltby gasped and Jonathan didn’t think twice about slugging him in the chin. There was a satisfying crack in his knuckles and Maltby staggered backwards.
"JONATHAN!" he heard Elena scream.
And Maltby’s eyes closed as he fell completely and Jonathan felt nauseated because he was still clinging to Maltby’s body. They both fell through the broken pane of glass and onto the ice. There was a loud crack and Jonathan could only assume it was some part of Maltby’s body, perhaps his head striking the ice. Jonathan opened his eyes and saw Maltby’s face, which suddenly looked like Danny Hinote’s face; it looked RED everything was RED! Coming around sniffing his mother making her cry and smell like his stinky cologne!
"Basterd!" he screamed and slugged him again for good measure. That felt good so he slugged him again and again and again! He wanted to knock his fucking teeth out turn him into a spongy bloody PULP!
"Get the fuck off him!" a voice screamed.
And Jonathan felt a tearing pain in his left ear; someone was trying to yank his ear off. He shut his eyes in pain. It was pain that made everything blossom red within his eyelids. He stopped slugging Maltby who hadn’t even moved up to this point, and just clung to his body. The tearing turned to a twisting.
"Honey don’t do that!" another voice yelled.
There was a sharp cry, it sounded like Elena and his ear was still being twisted.
"Stop that!" he heard Elena squeal. "Don’t you dare touch him!"
The twisting suddenly stopped and he heard a loud roar. "OW YOU LITTLE BITCH YOU FUCKING BIT ME!"
"Let go of me!" that was Elena’s voice.
Jonathan opened his eyes. Now Elena was in trouble! He looked up and saw Elena writhing in the arms of Chris Chelios and there was even more blood dripping onto the ice from one of them. He had his arms wrapped around her teeny tiny waist and had her lifted in the air and she was kicking at him.
Jonathan slipped across the ice and pushed Chelios off his feet. Elena rolled off and Jonathan tried to swing a punch at Chelios but another arm grabbed him and another arm wrapped around his waist and lifted him high into the air.... leaving him helpless.....
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