Viktor coughs. Then smiles. That’s the scary part.
Dez can’t stand. So he fights sitting down. He throws sand. He uses a snapped shovel handle from a broken sandbox toy to parry Viktor’s stomps. Viktor, winded but not broken, drags Dez to the —that geodesic cage of steel pipes where children learn to trust their grip. Street Brawlers- Adult Playground -Battle 6.2-
Blood turns the merry-go-round’s surface into a frictionless disc. Dez, bleeding from a split eyebrow, uses centrifugal force to slide a pile of broken bricks toward Viktor’s ankles. Viktor stumbles. Dez launches from the seesaw—it slams down with a hollow thwack —and lands a flying knee to Viktor’s sternum. Viktor coughs
The crowd disperses. The car alarm stops. The moon climbs higher. Dez can’t stand
Viktor shoves Dez’s head between two bars. Not choking. Worse: traping . Dez’s neck is pinned. He can breathe, but he cannot move without severing his own carotid on a rusted weld.