Haunted by demons

The thick smell of blood was almost comforting as he staggered through the doors of the inn, ignoring the looks that were given to him. His breath was short as he tried to compensate for the roaring pain in his side, sure that at least two of his ribs were cracked. Hands still taped, blood stained the material over his knuckles, a mix of his own and that of his combatant.
Days had turned to week and then to months, each melting into the next as Tate had done everything in his power to forget the last year of hell at the hands of Oxen corp. He had rarely slept and if he had it was out of exhaustion or having been knocked out clean in the ring. It was a constant for him, the one thing he had always known. Fighting inside the ring whether it was sanctioned or not was about the one normal thing he had left to grasp onto. Oddly enough it was also the only time someone had been able to make physical contact with him where he hadn’t flinched, perhaps because he was always able to retaliate with some kind of violent maneuver.

This evening was no different to the last, only he had copped an absolute beating from his opponent. Sure he had managed to get a good barrage of hits in but he was fairly certain that he had come out looking alot worse than the other guy. Still it put money in his pocket and gave him a small piece of himself that he had lost long ago. Pushing through the wave of nausea and dizziness aside Tate idled to the barside, easing himself onto a stool with a groan. He used his right arm to keep himself upright while he searched his pockets with his left, soon producing a folded wad of cash which he slid across to the server.
“makers mark, on ice,’ he muttered through gritted teeth as the woman took the cash from him with a questioning look. He had not focused on her face, unable to do so without feeling like he needed to vomit. Instead he took a moment to try and  breathe slowly, drawing air into his lungs slowly as his side burned with pain. His attention had drawn onto himself until the server returned, making the mistake of placing her hand on his as she gently pushed an icepack and the glass of bourbon towards him. Wild eyes flickered up as he wrenched his arm back, almost snarling at the woman as she recoiled away from him.
“Back off, all i asked for was the drink!” he snapped as she frowned, moving well away from him. He didn’t ignore the fact of the iceblock being there however and soon enough took it into his hand, lowering it to his ribs and wincing with a hiss from behind his teeth as the cold infiltrated his skin. Using his free hand, Tate took the glass of bourbon, swigging the shot worth of liquor as he sniffed briefly and laid the glass down again before wiping his eyes.