Chapter 10:

Brian:

Something is not right. I said to myself inwardly as Clyde and I entered the garage. Darkness engulfed the garage in pitch black. The echo of our footsteps and the sound of our breath shattered the silence.

Jay’s instructions were clear, he had instructed us a few hours ago to meet him at the garage, for he has a task assigned for us. However, the garage seemed empty with no sign of Jay or any of our gang members.

“Boss isn’t here yet.” Clyde stated flatly, “Are you sure we’re supposed to meet him here?”

“Well, well. What do we have here?” A gruff voice said, “Two puny puns.” He added swiftly.

“Who’s there?” I growled, as I dug into my pocket for my knife. A tinge of fear pricked me as I realized that my pockets were empty.

Suddenly, a solitary finger of light fell upon a lone figure – A muscular man, almost twice my size. Fearsome ink black tattoos covered his arms and legs. His cold, unfeeling icy blue eyes gave us a hard stare as he cracked his knuckles. “You have two choices. Run like a coward or fight me like a man.” He clenched his fist tightly, “So what’s your answer?”

Without hesitation I burst forward, lunging at him. The unknown man tried to slip to one side to dodge me but he wasn’t quick enough. Both of us fell to the ground with a loud thud. He retaliated, giving me a strong blow to my jaw before tossing me aside.

Clyde tried to pin him back to the ground, but he was too damn strong. He knocked Clyde aside and began to throw punches at him. “Get off!” I yelled as I yanked his hair back. The unknown man groaned in pain as I pulled him off Clyde.

Clyde stood up, blood dripped from his nose. Sweat trickled down our foreheads and the atmosphere was tensed. Clyde and I exchanged glances, we both knew that our opponent was strong, perhaps even too strong for us to handle.

Within a heartbeat, the unknown man was back up on his feet, he clenched his jaw and his fist. “Let the real fun begin.”

This time, he made the first move, aiming a blow at my stomach which I barely managed to avoid. Clyde tried to kick him, but he nimbly avoided the blow, in return he thrust his leg towards Clyde’s stomach. However, Clyde managed to dodge the blow by blocking the kick with his arm and returning a kick towards the unknown’s stomach.

“Argh.” He groaned in pain as he knelt down and clutched his stomach.

This is our chance to knock him out. Seizing the opportunity, I recklessly charged towards him, pushing him off balance and onto the hard, cold floor. I pulled his shirt roughly and lifted my fist, ready to punch him when the lights went on.

“Well done. I’m impressed.” A tall, lean man approached us. His dark eyes, menacing eyes glinted with approval as he clapped his hands. “It seems that you’ve passed the mini test that I’ve prepared for you. Now, you can let go of Tony.” He gestured towards the unknown man.

“Jay.” I acknowledged him with a nod, before letting go of the man named Tony.

Jay is the leader of our gang. We follow orders from him and only him alone. Others who don’t know Jay personally, think that he is a ruthless man, but they are wrong. He isn’t. Jay took Clyde and I into the gang a few years ago when we were weak and defenseless.

We were often bullied by the seniors. Jay took pity on us and took us in. From that moment onwards, we learnt how to defend ourselves and fight others weaker than us. We had our revenge, our sweet revenge. We became stronger, quicker and most importantly, we’re feared.

“What’s with this sudden test?” Clyde asked with a hint of displeasure in his voice, disrupting my thoughts.

Jay curled his lips, a little unhappy about being questioned. “To make sure that you guys are fit, of course.”  Jay replied quickly, “I have a task for both of you.” He continued, putting his hands into his pocket as he advanced towards us.

“Now, there are rumors going about that a fighter, known commonly as Demon, from the city has come here. I hear he is a pretty good fighter, so I did some background checking,” Jay paused for a moment before continuing, “I found out that he is currently studying in Valley High and he is not part of any gang yet.”

Clyde and I listened attentively. I frowned, a good fighter in our school? No one in our school seems like a good fighter…except…

“After some more background checking, I managed to find out his name. His real name is Damien Morrison.” Jay said, as he pulled out a picture of Damien and handed it to us.

Damien Morrison. That bastard. His name rang in my ear and I felt fury and annoyance course through me. A good fighter, yeah? We’ll see about that.

“I want both of you to get him to join our gang.” Jay ordered, “Failure is not an option.”

                                                        ~.~.~.~.~

The moon shredded it’s light across the streets, casting long shadows across the hard concrete pavement.

“How are we going to get him to join?” Clyde sighed worriedly.

I crushed the empty can of beer that I was holding, “Do you even want him to join?” I asked bitterly.

The thought of Damien Morrison joining annoyed me like a fly buzzing around my ear. Fortunately, I doubt the great ‘o’ demon wouldn’t have any interest joining us. “Anyway, he wouldn’t want to join.” I added on.

“But boss wants him to join.” Clyde reminded, “You know what will happen if we fail to carry out his orders.”

I groaned as I threw the empty can of beer onto the floor and kicked it away. “We can’t force him to join. You and I both know that he is a better fighter than the both of us.”

As much as I hate to admit it, it is true. Damien Morrison is a better fighter than both of us and I resent being second to him. It’s going to be difficult trying to get him to join our gang.

“There’s no way we can – “ I stopped abruptly and held out my hand. I squinted my eyes and was able to make out two figures up ahead near an apartment. Those two figures seemed familiar.

I approached them till I could clearly make out who they were – Miss Paige and Damien Morrison. Quickly, I hid behind one of the trees and beckoned Clyde to follow. I lifted an eyebrow, those two seem suspicious.

“Won’t we get in trouble if anyone finds out?” Damien asked Miss Paige.

“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.” Miss Paige assured.

Both of them walked into the lift of the apartment. Slowly, my lips curled into a sinister smile as I took out my phone and quickly snapped a picture of them entering the same lift together. A sneaky teacher-student relationship, eh? I wonder what would dear Mr Parkson say about this.

“Did you see that?” I nudged Clyde, “Clearly there’s something going on between them.”

“They’re going to spend the night together. How romantic.” Clyde snickered as he made a sickening kissing action.

“It looks like we do have a way to convince Damien to join us,” I said in a sinister voice, “We blackmail him.”