My Turf

I ran as hard as I could. Each step I took, I could feel my feet bring up sand, leaving a trail of small clouds behind me. I saw someone from behind me catching up to my pace. I instantly tried to speed up but I felt a foot block my foot from hitting the ground. I tripped but was able to regain my balance before falling. I continued running through the street. I took a left between houses which were made so closely that only one body was able to fit.
I noticed a car blocking my way. The car was black, probably a Honda, but I could not tell from the speed I was running in. There was no way to go around because there were people walking from both sides. I looked back to see a large group of people running in my direction with swords and other weapons in their hands. They were large people and looked enraged. I felt some air escape from mouth before I continued to run. I opened the car door, shuffled to the other side and ran out the other way as fast as I could. I continued to run. I saw the garage come into view. I ran into the garage and hid near the opening. Many people from the group ran by me and into the garage. They were of many sizes. They had long hair and a lot of facial hair. They all had dark skin which was not exposed much because of their skin.
They all looked around in the garage but it was too dark. I had the string to on the light beside me so I pulled it. It was not a very bright light but it was enough to see in the garage. The garage was very dusty and had not been cleaned in a while. It had old cars that needed to be fixed along the sides. The light only illuminated the center of the garage and not the walls.
I walked slowly up to the opening of the garage and pulled down the garage door. I bolted the door shut with a large lock. I turned around to see the group staring at me with confused expressions across my face. As I walked to through the group to the other side, I lit a cigar and puffed a bit of smoke into one of their faces. I could tell they were annoyed. There was a car on the other side and I jumped on top of the car to sit on it facing the huge group of people. Dust rose from the car as I landed on the front of the car. The car rocked from side to side slowly from the impact of my jump.
“Who is the person in charge?” I asked. I could see the confusion in their eyes. They were probably not used to someone confronting them so bravely.
A large skinny guy walked up to me and said “You’re stupid for sitting there like an idiot when you’re going to be pummelled.” A smirk crawled along my lips. I threw the key for the lock on the ground in front of the skinny leader. “If you want to live, take the key and run for your life. If you don’t do it within the next ten seconds then you’ll never leave this garage.”
The whole group started laughing their heads off. “We will see who’ll be the one to leave this place breathing.” said the skinny leader. The leader picked up the key and threw it across the room. It got lost in the darkness. “Times up” I said aloud. I flicked my cigar to the side.
There was not a second to loose. I jumped straight towards one guy near me and punched him in the head. My hand went through his head and I could feel his skull crumbling to pieces as my hand went through it. Blood splattered everywhere. I stood there with my head down and my hand still clenched up as the body fell to the ground. Blood dripped from my clenched hand. The whole group stood there wide eyed. A second passed before they regained from their shock.
“G, G, Go get him!” the skinny leader stuttered. They all charged at me at the same time. When they were in arms reach of me, I quickly went down on my knee and punched on guy on his leg which made the guy flip and land on the ground on his back. I could feel part of his bones crack from the punch. I grabbed his other leg and swung him around to hit all of his other friends. I threw the guy I was holding on to a pole. Most of the guys got hit except one who continued running and had his arm in a position to punch me. I quickly grabbed his head and squeezed as hard as I could. His head splattered into a million pieces. His body also fell onto the ground. The people who got hit with the body were starting to get up. I kicked one of them who were getting up. His body flew through the front window of one of the cars. The glass shattered as he went through it.
Behind me a guy held a sledgehammer over his head and running closer towards me. As he brought the sledgehammer down, I grabbed the stick area with my left hand, while spinning left and punching the guy in the head with my right hand. I continued to spin and slammed the sledgehammer into his face. The man flew backwards and landed on the ground. His face was smashed inwards and did not look like it could be healed. I threw the sledgehammer at one of the men who were running towards me. It hit his stomach and blood came spewing out of his mouth as he landed on the ground.
I looked around to see everyone from the group lying on the floor, either dead or rolling on the floor in pain. I was satisfied. I noticed the leader of the group hitting the large lock with a large metal bar in his hand to break it. It put a smile on my face. “That is not how you break a lock.” I said to him. Before he could turn around, I grabbed his head from the back and quickly brought his head forward and hit the lock with it. The lock broke and the leader grabbed his head and rolled on the floor. There was blood gushing out of a part of his forehead. “That’s how you do it.”
I got my phone and called the boss. “Clean it up.” I said and cut the phone before he say do anything. I took out the sim card and put it in my pocket. I lit another cigarette and walked out of the garage.

First Day

Today was the first day of college. It was a cloudy day. I walked through gates which were very large and black. There was an arch with a board that read Vedhant High School.
At the entrance there was a huge commotion. I walked up to the surrounding crowd to see what was going on. There were quite a few people in the crowd. I had to shove people out of the way until I reached the centre of the crowd. In the centre were four people. One was crying, pleading and begging for the pain to stop. The other three were people holding long wooden sticks hitting the first person. There were a lot of bloody patches on the first boy’s face. Part of his lip was swollen. “Please sir.” The boys cried. “I won’t do it again. I did not know that she was yours.”
The three people who were hitting him, stopped. The middle and skinnier one said “This is what happens when you mess with me, Aeron.” There was a gauze roll on his head covering his forehead and continuing around his head. The other two did not speak a word. The three of them looked similar but I could not figure out how I knew them. There was a funny looking guy beside me. He had light skin in comparison to me and was wearing faded jeans. He had a beer belly. There was something weird about the guy. When you look at him, the first word that pops in your mind is tool. I whispered in his ear “What is going on?”
I turned his head and looked at me. Then I realized what was weird about him. He looked like he was at least ten years too old to be in high school. “There is a fight. Open your eyes.” He replied. He was acting smart. I smacked his head and he looked at me with annoyance in his eyes. Before he could say anything, I crossed my arms and I flexed my arms so that he could see a nice bulging bicep. I could see that he was staring at the bicep.
He turned around to the crowd and slapped another guy in the crowd. “Why would you hit my head? Just talk to me if you want to know something.” He screamed at the guy he slapped. After he turned around again, I slapped his head once more.
He looks at me and called me closer to talk. I leaned in towards him. “Please. I cannot stand this. I have a prestige that I have to keep up in this school. Do not destroy that. What do you want?” he said.
I replied “You have a prestige to keep in this school? You look old enough to keep watch at this school. Don’t hype up and tell me what the fight it about.”
“The one that is being beaten up hooked up with the middle guy’s girlfriend. Happy.” The man replied.
“Thank you.” I said.
I walked out of the crowd and to the boy sprawled up on the ground. He was bleeding a lot from his face. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, including the three boys. “Why are you lying on the floor? You look pathetic. Get yourself together and go hit him.” It was the least I could say to this guy. He was being beaten to a pulp.
“How could I? There are three of them and one of me.” said the boy terrified.
“Y, y, you.” said the man with the bandage on his head. “You’re back.”
“Do I know you?” I asked him. Obviously he knew me. Maybe he could remind me.
“What do you mean? You’re the one who gave me this bandage. How could you forget me? Look at me.” He said stuttering on quite a few words.
“No I have no idea who you are. Do you know how many people I have beaten in my life?” I really did not remember him. I know I have seen him somewhere but I could not remember.
“The garage. The lock. Do you have amnesia or something?” he replied.
I did remember him. He was the leader of the pathetic group I had beaten in the garage. Does not matter there was a different situation right now that I had to deal with.
I looked back at the injured boy behind me. “Just think of what he did. Numbers do not matter as long as you have the heart of a lion. You should never judge yourself lower than others.” That was probably the best piece of advice I could give to someone.
“Look at them. There are three of them. It is impossible.” He replied.
That was it. I looked at one of the two men standing in the background. I called him over with my hand. I could tell that he remembered me to because I could see fear in his eyes. Nonetheless, he still jogged towards me. As he came within arms reach, I lifted my hand and slammed my fist into his face. He fell down and was unconscious. I looked back at the boy and said “Is two possible?”
I think that was enough to get the boy going. With that he got up and started fighting the other two. I left the scene and walked into the building.

First Impressions

The inside of the building was beautiful. There was an office area near the lobby. I walked in to see a lady sitting and tapping away at the computer. I walked up to her and said “I am the new student.”
She looked at me and said “Okay please go to the office to talk to the principal.”
I did as she said. Inside the office was the principal. I greeted myself and he gave me a tour of the school. The school was the shape of a rectangle without one side. The middle was used as a playground and had no roof over it. There was only a roof along the edges of the school where the classes were. He gave me my timetable and sent me off. I walked through the school. My first class was Fitness Education. I walked into class to see many people from outside sitting in class. I sat down near my friend from outside. As soon as I sat down he looked a bit tensed but settled down after a bit.
“Don’t sit beside me. I have a prestige to keep up. I already know what you are going to say. Don’t.” he said. I heard a continuous hitting sound coming from the walls.
“Shut up.” I said “Is that rain?” I asked him.
“Are you even listening to me? I dunno. I probably is but…” I didn’t hear the rest of his sentence as I ran out of class. I ran through the halls and out the doors. It was definitely raining. Each drop of rain hit a solid object and shattered to hundreds of water droplets before disappearing. Thousands of rain drops showered from the sky. I took a step outside with my arms outstretched, head facing up. I close my eyes and felt the droplets gently kiss me one by one. It was a beautiful feeling. I loved the rain. I spun around and enjoyed the thousands of kisses nature was giving me. My clothes and hair were soaking with water. I wiped my face with my hands and opened my eyes.
What I saw surprised me. A couple of metres ahead of me was a girl dancing in the rain. She kicked the puddles sending water everywhere. She was wearing a blue dress which was also drenched from the rain. She was looking up at the rain with her eyes closed and her hands close to her dress. She was starting to get cold. She had fair skin, beautiful rosy lips. Her body was fit and slim. She was a little taller than the average girl. I smiled. I was not the only person who loved the rain this much. With that I walked back inside to class.
I sat beside the old person again. He has a surprised expression on his face. “You were just dry a second ago. When you take a bath you have to take your clothes off first. Didn’t your mom ever teach you that?” He was trying to make a smart remark. I was not just going to let him say anything to make me look stupid and walk away.
I looked around me and saw a mug of coffee. I picked up the mug and tipped the coffee over the boy’s clothes. He stood there with coffee all over his clothes. “Didn’t your parents ever tell you not to play with your food?”
The rest of the class we listened to the teacher give his lesson.

Confrontation

The next day I went back to class. I had a normal conversation with the older student. The boy who was sitting beside me failed school 12 times. His name was Ronald Tang Venkatesan. His parents wanted him to embrace multiculturalism which is the reason for his name. They call him Rocky around the school. In my eyes, he appeared to be a complete joker.
In the middle of class a large chunky man came in with man large chunky men. Behind him was leader of the first group of people I had hit. He still had a bandage around his head, along with a black eye. “Who do you think you are?” the leader of the chunky group said pointing at me. “Me? Why do you care?” I said getting up and standing in his face.
“Do you think you could hit my sir’s younger brother and just get away with it? You are a little kid. Just come to school, study and go home. Don’t get involved with big kid stuff okay.” At the end he gave a slap at my face just to annoy me. It was not a slap, more of a tap. That was it. My patience snapped.
“Ehhhh!” I yelled. I could feel the yell bouncing from the walls.
In a reaction the chunky leader lifted hit arm high in a punch position. I punched that hand with my left hand. While bringing my arm back, I elbowed the back of the chunky leader’s head. The leader bent over from the impact. I kneed him in the gut with my left knee. Before allowing my leg to hit the ground, I put it behind me and shuffled backward. It brought my open hand to the chunky leader’s head which went to straight into the ground.

WORD COUNT OF 2958.

Set-Up

Rocky and I decided to hang out by the centre of the building where the playground was. There were many people playing soccer in the field. Our school was very good at it and was one of the top teams in the region. I think that with a better coach that they could improve more, but I did not want to tell them that and fire the coach.

While I was looking at the soccer game from the side, something caught my eye. A couple metres beside me was the girl from the other day. She was talking to one of her friends about the soccer game too. She was eating a small bag of potato chips and sharing them with her friends.

I looked at her, put my hands over my hands while keeping them in a praying position and said “Oh my god. It’s. Angelina Antoinette Lacombe.” Everyone in the playground stopped what they were doing and stared at me. I looked like the biggest idiot but that was alright. I walked up to her and asked “You’re the girl who goes to the church everyday while still studying over night and getting top marks in the school. Am I right?”

She smiled and said “No, no, no, no. I am Trisha Saran. I am Hindu so you will not see me in a church. I think you’ve got the wrong person.” “Oh” I replied trying to sound as stupid as I could. “But you come everyday taking two trains and a bus because you are working that hard to receive an education. Am I right?”

“No, no, no, no. I live on the road beside in a small house. This is the closest school and it takes less than a minute to come to school.”
I looked at her and said thanks and started walking away. “Wait. Why are you saying thanks?” she said stopping me. “Well. If I just came to you and asked for your name and address, you would not have answered which is why I did this whole set-up. It is just that I saw you a couple of days ago dancing and singing in the rain. Many of my friends think I am an idiot for doing that. Since it was the first time I saw someone with the same interests, I just wanted to talk to you. Don’t take it to heart. Forget that I did any of that.” With my long speech Rocky and I started walking away. I could hear her give a little giggle which made me relax a bit. It meant she was not mad at me for the whole situation.

As I was walking I heard a loud booming sound from above. I looked upwards and felt a raindrop land on my nose. Then several more followed after it and splashed me. All the other students ran inside hiding for cover. I did not even notice everyone leave. My hair absorbed all of the water and I loved it. The rain washed away my emotions. I know I was not making the right decisions in life but every time it rained I felt like the slate was wiped clean and I was just as normal as everyone else. I heard a voice interrupt my thoughts.
I opened my eyes and looked around to see whose voice it was. It was a person dancing and singing in the rain. Before my eyes focused on whom it was, my mind had already figured out who it was. It was Trisha dancing and singing in the rain. Seeing this sight put a smile on my face. I felt warm inside. When I talked to her, I had the same feeling as if dancing in the rain. It was like a warm virus spreading in my heart. She was changing me and I knew it. I could not let my emotions get the best of me. I turned around and left the school property.

Gang War

There was a meeting that he wanted me to attend with him. It was to settle a dispute with another gang. I walked in with Hakesh behind me. The other gang was already there. There were only two chairs in the room. There was already a man sitting in one of the chairs. There were some men standing up with their arms crossed. They were not showing any expression on their faces. I sat down in the other chair. Hakesh had a surprised expression on his face. He leaned in towards my ear and said “That’s my chair. You are supposed to be standing up like the other henchmen.”
I turned my head and looked at him and whispered. “You’re talking too much these days. I think you forgot how badly I can injure you.” With that he stood up straight. They continued their conversation. There was a lot of talking about which territories who owned. Somehow the conversation shifted and started talking about henchmen.
“I want him.” said the other gang leader pointing at me. “We have a few scores to settle.” Hakesh looked at me confused. I knew exactly what he was talking about. “That’s cute. You think he is in charge me. We’ve had this discussion before. No one is in charge of me.” I told the other gangster. I gave a little stress on the last sentence to make my point clear.
“Hakesh, did you know he used to work for me? That’s why he beat you at the garage.” said the other gangster. What he said was true and I was not going to deny it. “Of course I did. And if you give me money, I will do it again. I will do the same for you if Hakesh pays me.” I replied sounding over confident. In a split second I took out gun and pointed it at the other gang leader. “How much would you give me?” I said grinning. I looked over at Hakesh and his eyes were wide open.
“You think you could threaten my leader and get away with it?” said one of the henchmen while coming to attack me. I turned the gun sideways and shot him. I saw the blood squirting out of the place I had hit him. With that everyone from the other team got up to hit me.
I saw a punch coming towards me so I move slightly back to dodge the hit and the person fell on the chair. I kicked the next guy who was running at me and he caused the other henchmen behind him to fall down. I went back to the guy who fell on the chair. I grabbed the end of his arm, put my knee on his elbow and pulled upwards. I felt his elbow break from the pressure and the guy started screaming in agony. The leader of the gang fled before he was caught up in it. I would have to deal with him later.
Hakesh went behind a table and shot a couple of the henchmen. I took out my gun and shot a couple of people and stood behind a wall. There were only three people left and my gun had run out of bullets. I had another gun with a bullet in my left pocket but I needed to save that for later. There was only one thing to do. I grabbed my gun and threw it at one of the henchman. The bottom of the gun got stuck in the henchman’s forehead. Two left and what to do. I did not know if they still had bullets. I had to take a chance. I jumped out, grabbed both of their heads and squeezed. Their heads popped like fireworks in July. Blood flew everywhere. It was quite beautiful sight. The walls were splattered with blood and looked like the abstract art I made in kindergarten.
I saw Hakesh come out from behind the table. “A, a, are they all dead?”
“Of course.” I replied will dialling a number on my cell phone. I called one of the other rowdies in the gang. “Hello.” I heard him say from the other side.
“Yes. It’s me. Everything is finished here but there is a problem. “In the collision Hakesh died.” Then I cut the phone and slid it in my pocket. I heard Hakesh stutter something. I lifted my gun and shot at his head. The last bit of emotion I saw in his eyes disappeared as his body landed on the floor with a thump.
I walked out of the building while smoking another cigar.

Love Lives On

Classes were going on but I could not stay in them. I could handle a ton of big guys wanting to fight but I could not handle thick textbooks making me study. I saw Trisha going to class. I decided to go talk to her.
I walked up to her and gave a little wave. She took a few steps closer to me a stopped. “Sorry do I know you?” She said.
“How could you forget me? Remember the name. Or the rain.” I replied trying to remind her of who I was. “Of course I remember you. You told me to forget everything so…” She started. “Oh. I get it. I was just saying it so you did not get mad at me.” I replied happily.
“Wanna walk with me? I’m going to the principal’s office to see my uncle.” She asked. “Ye. I’ll walk with you. So, why is your uncle here?” I asked trying to get a conversation going.
“He is just here to bring me lunch.” she replied.
“You’re that close to your uncle? What about your parents?” I asked.
They died many years ago in an accident. I saw tears running down her face. What had I done? How could I remind her of this? Out of all the possible conversations to have I choose this one. “Trisha, I am sorry I did not mean to remind you of them.” I said trying to console her. She replied “You can only remind when you have forgotten. I am always thinking about them.” She sounded so depressed at this point.
“Stop.” I said grabbing both her shoulders and turning towards me. “Close your eyes.” I said. “No. It’s…” She started but I interrupted her saying “No listen to me. Close your eyes.” This time she did as she was told. Picture your father in your mind. Would he be happy if you feel sad?” I asked. She shook her head. “Now picture your mother. Would she feel happy if you were sad?” She shook her head again.
She opened her eyes slowly. “Your parents will not be happy if you are sad. So why are you sad? When they pass away, only there body disappears. Their soul and love live on in here.” I said and pointed my finger at her heart. Then we continued walking. “My parents are also up there. I know they are watching over me too.” Then we got to the office. “Talk to you later.” I said happily. “No, come and meet my uncle. He would be glad to meet you.” she requested.
My phone started ringing. “Maybe another time. This might be important.” I smiled and started walking away. I answered my phone and put it near my ear. “What’s up?”
“Bro, Hakesh’s brothers are coming to the airport. Both of them are here to get Vardhan (the other gang leader) for killing Hakesh. We have a meeting in the afternoon so come by.” said my friend from the gang.
“Okay, see you then.” I replied and hung up the phone. They were finally coming. I could finally meet the great founders of the biggest gangs in the world.

Imprint

Publication Date: 05-30-2012

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
I dedicate this book to all my friends from Coppard Glen.