Prologue

"Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise." - Victor Hugo

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Blood spurted out his nose as the gang member's straight jab swiftly, but cruelly, lands on his face. A dreading sound, generated from the impact, reverberated across the whole warehouse. The gang member raised his fist, ready for another strike, but I couldn't handle it anymore.

As adrenaline rushed through my whole body, I opened my mouth, ready to scream, regardless of the terrible ache I was feeling in my jaw after getting repeatedly pummeled right on my face, the same way Mateo was currently being bashed.

"HEY, YOU SICK FUCK!" I screamed, hoping that the gang member would stop, as he was getting ready to hit Mateo.

Once again, I attracted attention to myself... I'm fucked. I'm absolutely fucked. We're seriously fucking doomed. How the hell did we go from having the time of our lives to being in a life-or-death situation? We were just walking, minding our business, laughing our asses off about the most idiotic things we could've thought of, then we suddenly get ambushed, hit at the back of our heads, and kidnapped, taken to this dilapidated, old warehouse.

"Look! We did not see any of you commit your crimes, alright? We were just minding our own business but you all just assumed we did see proof of all your atrocious doings and went ahead to just take us to this place where God-knows-where and go ahead and torture us?" I asked the gang member, as I was trying to stall for time and delay the torture, wishfully hoping that if luck's on our side, could tire them out until they lose their motivation to outright end us.

Another gang member pops into the conversation. "Get a load of this brat," he says as he picks up the metal crowbar gleaming on the blood-stained ground. "I want you to shut the fuck up and let us do our job, alright?" as he swings the crowbar in a diagonal direction towards my face.

The crowbar landed on my already smothered face, forcing me to deal with the excruciating pain I was feeling from the impact. I screamed from the agony, as I felt my entire face bruised up, bleeding more profusely. But I knew this was a goddamn mistake. I'm gonna get hit again just because I let out a natural reaction to extreme pain. As I miserably accepted what was gonna happen, the gang member who was torturing Mateo called out to me.

"Hey, shithead. Watch closely." He punched my friend in the face several more times as I watched in apparent anguish. "How do you like that?!" he says as he continues the ongoing brutality he was committing. "Your friend can't even speak now, can he? His mouth's already shattered enough and he's already slipping in and out of consciousness." he chuckled.

"You psycho... you deluded bastard... fuck you." I mumbled to myself.

The other gang member who was supposed to be torturing me caught a glimpse of my mumbling and inquired me in the most taunting manner I've ever experienced. "What were you saying? Hey, speak up, brat."

The gang member on the other end held his punches, leaving Mateo's face waiting once more for the assault that was to be done on it again. "He said anything, 'Javi'?" he called out to the gang member who noticed my mumbling.

"Yeah, I think he did. Say it again, fucker." Javi says as he delivers another blow with his crowbar on my chest. "Say." he deals another one. "It." I get hit once more, a hit more painful than the last. "Again." This time, he kicks me square on my stomach, hard. I gagged from the sharp pang dealt to my entire body, and I was trying to grasp for air as my own body failed to function and move, not even just a tiny bit.

"I said." I slightly raise my head at Javi with an expression filled with the most hatred I could muster up as I glared at him with contempt. "... Fuck you."

"Oh, don't curse me now, boy!" Javi laughs his fucking ass off as he readies his signature crowbar. "I ought to teach you some manners." With the crowbar, he shoves it in my mouth as I just slump over, unable to do anything as my hands are excessively tied.

Of course, I tried fighting back but it's all useless. What can I even gain from useless struggling when it just wastes the remaining energy left in me?

"How's this, fucker?" he proceeds to wriggle the crowbar in my mouth, breaking off some of my teeth in the most painful way imaginable. I felt like I was being choked and suffocated at the same time. Once he left the crowbar inside my mouth, he punched my right cheek. With the crowbar inside. Because of the sheer force inflicted on me, I could not help but lose consciousness from the impact...

I soon awoke, every bit of my body aching, screaming in pain. I wanted to just die, escape the pain. I was still terrified. Not just for my life, but for Mateo's too. I don't have the time to be worried for myself.

I noticed that the crowbar previously forced into my mouth was now gone. I looked to my left, and there it was. The crowbar, now being used viciously by Javi, on Mateo as he continues to bash his head. The other gang member was also joining in on the fun, stomping on Mateo's chest, stomach, and every single part of his upper body including his arms, hands, and fingers. 'Those sick fucks...' I thought to myself, 'If you don't leave Mateo alone, I'll strangle both of you when I get these fucking ropes incarcerating my hands off.' But that's just me and my hopeless delusions. I really can't do anything, I'm useless. I'm worthless. Hopeless. My friend's there being tortured and here I am just slumping over, watching. I really, really despise every fiber of my being.

Javi, although I thought was too preoccupied with beating the living hell out of Mateo, actually noticed that I had now woken up from my sweet, sweet slumber. He stopped what he was currently doing and set his sights on me.

"Look, he's awake, Tony!" he calls out to the other gang member, who also stopped the vigorous stomping. "Watch this brat. Watch as we end your friend's suffering in an instant."

With every bit of the remaining energy I had left, I shouted. "HEY! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! DON'T DO IT! KILL ME INSTEAD, NOT HIM! I DESERVE TO BE THE ONE TO DIE, NOT MATEO! IT'S MY FAULT, ALRIGHT? I'M THE ONE WHO PLANNED OUR MEETING TODAY. IF ONLY WE HAD NOT GONE OUT TODAY, WE COULD'VE BEEN SAFE. I'M SORRY! IT'S ALL MY FAULT. KILL ME ALREADY, JUST PLEASE NOT HIM!"

As both gang members were taken aback by the loud shouting, Tony was the first one to regain his composure. "HEY SHUT THE FUCK UP!" he bellowed as he suddenly shot my leg with a gun that he swiftly retrieved from his right pocket.

"ARGH!" I screamed when the bullet hit my left leg. It was so fucking painful, words can't even describe what I'm currently feeling.

"I SAID. SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP!" Tony this time shot my right leg.

I screamed once more. "ALRIGHT. FINE! Don't shut the fuck up then! Fucking crybaby, you just got fucking shot in both your legs, you're lucky I did not aim for any vital points."

As he said that, I was already losing my mind. I bawled hard from the pain, unable to suppress my emotions anymore.

"Look here, brat! Your annoying ass has been bugging me the fuck OFF ever since we kidnapped both of you. Because of that, you'd have to watch as I end your friend's life. Right here. Right now." Tony said with a smirk of complete satisfaction and annoyance at the same time.

I kept on breathing heavily. I was bleeding out, but that, at that moment, did not matter as much as my friend's life was hanging by a thread. "Look, please... please... don't kill him... please..."

Javi then butts in. "Hey man, shouldn't we just let them rot here? We don't have to murder that Mateo kid. It'd be a pain if the cops were to find out about this, with all the scattered evidence that can be seen right now."

With a look of disgust and obvious indignation, Tony delivers a heavy right hook on Javi's face. "Hey... who the fuck said you can decide? You're just a fucking newbie, aren't you? And I'm the squad leader. You listen to me, fucking dog. You understand?" he says as Javi struggles to get up from that one single blow, limping all over.

"Y-yes... sir..." Javi manages to say.

"Now-" Tony raises his gun and aims at Mateo's head. "I end his sweet little life." He now looks at me, chortling. "You! You have to live the rest of your life with the heavy burden and thought that it could've been you who's gonna die tonight. Not this bitch."

I was shaking so bad, I was so scared to even fight back but I just don't want it all to end like that. I looked at Mateo and there he was, looking back at me, his face completely unrecognizable compared to how it was hours ago. "M-Mateo... I-I-I'm so... sorry..."

Miraculously, Mateo manages to utter a few words to me. "I-It's fine, Migs... I'm sorry too..."

"Y-You don't have to apologize! I-I-I-" but I was cut off by the deafening sound of a gunshot. And there he was, Mateo, dead on the spot, his head brutally scattered into pieces.

I was shocked. Appalled. My body could not move a single inch. Tears started streaming down my face, as I lost the remaining strength left in me. I was also losing blood to a great extent, and my body's gradually shutting down. I cannot stomach what just happened any longer. I just cannot... I then looked at Tony, and there he was, standing beside Mateo's body, still aiming the gun at where Mateo's head was supposed to be... and that was the last thing I saw before I, once again, lost consciousness.