CHAPTER 4 - SECURITY FEES

Two months ago…

A young boy was walking through the busy streets of the city, just one look and you'll pity him, he was so slim his bones were showing throughout his body, it felt like a simple breeze could fly him away.

This young boy was Daniel, he was on his way to collect food, he was one of the people given free food to eat without working due to his condition.

As he walked through the streets he started thinking, "I haven't eaten for a while now my stomach is totally empty, I hope there's still food remaining if I get there"

Slowly but steadily he got to the tent where the food was being shared, there was a crowd of people standing there, they were either disabled or sick like him.

He squeezed his way into the tent only to have his hope dashed as there wasn't even a grain of rice remaining, as he was turning about to leave he heard someone call his name.

"Hey Daniel," a lady behind the counter called out to him, "what happened I haven't seen you for day now?" she asked.

"I have been feeling very weak lately and I just struggled to get up to come and eat because I was feeling very hungry, but now the food is already finished" he replied in a dejected tone.

"Well no worries, I specially served a portion out for you since I haven't been seeing you, if you didn't come I would have gone to look for you when I closed," she said as she let out a light smile.

She brought the food out and handed it to him, Daniel staring at the food was happy, he thought he'd have to spend another day hungry.

"Thank you," he said with a smile his face.

As Daniel returned with his food which was covered by a leaf basket several eyes secretly fell upon him, he didn't notice and just continued walking home.

He eventually walked into a lonely street and the pairs of eyes following him caught up and surrounded him, there were three boys and a girl surrounding him.

"Hey Daniel, I hope you haven't forgotten us" one of the boys mischievously said.

As Daniel looked around he knew he had messed up, he had forgotten about this group of people who usually bullied him for his food, he thought about nothing else aside from his hunger so it left his mind.

"Aren't you going to pay your security fee now that you've seen us?" the girls said chiding him.

Daniel knew he couldn't give them the food because they would still beat him up, he hadn't left the place he had been staying for days, missing their security fees.

If he got beaten up with how weak he had been feeling recently, he might die.

First of all, he hasn't eaten for days and if he misses today's food and gets beaten up on top he won't be able to go out for tomorrow's food, and the nice lady wouldn't be able to bring it to him, making him starve to death.

He made up his mind to fight for the food since he was going to die anyway.

"Can I skip the fees for today I'm really hungry, I promise I'll give you all my food tomorrow" Daniel said trying to avoid the fight but it didn't work anyway.

"Skip what? You haven't brought us food for how many days and now that we finally see you you tell us to skip it, what if we don't see you for another week down you want us to die of hunger" one of the buff boys spoke.

Daniel knew the conflict couldn't be avoided again after his words unless he quietly surrendered his food.

He held the basket and slowly walked to the girl, she was the leader of the group of bullies, he got to her and pretended as if he was about to give her the basket, and when she stretched her hands to receive the basket he quickly sent a punch to her face which she easily dodged.

She responded to his punch with a kick to the gut and Daniel got sent flying like a free kite in the wind.

"Beat him up! How dare this little insect try to hit me" she shouted at her goons to beat him.

As Daniel saw the boys coming at him he knew his fate was sealed, he was going to die soon, but he wouldn't die without seriously damaging one of them.

He stood up holding his guts and coughing loudly, that simple kick did heavy damage to his body but he wasn't going to go down that easily.

As the three boys surrounded him, he threw a quick punch at one in the chest but the boy just smiled at him and said is that all you got.

Very quickly punches rained on him, every part of his body was being hit, and he was being beaten black and blue by this group of boys.

The girl saw this and laughed, "Now you know why you have to pay your security fees right" she said and continued laughing.

"Stop beating him before he dies" the girl quickly told the boys.

He can die but I don't want him to die in our hands, or else we'll be in real trouble.

The boys stopped beating him up, right now his face was swollen some parts of his hands were broken and blood filled his face and chest.

As they were walking back, Daniel slowly stood up coughing out blood as one of the boys saw this he smiled and walked back to Daniel.

"He's standing back up, it seems he doesn't want to go down with just a simple beating," the boy told the girl.

Well let me have my revenge, he threw a punch at me when I didn't even touch him so this could be called self-defense.

As he neared Daniel he clenched his fists and waited for him to fully get up, as soon as he was up he immediately threw a punch landing squarely in his chest.

Something broke, the pendant in Daniel's necklace broke, and it was given to him by his parents.

Daniel was sent crashing at the wall behind them, in his pendant there was a blue ball that also cracked, it mixed with his blood and mysteriously entered his chest.

"Let's leave here quickly! You made too much noise, didn't I tell you to leave him before, now people will get attracted to the noise and come here," the girl quickly scolded him.

As they turned their backs to leave they all felt a cold breeze blow them, they shivered and turned back.

Daniel was standing looking at them but something seemed off, his eyes were different, his sclera had turned totally black from white and his pupils had turned white.

As she looked at him shivers ran down her spine.

She blinked and he was no longer there, turning to the side she saw one of her goons bleeding as he laid breathless on the floor