11 Chapter 10: Bad News (Joseph's POV)

He swung right at me, I should have been expecting it, he had hit me already why would he not do it again? I didn't think about it, but it was almost like a 6th sense overcame me. I dodged it to the left and he stumbled a little bit.

My uncle had told me a little bit about fighting, the person that started it usually wanted to end it as fast as possible. If I could just dodge and weave the punches then it would wear him out very fast. I made a mental note to myself that it was the best option.

The guy obviously was not that fast, but at the same time, he was big and strong, I was strong as well but not nearly as big as this guy. It was like yesterday with Padre, except this guy didn't have a knife, and I didn't have Pop's with me.

If anything this guy should be easier than Padre. But that was not what was on my mind. I could see how the guy was upset but he did not want to reason it out with me, and maybe that is why Julia didn't tell me about him, he had told me he was going to beat her.

I hated guys like that, but all I could think about mainly was how Julia had lied to me. She could have at least told me she was with a guy and he beat her. But instead she decided to play with both of our heads. Now we were in a fight because of her.

He swung at me once again, it was the exact same punch. Clearly this guy was not a smart fighter. I had not been in a fight before but I did know a few little things the help me. I could tell this guy had been in a fair share of fights and he had lost a fair share.

At the same time though, he was so big and strong, and if I guy did not know how to dodge and weave like I did then he would get knocked out pretty fast. They guy yelled at me and then pointed at himself as if he was asking me to come and punch him.

Some of the guys in the bar were getting kind of bored and looking away, no one had hit a single punch yet, how could I blame them, they just wanted to see some action.

I wasn't going to play this guys game, I could tell the guy was worn out already, his head had a little bit of sweat on him and his skin was a bit red. I shook my head, he looked even more mad, I wanted the fight to come to me.

I would wear him out and that's when I would hit my sucker punches. He was already so exhausted but he ran at me again this time I dodged it and then popped him right in his nose. The bar starting cheering and everyone was throwing bets at each other.

They loved this sort of stuff and honestly I did as well, I just didn't like being the guy on the other end. The guy yelled at me, Jim was smiling at me and he put a thumbs up at me, I turned a bit and could see Tom smiling as well.

That was my downfall though, when I looked at Tom, the guy was not dumb by any means. He could see I had my eyes turned and he ran at me. He tackled me right to the ground, and everyone in the bar started cheering loudly.

I got up before he did thankfully but it did have the world around me spinning in so many different directions, I could not tell what was real or fake for a few seconds. The guy could see that I was dizzy, my eyes were wobbling and he threw a punch at me that hit me in my jaw again.

This time something cracked and I was pretty sure that the guy had broken my jaw. But this time I was even more mad than before. This time, all of the sudden my 6th sense came into me, I could not hear the crowd cheering anymore, everything all of the sudden just went silent.

Everything seemed to slow down for me, I looked around, very slowly, it seemed like... Everything actually had slowed down, but at the same time, so was my body. But my mind was still going in full speed.

I looked at the guy, he was laughing I could tell but very slowly, he was pointing at my jaw. I looked down at it, it was broken and it had been turned slightly down and too the right. It made me even more mad, I didn't know what was going on, but I took advantage of it.

I swung at the guy, he wasn't paying attention he was too busy laughing his ass off. It almost felt like my swing was 100x stronger. When I hit the guy it might have actually been. The guys Jaw got hit even worse than mine, and I could slowly see spit fall off of it.

The guy fell to the floor, and I slowly ran on top of him. He had no idea what was going on, and just like I was a few seconds ago, he was looking very dizzy and confused as too what had just happened to him. He didn't think I could fight like that.

I wondered how many fights this guy had been in. And how many little guys he had beat the hell out of to make himself feel special. But I began punching, very slowly but with all of my strength and power.

All I could think about was Julia, this was probably exactly what she had wanted, for us to fight so she could go after the winner. But I would not play her games, I wasn't going to let her into my place. After she saw her husband come home looking like shit she would know.

Someone pulled me back, maybe it was one of his friends I turned around and was about to swing at the guy but I noticed last second that it was Jim and I lowered arm. All of the sudden everything went back to the present.

A lot of the guys in the bar were cheering and slapping their drinks together but I could see that some of them looked a little scared. I wondered what it was like in real time for them, how fast and how strong had I really been going?

"Kid... It's over alright, damn don't kill the guy... You did a damn good job though son. I'm proud." He said to me. I nodded and we leaned in for a quick little hug, the bar began so shout and sing to each other. Everyone here knew who Jim was a respected him.

I looked at the guy on the ground. I could tell he was unconscious. I felt a bit bad for him but at the same time he had brought it on himself. He had undervalued how strong I actually was and I was a bit confused.

Did that happen for everyone else in fights? I had fought back against my dad a long time ago and the same thing had happened. I shook my head, I was probably over thinking it. Tom was smiling at me and I nodded to him.

I could tell that everyone in the bar was happy for me, they all knew me, I wasn't out much but they all had seen me and knew who I was. I nodded to the ones that were looking and they began cheering even louder.

"Thanks Jim, I don't know what got into me. It's almost like someone else was controlling me." I said to him. He smiled at me and then he just shook his head at me. I was a bit confused but he just took me to the back of the store and we went in his room.

"I think, you have some special thing that your uncle had..." Jim began to tell me. It all was beginning to come together, that was why everything had slowed down for me. I stopped Jim from talking and then nodded to him.

"Thing's slow down for me? Is that what you were going to tell me?" I said to him. He looked at me right in my eyes for a few seconds and then he slowly began to nod at me. It was all beginning to make since. It was almost like I had been given a gift from god.

"Yes... That's why he never lost a fight and that's how he got a big rank in the army. He had only ever told me... He said to was normally past on through generations but he never had a kid so I thought that it was over when he died." Jim said to me. It made sense, it was a gift from god, I was beginning to think of so many different realities.

"I thought something seemed off, a long time ago I got in a fight with my father. It happened that time as well. It makes sense now." I said to him. Jim nodded to me and then he just smiled at me but he looked a bit sad. I didn't understand why, did he not want me to have this ability?

"You could go be a fighter, or hell maybe even join the army like your uncle, you will make good money." He said to me. I thought about it for a few seconds but then I just shook my head at him. He nodded as if he understood what I was thinking. Almost like he had a different sort of 6th sense as well.

Sometimes I wondered that as well, and it would not surprise me. If I had one than im sure that someone else had one as well, I could not be the only person out there with a thing like this.

"I'm happy here, but if we go to war and I have to go I will, but this is my home and this is my place to work at for the rest of my life." I said to Jim. He smiled and then nodded to me. He then moved in for one last quick little hug.

I accepted it, I was proud of myself as well, something I was not normally used to. But I needed to be like that like Jim had always told me, if I wasn't happy about myself then I would always be depressed.

"I'm happy to here that kid, let me fix up your Jaw real quick, it is dislocated, and then you can go clean yourself up, I'll finish up where you left off, you go get some rest." He said to me. I nodded and then I looked at him a little bit confused.

Normally he did not work here himself he just worked in the back like I did just a different job getting business deal's done.

"Thanks... You sure?" I asked him. He sat up and then nodded to me. He then nodded for me to take off my apron and hand to over to him. I nodded and then threw it over to him.

"Goodnight Joseph, get some good rest." He said to me. I nodded, tomorrow was Saturday, he took Sunday's off, so I could catch up with some rest and he went to church himself. I believed in god but church just seemed a little bit too far out there. It seemed like, my mother had said they were only out there to manipulate to get some money out of your pockets.

I actually believed her because the one time I had gone to church with my father it seemed like that was exactly what they were doing. Everything there did not seem normal at all. But he went to a different sort of church and he believed in a different religion that was frowned upon by many.

I walked out of the room and walked to the back, I went into the bathroom and then got undressed, I always had a few pairs of clothes in the dresser that was in there as well as everyone else that worked here. One guy had been stealing clothes and selling them and he got fired.

I opened it up and thankfully I had one pair still in there, I made a mental note to bring some in there again, and also made a mental note to not put my clothes in the same drawer as Julia. I did not want her to be a part of my life anymore. I had just been hurt so bad because she had lied to me this whole time.

I knew that she was going to try and manipulate me again and tell me that I never asked or some stupid shit like that, but I would not listen to her, my mother and my father had both told me if I ever met someone like that then leave them and don't listen to them. That was when my father was normal.

I shook my head not wanting to think of all the bad things that had happened. I grabbed my clothes and put it on the counter right beside the sink and then hopped into the shower. The water was very warm and I took it in with some happiness.

I had gotten out of the carriage, I was so tired, I was just ready to get some sleep. I walked over to my place. If Padre was there I would just let him kill me, life had been shit for the last few days, everyday something bad happened to me.

Once I was over to my building I walked up to the lock and put my key into it, I was surprised with my luck lately that I had not lost my key, but at least one good thing had happened to me today.

My heart hurt, I had to stop thinking about Julia, but I had anyways the whole way home. It hurt me so much to find out that this whole time she had lied, I knew she was going to say some shit like "It wasn't a lie, I just didn't tell you" I didn't want to here it.

I would stay away from her as much as possible over the next few days to potentially even longer. I felt disgusted and betrayed. I was surprised Jim did not say anything about it, I knew he had heard the all of it. I suppose he knew that it was probably not the best topic to talk about right there.

Once I was in, I was so tired I did not even want to walk to my room, I just hopped myself on the couch. I didn't want to go there as well because I knew I had slept there with Julia last night. I didn't even want to think about her but that was all I could think about.

I just wanted to relaxe and get some sleep, I was pretty hungry but I didn't feel like making anything. I walked over to the kitchen and opened a cabinet that I had some fruit bars in, it would feel me up for a little bit, that was the point in these.

I often took them to the bar, my mom always bought a lot of those for that very reason. It was something to tide you over for an hour or so. I just needed something that could put me to sleep.

After I finished it I sat back down on the couch. I was so tired my eyes fell off right away. But right as I was about to fall asleep someone knocked at my door. This time I was not thinking Padre, I was thinking it was probably Julia, wanting to congratulate me for beating up her boyfriend that she never told me about.

"Who is it? What the hell do you want? I've had a bad day." I yelled to whoever was at the door. For a few moments no one responded, I knew they were sort of sound proof walls but they should have surely heard that. Maybe it was Julia and she probably didn't want to admit it.

"It's Pop... Can I come in... I'm afraid your day is about to get a lot worse." He yelled to me. I grunted and then yelled a yes back to him. He had a key on him that got into every single persons house even though none of us had the same key. It was weird I didn't understand it.

He walked into the room and I opened my eyes wondering what it was and if I even wanted to hear it.

He had obviously been waiting on me for a while he normally was at his own place during that time, it had to be something important, but I did not want to hear it at this exact moment in time.

He sat down on the couch and looked at the ground sadly and then looked right at me, a bit of a tear seemed to slip from his eyes. He was friends with Julia's father, if this was what this was about, then I could not give 2 damns about Julia right now.

"If this is about Julia... I really do not want to hear it." I said to him. He almost seemed like he had not heard what I said. I was tempted to repeat it in case he had not heard me. I was right beside him though maybe he was not paying attention.

More tears began to come out of his eyes. It had to be something completely different, I couldn't quite even imagine what it could possibly be, and I was tempted to tell him to leave, I had already had a rough day I didn't want it to be any worse.

Finally Pops looked up to me, tears were falling down his eyes. I was so confused. It couldn't be Jim... The news couldn't get to him faster than me. What was going on?

"Joseph... I'm sorry I have bad news."