chapter one:how it all started

Chapter 1

How it all started

The police sirens echoed. My body was gushing with blood-like sweat. My hands felt cold and numb. I trembled as I fell to my knees and then landed with a faint thud on the rough concrete. My vision obscured I felt my last morsel of consciousness drifting away. The last thing I could hear was the faint screams of the police warning me to stop…

I awoke with a start. My body was weak. I wanted to scream but couldn't get a single sound out and couldn't move a single muscle. I felt as though I were imprisoned within my own skin. I was overtaken by a sharp pain in my leg. When I looked down at my leg, I noticed a knife had pierced my thigh as gallons of blood were streaming out. I screamed and was heard, so I screamed even louder till my throat felt dry and I spit blood out. A dark figure rushed up to me and grabbed my neck pinning me onto the piece of metal I was lying on. He told me not to move in a crisp monotone voice and that if I did, he would stab me again.

I stopped moving, choking on my blood and barely getting any air through my mouth, clinging to dear life. The dark figure's hand slowly loosened, allowing the blood in my body to flow. My eyes gradually regained their eyesight, seeing a man dressed entirely in black, with a devious expression on his face, standing over me, and then I lost consciousness yet again.

My legs and hands were more numbed than they had ever felt before. My memories surged back in seconds as I awoke again. It was simply too much to bear. I had a flashback. I recall being dragged down the street into a dark alley just as the cops were about to lay hands on me. I remembered that man dragging me, drugging me, choking me making me feel perplexed at the same time was all down to one person in my life. NATE.

Nate was the one who was to blame for all of my life's tragedies. Even if I tried, I wouldn't get away from him since he had me under his grip. He had total control over my life ever since I was fourteen. He approached as a typical 19-year-old teen: sullen, irritable, and drug-addicted. He began by selling cocaine to my pals. I never wanted to be involved, but I knew I would be pushed to sooner or later, but I never fought to stop; it had never occurred to me to do so.

By the time I turned 15 I had been taking drugs every day for the past year and there was no stopping it now. I stole money whenever I could and I was good at it. I pickpocketed everyone in sight and always got away with it. Without me knowing Nate had full control over me he told me what to do and where to go but never told me why, I was his little servant. I toke little packages around for him and collected money to give back to him.

I was just a naive little teen too afraid to ask. I couldn't stop as I was forced to I was pressured to do what I had been told and it was not like I wanted to. I never until now realized to think about myself, my life because I chose to think about nates as it was somewhat easier than thinking about the life I was given first.

In only 5 years from the time I first met him, Nate had grown into the country's largest drug dealer, with over 30 suppliers and hundreds of buyers from all over the country, while I lay in the darkness as his puppet doing his dirty work, and I knew I wasn't the only one. He was raking in money without having to raise a finger, and he wasn't about to stop.

Police had been searching for him ever since they learned about the large masses of drugs he sold, but he had escaped them all until now.

As the police narrowed down their list of suspects, it became evident that they would uncover Nate sooner rather than later, and Nate, as usual, didn't seem too bothered about this. Regardless, his minions, including me, were terrified of being caught since we knew we were at a higher risk than Nate himself. We had no protection nor power, and as soon as the cops approached, Nate would hand over the person closest to him. He is just concerned with himself, his money, and his darling girlfriend Lucy.

I and others had previously been asked to sign papers for no apparent reason, and we had never dared to question it because we knew the power Nate now wielded. Several groups of people who had dared to a questions had mysteriously vanished, and we didn't want that to happen to us.

Everything became clearer than ever when I put my thoughts from the previous few months together. All of the commotion with the cops pursuing me made sense in the end. The allegations, as well as the police's faulty claims, suddenly made sense.

Nate had been placing my fingerprints, signatures, and presence in the most prominent places where the cops would look. He put me in situations the cops could easily get ahold of him. I looked like Nate to them all because I was at the wrong places at the wrong times.

Now I realized it the day he instructed me to deliver a package to a highly wealthy section of town with an exceptionally huge bundle was to get me caught. And, of course, in such a wealthy area, security cameras are abundant, so they caught some shady footage of me handing over the drugs, and an hour later, the cops showed up at my house, frightening my mother, who had no idea about my involvement, but what I was most concerned about was why the cops were accusing me of being Nate. He duped me by having me handle all of his charges and difficulties, which is why I was tormented and pursued by the cops instead of the real Nate!

After all this time, I finally realized his cunning and unjust strategy to put my face on his crimes. But it was too late for me to save myself. I had been set up and was unable to escape.

As I contemplated the oncoming scenes, the door to the secluded cell slammed open. A man dressed fully in black, but not Nate this time, switched on the lights in the stone dark room, blurring my eyesight. I stared straight at the door once my eyes adjusted to the unexpected ray of light and saw the man looking at me. He told me to keep my lips shut at all times in a loud and clear voice as he gently closed the door behind him. As we two were alone in the room, the mood shifted abruptly. The man gently crept towards me and, shockingly, his voice changed to a more humanly tone. His countenance shifted, and he appeared apprehensive. I was confused as to why one of Nate's workers was concerned about seeing me I wasn't sure why, but I took a deep breath and waited for him to say something.

" Take a left on the road out and run as fast as you can and don't look back don't you square you'll find a white van a couple of yads get in and you'll be told the rest after," said the guy fastly and quietly I didn't understand why but I got the sense he was trying to help me so I nodded and he helped me sit up and said he'll be back.

After waiting and processing everything he said I decided I should listen to everything he has to say because it seemed like the only other option.

He barged in with sweat dripping down his temple and told me to change quickly. I immediately changed while his expression worsened as he held the door shut and locked it from the inside. "are you have done" he said ya I responded. He quickly opened the door, making sure not to make a sound, scanned the corridor, ensured no one was around, and told me I was to be quiet and follow him.

We kept walking for a minute and reached a door which looked like it hadn't been open for decades .he took out a key and started to attempt to open the rusty door. What's your name I asked speaking for the first time to him and breaking the silence. in a trembling voice, he said, Matthew. He turned the key again making the door finally open but at the same time, we heard faint foot steeps and they got louder quickly Matthew grabbed my arm and launched me through the door and told me to run.

As I rushed through the double doors closing in behind me, I heard gunshots, and as much as I wanted to glance back, I resisted and sprinted to the left, as Matthew had instructed. Screams and slashes reverberated in my ears, sending shivers up my spine. Each step I took made my body weaker, and the increased strain just made things worse. As each second went by, my legs seemed disjointed; owing to the blood loss, I became disoriented rapidly, but I used every ounce of energy I had to kick myself into the van.

My pulse rate was racing and there was no indication of it calming down. As I tumbled into the vehicle, I was gasping for life. As I strained to stay awake, blood tickled from my frail body. I was once again in the most vulnerable position I could think of. I was so used to being manipulated and having little to no say in my decisions that I risked my life by listening to a complete stranger who might have been on Nate's or the police's side the entire time.

I peered around the van; it was dark, but I could see that there was a partition between me and the driver, preventing me from seeing the person in front of me. This felt particularly skeptical, and the idea crossed my mind: what if I got into the wrong vehicle, or what if Matthew wasn't trying to assist and was working undercover? A million what-ifs have properly burst my mind, and it is now evident that I am an utter idiot for trusting a complete stranger, I shouldn't have trusted everyone out there since they are very likely the ones who would go out of their way to make my bad luck worse.

I was dreading what was about to happen. I couldn't talk because I was too weak, and I couldn't move either because my entire body had been injured and would hurt like hell so this meant I couldn't communicate with god knows who was in the van with me so now I didn't know where or why I was going to some mystery destination.

-

My pulse rate accelerated as the tires screeched to a halt, and I braced myself for a violent scene. I heard some faraway voices that weren't quite as distant as they had been. As the vehicle door was quickly slammed open, a strong blast of wind ripped across my wounds, I lay motionless on the floor of the van. In misery and pain, I winced.