Surrounded and Bloody

The man who had grabbed Vicky's phone threw it over his shoulder back to her. While she was busy catching it, the man started to head towards Chris. However, Vicky noticed that she hadn't been left alone, as two other men in suits had appeared right next to her.

'How come Chris knows such scary people?' Vicky wondered. 'Well, he did go in the same direction as him so maybe things will be okay. As for these two guys, why do I get the feeling they are here to watch me?'

The second she went to touch the phone, the man to her right cleared his throat, making Vicky stop and put it down quickly. She took the cue to not do anything stupid. It didn't seem like they were planning to harm her, but it was obvious they didn't want the police involved in this matter. 

As much as she liked Chris, she wasn't going to risk her life or get in trouble just because of him.

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Continuing to walk down the street, it didn't take long for Chris to notice that there was a group of people following him, so he turned around to face ten of them. One of them had a wooden plank in his hands. 

"Wouldn't something like a baseball bat work better? Or couldn't you guys afford one?" Chris taunted the group, making sure to show them that he wasn't intimidated by them at all. 

Each of them stopped and the one at the very front, pulled down his hood, to reveal his bright orange hair, with his nose bandaged up. 

"Remember me, punk? You broke my nose earlier today, and now you're going to pay for that! Let's see how pretty you will look with a smashed face! When we're done with you, you won't say a word about this to anyone!" Bill shouted as he pointed the wooden plank like a weapon towards Chris, as some of the others pulled out some pocket knives. 

'There's ten of them… I'm not even sure I can take this many at the same time under normal circumstances, but now I have to be extra careful since they're armed. Aren't they going a little overboard for just a broken nose?'

From the look of it, Bill must have called all his hoodlum friends from school and some that had already graduated. Of course, in such a small village, it wasn't too surprising for all the gangster wannabes to end up hanging around together.

Still, for some reason Chris remained fearless as he dived in. One of the older guys came at him with a pocket knife, but Chris made sure to avoid it, stepping back at the right time, making it hit nothing but air. Moving forward, there was now a perfect opportunity, so he went to punch the person in the stomach as hard as he could. 

The older boy knelt over immediately as he gasped for air. It was common for people to attack the face in a fight, but the skull was harder than one's fist, and it was easy for one to break their wrist that way. Amateur fighters like these didn't usually tense up their bodies, so it was easy to wind them. 

Chris, then desperately dodged a few more hits, before ducking under another attack, and slid behind another person, grabbing them from behind. Now he could use them as a human shield in front of his fellow teammates. 

'I don't care if this is dirty, they're fighting me with ten people!' Chris thought.

He swung the body, but those who had remained unarmed didn't even try to avoid hitting their friend.

Seeing that it wouldn't be much use holding the boy on for longer, Chris kicked the person into the group, and was getting ready to run. Ten people at once were just too many, but the boys had already surrounded him. 

He hit another in the face, but Chris suffered a kick in the back of leg from behind and as he flinched a wooden plank came down and whacked him on the back of his head snapping it in half. His whole head felt dizzy for a few seconds, and a warm liquid dripped from the back of his head. 

'Crap, is that bastard really trying to kill me? What the hell is wrong with him!' Chris thought, as he mustered all his strength and swung his fist out hitting another one in the head, running by his side.

But soon, another attack from Bill himself was coming towards him, ready to whack him directly in the face, but a few seconds before the remains of the plank could make contact, another fist came flying out and snapped it in half. 

"Looks like you train quite a lot, and this doesn't seem to be your first fight either, I just knew you were a good one." The man who had come to his rescue, was the same one who had been hanging around their house, the one who had introduced himself as K.

"Who the heck are you, old man?!" Bill shouted in defiance. With his buddies around he wasn't afraid of the newcomer, even if he had a fierce look to him with that scar. "You think we won't hit you just because you're an adult?!"

Two of his friends with pocket knives came over and swung them towards K to show them that they meant business. 

"It's quite cute how all of you are playing make-believe. However, let me tell you it ain't as pretty as you seem to think on this side. Once you become one of us, there's no going back!" K calmly lectured them, as he side-stepped the weapons' reach and grabbed onto the faces of the attackers. He then unceremoniously slammed them onto the hard concrete ground and a few of their front teeth shattered, it was clear they weren't going to be getting up anytime soon. 

It didn't take him long to deal with another two and by then Bill and the rest had fled into the darkness. He took out a handkerchief and cleaned his hands, as he looked over at Chris. The injured boy couldn't help but rub the back of his head and wondered how he would explain this all to his aunt, and he was also wondering why K had even helped him. 

"You're a strong boy, Chris, but as you just saw, you can't take on a group that size on your own. What do you plan to do if they come back? Although perhaps you should worry more about the others who are bound to appear soon."

"Whether you've realised it or not, your family has made a deal with the underworld, and it doesn't look like they can keep up their side. That means everyone you know will be dragged into it as well. Just remember, my offer is still on the table." K reminded Chris, as the two of them had walked towards the large house where the boy lived.

When Chris walked in, he stumbled a little, his leg was still sore from being it, and it would have been a wonder if his head had recovered this fast. On the way, K had taken a look and assured him that there was no need to go to the hospital for a small wound like that, not that Chris could have been able to afford it in the first place. 

'It's my own fault, I should have known that walking so late at night would be dangerous, but they asked me to stay on.' 

The reason Chris had been out so late was due to him taking on an extra job after school. After seeing the gangsters appearing outside the house more often he had made a decision to try and do something about it. If his aunt and uncle weren't going to solve the situation, then the least he could do was to try to get them out of it. 

With the extra work, hopefully he could help them, he thought. 

Walking up to the kitchen, Chris was looking for some ice in the fridge or something cold. Not finding any, he pulled out some frozen peas and placed them on back of his head. Although it stung a little, he started to feel slightly better.

That's when he noticed something on the counter top. Several opened letters. Most of them overdue bills, loans that they hadn't paid, and warnings that the companies were going to cut off their electricity and more.

Picking it up, Chris was curious to find out just how much of a mess they were really in, when he stumbled across a certain letter. It was their bank account information, but something didn't quite add up… the name on it was neither his uncle's nor his aunt's.

Dropping the letter on the floor, Chris was furious, and he finally understood the words of K. 

With this being the case, how could he trust anyone?.