Jordan

"Over here boys," one of the boys that spotted him said.

They spotted him. The taller boy walked up to him, pushed him up to a tree, and started choking him. Jordan frolicked in fear.

"George let's not kill him, please," one of the other boys said.

"Don't you dare run," George said while putting him down.

Jordan grabbed for his neck while gasping for air. The boys muttered in their little circle.

"Are you done, pussy," the other boy barked.

"Just grab the rope, Edward," the other boy said.

Jordan's face showed fear. They tied his hands behind his back and put duct tape on his mouth. They made him walk half an hour down to this treehouse. They untied him and told him to go up. He went up quickly to show them that he wasn't trying to run off.

"Edward," George said, "you stay here with him and the boys and I will go get food."

"Ok," Edward said.

The boys left, Jordan looked up at Edward. Green, long hair clumsily hangs over a strong, friendly face. Hollow sapphire eyes, set handsomely within their sockets, watch guardedly over the ancestors they've rarely felt at home at for so long. Scars stretching from the right side of the forehead, first running towards thin lips and ending under his right eye leaves a heartbreaking memory of his life-long debt.

Edward ripped off the duct tape.

"I'm sorry, I just have anxiety," Edward says, "you seem like a nice person."

"You do too," Jordan said, "why are you in this 'gang'?"

"I have a life debt," he answered, "I don't like talking about it."

"Oh," Jordan said, "I'm sorry."

There was a silence among them. The leaves danced in the wind as the wind howled at the moon.

"I know this is crazy," Edward said, "but I can't bear to see innocent people be taken."

He unties the rope.

"Wait," Jordan asks, "what's gonna happen to you?"

"I will die knowing that I saved someone's life," he replied.

"No," he pleads with a tear in his eye, "I can't let that happen to you. I hardly know you, but it's not right seeing people die for me."

"GO!" Edward demands, "take my phone for navigation. Hide in the tree. I'll tell them you went to the river. RUN FAR AWAY FROM HERE!"

They both give each other a hug and part ways. About half an hour later, the gang arrived.

"Where's the kid?" Greg asked.

"He got loose and ran upstream," Edward replied.

"SERIOUSLY," the gang leader screeched, "and you didn't run after him?"

"No," he replied, "I wanted to make sure y'all knew."

"You know what," the gang leader said, "I've had enough with you. George, it's time."

George grabs the rope used to tie up Jordan, and he wraps it around Edward's neck. Edward, scared for his life, struggles to survive. Jordan, up in the tree, stares with fear.

"That could have happened to me," he thought to himself.

After a minute or so, Edward lies there, lifeless. 5 minutes later the gang leaves to find him. Jordan climbs down the tree.

He looks up to the heavens, "Why God, why?"

He looked down at Edward, kissed him on the forehead, and ran off.