Chapter 11 | The "Perfect" Guy from Yesterday and the start of chaos
Steven stood Infront of Huddy's store, ready for a new day of scamming customers with overpriced prices. He felt proud of the profit he made the day before. Although, he hoped Huddy wouldn't find out.
Steven proudly walked into the store with a big smirk on his face. He expected not to see anyone but at the front desk which is the cashier. A guy stood in work uniform waiting patiently for a customer. Steven felt confused at first since Huddy didn't tell him about a new employee, but then he recognized that the employee was the customer from yesterday.
He then noticed Steven and gave a friendly wave as Steven walked toward the Cashier.
"Uh, so are you a new employee?" Steven asked.
"Yes!" The employee said. "My name is Markus!"
"Uhm, my name is Steven," Steven replied. "I'm here for my shift."
"Cool!" Markus said. "Let us make today a great day!"
Steven noticed the intense optimism in Markus. It wasn't the type of optimism Jel had, it felt unnatural or forced. Jel's optimism felt more fluent and natural as Markus's optimism felt more forced and fake, almost as he was trying his hardest to be cheerful. But there wasn't any evidence it was so Steven dismissed it as a rich new employee being weird.
When it came to customers Markus always helped them out as hard as he could while Steven stepped back and relaxed. Although Steven soon realized he couldn't scam customers anymore which made him upset. Of course, Steven couldn't tolerate Markus since, in Steven's mind, he was considered the number one employee. Of course, he was acting delusional since he was the only other employee.
So as a natural reaction, Steven attempted to be better than Markus. Although he would try too hard.
A customer walked into the store looking around. Before Markus could give service to her, Steven immediately rushed towards her at the front door.
"IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN HELP YOU WITH?" Steven hastily said staring at the customer dead in the eyes with a giant creepy smile.
"Uhm, uh, yes I would like to"
"WOULD YOU LIKE TO BUY 50 PIECES OF HARDWOOD?" Steven said not letting the customer speak.
"Uhm, no I don't want to"
"WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN 3 BUCKETS OF SAND?" Steven said being much more forceful than before.
"Uhm, I'm fine." The customer said becoming very uncomfortable.
"HOW ABOUT 20 SHEETS OF CARDBOARD?" Steven said becoming more forceful.
"I-"
"OH, SO YOU WANT 50 SHEETS?!" Steven said.
The customer finally sprinted out of the shop weeping tears of stress. Steven only stood there at the front door thinking about what he could've done wrong. As Markus walked next to him placing his hand on his shoulder.
"Let me handle this next time." Markus smiled.
"Fine, okay." Steven scoffed walking back to the cashier feeling defeated. He thought to himself how every female customer was naturally attracted to Markus and how he was so helpful more than himself. This angered Steven more and it stayed like that for the next week.
Eventually, Steven understood Markus's personality. He was one of those soft generous boys that you would see the girls fall for. At least that's how Steven saw it. He still couldn't feel something was very odd and unnatural with Marcus. The feeling only grew bigger and bigger. Huddy said Markus was just a nice boy trying to help out and scolded Steven whenever he would say something rude about him. He told Hiroshi and Jel about his job and they dismissed it as Steven just being weird.
On the other hand, the store was growing extremely fast. It had twenty customers shopping all at once, and they were mostly teenage girls attempting to interact with Markus. Steven only sat in the back angered more every time a girl walked in and fell for the guy.
Finally. Steven had enough and thought of a way to overthrow Markus. And this involved framing Marcus for doing something bad, so Huddy could then fire him. He then thought of a plan and waited for the perfect time to do so. It was Steven's lunchtime and he had thirty minutes of free time to leave the shop.
"I'm heading off to lunch now, Markus," Steven said leaving the shop. "I won't be gone for long."
"Alright." Markus smiled waving goodbye.
Steven then ran off to the nearest Tobacco shop which just happened to be around the corner. He wasn't going to head into the shop because he was too young to purchase anything. Instead, he was going to bribe a thug standing outside the shop to buy a cigarette off him.
Steven stood in front of the thug out of breath with his hands on his knees. Finally, he regained composure and tried making a serious face trying not to get intimidated by the thug.
"What do you want kid?" The thug asked smoking a cigarette.
"How much for two cigarettes in your pocket," Steven asked. "Just for one."
"Your too young to be a smoking kid." The thug denied Steven. "Come back in 5 years."
"I'll pay you fifty bucks for cigarettes," Steven said desperately.
"Fine." The thug said handing him two cigars. Steven then ran back to the store in a hurry, entering the store and dashing towards the back before Markus could ask why. Steven searched through piles of small items until he pulled out a lighter and shoved it in his pockets returning to the main shop.
"What are you doing?" Markus asked unaware of Steven's scheme.
"Oh nothing, I'm not hungry so you can go ahead with your lunch break," Steven said.
"Oh great, thanks a lot." Markus smiled proceeding to walk out of the store.
Then Steven quickly turned towards the pile of hardwood. He took a cigar out of his pocket and lit it up. He then placed the lit-up cigar on top of the pile of hardwood. Resulting in the hardwood starting to burn. When Steven finally noticed a nice amount of damage, he smothered the cigar out and left it on top of the pile of hardwood. Then Steven took the other cigar out of his pocket and shoved it into Markus's locker along with his belongings.
The plan was for Huddy to notice the burned firewood, then find out who's been smoking cigarettes in the shop and find the cigar in Markus's locker finally firing him.
The rest of the day went normal. Steven left the shop to go home, waiting for the next day to come. To see Markus gone from the shop. That night Steven laughed and thought about how good his plan will play out.
The next day, morning rose, and Steven quickly headed off to work in a rush to see how his plan played out. He approached the shop making having a smirk on his face. In his mind were thoughts of Markus getting fired.
Suddenly, as Steven approached the shop. He noticed the strange atmosphere. The lights weren't on, and it was dark inside from the outside. Then he noticed something shifting around in the shop at a fast speed. The walls rattled and the prime district's alarms suddenly rang.
"ATTENTION! ATTENTION! DEMONS HAVE ENTERED THE DISTRICT! PLEASE PROTECT YOURSELF WHILE MOVING AROUND THE DISTRICT!"
Steven's face turned pale. He hesitated from opening the door. He felt the presence of something threatening and dreadful inside. But then, he remembered Markus or Huddy was inside. The thought of them fighting off a demon or being killed by a demon was too much even for Steven. He always depended on Chris to get rid of Demons, but now He's alone. By himself.
His hands shook as he slowly opened the shop door. The bell rang and Steven rushed in unsheathing his sword. He sprinted towards the lights as on the other side of the room someone was shaking the shop around. Then flicked the light switch and shifted his gaze towards all the commotion. Then he saw Markus struggling against a demon at the cashier. Steven wanted to fight the demon. But he was too afraid. The beast was too scary and looked too strong for him. He wanted to turn around and run out of the shop. But he didn't want to let Markus die.
Finally, punched his chest as his heart pounded heavily but his body continued to walk toward the two. He clenched his teeth and gripped his sword finally closing enough distance on the demon to slash him from behind. It groaned angrily in pain and faced Steven. Steven felt hatred in its black eyes. How could so much anger come from a creature? Steven didn't know the answer but felt scared. Markus, still lying on the ground attacked the demon from behind as it let its guard down with a box cutting knife. It slashed the knife down its spine and the demon roared in pain. With an opening, Steven impaled the demon through the skull, dropping it dead on the ground lying next to Markus.
"Go back to hell bitch." Steven said panting from the incident. Markus got up, brushing the dirt off his uniform.
"Are you okay?" Steven asked. "Did it hurt you?"
"No, I'm fine," Markus replied. "It only slightly scratched my cheek.
"What do we tell Huddy?" Steven said looking down at the dead demon. "Do we get rid of it?"
"I think that's best," Markus said. "I'll dispose of its corpse."
"Okay," Steven said. "Be careful."
Markus picked the demon off the floor exiting through the shop's backdoor. Steven felt guilty about his plan and decide to just stop it entirely. He opened Markus's locker and took the cigar out, then he cleaned the ash off the wood finally returning to the cashier.
Markus came inside the shop from the back wiping black blood off his hands. Demons had a black type of blood that could regenerate itself. Although weaker class demons weren't strong enough to regenerate blood or limbs. Just like the demon, they fought just now. Steven closed the shop off and barricaded the entrance finally dazing off into the distance on the cashier thinking if Jel and Hiroshi were safe. Markus didn't have a worried expression on his face. It was odd that he was calm and collected at a time like this.
Back at the base. Jel and Hiroshi stood with their weapons in their hands staring off into the field in a fighting stance.
"Five Demons are approaching from the front," Hiroshi said spotting demons approaching.
"Alright," Jel said with determined eyes. "Let's beat these demons up!"
It was apparent that the district was under attack by a demon horde. Only time and strength will tell if the district is strong enough to take it back from the new demons.