Recalling

The Caucasian woman's face was pale as a ghost.

The Asian man coughed out blood once more before finally getting up and pulled out a knife.

"DIANNE, GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Dianne who was hugging Nathan's leg let go immediately and tried to move away.

However, Nathan grabbed her by the neck and raised her up.

"Well, well, well… What do we have here?" said Nathan as he looked at the Asian man and smiled.

"BASTARD! LET HER GO RIGHT NOW!"

"You really like ordering me around, huh."

Nathan grabbed Dianne's left hand and crushed it.

Crack!

"AHHHHH!!!" Dianne screamed.

"YOU!" said the Asian and dashed forward.

However, Nathan shielded himself with Dianne's body, causing the man to stop.

The Asian man gritted his teeth and his eyes were burning with fire.

As much as he wanted to save his little sister, he knew that Nathan was far too powerful.

He already lost his parents during the zombie apocalypse. He couldn't lose his sister as well.

Nathan smiled.

"The bitch behind me, move to this man's side or I'll break this girl's neck," said Nathan to the Caucasian woman.

"Hannah…" said Dianne weakly.

The Asian man looked at Hannah.

His eyes were pleading.

However, Hannah was frozen from fear.

"Heh~ Still not being cooperative," said Nathan as his hand slowly reached out for Dianne's left ribs.

"HANNAH! PLEASE DO AS HE SAYS!" said the Asian man.

He knelt down and bowed.

"Please… Don't hurt my sister…. Please… We only want to survive…"

Tears started flowing from his eyes.

Seeing the Asian man prostrating and crying, Hannah finally snapped back to reality.

"David…"

Hannah quickly went over to David's side and hugged him.

"Please don't hurt us… We don't mean any harm…" said Hannah and cried as well.

As for Dianne, she started crying as well and weakly said, "Please, mister… I'll do anything you want… Just don't hurt them…"

Looking at their scene, Nathan couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

He felt like he was the villain here.

'No! I'm the victim here! That dog pointed a gun at me while I was at the loo and made me beg!'

The scene also reminded him of a certain memory…

***

3 years ago.

Nathan, 21 years old.

Liit Town, Muwin.

"Grandpa! Cousin! What are you guys doing here?" a man called out.

Sakhr and Nathan looked towards the direction where the voice was coming from.

It was Maaz, the eldest child of uncle Mabrook and aunt Mariam. And with him was a group of drugged-up and dangerous-looking men.

Maaz was 25 years old. However, despite being older, he was only 5'2" tall and was skinny. Because of that, from what Nathan has heard, he had this Napoleon complex.

Nathan glanced over at the drugged-up and dangerous-looking men.

They too looked at Nathan, sizing him up.

Back in the day, despite Karen's objection, he didn't mind talking to people like this.

To him, they were the outcast or rebels of society and their devil-may-care outlook kind of intrigued him a little bit.

However, after he graduated and started working, he began to distance himself from such people to protect his image.

In his mind, he wasn't a teenager anymore so he needed to "man-up" or "act right" as they say.

"You drug addict, what are you up to now?" said Sakhr.

Although Sakhr believes that a real man does, say and takes what he wants, he doesn't agree with throwing your life away by doing drugs or engaging in illegal activities.

Sure, doing drugs once in a while is acceptable. But doing it every day that it affects your physical and mental health? That's a different matter.

To him, what's the use or how can you enjoy the benefits of your success if your body is broken? What was the point if you will only end up inside a coffin or spend your life behind bars?

Maaz smiled and said, "Nice to see you too, grandpa."

He then looked at Nathan and nodded.

Nathan nodded back as well.

Sakhr snorted.

"We're getting some fresh air," said Nathan.

"Oh, okay. See you guys later. We're going to grab something to eat," Maaz said and started walking towards the church with his crew.

When Maaz and his crew were already a couple of feet away, Maaz stopped and turned.

"Cousin, we're going to Banya city tonight. You should come with us to celebrate."

"Sorry, I can't. I have work later."

"Okay."

Maaz resumed walking.

"Brat, don't follow the footsteps of that brat," Sakhr said and then sighed. "I only have 3 grandchildren that I know of. And unfortunately, one turned out to be a disappointment. You and Malik are the only decent ones so don't fuck up our family name."

"Wait… what? You have other grandchildren?"

As far as Nathan knows, this grandfather of his only had two children, his father and uncle Mabrook.

Sakhr hit Nathan with his cane.

Pah!

"Ouch!"

"You idiot. With the number of women I've slept with in my life, it wouldn't be a surprise if one of them got pregnant and I wasn't aware of."

Nathan checked his watch.

3:43 pm.

From Monday to Saturday, he usually wakes up around 3:00 pm because his main job is from 5:00 pm - 12:00 am and his part-time job is 2:30 - 5:30 am.

However, his employer at his part-time job was a cool guy and let him take the day off today.

With that, today, he only had to work at his main job.

'I'm going to try to take a 30-minute nap.' Nathan thought. "Grandfather, uncle Mabrook and aunt Mariam are probably looking for us."

"Go tell them to come here."

"Okay."

Nathan got up.

"Brat."

Nathan looked at his grandfather.

"Give me another stick."

Nathan didn't want to argue to he gave his grandfather his pack of cigarettes and lighter.

After returning them to Nathan, Sakhr blew smoke and said, "Go now but take your time."

***

Nathan and his family got back home.

Maaz didn't come with them.

Nathan climbed up the second floor and went straight to his bed.

He grabbed his phone and set the alarm clock.

'4:30 pm… Okay.'

There were a few messages from his family members that were not here at Liit town.

He decided to ignore them for now and slept.

***

4:30 pm.

Ring… Ring… Ring…

Nathan opened his eyes and grabbed his phone to turn it off.

'I still want to sleep…'

His body felt so weak and heavy from the lack of sleep and food he ate earlier.

He decided to close his eyes for 5 minutes.

A minute or so passed when suddenly…

"Nathan, I made you coffee and a few snacks," said a woman.

It was aunt Mariam.

The room that Nathan shared with Maaz didn't have a door because it was removed by uncle Mabrook about 10 years ago due to Maaz's drug problem.

Nathan opened his eyes and got up.

"It's downstairs. Do you want me to bring it here?"

"Thanks. I'll just eat them downstairs."

"Okay."

Aunt Mariam left.

Nathan stretched.

He then grabbed his laptop, phone and headphones before heading downstairs.

***

Nathan was at the dining table listening to music on his laptop while checking his email and drinking coffee.

His first work starts at 5:00 pm so he didn't open his message app and was checking his emails in the meantime.

He noticed an email.

It was an email from the company of his main job and was sent just about 4 hours ago.

It was a termination letter.

The reason he was being fired was because the company was facing some financial issues and they had to fire some of its employees.

However, the "bright side" was that his pay was sent right away instead of at the end of the month.

After reading the letter, he opened his message app right away to contact his former employer.

His status wasn't online yet.

Nevertheless, he clicked the profile of his former employer and began typing a message.

[Hi, I just read the email that was sent to me by the company. I don't understand why I'm being fired. I've been producing good articles. In fact, every week, I have one article that's part of the top 5 weekly tech news articles. What's the basis of my termination?]

After sending the message to this former employer, he decided to contact his fellow writers as well that he was friends with in the company.

[Hey, I received a termination letter today and got fired. Did you receive one as well?]

He sent the same message on all 4 of them -- 3 were females and 1 male.

They all messaged him back.

It turns out, 1 female and the other male were fired as well.

Also, he couldn't help but notice that the 2 females that were not fired were the beautiful ones.

And out of the two of them, one rarely writes and doesn't even get her articles at the top 5 weekly tech news articles.

His former employer finally replied.

The "reason" given to him was the same as written in the termination letter that he received.

Nathan was about to ask why the writer who rarely writes wasn't fired but decided not to.

It would be no different from begging.

"FUCK!"

Bam!

Nathan slammed his fist on the table, causing his coffee to spill.

Seeing the spill, Nathan grabbed his laptop and phone right away.

"Shit!"

Aunt Mariam rushed to the dining area.

"Nathan, what's wrong?!"

"Um… Sorry, aunt Mariam. I accidentally bumped the cup and it spilled over all my laptop."

"Oh… Let me help you wipe that."

"Don't worry. I can clean it myself."

"Oh you, it's okay. Just let me do it."

Seeing that she was so persistent, Nathan finally gave in.

However, he couldn't help but feel bad for her.

Sure, she was a housewife just like his mother, but she was too dedicated that he couldn't help but feel bad for her.

If no one knew she was married to uncle Mabrook, they probably would have thought she was the maid or something.

But who was he to question a society's culture?

Who was he to tell his aunt what's right and wrong?

Who was he to tell her how to live her life?

"Thank you," said Nathan.

"It's okay."

He went back to his room.

*********************************************

Author's thoughts:

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading!

To those people who voted with their power stones, I would like to thank these Power Immortal Voters:

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