When Amy came to school the next day, she couldn’t help but replay yesterday’s incident. She and Stacy had been stopped by a stranger just outside their school, who had asked them about his brother, the scumbag who had invited them to the Kobe Karaoke Club. However, the two girls weren’t completely unrelated to the matter, and they both knew that.
Amy had asked Stacy for a few details, as her memory of that day was hazy. She could remember up until the point they had taken out the drugs, but her best friend just told her that she didn’t know what happened later. Gary had appeared when they had hurt Amy, and then Stacy had just followed his instruction and fled, leaving the teenage boy with Hawk and his friends inside.
No matter how Amy had tried to bring up the topic, though, it just seemed awkward to naturally address that in a conversion. What’s more, she was completely baffled about Gary’s sudden growth spurt. She knew that boys could have them, and that it would usually occur later than girls, but for it to happen overnight and add so much muscle mass…
Amy wanted to address it, but then decided against it. What was her brother supposed to say, it was not like he could control that. She also didn’t want to burden him in any way. He was already doing his best to keep up their household, making her dinner, cleaning her clothes and everything he had done for her was so nice.
At the end of the day, she just could never imagine her brother doing such a thing, and she decided to ignore the matter
Alas, that matter wasn’t about to ignore the teenage girl, though.
——
“Hey, thanks for what you did the other day.” Stacy said as she pulled up a seat to sit down next to her best friend. The two friends enjoyed their lunch break with their homemade packed lunch. The truth was, Stacy didn’t need to do this, but she didn’t want Amy to be the odd one out.
Most of the kids, just ordered the canteen food, but while it wasn’t overly expensive, it wasn’t cheap either. Amy’s education was being paid for, yet that only included her basic necessities like the books and her admission fee. The teenage girl would have to pay for her school meals if she wanted them, as such it was far cheaper to bring her own food.
“It’s alright, and before you ask, no, I didn’t get to ask Gary about what happened that day.” Amy replied. “I just can’t imagine him having anything to do with them. I’m not even sure he could beat up one of them, much less three, even though he seems to have really bulged up recently.
“I don’t get why that guys thinks we might know anything about his brother? Didn’t they say something about being in some type of gang? They weren’t good people in the first place, so maybe they might have gotten hit by another gang? I mean, last we saw them was the day those gangs attacked the Chavley area…”
When speaking about this, Amy could see her friend visibly shaking, there was something that she seemed to be hiding. This was when Amy gave her a look, saying she better talk about it now.
“The Grey Elephants gang.” Stacy whispered after looking left and right. “Hawk… he would boast about it often when we were writing.”
“You knew that, and you STILL decided to meet up with him?!” Amy was furious, and her outburst was noticed by their fellow schoolmates. Amy knew her friend to act stupid sometimes, but it was one thing to lie about her age and meet up with her older online boyfriend, but it was an entirely different thing to meet up with a known gangster!
All of this could have easily been avoided!
“I’m sorry, I didn’t believe him. I just thought he was trying to impress me, but after we saw his brother yesterday and what happened… I’m afraid it’s true. I’m scared, what if they come after us again? Should we go to the police?” Stacy asked.
It was the first time Amy had heard her best friend suggest going to the police, which had come as a surprise. Stacy was terrified of her parents and what they might do if they found out what she had done. She felt that them cutting off her phone or internet access might be the least of her worries. For all she knew, they might even force her to join a monastery.
Stacy knew this about her parents better than anyone, so if that was the case, she must have been really scared.
‘I guess, he’s after her ultimately, and not really after me. However, if that guy found out about Stacy, he might have discovered that I was there that night as well. Did Stacy mention me by name in their chats, or did she just call me a friend? Shit, either way, it can’t be good. Now that he saw me, I hope he doesn’t dig around…’
Thinking about it all, Amy just let out a big sigh as she remembered something else, a conversation she had with her brother after their mother got hospitalised.
——
“Amy from now on it’s just going to be me and you for a while, until Mum gets better, alright? Now I managed to call a friend who helped me out, and he said he would get us a legal guardian, but they can’t actually look after us.
“I’m not an adult and neither are you, so if the police find out about us lying, then there is a good chance that social services will come and put us both in orphanages. They might even split us apart if they find out that we have no other parent. So don’t tell anyone about our situation, okay? I promise I’ll look after us both.” Gary told her.
———
This was why Amy wanted to avoid going to the police. She might come along if Stacy decided to go that route, but Amy couldn’t afford to get dragged into the mess.
“Look, I don’t think he’ll do anything to us, okay? Let’s just be careful, and have our phones on us. If you really want to go to the police, it might be better not to tell them about what happened that night or why you’re being followed. Just say it’s a stalker or something.
“If we tell them about that night, then maybe the real gangsters will come after us.” Amy cautioned her best friend, feeling a little bad about what she had just said, but she was convinced that it was for their overall safety.
When school ended, Stacy was waiting for Amy outside of class for both of them to walk out of the school together. Honestly, Amy was wondering if it might be safer to distance herself from Stacy for a while. Yes, they were childhood friends, but that didn’t change the fact that due to Stacy’s mistake, her life could get ruined at any moment.
Alas, when seeing Stacy’s frightened face, she just couldn’t be that cold-hearted and grabbed her shaking friend by the elbow and walked out together.
The two looked outside and could see several parents waiting to pick up their kids from school. While others just walked home as they usually would. Both of them were looking out for the man they had seen the other day but couldn’t see him at all.
“We shouldn’t wait here too long, we should go while there are a lot of people out, they’re less likely to do anything then.” Amy stated.
Agreeing, Stacy nodded and they both began their walk with hurried steps. It was nerve wracking for the two teenage girls. They constantly turned and twisted their heads and at times thought that they were being followed, only for it to be a student or a parent behind them.
There were multiple cars parked not too far from the school. They weren’t really allowed to park in front of the school due to the school’s regulations. The two noticed the incoming van far too late, as it drove close to the curb, stopping on the pavement.
What happened next left the two teenage girls with no time to react. A group of masked men rushed out, grabbed the two of them, pulled them into the van, which instantly drove off again. The entire process only lasted a few seconds.
Inside, Amy and Stacy’s mouths were covered by four men. There were also two drivers at the front, but most importantly, a man with sunglasses and a black leather jacket stood in front of both of them.
“I told you I would come back and get what I want from the two of you.” Raven said, tilting his glasses as he smiled.
*****
Top 10 in golden tickets = 5 chapter mass release
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