Chapter 2

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I felt a painful pounding in my temple and I tried not to groan as I moved my head, my neck feeling stiff and the movement making me sick. What the hell happened?

"He's awake." The fact that I didn't recognise the voice made my eyes shoot open and I got up way too fast. The room spun around me and I groaned rubbing my temple gently while I blinked trying to see clearly through my dizzy haze.

"Sit down." I felt my breath catch at the voice. I looked up and saw the guy from the park beside a couple of other people. The same guy from my outside my school. He must have had knocked me out. I froze as everything that happened came back to me. The gun... I shot that man... I shot someone. Was he…? Did I…?

I opened my mouth but not a sound left it. What was I doing here? Who were all these men?

"Did he stutter?" I looked at a man across the room. He stood against a table with his arms crossed over his chest. One look at him and I knew he ran this entire thing – whatever the hell this was. He just seemed to command the room with his presence and he was not even trying.

"No, I..." My eyes drew back to the man in front of me as his fingers moved and I watched them clench around his gun. I sat down slowly, my eyes never moving from the pistol.

"That man you shot last night is dead." The guy used his gun to motion to me. I looked down and cringed at the blood all over my jacket as dizzying sickness filled my stomach and tightened my chest. I didn't mean to. I didn't want to kill him... I just… needed to get away before he could kill me…

What if he had a family? Children? What if that was just him trying to provide and I took that all away? I cringed. I knew what it felt like to have your parents taken from you; I could not imagine doing that to someone else. What have I done?

"I didn't intend to –" I began.

"You killed someone." He cut me off, "Be it by accident or not, the cops won't care seeing those drugs on the street. You're going to be put away for a long time, boy." He said playing with his gun in his hand.

I swallowed trying to breathe. I could not think clearly past the worry in my mind and the bile in my throat at the fact that I had killed someone, the fact that I was covered in someone’s blood. I tried to urge myself to calm down. I wouldn't be in this if it wasn't for them. I wouldn't have killed someone if it wasn't for them. And now he was going to stand there and try to intimidate me with his gun?

"Given that there were no witnesses and it's my word against yours: I'll take my chances." I said confidently, pretending that the fact that if his hand just tilted up and his finger twitched I would be killed didn't bother me.

"Take your chances?" he chuckled.

"You think –" I looked back to the man who had been leaning against the desk; he was walking towards me, "this can't buy witnesses – and cops?"

I watched as he threw a roll of money on my lap. I swallowed clenching my teeth.

"Now shut your mouth and listen to my man Clyde, alright? Because I'm really not looking forward to having this couch look like your jacket, I just bought it." He said walking away from me.

"So here's the deal uh – your name is?" Clyde raised his brows at me.

I kept quiet. Like hell I was going to tell them who I was. I wanted nothing more to do with these people.

"Let me rephrase that: tell us your fucking name." My head moved back as his gun touched my forehead.

"Alex – Alexander." I stuttered looking down as he moved his gun, too scared to realise I should not have told them my real name, I had just said the first thing that came into my mind.

"Right, Alex. Here's the deal: you will be our dealer at your school and in return, I'll keep these bullets out of your skull." He waved his gun and my eyes drew to his face.

"Skull?" I frowned. Just my skull?

"Your body." He rolled his eyes. I clenched my teeth balling my fists on my legs.

"Dealer? Y-you mean sell – sell drugs?" I asked.

"No, sell cards." He rolled his eyes again.

I looked back down. How did I end up here? I had never done anything wrong up until last night. I studied, had always been a top student. I never hurt anyone... unless they messed with someone I loved.

"We'll take that as a yes." Clyde said at my silence.

It was drugs, jail or death. What kind of twisted decision was that? They all practically meant the end of my life.

"And... and if I get caught?" I didn't have a choice here, but doing what they wanted would be putting my entire future at risk...

"On purpose? I'm sure you know jail's not a very nice place for a decent boy like you, add my gang to that mix and you're going to be wishing you were on the other side of that barrel last night." I kissed my teeth as the leader spoke, "Your room is upstairs." He added.

"My – my room?" I looked up shocked, "You can't – you cannot keep me here." I said panicking slightly.

"Until we trust that you understand enough to be sent back to school without running your mouth, you will be kept here."

"Back to school? Look, I'm not going to tell anyone about your fucking shit –" I cried out as I received a blow to my head from Clyde's gun and lifted my hands in an attempt to block any other swings but he spoke instead of swinging again.

"Your life is in our hands, have some fucking respect, Kid." He said.

I swallowed shifting further away from him slightly on the couch I was on.

"How long?" I glared at the leader, "If I do this, how long do I have to?"

"As long as I want you to." He shrugged before looking at his watch, "Ben." He looked across the room to someone behind me before he walked out followed by everyone except Clyde.

"Get up." Clyde pointed his gun at me like I would even consider attacking him, I was not stupid; I did what he said and he shoved me towards the door.

"You don't have to push me; I'm not the one that's armed." I hissed at him as I began to walk out of the room.

His response was giving me another hard shove in my back making me stumble up the stairs. I grit my teeth as we reached the top and he shoved me towards a room down the hall before he opened the door.

"This is your room." He pushed me into it.

I shot him a glare and reached into my pockets but my hand clasped around a box too small and thick to be what I was looking for.

"Where's my phone?" I looked back at him.

"’Fuck you need a phone for?" He frowned.

"To call my friends and tell them I'm alright before police come looking for me." I glared at him.

He rolled his eyes but he reached into his pocket and chucked his phone at me. I caught it and sighed. Luckily I knew Jordan's number out of my head. I dialled it while Clyde stood playing with his gun's safety while it was aimed at me. I wanted to finish the call quickly so he would leave me alone.

"Jordan, who is this?" Jordan's voice sounded into my ear.

"Hey, it's –" I began.

"Alex, you went out?" he cut me off. “Whose phone are you calling from?”

"Sort of. My phone’s dead, I'll be visiting someone for a while; it's kind of an emergency, so I won't be home soon." I said.

"'Someone'? Who? There are no emergencies around me or any of the others. You didn't even give me a heads up. Do you know how fucking worried I was when I could not reach you seeing that some people got killed not that far from our house last night?"

Since my mother and father had been my only family, I had no family to visit. Well, except Jordan, Claire and Shiloh's families. They were sort of like my family, I mean Jordan's mother was pretty much my own. She would obsess over me when I was sick, call to check up on me once a week and pester me about my grades. I guess Jordan really was like my own brother.

"I know, I'm sorry. It really is an emergency. Look, I was just calling to tell you I'm fine. Could you relay this to... uh... the others." I glanced at Clyde to see him smirking as he watched me.

"Why do you sound like you're speaking in code?" Jordan chuckled. "Fine, I'll tell them. But you have to promise to come to Sarah's birthday in a few weeks." He said. Sarah was his cousin; she would be having a massive birthday bash to celebrate her 21st birthday at the beach.

"What? You know that's not going to happen." I said.

"Then relay the message yourself, Alexander." He said, I could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

"Damn it. Fine." I hissed, "I'll be there." I really didn't know how the hell I would be there.

"Great. See you at school." He chuckled.

"Whatever." I hung up pretty mad at him. I tossed Clyde's phone back at him and he caught it.

"You're pretty dumb if you think I haven't seen you with your friends." He said.

"Don't you have something to smoke or someone to hurt or bully to make your miserable life look meaningful or at least a little better to you?" I asked glaring at him. He chuckled.

"A mouth like that is going to get you pretty beat up in this house." He said sliding his phone into his pocket before he turned to leave.

"Wait, what am I supposed to do now?" I asked. He gave me a look that clearly said, 'I don't care' before he disappeared into the hallway.

I grit my teeth and turned to look at the window, but to my dismay it had bars across it. If I left, I would have to leave university because they knew I went there. If I stayed, they would let me keep going, as long as I sold crap for them. How the hell was I supposed to sell it anyway? I knew less about drugs than I did parties and that was saying something. I had never done or touched anything even remotely illegal before.

I ran my eyes over the room looking for some sort of weapon. If I was leaving this room, I was NOT leaving it empty handed. The room was pretty empty. It had a bed, wardrobe, a night stand on either side of the bed and a dresser, the walls were painted a pale white but there was nothing to decorate anything or make it look like this was someone’s personal bedroom. Breaking the mirror on the dresser would make too much noise and I could not take out the light bulb...

Walking into the bathroom that the room was attached to, I stopped when I saw that it was connected to another room by a door on the other side. I frowned at the thought that I would be sharing with someone, was it another person they kidnapped?

I walked over to the door and tried to open it but it was locked so I turned to continue my search for a weapon and ran my eyes over the bathroom; it had a smell to it. It smelt like aftershave and strong cologne, definitely a male's bathroom that had been used recently. I walked over to the medicine cabinet and pulled it open. It was filled with the usual things, including one toothbrush which I assumed was not for me, and shaving razors.

I grabbed the razor and unclipped it so the blades were detachable and slid one onto my palm, it would only be effective in close combat but I would just have to work with that. After hiding the rest of the razor above the cabinet, I shut the cabinet and frowned as I came face-to-face with myself and my eyes were drawn to the blue on my temple. I lifted my hand but hissed when my fingers brushed over it. That asshole... I cringed as the man's face shone in my mind with the gunshot wound to his head and ran my hands over my face to cover it.

Stop thinking about it, it was self defence.

You killed him!

I didn't mean to!

Yeah, well, bullets to the head have that effect on people.

I shook my head covering my ears despite the vice being in my mind. I cannot think about that now, I need to focus on right now. I walked out of the bathroom back into 'my' room and out of it into the hallway. My eyes searched the hall for someone else before I made my way downstairs, slowly, with the blade in my hand.

I kept searching for movement or sound as I made my way through the house looking for an exit. I didn't really know what I was doing, I was just moving.

I let out a cry when I was suddenly shoved before I turned and threw my hand across whatever had shoved me. I heard a painful scream and froze realising I had actually cut someone. I didn't plan on actually using the blade when I had taken it; just threaten to, besides, having it made me feel somewhat safer. I let out a grunt as something smashed into my stomach sending me to my knees before a boot stepped on my hand forcing me to drop the blade as my fingers began feeling painfully crashed under the weight put on the shoe while I received another kick and then another.

"What the fuck is going on here?"

The kicking stopped instantly.

"Fuck, Ben, take care of your face." I looked up and saw that I had cut him, Ben, horizontally on his face, going across his nose. He was bleeding quite heavily as he tried to cover it and for a second I was horrified that if I had sliced higher I would have blinded him but I was drawn back to my position as I received a kick to my temple from one of the two men that had been kicking me causing me to cough. "Stop that." My eyes shifted to the man from earlier, their leader, "Can't you behave?" he frowned down at me. I didn't reply as I tried to move my hand from under the man's shoe but it only pressed down harder and I hissed. "Well, until you decide to, you will be in your room." He knelt down to me before he pulled a syringe from his jacket.

"No – wait – what is that –?" I tried to move way but my chest was stepped on pinning me further to the floor, "No, no, don't – get the hell away from me –" I heard some chuckles before I felt a needle poke into my neck and the leader emptied the syringe into my blood.

In just a few seconds while I worried about what dug he could have possibly just put into me, I felt woozy before everything became a colourful blur and then went black.

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