by Sam Crescent
I smiled, remembering when my dad actually brought his mistress home. He’d wanted her to become a nanny, even though there were no young kids. My mom went completely crazy. The mistress didn’t last the night. In our world, our women, unless they were trained properly, they were just as violent as the men. My dad liked my mom crazy. He liked her drawing blood, fighting for him. Sometimes, I didn’t even believe he fucked around on her, he just liked to use her to get his kicks.
Strong women were rare. For as many who had a backbone and could shoot their husband down, I’d also witnessed those who slowly succumbed to the numbness of pills and drink. This wasn’t an easy life for anyone. It was hard, painful, and not in the least bit fun.
“It’s Vadik’s turn to say what we’re doing,” I said, looking toward the back.
Vadik smirked. No one ever liked what he wanted to do. Where all of us embraced our life, Vadik made sure we had some time where we were actually eighteen-year-olds. He wasn’t weak. No, to cross him got you killed. I’d seen how he fought, and his loyalty was to us four. Not to his father, or our combined fathers, but to us. One day, all four of us would take over, and it would be us running things. Until then, he kept us balanced.
Which was why, an hour later, with burgers and fries, we sat in the movie theater, watching some action film.
Gael would be pissed, but he liked to just relax as well.
River always took the opportunity to sleep. Watching a movie, with the three of us guarding his back, it was roughly the only time he relaxed. The Block family had a lot of enemies. River hadn’t been the same since he was taken for three days when he was sixteen years old. Mistakes had been made, and River paid the price. Half of the scars on his body were from that time. Three days could kill a person. It had messed River up and it meant he spent a great deal of time training. He got cut up really bad, and it was what had created his fascination with knives.
No one would ever be able to get the drop on him. For hours, we’d sit around a junkyard as River threw blade after blade at a target. Not once would he stop until every single knife he threw hit its target.
This made him feel safe.
Vadik nudged my shoulder. “Word is out that some pimps got through security and are patrolling the grounds, waiting for the opportunity to strike. My dad gave me the warning. It’s an immediate kill. Don’t ask questions.” He held up his cell phone, and I looked at the men.
I nodded. When River woke up, he’d be given the update. Gael waved his hand, letting us know he heard.
Taking a bite of my burger, I leaned back, but it wasn’t the movie I watched. No, for some strange reason, I thought about Emily Crane.
My dad had told me to watch my back, to keep an eye out. He wanted to know of any proposed marriages to her, or if she gave even a hint of what her father was like. So far, nothing. I’d known her since kindergarten. Always kept to herself. Like most of us, she had bruises on rare occasions.
There was no reason for us to question where they came from. It was like how one of us could come in with a broken bone. Everyone would know why, but nothing would be done.
To many, we were the scum of civilization. But the truth was we were the fucking kings of the underground. The monsters people were afraid of, and everyone had offspring, even those that people wished just faded into nothing. My father was responsible for a lot of pain and suffering. His name came with a sneer attached, and what was more, he embraced it. As he’d told me, fear is power, and if I didn’t learn to harness it, I was worth nothing to him. What I had to do was prove myself.
All of us had proven what we were capable of.
Each of us had a nickname. I was known as the bogeyman. I had no feelings and I struck where it hurt the most.
I liked my nickname, and I intended to live up to every single letter of it.
Chapter Two
Vadik
I hated school.
It was the single most annoying part of my life. This was pointless. I got the only education I needed at home. I wasn’t stupid. I didn’t need to know history or physical education. Dribbling a ball didn’t appeal to me. Training, math, and English, that was all I needed to take over from my father. That, and the ability to take a beating.
That was one of the first rules I was taught from the moment I turned twelve. No man in the Keller line would ever be a wimp. We had to be able to take a beating, to not break, and so, on weekends, he tortured his son. He made me the man I was today, hungry and desperate for the chance to get the hell out of here.
Yes, this was hell, but I relished it. The pointlessness of it all. The only thing I lived for was when one of these pieces of shit thought they could take us. Then the real fun happened. But learning, giggling girls, I hated it. Real lessons came in power, in fear.
Right now, Lauren was the current irritation on my never-ending list. Gael had her sitting on his lap, his hand beneath her skirt. If she didn’t shut up, I was going to cause a war. She wanted to get all of us between her thighs. Lauren was a low, which meant her family wasn’t powerful. They had some money, but it was handed down. They had enough to get into this school, but nothing more. Their sons or daughters were often sent to snag a rich man or a position near someone like me.
Lauren was trying to find anyone who would give her a good life. She was useless. There was no power there, and her giggle pissed me off. It was fake.
I couldn’t stand fake people. I’d rather kill them.
“I bet you’d let me fuck you right here, wouldn’t you?” Gael asked.
“Not while I’m eating,” Caleb said.
River snorted. “Like it would matter. She is just hungry for cock. Any cock that has enough money to keep her in a good life.”
Gael had thrown the test down, and Lauren hadn’t passed. He dropped her to the floor as if she was nothing and turned his back to her. The women only got one chance, and if the guys didn’t want her, she was done for.
Lauren had been passed around by so many of the guys. She was known for being easy, and now she had tried her shot at the Monsters’ table and wasn’t up to scratch. The rumors about us always ran wild. I liked them. Not talking too much gave me an edge. Talking made shit worse and in our world, being quiet saved your ass. At least, most often, it saved my ass.
People didn’t exactly know how we ran things. We were a unit. We played with women, and on occasion, we shared them. There was nothing more satisfying than watching a woman beg for all of us, to pass her boundaries and to actually attempt to win us over.
Women of all ages had tried.
None of them had kept our attention.
Commotion in the cafeteria line caught my attention.
Drake was there as he always was, causing shit. He’d picked up the tray of lasagna and threw it across the cafeteria. Next, he jumped across the counter, grabbed the guy who served, and started to bash his head against the glass.
Security was on their way. Drake was making a nuisance of himself. So long as he left us alone, I didn’t give a shit, but we liked peace and quiet at lunch unless we were the ones giving out the pain.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted her. Emily Crane. It was hard to miss her. Long blonde hair, full, red lips, beautiful, with green eyes that should only look at rainbows and flowers. When I took the time to look at her, I saw pain. I saw something else, acceptance. She knew who she was, what we were, and what she needed to do.
I flicked my tongue across my lip.
The uniform the girls were forced to wear didn’t hide her body. She wore a knee-length skirt, and she hadn’t hiked it up to catch sight of her legs. On her plate was a slice of pizza and what appeared to be a bunch of fries.
She stepped back, taking deep breaths. Her eyes closed and her lips moved, giving away to the countdown clearly going on inside her head. She hated it here as much as we did, but that was fine.
I picked up a fry and popped it into my mouth, wondering what it would be like to have her squirming on my lap.
No one knew anything about Emily. She didn’t mingle with any crowds.
We knew who her father was, which wasn’t a whole lot of information. No guy sniffed around her.
“He’s starting to piss me off,” Caleb said.
“He needs to be controlled,” this came from River.
Gael snorted. “Please, all he’s doing is trying to show daddy he’s got a big cock. It doesn’t take a genius to know he’s got parental issues a mile long. He’s much more suited to the prissy school. He’d fit in much better. Let’s face it, most of his kind are often sent into obscurity.”
“Look at you, using all your big words,” I said. “You fucking the English professor?”
Caleb snorted. “I doubt it. I believe his ass is getting used in a couple of weeks.”
We all knew what happened when Mr. Bucati went to Caleb’s father. It was all a play to keep him in his place.
Bucati thought he was better than all of us, and it was up to Caleb’s daddy to put him in his place.
Shaking my head, I glanced back to see Emily had taken a seat near the doors. She always had her back to the wall. To anyone who hadn’t been watching her for the past couple of years, people would assume she was oblivious to the world around her.
Emily was always tense.
She was ready to fight if needed. It was what constantly drew me. There was a darkness within her that she kept in check. I wanted to tease it out, to find the woman she kept trapped inside.
We all had monsters lurking beneath the surface. The difference between us and everyone else was we embraced it.
What was Emily hiding? Why didn’t she want to come out and play?
“I think it’s your turn to use your knife,” Gael said.
“We’re still talking about the temperamental bastard?” I looked over to see not one, but four security guys restraining him.
This was what separated Drake from us. The guards wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near us. They’d try to intimidate, but they knew who our daddies were, and pushing us would get them fired or dead. I didn’t actually know which one would be the kinder of two evils.
“I’m bored,” River said. “You think if I cut him up, it would be okay?”
“I don’t think anyone gives a shit about Drake which is why he’s always causing trouble.” I was done with this conversation. Getting to my feet, I stepped away from the table and walked away.
It was rare for us to go our separate ways, but it happened. Leaving the cafeteria, I headed down to art class and took my seat in the back. Staring at the blank canvas, which I’d been doing for weeks, I waited for the classroom to fill.
As usual, the teacher was late, but seeing Emily arrive first made me smile. She hated art class. She didn’t have the talent for it, but I found out her father fucked the art teacher, and it gave him a reason to screw her at school. Lame, but that was our parents for you. The one thing you’d learn about your parents, at least if they were ours, was that they were so fucking selfish. In this life, you often have to take care of number one.
Emily sat in front of me. She wasn’t the kind of person to be carrying a bag. It was always in her locker. The only times I ever saw her with it were when she entered school and left.
She ran her fingers through her long, blonde locks, pulling them back. I watched as she used the hair band from her wrist and began to secure her hair into a messy bun on top. She tilted her head left then right before rolling her shoulders.
Again, this was a little routine she seemed to have down. Smiling to myself, I picked up my pencil, and like every single class before, I drew.
The life I had and the one I was running toward wasn’t designed for a normal kid. No one in this school was like other eighteen-year-olds out there in the easy world. This school wasn’t designed for civilians or for what I considered normal. Seeing what Drake did was a clear enough sign of just how messed-up this school was, and what was more, people liked it that way a lot more than they let on. This was who we were.
When the teacher entered, the class didn’t go silent. I was already drawing, so the woman would leave me alone, but as usual, the first person she went to was Emily.
Another smile graced my lips as I watched her gently place a hand on Emily’s shoulder, leaning down.
The complete show of favoritism was clear for all to see. What saved Emily was the fact like all the other times before, she brushed the woman’s hand off her shoulder, picked up a piece of charcoal, and got to work on scrubbing some kind of mess.
By the end of class, Emily would have, in some way, ruined the teacher’s clean white shirt.
I didn’t make it a habit to remember teachers’ names. My father once told me to keep people in their place. You have to show how little they mean to you. Names were important. They were what everyone was given at birth. It was who you were. It was what made you you. Personally, I thought it was all a lot of bullshit, but what did I know? All I knew was the teachers kept a wide berth of me, and for that, I never remembered their names.
Like now, the teacher in question had come around to my domain. My mask was firmly in place even though on the inside, I was pissing myself with laughter. She wouldn’t come too close.
Silence unnerved a lot of people.
My drawing, like so many others, was of Emily. Of course, no one actually knew that as each of my pieces lacked a head. Just a body. What I’d memorized from seeing her in the hallway, or during physical education.
The only other way for me to get a better feel for her would be to touch her. To see her completely naked, and if the rumors are true, her body would be as decorated as mine often was.
Our fathers beat us to be stronger.
I got that.
To take over from the family, you had to be strong. Something didn’t sit well with me, though. Emily had an older brother. She wouldn’t be taking over the family line. Her life had probably been mapped out with a husband waiting to claim her. She didn’t need to be beaten, but I’d already seen the clear signs she had been.
I swiped a hand down my face in an attempt to clear my thoughts of the rising anger, but it didn’t help.
I wanted to kill, and Emily’s father was my target.
Chapter Three
River
My parents were fighting again.
This wasn’t new news. Nothing but old. They fought over nothing. This latest one, my dad had a nice, young, twentysomething secretary. Let’s face it, he was fucking her. I listened to one of the many conversations where my parents talked and my dad was insistent this young woman was highly competent and had made his life easier.
My curiosity had been piqued, so I did no more than introduce myself to her and asked a few random, easy questions.
There was no brain there.
Just a good body, plump lips, and my dad’s insatiable desire to fuck. His needs were well-known in the Monsters’ Crew. They used him as necessary to gain information from unsuspecting women.
I believed my father loved Mom. In fact, I had no doubt. This brand-new secretary was just a means to an end. She probably worked for the enemy and he was using his position and dick to make himself all comfortable with her.
Either way, I was bored.
Getting to my feet, I walked past the office where she was once again threatening to leave. Wives did leave, for a short time, but then life as a civilian was hard work. Cops, the real ones that couldn’t be bought off, would circle like vultures, waiting to swoop down and snap them up.
Our lives were a constant balance between getting caught and being fucked. Most of the time, I liked it. When it came to my parents, if my mother left, it would throw my dad off his game.
See, love.
Odd though it was, he had it bad for my mom.
Business always came first.
Loyalty to a wife was always put on hold if the needs of the crew came first.
I slipped out of the house, breathing in the cool air. The two guards who weren’t supposed
to be seen by me were already following me. They’d been guarding me for two years now. They weren’t very good at it. I often gave them the slip, and they didn’t have a clue where to look for me.
Tonight, though, with the threats surrounding us, I didn’t mind them tagging along as I made my way to Gael’s house.
Caleb’s, Gael’s, Vadik’s, and my house were the biggest four within the neighborhood. The way the streets were set up, we controlled the four corners, and the smaller houses were filled with our subjects. Our houses could be seen for miles and for most, it was nothing more than a reminder about what we could do and the power we held within our grasp. Nothing could get past us. We knew everything.
I didn’t bother to knock as I got to Gael’s house. Stepping inside, I instantly heard the cries.
The kitchen staff were engrossed in their job of feeding.
Weaving my way through, I held my knife in my grip. A look a lot of people had gotten used to. Being taken at sixteen, tortured, and filled with the knowledge you had a whole lot of enemies you didn’t know would do that for you. It happened to me, which pissed me off.
My dad caught the guys who’d slashed me up. The scars still decorated my body, and he’d handed the man to me as a gift with a giant pink bow.
I’d always been fascinated by pink. I didn’t know why. It was a color I liked. No one would laugh at me though.
Along with being taken, I’d become a keen marksman with my knife.
I didn’t have to get far to find the cause of all the moaning.
Gael sat on the stairs, trying to perfect his trick of running a lighter through his fingers. He didn’t like how I was able to do it with a knife. He’d been trying for months, and still no such luck.
Staying out of the way of the beating that was happening, I slid down next to Gael.
“What’s going on?”
“Bleeding dude tried to go to the cops. Of course, the cops delivered him here. He had a whole load of documents ready and waiting to send to the feds.” Gael winced.