11:48pm
He wondered how long he’d have to wait before he would venture into those guys. The shopkeeper who’d noticed Kevin sitting there for a while came to him and asked “sire, is there anything I can help you with?”
After a short silence, Kevin said to him, “I will have a bottle of whiskey…”
The shopkeeper left to get what he had requested for. He soon arrived with a bottle of whiskey along with a bottle opener. He placed them on the table before him.
“Thank you” he quickly opened the bottle.
“Wait, please don’t go…” he said to the shopkeeper stopping him mid-way into his store.
“I am sitting out here waiting for someone, but I don’t really know where they might be. Maybe you could help me…”
“A friend of yours?” the shopkeeper asked.
“Six guys that usually hang around here late at night… know where I can find them?”
The look on the shopkeepers face suddenly went dark. “Are you a cop?” He asked cautiously
“No no…” Kevin laughed trying not to spook the shopkeeper but the shopkeeper wasn’t buying his act.
“Look man…” the shopkeeper lean in close to him and said to him in a whisper “… I don’t want any trouble.”
Kevin noticed how troubled the shopkeeper looked. He could tell the shopkeeper knew exactly who he was talking about.
“I don’t want any trouble either. I just want to know where I can find them, then I’d be on my way.”
“Really man, I don’t know… You don’t find them- they find you. You really should get going now, it’s getting really dark.” the shopkeeper left in a hurry into his store.
He noticed how scared the shopkeeper looked when he talked to him about them.
…If it’s a guy, they’d beat him up and collect all of his possession… If he is lucky, they’d let him live.
Madelia’s words were now starting to get to him now. He took a look at the big clock.
A minute pass midnight.
He took a look around, the streets was empty and dead silent. He was the only human still outside the cold dark street.
The shopkeeper had already locked up.
Then, he saw them! Some guys started coming out of some dark spot on the street. They were all walking towards were he sat.
“One, two, three, four, five…six. It’s definitely these guys.” He said.
He tried to keep his cool as they walked up to him. He took the whiskey bottle and emptied it into his mouth in one dose. Then he set the bottle on the table.
They all got to where he was then surrounded him.
“Well, well. What do we have here?” one of them spoke in a rough voice “… a guy drinking all by himself out on a lonely dark street… been long since I witnessed a scene like this one.”
“Actually… I was waiting for you guys.” Kevin said with a firm smile across his face. Then he stood from the chair which he sat looking into their faces.
They were giving looks to one another, then they suddenly burst into a loud laugh. Kevin also laughed along with them.
They all suddenly stopped laughing and the guy with the rough voice walk up to him and then spoke in his face “you’ve got a problem… speak up!”
“Y’all messed with a girl yester night and to be honest, am not happy about it. I ain’t gonna let this one slide” Kevin spoke in his face.
There was a long silence between them. They were all giving each other that looks again, then they all roar into a loud laughter. Kevin also laughed along with them. Then they stopped.
The rough guy came closer to him. “You’ve got guts I give you that, coming out here alone in the dark and threatening us. If you say one more word, am gonna hurt you really really…”
Before he could finish, Kevin nodded him on the face so hard that he broke his nose. He retracted backward letting out a loud horrific cry.
“My nose!” He cried.
“The son of a bitch broke my fuck’n nose!” He cursed holding his broken nose.
He quickly turned to look at the rest of his gang member. “Why are y’all standing there just looking at me like some bunch of untrained assholes? This motherfucker broke my fuck’n nose and y’all are just going to stand there watch me bleed?”
They all swing into action. They immediately lunched at Kevin with their fist folded at him.
Kevin quickly dived and dough through their punches they kept throwing at him. He hit one of them hard on the face. He used his knee to kick another hard on the groin. Another came charging at him, he punched him hard on the chest, the impact sent him flying backward.
Suddenly, a punch he hadn’t expected landed on his face, he fall backward. It was the guy he had broken his nose.
They all rushed at Kevin, immediately he was down. They were all kicking and beating him while he was down. Another marched Kevin’s head pretty hard onto the floor. Then another two of them picked him from the ground, holding his arm to restrain him.
“Tough guy huh---” the guy whose nose had been broken said, walking up to him. He slammed his fist repeatedly on his palm.
When he reached where they were they stood, he thrust his fist on Kevin’s face breaking his nose. Kevin let out a loud frustrating groan.
The thug then rubbed his nose with the tip of his finger and then examined the stain of blood. Then he said, “no one messes with Shady and get away with it.” He then hit Kevin hard below his abdomen.
Kevin’s eyes widened at the sharp pain he felt.
The rest of the gang quickly joined in beating him up while his arms were being held firmly. Kevin groaned in pains while they kept punching and beating him hard.
They threw him onto the floor and started kicking and marching him down.
A car suddenly stopped across the roadside.
“Hey! Hey! We gotta go now” one of them who had spotted the car alerted the others.
A man quickly got off the car. He held up a gun as he hurried towards them.
“Hey!” he shouted out at them and then fired into the air. Then gunshot echoed loudly throughout the dark street, then they all dispatched quickly leaving Kevin lying there on the floor.
The man quickly fired at them. One of them fell on the floor while attempting to flee. His legs had been injured by the bullet. He screamed loudly as he held the Wounded Knee covering it up with his hands to stop the blood from rushing out.
In a desperate attempt to flee, He crawled on his knee trying to get away but the armed man quickly caught up with him and then grabbed him from the ground.
He held his hair up and then kicked him pretty hard on his knee. Again, he let out a loud horrible cry. He was bleeding out.
The man held his hair up and then looked into his face. “What’s your name?”
“Screw you.” The thug spat out.
The man immediately punched his broken nose. He spit out blood. Holding up his hair, he uttered in a harsh tone, “am not going to ask again, what’s your name?”
“Shady… the name’s Shady” the thug quickly said in a strained voice.
“Well Shady, am not going to lie… this is going to be a really bad night for you.”
He took out a handcuff and bounded shady with it. Then he picked him up and carried him to his car where he locked him up at the back seat then he went back for Kevin.
Kevin was nearly unconscious, and his cloths were torn as he laid there on the ground. He bent down and carried Kevin on his shoulder and then walked him to his car.
He got him in and then drove away…
He handed Kevin a little towel while he drive. “Here, clean yourself up. You look like hell right now.”
“Thanks…” Kevin took the towel from him and wiped the blood carefully from his face. He felt the bones in his nose had been totally crushed.
Kevin glared at Shady sitting behind. Shady sat there quietly in cuffs just looking straight ahead at both of them. He seemed to be in quite some pain.
Kevin then
turned to look at the car which he was sitting in. “…fancy car for a cop.” Kevin said trying to start a conversation.
A grin appeared on his face as he tried to focus on driving “I’m not a cop... just some special agent at a task force.”
Kevin raised his eye at him. “Sorry, my bad… I’m Kevin by the way and thanks for saving me back there.”
“My name is Derik…” he said without looking at him. “…and I wasn’t exactly saving you.”
“ The guy sitting back there is a registered sex offender and an armed robber. He had already been arrested but then he escaped about a week or two ago. Ever since then I’ve been trying to track him down along with the rest of his crow until yesterday when he, raped a young lady, seriously leaving her injured. Her dad commissioned me to find them and bring them to book.”
Kevin raised his brow in surprise quickly realizing who he was talking about. “Natasha?” He called out.
Derik turned to look at him equally surprised “you know Natasha?”
“I registered at a college yesterday that was when I met her...”
“You guys are colleagues, well that’s great.” Derik waved a smile at him.
Derik looked at the cuts on Kevin’s arm and the bruises on his face from being beaten up.
“What were you doing out there so late at night?” Derik asked, “Those guys could have killed you if I hadn’t showed up.”
“I couldn’t just sit back when I know some really bad people such as him…” Kevin nudged his head towards shady sitting at the back. “…who deserve to really be punished are walking around the street free.”
“… So you went in all by yourself, without a gun or anything to defend yourself? What were you thinking, seriously? Next time you want to do something like this, at least hold something to defend yourself.”
Kevin smiled “I’d keep that in mind next time.”
Kevin’s eyes fell on Derik’s gun which he had tucked in his trousers. “---just some special agent at a task force huh? So if you’re not a cop, why are you with a gun?”
“I work with the TCU.” Derik said trying to focus on driving.
“TCU?” Kevin asked with a puzzled look. “What’s that?”
“Threat Control Unit, not sure if you have heard about it” Derik replied. “it’s an agency primarily set up to combat secondary threats in the city which the cops can’t handle.”
Kevin chuckled “is there a threat in this city the cops can’t handle?”
After a brief silence, Derik finally spoke. “…am not supposed to be telling you this, but there are humans living in this city who can change themselves into some kind of animal. When they transform, they tend to get inhuman ability like strength or speed. That’s a threat not even the cops can handle.”
“Shape shifters?”
“Yes, like shape shifters… but that’s what we call them.”
For a moment, Kevin was silent.
“Hey, can you take these cuffs off me” shady grumbled from behind. “…these chains are killing my wrist”
Derik didn’t pay him any attention, he just kept on driving.
“You have a house?” Derik asked
“Just a few clicks from here, you’d come by a T-junction. Take the left.” Then silence fall in for a moment.
After another moment of total silence, Kevin asked, “This human who transforms into animals- what do you guys do with them when you find them.”
“We burn them alive.” Derik immediately said.
Then there was an awkward silence between them. A minute later Derik came by the T-junction, then he took the left.
“Have you seen one of them before?” Kevin asked
“-one of what?” Derik asked
“These shape shifters…”
“No…”
“Then how do you know they exist?”
“I was only employed recently. I haven’t been on the field with them yet. The people I work with at the TCU have seen a countless number of them.”
Kevin poked his head out through the window “pull up over here…”
Derik pulled up on the side lane and Kevin got out.
“What are you going to do with him?” he said gesturing towards Shady sitting at the back.
“I don’t know yet. It’s up to Natasha’s dad to decide how we deal with him.”
Kevin looked through the window then he asked him, “wanna come in and grab some dinner?”
“Nope-“he politely refused “I wouldn’t want to impose. I got to drop this guy at the station. I will drop by next time. This weekend, maybe?”
“Sure. You’re always welcomed here as my guest.” Kevin left a wide fake smile on his face as Derik drove away. The smile quickly faded after he drove off.
I don’t like that guy. Something about him seemed off.
Kevin could not place his finger on what it was but instincts told him to stay away from Derik.
Kevin quietly slides the window to the side. He was careful not to wake Cedric. He reached out to the switch and then turned the light on. His eye fell on the clock hanging on the wall.
2:14am
He knew he hadn’t been getting enough sleep lately for the past few weeks. He stood in front of the large mirror hanging on the wall beside his bed.
He just stared at his reflection. He noticed many bruises and cuts on his body as he stood there staring at his reflection. He exhaled loudly.
Kevin then took his shirt off and then dropped it on the bed beside him. He groaned from the pains he felt when he touched his broken nose.
For a moment, he stared blankly at his reflection. Then he slowly shut his eyes.
His hairs began to grow out from his body slowly, until it became fur. His nails grew longer until they became claws. His body structure grew larger and muscular. When he had opened his eyes, they were deeply colored and red. His pupil was heavily dilated. Long fangs hung from his lips.
He was now a transformed animal.
He just stood there staring at what he had become, sharp fang, sharp claws and a tail behind. He was no longer human. He then looked over the cuts and sores on his body, they had all been covered with animal hairs.
Slowly, the hairs began grow back inside until the furs completely disappeared from his skin. His nails grew back inside and his eyes returned to normal.
He gazed at his reflection on the mirror, he was human again. All the bruises, sore wounds, and cuts on his skin had completely disappeared. He ran his hands on his smooth skin, then he rubbed his face with his both palm. His eye suddenly moved to the corner. He knew there was someone else with him in the room.
“How long have you been standing there?” Kevin asked without turning to see who it was.
He heard the door close behind him. “I heard the door to your room open, I thought someone had broken in…so I had to come check out who it was. “ He heard Cedric spoke behind him.
Kevin turned around to see Cedric standing at the doorway holding up a lamp. Cedric reach for something in his pocket “I want you to have this.” He took out some pills and then threw it across the room at Kevin.
Kevin caught the pills in mid-air, then he examined it. “What’s this?”
“…something that might help you with your sleeping problem.”
“...a sleeping pill?” Kevin asked.
“Not exactly a sleeping pill, but that should help you sleep better.” Cedric took a cup sitting on the table. He poured water into the glass and then handed it over to Kevin.
“Here, Drink up.”
Kevin took the cup from him. He threw the pills into his mouth then drank some water. He swallowed.
Cedric smiled at him as he reached for the door. “…see you in the morning. Have a good night sleep.” he left the room and then closed the door.
Kevin exhaled loudly, he was feeling really exhausted after a long day. He threw himself on the bed and rolled his head to the side. He just kept staring at the window. Something outside the window
suddenly caught his attention. He quickly got up and walked up to the window. He then moved the curtain away.
Kevin jolted in surprise when he saw the big oak tree just outside his window. He quickly reached for his drawer and opened it. He pulled out his drawings and scattered them on the table before him. He picked up the drawing of the black birds sitting on an oak tree. Looking at the tree outside, he returned his gaze back to the drawing.
He suddenly realized the oak tree from his drawing was exactly the same as the one sitting outside his window. His eye widened.
It has always been here, the tree from my dream. How come I’ve never noticed it until now?
CHAPTER FIVE: A KIND GESTURE
Kevin woke up to bright rays of sunlight penetrating his room. It was a sunny morning. He sat up straight and stretched himself on the bed. He found some relieve when his bones cracked. He felt like that was the best sleep he’s had in a while.
That was the first night in many weeks he didn’t have any nightmare or disturbing dreams about his past. He then looked over the table close beside his bed. He picked up the pills Cedric had given him.
It had to be the pills Cedric gave to me… he thought looking over at it …whatever that was, am grateful to Cedric.
He looked up at the clock on the wall.
10:32am
Shit, I overslept!
He quickly got out of bed. He took out the trash that lay around and emptied it into the trash can. He took his brush and stood in front of the mirror to clean his teeth. He went over to his bed to arrange the sheet.
He quickly changed into his towel and then entered the bathroom for a quick shower. He went over to the door to look at to-do list which was written on a little note and pinned to the door.
Kevin read through them.
Grab some foodstuff from the market…
Visit Mirabel and her mum at the park…
Pay Natasha a visit at the hospital…
Go to the bar.
Wait, go to the bar? …I don’t think so.
He took out his pen and cross it off.
He accidentally stepped on something. He bent to see what it was.
The drawing with the black birds sitting on an oak tree...
He picked it from the floor and then looked over at it. He had fallen asleep last night trying to figure out what it meant. He looked through the window at the oak tree outside. It was exactly the same tree from his dream.
Wet Touch Page 5