4 --- 4

    Dale was a weakling, he knew it and so did everyone else. He never stood up for himself or anybody else for that matter. He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror and felt nauseated like he always does.

He was fat and ugly with no distinguishable appearance or character. The only thing of worth was the dark crown tattoo on his forehead. He knew he didn't deserve it. He didn't have what it takes to be one of the kingpins of Harlem. When he broke out he thought things were going to change for him but he was still same old Dale. He had one job, only one and it was to take care of Nico. He had failed miserably.

They called him all kinds of names when he objected to celebrating Nico's birthday in enemy territory. Nico had stolen the keys to one of king's luxury homes from Charlie. He agreed and stopped arguing when Blaine called him a *pussy* , he hated that name.

The plan was to throw a little party and get out of there before Charlie noticed. Then it had all gone wrong. Dale had taken a quick trip to the bathroom when he heard screams. He came out to see Victor's group crashing the party, he spotted two of them but sensed there could be more. Dale was about to step into view and help his friends, but then he saw Luke get killed by the girl.

He stopped in his tracks in shock. *Who was he kidding?* He could not help them. He turned and created a portal away from the house. He did what he did best, he ran.

When he got back to Harlem, he went straight to the Devil's eye like nothing had happened. He called Nico and Blaine's cell phones repeatedly but none of them answered. He assumed the worst, they were dead.

Now here he was in the bathroom thinking of how best to break it to Charlie that he failed to protect his cousin who could have given up their hide out.

"You are not weak." He told himself in the mirror. He took a deep breath. He was going to tell Charlie and accept any punishment.                         

As soon as he stepped out of the bathroom, loud gunshots filled his ears. Too late, Victor was attacking.

But could they win? Devil's eye was protected by heavily armed human guards. They even scared him sometimes. Dale hoped they were enough to keep victor and his team away. The gunshots reduced gradually before fading into nothing. It became so silent that all Dale could hear was his own thundering heartbeat.

He jumped at the sound of a loud crash. He did not know how but he knew what the sound was. The heavily reinforced doors that guarded the building had gone down and a mini war had erupted downstairs.

   Dale took another deep breath, he was not going to run this time and he was going down to help. He didn't need to. The fight came to meet him in form of Minx. She appeared the same way she had when she killed Luke except her artificially pink hair was disheveled and her bright pink jacket was torn in several places. She still managed to look ferocious. She looked just like a character in a horror film he pretended didn't scare him.

Dale abandoned all his bravado and ran as fast as his fat pudgy legs could carry him. He ripped open a portal and dived through it. He fell heavily on the cold empty street. He turned and saw Minx on the other side. She couldn't follow him for fear of being trapped in an unknown place. Dale hastily clicked his fingers and closed the portal.

He lay on the floor for a full ten minutes before bursting into tears, oh fuck, he had done it again.