Chapter 11 - Why do these things keep happening?

It had been a few weeks and everything had seemingly gone back to normal. School was back on and the girls had settled quite a bit compared to the last term. They seem to have finally picked up on the fact that Maddy wouldn't let them near Klyde. It was a normal day until about mid day..

"ALL OF YOU ON THE GROUND!" A man yelled, firing a gunshot into the air, his comrsdes surrounding the students and staff, herding them like sheep. "NOW WHO'S GONNA TELL ME WHERE I CAN FIND A KID NAMED KLYDE?" There was silence. Then Klyde stood and stared the man down.

"There you are. Get over here!" Klyde calmly walked towards the man. Once he was about a metre away the man held the gun up to Klyde's head.

"I can't tell whether you're stupid as hell or kinda brave but still stupid." Said the man. "Where's the bosses daughter?"

"You won't find her here."

"That wasn't my question."

"I know." Klyde suddenly flipped the gun out of the man's hand and held it to his shoulder. "Now you do the talking. Who are you?"

"you think you scare me? You don't have the guts to pull the trigger."

Klyde raised an eyebrow but otherwise was unmoving.

"What is your name." klyde repeated, but slower. The man then realised Klyde was not fooling around.

"Jack Aligan."

"And you work for Mr Verdensel?"

"HAH! That idiot? No way, he's a friend of my boss but my boss has his own issues with you, and Mr Verdensel's daughter."

"What do they want with us?" All the other men had their guns aimed at Klyde, he didn't seem bothered by it though. Then out of nowhere police arrived and took down the men with guns. Turns out they were part of some sort of wanted Mafia. Who knows how much bigger this group actually was, but Klyde already knew there was going to be more encounters.

That afternoon Klyde got home and found everyone in the living room. There were party decorations? And then it hit him, it certainly explained why Maddy decided to take the day off.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY KLYDE!" They yelled excitedly. He stood there, not knowing how to react.

"Uh, thanks guys." They laughed at his awkward reaction then one by one came and hugged him. Maddy was last and after hugging him held out a small wrapped box looking thing, "what's this?" Klyde said to her as he took it. "It's my birthday present for you silly. Hurry up and open it." he unwrapped it and opened the little box, inside was a necklace with a dragon pendant.

"Well? What do you think Klyde? Do you like it?"

"Yeah it's, beautiful."

"Go on, put it on. Or do you need me to?"

"You can do it." She wrapped it around his neck and joined it at the back.

"There, it looks good on you."

"Heh, thank you."

They watched movies and had food and drinks for the rest of that afternoon, birthday cake and presents, it was the first time his family had seen him genuinely smile in years. After the celebrating they all went to bed and slept quite peacefully.

The next morning was peaceful, but that was shortlasting. A massive fire had broken out in city Central where election speeches were being held. Someone obviously didn't like the speakers. Klyde arrived on the scene fully outfitted and began rescuing people. Once all were secure he pounced on the unsuspecting man who was responsible. "GET OFF ME!" The man screamed. "Why did you set the fire." Klyde said. "I was doing as I was instructed, I'm getting paid for this!" "You're under arrest for this." "YOU CAN'T ARREST ME! I WOULD'VE LOST EVERYTHING IF I DIDN'T DO THIS! Besides you don't have the authority!" "They do." The police had them circled and cuffed the man. "DAMN YOU!" He screamed as he was dragged away.

Once the fire was out Klyde returned home. Maddy hugged him as he walked through the front door. "You seem to be getting good at the whole hero thing." "I suppose." "Would it be concidered a hobby? Or a job?" "community service." she laughed, "that works."

Maddy noticed that Klyde had a slight limp, "You alright Klyde?" "Yeah I'm fine, why?" "You're um, you're limping a bit." "I am?" "Yeah. You hurt your leg?" "No." "So if I do this.." she poked his left leg and he winced slightly in pain. "You are hurt! Why didn't you tell me?" "It's nothing, just some bruising." She gave him a face of which he assumed meant 'you need to tell me these things' or 'stop hiding it'. "Fine, I hit it on a metal pillar when I pounced the guy." "Ouch, it isn't cut or bleeding though?" "No, just bruising and maybe a minor fracture, it'll be fine in a day or two." She sighed, "Alright."

A couple days went by and Klyde was grocery shopping when a group of about four or five men with guns walked into the corner store. "Nobody move!" The one that appeared to be leading them walked up to Klyde. "You, our boss wants you, come quietly." "Why should I? Klyde replied." "'Cus otherwise I'll put a bullet in each of your legs so you can't run away." "Try it, I dare you." Klyde was unmoving and had a blank expression on his face. As the guy moved to aim Klyde sprung into action, flinging the gun out of the man's hand then using a nearby mop to trip the rest of the guys, gunshots were fired but no civilians were hit, two of the gang men in the other hand had been hit, one in the shoulder, the other the thigh. "Are you crazy?! Someone could've been killed!" "But no one was, it went exactly as I planned." The man's face went from shock to terror as he realised that Klyde was not messing around, if he had wanted, all the men that had entered could have been killed. The counter lady had called the cops and they arrived quickly, they took the weapons that Klyde had collected in a plastic bag and they were off. "You're a hero!" one person said. "how did you do that?" said another. Klyde merely said he had taken self defence classes and went back to his grocery shopping.

After about twenty minutes Klyde returned home, as he entered the door he said "stupid gang people, why do they keep bothering me." "Eh? Those gang guys came back?" "Yeah, five of them, all armed, walked into the store." "No one got hurt?" "Only their own guys." "Hah! You must've taught them a good lesson then huh?" "I suppose you could put it that way." "she dragged him to the lounge then sat him down, sat next to him and looked as if she was waiting for something. "I'm ready." "For what?" "For you to tell me the story of what happened silly." "It isn't much of a story but if you insist."

He spent the next thirty minutes explaining to her what happened while the adults put away the groceries. Afterwards they had a peaceful dinner then all went off to bed. Klyde didn't sleep however. And a good thing that turned out to be, he had been watching out the window and saw a figure approaching.

"that's the guy from home." whispered Lila. "What're you doing up?" Klyde said to her.

"I couldn't sleep."

"I see. Wait Lila, you said that's the guy?"

"Yeah." Klyde's eyes widened then he sprinted out and said to Lila.

"Get everyone up, now."

As he disappeared down the stairs. She did as instructed and they called the cops whilst watching Klyde tackle the man to the ground, the two of them started wrestling in the long grass in the darkness.