The Dragon Brothers
The footsteps drew closer, the faces of the people in front of him weren't yet visible so he just assumed it was Liam and his pigs who put him here in this chair.
"Let me go Liam, if you don't. I'll call the cops" Ethan warned… but instead of getting a reply from them, the footsteps drew closer until they stood in front of him. He raised his eyes up to meet the hard and menacing glare of the most notorious boys he had ever seen.
"Toilet freak, meet my brothers" Liam said from behind them.
Ethan gulped hard in fear, he could feel his heart come up to his throat. Remember when he said he was gonna come out of his shell and stand up for himself? Well, he ate back his words, he returned in to his shell immediately, he couldn't stand to defend himself in front of these guys. He was done for. He couldn't help but wonder if the golden Necklace that Ray had given to him was actually to help him or put him in a bigger mess.
He felt a big hand over his neck and immediately he was pulled up. His thoughts ended and he was welcome back to the reality. The ropes around him snapped and cut, one of them pulled him up with his palm curved around his neck, he couldn't breathe, he coughed and wriggled, his legs kicking the air as they could barely touch the floor. His heart raced and skipped beaths at intervals.
"Actually, Ethan. I went to the pawn shop and I got to find out that gold necklace was almost 600 hundred dollars. Now imagine, we have probably 4 of such necklaces, we won't bother you anymore" Liam said looking up at Ethan who had already turned red from his inability to breath.
The guy left his neck and Ethan fell to the floor, he wheezed and coughed and took deep breaths. His hands rubbed his neck.
"I don't have any more necklace" Ethan replied breathlessly.
"You're gonna get it, and we don't care how. I'm giving you 42 hours then we'll come for you and you won't like it when the dragon brother comes for you mate. We ain't gonna be easy" One of the thugs said and turned around. The others followed and so did Liam. The door was left open so he stood up and made his way out through the door.
*********
Ray and the twins waited for Ethan after school but he didn't show up, they looked around the school but couldn't find him.
"It's unusual for Ethan to go without us" Ray stated after another fruitless search.
'Yeah, but whenever he has a bout with those bullies, he would just head home straight, so we can't see his beaten-up face" Jamie implored.
"Yeah but, I thought he said this would be the last time he would be seeing them because he gave them a necklace to appease them" Jenny pointed out as she turned her gaze to Ray who was the person that told her this earlier.
"He did what! You guy are keeping stuffs from me now!" Jamie exclaimed as he wasn't aware of what had transpired, his sister knew about it but he didn't.
"Yeah, but I don't think they'll come back.'' Ray said and looked around the almost empty school. The only students around were the girls who were hanging around the popular Preston high ballers. The cheer leaders and few nerds reading in the fields.
"We should head over to his house, just to be sure" Ray suggested. They agreed and left for his house.
On getting to his house, his mother announced to them that he wasn't yet back and she even thought that he was hanging out with them.
This git the trio worried, they waited till it was almost sun set but there was still no sign of him.
"It's getting late, I think we should go to the Cops and report the issue to them" Jamie suggested.
"Me too" Ray concurred.
"The police have this wait till 24 hours before reporting a missing person. And they probably won't take it seriouslybecause he is a black kid. Have you forgotten what happened to Danny from the Westridge" Jenny stated?
"Yeah, you're right"
"We should go home, there is little or nothing we can do now. Let just come back tomorrow" Ray said as he rose up to his feet.The others stood up and they notified Ethan's up before they walked out of the door.
"Ethan!" Jamie said immediately they stepped out the door. Ethan trailed weakly towards his house, his bag hung loosely down his hand, barely rubbing the floor.
The trio ran up to him, worried.
"what's wrong Ethan, you had us worried" Jenny inquired.
Ethan looked up to them and sighed; "those sons of a bitch came for me again. And this time Liam came with the dragon brothers"
"The dragon brothers?" the trio exclaimed in unison.
"yeah" Ethan mumbled and moved forward brushing past them.
"Ethan!" Ray called out and Ethan paused and turned to face him.
"Make yourself available on the WhatsApp group tonight, all of you. I think this has gone out of our control. We should just talk about it" Ray stated and they all nodded, Ethan went in to his house while the others dispersed.
Ray returned home worried. The dragon brothers weren't a force to reckon with, especially for a kid like Ethan. In the hood, the dragon brothers were the third most feared gangsters. They were popular because of the way they murdered their victims. Now for them to be in contact with Ethan, then something is definitely wrong. All these thoughts flooded his head all through his journey back to his house. It was already dark and the sun slowly made it journey down the red sky. He opened the door slowly, sneaked a peek into the house, no one was there, so he tipped toed in and closed the door slowly so as not to make a sound that would announce his arrival. He successfully shut it closed without letting out a sound.
"Where are coming back from by this time of the day?"
The familiar voice said from behind him causing him to freeze at the spot. Damn, he mumbled under his breath. His brain was void of any good excuse or a perfect lie to escape from Andrew tonight so he just turned around and decided to tell the truth.
"I stayed back at the school to finished a class test I missed during my days of absence from school" Ray replied suddenly, his brows curved slightly in shock of how his brain was able to manufacture such a wonderful lie.
"Oh, that's the disadvantage of skipping school" Andrew said and turned to walk away; "go upstairs and meet your mum, she's worried sick" he added before he trailed into the kitchen.
Ray let out a smile, at least he was able to get out of this one. He ran upstairs and met with his mum, after explaining his reason of coming late, he went to his room.
*****
After spending some quiet and private time in her room pondering over how her life was going, Elaine realized that they were no need being angry at her parents. After hours of convincing herself that her parents were doing all these to keep her safe, she decided to go down downstairs to them. She slowly climbed down the stairs, her dad was busy sorting through a couple of papers, or documents, she wasn't sure which one it was but he looked quite focused on what he was doing. The sound coming from the kitchen showed that her mum was also busy in the kitchen.
"Mum, dad" she said gaining their attention.
Her dad raised his gaze up to meet hers, while her mother stepped out of the kitchen.
"what's wrong sweet heart?" her mother asked as she walked up to her.
"I just wanted to apologize about my resent behavior. I have been strong headed despite all you guys have done to keep me, us safe. I'M SORRY" Elaine apologized.
"Awn" Mrs. Weston cooed and pulled her in for a warm embrace. Her dad also stood up and went in for the hug. The hug lingered for a while, this helped ease the tension and Elaine felt happier. One thing one should not is never to fight with family, because in a world of up and down family is what you have. Dominic Toreno from fast and furious would say, "family is all you have".
"We love you baby"
"I LOVE YOU, ELAINE" her dad, Mr. Weston added.
The atmosphere was calm and love flowed in the air. Elaine volunteered to help her mum go out and get the groceries. she rushed up to her room and changed into a yellow gown, and returned back to the kitchen and got the list of things she needs to get and then left the house.
Out of all the chores she loves doing, going out to get the groceries was her favorite, and it's not because of the extra cash she gets. But because of this was the only time she was allowed to go around freely.
The road was less the busy, just few cars driving past her on the road. She strolled down to the grocery store, making good use of her free time to know her new area. Unlike the hood where all sort of trading went on in the corners and alley. Each alley in this part was just filled with rats, stray cats and garbage.
She would look at each alley as she walked past them, she turned around and a car driving slowly behind her. Maybe they are having car trouble or they ran out of gas, she thought and continued trailing forward. She got to the grocery store, she bought the stuffs she needed and she had loose change that she could call her own, so she took the bags of groceries and made to return home.
She saw the car that was moving slowly behind her, on her way here, but these time the car was parked on the other side of the road. She ignored and walked home.
******
The rest of the day went uneventfully for Raymond. He didn't set his eyes on Andrew, probably because he had locked himself in the room and busied himself in the group chat, he had created for himself and the trio. The issue of Ethan was discussed. They had to find a way of stopping the unjust treatment that Ethan was receiving.
Jamie mentioned that he was probably facing all these because he was black, the only black kid in their class actually. And they were the only white friends he had.
Ray suggested that they go see the cops, but Ethan kicked against the idea, saying that it will only make the other Dragon brothers to come for his family and they might harm them
'We just have to find a way to give them what they want and then if they don't, we would just have to report it to the cops" Jenny's text popped up on Ray's screen.
He read it and texted back; "I think we have a deal then, we'll discussed how to get more jewelries in school tomorrow. I have to crash before Andrews come to bug my soul"
"Is that man still bothering you?"-Jamie
"Big time"-Ray
"Goodnight, guys. Thanks for the help and support"-Ethan
"Jamie, where are you, mum just came in to the room in and noticed that your bed was empty"-jenny
"Isn't Jamie at home?"-Ray
"Common I told you to cover up for me" Jamie
"I went to hang out with our new neighbor and book his PS5 for tomorrow"-Jamie replied Ray.
The door opened slowly and Ray hid his phone under his pillow. He could see Andrew's figure staring at him from the bed, the lights were out so he couldn't really make out his facial expression.
"Go to bed, now!"
Ray grumbled and turned off his WIFI connection and closed his eyes to sleep. He didn't even get an opportunity to say a proper goodnight to his friends.