The sun sat above the horizon as it marked sunrise, its warmth bringing little comfort as the wind blew an icy chill through the open door.

Equipped with my large brown coat, I wasn't anymore willing to walk out into the cold and start my day. I looked down at the pile of materials in my hands, then began to add the warm clothing on. Yesterday was a rough day, again. I sighed. Why was Gran Shelly so serious when she mentioned that locket of hers? If it looks exactly like the one in the stories, it must be some sort of replica right? Or maybe the locket in the story she used to tell me was based off this locket that means so much to Gran? To be quite honest I never asked Gran Shelly if she came up with all the stories she told me as a kid, or if she just liked memorising them. I made a mental note to go past Grans house first thing after work tonight to grab this locket.

As I wrapped the scarf around my neck I saw a movement with the corner of my eye and turned to see my landlord walking towards me. I paused, first startled then panicked. What was he doing here? I've been late for my payments before but he never confronted me in person. There were often times when we'd cross paths, but he never actively seeked me out.

"H-hi" I began, faking a polite voice and trying to mask my worry. The landlord, a wiry and old man, nodded his response. He wore a long thin grey beard which reached midway through his chest, the hair on his head was equally as thin and grey, reaching just above his shoulders. He was visibly boney, his cheek bones were very defined from his lack of cheek.

"What brings you here, Mr Delly?" I asked, standing stock still, my arms frozen as they held my scarf half wrapped around my neck, out of worry and anticipation as to what he was going to say. Surely he wasn't going to kick me out right now? He would give me some time right?

"Don't be so concerned boy." Mr Delly began. My face creased in confusion. "You see, I just came to tell you not to worry about this month's payment, it's been a pain pushing you to pay so I decided you should keep your money, so you can have enough to pay me next month." As Mr Delly spoke, with his monotone and raspy voice, I simply stared at him. I blinked a few rapid blinks to awake myself. But I wasn't sleeping. "A-are you serious?" I finally asked, my mouth gaping a little.  I never found Mr Delly to be unreasonably unkind, but I also never saw him as the type to go out of his way to make a stranger happy. Surely there was a catch.

"On one condition." Mr Delly said and I paused my thinking to listen. "You give me all that's on you now, whether that's less than your rent or not." The crease deepened between my eyebrows now as I considered. "All?" I began and Mr Delly narrowed his eyes, but I continued, "Can I keep enough for groceries or transport? Maybe just a fifty." Mr Delly's brows also began to draw together so I quickly added, "I can pay it back as soon as I'm paid!" It seemed reasonable. Although I owed him that money, it would be hard to survive another week and a half until my next pay day, with zero money to spend.

"Listen boy, I'm offering you a deal. You're not the only one that needs money to live. I think I've waited long enough. Either you accept the deal now, or you leave. I think that's fair, don't you?" Mr Delly, his voice as monotony as ever, made a fair point. I did owe him the money and it was an amazing deal.

After a long pause, I nodded, opening my wallet to hand Mr Delly every note and coin. Perhaps I could just ask work for early payment. After Mr Delly collected all the money, he nodded to me, turned and left. I heaved a sigh. Did I make the right choice? I felt an odd mixture of relief and stress as I thought the question over. But then, pushing that aside, I decided it was time I stepped out the door and made my way to Chip’s Workshop.

I watched my brown leather boots as I walked through the cold, dewy grass, leaving little streaks of wet on their surface. Deep in thought I began to forget the cold as my legs moved in rhythm, carrying me to my destination. As I reached Chip’s Workshop I sensed something odd about the place. Then I put my finger on it. It was dead silent inside. Frowning in thought, I made my way more cautiously, peering through one of the windows. Inside, I saw the owner Chip, in a suit, his hair combed back carefully, quite the contrast to his usual dirty work clothes and messy brown hair.

He was speaking with another suited man who I didn't recognise. As they spoke they did things like writing notes on their clipboards and shaking hands. I didn't understand. Chip’s shop was good, and it had been around for a while, but it was small and Chip had been struggling with money; so what business deal could he possibly have to offer. As I watched them speak I noticed someone on a red creeper roll out from under a car a few metres back. It was Joe, unlike Chip he was wearing his work clothes, covered in oil and dirt. His pale brown hair, once straight, was messy as well. It was short, the parts of his hair that didn't grow upwards were just coming down to his ears. The young man noticed me and his blue eyes met mine, a panicked look in his eyes. Silently, he pointed to the right, poking at the air in urgency.

My confusion only increased, so I was glad to have understood one thing. He wanted to meet me in front of the shed to the right of the shop. We would sometimes hang out there when we were on our break or when we simply had no work to do. I hurried, as quickly but quietly as I could to the shed just beside the shop. Although it was so close, it sat among cars, bins and random tools and parts. The area was used as a carpark for staff, a place to throw large items you couldn't fit in the shop, or for other things of that sort.

Now I weaved between cars, bins, parts and tools to reach the shed, concealed from the passers-by who may look in this direction. Now I stood in front of it, anxious and confused, looking back and forth to see if Joe had entered. After what felt like hours, but in reality was probably only a few minutes, I heard footsteps approaching and looked up to see Joe hurriedly approaching as he wiped his dirty hands on a once white cloth.

He looked to his right and left as he walked as if he expected someone to be watching him. As the taller man approached, my yellow and his blue eyes met and my brows closed together in question. "I'm sorry for keeping you so long, I had to make sure Chip didn’t see me leave." Joe began, clearly anxious as his eyes darted around, never sitting still in one location. The action tempted me to do the same but my curiosity was beating my anxiousness for the moment.

"Joe, what's happening?" I asked, far more calmly than I felt inside. Finally, Joe locked eyes with me. "I don't know Kota, but someone's trying to screw you over." I frowned and waited for him to continue. "Someone came in yesterday, he looked very well off. He offered Chip a large amount of money to fire you and kept raising it until Chip agreed. He doubled the payment if Chip avoided having dealings with you all together, not giving you any service or accepting service from you." I looked deep into Joe's blue eyes and saw only honesty. I always knew him to be an honest person.

I blinked a few times as I tried to process the information I was just told. "Chip is going to fire me?" I asked, my voice a little shaky. Joe shook his head quickly with a touch of frustration on his features. "That's the least of your worries! Kota don't you see, someone has targeted you, I don't know why but they're definitely rich enough to cause you major problems." Joe then sighed. "There's something else. Before the man raised the price Chip expressed his concern for you and your career's future. Then the man said something like 'that's the least of his worries'. Kota, someone is trying to ruin things for you, you need to be careful, you never know what they could do next. This could be dangerous for you." It felt like Joe’s words were viciously stabbing me with every word, my body tense with adrenaline, but outwardly I retained a calm composure. Maybe if I pretended everything was okay, it would be. Maybe I would wake up, and this would all be a dream. But just as I had this thought, a memory strang to mind, of when I had gone out of my way to graffiti my half brother Kael's Lamborghini in our back and forth revenge.

Now I wondered, surely not, surely our childish games of hate for each other hadn't reached this level. Sure he had previously had my apartment ransacked, but this, getting me fired was a whole other level. This was my one job that could solve my problems, a well paying job with a career path ahead of me, if Chip accepted my volunteer work. But that chance was gone now and it would possibly never come up again.

I sighed. "Who's that inside with Chip?" I asked. Joe shrugged, "just another person who will be doing the renovations for this place. Whoever bribed Chip gave him a lot of money. Enough to have this worn down old place completely remade”.

We sat in silence as I thought about what lay ahead. Finally the silence was broken as I said in a low voice, trying to hide my disappointment with the whole situation, "that's fine, I have plenty of other jobs to work with, it isn't like it's the end of the world." I said this more so to convince myself than anything else. But my false calmness was dispelled as Joe spoke. I could see in his face he hoped he wouldn't have to tell me the fact, but at the same time regretted not telling me sooner. "See Kota..." Joe began and I waited, sure things couldn't get any worse for me. "See the man who offered Chip the deal mentioned something else..." Joe trailed off, evidently not wanting to say his next sentence. "What did he say Joe?" I asked, in a low voice. "He said... well he said that he was getting you fired from all your jobs." Joe looked away in a mixture of sympathy and shame. "All?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly. "How? How would he know where I work, this is just some joke, they can't possibly have that information". The panic began to rise high within me now, and now it was evident on my face, my eyes were wide and my hands gripped tightly at the sides of my pants pockets.

Joe looked back to me and said, as if it genuinely caused him pain to say, "McDonald's, Woolworths, Coles on the weekends..." Joe's voice was low. Somewhere inside I felt bad that I wasn't telling him not to worry, that I didn't blame him or that it was nothing that I couldn't fix quickly. But my spiralling emotions made it hard to think of anything besides the issue at hand. It not only dawned on me that I had no job and no money, but suddenly I realised I was being stalked.

This was another level of revenge. I realised at this moment that the childish fights I would have with Kael were no longer spiteful jokes between two brothers who never got along. Whether Kael always truly hated me and aimed to make my life miserable or if this was a recent occurrence I didn't know. All I knew was right now, he was getting his revenge for the years of paybacks and fights we would have, and that was a dangerous thing to do with someone who can buy my life away without feeling any loss to his wealth.

Then a thought struck me like an icy stone being thrown against my head. "Mr Delly." I muttered under my breath, wide eyed. Joe looked at me and hummed a question but I took no notice. I had thought it was odd that Mr Delly had offered to take what money I had on me and not bother about the full price.

Now I jumped up from where I was sitting, Joe jumping up with me. "What's the matter?" Joe asked in concern. I grabbed his hand and hurriedly shook it, saying "thank you so much for telling me Joe. I need to go." Then I ran, weaving between the clutter of items and onto the footpath. Running back in the direction I had come just this morning, I hoped desperately that my suspicions were anything but true.

My chest tightened, I was puffing and gasping as I ran full pelt without stopping. Despite this, I felt as if I couldn't breathe, panic rose higher and higher within me until finally I reached my apartment door. I stuck my key into the keyhole and unlocked the door, feeling slightly relieved that the door didn't make any resistance. Although the relief didn't last long. I twisted the rusted gold coloured handle, but as I pushed open the door I was met was a sudden force blocking it going any further; the sound of a chains links suddenly snapping against each other, then jingling as I stopped pushing the door, and the chain loosened and began to swing.
Through the little space that could be seen into my apartment, I met the cold and dull eyes of Mr Delly. He approached the door, but neither of us made an attempt to speak. My hand slipped from the door handle and to my side, my throat was felt like it was closing and I couldn't bring myself to form words as I stared at my landlord, standing in my apartment which now had locks on the inside, making no move to let me in. He simply looked at me with disinterest, waiting for me to state why I was standing at his doorstep.

"I- '' I choked. "You- you tricked me." I managed to croak, utter disbelief, panic and betrayal etched on every inch of my body and voice. "I didn't trick you." Mr Delly began, his voice, in contrast to mine, was confident and careless.
"I warned you I wouldn't allow you to stay if you kept missing payments and now here is my promise coming true. Now goodbye." Mr Delly began to close the door but I quickly jumped in the way, putting my whole body between the door and its frame. "Please." I began, disgusted at the obvious desperateness in my voice. I hated to be so pathetic, but I was already struggling, how would I get by without my house, without my belongings.

As Mr Delly pushed the door harder, squashing my shoulders against the door and frame, I quickly spoke, or more closely, begged, "my things". I choked as I looked past him towards my meagre pile of belongings which had been thrown carelessly against a wall. "You left them in my house, I think it's only fair I get to keep them", Mr Delly said, without moving his eyes from me, the corners of his mouth twitching in a cruel smile. My jaw nearly dropped at the bitterness of the man, but before I knew it I was being pushed out of the doorway and onto the floor.
"No!" I yelled as I scrambled to my feet. But too quick for me to stop him, Mr Delly gave a nasty wide grin and slammed the door shut, followed by the sound of the chain and a bolt being secured on the other side.

I stood before what was once my door and felt a deep feeling of helplessness bubble in my stomach. So I stood without moving, staring at the door as if I thought Mr Delly would emerge and apologise for what he'd done, giving the apartment back to me. But nothing happened. It seemed everything had been silenced. No one seemed to move or make a noise, even outside the apartment the chirping of birds and roaring of the occasional car seemed so quiet and far away.

After many minutes passed I clenched my firsts and took one deep breath, then exhaled slowly, calming my nerves and rising anger. I slowly, aimlessly, walked away from the door, every step feeling like I was being hit by a wave of shame. As I reached the buildings’ exit I looked out into the sunset. Where was I to go? I had no job, no home, no money and no belongings. All I owned were the clothes I wore and the items I had on me such as my empty, useless wallet. My legs began to ache from the effort of running so far so quickly, the muscles stiffening as I now stood still in the cold air. I considered my options. I considered asking Joe or Gab if I could stay at their place until I was back on my feet, but I instantly dismissed the idea. I didn’t want to humiliate myself any further.

Perhaps I could stay with Gran Shelly at the hospital? It wasn't too far a distance. I then suddenly remembered the locket Gran asked me to get from her house. I was supposed to grab it after work today, but I guess I didn’t have work today. Well, since I need to get the locket from Gran Shelly’s house, maybe I should just stay there for a while, since she stays at the hospital now anyway. But once again I threw away that idea. I would have to explain to Gran Shelly my situation if I wanted to stay in her house; I wasn’t quite ready for that yet. I just wanted quiet, to gather my thoughts and let my emotions spiral and relax in silence.

And so, without thinking, I wandered towards the dark alleyways that seemed to be calling out to me. It was such a familiar feeling. The darkness, the loneliness, the misery, feeling so lost and confused. I pushed back the memories of my childhood and reminded myself that I once promised Gran Shelly not to spend time in alleys anymore. “It isn’t safe for you, Kota”, she had once said. “Hanging out with people like that, in places like that… it only takes one slip up and you could get hurt very badly, and I don’t mean something minor like this”, her rough hands held an ice pack against my swollen shoulder, which had been the result of me slipping off a fence when running from some people I had stolen from. “Next time you feel sad, angry or lonely, instead of spending the day on the streets messing with people, spend your day with me, I’ll make you feel better”, I remembered the feeling of security and love that had come over me when she spoke those words. “Promise?” I had asked her. She had laughed, her pearly white teeth showing, “I’ll try my best”. So, against my desires, I turned away from the alley and began walking in the direction of the hospital.

🏴‍☠️

Inside Gran Shelly’s hospital room I was surprised to see her awake. “Afternoon”, I said and Gran Shelly gave me a small smile and nod. I sat beside her on the all too familiar chair that was positioned to the right of her bed. “You aren’t tired Gran Shelly?” I asked, for what felt like the first time today I had a crumb of hope that maybe, her growing energy was a sign she was getting better. “Ah no Kota, with my condition, and the drugs I’m on, I’m always tired”, she started, “I have a visitor coming today, and I didn’t want to keep him waiting”. Now my hope evaporated and was replaced with curiosity. “Gran Shelly… who is coming to visit you? I’ve never known you to have more than just acquaintances. Don’t tell me Kael is finally visiting after all these months?” I scoffed the last part of my sentence. I couldn’t tell Gran Shelly, but I had a renewed sense of disgust for her grandson today.

“No, no, there’s no need to worry about it, Kota, you wouldn’t know him. He’s an old friend of mine from before I met you. We moved away from each other and we just never got the chance to visit after that. But he got in touch recently and wants to catch up on some lost time.” Gran Shelly shrugged and slowly lifted her hand to place it on my shoulder. “You wouldn’t mind if you gave us some time alone would you? we won’t be long”. I shrugged back in response, it was a curious situation, but I understood that if they knew each other from before me and Gran Shelly met- twelve years ago- and decided to reconnect now, they must have a good relationship. I never found Gran Shelly to be the type that would trust easily; in fact, I never once made a friend as a child that she didn’t warn me against. Whether she had been right to do so or not was irrelevant to me, because as I got older although my distrust began to lessen, my longing to be alone grew, as did my responsibilities, and so I never had the opportunity to meet someone I was willing to spend my free time with.

After some time had passed, I decided to excuse myself. Her friend was supposed to be arriving any minute now. “Wait, Kota” Gran Shelly stopped me after I had begun walking to the door to leave. “Have you gotten my locket yet?” She asked, to which I responded by shaking my head. “Not yet, I was meant to after visiting you”. My calm attitude was not shared by Gran Shelly. She shook her head quickly- as quickly as she could anyway- saying quickly and urgently, “get it quickly, Kota! I will only be half an hour or so with my visitor, while I’m busy, hurry over and get it from my house!”. I frowned in confusion; I hadn’t realised this was such an urgent situation. “I’ll get it now, Gran”. With my eyebrows creased together, I left the room instantly bumping shoulders with a man in all black. I couldn’t make out his facial features as he wore a hood, but he had long straight black hair that through the hood and lay over each of his shoulders. I nodded my greeting to Gran Shelly’s old friend and he nodded back. I then passed by him and began making my way towards the exit. It had only taken me a few minutes to reach the ground floor, but as I made my way to the exit a voice said over the speakers, “Code black! Code black on level 7!”. My head whipped around at the voice. Gran Shelly was on level 7. I began running back the way I came, but staff and security ran after me. “Stop! Stop where you are!”, the voices called but I ignored them. I didn’t care if it made me look guilty, I needed to make sure the danger wasn’t coming from Gran Shelly’s room.

But as I reached my Gran’s room I came face to face with a scene I would never forget. My Gran Shelly, surrounded by nurses and security, her thin and elegant figure lying limp on her bed, her neck twisted awkwardly to sit old her shoulder, her hands hanging off the sides of the bed, dripping crimson onto the white tiles. A growing red stain formed in her perfect white sheets and gown from her middle. Her eyes were closed and her face was resting calmly, as if she was sleeping, not noticing the knife protruding from her chest. Everything was a blur in that moment, my voice as I screamed her name was barely audible, the hands that grabbed me and pulled me away from the scene was painless as I pushed against them, all I could think of in that moment was Gran Shelly; I needed to see her, I need to hug her, I needed to save her. But that was the last I ever saw of my Gran Shelly.

Interdimensional Pirates
-April Bluebird/@BlueWhiskers1
-21/Jan/2023
- Chapter 3: Revenge
-4252 words
-188 👁‍🗨, 25 🌟, 27 💭.