3 years before TNCF

“Here, I hope everything works out for you, brother. I’ll be back in a few days and try to win some more.” I handed the envelope full of money to Joe.

“Thank you, man. Seriously.” He took my hand and shook it, pulling me in for a bro hug.

“Okay, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you soon.” I saluted him and waved with a grin before turning around and leaving the Underground Place with Casey in tow.

“Why did you give the money to him?” Casey asked.

I shrugged, “He needed it more.”

“But look at your beat-up face. The least you could do is take the money to buy some ointment for your bruises.” Casey said as she jogged to match my strides.

“We’ve got enough money to buy our own ointment.” I said dismissively.

We got to our ride and before I wore my helmet, I turned to Casey.

“Case, whatever you do, illegal money is dirty money. Don’t use it for anything. Dirty money will only bring you bad luck, got it? Give it away, throw it away, do anything with it aside from using it to buy yourself anything.” I ranted.

Once I started speaking, Case paused whatever she was doing to look at me. Her wide eyes showed that she wasn’t ready for the lecture I just gave.

But she simply nodded, knowing that I was dead serious once she heard my tone.

“Okay, now let’s get something to eat. I’m starving.” I groaned, breaking the mood and hopping onto the bike after passing the duffel bag onto Casey.

“Junk food?” Casey asked hopefully.

I smirked under my helmet screen, “You know it.”

I kick started the engine and lifted the stand from under the bike with my foot before taking off into the night.

Once we arrived at a fast food joint, we ordered some food from the counter and settled in a booth near the window.

The second that we sat down, Casey immediately started chastising me.

“You should’ve given him a roundhouse kick after he tried to punch you 3 minutes into the fight! You could’ve broken a record or something for ending the quickest fight in the Underground Place.”

I chuckled, “He would’ve caught my foot and I’d be dead. Didn’t you see how quick he was? I could barely block his attacks even though I managed to predict them.”

“No way, I’ve trained with you, I know how quick your kicks can be. You just go easy on me during our spars.” She argued while munching on a fry.

“Anyways, point is, I’m sure you could’ve beaten him quicker and avoided getting so much bruises on you. I mean seriously, why did you fall so much?” Casey huffed, looking me over, waving a fry around as she ranted.

“Hey, why don’t you try getting attacked by a 250-pound hulk?” I challenged, picking my burger up from the tray and taking a bite.

“He was not that big.” Casey denied.

“Says the girl who watched the match several feet away. Of course he wouldn’t come off as big to you as he did to me. I was the one who faced his advancing fist in 4D.” I snorted.

“And who made me sit so far away from the stage?” Casey challenged, her 15-year-old sassy side coming out.

“Joe is the only person I trust you with in that place! The other guys are grubby-looking meatheads.” I defended myself.

“Right, right. Thank God I have great eyesight, otherwise all that begging would have been for nothing.” Casey huffed in mock annoyance.

After talking so much, she sipped on her soda and I took that chance to stuff my mouth.

I was starving. Sue me.

After we gobbled down everything on our plates, we exited the place and got back onto the bike to continue the trip back home.

It was getting late and the streets were getting darker with fewer and fewer cars passing by. The streetlamps were barely any help.

I tried to ride the bike as carefully as I can, significantly reducing the speed. Casey didn’t complain, keeping her arms wrapped around my waist loosely as she leaned her helmet cladded head on my back.

Out of nowhere, I felt Casey lift her head from my back and one of her hand left my waist to tap on my shoulder.

“Pull over!” She yelled over the wind. Her voice was slightly muffled by her helmet screen but I managed to catch her words and slowed the bike to a stop on the side of the road.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, kicking down the bike stand.

Casey raised the screen on her helmet and turned around. I followed her line of sight but saw nothing.

“I think I saw your friend earlier,” Casey said.

“Who?” I asked, looking around again.

“Joe, the bartender in the Underground Place.” Casey replied as she turned around to look at me.

I finally caught the worried look on her face and I knew something was going on.

“What did you see?” I asked.

“He was with a few other guys. They pushed him and he fell to the ground.” Casey said, still looking worried.

I could feel my awareness heighten as my body went into alert. I kicked the bike stand again to take it off and turned the bike around.

“Show me where you saw him,” I told Casey as I started steering the bike back the way we came from.

“He’s on the left side of the road!” Casey shouted above the wind that was whipping past us as I increased the bike’s speed.

A minute later, I caught sight of Joe, but I couldn’t see his face. All I saw was someone getting kicked by 2 other guys, curled up on the ground.

I parked a distance away and told Casey to stay where the bike was.

“I’ll be right back. Stay, don’t come any closer, okay?” I instructed, already starting to run backwards before I turned around and ran full speed towards the group of guys.

I had a good guess of who they were and why they were picking on Joe.

“Hey! Hey, assholes!” I yelled at them as I neared them to get them to stop beating Joe up. He’ll die at this rate.

They all turned around to look at who was shouting but they were too late, I was too close.

I jumped and gave one of them a kick to the temple before dodging a hit from the other guy and punching him in the face.

I ran to Joe and helped him up, making sure that he was alive.

Joe’s face was bloody, he had a bleeding nose, a split lip and blood was trickling down the side of his head.

Jesus, I hope he didn’t get his head split open. Although by the amount of blood that was coming out, I wouldn’t cross out that possibility.

Out of nowhere, I heard Casey shout from the distance, and I looked back to see a foot flying towards my face.

The next thing I know, I was sprawled on the ground with a throbbing face.

I grunted as I picked myself back up before feeling someone grab the back of my collar and a yank next.

I stumbled backwards and almost fell until someone roughly caught me and held me up.

“Well, well, who are you?” One of them said as they sized me up.

“A bit daring to come solo, don’t you think?” He chuckled darkly.

Suddenly, the grip on me loosened and I was able to wrestle my way out of the man’s hold.

“He’s not alone, asshole.” Casey snapped as she gave the guy who held me captive another kick to the head.

Yep, he was definitely passed out.

“I thought I told you to stay with the bike.” I muttered under my breath to her.

“You’re welcome,” she said instead.

“I had the situation under control,” I told her indignantly.

“Oh yeah, right, it sure did look like it,” was her sarcastic remark to my bullshit.

“Lovers?” The guy in front of us said, seemingly unbothered by the fact that we just knocked out his friend.

With his friend passed out cold, him and another guy was the only ones standing.

Casey made a gagging noise, “Ew, no!”

“Yes, ew, no. But this isn’t exactly the time to exaggerate, isn’t it, Case?” I muttered.

“Oops?” Case whispered back sheepishly.

“Look, whoever you guys are to each other, I don’t know if you even know what’s happening here but please do mind your own business. I don’t appreciate the fact that you’re adding to my pain,” He gestured to his unconscious friend, “but I’ll let this one pass because I’m feeling nice tonight.”

I gave him a tight smile, “Sorry, but I believe this is my business. You see that guy you beat up there is my friend.” I clarified with him.

The man before me widened his eyes slightly, looking back and forth between Joe and me.

“Oh, how nice! Would you look at that, Mr. Dylans. You found yourself such a lovely friend!” The man clapped his hands, directing his focus to Joe before turning back to us.

“I admire your loyalty as a friend but here’s the thing, Old Mr. Dylans, a.k.a. this young man’s dad, owes me a lot of money. I’m just here to do business. So, if you don’t mind running along and letting me finish this…” The man trailed off, raising his eyebrows and looking at Casey and me expectantly while waving his hands as if to say, “Run along now, children.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. You should take that up with his dad and not him. I’m here to pick up my friend and we can either do this the easy way or the hard way.” I challenged him.

“Well then, I guess that’s the end of our pleasantries.” The man mused before flicking his wrist and waving his finger from his man to us.

With that, the huge guy that was standing in the background charged at Casey and me.

I was quick to push Casey behind me and run towards the guy to meet him head on.

I would usually dodge him but Casey was standing behind me so I can’t let him get past me or else Casey will be in danger.

I barrelled towards the advancing hulk and rammed my body against his lower half, using my weight to bring him down with me.

We wrestled on the ground for a while before he had me pinned down, his build giving him the upper hand in the fight.

I saw Casey’s shoes run towards us before another pair of shoes stepped in the way and Casey groaned in pain.

“Case!” I screamed, enraged at the sound she made.

I stuck my leg between myself and the big guy above me and hoisted him with all my might to throw him over my head and off my body.

The loud thump of his body hitting the ground was heard and I jumped to my feet to run towards where Casey was fighting the man that was talking to us.

“You’re pretty, it’s such a waste that you’re a bitch.” I heard the man say before he raised his hand.

And I

Saw

Red.

I grabbed his hand and twisted it before kicking the back of his knee. Within in a split second, he was on the ground with his face pressed on the pavement, my feet on his head.

“Touch her again and I’ll make sure your head gets split into two.” I growled in his face.

I took my foot off his face and gave Casey a nod. She ran forward and kicked his face in.

He was knocked out cold a second after, overwhelmed by the pain.

“You alright?” I asked Casey, looking her over to see where she got hurt.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Casey said dismissively, looking around us and stopping once she saw Joe.

“Joe…” She whispered before running towards him.

I helped her get him up.

“How are we going to get out of here?” Casey asked, looking at the unconscious bad guys.

“Call a cab,” I instructed her, shifting Joe’s weight so that she can free her hands to call a taxi.

Once the taxi arrives, I helped Joe into the car and told Casey to get in too.

“Go to the nearest hospital, I’ll be right behind on you on the bike.” I told Casey, giving her some cash.

I shut the door and ran to my bike. I hung Casey’s helmet on the hook under the steer and wore mine.

I started the engine and kicked off the bike stand but before I took off to follow after the cab, I looked back at the three unconscious bodies on the ground.

A dreadful feeling started to fill me and fear gripped at my heart.

There was one thing that I learned from the movies that I wish wasn’t true; loan sharks are like real sharks. They’re good hunters. Once you’re smeared by blood, they’ll find you so quick that you won’t even have enough time to realize that they’re coming after you.

I looked down at my clothes that was smeared by Joe’s blood.

I truly wish that those loan sharks only exist in the movies but I have a strong feeling that that’s not the case.

‘I’ve fallen under their radar now.’ I thought to myself.