To his surprise , despite the constant hammering, drilling and cleaning noises the hired men had made all through the night, Kurtis had felt rejuvenated when he had woken up that morning. In contrast to how he had felt in the run up to what should've been his previous encounter with his persecutors, Kurtis had awoken that morning ecstatic and eager.
After taking care of all the sanitary necessities that accompanied the morning such as a shower. Kurtis had proceeded to devour his breakfast which consisted of four skies of toast , eggs, bacon and sausages. Hungry with anticipation, he devoured his breakfast, leaving only the bacon and sausages, he hated them, in fact he hated pigs and anything that came from them in general ,he couldn't explain why he hated them so much, he just did, so would often leave them untouched.
His belly satisfied, he went down the road to the dark red post box and slid into it a brown parcel containing the disk with the recording of the incident as well as a letter explaining what it was. It was addressed to the main police station in the centre of the city and would take at least a day to arrive. That way there would be a delay of at least a day before it would arrive and the assailants would get charged ,resulting in further increasing there false sense of security in that time.
Kurtis hadn't wanted to have the fight at the same time as before so there would be less people there, not just those involved but also civilians. He had chosen the meet up time to be 10:30, 30 minutes after the park was open to the public, that way barely any civilians would be there and even among the ones involved in that gc (acronym for group chat) ,barely any of them wanted to get up that early on a Sunday to see what they already knew would be a one sided affair. That alone had brought the number of participants down from 46 to around 22.
It was currently 8:43. 1 hour and 47 minutes left.
At 10:00 after donning the same outfit he was going to wear last time Kurtis left the newly renovated house. His mum had gone to work early at 9am and would be back by 1pm, so he was free to come and go as he liked.
Despite his eagerness and vigour, he was still injured. His arm had been in too much pain, hence why he was unable to remove the cast but he had successfully removed the bandages that had previously wrapped his head. He kept the one surrounding his chest where his rib had been broken since it would go unnoticed beneath his clothes, the only reason he had for wanting to remove his bandages and arm cast was so as to not appear weak in front of his peers.
After administering another jab of strong pain killer he walked out of his house and onto the smooth faultlessly tilled path way. He didn't like taking the bus, he found busses stifling and unnecessary so he didn't think twice before ordering an Uber.
Before the Uber arrived he found himself browsing the corner shop just a ways from the wealthier area. He was still quite nervous at the prospect of going into a fight he would undoubtedly lose and desired something sweet to calm his nerves.
After spending around five minutes deciding on something to buy, he picked a packet of wine gums, one of his favourite sweets and after scanning his contactless debit card headed to where the Uber was waiting but not before slipping his card back into the house through the post flap. He didn't want the others getting their hands on it.
The Uber was a sleek blue and Purple Aston Martin DB11, a vehicle he was used to seeing since it was the car he usually hired. He hired the car so often that he and the driver had developed a friendship of sorts and would often converse during their time together. Today however Kurtis was too anxious for conversation, once inside the Uber car he reaffirmed to the driver (an aged man in his fifties with dark skin and bald scalp, he had stone Black pupils ,bushy Black eyebrows and greying beard coupled with his stern look, strong Jawline and many wrinkles on his forehead and around his mouth, he looked like an army drill sergeant) his desired destination and they drove off while sat in silence, the only noise coming from the crinkling wine gum packet and Kurtis' quiet chewing.
The closer they approached the destination the more Kurtis' fear arose. This time however, he refused to yield to it. Taking deep breaths to calm himself down, he closed his eyes and imagined the look of despair and hopelessness that would undoubtedly be on the faces of Joden, Blaise and Bela once they realised there would be no escaping the police.
As he wishfully fantasised about their reactions the Uber driver pulled into the Parking area adjacent to the vast public Park and disrupted his daydream by alerting him to their arrival. Kurtis thanked the driver and exited the car with a part of him wanting to ask him to bring him back home.
The car drove off and left Kurtis standing there lost, it was then he realised that he didn't know where exactly they were going to meet. The last time he had been to Braunsburry Park was with his mum when he was ten, he could no longer remember the place well enough to find his way around.
With a sigh he turned in the direction of the park and decide to wonder around until he hopefully found the others by chance. If push comes to shove and he couldn't find them before 10:25 he could always message the gc and ask for directions but he had no desire to give them another reason to make a mockery of him.
As he trudged through the nature Park, he couldn't help but be captivated by its beauty. It consisted of various plant life ranging from colourful flowers to large trees and bushes, all neatly ordered into rows and columns with pathways meandering throughout.
Following one of the numerous paths ,he was led past batches of deep red poppies, bright yellow daisies and rich purple Lavenders until he reached a large football pitch with one of the goals missing a net.
At the furthest goal post from where he stood, inside the box was a small group of people. Kurtis immediately recognised them as Joden, Blaise and five of their lackeys along with Bela and the harpies (the name Kurtis had assigned to the judgemental ,self-obsessed group of girls that followed Bela around), bringing the total of people present to 12.
Despite there being much less aggressors than he had anticipated, he suddenly didn't feel very confident, his rectangular face paled and his injuries began to throb. He had been so deluded by his thirst for revenge and so immersed in the beauty of the park that he had not only forgotten his glaring injuries but also the years he had suffered being mercilessly beaten at the hands of Joden and Blaise, heartlessly insulted and provoked by Bela and relentlessly mocked by the rest of the class.
He couldn't do this. He couldn't fight Joden when his body was in good condition, what made him think he could do it now? He wasn't Mohamed Ali nor was he Usain bolt, even if he ran away as fast as he could they would still catch up to him easily. He was a coward, a coward who wanted to change but a coward nonetheless. Where was the point of trying to get them arrested and charged if he was too injured and incapacitated to see it happen and laugh?
While these thoughts ran through his mind, one of the Harpies had noticed him off in the distance and alerted everyone to his presence. They all turned simultaneously in his direction and even from here he could see the menacing smiles on all their faces.
Kurtis instinctively began to step back, he knew what that face meant, it was the same face they would.
Turning around, he began to run as fast as he could with his injuries and slightly overweight body in the direction from which he had come. He could already hear the pounding of numerous feet approaching behind him as he dashed down the pathway, too scared to look back.
Ignoring the ever growing pain in his ribs ,he powered down the long path like a clumsy deer being hunted but with the speed of a drunk sloth, he didn't need to look behind to know that his pursuers had already almost caught up to him, they were so close he could hear their panting as they raced to see who would be the first to reach him.
"heh, your not getting away today fatty" snarled Joden "I'm gonna f*ck you up"
The sound of his voice only served to make Kurtis' body shudder in fear as he put one foot in front of the other with renewed desperation.
When he reached the crossroad of pathways he took a sharp turn left and headed towards a large batch of neatly organised Wisteria flowers instead of carrying on straight towards the rows of Lavenders. This sharp change in direction temporarily threw his pursuers off allowing the already small gap between them to widen by a little before they turned down the write path and began to close in.
Learning from this Kurtis took another turn and headed towards an incredibly large tree he had seen off in the distance on his way there.
As he approached the tree he noticed that on the other side of its large trunk, a large group of people had gathered there for some reason. He silently cursed his luck. They weren't his age so were not there for him, but they were worse. The group consisted of people of different ages ranging from as young as 17 up to around 27 years old with a few younger ones scattered throughout.
Gang members.
Joden, Blaise and the others had yet to notice them and continued to close the distance between themselves and Kurtis. Kurtis on the other hand was beginning to lose heart, he was already panting excessively and his tracksuit was drenched in sweat that poured down his face in large amounts. He was already impressed with himself for having evaded them for that long but it would very soon come to an end
Not to mention they were heading straight for a large group of gangsters who would no doubt not take lightly to a group of youngers running right at and into them.
Kurtis couldn't understand why they were there so early in the morning, and on a Sunday of all days. There were no other paths diverging from the one he was following until past the big tree and he didn't want to run and trample on the neatly organised and beautiful flowers on each side of him.
Joden was so close to him now that Kurtis had to keep looking back and dodging his outstretched arms. He briefly considered letting himself get caught in the hopes that some of the gangsters would intervene and stop the beating, after all, not all of them could be bad people could they? But he quickly dismissed the idea when he notice the threatening glare they were throwing in his direction once they noticed his fast approach.
Blaise then noticed the road block in front of Kurtis and smiled.
" what are you gonna do now bitch, if you run into them they'll definitely kill you" he exaggerated. At least Kurtis hoped he was exaggerating.
He was rapidly running out of energy, his legs were starting to shake and it took all he had to keep himself from collapsing while dodging Joden's ever looming grasp.
The gangsters were now right in front of him. All of them had noticed the running fat kid and the ones he was running from and began to snigger, a lot of them bringing out their phones to record. "Yo!" One of them shouted "stop running, swear down if you don't stop I'll bang you*"
Kurtis felt tears form at the corners of his eyes, he couldn't go backwards and he couldn't just run into the flowers, they were all up to his waist, running in them would prove to be impossible for his large bulk, not to mention he would get a fine from the council for damaging property.
Closing his eyes and silently cursing his life he ran straight into the group of gang members....
As soon as he did, multiple pairs of hands tried to grab him. Tears streaking down his chubby rectangular face, he pushed on past them using the momentum to get as far as possible ,all while ignoring their shouts of anger and annoyance.
Very soon the momentum he had carried with him died and he was forced to shove them out of his way, barging and dragging ,using his large body mass to his advantage. Joden, Blaise and their followers weren't fairing much better, they had stupidly followed him into the death trap instead of going around and minding their business, leaving Kurtis to deal with the Gang members.
Kurtis began to cough as his lungs struggled to keep up with the body, his injured rib and arm enduring more beatings as he forced his way past the army of hands, arms and legs.
Somehow Kurtis found himself near the end of the mob of furious teenagers and adults ,and after pushing past the last human obstacle , he thought he had made it, when suddenly a set of strong and muscular arms grabbed him around the torso, crushing his already broken rib and causing Kurtis to scream in agony.
In the heat of the moment and blinded by fear, Kurtis had assumed that it was Joden or Blaise, his heart sank and his face contorted into a look of sheer desperation and fear, but somehow he found one last push of adrenaline as he threw himself forward while twisting his body around, resulting in his capturer losing grip and being flung off to the left.
He didn't wait around to see who it was he had dashed, luckily the rest of the mob were too busy trying to stop Joden, Blaise and the others to give chase. He made the most of the situation to run through the park, no longer caring for the many flowers and plant life he trampled ,only caring for the elusive location of the exit.
Once back at the car park he did not relax or slow down. Thanking his luck for the First time that day, he jumped on the bus that had just arrived, only relaxing once he had reached the bus stop near his house.
From there , tired, drenched in sweat, bruised and in immense pain, he took off his tracksuit hoodie and walked the rest of the way home.