BACK TO THE PRESENT. IN KURTIS' ROOM:
Kurtis kept crying until he had no more tears to shed. Sniffing continuously, he carefully placed himself under his covers in a position that didn't hurt. It was then that the fatigue consumed his body and giving in ,he closed his eyes silently wishing he would never again wake up.
Much to his disappointment though, he woke again 3hours later to the sound of violent knocking on his door and his mum's concerned voice shouting his name as if he was dying.
"Yes!" Kurtis answered, his voice groggy and heavy with pain. Three hours had not been sufficient enough for him to fully recuperate, his eyes were heavy and his body was stiff. With his returning conscience was also the pain which assaulted his body in strong pulses, causing him to groan in suffering.
"Can I come in? I need to talk to you!" His mum sounded relieved, she hadn't heard his groan of pain and was simply thankful that he had answered. She had been on the verge of breaking through the door.
"Okay" came her son's weak voice.
"Thank God your okay, I almost knocked the door down there! Don't scare me like that" she fussed as she entered the room and made her way past his TV to sit on his bed. Making extra sure not to cause him any pain, she cupped his face in her warm and soft left hand, her eyes pools of love and affection as she gazed into her son's weary eyes.
"Kurtis, be honest with me, where did you go this morning?" Her tone made it clear to Kurtis that she already knew the answer so there was no point in lying, he now found himself alert as he wracked his brain for an excuse.
"I went to Braunsburry Park" he answered in a sheepish voice
"why?"
"I... Uh... I was..." He didn't know how to answer, he didn't want to yell her that he had initially gone there to fight Joden. Instead he decided to change the topic in the hopes that she would forget. "Wait, why were you home when I arrived? You should've still been at work"
"I came early because I had arranged a meeting with the lawyer so he could speak to you but when we found your door open and your bedroom empty I sent him away and re-scheduled for 14:00 but you were fast asleep so I sent him away again. Now, what were you doing at Braunsburry Park so early in the morning and on a Sunday?" Her voice was now stern and she looked him in the eye daring him to lie or change the subject.
Kurtis silently cursed, his mum wasn't dumb enough to let herself get distracted, he changed tactic ,instead aiming to stall for time until he came up with a decent alibi.
"why do you want to know?"
Geneva recognised what he was trying to do and quickly cut to the chase before he could devise a half decent excuse "It's just, I was in the Kitchen making lunch when I received a call from the council about my son damaging public property and a fine of £500. Now tell me what you where doing there or I'll pay them with money from your debit card and reduce your weekly allowance for the next three months!"
Kurtis gave up, he realised he wasn't going to win this and dejectedly told her the truth.
Geneva didn't know whether to be angry, disappointed, surprised or happy he was safe and unharmed. Kurtis could see the emotional conflict conversing in her mind through her face and sunk deeper into his bed fearing that her anger would prove to be the stronger of her emotions.
After a stretch of silence in which his mother stared unnervingly at his face, much to his relief her happiness prevailed and she cuddled his head into her blossom and ruffled his unkempt hair.
"One day son, you'll be able to live a happy and fulfilling life anew, don't let the struggles of life put you down okay? Keep fighting and stay strong. One day you will be reborn and life will hold the utmost meaning and importance to you, Trust me" she whispered soothingly into his ear as she often did whenever he felt down. Kurtis was used to hearing that very same speech and would not fully understand its meaning until much later, he always assumed she just meant it in a metaphorical manor and never thought too much about it
He hugged her back as much as he could with his broken arm, enjoying to the fullest her motherly warmth and letting himself drown in her affection. It was at times like this he really appreciated her, he loved his mum, to him she not only played the role of a father as well as his mother but also his only friend. He couldn't imagine what he would do without her.
They stayed like that for a little while longer until his mum regained her stern composure and released him ,albeit unwillingly, from her grasp. She still needed to discipline him against going outside that early in the morning and agreeing to fights. She resumed eye contact and once again wore a face of disappointment and anger.
"I think you and I both understand the stupidity of your actions. What if you hadn't had the chance to run away, what if you had been caught, by those youngsters your age and those older ruffians alike. Your smarter than that Kurtis, I expect better of you. I understand and appreciate that you were angry on my behalf but that was just reckless, your lucky to have just gotten some exercise out of it. Do some thing like that again and and you'll have more than just one beating to deal with!"
Kurtis could do nothing but hang his head in shame, he knew there were no viable excuses for his recklessness and considered himself lucky that she didn't take away his PS5.
Geneva continued to scold her son for more than 20 minutes until she had nothing more to say.
When she finished, her voice once again softened and ,satisfied that he had learned his lesson, decided to change the topic of discussion. She asked him if he would like to talk to the lawyer later, she explained that the lawsuit was going better than she had expected, soon the school would be forced by the court to pay them compensation, Blaise and a few others would be expelled and in Joden's case, he would be sent to juvenile for quiet some time.
Kurtis agreed, he knew he could never beat them in a physical fight so now considered this even better. After five years of bullying him over and over again to the extreme, they were finally going to get what they deserved. The thought alone almost brought tears of joy and relief to his eyes.
The relief and anticipation sparked in him another craving for something sweet. Despite his body's fatigue, he didn't feel like sleeping.
"Can I go buy something at the corner store quickly?"
"No"
"What? Why not? I'm hungry"
"what do you mean why not? Kurtis did you listen to anything I said? If your hungry I'll go make something but your not going outside"
"Yh but I'm telling you where I'm going, I'm only going down to the corner store. I'll be five minutes at most, its not like I'm going for another fight. I only want a packet of sweets."
Geneva was shocked at his ignorance "its not about that! Your injured and still recovering! You shouldn't be moving at all!"
" please mum!"
"No! Stay in bed and get rest. I'll go make you something to eat." She began to make her way towards the door "don't be stupid Kurtis, sweets won't help you recover and heal but rest will, where are your priorities?" And with that she shut the door behind her, leaving him to sulk in bed at not being granted permission.
Kurtis couldn't understand why she wouldn't let him go, he had managed to go all the way to Braunsburry park for a fight in his injuries and endure running around. What was going to a shop not that far from here going to do?
It was then that he made the mistake that would cost him his life.
He waited a while to make sure his mum was busy in the kitchen, and after taking another jab of pain killers, he got out of bed and snuck out of the house.
''I'll only be gone for ten minutes at most he said to himself 'she'll hardly notice I'm gone'
His craving for sweets driving him, he left the secure confines of Avrose street and approached the corner store.
Contrary to his prediction, back at home, Kurtis' mum had already begun looking for him. "where could he have gone?" She asked herself, "I just left him in his room less than ten minutes ago"
Then she remembered his request to go to the corner store.
"Oh no he didn't! What's gotten into him? I'll kill him when he gets back!" She muttered angrily to herself while preparing his meal.
Kurtis was browsing through the store, they didn't have anymore wine gums and for some reason they never sold skittles so he was looking for something else.
Just when he was about to pay for the three packets of Haribo's he had chosen, out of the corner of his eye he saw someone approach him menacingly. He wore a worn out grey hoodie and blue jeans with creased Black air force shoes and had his hood covering most of his face.
He walked awkwardly with one hand permanently in his jeans. He didn't know who it was but something told Kurtis that he shouldn't stick around and wait for whoever it was to reach him.
He dropped the Haribo's and made a dash for the exit.
As he approached the exit he could hear three familiar voices getting louder and louder.
"tchh, where does that pr*ck live again?"
"just shut up and follow me"
"who you telling to shut up"
"I'm telling you to shut up"
"I've had enough of your arguing ,both of you shut up! Now can one of you please explain what happened, where are the others?" (female voice)
"Tchh, I don't wanna talk about those pussies"
"They refused to come."
"What? Why?"
"because of Joden always leading everyone into trouble and stupid situations, they've had enough and I don't blame them."
"who you calling stupid? It's not my fault they're all pussies, besides, this is that fat shits fault for getting the police involved."
"Yh but they would still be here, this all happened because you stupidly ran into those gang members instead of going around like I told you to"
"Aargh, doesn't matter, I don't care about them anymore, once I get my hand on Kurtis I swear, I'm gonna kill'im"
"yh,yh your already in enough trouble as it is I don't know why you wanna make things worse, bricking his house again won't solve anything."
"So what? I'm gonna get arrested anyway and his slag of a mum's already fined my parents so much money they're on the verge of being broke. I don't care anymore. Anyway, where were you Bela at the time? You and your bitches disappeared, we coulda used your help!"
"What do you expect me to do? They would've probably just f*cked me up as much as they did to you"
Kurtis' face paled and his heart sank. 'why now' he thought, 'things are already getting bad as they are with this guy following me, I don't want to have to deal with you as well, just go away!'
But they didn't go away, in fact he ran right into them on his way out of the shop.
Bella, Blaise and Joden where taken aback in surprise at having bumped into there target so easily and momentarily stood there frozen. Kurtis took advantage of that time to run away as fast as he could towards his house.
It was only when the person in the hoodie ran past them after Kurtis that the three bullies followed suit.
Leaving Bela behind to struggle while trying to keep up, Joden and Blaise soon overtook the unknown person chasing Kurtis and began to close in on him, maniacal grins plastered across their faces.
Kurtis was panicking. He didn't know what to do, going home would mean leading them straight to his house and endangering his mum but he was already beginning to tire and the pain from his injuries were resurfacing despite the pain killers.
The only advantages he had were that Joden and Blaise were significantly slower, having been apparently injured ,and his anonymous pursuer wasn't much faster than he was. He also knew the area better they did but all this would soon be meaningless when his body collapsed from exhaustion and overexertion.
He kept running frantically around the area, refusing to give in knowing that getting caught could mean possible death.
Although he couldn't see the fourth chaser's face he knew from the way he dressed and the way he was holding his thigh while running that he was a gang member and was probably carrying a knife. This scared Kurtis, so much that he somehow found the strength and energy to keep running around the area ,making full use of his small advantage.
Geneva was growing more and more worried by the minute. It had now been 20 minutes since Kurtis had left and he still hadn't returned. Growing impatient, she put on her coat and went outside intending to search for him.
She was just in time however, to see her son approach the house from the opposite direction from where the corner store was with a Frightened look on his face while being chased by three men and Bella who was far behind and struggling to keep up.
"Mum!" Kurtis screamed. His voice was lace with fear as he felt Joden's hand almost grab his shoulder. He had done all he could to avoid coming down this road but he had been left with no other options. His pursuers were beginning to predict what direction he would take and had left him no other options.
Seeing his mum had caused guilt to coarse through his body, he didn't want to get her involved but it was now too late. He could feel the strength in his legs failing him and he felt he was going to pass out.
Geneva had wasted no time in whipping out her phone and had already notified the police when her son ran into her arms crying and sobbing.
She held him tight and braced for what was coming as Joden and Blaise ran right into them, knocking them both to the ground and falling on top of them. Not waiting for Bella or the unknown third party to catch up, Joden began unleashing barrage after barrage of punches on both Kurtis and his mum in blind rage .
Kurtis was wrapped tightly in his mum's embrace and felt nothing but the secondary blunt force of Joden's punches and occasional nicks as his mum soldiered the brunt of the attacks while doing her best to not cry out in pain.
Kurtis felt terrible. He was a failure of a son. Watching his mum bravely firm and succumb to Joden's onslaught with her face contorted in pain and tears forming slowly as she whimpered like a dying dog after every punch ,angered him. He tried to get up and take her place but she looked him firmly in the face and shook her head.
Blaise was fruitlessly trying to get Joden off of his aunty when a voice behind him snarled " move out of the f*cking way!" He instinctively moved when he saw that the unknown gang member had caught up and was brandishing a large 50cm knife that glinted in the light of the setting sun.
He delivered the same message to Joden but when he saw that it was clear he couldn't hear him in his anger it infuriated him.
"You fat shit." He said to Kurtis " who did you think you were swinging me around and making me look like a d*ck head in front of all my boys, MOVE!" he grew impatient and shoved Joden to the side.
He too was now blind with anger. He had originally intended to rough up the fat kid a bit but didn't like having been forced to run so much and it had whittled down his already short fuse. He was now out of breath and wasn't thinking straight.
Blaise could tell this was going to escalate quickly and no longer wanted to be involved. Despite his best efforts to stop him, Joden didn't take lightly to being pushed aside and immediately retaliated. He lunged forward and landed a solid right hook to the gang member's face causing dark blood to soak through the Black balaclava.
Momentarily thrown off by the punch, the gang member ,who's name was Gideon, began to swing his long knife blindly until it connected with and stabbed right into Bela's leg. She had just caught up and was met with a stab in the leg right behind her knee causing her to collapse on top of the shaking figure of Kurtis' mum ,but not after letting out a deafening scream of pain.
Gideon was now livid. He had stabbed the girl, weather intentional or unintentional, there was no longer any going back. He turned towards Joden, his eyes burning with rage, he raised his knife and swung down at him. Joden just about managed to dodge and pounced on Gideon, grabbing him around the waist and pinning him down.
In the process signing his death warrant.
"AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!" Bellowed Joden. He had Gideon pinned down around the waist but his hands were free to move as he stabbed him repeatedly in the back as if he was playing a grisly game of whack-a-mole.
Blood sprayed everywhere as Blaise watched on in horror his best friend being killed in front of him while serenaded by his own screams. The realisation that his long time friend was going to die if he did nothing made Blaise desperate. He grabbed the blade and entered a futile tussle with Gideon over it.
Futile because after being stabbed a total number of twelve times all over his back, Joden's grip over Gideon had loosened and he was now able to stand up. He was older, bigger and stronger than Blaise and easily won back the blade, slicing Blaise's hand in the process.
Blaise refused to give in and swung low at Gideon with all he could muster and successfully connected with his nether regions. An incredibly sharp pain coursed throughout the gang members body beginning from the point of impact. It was so much pain that his face screwed up and tears formed in his eyes, but he did not let go of the knife. One hand cradling his balls, he swung drunkly at Blaise, slicing him in the neck and face, drawing forward an ear splitting scream as well as large spurt of blood, resulting in the collapse of the stupidly brave bully. Once on the ground he began convulsing and twitching alongside the body of his friend who was just barely alive and breathing coarsely.
Blood was pooling quickly and forming a large puddle where the helpless bodies lay. All while this was happening, Kurtis and his mum had remained as silent and still as rocks. Too scared to move and alert the criminal to their presence, they had mutually decided to remain silent in the hopes he would forget about them.
They would get no such luck.
After taking a moment to let enough of he pain fade so he could more or less walk, Gideon turned towards his original target. The slightly fat kid that had embarrassed him in front of everyone. Because of him he had been videoed and mocked on the gc he and his friends shared. He hadn't gone through the trouble of forcing those other kids who he had beaten up (Blaise and Joden's lackeys) into telling him where the fat kid lived only to be forced to run around the area and become a criminal without even achieving his goal of roughing up his target.
But roughing up wasn't enough for him anymore. 'I've already stabbed three people, one more won't make much of a difference, I'm fucked either way' he thought, having noticed the abundance of cameras on this street.
He staggered toward mother and son.
Geneva knew what was coming and tightened her hold on her son, determined to hold him close in both their last moments.
Gideon only target was the kid, but after trying and failing numerous times to seperate him from his mum, he threw morals and caution to the wind. As if he was handling an axe, he swung down repeatedly on the mother.
He could feel his blade go in her back, through her organs and out her abdomen, only to then enter the belly of the kid. Rinse and repeat, his eyes wide and maniacal, he found himself..... Enjoying it. The sensation of ripping and stabbing through bones and muscle tissue, the gallons of blood that poured out of the wounds like a waterfall, the piercing screams and wailing of mother and child alike.
He loved it.
When he was content that they would die if not already dead, he took out the blade from the woman's back and after wiping it off on her blood soaked shirt, stuffed it back into his jeans and tried to take his leave. But something grabbed his foot, preventing him from getting away.
It was Kurtis. His torso was riddled with bloody holes and gapping wounds where he had been stabbed and his eyes were blood shot and bulging but he wore a face of absolute defiance. He had spent the last few minutes crying and screaming in pain and suffering while watching his mum die in front of him as well as also being stabbed so his throat was dry and sore. He couldn't speak but his face delivered his message perfectly:
'your not getting away'
Kurtis knew that sooner or later the culprit for their deaths would most likely be caught anyway, the cameras would make sure of that, but he wanted to see him get arrested when the police arrived.
Using what little strength he had left, his had shaking uncontrollably, he pulled the murderer's leg towards him causing him to trip and fall.
Sirens began sounding in the distance not that far from where they were and that's when Gideon realised what his dying victim was trying to do. He began to thrash relentlessly like a fish on land and was almost free from Kurtis' weak grip when three more hands grabbed his other leg and pulled him in.
It was Kurtis' other hand as well as Geneva's. She had noticed what he was trying to do and offered what little strength she had left. Fighting through the pain, they forced themselves on top of there killer and stayed there, holding on for what it was worth.
The silence in the front yard was disturbed only by Gideon's desperate escape attempts and the pain stricken whimpering of the fallen.
Somehow, through sheer will power and determination, despite being on death's door, Kurtis and Geneva held the murderer in place until blinding blue and red lights appeared and faceless men in black and blue came and took him away, careful not to not cause too much pain to the dying mother and child until the ambulance would arrive.
Shifting slightly to face her son Geneva smiled through the pain and barely whispered "we did it son" and pausing to let the tears flow she looked him in the face and ,her voice barely audible, she also said "keep your head up, its not the end. Enjoy your new life".
With that ,her pupils dilated as life left her body. Geneva Baliol. Successful and rich business woman. Was dead.
Tears streamed down Kurtis' blood soaked face and yet he made no noise. He lay there awaiting death as his body continuously twitched and spasmed.
The last thing he remembered was making eye contact with his murderer who was now siting dejectedly in the back of a police car. He used the last of his energy to smirk at him, sparking a glint of rage in the killer's eyes, before closing his own one last time ,thinking to himself 'how did it end like this?'
...