After an incident like that everyone thought twice about getting on Nikko's wrong side, even his friends. Carlos and Tyler stopped associating with him, They still talked but the group was never as close as it was the few months.
He didn't get into a lot of trouble because even though three persons died that day he had gun shot wounds and no tattoos of gang affiliation. A case for self defence was the only reason he was left to walk around freely.
Nikko almost went back to his old ways but with a stricter probation and help from his aunt, Alisha Nikko was able to graduate high-school.
Today Nikko was very excited, he was going to end the day at a party with Tyrone and all the homies.
At his eighteenth birthday a few days before he kept the same disinterested face, at the the graduation when the girls would come up to him he still had that disinterested look on his face but now in back of a friends car on their way to a house party he was chatty and excited. It wasn't the drugs he'd been smoking, there was genuine excitement in his eyes.
Some of the other boys with them were worried even, Nikko was way too hyped. They didn't voice their complaints it was rare enough to see him falling for the art of peer pressure and enjoying the ride.
At the party there were a lot of people in red and black clothing, in fact Nikko himself was in a white T had black jeans and a red bandana tied around his forehead.
When the car stopped he jumped out with too much enthusiasm, shaked hands with people he'd never met before a lot of them were already familiar with him. He was a cousin of Tyrone after all.
The party itself wasn't all that but Nikko had a great time even dancing, yelling and drinking too much. He was great drinker but today he was on the verge of passing out when the party was over.
At exactly 10pm, Nikko and a few other boys were stripped till their briefs blind folded and led into another room.
All Nikko could see was red because of the bandana tied over his eyes, he could barely make out that the room was lit with dim red coloured lights and that there were a lot of people in the room holding cups in their hands.
The initiation started with a boy next to Nikko, he was told to lie down and then they beat him up with different weapons. The boy screamed in pain but all of it fell on deaf ears, the eyes of the people around was now a different colour.
While beating him up they kept saying a long prayer and took turns saying the parts of the prayer and dishing out the beating.
After they beat the boy up they gave him a cup and told him, "From today Lalo is dead, you have now been reborn a son of Amonaroth, a Noblesse, now you are bound by oath to live and die for the streets and for your Noblesse brothers and sisters"
The boy said back "I, Lalo Mezatorez swear by oath to live and die for the streets and for my noblesse brothers and sisters, I swear in the name of Amonaroth to live as a Noblesse" and after saying so he drank from the cup. He was led out of the room and Nikko was asked to lie down.
When the beatings started Nikko kept wondering why the other boy kept screaming, he was one of the older kids getting initiated today so he just assumed that was why the boy before him kept screaming because to him the pain was nothing short of mildly pleasurable.
As the initiation went on Nikko heard a different voice, a voice different from any in the chanting and taking turns beating him. It was a voice in his head.
Then it appeared to him a thing that looked like a person. It appeared to him in his head.
He was sure it wasn't his imagination because he had never seen or heard about anything like it. A person with blood red skin that had a few black patches and large claws, four pairs of devil wings, two pairs of horns, a tail and hooved feet. It had a large gap in its stomach like a vertical mouth that had an eye inside. This was a devil.
Nikko not knowing how to be surprised or to speak just kept staring at the strange creature but it didn't stare back. It spoke. "I am Thamiel Amonaroth the blood drinking devil, I am an angel."
Nikko had heard the theories before, they said that the gangs swear oath to demons and that it was the reason for the violence. Nikko thought it was all crap, he grew up around gangsters and they did mention the strange rites from time to time but even they who had sworn oath the the name of the demon never acted like there was real supernatural force behind anything. In fact for all he saw it was just a tradition passed down, most of them could careless and mainly just did it to follow gang tradition. He was obviously now forced to see things in a different light he had been this drunk before but not once did he ever see a devil.
"Are you here because of the initiation?"
Instantly understanding the multitude of questions arising in boys mind so the devil clarified.
"Didn't you hear that my name is Thamiel same as yours, you are a descendant of mine so I came personally. Normally I could careless about these things new followers join and leave everyday, I couldn't possibly care about all of them."
"So, What now?"
The devil was a bit taken aback but he smiled instead, normally when he met with his descendants they had a lot of unnecessary things to say and they often were apprehensive towards him because they felt a devil was bad even though he would explain that his name Thamiel was proof he was an angel. Yet Nikko was one of the few that could care less if knowing him added no value to their lives.
"Child, you are not human. You have no soul, if you've ever felt in your life that you needed to destroy a human being it's because of your devil side telling you to get a soul. Its great that you're joining a gang there's going to be a lot of souls if you're willing to take them."
"I don't understand you"
"You don't need to, just kill people you'll slowly become your real self. I'm here to give you a heads up for the changes that will appear from now on. You're a SOULESS."
With those last words the rounds of beatings came to an end and the devil disappeared. Nikko was told to stand up and swear oath.
"I, Nikko Simmons swear by oath to live and die for the streets and for my noblesse brothers and sisters, I swear in the name of Amonaroth to live as a Noblesse"
After speaking he took the cup handed and took a drink, it wasn't alcohol. But it tasted sweet.
After the drink Nikkos eyes, the iris became red and the pupils became slit.