A vein on the gang leader's forehead popped and throbbed.
"Bastard!" The gang leader swung far back with his bat and was about to strike Avery when one of his men leaned closer to his ear to say something.
"Hey boss, I think there's something you should know," said the gang member, causing the leader to halt his impending strike.
"What?!" The leader of the gang glared down at his follower and asked aggressively.
The gang member whispered "Boss, you know how interested I am in the combat sports scene, so much so that I know strong hitters that aren't even in the mainstream yet—"
"So?! Get to the fucking point, or I'll take out my frustration on you next after treating this loser's fuck up!" said the leader of the gang angrily.
"Sure boss. Well, what I'm trying to say is that there was a very promising young blood in the boxing scene that was projected to be the next world's best if his career continued the way it was supposed to. Unfortunately, life happened, and his career came to an early end—" the gang member said, then the leader of the gang, who had lost all patience, grabbed him by the collar.
"Who gives a fuck about some lame-ass boxing trivia?! You have a second to get to the point of why you interrupted me from beating this punk dead and it better be good or else you're dead too!" the leader of the gang threatened, squeezing the collar of his gang member so tight that the fellow's head started going red.
"That's what I'm trying to say, boss, I can never forget that prodigy's name, not in a million years and today's included. His name was Avery Reed!" The gang member exclaimed with his last breath and everyone in the gang paused with shock.
The leader of the gang frowned "Avery Reed? You mean this Avery Reed?" He asked as he let go of his gang member's collar and turned to Avery.
There was a moment of silence in the entire store and suddenly the leader of the gang burst out laughing, making the others in the gang laugh as well, while the member who was just choked coughed.
"Boss?" The coughing gang member questioned him and suddenly the gang leader became serious.
"Who the fuck cares if the loser is a prodigy or whatever?! Also, people bare the same name all the time. Isn't that right Mark and Mark?" Said the leader of the gang, and both members, who bore the same name "Mark", acknowledged by raising their hands.
"See? This loser ain't nobody important but one thing he is, is dead!" the leader of the gang said, then swung his metal bat far back and then struck at Avery with all his might.
***
It happened so fast. After the swing of the metal bat, the next thing anyone knew was hearing the sound of the bat landing and bouncing on the floor a few feet away, which took their attention in that direction.
Following that was a loud banging noise coming from where Avery was and when they looked in his direction again, Avery had a firm grip on the gang leader's hair while the hooligan who wore the leather jacket with fur collar had his face planted on the counter.
"What just happened?" Asked the gang member who warned the leader about Avery a moment ago and then Avery let go of the leader's hair.
Whatever Avery had done had knocked the gang leader unconscious in an instant and so he dropped to the floor, his entire face messed up and covered with blood.
"Boss?" The gang members looked down at their defeated leader and called out.
Suddenly, Avery started cracking his neck and knuckles to free his joints, saying as he walked around the counter "Funny how I was monologuing about how boring this dreadful town is. Who would have thought that a bunch of idiots was going to drive in and spice things up a bit? Well, looks like imma get a little exercise in before going home today."
All the gang members became cautious of Avery and brought out their weapons, which ranged from metal pipes, bats, switchblade daggers, knuckle braces, and so on.
"We're not scared of you! We'll make you pay for what you did to the boss, you scumbag!" said one of the gang members named Mark, and Avery smirked.
"Is that so? Alright then, but hope you have change on you", Avery said tauntingly, and everyone went crazy.
All that was heard for the next few minutes was yelling mixed with the sound of the metal pipes, bats, and blades swinging and slicing through the air, and finally the sound of bodies hitting the ground.
Soon after the fight broke out, rushing out of the convenience store's door were eight distraught young men who carried the body of a ninth male and all of them appeared to have been severely beaten down.
They all got into their cars and drove off as fast as possible. Meanwhile, inside the convenience store, Avery, who had sustained a few bruises on his head and arms, especially, wiped the blood from his mouth as he panted.
"Best in the world, huh… if only," Avery said, then sighed, regaining composure.
Avery looked around and saw the mess he had to clean up all by himself and immediately the excitement and adrenaline he felt as a result of having beaten up so many people dwindled.
Avery cleaned the place and then unmuted the television which continued with the news about the Shadow Loss Fever, making him smack his tongue before finally shutting the thing off and taking his exit.
Avery went home— walked home, which was a shitty apartment building in the not-so-good part of town.
Avery and his sister both live together on the top floor of the building, and, although he would usually bump into his neighbors on his way up, this time the place seemed vacated, but he didn't pay much mind to it.
The only comment he made about the lack of people was if the police had raided the place, but then the fact that there wasn't word on the street about that happening deterred him from further thoughts.
Eventually, Avery got to his door where he sighed exasperatedly because he knew he was going to get an earful for coming back home with bruises all over his body.
"Hey sis, before you say anything I just have to say that the other guy or should I say guys are much worse than I am right—" Avery said as he opened the door, but then paused when he didn't see anybody.
"Hmm," Avery grunted, feeling a strange ambiance in the room.
The television was on, and so he thought his sister was watching something, hence why he started talking before entering the apartment, but the place— the living room to be exact, was empty.
"Hey Caz, where are you—?" Avery asked as he assessed the room, but then heard a banging sound that alarmed him.
The sound came from the right where Cassandra's room was, and he faced that direction right away. He became relieved because he took that sound as his sister, making it known that she was around.
"Hey Caz, answer with words when you're being called next time, will you? Anyway, before you come out and start yelling, I just wanted to let you know myself that I got into a little scuffle…" Avery said, then got to her door and knocked, saying "Is it okay if I come in?"
However, there was no reply from Cassandra, which made him grimace.
"Hey Caz, didn't you hear me? Wait, you're not blocking your ear with my headset again, are you? How many times am I going to tell you to ask before you use it? You know I wouldn't complain if you at least charge it after you're done, but NO. You leave it for me to charge and then take it again—" Avery said, feeling annoyed, so annoyed that he opened the door to his sister's room without permission.
He knew or at least assumed she was dressed because she wouldn't be using his headset while naked, and so he opened the door to reprimand her.
"Hey, Caz—" Avery said when he opened the door, but then he froze when he saw the state that his sister was in.
"Caz, what's wrong with you?" Avery asked after seeing his sister's side profile and she was on all fours like a beast.
Her eye he could see was one and a half times bigger than usual. There was no pupil, iris, or sclera in sight and everything was now one black ball. Her skin was a couple of shades paler than usual, and it was getting more pale as time went on.
Avery's eyes fidgeted with shock and confusion of the sight he was seeing. He almost didn't recognize the only sister he'd had for the past twenty-one years of his life and the crackling sound she was making made it even worse.
Avery stepped forward and by accident bumped into the lamp that was on the table beside her door. The thing fell on the floor, getting turned on by accident and shining all over Cassandra's body.
The abrupt sound made Cassandra turn to Avery's direction, which is when her eyes became even bigger like she had seen what she was looking for.
Avery's eyes, on the other hand, became just as big when he looked at the wall where the light from the lamp was beaming at.
Everything that the light was beaming past had its shadow reflected on the wall. The only thing that didn't have a shadow was Cassandra.
"No, it can't be! Caz has The Shadow Loss Fever?" Avery stuttered and suddenly Cassandra dove at him like a panther to its prey.