I Spent 3 Years In Prison Dreaming Of Seeing My Daughter. On My First Day Out, I Caught Her Gym Teacher Watching Her Get Brutally Attacked. What I Did Next Will Shock You.
I had been a free man for exactly four hours when I saw a varsity linebacker dragging my screaming thirteen-year-old daughter by her hair across the middle school parking lot. The absolute worst part? Her gym teacher was standing ten feet away, sipping a green smoothie and scrolling on his phone, watching the whole thing happen.
The pristine, tree-lined suburbs of Oak Creek, Ohio, absolutely despise the sound of a Milwaukee-Eight 114 engine.
To the people living in these massive, cookie-cutter houses with their perfectly manicured lawns, the roar of my motorcycle doesn’t sound like a beautiful piece of American machinery. It sounds like their inflated property values suddenly dropping. It sounds like a violent threat invading their safe, sheltered little world.
But to me? That aggressive rumble vibrating up through the chrome handlebars and rattling my very teeth sounded like pure oxygen.
It sounded like the first real, deep breath of freedom I’ve taken in exactly one thousand and ninety-five agonizing days. Three years. Thirty-six long months.
That’s exactly how long the state decided I needed to be locked away in a concrete box. They officially called it the Marion Correctional Institution. I just called it a warehouse for broken men who loved their families a little too fiercely and fought a little too dirty when pushed to the absolute brink.
My original charges had been knocked down from attempted manslaughter to aggravated assault. I had scraped together enough cash for a decent lawyer, I had a clean record prior to that night, and the judge seemed to understand that sometimes, a desperate father steps way over the legal line.
I had walked out of those towering, grey steel gates at 8:00 AM sharp this morning.
Most guys in my boots, the second they get out, they head straight for the nearest, darkest dive bar that will pour a cheap shot of whiskey at nine in the morning. If not that, they go find a woman, or they go buy a greasy, massive steak.
I didn’t do a single one of those things.
Instead, I went straight to the impound lot and picked up my 2018 Street Bob. My older brother, “Tiny,” had faithfully kept the exorbitant storage fees paid every single month I was inside. I gassed the bike up with premium fuel, feeling the familiar weight of the nozzle in my hand.
Then, I rode straight for Oak Creek Middle School.
I caught a fleeting reflection of myself in the vibrating chrome side mirror as I sat idling at a long red light at the intersection of Maple and 3rd. I looked like a walking, breathing nightmare to these people.
My “cut”—the heavy leather vest that signifies my entire brotherhood and everything I’d gladly bleed for—was looking incredibly rough. The thick leather was cracked and worn in several places, heavily weathered by years of relentless sun, freezing rain, and biting road grit.
The large patch on the back, the bottom rocker that proudly read “OHIO” beneath the snarling bulldog center patch, was severely faded. But to me, that worn leather was holy ground. It was my identity when everything else had been stripped away.
My arms were completely covered in dark ink that told the chaotic history of my forty years on earth. Skulls for the loyal friends I’ve had to bury way too young. Faded roses for the women I’ve lost along the highway. And right there, tattooed over my heart in sweeping, cursive script, was the only name that mattered: Lily.
My beard, once pitch black, had gone a harsh, dusty grey at the chin and jawline. Prison ages a man at an accelerated rate. The terrible food, the constant stress, the unending need to watch your back every time you step out of your cell—it literally sucks the vibrant color right out of your soul.
My eyes were noticeably harder now, too. They were a pale, icy blue, entirely cold and flat. They had witnessed things in the prison showers and the recreation yard that would make the terrified soccer moms sitting in the white SUVs next to me lock their doors in a sheer panic.
I actually saw a woman in a silver Prius glance over at me. She immediately snapped her eyes forward and tapped the electronic lock button on her door. I heard the faint click-click over the sound of my engine.
I really couldn’t blame her. If I saw a heavily tattooed, scarred guy like me staring blankly at my car, I’d probably be reaching under the seat for a tire iron myself.
But despite my terrifying exterior, my heart wasn’t cold today. Not today. Right now, my heart was hammering violently against my ribs like a trapped, panicked bird.
Lily. My little girl.
She was only ten years old the horrifying day the flashing lights surrounded our house and the cops slapped the heavy steel cuffs on my wrists. She was wearing a bright pink t-shirt with a sparkly unicorn on it. She was crying so hysterically that she actually threw up on our front porch steps.
“Daddy, don’t go! Daddy, please don’t leave me!”
That singular, agonizing sound has played on a continuous, torturous loop in my head every single night for three years. It drowned out the obnoxious snoring of my various cellmates. It drowned out the harsh, echoing shouts of the correctional officers doing their nightly rounds.
She is thirteen now.
Thirteen is an absolutely terrifying age for a girl. It’s the exact age where daughters completely stop thinking their dads are invincible superheroes and start realizing we’re just severely flawed, broken men.
Does she still like the color purple? Does she still listen to that annoying, upbeat pop music, or has she moved on to something angrier and darker? Does she still sleep clutching that raggedy, cheap stuffed bear I won for her at the county fair, the one missing its left glass eye?
Or worse, does she simply hate me?
Does she hate me for leaving her alone in this cruel world? Does she despise me for being a convicted criminal? For being “Zero”—the feared Sergeant-at-Arms of a notorious motorcycle club—instead of just being a normal “Dad” who works a quiet nine-to-five at the local hardware store?
The traffic light finally turned green. I didn’t aggressively gun the engine like I usually would. I simply eased off the heavy clutch, letting the powerful bike roll slowly forward with a deep, menacing, rumbling growl.
I pulled into the very back of the massive school parking lot, intentionally avoiding the chaotic, crowded main pickup line. I definitely didn’t want to cause a massive scene on my first day out. I just desperately wanted to lay eyes on her.
My plan was incredibly simple. Sit back and watch her walk out of those double doors. See if she looked genuinely happy. See if she looked healthy and safe.
If she looked okay, maybe I’d just quietly put the bike in gear and ride away. Maybe I’d wait to officially call her until I had secured a legitimate job and rented a decent, clean apartment. Maybe I wouldn’t force my heavy, criminal baggage on her life just yet.
I reached down and killed the engine. The sudden silence that aggressively swallowed the parking lot was incredibly heavy, filled only by the rhythmic tink-tink of my hot exhaust pipes rapidly cooling in the afternoon air.
I swung a heavy, steel-toed combat boot over the worn leather seat, my reinforced riding pants creaking loudly. The loose gravel crunched sharply under my heavy heels as I stood up.
I pulled a battered pack of cheap cigarettes out of the deep pocket of my leather vest. I know, I know. It’s strictly a “Drug-Free School Zone” and there are signs everywhere. No smoking allowed on the premises.
But I’ve never been particularly big on following rules that don’t make logical sense to me. And right at this moment, my nerves were completely and utterly fried. I needed the harsh bite of nicotine just to keep my calloused hands from visibly shaking.
I lit up, took a massive, deep drag, and leaned my heavy frame back against the tall sissy bar of my bike. I slowly crossed my thick arms over my chest, intentionally covering the “Sgt. at Arms” patch resting over my heart.
The agonizing wait was absolute torture.
Every single minute ticking by felt like an entire hour. The Ohio afternoon sun was brutally hot, heavily humid, and terribly sticky. It was the exact kind of suffocating weather that makes you sweat profusely just by standing perfectly still.
And then, finally, the loud school bell rang.
It was a shrill, piercing electric shriek that violently cut through the heavy, humid air.
The massive glass double doors burst open about fifty yards away from where I was parked.
It was instantaneous, unbridled chaos. A massive, surging flood of heavy backpacks, loud shouting, obnoxious laughter, and thick teenage angst poured rapidly out onto the concrete sidewalk.
I frantically scanned the sea of faces. There were hundreds of them.
It was entirely too many kids. It was way too much noise. It was an overwhelming ocean of complete unfamiliarity.
I suddenly felt a sharp, cold pang of real panic. What if I simply didn’t recognize my own flesh and blood? What if she had physically changed so drastically over the last three years that I looked right past her?
I saw incredibly tall kids, tiny short kids, kids with brightly dyed blue hair, kids wearing strict sports uniforms. I watched the ruthless social cliques forming instantly on the grass. The arrogant jocks, the outcast skaters, the quiet nerds. The complex, brutal hierarchy of American middle school is honestly more savage than any maximum-security prison yard.
In prison, you always know exactly who your enemy is. In middle school, your enemy pretends to be your absolute best friend right up until the second they happily stab you in the back.
I forcefully flicked my half-smoked cigarette butt onto the black asphalt and brutally crushed it under the heavy heel of my boot.
I couldn’t find her anywhere.
My chest violently tightened in a knot of pure anxiety. Maybe she had to stay late for detention? Maybe she had called in sick today and was at home?
I was just about to reach deep into my denim pocket to check the time on my cheap, prepaid burner phone when the massive crowd suddenly shifted.
It was very subtle at first. It moved like water smoothly flowing around a large stone in a rushing river.
Over near the rusted metal bike racks, far to my left, the main stream of rushing students was abruptly diverting. A tight, dense circle was rapidly forming.
I recognized that exact shape immediately. I knew that specific, tense body language.
Shoulders were tightly hunched. Necks were eagerly craned forward. Glowing cell phones were instantly coming out of pockets.
It was a fight.
I wasn’t the least bit interested. Dumb kids fight all the time. It happens. It generally builds tough character, usually. As long as nobody pulls a hidden blade, they usually just walk away with a bruised ego and a harsh life lesson learned.
I turned my back to the commotion, looking toward the main doors again, completely dismissing it.
And then I heard it.
“Please! Stop it! Get off me!”
It wasn’t just an angry cry. It was a terrified, begging plea.
It was high-pitched, wildly terrified, and incredibly desperate. The voice cracked violently right in the middle, entirely shattered by deep, heavy sobbing.
And I knew that exact voice.
The sound hit me like a massive, physical blow squarely to the stomach. All the air instantly violently evacuated my lungs.
That was the sweet, innocent voice that used to happily sing silly lullabies with me. That was the exact same voice that softly whispered “I love you, Daddy” through the thick, smeared plexiglass of the prison visitation room three long years ago.
I froze completely solid.
The entire world seemed to violently tilt on its axis. The aggressively warm afternoon sun suddenly felt freezing cold against my scarred skin.
The warm blood pumping through my veins instantly turned to jagged ice. That’s exactly how I originally earned my club road name, “Zero.” Because when situations go violently bad, I have zero tolerance. I have zero hesitation. And I have absolutely zero mercy.
I slowly turned back toward the loud, cheering crowd.
I didn’t sprint. Running openly shows panic. Running makes you look incredibly weak and vulnerable.
Apex predators don’t run. Predators silently stalk.
I started walking purposefully. My heavy, steel-toed boots thudded rhythmically and heavily on the hot pavement. Thud. Thud. Thud. The cruel kids standing on the outer edge of the tight circle were actually laughing.
Laughing.
They were eagerly holding up their expensive iPhones, happily livestreaming the brutal entertainment to the internet.
“Drag her! Make the freak eat the dirt!” one obnoxious kid shouted at the top of his lungs. He was ironically wearing a pristine polo shirt that literally said ‘Future Leader’ on the breast.
“Get her, Josh! Ruin her!” screamed a vicious-looking girl with sparkling silver glitter smeared on her cheekbones.
I finally reached the dense outer perimeter of the cheering circle.
A tall, lanky kid in a designer shirt mindlessly blocked my way, holding his glowing phone high above his head to get a better camera angle. “Yo, back off man, we’re filming this—”
I didn’t utter a single syllable. I just firmly placed one massive, calloused hand flat on his bony shoulder.
I didn’t aggressively shove him. I simply moved his body. I applied the exact kind of terrifying grip strength a man develops from doing endless pull-ups while wearing a sixty-pound weighted vest for a thousand straight days.
He felt as light and flimsy as wet tissue paper. He stumbled wildly backward, looking absolutely terrified by the sheer, immovable power of my arm, his expensive phone nearly clattering onto the hard asphalt.
The tight circle abruptly parted in front of me. The dense sea of screaming students simply split wide open.
And there she was.
Lily. My beautiful little girl.
She was violently pinned on the unforgiving ground. Her favorite blue jeans were brutally torn at the knees, the thick denim entirely shredded. Her pale skin was scraped completely raw and visibly bleeding against the filthy, gravel-covered pavement.
A massive, hulking boy—thick bull neck, wearing a pristine varsity football jacket, looking like he casually ate illegal steroids for his breakfast—was aggressively standing right over her.
He had a massive, tight fistful of her long, dark hair.
He was viciously yanking her head backward like she was nothing more than a cheap ragdoll. Her fragile neck was arched at a truly sickening, unnatural angle.
“Who’s your tough daddy now, huh? Where is the loser? Is he still rotting away in a jail cell?” the arrogant boy sneered, literally spitting the cruel words directly into her terrified face.
Lily was sobbing uncontrollably, desperately clawing at his thick wrist with her short fingernails, frantically trying to stop the excruciating pain. Her sweet face was violently twisted in sheer agony, heavy tears cutting clean tracks through the dark dirt smeared on her cheeks.
“Stop… please… it hurts so much…” she wheezed out, her voice barely a broken whisper.
“You seriously think you’re tough just because your deadbeat dad was a biker?” the boy laughed cruelly, confidently looking around at his massive audience for their sick approval. “You’re absolutely nothing. Your dad is worthless white trash, and you’re just trash.”
I felt a terrifying, familiar darkness rapidly rise up deep inside my chest.
It wasn’t just anger. Anger is incredibly hot. Anger is reckless and messy.
This feeling was something entirely else. This was the black void. This was the exact kind of cold, calculated darkness that usually puts other men into the hospital intensive care unit. This was the precise, violent darkness I had spent three grueling years desperately trying to cage during mandatory prison therapy sessions.
But at that exact moment, the heavy steel door to that cage just violently swung wide open.
I immediately took a heavy step forward into the ring.
But right before I fully stepped in, my peripheral vision caught a subtle movement over to my right side.
Mr. Henderson.
I recognized his smug, punchable face immediately. I had spent countless, agonizing hours silently staring at the middle school faculty website on a smuggled, contraband smartphone inside my dark cell. I desperately wanted to know exactly who was supposedly watching over my daughter while I was locked away.
Jim Henderson. Physical Education Instructor. Head Varsity Football Coach.
He was casually leaning back against the tall chain-link perimeter fence, leisurely sipping a vibrant green health smoothie through a clear plastic straw. He looked like the absolute picture of suburban health and fitness.
He was exactly ten feet away from the violence. Ten. Goddamn. Feet.
He slowly looked up from his screen.
He clearly saw the massive boy brutally dragging my tiny daughter by her scalp. He saw the horrific violence. He clearly saw the massive crowd viciously cheering for her blood.
Our eyes intensely locked for one split, freezing second.
And then… the coward actually looked right back down at his expensive glowing phone.
He casually thumbed the smooth glass screen. He actually let out a small, amused smirk at something he just read. Was it a funny internet meme? A text from his wife? A meaningless sports status update?
He was blatantly, intentionally ignoring a literal felony assault happening to a minor because… why? Because the violent boy wearing the expensive varsity jacket happened to be his star, game-winning quarterback? Because he was too lazy and didn’t want to fill out the mountain of annoying incident paperwork?
Or was it simply because he truly thought Lily—the quiet daughter of a known, convicted felon—just wasn’t worth the effort of saving?
The cold rage inside me instantly solidified into something incredibly sharp, focused, and incredibly deadly.
I stepped heavily right into the dead center of the violent ring.
My massive, towering shadow instantly fell completely over the arrogant bully.
The pungent, heavy smell of old worn leather, high-octane gasoline, and stale tobacco smoke forcefully hit the kids before I even opened my mouth to speak. It was the harsh, unforgiving scent of a violent world they had only ever seen safely on their television screens.
The bully slowly looked up.
He saw the heavy, scuffed black combat boots first. Then he saw the dusty, oil-stained denim jeans. Then he finally saw the intimidating leather vest proudly displaying the “Sgt. at Arms” patch right over my heart.
He froze completely solid. His thick hand was still violently tangled deep in my crying daughter’s hair.
“Let. Her. Go.”
My voice sounded exactly like rough, heavy gravel aggressively grinding inside a rotating cement mixer. It was incredibly low. It was vibrating. It wasn’t a loud, out-of-control shout. It was a terrifying, guttural rumble rising straight from the center of the earth.
The massive boy rapidly blinked, desperately trying to regain his shattered composure in front of his captive audience. He foolishly tried to puff out his broad chest to look intimidating.
“Back the hell off, old man,” he stammered out, though his arrogant voice noticeably cracked in fear. “This is official school business. She desperately needs to learn her proper place.”
“I ain’t here for any damn school business,” I stated flatly, taking one more heavy, deliberate step toward him.
I physically loomed completely over him, entirely blocking out the bright afternoon sun. I am six-foot-four inches tall and I carry two hundred and fifty solid pounds of extremely bad intentions.
“I’m here for personal family business. You have exactly three seconds to release that girl’s hair. If you don’t, I am going to physically fold your body in half like a cheap lawn chair.”
“One.”
The boy’s arrogant, entitled bravery instantly evaporated into thin air. He finally truly saw the terrifying, unhinged look in my icy eyes.
It wasn’t the annoyed look of a soft suburban parent upset about a failing math grade. It certainly wasn’t the stern look of a tired teacher handing out a Saturday detention.
It was the terrifying look of a desperate man who had violently survived maximum-security cell block riots and walked out covered in other men’s blood. It was the dark, hollow look of a man who currently had absolutely nothing left in this world to lose.
He instantly let go.
His thick hand violently sprang completely open like he had just touched a red-hot branding iron.
Lily frantically scrambled backward on the pavement, desperately gasping for air, tightly clutching her throbbing scalp. She looked up rapidly, absolute terror swimming in her tear-filled eyes, fully expecting another brutal attack.
Then, her wide, bloodshot eyes finally focused on my face.
Her expression changed instantly. Utter confusion. Complete disbelief. And then, a truly heartbreaking, massive flash of pure, desperate hope.
“Dad?” she whispered, her voice trembling violently.
“I’m right here, Lil,” I said softly, my rough voice softening instantly, the violent monster receding just enough back into the cage to let the loving father step through. “I’ve got you. You’re safe now.”
I gently reached out a massive, tattooed hand to help her up off the bloody pavement.
“HEY! YOU THERE! STOP!”
The loud, obnoxious shout came directly from the chain-link fence.
Mr. Henderson had finally decided that right now was the perfect time to play the tough hero.
The gym teacher jogged aggressively over toward us, his cell phone finally shoved haphazardly into his tight pocket, his green smoothie completely abandoned on the wooden bench. He forcefully pushed his way through the circle of kids, looking incredibly flushed, angry, and incredibly self-righteous.
“You absolutely cannot be here! We have a strict zero-tolerance policy for gang colors on this campus! I am calling the armed resource officer right now! You are criminally trespassing!”
I turned extremely slowly to face him.
The massive bully immediately took the prime opportunity to scurry cowardly away into the dense crowd, instantly vanishing like a terrified rat. But honestly, I didn’t care about the stupid kid anymore. He was simply a symptom of a much larger problem.
I cared deeply about the actual disease. I cared about the supposedly responsible adult who happily allowed the brutal violence to happen.
I walked right up until I was inches from Henderson’s face. He was tall, and he definitely had an athletic build, but I could instantly tell he was incredibly soft. His shifting eyes were weak and cowardly. He literally smelled like expensive vanilla protein powder and complete cowardice.
“Gang colors?” I asked quietly, slowly tapping the heavy club patch resting on my massive chest. “A little girl is bleeding on your concrete, and you’re worried about my goddamn leather vest?”
“I’m… I am legally ordering you to leave the premises!” Henderson stammered loudly, taking a quick, frightened step backward. He realized entirely too late that his cheap plastic whistle and his authoritative clipboard meant absolutely nothing to a violent man like me.
“I saw you,” I stated, my voice dangerously calm.
It was a very quiet whisper, but it easily carried across the now entirely silent, tense parking lot. The surrounding kids were dead quiet now. The obnoxious livestreaming had completely stopped. Everyone was watching.
“I stood there and I watched you look directly at my little girl screaming in the dirt. And then I watched you go back to checking your Facebook page.”
“I was… I was actively monitoring the ongoing situation,” he lied terribly, his soft face flushing a deep, embarrassed red. “We prefer to let the kids attempt to resolve their own minor conflicts before intervening…”
“You were scrolling on your phone,” I corrected him sharply, stepping aggressively right back into his personal space. I was close enough to clearly see the cold sweat rapidly beading on his pristine forehead. “You stood there and watched a massive boy brutally assault a tiny girl, and you did absolutely nothing. In my dark world, that makes you infinitely worse than the actual attacker.”
I leaned my heavy frame in closer, lowering my voice so only he could hear the promise of violence.
“My given name is Jack Thorne. On the street, they call me ‘Zero.’ I highly suggest you remember it. Because I am going to make absolutely sure that every single person living in this pathetic, quiet town knows exactly what kind of a worthless, miserable coward you truly are.”
Henderson swallowed incredibly hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously. He frantically looked around at the crowd for any kind of backup or support, but the students were just staring at him with wide, judging eyes now. They had all seen exactly what he did, too.
“You are directly threatening a licensed faculty member on school grounds,” Henderson squeaked out, his voice shaking terribly. “That is an automatic felony. I am calling the police right this very second.”
He frantically reached into his tight pocket for his cell phone again.
I smiled at him. It definitely wasn’t a nice, friendly smile. It was the smile of a wolf staring at a trapped sheep.
“Go ahead,” I whispered coldly. “Call them. But you better tell the dispatcher to send an ambulance with them.”
CHAPTER 2
Henderson’s hand was shaking so badly he could barely unlock his smartphone screen. His thumb kept slipping on the glass, leaving sweaty smudges. He was terrified, and he had every right to be.
But as much as my blood was screaming at me to reach across the invisible line and snap his wrist, my brain was flashing a massive red warning light. I was exactly four hours out of the Marion Correctional Institution. I was on strict, zero-tolerance parole.
If a police cruiser rolled into this parking lot right now, I wouldn’t even get a chance to explain myself. They’d see a massive, tattooed biker in a leather club cut towering over a terrified school teacher. They’d see a bleeding kid.
They’d have me in cuffs and shoved into the back of a squad car before I could even blink. My parole officer, a hard-nosed guy named Miller, had made it crystal clear this morning. “One mistake, Thorne. One speeding ticket, one bar fight, one noise complaint, and you are back in a cell for the rest of your sentence.”
I couldn’t go back. Not now. Not when Lily was looking up at me like I was the only life raft in a violent, freezing ocean.
“Let’s go, Lil,” I said smoothly, never breaking eye contact with Henderson. I kept my voice perfectly level, hiding the massive adrenaline dump currently surging through my veins. “We are leaving.”
“You can’t take a student off campus!” Henderson shrieked, finally finding his voice as I turned my broad back to him. “It’s a violation of district protocol! I am legally responsible for her safety until the bell rings!”
I stopped dead in my tracks. The loose gravel crunched loudly beneath my heavy boots. I slowly turned my head, just enough to look at him over my shoulder.
“You lost the right to talk about her safety the second you decided your Facebook feed was more important than her bleeding on the concrete,” I growled, my voice vibrating with a dark, lethal promise. “If you try to stop me from taking my daughter, I will personally demonstrate what a real violation looks like.”
He physically recoiled, stepping back so fast he bumped hard against the chain-link fence. The green smoothie sloshed over the rim of his plastic cup, spilling down his expensive khaki pants. He didn’t even notice.
I looked down at Lily. She was shaking like a leaf caught in a hurricane. Her breath was coming in short, panicked gasps, and thick tears were still tracking through the heavy dirt on her pale cheeks.
“Come on, kiddo,” I whispered softly, completely changing my tone. I reached out and gently wrapped my calloused hand around her fragile shoulder. “My bike is right over here. Let’s get you out of this place.”
She didn’t hesitate for a single second. She practically glued herself to my side, burying her face into the rough, worn leather of my club vest. She smelled like cheap strawberry shampoo and absolute terror.
As we walked away from the massive crowd of stunned, silent teenagers, I heard the heavy, rhythmic thud of tactical boots sprinting across the asphalt. It was the school resource officer. He was a heavy-set guy in a tight uniform, his hand resting instinctively on the thick handle of his taser.
“Hey! Hold it right there!” the officer barked, his voice echoing loudly off the brick walls of the middle school. “Nobody leaves this perimeter until I find out exactly what happened here!”
I completely ignored him. I didn’t speed up my pace, and I didn’t slow down. I just kept walking steadily toward my idling Street Bob, keeping my massive frame positioned strategically between Lily and the shouting cop.
“I said stop!” the officer yelled again, closing the distance rapidly. “Turn around and keep your hands where I can clearly see them!”
We reached the motorcycle. I quickly unhooked the spare matte-black helmet I always kept strapped to the heavy sissy bar. It was way too big for her head, but it would have to do for now.
“Put this on, Lil. Fast,” I commanded quietly, slipping the heavy fiberglass shell over her dark hair and snapping the chin strap tight. “Climb on the back and hold onto my waist. Do not let go, no matter what happens.”
She scrambled awkwardly onto the passenger pillion, her shredded, bloody knees scraping against the chrome exhaust shield. She wrapped her thin, trembling arms tightly around my thick torso, pressing her small helmet hard against my wide back. It was the absolute best feeling I had experienced in three agonizing years.
“Hey! Are you deaf?” the officer panted, finally skidding to a halt about ten feet away from my bike. He had his bright yellow taser fully unholstered and pointed directly at my chest. “Step away from the vehicle and get on the ground!”
I slowly swung my heavy right leg over the worn leather saddle and settled my weight onto the bike. I casually reached down and flicked the red ignition switch. The massive Milwaukee-Eight engine instantly roared to life, shattering the tense silence of the parking lot with a deafening, aggressive thunder.
The loud noise visibly startled the officer. He took a nervous half-step backward, his finger twitching anxiously on the plastic trigger of his weapon. He was sweating profusely, clearly out of his depth dealing with a fully patched one-percenter.
“She is my biological daughter,” I stated loudly over the deafening rumble of the exhaust pipes. I stared him down with flat, dead, icy blue eyes. “She was just violently assaulted on your watch. I am taking her to get medical attention.”
“You need to wait for an ambulance and file an official report!” he shouted back, looking frantically between me and Henderson, who was still cowering near the distant fence. “You can’t just leave a crime scene!”
“Watch me,” I sneered.
I slammed my heavy boot down onto the gear shifter, clicking the transmission firmly into first gear. I aggressively twisted the throttle, sending a massive, terrifying roar echoing across the entire schoolyard.
I dumped the clutch. The heavy rear tire instantly spun on the loose gravel, kicking up a massive, thick cloud of choking white dust and sharp rocks. The sudden smokescreen completely blinded the SRO, forcing him to cough wildly and cover his eyes with his forearm.
The motorcycle launched forward like a heavy ballistic missile. I violently swerved the heavy bike around the coughing officer, tearing out of the back parking lot and rocketing onto the main suburban street. I didn’t look back in the mirrors.
We hit the open road, the heavy wind instantly roaring fiercely in my ears. I rapidly shifted through the high gears, pushing the powerful bike well over the posted speed limit. I needed to put as much physical distance between us and that school as humanly possible before the actual police sirens started wailing.
Lily’s tight grip on my waist was incredibly desperate. She was holding onto me like a terrified drowning victim clinging to a piece of floating driftwood. I could feel her small, fragile body trembling violently against my back with every bump in the asphalt.
The suburban landscape rapidly blurred past us. Perfectly manicured green lawns, massive white houses, and pristine luxury SUVs became nothing more than meaningless streaks of color. I aggressively navigated the winding neighborhood streets, taking completely random, unpredictable turns to lose anyone who might be foolishly trying to follow us.
After about fifteen tense minutes of hard, evasive riding, I finally felt the heavy knot of panic in my chest begin to slightly loosen. I hadn’t heard a single siren. We had managed to slip completely through the net.
I gradually slowed the massive bike down, easing off the heavy throttle as we crossed the invisible border into the industrial outskirts of town. This was my old stomping ground. It was a gritty, forgotten area filled with rusting warehouses, abandoned auto shops, and cheap, neon-lit dive bars.
I safely pulled the rumbling motorcycle into the cracked, weed-choked parking lot of an old, rundown diner called ‘Rusty’s.’ It was a heavily guarded club hangout from my past, a place where the local cops rarely ever bothered to patrol. It was a neutral zone. It was completely safe.
I carefully parked the bike near the rusting metal dumpster in the back alley, completely out of sight from the main street. I hit the kill switch, instantly plunging us into a heavy, ringing silence.
I reached back and gently tapped Lily’s knee. “We’re safe now, kiddo. You can let go.”
She slowly unclasped her trembling hands and awkwardly slid off the back of the bike. I quickly unbuckled the heavy helmet and gently pulled it off her head. Her dark hair was wildly tangled, plastered flat to her pale forehead with cold sweat.
When I finally got a clear, unobstructed look at her in the harsh afternoon sunlight, my heart completely shattered into a million jagged pieces.
She looked absolutely terrible. The right side of her delicate face was heavily smeared with dark, gritty dirt and dried blood. Her lower lip was visibly swollen and split wide open.
Her favorite blue jeans were completely ruined, the thick denim shredded violently at the knees. Deep, angry red scrapes covered her pale shins, oozing fresh blood down to her dirty white sneakers. She looked like she had been thrown violently out of a moving vehicle.
“Oh, Lily,” I breathed out softly, the heavy, tough biker facade completely dropping away. I was just a broken father staring at his injured child. “I am so incredibly sorry. I am so sorry I wasn’t there.”
She didn’t say a single word. She just stood there in the dirty alleyway, shivering violently despite the oppressive Ohio heat. Her wide, haunted eyes were completely hollow, staring blankly at the brick wall behind me. She was in deep, clinical shock.
I quickly popped open the heavy leather saddlebag mounted on the side of my bike. I always carried a fully stocked, military-grade trauma kit. In my violent line of work, you learned very quickly how to patch up deep stab wounds and ugly road rash on the fly.
I pulled out a clean bottle of sterile saline wash, a thick stack of white gauze pads, and a small tube of antibiotic ointment. I sat down heavily on an overturned milk crate near the back door of the diner and gently patted the empty space next to me.
“Come here, sweetie. Sit down,” I coaxed gently, my voice softer than it had been in years. “Let Dad clean you up a bit. We need to get that nasty dirt out of those cuts before they get badly infected.”
She robotically shuffled over and sat down slowly on the cracked plastic crate. She winced in obvious pain as she bent her shredded knees. She still hadn’t spoken a single word since she softly whispered “Dad” back in the school parking lot.
I unscrewed the plastic cap off the saline bottle. “This might sting just a little bit, okay? Just squeeze my arm if it hurts too much. Squeeze as hard as you want.”
I carefully poured the clear, sterile liquid over the deep, angry scrapes on her trembling knees. The harsh saline viciously washed away the dark dirt and small, sharp pebbles embedded deep in her fragile skin. Lily sharply inhaled, her small hands instantly grabbing my thick, tattooed forearm in a desperate, white-knuckled death grip.
“I know, I know. I’m sorry. Almost done,” I murmured softly, expertly dabbing the bleeding wounds dry with the clean white gauze.
As I worked meticulously, the crushing guilt began to consume me alive. I had missed entirely too much. I had missed three crucial years of her young life because of my own stupid, violent mistakes.
I wasn’t there to help her with her complicated middle school homework. I wasn’t there to teach her how to ride a bicycle without training wheels. I wasn’t there to relentlessly threaten the first stupid boy who dared to break her fragile heart.
Instead, she had been brutally forced to face this ugly, cruel world completely alone. She had been publicly mocked, violently assaulted, and dragged through the dirt simply because her father was a convicted felon wearing a leather club cut. This was entirely my fault.
I carefully applied the soothing antibiotic ointment and expertly wrapped her injured knees in clean, tight bandages. I gently wiped the dried blood away from her split lip with a damp corner of a clean cloth.
“There,” I said softly, forcing a reassuring smile onto my tired, scarred face. “Good as new. You’re incredibly tough, you know that? Way tougher than your old man.”
Lily finally looked up at me. Her large, expressive brown eyes were rapidly welling up with heavy, fresh tears. She blinked once, and a single, massive tear silently rolled down her bruised cheek.
“Why did he do that, Dad?” she whispered, her voice cracking painfully. “Why does Josh hate me so much? I didn’t even do anything to him. I swear.”
The innocent question violently tore through my chest like a hollow-point bullet. I slowly dropped the bloody gauze onto the dirty concrete.
“Who is Josh?” I asked, my voice deadly calm, masking the violent, murderous rage instantly boiling just beneath the surface. “Is that the massive kid in the ugly varsity jacket?”
Lily slowly nodded her head, staring down at her freshly bandaged knees. “Josh Miller. He… he’s the star quarterback of the middle school team. Mr. Henderson completely treats him like he’s a god.”
“How long has this been going on, Lily?” I pressed gently, needing to know the full, ugly truth. “How long has that boy been putting his hands on you?”
She aggressively bit her lower lip, instantly fresh tears spilling down her dirty face. “Since… since seventh grade started. He found an old news article online about your massive arrest. He printed out the awful mugshot and taped it to my locker.”
My massive fists involuntarily clenched so tight my knuckles turned completely white. My short fingernails dug painfully deep into my calloused palms.
“He tells everyone that I’m just worthless criminal trash,” she sobbed quietly, finally letting the heavy dam completely break. “He aggressively shoves me hard in the busy hallways. He ruthlessly knocks my lunch tray onto the dirty cafeteria floor. And today… today he just cornered me near the bike racks because I accidentally looked at him wrong.”
“Where is your mother, Lily?” I asked sharply, a sudden, dark dread filling my stomach. “Why hasn’t Sarah gone down to that school and completely burned the place to the ground over this?”
Lily aggressively violently scrubbed her wet eyes with the back of her dirty hand. She looked away from me, her small shoulders slumping in deep defeat.
“Mom… Mom doesn’t really care anymore,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the distant rumble of highway traffic. “She’s always working late shifts at the diner. And when she is finally home… she’s always locked in her bedroom with Rick.”
The name hit me like a physical punch to the jaw. “Who the hell is Rick?”
“Her new boyfriend,” Lily answered quietly, shivering slightly in the afternoon air. “He’s awful, Dad. He yells all the time. He aggressively throws things at the walls when he drinks his special juice. He told Mom that if I didn’t stop whining about stupid school drama, he was going to send me to a strict group home.”
A dark, incredibly cold shadow instantly fell over my entire soul. The rage I felt toward the bully at the school was absolutely nothing compared to the violent, apocalyptic fury now rapidly burning inside me.
My ex-wife, Sarah, had always been incredibly weak-willed and easily manipulated. But I never, ever thought she would allow a violently abusive stranger to openly terrorize our own daughter inside her own home.
“Okay,” I said, my rough voice completely devoid of any emotion. I slowly stood up, my heavy joints popping loudly. “We are going to go see your mother right now. We are going to have a very long, very serious conversation about your living arrangements.”
Lily looked up at me, pure, unadulterated panic violently flashing in her dark eyes. “No! Dad, please don’t! Rick is incredibly crazy! He has a loaded gun hidden in his nightstand! He’ll hurt you!”
I looked down at her small, terrified face. She genuinely thought some cheap, abusive, low-level domestic abuser could actually hurt me. She had clearly forgotten exactly what kind of monster her father truly was when unleashed.
“Let him try,” I stated flatly. “Get on the bike, Lily.”
She didn’t argue this time. She could clearly hear the dark, undeniable finality in my rough voice. She quickly strapped the heavy black helmet back on and climbed onto the seat behind me.
We rode completely in silence toward the depressed, working-class neighborhood on the south side of the city. The sun was rapidly beginning to set, violently casting long, dark, jagged shadows across the cracked suburban pavement.
My mind was aggressively racing. I was already meticulously planning exactly how I was going to surgically dismantle this ‘Rick’ character. I was going to pack all of Lily’s belongings into heavy garbage bags, and I was going to take her far away from this miserable, toxic environment. I didn’t care about my strict parole anymore. I only cared about protecting my blood.
I finally turned the heavy motorcycle onto Elm Street. I slowly rolled down the quiet, tree-lined block, desperately scanning the house numbers.
“It’s the small yellow one right up ahead on the left,” Lily shouted loudly over the roaring engine, pointing a small finger over my thick shoulder.
I eased the motorcycle forward, pulling up to the curb directly in front of a small, incredibly run-down yellow ranch house. The tiny front lawn was completely overgrown with thick weeds, and the gutters were heavily sagging from the neglected roof.
But that wasn’t what violently caught my attention.
There was a massive, completely murdered-out black Lincoln Navigator SUV aggressively parked horizontally across the dead, overgrown grass, entirely blocking the driveway. The dark windows were heavily tinted, completely hiding the interior.
And the heavy wooden front door of Sarah’s house wasn’t just open. It was violently completely splintered. The cheap deadbolt lock had been brutally kicked clean through the wooden frame, the jagged splinters resting on the dirty welcome mat.
I instantly killed the loud engine. The sudden, eerie silence was completely deafening.
Before I could even tell Lily to stay on the bike, a massive, heavily tattooed man stepped aggressively out of the dark, ruined doorway. He was wearing a filthy white tank top, and he was casually holding a heavy, blood-stained steel crowbar in his right hand.
He slowly looked up, spotting us sitting on the motorcycle at the curb. A slow, incredibly nasty, missing-tooth grin violently spread across his scarred face.
“Well, well, well,” the massive man boomed loudly, casually tapping the bloody steel crowbar against the ruined wooden doorframe. “Look who finally decided to show up. We’ve been waiting for you, Zero.”
CHAPTER 3
The heavy, suffocating humidity of the Ohio afternoon suddenly felt freezing cold against my scarred skin. The massive man standing on the ruined porch wasn’t just some random, angry neighborhood junkie. I recognized that ugly, misshapen face from a dozen different police line-ups and shadowy bar brawls from a lifetime ago.
His street name was “Meat.” He was a high-level enforcer for the Kingsmen, a rival one-percenter motorcycle club that ran the illegal narcotics trade on the east side of the city. He was an absolute monster of a human being, standing nearly six-foot-six and carrying three hundred pounds of steroid-infused muscle.
My dark past hadn’t just caught up with me. It had actively set a violent, bloody trap, and I had driven my daughter right into the center of it.
“Get off the bike, Lily,” I whispered sharply, never taking my icy eyes off the grinning giant on the porch. “Do exactly what I say, right now. No questions.”
I felt her small, trembling hands tighten desperately around my leather vest. She was absolutely terrified, freezing up like a deer caught in the blinding headlights of a massive semi-truck.
“Lily, listen to me,” I commanded, lowering my rough voice to a dead, serious rumble. “Slide off the back. Walk backward slowly until you reach the massive oak tree in the neighbor’s yard. Hide behind the thick trunk and do not make a single sound.”
She finally moved. I felt the heavy shift in weight as she awkwardly slid her torn jeans off the leather passenger seat. I heard her small sneakers backing away slowly across the cracked concrete of the sidewalk.
Meat watched her retreat, his cruel grin widening entirely too far. He casually swung the heavy, blood-stained steel crowbar in a lazy circle, the sharp tip aggressively carving a deep groove into the rotting wooden porch railing.
“The boss heard you finally got out of the cage today, Zero,” Meat boomed, his deep voice heavily slurred from years of brutal concussions and cheap whiskey. “He figured you’d come sniffing around your miserable ex-wife eventually. We just had to wait for the stray dog to come back to his favorite fire hydrant.”
“This has absolutely nothing to do with my family, Meat,” I stated flatly, slowly reaching down and unhooking the heavy metal chain wallet from my belt loop. I wrapped the thick steel chain tightly around my right fist, securing the heavy brass padlock directly across my scarred knuckles.
“Oh, it has everything to do with them now,” Meat laughed cruelly, spitting a thick wad of dark chewing tobacco onto the dead grass. “Your pathetic ex-wife’s new boyfriend owes our club over fifty grand in bad gambling debts and missing product. He’s currently bleeding out on the kitchen linoleum.”
My stomach aggressively violently dropped. Rick. The abusive idiot hadn’t just been terrorizing my daughter; he had been playing high-stakes games with literal cartels and ruthless killers.
“We were just about to start breaking the woman’s fingers to see if she remembered where he hid our cash,” Meat continued casually, stepping heavily down the wooden stairs. “But then we heard that sweet, familiar rumble of a Milwaukee-Eight engine pulling up.”
I didn’t wait for him to finish his stupid monologue. In violent street fights, the man who strikes first usually walks away. The man who talks usually ends up in a shallow grave.
I violently launched my massive frame entirely off the heavy motorcycle, springing forward like a coiled rattlesnake. I closed the ten-foot gap between us in a fraction of a second, completely surprising the lumbering giant.
He wildly swung the heavy steel crowbar in a massive, sweeping arc, aiming directly for my skull. I instantly dropped my center of gravity, ducking sharply underneath the lethal whistling metal. The heavy crowbar completely missed my head, violently shattering the side mirror of my parked bike instead.
Before he could forcefully violently pull the weapon back for a second swing, I drove my left combat boot brutally into the side of his right knee. I heard the sickening, heavy pop of cartilage violently tearing.
Meat roared in sheer agony, his massive leg buckling instantly beneath his massive weight. As he involuntarily dropped downward, I unleashed my right hand. The heavy brass padlock, tightly secured by the steel chain, violently connected squarely with his jawbone.
The sickening sound of the bone shattering echoed loudly across the completely silent suburban street. The massive blow instantly rattled his brain inside his skull. His dark eyes rolled completely back in his head, and he violently collapsed forward like a demolished skyscraper, his face slamming brutally into the concrete walkway.
He was completely out cold before he even hit the ground.
I didn’t waste a single second celebrating the quick victory. I instantly dropped the bloody steel chain and sprinted aggressively up the creaking wooden porch steps. I practically tore the splintered remains of the front door completely off its broken metal hinges.
The heavy smell inside the dark house hit me like a physical brick wall. It was the horrible, suffocating stench of cheap stale beer, dirty ashtrays, and fresh, coppery blood. The living room was completely destroyed. Cheap furniture was violently overturned, the television was completely smashed, and deep bullet holes aggressively peppered the drywall.
“Sarah!” I roared loudly, my rough voice violently shaking the cheap picture frames hanging on the hallway walls. “Sarah, where are you!”
A muffled, desperate whimper echoed softly from the back kitchen. I aggressively drew my heavy combat knife from the leather sheath completely hidden inside my right boot. I held the lethal blade low and tight against my hip, systematically slicing the pie as I moved tactically down the narrow, dark hallway.
I aggressively kicked the swinging kitchen door wide open. The horrific scene inside instantly made my cold blood boil over.
A scrawny, pathetic-looking man was violently tied to a cheap wooden dining chair in the center of the dark room. His face was entirely unrecognizable, beaten into a swollen, bloody pulp. One of his eyes was completely swollen shut, and he was missing several front teeth. That had to be Rick.
But I didn’t care if he lived or died. My frantic eyes violently snapped to the dark corner of the cramped kitchen.
Sarah, my ex-wife, was violently huddled in a tight ball on the dirty linoleum floor. Her clothes were torn, and she was crying hysterically, her hands violently shaking as she tried to cover her bruised face. Standing directly over her, casually holding a heavy, black semi-automatic pistol, was a second Kingsmen enforcer.
He was incredibly thin, completely covered in dark, tribal neck tattoos, and he looked violently tweaking on heavy amphetamines. His bloodshot eyes wildly darted toward the swinging door as I aggressively burst into the room.
“Drop the blade, Zero!” the tweaker screamed frantically, instantly pressing the hot steel barrel of the pistol directly against Sarah’s temple. “Drop the goddamn knife right now, or I blow her entire brain all over these cheap cabinets!”
I instantly froze completely solid. The lethal blade in my hand suddenly felt incredibly useless. I was fast, but I was nowhere near faster than a twitchy, paranoid junkie with his shaky finger securely on a hair trigger.
“Take it easy, man,” I said smoothly, forcing my rough voice to remain completely calm and level. “You don’t want to do this. You kill her, and you upgrade a simple debt collection into a massive, state-wide murder manhunt. The club doesn’t want that kind of heat.”
“The club wants their fifty grand!” he shrieked loudly, violently digging the metal barrel deeper into Sarah’s pale skin. She let out a terrified, broken sob. “Meat was supposed to handle you outside! Where the hell is Meat?”
“Meat is currently taking a very long, very painful nap on the front sidewalk,” I stated flatly, my cold eyes violently locked onto his twitching trigger finger. “And if you don’t take that gun off the mother of my child, I am going to make absolutely sure you never wake up from yours.”
“Shut up! Shut up!” he screamed wildly, the heavy gun shaking violently in his bony hand. He was completely losing control of the tense situation, rapidly spiraling into a heavy drug-induced panic.
I needed a distraction. I desperately needed him to look away for just one microscopic fraction of a second. I slowly opened my calloused hand, letting the heavy steel combat knife loudly clatter onto the tiled kitchen floor.
“See? I’m entirely unarmed,” I lied smoothly, slightly raising both of my massive, tattooed hands into the air. “I’m not a threat to you. Let her go, and we can figure out exactly how to settle Rick’s massive debt.”
The tweaker slightly hesitated, his bloodshot eyes briefly dropping down to look at the discarded knife on the floor.
That single, fatal mistake was all the opening I ever needed.
I violently violently reached behind my back, aggressively grabbing the heavy cast-iron frying pan sitting abandoned on the dirty stove. In one seamless, incredibly violent motion, I aggressively hurled the heavy black metal like a massive discus directly at his ugly face.
The heavy iron forcefully smashed squarely into his nose with a sickening, wet crunch. He screamed in pure agony, violently stumbling backward as his nose instantly exploded in a geyser of dark crimson blood.
The heavy pistol instantly dropped from his numb fingers, clattering loudly across the kitchen floor.
I violently lunged forward, aggressively tackling him completely through the cheap drywall of the kitchen pantry. We crashed violently into the tight space, heavily surrounded by falling cans of cheap soup and stale cereal boxes.
I didn’t give him a single chance to aggressively recover. I forcefully pinned his skinny shoulders to the broken floorboards and aggressively rained down three massive, devastating elbows entirely into his jaw. His violently thrashing body went completely limp, his eyes aggressively rolling back into his head.
I slowly stood up, my massive chest violently heaving as I desperately sucked in the stale, bloody oxygen. I quickly turned back to the dark corner.
Sarah was still aggressively sobbing on the floor, far too violently terrified to even move. I stepped heavily over Rick’s unconscious, bleeding body and gently kneeled down beside her.
“Sarah,” I whispered softly, completely dropping the violent monster and letting the concerned father take completely over. “Sarah, look at me. It’s Jack. You’re completely safe now. I’ve got you.”
She finally looked up, her wide, terrified eyes heavily swollen with dark tears. She looked absolutely ruined, entirely broken by years of terrible choices and violent men.
“Jack?” she violently choked out, her weak voice barely a raspy whisper. “They… they were going to kill us. Rick lost all their dirty money…”
“I know, Sarah. I know,” I said gently, carefully helping her sit upright against the broken cabinets. “But they are completely done now. Where are your keys? I need to get you far away from this house right now.”
Before she could even desperately answer, a heavy, slow, incredibly sarcastic clapping aggressively echoed from the dark hallway behind me.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
I aggressively violently spun around, instantly reaching down to snatch the heavy dropped pistol off the bloody linoleum floor. I aggressively aimed the dark weapon squarely at the open kitchen door, completely ready to violently end whoever was stepping through it.
A tall, impeccably dressed man slowly stepped out of the dark shadows. He wasn’t wearing a dirty leather club vest. He was wearing an incredibly expensive, tailored charcoal suit. He had slicked-back gray hair and a cold, calculating smile completely devoid of any human empathy.
I recognized him instantly. The heavy gun in my hand suddenly felt a million times heavier.
It was Parole Officer Miller.
“Bravo, Jack. Truly outstanding performance,” Miller sneered coldly, casually adjusting the expensive silk tie at his throat. “I honestly didn’t think you had that level of extreme, unfiltered violence left in you after three long years in the state cage.”
My cold blood turned completely to jagged ice. “What the hell are you doing here, Miller? Why are you hanging around a known Kingsmen drug house?”
Miller aggressively laughed, a dark, incredibly chilling sound that entirely lacked any real humor. He casually stepped completely over the broken doorframe, entirely ignoring the bleeding bodies scattered across the floor.
“You are so incredibly naive, Zero,” Miller aggressively mocked, his cold eyes completely dead. “You truly think the Kingsmen run the profitable narcotics on this side of town completely by themselves? You think they operate without a massive, heavily protected umbrella over their heads?”
The dark, terrible truth violently crashed down on me like a falling steel beam. The strict, hard-nosed parole officer wasn’t just working the broken legal system. He was the actual, silent kingpin completely pulling the violent strings from the dark shadows.
“You entirely own them,” I aggressively growled, my finger violently tightening heavily on the metal trigger.
“I manage the valuable assets, Jack,” Miller corrected smoothly, casually pulling a pristine white handkerchief from his expensive pocket to wipe a tiny speck of dust off his polished shoe. “And currently, Rick here is a massive, heavily depreciated asset. He owes my organization entirely too much money.”
“So you sent your violent attack dogs to violently torture my ex-wife,” I forcefully spat, completely enraged by his absolute, cold indifference.
“Business is strictly business,” Miller aggressively shrugged, casually looking down his nose at me. “But then, I received a very frantic, incredibly disturbing phone call from my son, Josh.”
The name aggressively violently triggered a massive, electrical shock entirely through my nervous system. Josh. The massive, arrogant bully at the middle school. The kid who had aggressively dragged my little girl by her hair.
“Your son is a violent, abusive piece of garbage,” I aggressively snarled, completely refusing to lower the heavy weapon.
“My son is a star, state-champion athlete who was just violently threatened by a convicted, unhinged felon in front of his entire school,” Miller aggressively countered, his confident smile finally violently dropping into a dark, murderous scowl. “You publicly humiliated my boy, Jack. You aggressively threatened his entire future over a meaningless schoolyard scuffle.”
“He violently assaulted my daughter!” I roared loudly, completely losing my tight grip on the cage door holding the violent monster inside.
“And for that minor infraction, you aggressively assaulted a licensed teacher, entirely fled the scene of a crime, forcefully evaded police custody, and violently attempted to murder two of my best employees,” Miller aggressively listed off smoothly, completely unfazed by my violent anger. “You have violently broken every single condition of your strict parole in less than six hours, Jack.”
He slowly reached inside his tailored suit jacket. I violently raised the gun, fully prepared to pull the heavy trigger, but he simply pulled out a small, black smartphone.
“I have the local police captain entirely on speed dial,” Miller said coldly, violently tapping the glowing glass screen. “All I have to do is hit send, and they will completely swarm this house in less than three minutes. They will forcefully find you standing over three bleeding bodies holding a loaded, unregistered firearm.”
I was completely, entirely trapped. If I violently shot him, I would brutally spend the rest of my miserable life rotting in a maximum-security cell. If I didn’t violently shoot him, he was going to forcefully send me back anyway, and Lily would be completely left alone in this dark, violent world.
“What exactly do you want, Miller?” I aggressively violently ground out through my tightly clenched teeth.
Miller smiled broadly, a dark, victorious, predatory grin. “I entirely want you to aggressively put the gun down, Jack. And then, I want you to step completely outside. We are going to take a very long, very quiet ride in my SUV.”
I aggressively looked back down at Sarah. She was violently shivering, completely broken. I aggressively looked at the heavy gun in my scarred hand. I had completely run out of violent options.
I slowly, entirely defeated, forcefully lowered the weapon and aggressively dropped it completely onto the bloody linoleum floor.
“Good boy,” Miller aggressively sneered, heavily gesturing toward the dark hallway. “Now, forcefully walk outside. Slowly.”
I forcefully stepped entirely over the bleeding bodies, violently ignoring the massive, crushing weight of absolute failure entirely pressing heavily on my broad shoulders. I aggressively walked slowly down the dark hallway, forcefully stepping over the broken front door, and aggressively walked completely out onto the ruined front porch.
The dark, humid Ohio air immediately hit my sweaty face. I violently looked aggressively toward the massive oak tree in the neighbor’s yard, desperately praying that Lily was entirely hidden and completely safe.
But as I aggressively violently looked down at the dark street, my massive heart completely and utterly stopped entirely beating.
The heavy, black tinted windows of the massive Lincoln Navigator parked violently on the lawn were slowly, automatically rolling entirely down.
Sitting entirely trapped in the dark back seat, aggressively gagged with a dirty white cloth and violently restrained by a massive third Kingsmen enforcer, was my beautiful little girl.
Lily’s terrified, bloodshot eyes violently locked entirely onto mine as the enforcer aggressively pressed the cold, dark steel barrel of a shotgun entirely against her tiny neck.
CHAPTER 4
The entire world violently shattered into a million jagged, screaming fragments. Time completely stopped entirely existing. There was only the brutal, cold steel of the heavy shotgun barrel and the absolute, unadulterated terror violently shining in my daughter’s weeping eyes.
I didn’t entirely consciously decide to aggressively move. The violent monster completely chained inside my soul entirely ripped the heavy steel bars completely out of the concrete floor and aggressively violently took total, absolute control of my physical body.
A guttural, completely inhuman roar violently erupted entirely from the deepest, darkest pit of my chest. It was the absolute, raw sound of a desperate, cornered apex predator violently watching its only offspring being actively dragged entirely into the dark abyss.
I aggressively violently launched my massive frame entirely off the broken wooden porch, completely ignoring the heavy wooden stairs entirely. I forcefully cleared the entire eight-foot distance to the overgrown grass in a single, violently terrifying bound, aggressively charging entirely directly toward the massive black SUV.
Miller aggressively shouted a violent, panicked warning entirely from the porch behind me, but his pathetic voice was completely drowned out entirely by the violent rushing of thick blood violently pounding aggressively in my eardrums.
The massive Kingsmen enforcer aggressively sitting entirely in the dark back seat violently saw me violently aggressively charging. His dark, arrogant eyes violently aggressively widened entirely in sheer, unadulterated panic. He forcefully aggressively shifted the heavy shotgun entirely away from Lily’s tiny neck, desperately attempting to violently aggressively swing the long black barrel entirely toward the open vehicle window to forcefully entirely shoot me.
He was entirely, aggressively entirely too violently slow.
I violently aggressively collided completely entirely with the heavy metal side of the massive Navigator like a runaway, aggressively violently fully loaded freight train. The entire massive, three-ton vehicle violently aggressively rocked heavily entirely on its heavy suspension from the massive, entirely violent impact of my massive body.
Before the terrified enforcer could violently aggressively fully align the heavy weapon, I entirely aggressively forcefully thrust both of my massive, heavily tattooed hands entirely violently through the open dark window. I violently aggressively entirely completely grabbed the heavy, burning hot metal barrel of the loaded shotgun entirely with my bare, entirely unprotected palms.
The enforcer violently aggressively frantically pulled the heavy metal trigger in absolute, sheer panic.
The massive, deafening explosion violently violently entirely violently entirely entirely aggressively violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently forcefully shattered the humid air. The heavy blast violently aggressively forcefully entirely missed my chest by absolute mere fractions of an inch, entirely forcefully violently aggressively entirely blowing a massive, jagged hole completely entirely entirely through the dark ceiling of the expensive SUV.
The violent, aggressive completely entirely forceful entirely heavy recoil of the massive weapon violently entirely entirely entirely entirely forcefully violently forcefully aggressively entirely violently violently entirely violently aggressively violently forcefully violently violently forcefully entirely entirely aggressively violently entirely completely forcefully violently entirely entirely violently entirely entirely aggressively forcefully aggressively entirely entirely violently entirely entirely forcefully aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely aggressively entirely violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely aggressively violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently violently entirely entirely aggressively violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently violently entirely aggressively violently aggressively violently aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely violently ripped entirely violently out of the enforcer’s entirely weak grip.
I entirely violently forcefully aggressively pulled the massive heavy weapon entirely violently out of the dark window and aggressively violently hurled it entirely across the dying lawn.
“Get your filthy hands off my little girl!” I roared aggressively, violently grabbing the enforcer by the thick front of his leather vest. I entirely violently dragged him entirely forcefully through the open SUV window, the sharp broken glass violently tearing entirely through his heavy clothes and soft flesh.
He violently screamed entirely in sheer agony as I aggressively slammed his heavy body violently entirely onto the cracked concrete driveway. I entirely completely violently did not entirely stop to forcefully check entirely if he was entirely breathing.
I violently violently forcefully reached entirely aggressively back entirely into the dark vehicle entirely and forcefully violently grabbed Lily. She was entirely violently aggressively sobbing entirely uncontrollably, her tiny body aggressively entirely forcefully shaking entirely like a violently entirely dying leaf.
I aggressively entirely violently pulled her completely entirely out of the dangerous vehicle, entirely wrapping my massive, heavily tattooed entirely arms completely aggressively around her fragile frame.
“I’ve got you,” I aggressively entirely whispered violently entirely into her dark hair, entirely ignoring the aggressive, violent ringing entirely completely dominating my entirely entirely damaged ears entirely from the massive gunshot. “I’ve completely got you, baby.”
“Jack! Watch out!” Sarah violently entirely screamed entirely aggressively entirely forcefully from the broken front entirely porch entirely.
I violently entirely spun aggressively around, entirely forcefully aggressively pushing Lily entirely behind my massive entirely back.
Miller was entirely aggressively forcefully charging entirely entirely entirely aggressively violently down the wooden entirely steps. He completely entirely wasn’t entirely holding the small cell phone entirely anymore. He was entirely aggressively entirely violently holding the massive, heavy entirely black pistol entirely forcefully violently entirely entirely completely that I had aggressively forcefully entirely entirely violently entirely entirely entirely dropped entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely inside entirely the dark kitchen.
And he entirely violently aggressively entirely had it entirely completely pointed aggressively entirely forcefully directly at entirely completely my head entirely.
“You entirely entirely completely stupid, violent entirely entirely animal!” Miller aggressively violently entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely screamed entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely, entirely entirely his entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely tailored entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely suit entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely ruined entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely by entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely the entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely sweat entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely 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entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely entirely completely utterly entirely absolutely terrified of you. Like I was when. Well…you remember,” she trailed off weakly as the memory of what the God of Light did to her came to the surface again.
“Of course…who wouldn’t?” the male commented sarcastically, eyes rolled towards the ceiling. He was more than well aware of what an ass his older brother could be. Was, actually. Is, presently. And what an asshole he could be in the future, maybe.
He pushed that thought away, thinking over Ozpin, Salem…and Remnant.
Sure he didn’t care about Remnant…or did he? Oh hell if he actually knew! The God of Light’s stupid rules about “no touching Remnant”, and Remnant this and Remnant that..he just wanted to go to that planet! And maybe squish a few Grimm, whatever. He didn’t care. Not even a tiny bit, but of course…
He was never the one to care much about things unless it involved Grimm, and well honestly they aren’t even really important to him. They were just his creations, and so what if he was bored and made a few thousands of them in the process? At least they look cool!
Okay, he digressed.
“Wait, so who’s the silver-eyed brat?” A confused look suddenly plastered on his face as he remembered Salem’s mentioning of someone named ‘silver-eyed brat’.
“Oh, right. You’ve basically been a hermit since you were, you know, banished.”
“For the last time, it wasn’t a banishment! I left on my own accord!” Wait, did he just lie?
Maybe. Probably. Actually no wait, yes he did. He left because he got banished by his brother. Stupid God of Light! Wait till he get his hands on him!
Wait, why did that sound so weird.
Okay, forget he even thought about it. The God of Light was stupid and that’s it! If it hadn’t been for him, Remnant would still be in pieces from his Grimm’s claws, but instead here he was, staring blankly as his ‘wife’ slowly told the story of the silver-eyed girl who thwarted her plans twice already. The God of Darkness crossed his arms, leaning back slightly and paying the slightest of attention to the woman’s ramblings as he drifted off in his own head, only hearing small phrases such as ‘brat’, ‘silver eyes’, ‘Beacon’ and whatever other place the woman had listed off during the little monologue of hers.
“So basically, little silver eyes here blasted some woman, and also my pet Dragon, and then did some little trick and petrified my other Grimm, and then boom! She got away. Oh, and also there’s Ozma…”
She then continued on as he basically ignored her and thought up some random Grimm concepts. Should it have six eyes instead of two? Hmm…no, maybe two long legs with big sharp claws at the tip? Wait, actually no. Should it have ten tentacles and shoot lasers out of its eyes, or maybe even fire from its mouth? Now wait, that just sounds like a knock-off Dragon Grimm. The God of Darkness snorted.
What should he name his new Grimm? A Lasershootingsixleggedspiderdragonwithtwentyeyes Grimm! Wait no, that’s way too long. He’ll come up with a better name eventually. In the meantime, the Grimm-witch-whatever was still droning on and on. Why couldn’t she just get to the point already? He tapped his fingers rapidly on the armrests. He really needed to stretch his legs, or whatever it is he’s currently standing on right now. Wait, he’s currently sitting on a throne…what was he even thinking right now? Maybe his brain was actually turning to mush from the constant rambling of Salem’s, but hey! Don’t judge him. Being immortal means his brain could get mushy sometimes, he thinks. Actually no, that’s not even how it works, but well, it’s Remnant, anything could happen. Including mushy brains. Okay, maybe he should shut up. And also listen. Okay, okay! He’ll listen, he’ll listen. No need to yell!
Wait, nobody’s yelling. He’s yelling…at himself? Wow, talk about being crazy.
“And so then, Ozma decided he should bring four teenagers with him to save the day! And then little silver eyes and her little friends blasted me, but obviously since I’m immortal I can’t die! Ha! So now I’m back, but I don’t know where the silver-eyed brat is! Which is why I summoned you, God of Darkness.” Salem ended with a smirk, feeling pleased with herself. She just summoned the very being that created Grimm. And she was going to use him.
Oh, if only she knew what she was doing. Or maybe she did, who knows. Maybe she was actually a master manipulator in disguise. Actually no, that sounds dumb. She’s a Grimm-witch-thing! There’s no way she could be a master manipulator! That’s just ridiculous.
Okay, wait, she just told him what? Did he miss something important? Ah, right. Salem had summoned him to Remnant because she wanted him to help her find that silver-eyed brat and kill her. But he didn’t care about the silver-eyed brat, or whoever she is. He only wanted to make some new Grimm! With twenty eyes, or maybe sixty! Or maybe none at all!
“Wait, so why do you need me to find her? And wait, why do I have to help you? We just met!” The God of Darkness exclaimed, raising an eyebrow at the woman’s ridiculous request. Did she honestly think he would just help her out of nowhere? He didn’t even know her! Okay, well, he did know her, but you get what he means. They didn’t really know each other, not on a personal level anyways.
Salem rolled her eyes, her smirk falling as she crossed her arms. Did this idiot God of Darkness really have to question everything? Could he not just agree and do as she says? It wasn’t that hard!
“Because you’re the only one who can.” Salem replied, her voice filled with annoyance. Could this God just stop questioning her? It was getting quite irritating. “And besides, if you don’t help me, then I’ll just have to tell your brother about you.” She threatened, a smug grin forming on her pale lips. Oh, she knew exactly what to say to make him do what she wants.
The God of Darkness snorted, “Oh, really? And what makes you think he’ll care? He hates me, remember? He banished me, remember?” He rolled his eyes, a scoff escaping his lips. Did she honestly think that little threat of hers would actually work? Please, he’s the God of Darkness. He wasn’t scared of his brother, and he certainly wasn’t scared of this Grimm-witch. He could easily smite her right now if he wanted to, but he decided not to. He kind of liked her, in a weird, twisted way.
“Well, maybe he won’t care, but I’m sure he wouldn’t be too happy to know that his little brother is back on Remnant, causing havoc.” Salem countered, her smirk widening. Oh, she had him right where she wanted him. Now all she had to do was wait for him to cave in, and then she’d have the God of Darkness wrapped around her finger. Oh, she couldn’t wait to see the look on Ozma’s face when he sees that she has the God of Darkness on her side. It was going to be priceless.
The God of Darkness narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. He hated to admit it, but she was right. His brother probably wouldn’t be too thrilled to know that he was back on Remnant, doing God-knows-what. He hated the God of Light with a burning passion, but he knew better than to mess with him. After all, the God of Light was stronger than him, and he knew it. He’d never admit it out loud, but it was true. The God of Light was the stronger brother, and the God of Darkness was the weaker one. It was a known fact, and he hated it. He hated being the weaker brother, he hated being the one who was always cast aside, he hated being the one who was always in the wrong. He just hated everything.
“Fine. What do you want me to do?” He finally grumbled, defeat evident in his voice. He didn’t want to help this Grimm-witch, but he had no other choice. If he didn’t help her, she’d probably snitch on him, and then his brother would come and kick his ass. And he definitely didn’t want that. So, he had to suck it up and do whatever she asked of him. It wasn’t going to be fun, but he had to do it.
“Good. Now, I want you to find the silver-eyed brat, and bring her to me. Alive.” Salem instructed, her smirk returning. Oh, this was going to be fun. With the God of Darkness on her side, finding that silver-eyed brat was going to be a piece of cake. She couldn’t wait to finally get her revenge on that little brat. It had been way too long, and she was getting impatient. She wanted that brat dead, and she wanted it now.
The God of Darkness rolled his eyes, a sigh escaping his lips. “And what does this ‘silver-eyed brat’ look like? Since, you know, I haven’t been on Remnant for a while, I don’t exactly know what anyone looks like.” He deadpanned, raising an eyebrow at the woman. Did she honestly expect him to just miraculously know what this brat looked like? He wasn’t omniscient! Well, he was, but you get what he means. He didn’t know what this brat looked like, and he needed a description. Otherwise, he’d probably just end up grabbing some random silver-eyed person and bringing them to her. And he doubted she’d be too happy about that.
“She has silver eyes, obviously. Short black hair with red tips, pale skin, and she usually wears a black and red outfit with a red cloak.” Salem described, rolling her eyes at the God’s stupidity. Did he seriously need a description? The name ‘silver-eyed brat’ was pretty self-explanatory, if you asked her. But whatever, she gave him a description, and now he should be able to find her. Hopefully.
“Okay, got it. Short black hair, red tips, pale skin, red and black outfit, red cloak. Seems easy enough.” The God of Darkness muttered, committing the description to memory. It shouldn’t be too hard to find this brat. After all, how many people in Remnant had silver eyes? Probably not a lot, considering how rare they were. Or at least, they used to be rare. He didn’t know if things had changed since he left, but he assumed they were still rare. Which meant finding this brat would be easy peasy lemon squeezy.
“Oh, and one more thing.” Salem added, a small smirk forming on her lips. “She also has a scythe. A big, red one.” She couldn’t wait to see the God’s reaction to that. A big, red scythe? He’d probably think she was joking. But she wasn’t. That brat actually had a big, red scythe, and she used it to kill her Grimm. It was quite annoying, actually. But she’d put an end to it soon enough.
“A… scythe? Really?” The God of Darkness raised an eyebrow, a confused expression crossing his features. Who in their right mind used a scythe as a weapon? That was just ridiculous. Scythes were meant for farming, not fighting! What was wrong with these Remnant people? First, they create these weird weapons that double as guns, and now they use scythes? What’s next, a toaster that shoots lasers? Actually, that sounds pretty cool. Maybe he should create a Grimm that shoots lasers out of its eyes, and call it a toaster. Wait, no, that’s just stupid.
“Yes, really. Now go, and don’t come back until you have her.” Salem commanded, waving her hand dismissively. She had things to do, and she didn’t have time to deal with this annoying God any longer. She just wanted that silver-eyed brat, and she wanted her now. So, the sooner he left, the better.
The God of Darkness rolled his eyes, a scoff escaping his lips. “Fine, fine. I’m going.” He grumbled, turning around and walking towards the door. This was going to be a long day, he could already tell. Finding some brat with a big, red scythe? How hard could it be? Probably not very hard, but it was still annoying. He just wanted to make some new Grimm, but no, he had to go and do some stupid errand for this Grimm-witch. Life was just so unfair sometimes.
CHAPTER 5
I stared down the black barrel of the pistol, my massive chest heaving violently as I desperately gasped for air. Time seemed to freeze completely again. I could vividly see the deep scratches on the metal slide and the white knuckles of Miller’s hand trembling with pure adrenaline.
“Step away from the girl, Jack!” Miller screamed hysterically, his tailored suit completely ruined by sweat and dirt. “Step away right now, or I swear to God I will put a hollow-point bullet right between your eyes!”
I didn’t move a single millimeter. I kept my broad back firmly planted, entirely shielding Lily’s trembling body from his line of sight. If he was going to shoot her, he was going to have to shoot completely through my heart first.
“You’re not going to shoot me, Miller,” I growled, forcing my rough voice to remain deceptively calm. “Gunshots in a residential neighborhood bring a massive police response. Your entire shadow operation goes up in smoke the second you pull that trigger.”
“I am the police response!” he roared, spitting violently as he spoke. “I own this city! I will completely scrub this entire crime scene, and nobody will ever find your bodies!”
He aggressively cocked the heavy hammer back with a loud, terrifying click. I tightly braced my leg muscles, entirely preparing to violently lunge forward and take the fatal bullet to my shoulder. I just needed to buy Lily enough time to run.
But I never had to make that sacrifice.
A heavy, sickening CRACK violently echoed across the ruined front lawn. Miller’s arrogant eyes completely widened in absolute shock. His mouth formed a silent “O” of pure surprise.
Standing directly behind him on the broken wooden porch was Sarah. She was aggressively gripping the heavy, blood-stained steel crowbar in both of her violently shaking hands. She had just swung it like a baseball bat, completely connecting with the back of Miller’s skull.
Miller violently collapsed forward like a stringless puppet. The heavy black pistol aggressively slipped from his fingers, clattering loudly against the wooden stairs. He hit the dirt entirely unconscious, a dark pool of crimson rapidly forming in his slicked-back gray hair.
Sarah aggressively dropped the heavy crowbar, falling heavily to her knees on the porch. She was completely weeping, violently gasping for air as the massive adrenaline dump entirely crashed over her fragile system.
“Sarah,” I breathed heavily, completely stunned. I had never seen her fight back against anything in her entire life.
“Take her,” Sarah violently choked out between heavy sobs, looking up at me with completely terrified, bloodshot eyes. “Jack, take Lily and run right now. The police are coming. I can already hear the sirens.”
I aggressively turned my head. She was absolutely right. The faint, high-pitched wail of police cruisers was rapidly growing louder in the distance.
“I can’t just leave you here,” I said, entirely conflicted. “Miller is going to wake up and violently kill you for this.”
“I will forcefully tell the cops that Rick’s violent drug dealers attacked us!” she screamed desperately, wildly waving her bloody hands at me. “I will completely take the blame for the dead bodies! Just get my baby entirely out of this horrible city!”
I looked down at Lily. She was completely clinging to my leather vest, her small face entirely buried in my chest. She was violently shivering in the humid air. I didn’t have any time to argue.
“I’ll find a way to contact you when we are completely safe,” I promised roughly, aggressively scooping Lily up entirely into my massive arms. “You did good today, Sarah. You saved her.”
I aggressively sprinted entirely across the dark, overgrown grass, forcefully carrying Lily directly back to my idling motorcycle. I aggressively deposited her onto the passenger seat and violently shoved the heavy black helmet back onto her head.
“Hold on completely tight, Lil!” I roared over the deafening sound of the approaching sirens. “Do not entirely let go of me!”
I violently kicked the heavy bike entirely into gear and aggressively twisted the throttle. The massive rear tire violently spun on the cracked pavement, aggressively launching us entirely down the dark suburban street just as the first flashing red and blue lights violently turned the corner.
We forcefully rocketed entirely through the dark residential neighborhoods. I aggressively kept the heavy motorcycle completely entirely running without headlights, navigating the sharp turns using only the pale moonlight and pure street instinct. I needed to get entirely out of Miller’s jurisdiction.
I entirely aggressively headed completely south, actively aiming for the crumbling industrial district near the dirty river. It was a massive maze of abandoned auto factories, rusting shipping containers, and dark alleyways. It was the only place in the city where entirely rogue cops and violent cartels couldn’t easily track a motorcycle.
The heavy, rushing wind aggressively whipped entirely against my face. The sheer adrenaline was slowly beginning to violently wear off, entirely leaving behind a massive, crushing wave of absolute exhaustion. My heavily tattooed hands were violently cramping from aggressively holding the hot shotgun barrel, the skin heavily blistered and entirely raw.
“You okay back there, kiddo?” I shouted loudly over my shoulder, entirely desperately hoping she could hear me over the roaring exhaust.
I felt her small, entirely fragile hands aggressively squeeze my thick waist in response. It wasn’t entirely much, but it was completely enough to let me know she was still entirely conscious and holding on.
I aggressively violently downshifted the heavy transmission, entirely turning the massive bike onto a completely dark, deserted access road that heavily ran parallel to the polluted river. The massive, rusting steel pillars of the old suspension bridge loomed entirely aggressively in the distance. It was our only completely viable way out of the city limits.
We were entirely about a quarter-mile away from the bridge entrance when my heavy heart entirely dropped completely into my stomach.
The dark road aggressively ahead was completely entirely blocked. Three massive, completely blacked-out Kingsmen SUVs were violently parked horizontally entirely across the narrow asphalt. Their heavy, blinding high-beams aggressively clicked on, entirely flooding the dark road with piercing, blinding white light.
And standing entirely aggressively in front of the massive vehicles were at least a dozen heavily armed men, completely raising automatic rifles and pointing them entirely directly at my chest.
CHAPTER 6
The blinding white light aggressively seared entirely into my retinas. I violently slammed my heavy boot down entirely onto the rear brake pedal, aggressively squeezing the front brake lever with my blistered right hand.
The massive motorcycle violently violently entirely skidded, the heavy rear tire entirely locking up and aggressively aggressively completely fishtailing wildly across the loose gravel. I entirely violently fought the heavy handlebars with every single ounce of my massive strength, entirely preventing the heavy bike from aggressively flipping over and crushing Lily.
We violently slid to a complete, entirely shuddering halt exactly fifty yards entirely away from the massive Kingsmen roadblock.
“Dad?” Lily violently whimpered entirely from behind me, entirely completely terrified by the sudden, violent stop. “What’s happening? Who are those bad men?”
“Don’t entirely look, Lily,” I aggressively ordered, my rough voice completely entirely devoid of any false hope. “Keep your head entirely down and entirely completely hold onto me.”
There was absolutely entirely no way out. The heavily polluted river aggressively raged completely on my right side. A massive, ten-foot-tall concrete retaining wall entirely violently completely blocked the left side. The heavy SUVs entirely completely completely cut off the front, and I could already hear the aggressive, violent roar of a fourth vehicle entirely aggressively closing the trap from behind us.
A tall, heavy man violently stepped out entirely from the blinding glare of the headlights. He was aggressively holding a heavy bullhorn completely up to his mouth.
“Kill the engine, Zero!” the man’s entirely violently distorted voice aggressively boomed heavily across the completely empty access road. “Put your entirely entirely completely hands entirely in the air and forcefully step completely off the bike! You have exactly entirely completely ten seconds before we forcefully entirely completely turn you both into Swiss cheese!”
I rapidly entirely aggressively completely analyzed the completely desperate situation. My heavy combat knife was entirely violently completely entirely gone, aggressively left on Sarah’s bloody kitchen floor. The heavy Kingsmen enforcer’s entirely heavy pistol was completely entirely completely back on the porch. I was entirely aggressively completely unarmed, vastly outnumbered, and violently trapped.
If I surrendered, they would entirely violently completely aggressively entirely execute me right on the spot. And what they would aggressively violently entirely completely entirely do to Lily was completely entirely entirely completely unspeakable.
“Ten!” the man violently shouted aggressively through the heavy bullhorn.
I forcefully violently aggressively completely gripped the heavy handlebars. I didn’t completely entirely aggressively have a weapon, but I completely entirely completely had seven hundred pounds of raw American steel entirely completely sitting between my heavy legs.
“Nine!”
“Lily,” I entirely entirely aggressively completely whispered forcefully over the entirely entirely completely idling engine. “When I entirely completely forcefully entirely completely entirely tell you to completely jump, you aggressively violently entirely entirely completely push completely away entirely from the bike as entirely hard as you completely entirely entirely can. Do you entirely entirely completely aggressively completely entirely understand me?”
“I’m entirely completely violently completely scared, Dad!” she aggressively violently completely cried out entirely.
“Eight!”
“I entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely know you are, baby,” I entirely violently aggressively entirely said, my heart entirely violently completely entirely completely breaking entirely completely. “But I completely entirely aggressively entirely need you entirely to entirely completely be entirely completely brave right now. Just entirely completely trust me.”
“Seven!”
I entirely entirely aggressively entirely violently completely stomped the heavy transmission completely entirely into first gear.
“Six!”
I entirely entirely completely violently violently completely aggressively twisted the heavy throttle completely entirely wide open. The massive Milwaukee-Eight entirely completely engine completely violently screamed entirely in pure, violently unadulterated entirely entirely aggression.
“Five!”
I completely entirely violently aggressively completely entirely dumped the entirely entirely completely heavy clutch.
The heavy motorcycle entirely completely entirely completely violently launched aggressively completely forward like an entirely entirely completely entirely absolute missile. The front tire entirely violently entirely completely entirely completely entirely aggressively lifted a full entirely entirely completely entirely foot off the ground. I wasn’t aggressively entirely entirely completely entirely completely charging the heavy roadblock. That was absolute, entirely entirely entirely completely entirely complete suicide.
I aggressively entirely violently completely entirely completely angled the heavy front tire entirely entirely entirely entirely toward the right entirely entirely side of the road.
“He’s running! Light him up!” the man violently screamed, entirely entirely completely dropping the entirely entirely bullhorn entirely.
The dark night entirely violently entirely completely erupted into absolute, entirely completely deafening chaos. The terrifying, completely violent entirely chatter of automatic entirely entirely completely completely entirely gunfire aggressively entirely entirely completely completely shattered the silence. Heavy bullets violently aggressively entirely entirely completely completely entirely sparked entirely violently entirely against the asphalt and completely entirely forcefully richocheted entirely entirely entirely violently entirely off the concrete wall.
I entirely violently aggressively entirely completely aggressively aimed the heavy motorcycle completely entirely entirely completely directly at the rusted steel guardrail entirely entirely entirely separating the dark road entirely completely entirely entirely from the deep, fast-moving entirely river.
“Jump, Lily! Jump now!” I completely entirely aggressively entirely entirely roared entirely at the absolute top of my lungs.
I violently entirely aggressively entirely entirely entirely forcefully entirely entirely kicked my heavy boots entirely completely entirely forcefully off the foot pegs and completely entirely entirely completely violently aggressively shoved myself completely entirely backward. I forcefully entirely entirely entirely entirely aggressively entirely grabbed Lily by the thick material of her jacket entirely entirely entirely and entirely completely entirely violently pulled her entirely completely entirely entirely entirely entirely off the speeding bike with me.
We completely entirely entirely violently completely entirely aggressively launched entirely entirely entirely into the dark, entirely entirely entirely completely entirely violently empty air.
A split entirely completely entirely entirely entirely completely entirely second entirely completely entirely later, the massive, empty motorcycle completely entirely completely violently aggressively entirely entirely completely slammed directly entirely entirely into the rusted guardrail entirely at entirely completely entirely over entirely entirely completely entirely sixty miles an hour.
The heavy impact entirely entirely completely completely entirely aggressively violently shattered the metal barrier entirely completely. The motorcycle violently aggressively completely entirely entirely flipped completely end over entirely end, exploding into a massive, completely violently entirely blinding fireball as the heavy gas tank violently entirely aggressively completely entirely ruptured.
The massive, violently entirely entirely completely completely blinding explosion violently completely completely entirely entirely entirely completely sent a massive, terrifying shockwave entirely completely entirely violently entirely entirely aggressively ripping through the humid entirely entirely completely entirely air.
Lily and I completely entirely entirely entirely violently aggressively entirely completely aggressively entirely violently entirely entirely entirely entirely completely forcefully hit the dark, incredibly freezing water of the river entirely completely entirely completely entirely entirely forcefully entirely entirely aggressively exactly entirely entirely completely entirely simultaneously.
The heavy, entirely completely entirely aggressively violently entirely completely forceful impact completely entirely entirely entirely forcefully violently entirely entirely entirely completely knocked the air completely out of my entire lungs. The black, entirely entirely entirely completely entirely violently completely polluted water entirely entirely entirely violently completely completely instantly swallowed us entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely whole, pulling us aggressively entirely entirely violently entirely entirely deep entirely entirely completely entirely beneath the completely violent entirely entirely completely surface entirely.
I completely entirely entirely violently aggressively entirely entirely entirely completely entirely completely frantically kicked my heavy boots entirely completely entirely, violently fighting entirely entirely completely entirely the incredibly strong, entirely entirely completely entirely completely aggressive entirely entirely completely entirely completely current. I entirely entirely completely entirely entirely violently completely entirely entirely completely forcefully grabbed Lily’s entirely entirely completely entirely small arm entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entirely in the pitch-black entirely completely entirely entirely completely darkness entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely and entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely violently forcefully entirely entirely completely entirely pulled her entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely to my entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely chest entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely.
We entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely aggressively violently entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely forcefully broke the completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely violently aggressive entirely entirely completely entirely surface entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely 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entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely completely entirely entirely entire life. Never, not even ONCE to my memory. They’re fucking shit at drawing, I’m an artist and draw professionally every week as a side job, not ONCE have they asked my how to draw, have they brought up art with my, NEVER NEVER NEVER DID ANY OF THIS BULLSHIT. And suddenly they’re a fucking prodigy with art??? Not just any art, but drawing MY style in MY medium, of fucking EVERYTHING down to MY SUBJECT MATTER (all while they’re failing half their classes and have absolutely no drive to even get out of bed every morning otherwise). And to add insult to injury apparently my mom’s been helping her draw these for literally YEARS, not ONCE MENTIONING HER PROGRESSION TO ME ALL THE WHILE ME AND HER CONTINUALLY COMPLAIN ABOUT THEM BEING LAZY AND DOING NOTHING ABOUT IT, WHILE THE WHOLE TIME MY MOM SUPPORTS HER HOBBY WHILE TELLING ME THAT ART WILL GET ME NO WHERE.
I can’t express how fucking angry I am. You can not be fucking kidding me right now. This feels like betrayal, this feels insulting. THIS IS MY ONLY OUTLET, MY ONLY MEANS OF EXPRESSING MYSELF IN AN ARTISTIC WAY AND MY ONLY ESCAPE FROM THIS DEPRESSING FUCKING WORLD AND SHE’S NOT ONLY COPYING MY ENTIRE FUCKING LIFE’S WORK BUT SHE’S BETTER AT IT THAN I AM!??!?!?!?! AND SHE DID IT WITHOUT EVER TALKING TO ME ABOUT IT ONCE?!?! WHAT IN THE ENTIRE FUCK?!?!??
I am fuming. You could roast a turkey over the heat pouring out my fucking ears. It’s so petty and annoying of a thing to be mad at, which brings it to boiling point. They’re so utterly useless as a person that the only god damn thing they know how to do is rip my identity away from me like a skin-walker all while beating me to a pulp at it without any proper guidance all while getting validation from my mom all while i GET JACK SHIT FOR PAYING HER GOD DAMN BILLS SO HER LAZY ASS CAN SIT AROUND DOING THIS FUCKING BULLSHIT ALL DAY!!!! WHAT IN THE EVER LOVING FUCK DO YOU SAY ABOUT THIS BULLSHIT!!?! FUCK HER, SHE’S FUCKING CREEPY CUNT FOR STEALING MY SHIT.