The Mysterious Demon

-Arthur’s POV-

“Bye Arthur! See you after school!” I kissed her forehead and grinned down at her.

“See you later sis, stay safe alright?” She gave me a curt nod and ran towards her school’s building. I loved my sister, so much so that I’d probably die in order to keep her safe. Dominic meant so much to me, her happiness meant so much to me.

That was on my mind whilst I was riding my motorcycle back home until I heard a gunshot. I hadn’t had enough time to turn and look at where it came from when I was hit. I wasn’t prepared for it at all. It was quick but I was in so much pain. I had been shot. I fell off of my bike, rolling against the floor before stopping and groaning in pain.

I tried motivating myself. Telling myself I had to get up, telling myself I had to be strong. For myself. For my family. For Dominic. I couldn’t stay there no matter what.

I started getting up and eventually moving slowly but that wasn’t enough. I didn’t even get a metre away before I was faced with the feet of a male who pushed me back onto the ground. From the looks of it, he was in a police uniform but with closer inspection, you could tell it was fake.

I wanted to run, to get away and I tried. I tried as hard as I could but this guy wouldn’t let me get away, he beat me, kicked my bullet wound making me shout out in pain and watch as the blood flowed out of it. It wasn’t long before my vision went blurry and eventually went black.

—

As soon as my eyes opened, I struggled. I knew I shouldn’t be there. My time as a street fighter had taught me better than that. I fought against whatever was holding me down but even I was too weak against the chains that seemed to get tighter as I fought against then.

“There’s no point in struggling, you’re not getting out of this,” A man said, walking out of the shadows and in front of me with slow strides before putting a gun at my head.

“Go on, you might as well kill me,” I tempted with a smirk on my face but instead of shooting me he hummed with amusement and took the gun away from my head.

“I ‘might as well’? No, that isn’t my ain’t. You’re going to join us Arthur Johnson, or should I call you ‘The Monster’?” I rolled my eyes after that, finally getting it.

“Oh, this is a street fighter related thing? Sorry mate, a street fighter remains a street fighter, not a gang member. It’s kind of an unsaid law.” I said casually, almost making myself laugh but the humour in my voice fell as soon as he shot the gun and the bullet flew right past my face.

“Look behind you,” he ordered and as I had no choice, I turned my head to see what the bullet had hit. Once my face was turned, my eyes widened and jaw clenched. He had shot a picture of my family which was pinned up next to documents with our data.

“That’s what will happen if you don’t agree with our terms… so?” I didn’t want yo. I really didn’t. But in order to keep them alive, I had to.

“Fine. I agree.” I mumbled angrily.

“Great!” He exclaimed, “There are also some rules you have to follow. The first rule, you can’t get in contact with anyone you know anymore.” My head whipped around at him and I glared but knew I couldn’t say anything.

I couldn’t see them ever again? The faces of the people I knew flashed in my head. Mum, dad, Dominic, Xavier, William… William! That was it!

I searched in my back pocket for a moment before I found what I was looking for. I knew they had taken my phone but they didn’t take my keys. My keys had a device attached to the ring of it and when I clicked a button, a message was sent to William. All this I had programmed just in case something like this were to happen. The message was:

Protect her.

“Rule number two, you give your full loyalty to us and to prove this…” he out a picture of Dominic in my lap. She had a hard face on and her leg was in the air. I was cut out of it but I knew this was a picture of me training her. “Kill her.”

“No.” I denied straight away. “I’ll do anything except kill my sister.”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“Come on!” he shouted exasperatedly. “She’s not even your real sister!”

“She’s more to me than any real sister would be!” I shouted back with venom coming out of my mouth. He held his face after that and gave a dark chuckle.

“Fine then, you can kill your parents,”

—

After a week of confinement and torture, trying to make me pick out of the two options I fought with them and myself over and over until I chose.

I watched as they left the house, heads hanging low. My mother’s eyes were red, puffy and sleepless. My father was lifeless.

I didn’t know how exactly they had done it but the gang was able to fake my death and present enough proof to my parents that I died and now they were headed to what’s supposed to be my funeral. However, I knew, the funeral won’t be mine.

Before they got into the car, I walked towards them. The gang had people watching me so I couldn’t get out of this but I thought if I were to do this, I was going to do it directly. I wasn’t going to cower away.

My mother was the first to see me and when she did, she shouted, “Arthur!” before running up to me and hugging me as tight as she could. My father soon followed this action. Both of them had tears streaming out of their eyes as they asked me questions and saying how sad they were but I refused to hear them. It only made it hurt more.

My eyes started to sting.

“Mum, Dad, I-” I trembled a bit but carried on as strong as I could. I quickly pulled them close to me and whispered in their ears, “You see the people behind me?” they were silent for a moment but then I got nods from both of them. They held me tighter.

“Do what you must, son,” my father said and my mother slowly nodded too.

“But promise us this,” she started and I listened, “look after Dominic.” When she said those words, tears started falling out of my eyes, I was unable to hold them in anymore.

“I will,” I promised sobbing as I raised the two guns to the sides of their heads. “I love you,” I said, broken, destroyed.

In sync, they replied, “We love you too.”

Bang.

.