~CHAPTER 1~
Early one morning, however not nearly early enough, Scott Short ran across the damp front lawn of St. Wainluk High School, a light drizzle falling from the grey sky above. A bookbag jammed with thick text books was draped over his shoulders while the heavy purple bags under his eyes were easily visible for all to see. He pulled out his cell phone to look at the digital time displayed on it.
Oh no! I’m late, he thought anxiously to himself. What a way to start his seventeenth birthday...
Hoping to cut his lateness down a bit, Scott took off running again, rushing in between a passionate couple that was about to kiss.
Scott ignored the vulgar words directed at him by the boyfriend and rushed in through the front doors of the school, around the corner, and down the newly-waxed floor of one of the halls, almost barreling into a group of chattering students. He ignored the rude comments that included a few words his mother would definitely not approve of, and he continued to run as fast as he could, hoping not to get stopped by a teacher trying to get him to not run in the halls.
After a couple minutes of running and dodging various students and teachers, Scott heaved a sigh of relief as he approached the door of his first class of the day. He stopped before entering to straighten out his clothes and brush his wavy hair back with his thin fingers.
He breathed in and opened the door as he held his breath.
“And that’s why when you multiply 34 and…” his Mathematics teacher was in the process of explaining a difficult equation to the class when he stopped and looked over at Scott with a disapproving glance.
Oh great, Scott thought to himself gloomily as he slowly walked down an aisle of seats and sat down next to his best friend, Curtis Coates. He was really regretting sleeping in that morning and made a mental note to never forget to set his alarm clock
ever again.
While Curtis shot a disapproving glance at his friend, the teacher picked up his speech from where he left off, many of the students turning their attention from the late student and back to their notes.
Scott took out his notebook to join in and sighed, rubbing leftover sleep from his eyes; Even though he slept in, he still hadn’t slept as much as he would have liked and he highly anticipated the moment when he could go home and get some extra rest and...
An annoying tap on his arm brought Scott out of his thoughts and he turned to look at Curtis.
'
Slept in?' Curtis mouthed silently. Scott nodded his head and turned back around, not wishing to get in even more trouble, this time for talking.
***
After his math class ended and all the students were piling out into the hall, Scott told Curtis to go on ahead and approached his teacher at the front of the room, nervous about what he was going to say.
"Mr. Park, I just wanted to apologize,” Scott began.
Mr. Park brushed his thick bushy hair out of his eyes as he turned and looked down at the student. “You’re a bright kid, Mr. Short. However, you constantly show up late and very often only half-finish assignments.”
“I know, and I
am trying really hard, but I have a lot of personal stuff going on in my life right now that I’m trying to deal with, and I also have a very demanding job that I’m trying to keep in balance with school and…”
Mr. Park cut him off, "You’re in school to be educated and learn to eventually get a job that you enjoy and that you can stay at for the rest of your life. Whatever job you have now, that’s only for just now. Jobs like that’ll come and go in your life. But this –
School - this is important. This will determine your life, Mr. Short. I can’t tell you how many students drop out of high school only to be living under an underpass or some crack shack because they didn’t want to finish their education. They didn’t want to find out what they wanted in life.”
“It’s a little bit more complicated then that…” Scott trailed off.
“How is that, Mr. Short?” Mr. Park wasn’t trying to be rude. He was generally interested. His students’ well-being was always important to him and if he was able to help out with any of their problems in any way, he wanted to. It was in his nature, not a part of his obligations.
“It’s kind of hard to explain.”
“I’ll give you a chance to make some extra credit to catch up, but you have to promise to show up to every class
on time from now on, and do the work.”
Scott was overjoyed with that news; he was expecting some kind of verbal lashing or to be in trouble, but instead his teacher actually let it all slide and was trying to help him.
“After the weekend,” Mr. Park explained, “I’ll give you a test on all the recent material. Study as much as you can in preparation for that test, and if you get eighty percent or higher, I will give you some extra credit. I know this will be sketchy for you, but be here.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Park, you can count on it.”
“I hope so,” Mr. Park turned, picking up his bag, and started walking away only to turn back around. “And may I suggest an earlier bedtime, Mr. Short? Your eyes give away your obvious lack of sleep." And with that, the teacher went on his way.
***
During the short break transition between classes, the hallways of St. Wainluk High School were packed with students of all ages going about their daily business. Some were at their lockers, others were clogging up the thin halls by standing around and talking with friends, some were heading to classes, and others were aimlessly walking around the school in a giant circle.
Scott walked into the busy student-packed main hallway from his previous class, and yawned as he walked down the hall, heading in the direction of his locker and brushing past the other kids. Since he had rushed to his previous class in such a hurry, he hadn’t had time before to stop by his locker to drop his bookbag off.
He turned around when he suddenly heard his name get called out and saw the young and beautiful Roberta Hammond walking up to him as she pushed past the sea of moving bodies.
Scott returned the greeting and stared at Roberta, just as mesmerized by her beauty as he had been two years earlier when he first met her. Even though Roberta was a year younger then Scott, he had met her through a mutual friend that they had at the time. Over the following year, he and Roberta began to get close to each other and just when Scott gathered up the nerve to tell her about his feelings for her and ask her out, another student did first and Roberta began dating him. Scott had retracted a bit, wanting to remove his feelings for Roberta so they could go back to being just friends without having to worry about his feelings for her. However even though they stopped hanging out as much as they originally did, he never did manage to remove those feelings.
When Roberta got closer, she noticed the deep coloring of purple under Scott's eyes. “Wow, you look horrible.”
“Gee, thanks,” Scott replied sarcastically as they continued down the hall together.
“Late night last night?”
“Yeah, kind of,” Scott stayed vague on purpose. Of course he couldn’t tell her the full reason, obviously. “Couldn’t sleep.”
“Well you know you can always call me, even late at night like we used to do,” Roberta offered as she lightly bit her lower lip. “If I’m asleep, I don’t mind waking up and talking to you.”
“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass," Scott replied. Even though his feelings for her were so strong he could hardly stand it, he had given up on thoughts of them ever being together. It was always one thing or another standing in the way. He decided long ago that he would not spend any more time entertaining the notion. “Unless you’re really boring on the phone and can put me to sleep,” he added jokingly.
They both laughed for a moment but stopped when Roberta waved to a group of her friends who had just emerged from the female bathroom. “I’ll catch you later,” she said as she rubbed Scott’s shoulder with one hand. “Hope you sleep better tonight.”
“See you around,” Scott replied as Roberta went and joined her friends. Scott stared after her as she and her friends disappeared around the corner. A strong hand fell on Scott’s shoulder and he turned quickly to see Curtis standing there, just a few inches taller then himself.
“You should make your move,” Curtis sighed as the two of them walked down the hall. “Don’t be a pussy. You missed your chance before, but now you have another one. It's like a gift from God.”
“What do you mean?” Scott asked, his interest slightly raised more then it had been when he first saw Curtis. What was this talk of a new chance with Roberta?
“Oh, you didn’t hear?” Curtis asked, surprised. He figured Scott would have been one of the first to hear and would hardly be able to contain his excitement. “Her and Neil broke up last night.”
Scott’s mind began to race like a Nascar driver during a tournament. What Roberta had said earlier about calling her if he ever needed to talk, had she actually been making a move when she had said that? Or was he just looking too far into it? Scott normally wouldn’t entertain the notion that it meant anything more then a simple friendly gesture between friends, but under the newly-learned circumstances, he couldn’t help but feel there was something more behind those words.
“She just got out of a long relationship,” Scott started to say, after realizing that Roberta probably wasn’t in the mood for another relationship quite yet. “I don’t think she would want…”
“Now would be the perfect time,” Curtis interrupted, cutting his friend off. He had a habit of trying to push Scott into decisions he would normally never make on his own, and this time was no different. “She’s hurt and needs a rock to lean against. You like her, obviously, and she seems to dig you too for some reason unknown to me, so I say go for it.”
The two stopped by Scott's dented locker as he begun to turn the combination lock to open it. Scott had always hated his combination lock. It had taken almost his entire first year of high school to finally get used to turning it without messing up, and those bad memories always came to the front of his mind every time he went to open his locker since that year.
Curtis widened his eyes and hit himself in the head, feeling like an idiot for forgetting. “Oh by the way, Happy Birthday!” He couldn’t believe that he had forgotten. He and Scott had been friends for years and he had never forgotten his birthday before. Already in his mind, he was formulating a way to make it up to him in regards to a huge birthday party at his cabin the following weekend, with all their friends and maybe some random hot girls as well...
“Thanks,” Scott replied without much enthusiasm. He hadn’t been excited about his birthday for quite a few years now, and people rarely ever gave him a reason to change his mind.
Curtis got his first real good look at Scott’s sleep-deprived eyes. “Wow you look…”
“Shut up,” Scott cut his friend off, already knowing the end of that sentence. Scott closed his locker, his new books in hand, and they continued down the hall when the tall Leonard Pothier walked up to them.
"Hey guys," he greeted. Len was taller then both Scott and Curtis and wore thin but noticeable glasses, along with a black T-Shirt with a cartoon version of the Star Trek: The Original Series Enterprise whooshing around. Before they had a chance to greet him back, a couple of more muscular students shoved Len into the wall of lockers with force, laughing as they continued walking away, words such as 'Geek' and 'Looser' floating back to their ears from the departing bullies. Len glared back at them as he regained his footing.
When Scott and Curtis greeted him back, Len turned back to face them again. "Hey Curtis, I’ve got a trick for you.” Curtis turned to him and smiled as Len pushed his glasses up and smiled. Curtis was oblivious to the fact that Len had a very twisted plan in his head.
“What is it?” Curtis loved tricks. Growing up, he had attended more magic shows then he could count and even bought some basic magic kits himself.
Len took his thick leather wallet out from his tight back pocket and removed a seemingly normal quarter from it before returning his wallet back to its place in his pocket. “I bet you five bucks that you can’t roll this quarter from the top of your forehead down to your chin, without it leaving your face.”
“Oh, that’s easy!” Curtis chuckled, thinking that it would the easiest five bucks of his life.
“I don’t know,” Len went on, voice oozing with sarcasm which Curtis didn't seem to notice in his excitement. “I tried it last night and I couldn’t do. It was really frustrating.” He gave the quarter to Curtis, who put it on its side at the top of his forehead and rolled it down his face to the bottom of his chin. However, Curtis was unaware that earlier that day, when Len had been bored in class, he ran a pencil over the edge of the quarter and it was currently leaving a thin but prominent pencil-lead line right down the middle of his face.
When he finished, Curtis proudly beamed. “See? I told you it was easy!”
“Gee Curtis, you sure showed me,” Len tried his best not to laugh. He took his quarter back from Curtis while Scott, giving up on his annual birthday blues, finally broke a smile.
“So where’s my money?” Curtis asked.
“We never shook on it,” Len remarked much to Curtis' disappointment.
“Oh man, that is a load of ****.”
“So Len, how’s the new car coming along?” Scott asked, remembering that Len had been spending all his free time for the last couple months rebuilding an old car from nothing but various spare parts and scrap heap metal.
“It's coming slowly, but surely. I got put behind a bit this week though when I had to spend most of the week fixing my dad's computer. But I’m back on track now and it should be up and running by the end of the month.”
“Sweet,” Curtis exclaimed. “You’ll have to pick me up for school in it some time, and when I get my license, you should let me drive it.”
Len laughed, “Not a chance in
Hell am I letting
you drive my baby.” Scott joined in on his laughter as he remembered the time Curtis 'borrowed' his parents car the previous school year and completely totaled it by accident.
Len turned to look at Scott when he laughed. “Oh wow, you look horrible.” Scott instantly stopped his laughter and glared at Len. “What did I say?” Len continued, not realizing that Jeff had already heard that comment multiple times that day.
***
Roberta walked down the busy hall with Jolene Tucker, their other friends having already departed to head to their own classes.
Jolene brushed her thin black hair out of her eyes and behind her ears as her and Roberta stopped at a vending machine. "What should I get?" Roberta asked her best friend.
"Go with the Skittles," Jolene suggested. Her and Roberta had been inseperatable as friends ever since Elementary school when Roberta had given Jolene her own lunch after Jolene had hers taken away by the class bully. They started hanging out after that and discovered they had a lot in common and had just been friends ever since. Because of their closeness, Jolene knew Roberta almost always got Ketchup chips from the vending machine and also knew she was getting quite sick of them after all this time.
"Maybe I should just go with the ketchup chips," Roberta debated with herself, trying to decide if she should get the Skittles like Jolene suggested, or go with what she always got.
"Maybe you should try your luck with a condom machine."
Roberta and Jolene turned at the random voice and saw a group of laughing friends walking away down the hall before they merged with the other students.
"What was that all about?" Jolene asked, only to have Roberta shake her head, having just as little of an idea as her friend. Roberta turned back to the machine, stuck in her money, and retrieved the fallen bag of Skittles.
***
Located in the thick of the city of St. Wainluk, there was a special hidden hide-out. One that only people in the underworld of crime knew existed. To anyone else, it was mere urban legend and nobody actually thought it was real except for a few conspericy theorists. However, if it wasn’t real, then why was loud rock music playing loudly throughout the ‘imaginary’ building, causing the speakers to boom with strong thumping base?
This specific little clubhouse, known as the Snake Pit to those who knew about its existence, was located in a part of the city filled with old shut-down stores that have been boarded up and illegally broken into since, leaving the boards in splinters on the sidewalk. Half the street lights had been shattered and there was an all-around gloomy and hopeless feel to the area.
In this part of town, known among criminals as Outlaw Haven, used to be one of the more populated and busy parts of the city, until a bank robbery gone wrong resulted in an explosion that took out four buildings and left behind poisonous gas. The area was evacuated and just fell into the unkind clutches of Father Time, with no one looking after it. It got its new nickname by being overran with criminals and corrupted police, with the uncorrupted police too fearful to go anywhere near the area so it had become a kind of hidden refuge for petty thugs, street punks, thieves, and other criminals of all kinds and all ages.
Sitting in the main room of the Snake Pit was the short and scrawny Chief of Police, Chief Hanson, sitting on the red leather of one of the booth seats with a rather large man. Many people often mistook the man's largeness as being fat, instead of the more realistic explanation of pure muscle. If any of those people were stupid enough to voice that mistake, it was the last mistake they'd ever make.
Heavy stale cigarette smoke clung around the room, causing the non-smoking Chief of Police to cough violently before wiping some spit off the bottom of his thin mustache. While the large man next to him chatted with one of the two topless young girls that accompanied him, Hanson glanced nervously around the room.
There were dozens of tables set up, some used for various card games, others used for dealing drugs, and there were booth seats for just sitting and having conversations in. There were no windows or any way for outside light to shine through into the criminals’ personal club. There was a bar set up at one end of the room and nude dancers dancing in cages with neon bars of all colors. Strobe and neon lights flashed all over the room, adding even more to the atmosphere.
The front door opened with a creaking noise that was audible even over the loud rhythmic thumping of the music and Hanson turned to see a younger man with dyed green hair and a golden medallion around his neck walk in.
Hanson silently scoffed at the punk's lifestyle and bent over the table to snort up a line of white powdery coke recently placed there by one of the other men at the table. Before he had the chance to partake in the sniffing though he stopped and looked back up, wondering why this newly-arrived green-haired punk was now sliding into the booth next to him. Before he could ask anything, the large man – Mr. Jonas Becker as he was famously known as – turned his attention from the two girls he was with and faced the newcomer, stretching out his hand, offering a cigarette to the lad.
Todd Godwin took one of the cigarettes out of the crumpled pack and put it in his mouth, using his own metal Zippo to light it. He leaned back as he breathed in and then out on the smoke, putting his Zippo away again.
“I hear you got some news on this little **** disturber that’s disrupting a lot of my business,” Jonas stated.
Was this that guy? Hanson wondered. Hanson was vaguely familiar with the 'Disturber' as he'd come to be called. While neither he nor any of his officers had any experience with him, Jonas Becker, being the Lord of Crime in St. Wainluk, has been hearing non-stop about a mysterious figure covered in black, disrupting drug deals and other various crimes for the last couple weeks. Earlier that day, Jonas had summoned Chief Hanson to the Snake Pit, saying that he wanted him to sit in on a meeting he had with someone who had dealt with the Disturber last night and even talked with him.
Hanson eyed the newcomer up and down. He certainly looked like he was more then capable of holding his own in a hand-to-hand fight, but something inside him had him doubting this guy got away from the Disturber without any scratches, cuts, or bruises.
“That’s right Mr. Becker, I…”
The Lord of Crime cut Todd off, “Please, call me Jonas.”
Todd continued from where he was cut off, “As you've been informed, I had a run-in with The Disturber last night. Me and my crew. The son of a **** took both of them out in just a couple minutes, and you know how tuff they are.”
“Indeed,” Jonas’ interested was brought up a few notches. Todd’s gang was indeed one of the toughest around.
"Why aren't you hurt?" Hanson spoke up.
Todd glanced at him as if he were nothing more then a fly on the wall. "Who's this?"
"Chief of Police," Jonas answered matter-of-factly. "I want him here to hear your description of the guy so he has something to go on in his investigation."
"What investigation?" Hanson asked.
"The one you are about to start, into who the Disturber is and to put an end to him." Jonas finished his sentence off by slipping a thick wad of bills across the table in Hanson's direction, who greedily snatched it up and pocketed it.
“Is it true what they say?" Jonas went on, looking back at Todd. "About him being just some kid?”
“He certainly looked and sounded like he was no older then eighteen at the most.”
Jonas shrugged his thick shoulders, no longer as interested as he had been a minute before. “Then it’s just a fad. Some pimply comic book fanboy geek that wants to feel like one of his great pathetic idols. It’ll pass as soon as his fad ends. Next he’ll probably be a huge anime fan and staple his eyes wide open.” He paused, planning on ending his say there, but thought about something else and decided to continue. “Until then, he could pose a bit of trouble. He’s already a minor nuisance. Does the bugger have a proper name?”
Todd breathed in and then out on the cigarette before replying with, “He calls himself Nightshade.”
"I think I like our name for him better; the Disturber," Jonas chuckled.
Todd smiled and nodded his head as Jonas thought things over.
"You'd think he'd pick a name that'd sound a little bit more...I don't know...scary?" Hanson thought out loud.
“Judging from reports of the guy, it would seem he only comes out at night." Jonas finally spoke up again. "Chief Hanson, I want you to have your cops on the lookout for this guy during their nightly patrols, and if they see him, bring him in."
"It'll be done," Hanson nodded before facing Todd. "I'll just have you work with an artist profiler so we can get a picture of Night...sorry Jonas...the Disturber...for my men."
Todd nodded and then faced Jonas as the crime lord addressed him next. "Mr. Godwin, I want you to recruit more members into your gang. Hell, I’ll even supply you with some. Then I want you to go looking for him. It shouldn’t be too hard; just cause some kind of ruckus across town and I’m sure he’ll come straight to you like a moth to a flame.” Jonas stopped and turned to pay more attention to the two naked girls beside him.
Todd opened his mouth to speak, but Jonas had a feeling as to what he would say and turned back to him, cutting him off before any words had the chance to escape. “And you don’t need to worry about the pigs, will he, Chief?”
Hanson sneered, "Not the ones on our side anyway. I can't guarantee the honest ones but let me know what night you're heading out to do this on and I'll make sure none of the honest ones are working."
Jonas paused before continuing on. “Once you have him, crush him. He’s only a boy after all. He may be strong, but he can’t be that smart.”
“Yes sir. He’ll be ours for the killing,” Todd slammed his fist on the table.
“Make sure that he is. Now, can I buy you two a dance?” Jonas raised his hand and snapped his fingers as Todd smiled crookedly. Within seconds two nude dancers, seemingly slightly older then the two Jonas had with him, walked over and sat on Todd and Hanson’s laps, working into the beginnings of exotic lap dances.
Jonas turned and began making out with the two women on his sides, enjoying his life.
***
Just some thoughts and background info:
- Much of this story is actually re-written from an old action story I wrote in Grade 9 called Bullet Proof, about a mobster that has this guy's family killed cause he couldn't make a high payment, but his baby son was staying at a relative's house at the time. That kid then grew up in witness protection under the fake name Scott Short. The mobster ends up finding out about him and forces him to make the payment his father couldn't, or all his friends and people he cares about will be killed. A lot of scenes and aspects of this ended up being taken from that story, two of which are the characters of Scott Short and Jonas Becker.
- Curtis was named after, of course, my partner on the home movies, with Len being a friend of ours, Mr. Park an old Math Teacher of mine from Junior High, and Roberta being the main female character in the second home movie.
- The quarter prank was a real prank me and Len pulled on our old Band teacher in high school after seeing it done on the TV show 'Friends'.
- This chapter starts a running gag throughout the series of the bad guys referring to the hero by their own name for him and not the one he picks, although its a different name in each entry that the bad guys refer to him as.
