A Sacrifice To Be Made

Tue Sep 14, 2021 7:18 pm

Shoujou's lacerated gums gushed as the iron taste of blood filled his mouth. The salted smack rushed from his tongue only to spill over the crazed concrete full of cracks cupped with Grenache-colored blood; the specks jumped up from the ground as they hit - flicking over Shoujou's dirty hands. He was at the center of Senju Park with his forehead forced to the concrete. The bottom of a white shell-toe Adidas shoe painted with a fresh red shoved the back of Shoujou’s head. "Amanojaku, we apologize for our mistakes," Shoujou cried. Jaku shoved the bottom of his shoe more aggressively on the back of Shoujou’s head, causing a quick cut from a sharp rock. “What was that?” Jaku responded with a vile smirk on his face and a thick vein on his forehead. “I didn’t hear you clearly, Shoooo-chan!”

“I-I said I am sorry sir, please, forgive us for our stupidity in failing the job!” Having blurry vision, Shoujou spied out from the corner of his eye to see his best friend, Hemimaru, knocked out on his back and getting his face pissed on by one of Jaku’s red-eyed, delinquent bodyguards. Jaku removed his foot from Shoujou’s head and strolled to the side of his body. “You know Sho-chan, I adore you, but why is it you can NEVER, FUCKING, do what I tell you to with this job!” Jaku lunged forward with a wide swing from his left leg and kicked Shoujou’s rib cage in like a soccer ball — cracking two of his ribs. The Boy grunted as his eyes teared up. He curled his fingers into a fist and shut his eyes close as he shook. ‘How much longer do we have to endure this piece of shit life...Grandpa would be disappointed in me right now, but I’m doing it for him and everyone else,’ Shoujou felt.

“I warned you both that you had until Friday to get this shit done since you couldn’t magically do it for four months now.” Jaku rolled his basil-colored eyes and put on theatrics by waving his hands around. “I know, I know, and I’m sor-”

“NOPE, NOT AGAIN, SHO-CHAN!” Jaku zipped in with a powerful swing from his left leg and dug his shin into the side of Shoujou’s skull, making him go dull and collapse. “Oh? I meant to knock some sense into you, not to knock it out of you. But you know? The thing is, you don’t get to make any more apologies or suggestions to me because I’ve had enough of it!” With the side of his face full of blood, Shoujou struggled to speak. “Just give us another chance, please, I am begging you, we’ll have it Sunday, I promise!” Jaku cracked his knuckles, trying to hold back the laugher. He kneeled in front of Shoujou and snatched him up by the back of his black hair and glared into his eyes. “Until Sunday, my little Sho-Chan, and if you don’t have it, not only will something bad happen to that family, but the entire Bochi Neighbor will go under thanks to you,” Jaku announced with a bright smile on his face.

Dread twisted in the boy’s gut; his face cut into a tremble as his arms wobbled trying to keep some frame about himself. Jaku left shortly after their ‘meeting’ — Shoujou took this as his chance to pass out on the ground. He woke up an hour later, head aching with fuzzy vision. But when he opened his eyes, Hemimaru was at his side, seated beside him with a face fresh full of tears under the empty night sky. He wiped his face and hugged his legs to hide his chin behind his forearms.

“I’m so tired of living like this,” Hemimaru said. Shoujou didn’t bother to look at him since he figured Hemimaru didn’t want to be looked at any more than he did himself, so he stared into the city lights far away. Even if he wanted to talk, he couldn’t at the moment since his head was still ringing like crazy. “It’s gone so far they even pissed on me today, so I don’t know what’s worse, being asleep when they did it or being awake,” The boy jerked his shoulders with a shrug. “I would give anything not suffer through this hell every day. Sometimes I just wish I was dead already.”

Hemimaru’s words stirred Shoujou’s heart like a whirlpool, making it sink and plunge into oceanic darkness; to bury the rush of emotions, he took a long breath that trembled as he exhaled. The edge of his lips dropped, and the corner of his eyebrows rose as he soaked in the feeling of the words his best friend just spoke.

“I think that’s the type of thinking that got us here right now.”

“Well, what are we supposed to do in this situation? They knew the terms and conditions of the deal they made with Jaku... they get to live all cozy while we get our heads bashed in everyday for not taking their money. I’m tired of it already, Fuck!”

“I hear you, but you and I both know that those people have nothing to give at all, so what could they possibly offer Jaku? Do you really wanna’ to see that little boy, Kouzen in any more pain than he already is?” Shoujou shook his head. His nose wrinkled with some of his teeth exposed. “Kouzen's forced to have his talent rot away because some loser didn’t have any character to know right from wrong, and now a ten-year-old kid has a mangled leg because of it.” He squeezed his fists at the thought of what Kouzen was going through. “They considered him a prodigy, and a delinquent took that gift away from him, but who am I to say anyone lacks character when I can’t even stand up to the guy that tortures us every day.”

Hemimaru’s eyebrows raised with wrinkles on his forehead. “You never change, man. Stop being so hard on yourself for something that isn’t your fault. Like them, we’re in a crappy situation, so we have to do what we have to do by any means.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t make it right.”

“Sometimes I wish I could be like you, but I’m not. Our natures don’t change so easily. With that idealistic thinking, you get from your grandpa, I’m surprised you’re still alive because you suck at fighting,” Hemimaru chuckled. Shoujou rolled his eyes at the joke.

“So start putting your life in front of theirs, no matter who it is. You’ve been enough of a hero for these past four months.” He finished. “Yeah…” Later that night, the two had gone their separate ways. Shoujou walked with stone legs all the way home. Before he came close to his house door, he pulled out silver keys, trying to keep them quiet and muffled from tussling with the key chain they hooked to. In order to avoid waking up his grandpa, Shoujou gently turned the key into the lock to twist it open. Upon opening the wooden door, Shoujou listened for creaking sounds which indeed came; to death any more noise, he squeezed through the door to hurry and shut it. After getting inside, he washed his bruised and bloodied face and got into bed without waking up his grandfather.
A Sacrifice To Be Made 151dd9d165d718839d1bdceb5ba53bcc

A Sacrifice To Be Made 151dd9d165d718839d1bdceb5ba53bcc