| abstract
| - Darkness. Ah, how I love you... You see, me and darkness go practically hand in hand. Half my life I’ve been shrouded in its cold, dark embrace. From childhood, I was forced to hug the wet and musty walls in fear. Most guys and gals feared the dark, I took solace in it. Being among the shadows meant safety from the thugs around me. I didn’t have to worry about being killed, robbed or both. I know what you are thinking, what a nice place the rear sector of Belaham must have been for a growing boy. But no, the shadows truly were the only gem in that place. But this time around, the darkness wasn’t so pleasant. I was in a moist room with no fire. No warmth. No safety. My cheek was pressed into the wooden planks of the floor and I was ready to die. So ready and caught up in my thoughts, as I often am, that I didn’t even hear a man enter my death pit. What eventually gave him away was when he slammed his blaster pistol in my head. BAM! Lights out. — — — — — — Waking up to the constant vibration of someone driving over pebbles is not pleasant. The model of Rover these guys were driving was not made for this kind of terrain, so I was being slung about the large car. This marked only my second experience in a vehicle, the first was when I stowed away on a fruit craft after I left my home. Like the previous time, I was sprawled out on my stomach. Though now my eyes were covered, but the smell was the same. I could smell the Kerotrene trees around me. Maynus, the land of the beautiful trees. I guess I should probably take the time to introduce myself. Hi, I’m Mac Follin, and this is my life. “Hey, hey, wake up!” a man said kicking me in the ribs. His voice was high-pitched which forced me to imagine the forest rats that used to come out at night and try to steal my food as a child. They would let out a shrill squeal to somehow scare other animals into abandoning their food. I am proud to say that it never worked on me, well maybe only once or twice. The constant kicking from Mousy irritated me, “I’m awake, you...” I wanted to say something mean, to get his blood boiling, but nothing came to mind. As I laid there waiting, I heard a faint garbled sound coming from what I concluded was a com-link. Before I could guess what the news was, I heard my other captor say in a raspy voice, “Boss says he wants to see you.” The vehicle almost immediately screeched to a stop, upon which I was lifted off my belly and guided out of the car. Just as I thought about how civil these men were, I felt a sharp pain in the back of the knee as I was kicked and then thrown out of the car and onto the ground below. I was surprised at how long of a fall it was, we must’ve been in one tall car. “Oops, bud,” I heard one of them say, I was sure it was Raspy but I didn’t care much at the time to guess. Raspy and Mousy (yes, I nicknamed them that) then picked me up, took off my hood and carried me onward like I was a defeated man. Truthfully, I don’t even think I could have walked in if I wanted to, as my whole right leg was numb from the kick. I could also feel my pant leg sticking to my left leg, it felt moist. I tried to fight the urge to look, telling myself that I had just fallen into a puddle and that was that. I didn’t want to think of any of the horrors that might have happened. But I eventually succumbed to temptation and sneaked a peek. What I saw immediately turned my stomach. I almost definitely would of vomited if my captors had fed me in the short time we’d been together. When I fell out of the vehicle I fell on a branch, and now said branch was hooked in my leg. It entered my fatty thigh and exited through the inner thigh, a little too close for comfort. Even though I was staring at the grotesque image, I still heard my stomach growl. I stared in silence as we finished the short journey to the “boss”. “Hello, Mr. Follin. I take it you don’t know me. You may call me Mr. Man, and I’m your new boss.” As this man spoke, my newest friends dropped me to my knees. The drop certainly did not help my branch leg. The man in front of me wore a dark suit, had short black and looked as if he was enjoying himself. It was strange, I knew that I should be scared. A powerful man, with strong thugs capturing someone off the streets and threatening to kill them on several occasions would make any man want to run home to Ma and Pa, but the second he said “job”, any fear of death melted away. I mean a job meant that my well being was entirely secured. “You know there are easier ways to offer a fellow a job, right?” I said realizing he wanted me to reply. “Well, I just like to see how my new employees handle those kinds of situations. And look at you, a tree in your leg and you still can joke around. Amazing.” I had a feeling he wasn’t as impressed as he was making himself out to be. I mean, I know I’m one of a kind, but if he could read my mind he could see the horror I still felt from the whole leg incident. I was just hoping he’d have a doctor come and patch me up. It almost did seem like Mr. Man read my mind as he ordered a doctor in less that a minute later. “I’ll be back soon, the doc here is gonna patch you up.” My new boss walked out and left me alone with the “doc”. “So, what do you–what the frak!?” The doctor’s shocked expression was priceless. He tried hard to regain his composure, which he eventually did. He was able to fix up my leg with little difficulty, though when he finished he ran out of the room as fast as he could. I find queasiness an odd quality in a doctor. I laid my head back and closed my eyes. It was nice to not have a foreign object in my leg and I must say the doctor did a great job patching it up. I’m not sure he used anything to dull the pain but I did feel a bit drowsy. I’m pretty sure I almost dozed off, but just as I was entering my own peaceful world, I heard Mr. Man clear his throat. “Hello, sir,” I said sitting up. I rubbed my eyes as I felt them start to droop, I hoped it in no way offended a man of this stature. “Glad to see that you are better, now we can further discuss your jobs.” “Jobs?” “Well yes, just two simple jobs and you can go on your merry way. With a reasonable amount of coin, I must add.” he said winking at me. Money was something I needed and two “simple” jobs were nothing compared to the medical work he had already done. Boy, was I wrong. “First off, we need you to go back home, to Belaham. Once you are there you need to find a man named Rilek Nalmof. He can be found in most scummy bars in the rear sector. He will give you further orders,” he paused and cleared his throat as if preparing to say something of the utmost importance. “Also, try not to ask too many questions when in Belaham. The last thing we need is SecPol holding you.” I didn’t care too much about the last part, I mean I’ve spent most of my life begging and hiding. What really piqued my interest was the mentioning of Mr. Nalmof. “Rilek Nalmof? Isn’t that the head of the rear sector’s most heinous crime syndicate?” You see, Rilek was a legend where I came from. The man was indestructible. Rumor has it that the Belaham police, or SecPol, tried to blow him up while he was on “business”. Well the explosion was huge, yet Rilek emerged from the flame, unharmed. Obviously this is not confirmed, but if any crazy bastard could survive a BOOM such as that, it’d be Rilek, Rilek Nalmof. “Rilek Nalmof head of the crime syndicate?” Mr. Man’s laugh snapped me back into reality. “Rilek is just, well let’s just say a figure head. I let him take the credit, but I make sure we have all the fun.” He said as he approached me and patted me on the shoulder. It was a little more firm than a friendly tap, but it wasn’t greatly threatening. What was threatening, however, was his scent. It smelled, well it smelled of death. “So, what do you say, Mac? There are a series of underground tunnels that used to be used by that one guy,” he paused and looked deep in thought, I knew better than to disturb him. “Oh yes. The first Grad, Jacen Gevorian II.. Now if only they kept using that name, maybe this place would be in better shape.” Mr. Man left not long after and I then informed by my former captors that the start of the tunnels was in the old fishing town of Calahari. Upon seeing them they actually matched their nicknames well. Mousy had huge teeth and beady black eyes. Raspy on the other hand was huge. He had big muscles and a stubble rested on his huge chin. Anyway, they then me that I would need to find some big gold triangle, follow a set of confusing instructions, take a flight of stairs and so on and so forth. I had a small, nagging urge that this journey was going to be one difficult experience, so I decided that a short trip to the bar would be very fitting. Everything’s easier when you’re drunk, right?
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