I grab my earbuds from my backpack and lie down on the bed, doing my best to tune out all the annoyances that turn me into a beast. Maybe I should take up kickboxing. In high school I ran track but running doesn’t sound like enough anymore for all my energy, all my anger.
I fall asleep thinking about next week, about the letter, about how easy it’s going to be to make two grand if all I have to do is beat some people up.
A weeklater I stand outside of the dark, abandoned warehouse miles away from campus. This is probably how I get tetanus. If I do this weekly, I’d have enough money for books, tattoos, and to send some home to help my parents care for Ama. The thought of her makes my blood go cold, makes me wish I was in a ring of people that I could take down until I was surrounded by blood.
Fuck. Time to go inside. I frown in annoyance when I step in a puddle, drenching my only pair of ancient Chucks in tetanus water. Great. The water seeps into my socks as I stomp into the warehouse, aggravated for more reasons than I can count now. My shoes squeak, alerting the three other men waiting inside to my presence. If these are the dudes I’m fighting, then this will be easy street. A pair of brown-haired twins who stand at almost my height, one in glasses, one a little more broad-shouldered than the other, and a blond guy who looks like he belongs in a frat house, not in this warehouse about to join a fight club.
“So, we fighting?” I call out.
The blond frowns at me as if I’m a giant idiot. “Why do you think we’re fighting?”
“I mean, why else would I be here with two thousand dollars cashed in my bank account?”
I finish crossing the warehouse to stand beside them, noticing for the first time the laptop sitting on a table before them. The screensaver flashes in the dark of the damp warehouse, countdown bouncing around the screen. When I look down at my watch, I realize it’s still a few minutes before nine, so the countdown is a timer until whatever is going to happen begins.
“I’m Parker,” the leaner twin says, dark green eyes glowing in the dark behind his thick-rimmed glasses. He holds his hand out to me and I take it, squeezing his hand as hard as I can. “Nice handshake.”
“Ditto,” I reply with a grin.
Parker winces. “What’s your degree?”
“Engineering.” I look around at the rest of them. “So?”
“English Lit,” Parker says, he points at his twin. “That’s Jacob, his degree is in biomedical engineering. Blond God over here is majoring in math.”
“Math?” I ask because that sounds awful.
“I like numbers,” Blond God says with a shrug. “I’m Hayden.”
I hum in disinterest and cross my arms over my chest. The countdown hits nine. Someone gasps when the screen lights up. There’s no image of a person. Just a black screen with that thing that shows decibels of someone speaking.
“Thank you for being good boys and showing up,” the computerized voice says. “I’ve chosen all of you because you have a skillset that I can use. Those skills are for me to know only. But I’d like to start a team that gives the bad people what they deserve.”
“Like Robin Hood?” Parker pipes up, eyes gleaming.
The message is obviously recorded because the person doesn’t stop speaking.
“Four missions a month, maybe more. A house will be provided for you to live in that’s more secure than any other house in Eastport. A stipend for school. If you want to kill a bad guy, it’ll be cleaned up, and you won’t be caught.”
Sounds like a crock of shit to me.
“Alright, well, this was fun,” I say while clapping myhands. “Story time and two thousand dollars. Any of you want to spar with me so this night isn’t a total waste?”
The three other guys stare at me in confusion. Oh, they fell for it. Okay. Jacob grabs Parker and tugs him over to the other side of the room. They whisper furiously, Parker making abrupt, terrifying-looking hand motions, and I stand there awkwardly beside Hayden.
“So…. we’re not doing it, right?”
Hayden bites his lip as he stares down at the laptop as if it might burst into flames at any moment. “I mean… it doesn’t sound too bad? If they can provide proof to us that lets us know this isn’t some joke…”
“You’ll kill people?” I ask because seriously? Murder.
Hayden shrugs, fingers flexing at his sides. “If they’re bad.”
“This can’t be real. There’s no way this is real.”
I take a deep breath to calm my nerves. I’m going to get tetanus and probably end up in prison because this is an undercover sting to find young men that are willing to commit felonies for some cash. Am I willing to commit a felony for cash? Crap. I am. I guess you never really know yourself until faced with the decision.
Jacob and Parker return to stand beside us again. Parker looks pleased, Jacob looks a little resigned, and Hayden looks somehow ambivalent to it all.
