"Do you think we are safe here Al?" Mathew gasped out, each word coming out one at a time; he really wasn't used to running so fast like they had just done and for so long too.
"No way, we aren't safe anywhere, Mattie. But, I guess we can stop here for a little bit. And maybe (gasp) catch our breath." For all his athletic ability, Alfred was in much the same kind of condition as his brother, Mathew, was.
They had almost been caught, again. The police were definitely on their trail now; well it was to be accepted. They had committed many crimes together. But, they couldn't stop doing any of it; they had to pay the leader of the gang that had kidnapped them when they were younger. If they didn't, then sooner or later, they would probably die.
The longer Leader, he had arrogantly taken that as his name after assuming control of the gang, went without being paid, the more their chances were leaning towards their death coming for them sooner.
So, they kept stealing, or dealing in illegal drugs, or anything really that was asked of them to do. They were desperate to be able to keep paying him. They were also way in over their heads. They couldn't keep up with Leader's demands from the anymore, nor could they keep ahead of the police like they could before. They were running out of time to pay off their debt to Leader.
When the police had shown up this time, they were almost caught. They were dealing drugs at the time. The foul smelling user they had been selling to had eagerly taken his chance. When the alarms had started blaring around them and they had noticed the sound, the user had noticed their distraction in an instant. When they had heard the sirens coming in close, far too close to them, the user had pushed Mathew over so that he fell onto the ground. Then he had run off with their stash. It had been worth a couple hundred of dollars. A little over five hundred, to be precise; that stash the user had run off with was five hundred more than they could spare to lose.
"That little fucker!" Alfred cried out suddenly and punched the brick wall closest to him in the small alleyway that they had both run into.
"It's alright Al, really, we'll find a way to make it up somehow." But, not even ever optimistic Mathew could look on the bright side of things anymore. Like Alfred before him, his eyes were dead now, without any sign of real faith able to keep shining through them. Mathew had no hope left of them ever getting out of their debt that they seemed to be so submerged into.
Alfred just looked at him; he had already stopped trying to hope. "No Mattie, we can't pay it back. We will never be able to pay our debt back, that was the final straw that we could pull, and now, it's gone." Alfred looked out of the alleyway they had ducked into and checked the road to see if they were all clear to step out and go.
"Mattie, you do realize that now that this has happened…it will be the final strike against us. Leader will ask you to do "that" again. And now, I don't really know if we can refuse this time around. It is good money though Mattie."
Mathew shivered; chills went through his thin body at the thought of having to say yes to the latest demand that had come from Leader. "I… know that Alfred."
And Alfred was completely right. 'That' was what Leader wanted, Leader always got what he wanted in the end, and they could no longer refuse him.
"You little shits!" Leader yelled out as he kicked Mathew hard in his stomach and chest area. Leader was a very tall man. He was a druggie himself too, just like the user that had gotten away from them. He was the very mental image of uncleanliness. When people pictured uncleanliness, they pictured him, and he didn't care, at all.
His long brown hair is a scraggly mess. It is oily, and disgusting to look at, and yet he never tries to change his appearance at all. He doesn't care at all that his chin is covered in little sprinklings of his sparse, almost black, whickers from where he had been careless with his old shaving razor and had just left the ones he didn't get the first time just stay there. It was like Leader was trying to pull off a punk teenager look, but, he was too old for to do it properly and the way he was doing it would bring shame to any real teenager.
Mathew coughed weakly from getting kicked in the gut-that particular spot always hurt like Hell to be hit in, while Alfred struggled valiantly to get away from the two man-mountains that were holding him back. Leader always had people like that serving him, people with less intelligence than a mouse and the muscles of a lion. The people he liked to order around were all strong but, too stupid to do anything for themselves and too cruel to others to really want to do anything with themselves either.
Alfred was strong, definitely much stronger than Mathew, but he wasn't that strong that he could break free from their hold on him to help his brother. Alfred could only watch helplessly as Leader took out his childish frustration on his Mathew; little weak Mathew that would never be able to fight back; who never believed in fighting back.
This is why Leader always choose to pick on him, because he could. Leader had always loved to feel in control, and Mathew, he always gave him that feeling of control. So, all leader had to do was make sure his only protector was safely restrained and that Mathew was always too scared to fight back. This way Leader's authority over Mathew and Alfred remained completely in control at all times.
"I gave you one freaking little job. Sell the god damned drugs and bring me back the fucking money. But, what do you bring me? Nothing? That's right, nothing. You bring me fucking nothing, that's what you fucking bring me!" Leader followed this exclamation with another sharp kick to his stomach.
Mathew rolled over gingerly onto his back gasping in pain from the crushed nerves in his torso sending their displeasure straight to his brain. Tears were starting to stream down his cheeks, and his light blond hair was becoming darker. It was being muddied from all the dirt on the floor of the gang's hide away.
"You fucking little idiots!" Leader stood back from Mathew, panting in anger, and possibly exertion, physical activity was not Leader's strongest point. He made a big show about calming himself down and crossed his skinny arms across the front of his chest still looking down at Mathew curled up on the floor.
"Get up." His face contorted in swift and sudden anger. "I said get up you pathetic, little, harlot!"
His fists grabbed Mathew by the front of his shirt, his fingers clenching the dirty fabric tightly as he slammed Mathew hard against the wall. Mathew cried out once again as Leader leaned forward, his face going much too close to Mathew's.
"Seeing as you are such a little bitch with your oh-so-cute girly face, and soft feminine type body; why don't you finally act the part you already know that you are? Huh, what do you say, you little cunt?"
Leader turned away, letting Mathew drop, boneless, to the floor. "You start your new job tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. Eat, sleep, do whatever the fuck you damn well want to until then. But, I expect you here ready to go do your job by exactly 7:30. Do you understand all of that, Alfred?"
Leader's head tilted Alfred's way as he walked to the door and passed him.
"You have to make sure that our little pretty boy here is all nice and ready to go."
Then Leader was gone, probably off to his lonely room to drink or possibly smoke. As soon as he had stepped through the door Alfred was released from the two stupid goons hold on him and he rushed to Mathew's side.
"Guess I do have to do that now, huh Alfred? I'm going to be just like mom was. I really hate this life Alfred. Why do we have to do this?"
"I don't know Mattie." Alfred helped his brother to sit up so that he can pick him up and carry him to their shared room. "I really don't know why, Mattie. I hate this life too. I hate it so much."