Chapter 1
Havik van Zoon
January 2, 2014
It's another dark and cold night. The New Year's celebrations finish just as quickly as they begun. Now, Grande Prairie is the same dull city it was last year. The people goes back to the usual rush to get back home before curfew hours. The police had gotten noticebly more lax today as there isn't as much cars on patrol today.
A man in a dirtied grey sweater sits in the alley, trying to get protection from the elements. It's been a long time since he last saw a bath or shower. His beard is very uneven and has gotten a bit wild. In fact, it's been a long time since he did anything that involves cleaning himself. There's not much a bum can do anything about anyway. He couldn't keep a steady job and being the state he is in makes it finding one even harder.
One of the patrolling officers spotted the man and motion his partner to park the car. They walk over to him, carrying flashlights in order to see his hidden face.
"Evening, sir," one of them said, "You do know that the curfew is coming soon, right?"
The man look up, he let out a forced smile. "I didn't have a watch on me, so the curfew doesn't matter to me," he responded.
"Don't give us that," his partner is getting irritated, "You know as anyone that you are not suppose to be here!"
"Well then," the hooded man said, it is clear he is mocking them, "I'll be heading to my cardboard box. Too bad, though. I was hoping to have a pleasant conversation with the brave and vigilant guardians of the peace."
"Ha, you would like that, don't you!" said the partner. He was not well known of being good at using his head. "I suppose we should escort you to your 'box'."
"Harry, we don't have time to be following these people around," the officer protested, "They don't even exist for all we care."
"Alright, but if we catch you during curfew, you're coming with us," warned Harry.
The man shrugged, "Alright, have it your way. I'll be going now. Nice talking to you, by the way."
He gets up and heads down the alley. He turns the corner and went out of view of the officers. He walks a couple blocks until he gets to a wooden shack behind the old motel. Part of the motel was torn down because it was attracting some criminal activities and trouble. The rest was put up for sale as a business building. His tiny shack can be seen from the street, but it was so small, no one would give it a second glance and the snow makes it even more hard to see. He crawls into the shack. The roof was really low so he had to crouch down. The 'bed' was nothing more than a broken mattress and a blanket. His only source of light and heat is his lantern from home.
The man looks around his tiny living quarters. "You know, when I came to Canada, this is not what I have in mind." All of a sudden, he heard a scream close to his shack. He didn't know who it is, but he grabs his hunting knife just for protection. Outside, he sees three figures in the darkness. Two of them are men and one of them a woman. One of the man was holding the woman from behind.
"Damn bitch, that hurt you know!" yelled one of the men. He was wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, had black baggy jeans and white skater shoes. "All I ask if you like to have some fun with us and you slap me!" He is holding his left side of the face in pain.
"So what? So you can rape me?" she asked. She was wearing light blue winter coat and brown snow boots. Her hair was cover in a white toque.
"Come on babe, we won't hurt you. We are even asking nicely," the man holding her said. He is a big, tall man. He is wearing a big brown jacket and worn-out blue jeans and is wearing steel toe boots.
"You'll regret messing with me!" the smaller one threatens. He backhands her across the face. The big guy let go of her and his friend slams her head into the ground, knocking her out.
"The hell? That's a little too far," the bigger guy said.
"I told you, she needs to learn her place."
The hooded man walks up to them, "Well then, you should too."
"Who the-?" the bigger guy tried to ask before the man grabbed his face and slammed his head against the building. Blood trickle down out of the back of his head.
"Brett! You'll pay for that!" The smaller one pulled out a knife and took a swipe at the man. He grab the arm before the knife connects and stab it with his knife. "AARRGGHH!" he screams in pain has blood spurts out of his arm. The man then stabbed him in the stomach. As he pulled the knife out, the blood gushed out. The smaller man starts to turn pale and fell to the ground face first. He was no more.
The man looks at his bloodied knife. "Damn, that was overkill," he said, "I better get out of here." The man was about to go back to his shack to move it to a different location when he heard a groan. He turns around and saw that the woman was waking up.
She looks around and gasped at the dead bodies. She turn and see the man and his bloodied knife. She drags herself away from him.
"Hey, I'm not going to hurt you," the man tried to explain, "See, I'm putting the knife down." He put it down just as he said so. "You alright?"
"Yeah…" she said. She is still scared of the man and him putting the knife down still didn't put her at ease. "D-Did you kill these guys?" She asks.
"I killed one of them, yeah, but not too sure about the bigger fella," he goes up to the big guy and examined his body. "Never mind, he's dead too," he informs her.
"W-Why did you help me?" She asks.
He pointed to his shack, "The guys were creating a racket too close to my shack, I don't want the cops coming here," he explain, "But looks like they are going to come anyway now I killed them."
"What are you going to do?"
"I think I'll go to move my little shack somewhere else, put it in an alley where no one goes," he said, "I would get out of here too if I were you."
"You're right," She said. She got up. "One more thing, who are you?"
The man is getting a little annoyed by all the questions, "I'm a bum, a hobo, a drifter, a dakloze," he told her.
"I meant your name," she demanded.
The man sighs. "Alright, you want to know so bad? I'll tell you," he said, "My name is Havik van Zoon."
"Great," she said, "My name is-."
"I honestly don't care," he interrupted her, "I rather that we get out of here before the cops come."
"Oh, right," she stammered, "Well, bye."
"Yeah, later," he said. The woman nodded and hurried over to the street. He went back to his shack. "Argh, I just set this up too," he complained. He pulled down the supporting beam and the shack collapse on to itself. He then tied a rope onto the hooks on the shack and drag it over to the next block. Just in time for curfew to begin.