div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"A/N: Finally have actual time to /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"write/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" a real story, so here goes.../span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"Percy's POV./spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto" A rooster's crow woke me up, another busy day on the farm. I got up walked down the stairs of the barn converted into a house to take a shower. I heard the start of a familiar tractor engine come to life. The smell of coffee let me know that my father had already started his day over an hour ago, and I should probably get a move on to catch up. I took a freezing cold shower, of course the heater wasn't working, again. No point in complaining, I knew that my dad would fix it at some point and would teach me. /spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto" When I was done with my shower I quickly threw on my clothes, one of the many thick cargo pants I owned with a plain brown tee, sliding and tying my dirty brown work boots, before leaving the house and heading towards the actual barn. It was in a ruckus, the two horses neighing at the top of their lungs while chickens and pigs ran around their hooves. As soon as I entered the barn, everything seemed to calm down. I grabbed a big feed bag from the storage and slung some of the contents across the ground, and in the feeding trough, attracting the attention of the pigs and chickens. /span/p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto" I spun out the hose, filling up the water trough before feeding the horses. My dad wouldn't be done in the fields until about 9 am, when he would give me my next classes. He homeschooled me ever since I was 7, as my grandfather died and there was no one to help out on the farm. I went out to our big truck outside, and began pushing bales of hay off the bed, rolling them to the side of the barn. It was a whole workout that lit my muscles on fire, but I was used to it. I'd been doing some of the harder labor tasks for about a year now, so I didn't bother complaining./spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" After finishing most of my tasks it was about 8:30, so I set about grabbing some eggs and vegetables from the garden and started frying up an omelet for me and my dad. I was so engrossed that I /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"didn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" notice the sound of the tractor /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"being cut/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" off, nor did I notice the weird silence that enveloped the air. It /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"wasn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" until everything was plated and I was about to go call my dad in I noticed how weird it felt. The hairs on my skin started rising and I instinctively ducked down, hitting the floor hard. A body flew through the fucking kitchen wall, slamming into the fridge and exploding into a cloud of golden dust. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" My dad came running in, scratched up and looking worse for wear, blood dripping from his brow and chest. "Percy /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"run/span span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"upstairs/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" now. My /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"room. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""I/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" was dumbfounded, still in shock about what just happened. "/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"Rapido, chico!" /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" He all but yelled at me. I hauled ass up those stairs because he never yelled at me. He never raised his voice, so /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"whatever/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" my dad /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"was upset about,/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" I was worried about./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto" He had bounded up the stairs after me and he sat me on his bed. "/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"Chico, /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"listen carefully. You need to run as fast as you can when I tell you to. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"You'll/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" be going west, to Las Vagas, on this address. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Don't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" stop until you get there. Your life depends on it. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I've/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" tried to prepare you, but I /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"wasn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" ready for it. I thought we had more time, she said two more years." My dad was rummaging through his closet, searching for something in a hurry, throwing things to the side. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" "Las Vegas? She? What are you talking about Papi?" I asked, more /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"worried/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" and confused than ever. My dad seemed to have found what he was looking for, a black backpack and two pieces of leather with straps attached to it. He shoved the leather things in the /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"backpack and/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" went to the drawer near the beds. He pulled out something and turned to face me. For the first time in my whole, and no doubt /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"very short/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;", life, I was scared. I was scared by the look on /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"my dad's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" face. I had never seen it before./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" He handed me the backpack. "Put it on, right now. If one came, more are on the way." He said, so I did as I was told, putting the backpack on /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"immediately/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;". He /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"knelt down/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;", getting eye level with me and looking at me the most serious /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I've/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" ever seen him. "Take /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"these and/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" protect yourself. I wish I could do more, but /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I'm/span span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"going to/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" try and get you out of here first." He handed me two brass knuckles with small studs on them, but they were /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"made out of/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" a weird bronze I had never seen before. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" "/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I've/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" taught you how to throw a punch and take one, from here you /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"have to/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" learn how to battle with those. I love you more than the world itself, my dear child." I was confused, and scared, so I did what any logical /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"10-year-old/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" would do. I cried. My dad pulled me into a hug, squeezing me like it would be the last. Then there was a thunderous crash downstairs, it sounded like half the building had /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"collapsed/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;". "Demigod, we can smell you. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Come be/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" our lunch."/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" My dad ran to the /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"stairwell,/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" and I followed. There were 4 giants, and I really mean giants. They were all at least 10 feet tall, dressed in those little loincloths that honestly looked to me like /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Hugies/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" pampers but for adults, and they each had a single eye, scanning everywhere. One of them heard the creak in a /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"floorboard/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" under my feet and looked up. He grinned, nasty yellow teeth that were sharp like /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"sharks. My dad whispered to me "Climb down your window rope. Remember Las Vegas. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I'll/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" see you there." My dad had never lied so I ran as fast as I could to my window and practically jumped from the window, rappelling down using the rope I had tied there./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" I heard a yell of /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"pain,/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" and I looked through the bottom floor window, and what I saw changed me for life. My dad, being torn apart by /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"two/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" giants playing tug of war. All the composure I had... was gone in an instant and everything went black./span/span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"A/N: Finally have actual time to /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"write/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" a real story, so here goes.../span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"Percy's POV./spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto" A rooster's crow woke me up, another busy day on the farm. I got up walked down the stairs of the barn converted into a house to take a shower. I heard the start of a familiar tractor engine come to life. The smell of coffee let me know that my father had already started his day over an hour ago, and I should probably get a move on to catch up. I took a freezing cold shower, of course the heater wasn't working, again. No point in complaining, I knew that my dad would fix it at some point and would teach me. /spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto" When I was done with my shower I quickly threw on my clothes, one of the many thick cargo pants I owned with a plain brown tee, sliding and tying my dirty brown work boots, before leaving the house and heading towards the actual barn. It was in a ruckus, the two horses neighing at the top of their lungs while chickens and pigs ran around their hooves. As soon as I entered the barn, everything seemed to calm down. I grabbed a big feed bag from the storage and slung some of the contents across the ground, and in the feeding trough, attracting the attention of the pigs and chickens. /span/p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto" I spun out the hose, filling up the water trough before feeding the horses. My dad wouldn't be done in the fields until about 9 am, when he would give me my next classes. He homeschooled me ever since I was 7, as my grandfather died and there was no one to help out on the farm. I went out to our big truck outside, and began pushing bales of hay off the bed, rolling them to the side of the barn. It was a whole workout that lit my muscles on fire, but I was used to it. I'd been doing some of the harder labor tasks for about a year now, so I didn't bother complaining./spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" After finishing most of my tasks it was about 8:30, so I set about grabbing some eggs and vegetables from the garden and started frying up an omelet for me and my dad. I was so engrossed that I /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"didn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" notice the sound of the tractor /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"being cut/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" off, nor did I notice the weird silence that enveloped the air. It /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"wasn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" until everything was plated and I was about to go call my dad in I noticed how weird it felt. The hairs on my skin started rising and I instinctively ducked down, hitting the floor hard. A body flew through the fucking kitchen wall, slamming into the fridge and exploding into a cloud of golden dust. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" My dad came running in, scratched up and looking worse for wear, blood dripping from his brow and chest. "Percy /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"run/span span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"upstairs/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" now. My /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"room. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""I/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" was dumbfounded, still in shock about what just happened. "/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"Rapido, chico!" /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" He all but yelled at me. I hauled ass up those stairs because he never yelled at me. He never raised his voice, so /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"whatever/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" my dad /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"was upset about,/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" I was worried about./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto" He had bounded up the stairs after me and he sat me on his bed. "/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"Chico, /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"listen carefully. You need to run as fast as you can when I tell you to. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"You'll/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" be going west, to Las Vagas, on this address. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Don't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" stop until you get there. Your life depends on it. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I've/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" tried to prepare you, but I /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"wasn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" ready for it. I thought we had more time, she said two more years." My dad was rummaging through his closet, searching for something in a hurry, throwing things to the side. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" "Las Vegas? She? What are you talking about Papi?" I asked, more /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"worried/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" and confused than ever. My dad seemed to have found what he was looking for, a black backpack and two pieces of leather with straps attached to it. He shoved the leather things in the /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"backpack and/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" went to the drawer near the beds. He pulled out something and turned to face me. For the first time in my whole, and no doubt /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"very short/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;", life, I was scared. I was scared by the look on /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"my dad's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" face. I had never seen it before./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" He handed me the backpack. "Put it on, right now. If one came, more are on the way." He said, so I did as I was told, putting the backpack on /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"immediately/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;". He /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"knelt down/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;", getting eye level with me and looking at me the most serious /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I've/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" ever seen him. "Take /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"these and/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" protect yourself. I wish I could do more, but /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I'm/span span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"going to/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" try and get you out of here first." He handed me two brass knuckles with small studs on them, but they were /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"made out of/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" a weird bronze I had never seen before. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" "/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I've/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" taught you how to throw a punch and take one, from here you /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"have to/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" learn how to battle with those. I love you more than the world itself, my dear child." I was confused, and scared, so I did what any logical /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"10-year-old/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" would do. I cried. My dad pulled me into a hug, squeezing me like it would be the last. Then there was a thunderous crash downstairs, it sounded like half the building had /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"collapsed/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;". "Demigod, we can smell you. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Come be/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" our lunch."/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" My dad ran to the /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"stairwell,/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" and I followed. There were 4 giants, and I really mean giants. They were all at least 10 feet tall, dressed in those little loincloths that honestly looked to me like /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Hugies/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" pampers but for adults, and they each had a single eye, scanning everywhere. One of them heard the creak in a /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"floorboard/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" under my feet and looked up. He grinned, nasty yellow teeth that were sharp like /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"sharks. My dad whispered to me "Climb down your window rope. Remember Las Vegas. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I'll/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" see you there." My dad had never lied so I ran as fast as I could to my window and practically jumped from the window, rappelling down using the rope I had tied there./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US" /p
p class="Paragraph SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="TextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" I heard a yell of /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"pain,/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" and I looked through the bottom floor window, and what I saw changed me for life. My dad, being torn apart by /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"two/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW75071490 BCX8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" giants playing tug of war. All the composure I had... was gone in an instant and everything went black./span/span/p
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