Gabe - Thirteen

Gabe

 

            I had snuck out to the music building after dinner. I had heard someone had broken into Professor Crackers’ files and gotten some really good music. I hadn’t even thought of a lie to tell the guys. They barely even noticed I was there anymore.

            I had stayed longer than I meant to, and it was really dark by the time I headed back to the dorm. I left my violin in the music room so I wouldn’t have to sneak it back in with the guys all in the dorm. I had come close to being caught by Erich with it last week. It was cold, and I didn’t have a jacket, so I walked fast. I was between the main building and the west block dorm when I heard footsteps behind me.

            There were two guys on the path behind me. I had been surprised anyone else was out so late, and it made me a little anxious. But they didn’t bother me, so I just kept walking. It wasn’t until the two others came around the corner that I realized I was in trouble.

            I froze, an animal instinct, as if they couldn’t see me if I stood perfectly still. One of them, with red hair, walked into a pool of light that shone onto the path from a window above me, and I realized they were west block boys. I felt my heart pounding in my chest, felt my breath quicken as I tried to decide what to do. Then a voice slithered through the dark.

            “Hello, fairy.”

            At those words, I ran. I turned around as fast as I could and took off in the other direction. But I had been herded, trapped like an animal by the guys behind me. “Get him!” I heard the redhead yell. I pushed past the guys behind me, but one of them got his arms around me and the other one punched me in the stomach.

The punch sent me reeling; I hadn’t expected to be hit so fast and went down without any more fight. Any of the other guys could have gotten away, I thought bitterly, but I was no fighter. They grabbed my arms and forced me to my knees. I tried to jerk out of their grip, but there were too many of them. I was pathetic, I knew, beaten without even putting up a fight.

            The redhead, the leader, crouched down in front of me. “This is a warning,” he seethed. “You’re friends had better stop walking around here like kings of the school, cause we’re going to show them what we do to our enemies.”

            I felt cold fear in the pit of my stomach. I knew they would hurt me. Bad. The redhead took the cigarette out of my mouth and pressed the burning end into my shoulder, tearing my shirt in an effort to expose more skin. It hurt so much, I cried out pathetically. Get away, I told myself, run away. I tried to throw them off me, tried to get to my feet. I groaned and yelled, thrashing around to get him to stop.

“Hey, shut him up!” one of the ones holding my arms hissed. The redhead flicked the cigarette away and nodded the second one, who kicked me in the stomach. I doubled over, straining in their grip and wheezing. They all laughed and he kicked me again, this time in the groin, then again in the chest. I lashed towards him and they laughed even harder at my attempt to fight back.

            The redhead grabbed me by the hair and yanked me to my feet. With just one of them holding on to me I had a better chance. I pushed away from him as hard as I could. My elbow caught him in the chest and he let go. I wasn’t two steps away when two of the others shoved me back towards him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He got a hold of my collar and threw me against the brick wall. The first punch left my ears ringing. My head snapped back and hit the wall. He punched me in the stomach, then in the jaw when I keeled over. He shoved me into another guy, who held me back while another one elbowed me hard in the nose. Then another punch got me in the eye and I lost my balance.

            I landed hard on my back and felt my head crack against the cement. The fall knocked the wind out of me and, for a second, a cloud of dots obscured my vision. In an instant, all four of them were on me. Two of them held my arms and one had my legs while the redhead straddled my chest. I didn’t have a prayer.

In the back of my mind, I knew I was being clobbered. He punched my face over and over, though all I could feel through the buzzing in my head was a dull thumping. “Come on, fairy!” the jeering laugh sounded like it came from far away. “Fight back, why don’t you?” As if I could.

My vision got blurrier and my face hurt more and more, but they didn’t let up. I’m going to die, I thought. Something snapped in my chest. My head throbbed and my face felt crushed. There was blood in my teeth, dripping down my throat. I couldn’t breathe. I squeezed my eyes shut and begged God to let it be over soon and waited for them to kill me.

            Then, a miracle. The weight of the guy on my chest was gone, and I opened my eyes in time to see him go flying off of me, yanked off by something I couldn’t see. The other three let go of me and I tried to sit up.

            “Gabe, stay there!” I couldn’t see where the orders came from, but the voice was harsh and firm, a voice I knew. His accent was at its thickest; he only sounded that way when he was truly angry. I sat up shakily, straining my eyes to see my savior. Even in the dark, I recognized the hulking shadow.

            Erich

            Three of them had him cornered, circled around him. Erich had apparently already gotten a hold of the one who had my legs, who was propped against the wall, moaning, with his arm hanging out of its socket. The redhead wiped blood from his lips. “Here to save your fairy? Well it’ll be damn hard for you to suck his dick without any teeth!”

Erich roared and charged at him. He got the redhead around the waist and the other two tried to pull him off. Erich flung a massive arm backwards and sent one flying into the wall. I looked up in time to see the guy sprawled, out cold, on the cement.

            I managed to pull myself to my knees, my head swimming. I did my best to stay upright while I watched the scene in front of me. Erich had gotten his hands on the redhead, massive fists colliding with the guy’s ugly face. He growled with every punch, not even trying to speak English anymore. “Du Schwein! Ich werde dich töten!“

The second one tried to pull him off, but Erich was too big to move. After a minute, he turned and elbowed the guy behind him in the throat. He wanker stumbled back, sputtering. He landed on his hands and knees a foot away from me, gasping for air. “F**k you, Davis. You never said there were two of them,” he wheezed at his friend before turning and running back towards the west block dorm.

            The redhead, Davis, jerked out of Erich’s grip and backed away. He reached in his pocket and smiled. I saw the light from the moon glint off his knife. In a panic, I managed to get to my feet. Erich saw me.

            “Stay there, Gabe,” he ordered. He was frozen where he stood, just far enough away that Davis couldn’t get to him easily. “Don’t move.”

            Right then, Davis lunged. Erich dodged it; his reflexes were quick for such a big guy. Davis lashed at the air again, closer this time. I could see there was no way Erich could keep this up forever. I staggered towards them, hoping to distract Davis.

            Instead, I distracted Erich. He threw himself at me, getting between me and Davis. He knocked me out of the way I caught myself on the wall. “Stay back, I said!”  It was too late. Davis was less than an arms reach away. The only way for Erich to keep the knife away from his chest was to block it with his hand. I didn’t see it, but I heard Erich’s groan of pain as his palm was sliced open. His hand was covered in blood; he couldn’t fight anymore.

            But instead of taking him down, Davis turned back to me. He closed his hand around my throat and shoved me against the wall. The knife was at my stomach. “I’ll show you what you get when your cocksucker tries to be a hero!” he growled. I braced myself for the pain.

            Then we heard the click of a loaded gun.

            Davis wheeled around, still choking me, but taking away the knife. I looked past him. Erich had a pistol.

            His face was dark and full of a kind of rage I had never seen before. I had never seen anyone angry enough to kill. “Let him go,” the words came like the snarl of a wounded bear. Erich’s hand, though slick with blood, was steady on the gun.

            Now Davis was really afraid. He let go of me immediately and I lurched towards Erich, towards safety. Erich did not lower the gun. “Now take your friends, and get inside.” Davis nodded, frightened, and pulled the other wankers to their feet. Erich kept the pistol pointed at their backs until they struggled through the doors of the west block dorm.

            Then we were alone on the path. Erich looked down on me. I felt dizzy, but didn’t dare ask for help. His face was still so full of rage I could barely keep eye contact.

            He wiped his bloody hand on his shirt, put his gun in his pocket and turned around. “Let’s go.”

I followed Erich shakily down the walk back towards the dorm. My head was spinning, and I struggled to walk in a straight line, but I had enough balance now to stay on my feet. There was a painful ache in the right side of my chest. Erich walked in front of me, not saying anything. Occasionally he would squeeze his injured hand and curse, but I could see he didn’t want to talk to me.

My mind was too fuzzy to really understand that he had saved my life.

We still didn’t say anything as we made our way down the stairs and into the dorm. I kept my eyes on the ground, watching drops of blood from Erich’s hand hit the floor. Finally, we made it to the room.

Jim and Hersch stood and rushed over to us. “Holy s**t, what happened?”

Erich pushed past them and sat angrily at the desk. “Damn it, Abrahamson. You were right.”

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

A action pack chapter. Erich had to save his friend. But what at the cost of? Pulling a gun today and yesterday will get you in trouble. No weakness in this excellent chapter.
Coyote

[Jake Donald Stephens]

Erich should have taken Jim and Hersch. Then his hand wouldn't have gotten cut.

"FOUR OF US AGAINST TWO OF THEM? F**K THOSE ODDS, I'M GETTING OUT OF HERE!" Damn wankers.

Great action fight scene! With trash talk that makes no sense at all! ("It'll be damn hard to suck his dick without any teeth?" Wouldn't that make it EASIER??)

This book is total awesome addiction! Erich is still my favorite character! And so is everybody else!

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[Arianna]

i F*****G hate them! ,,,,seriously they hurt my fav character!