“That’s not how you do it Joe!”

The director thundered, “The angles are all wrong. What idiot taught you to punch?”

Under any other circumstances, it would have sufficed for Joe to punch the daylights out of any person who disrespected his teacher. But today was Monday.

“I am sorry director,” said Joe while trying his best to rein in his boiling anger, “can you please repeat the steps once more?”

“I swear Joe, if you didn’t look so much like Daniel, I wouldn’t have hired such a trash stuntman as you. Adam, show him the steps!”

Adam, the director’s assistant rushed to Joe and quickly took him to the sides.

“That was pretty neat bro,” smiled Adam.

Joe was confused, “What do you mean? Didn’t you hear your boss yelling at me?”

“Nah, your actions were pretty smooth. Besides, boss is an idiot. He wants what he wants even if it is utter garbage. And he hopes to win the stunt award, can you believe him?

“Anyways, let’s just quickly go through the motions. Repeat after me,”

Adam quickly went through the punch routine that the protagonist was to use for defeating his enemies. Joe slowly followed.

“Nice! Now let me see you repeat that really fast.”

Joe tried going through the motions fast.

“Hmm… you still have problems when bending your arms. Put it like this,” Adam showed him.

“Yes, perfect, now repeat it again,” said Adam.

Joe did as asked.

“Nope, still the problems with your arms. Tell me, why do you raise it so high?” Adam asked.

“I was taught that way,” Joe said in a small voice.

“Why? As far as I can tell, it’s not a standard Karate move. I haven’t even seen it in any other martial arts and believe me, I have seen a lot of martial arts.”

“It’s to protect your throat.”

“Huh!?”

“Protecting your throat. A really quick opponent can dodge your punch and go for the throat. One should always protect his throat, it’s pretty basic stuff.”

“It is?” Adam asked.

“Yeah, my master always used to repeat that stuff. Protect your throat and also ...”

“Also?”

“Protect your balls.”

Adam laughed, “He sounds like a really cool guy.”

Joe shook his head, “He was a monster. Nearly killed me five different times. I don’t even remember how many times he broke my limbs.”

“Tough life man,” sympathized Adam, “My instructor used to drive me like slave too. Anyways, you have pretty much learned the move. Now let’s focus on getting your arms correct alright?”

Joe nodded.

------

“Alright, pack up!”

“Ahh.. the best sentence of my life,” Adam sighed, “Good work there Joe, it was hard on you.”

“Nah, nothing too difficult. Besides, couldn’t have done it without you.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Want a beer? I know a pub that’s just around the corner” Adam offered.

“Alright,” Joe nodded and the two began walking together.

“You know, with your looks, you could really be a successful actor. Besides, you know martial arts too. The demand for actors that can do their own stunts is increasing day by day. Look at Jacky Chan, Jet Lee, not to mention Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise and the likes. Why do you think they are so popular?” Adam said.

“They are so popular because they know how to act,” said Joe as a matter of fact, “It is good if an actor knows how to do stunts but with today’s cameraworks, I doubt it really matters.”

“Yea.. I suppose you are right,” Adam sighed, “You know, when I came to this city, I wanted to become an actor. To have great cars, to dance with pretty girls, to have my own bungalow… sigh, those dreams seem so distant today.”

Joe smiled, “You are what? 25? You talk as if the world has ended. My master said that when one avenue to one’s goal closes, another one opens up, one simply has to not give up and keep looking out for the opportunity.”

“It’s so simple when you say it. Tell me your story Joe, how did you end up here?”

“Me? My story is pretty uninteresting really. I am a village boy as you know. Came two years ago in this city to pursue my own dreams. Got fucked big time by life. Ended up homeless for a couple of month. It’s my good fortune that I happened to have learned martial arts from my master in my village. If I hadn’t applied for that ad asking for stunt man, I would still be roaming the streets of this city aimlessly.”

Adam whistled.

“Man, you have had such an interesting life.”

Joe scoffed, “Some might call it difficult.”

“Yea, difficult, but interesting. The pub is on the other side of this block, come on, this is a shortcut.”

The two of them entered an alley. It really was a shortcut to the pub that Adam mentioned. One just had to climb a small wall and a few steps away was the back-entrance to the pub. Of course, on a normal day the two would have climbed the wall and entered the pub. But unfortunately, this was not a normal day. The first one to realise this was Joe.

He held out his hands and stopped Adam,

“Let’s turn back,” Joe whispered.

“What? Why?” Adam asked, confused.

Before Joe could answer, a man in old tattered clothes made his appearance. His whole body was shaking and he held a gun in his hands.

“Quick! Give me your money! Quick! Quick!” He cried.

“He is high. Don’t speak too loud,” Joe whispered.

“Stop talking!! Quick! Quick! Take out your money!”

“Alright, easy there man,” Joe said soothingly, with his hands up in air, “We’ll give you your money alright? See my hand? I am taking it to my pockets so that I could take out my wallet. Easy alright?”

Joe slowly took his hands to his pockets all the while moving slowly towards the old man.

“Quick! Quick! Your money! Give me!”

Joe took out his wallets and extended towards him. As soon as the old man reached out to grab the wallet, Joe closed the gap between them as fast as lightning, slapped his hands away and thrust his hands into the man’s throat.

The man didn’t even have the time to react as he dropped unconscious on the ground.

“What the fuck! What the fuck! What the fuck!!” Adam blabbered, “How could you!? He could have killed us! You psycho!”

“Relax Adam!” Joe said.

“What the fuck! What the FUCK!!”

“Adam!!” Joe shouted.

“What!??”

“His gun’s safety,” Joe said.

“What?”

“It’s on.”

“So!?” Adam cried.

“He couldn’t have shot. The safety was still on,” Joe explained.

Adam calmed down.

Joe further said, “I was not trying to be a hero or something. If his gun were hot, I would have never closed in on him. Wouldn’t gamble on my life, let alone yours.”

Adam heaved a huge sigh, “Has anybody ever told you? You are a complete idiot!”

Joe smiled, “My master used to repeat that every now and then.”

Adam finally smiled, releasing the adrenaline fueled tension a bit, “Come on, best to leave here as soon as possible. And ermm… what about him?”

“He would be out for a long long time, the idiot didn’t protect his throat,” Joe said.

Both of them simultaneously broke into laughter which was soon pierced by a heart wrenching scream.

“Arghhh… You killed him!!”

This time it was a woman who apparently was woken up by the sound of the scuffle.

“No mam! He is alright,” Joe tried to explain.

“You killed Tommy!” The woman was inconsolable.

“Now see here…” Adam tried to explain but in vain.

The woman quickly reached the unconscious body of the old man and began crying.

“Tommy!”

“Adam, let’s leave,” Joe said. Adam nodded in agreement.

Just as the two of them were trying to exit the alley, the woman screamed,

“I will kill you!”

She grabbed the gun that was on the ground and pointed it towards the two of them.

“Now mam, please listen to us,” Adam said while raising his arms. The gun’s safety lock was still on but it didn’t take much to snap it off. Joe raised his arms too. He inched closer to the woman perhaps to attempt the same maneuver.

“Your boyfriend is quite alright mam, here, this is some money you can get him treated,” Joe took out his wallet and showed it to the woman.

Her attention was turned to the wallet. Ceasing this chance, Joe closed in on the woman but just before he could disable her, he was pushed back with a loud bang.

Joe was utterly confused as to how could the woman possess such a strength and just what was that noise. He could briefly hear Adam in the background and… was he shouting? Why was he shouting?

Joe was pushed quite some distance but he corrected his bearings and closed in on the woman, who was, for some reason, stupefied. Taking the advantage, he gathered his body strength, which was substantially lower than what he could muster on other occasions and hit the woman straight on her heart. The woman passed out with pain. Soon enough, Joe found his strength leave his body as he too collapsed on the floor.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck !”

Joe could hear Adam shout.

Would you keep it down… He wanted to say but he couldn’t muster up the words.

“Hello 911, a man has been shot, yes, in an alley…”

Shot? Who was shot? The it dawned on him. Why was he pushed back, what was the loud noise, why was Adam shouting so much and just what was the watery feeling on his arms. Indeed, he had been shot.

Thinking back, his day had started in a pretty shitty way. He had missed his breakfast because he didn’t have any money. He was late to the shooting because again he didn’t have any money to catch the bus. He had to endure working with the shitty director. And to cap it all up, he was shot. All in all, a really really shitty day.

As he lay in his own pool of blood, he began thinking about his childhood, his farmer parents, his friends and most of all, his strict master. It was weird that the one whom he hated the most in his childhood, his master, was the one that he wanted to see most right now.  All those horse stances he did, all those ridiculous warming up exercises and not to forget those ridiculous breathing exercises that his master claimed were the topmost in the whole world and made him repeat day after day! It all seemed so pointless back then but right now, as he lay waiting for his death, he missed them dearly.

“Hey Joe! Joe you hear me! Don’t give up buddy, the ambulance is on it’s way!”

Joe’s consciousness was slowly fading away, and so was Adam’s voice. In his final moments, Joe thought about how he should have known that the gun might have been a broken one or that it’s safety switch might have been a defunct. Obviously, he couldn’t have known it at that time but he shouldn’t have taken unnecessary risks. His master always said that he was an idiot. Maybe he really was.