The car was shaking as we drove along the highway, past multiple speed signs that clearly showed that we were driving too fast. I sat in the back together with a few other gang members. All of them were looking at me, piercing me with their stares. I could only swallow and try to ignore their evil smiles. All I could do was wait to see what kind of torture they had planned for me.

Overall our drive to New California only took us a few hours. The driver parked the van in a dark alley and Martin barked orders at us to get out of the van.

I jumped out of the van and quietly followed behind all of the others. The streets looked clean and the people here didn't seem as miserable as even some of the richer people in our city. Along the way, I bumped into a policeman and before I could even think about anything but apologizing I could already feel all of them staring at me. I only gave a quick apology to the man and quickly caught up to the others.

"Good," Acil said as he looked back at me.

After a while we turned around a corner, then another walked along another street, climbed over a fence, turned a few more corners and arrived at a large open parking space, surrounded by a fence with only two entrances both leading to two different streets.

"Alright, Cockroach, Lars, you two go to that entrance, make sure no one comes here if you see anyone squeeze this."

He handed both of us one of those thingies that would make a loud sound whenever you'd squeeze the back of it, but I had no clue what they were called. I quickly nodded and scurried off to the entrance together with Lars. I kept watch on the right side while he kept watch on the left side. The cold night air send shivers down my spine every time it blew against me and I somehow felt weaker than usual.

Suddenly I heard a car drive onto the parking lot. I turned around and saw four people get out, all of them dressed in expensive-looking clothes and they all had sunglasses. One of them had a suitcase which I assumed was filled with money. Martin had set up a table where the new people put down their suitcase and where Acil put down his.

I turned back around and watched the streets, not wanting to get in trouble for not keeping watch. It was cold and I was shivering as I tried to at least listen to the conversation they had.

"Alright listen here. I know we agreed to do one hundred thousand, but I think we can go lower with the price," one person I didn't recognize by the sound of their voice said.

Acil's laughter followed that pretty quickly.

"Oh come one Mathew, you really think you can fuck me over now after we already drove all the way here?" Acil asked. "We agreed to one hundred thousand and we'll sell for not a single dollar less!"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Acil started getting louder and he started getting angry... I had never seen him become loud before. A shiver went down my spine when I thought about what Acil might do to them if they pissed him off.

The streets were now nearly empty, only the occasional car drove by too quick for the people inside the get a good grasp on what was going on in the almost empty parking lot.

"Alright, alright. Acil, my friend. There is no need to get angry here. We're just saying that one hundred thousand is a little too much," the man negotiating with Acil said.

It was a little strange that Martin kept quiet while that man was clearly mocking Acil.

"No, no, no. Listen here, Mathew. We agreed to one hundred thousand so you will pay one hundred thousand. I know you have the money so it's not because you suddenly went broke. You just want to fuck me over!" Acil said loudly.

I suddenly heard Acil pull out a gun, at least I was sure it was one, there was no way I wouldn't recognize that rattling and clicking.

"Now listen here! Either you stop fucking me over and hand over the money, or... I'll blow your fucking head off!" Acil said loudly.

He had lost his cool. Which was something I didn't think was possible. Then I heard rustling behind us and when I turned my head I saw that Acil, Martin, Hannah and the other gang member with them had all pulled out their guns, and so did the people we were here to negotiate with. Only a few minutes in and they were already pulling guns on each other.

And to top all of that off I saw a blue-white car approach us, written on the side was: Police. I had two choices, either I do nothing and hope that I get saved... or I do something hand hope that I won't get punished for something... But even if I did nothing now there was a chance that Acil would grab me just so he could torture me personally. So I decided to just squeeze the little rubber horn while pointing it behind me so that they could hear.

"Shit!" multiple people yelled at once.

I suddenly heard some rustling from behind and then Martin grabbed me and yelled: "Run Cockroach, run!"

I just followed after them as I heard shots from behind followed by screams and then just the sound of the police siren going off. But by the time they were at the parking lot, we had already gone past the corner and were climbing over the fence. I noticed that Acil was carrying two suitcases. After a short time, we had reached the van and all of us jumped inside.

I was sweating and panting aggressively. I felt like my lung was about to jump out of my body. On the other hand, Martin and Acil were both laughing.

"We got the money and the drugs, now that's a haul!" Martin said out loud.

"Already back?" the driver asked as he looked over his seat.

At that moment I was snapped back to reality as I heard a loud sound coming from downstairs. My eyes flew open. I was drenched in sweat and my body was shaking slightly but it was not as bad as it usually was after these dreams of my old world.

I immediately jumped out of bed and ran to the ladder and looked downstairs. There I could see a figure running out of the room. My warp mark activated and I immediately stepped forwards, using [Far Step], appearing in front of my house and grabbing the intruder by his neck. The person let out a gasp as I turned and smashed them into the ground. A cloud of dust was whirled up and my move had left behind a small crater, blood splattered across the ground.

Before I could ask any questions I noticed that I had accidentally smashed the neck and part of their head with my move.

"Well fuck," I whispered.

But there was something on their hand that I found suspicious. A silver ring with blue runes engraved on it.

"Pergament... looks like I'll have to go no matter what," I said as I looked up at the moons in the sky.