The pain was intense, but, I think I was starting to get used to it.  I mean it's still paralysing, but I can think now.  No matter what I tried to focus on though, it always came back to one question.

"Why is it just my left hand?"  Every time Kevin had done this, whatever this was, it was my left hand.  I saw Trent and the others grasping at their hands as well, so it seemed like that was the way he had to do it.  I wondered how long Kevin would keep it up this time.  The first couple times were to send a message, but this, this was punishment for failure.  Then, it stopped.  I immediately looked to Kevin.  Riley was talking to him.  They were side by side and whispering, I suppose our screaming made that difficult.  I didn't like it.  Well I loved the fact that whatever she said had caused Kevin to stop burning me, but I didn't like the thought of Kevin having secret discussions with someone I was supposed to work with.  As they talked no one made a sound, until Jessica tried to but in, Kevin quickly silenced her the best way he knew how.  After a short while, Riley nodded and Kevin smiled.  She started walking towards the door.

"Come on."  Riley motioned with her hand for us to follow her.  Given the fact that she had just spent some one on one time with Kevin, I wasn't about to argue.  The others made similar decisions and we were soon in the hall walking outside.  Immediately after getting outside I snapped.

"OK! What the hell is going on?"

"He wants.."

"No no no, that can wait.  What's with you?"  Everyone looked at me like I was nuts.  "You walk around the halls like a nervous wreck, you claim to be incredibly anxious and now, now you're the most chill person on the planet.  What's  the deal?"  As Riley thought of a way to answer I saw the others adding up what I'd said in their own heads.

"Alright, the anxiety is bogus."

"Why?"

"Because people suck, and there's a shining example back there."

"Ok, I can understand that,"  Trent chimed in.  "But how?  Extreme anxiety could hinder class performances and schools would check in on something like that, it's not just something you can lie about."

"I've got a cousin who's a shrink.  He owed me big from when we were kids.  He didn't prescribe me a medication or anything but I go to his office twice a week for treatment.  Can we at least walk and talk?"  We all kind of shrugged "sure" and headed away from the school, there was an overpass in front of us that we wound up taking.  Still curious, I looked at Riley again.

"So? by treatment you mean?"

"We play video games in his office."

"Sweet deal," with that I gave her a little fist bump.

"Back to the problem at hand!"  Nate's voice.  Oh yea, I'm still pissed at him.

"Are you referring to whatever the hell Kevin wants us to do now or to the fact that you're willing to throw me under the bus at a moment's notice?"  Everyone stopped as I snapped at Nate.  "That was some low ball shit back there Nate.  I was all set to try and help Jessica out."

"Do you really think you could have convinced him that a rookie outplayed the pro?"

"I have no fucking clue!  But I'm a damn good liar and it was at least worth a shot!  Besides, being a kissass got you burned anyway!

"I am not.."

"Shut the fuck up Nate."  Jessica literally took the words out of my mouth.  "You thought that by outing Mitch you could spare the rest of us, or at least yourself."

"Well it seemed better than the alternative."

"Was it?"  I wasn't even close to being done with him.

"You only gave me one anyway!  After Riley, he said he'd drop it to two, but I only had one!  I was fucked either way!"

"Oh please!  You're the fucker with an angel on both shoulders, he probably would have been impressed that you even got one, plus there was almost two hundred dollars in it."  I turned and started walking again, as I heard the group start catching up I hollered back.  "So what are we supposed to be doing right now?"

"Well not necessarily right now, before Thursday we're supposed to rob a convenience store."  Again, we stopped.

"That leaves us one good day.  Ok well a good one to knock over needs to have access to.."

"Are you fucking serious Mitch?  We can't"  I was done with Nate at this point.  I spun around and slugged him in the face.  My fist connected square with his nose and he staggered backward.  Trent managed to catch him but Nate quickly shook off.

"How fucking stupid can you be Nate?  Seriously!  I'm genuinely curious now!  Even you got burned back there!  That's not going to stop unless we do what he wants!"

"But we can't just.."

"Ok Nate, here's the deal.  Here's what's happening."  I took a breath and calmed down.  "First off, I wanna say, I respect you."  He gave me a questioning look.  "I'm serious man.  You work hard to get what you want, and honestly, there aren't people as good as you any more."  He accepted that silently.  "But that same innocent good guy nature makes you useless to me, to all of us.  So whatever projects he gives me, I'm going to do, with or without you.  If he asks if you were there, I'm gonna tell the truth.  I don't know how much worse he can make that burning bullshit, but I for one am going to make sure I don't find out."  We all just stood in silence for a while, waiting for what Nate would say.

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"You don't, don't hurt anyone do you?"

"Other than you just now and whenever my life is in danger?  No.  Violence just makes you a bigger blip on cops radar."

"Ok."

"You're in?"

"I guess."

"Good."

We started walking again.  As we cleared the overpass I explained that since we had a day to prepare, we should case the store we would hit.

"What about the one by your place Mitch?  Luke's Joint."  For a second I was curious as to how Trent knew that, but then I remembered that we had hung out at my place fairly often.

"Could work, it's close and I know the layout, but he gets ripped off a lot and just upgraded his security a couple months back."

"Upgraded how?  And what do you mean ripped off?"  It was Riley. I was, I guess glad that the others were starting to get on board.

"New security cameras and locks that trigger after midnight.  It's a twenty four hour place but you need to be let in after that.  And when I say ripped off I mean he gets stolen from a lot.  Not like what we're gonna do.  Right now their biggest issue is kids going in and running out without paying"

"Makes sense."

"Yea."  As we walked towards Luke's Joint we briefly tossed around other potential locations, well Nate didn't.  I didn't mind his silence though.  He'd agreed to be compliant and that was all I really needed from a guy like him. "Luke's I guess it is then."  The others agreed.

"Anything you can tell us off the top of your head?"  Jessica this time.

"Five cameras to be sure, they're all around the perimeter walls and kinda point towards the centre.  So there aren't really any blind spots, none we can use anyway."

"One behind the counter?"

"Of course.  Everyone's got a hoodie or a good hat I'm guessing?"  I turned around to look at the group, everyone was wearing a hooded sweater or jacket.  "Aces."  By this point we had cleared the over pass and wandered into the last residential area before we'd see Luke's Joint.  "So I've got two ideas for how we do this."

"Let's hear em."  Trent's turn.  I wondered if they were intentionally cycling through who talked to the criminal.

"One involves hostages and the other, well doesn't"

"You just said we weren't gonna hurt people!"  I knew Nate would jump on me there.

"Number one, talk a lot quieter, the last thing we need is anyone hearing us.   Number two, hostages don't immediately imply violence.  Number three, we're the hostages."

"What?"  They asked collectively.

"One or two of us go in ahead of the group.  Walk around, grab a chocolate bar or a pack of gum, then the rest rush in and grab them.  It immediately makes us look serious and we don't put anyone at risk."

"And the other is just the five of us kick the door in and demand cash?"

"Exactly Riley."

"Well option one seems like it could have a higher success rate, plus, two of us can have slightly cleaner consciences than the rest."  I couldn't tell if she was taking a stab at Nate or not.

"By the way Riley, I owe you an apology."

"For what?"

"Calling you a bitch."

"What?  When?"

"Immediately after the heavily sarcastic way you called me a prodigy and my pickpocketing skills into question."

"It was to get Green off my back."

"Yes I made that connection immediately after, also the way you reinforced yourself after Nate went turncoat probably saved me a few hundred degrees worth of whatever the fuck it is Kevin does with that pen.  So, sorry."

"Meh, we're cool, I probably would have done the same as you anyway."  I liked un-anxious Riley.

For a while we pitched other ideas as to what Kevin's power over us was.  We didn't come up with anything concrete but we did get some laughs out of it.  As we approached Luke's, I looked at my crew.

"Seeing as how we're gonna use Nate and Jessica as hostages, we don't need to case the place, at least not as carefully as if we were all going douchebag in there, but I could really go for a Kicker, and after today I feel like I owe you all a drink or something."

"Kicker?" Jessica laughed.  "You drink that bull piss?"

"For the last four years."  Trent and I both grabbed a Kicker Cola along with a bag of chips each.  Riley found a green tea drink or some crap, Jessica made herself a slushie and Nate grabbed a couple two for one bottles of coke.  As we left I immediately turned to Nate.  "I have a job that paid for these."  He raised his hands defensively.  "You were thinking it."

"Whatever."  He shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

"Yea we should all get out of here.  I still have a couple things to set up."  We all said goodbye and walked our separate ways, well I did, everyone else made their way to the bus stop.  Once I was out of earshot I grabbed my phone and punched in speed dial  nine.

"What up kid?"

"Uncle Ray, I need a favour."

"Well fuck."