Roger walked down the footpath, ready to cross the street. Left, right and left again none of that truck-kun business here. Walking on he passed various shops and businesses heading straight for a nearby parking lot. Dropping his bags in the boot he hopped in his car and drove home to the small apartment in a middle class residential building. So far so good, nothing dangerous going on here. Nooo, just an average adolescent person on a regular day.
Getting home he put on some music and adjusted his earphones before doing what normal people do when no one else is there to watch. That is, hip hopping and twirling and elbow swinging as well as the best imitation of a moonwalk that was definitely pulled off… definitely. During this rendition chores were half done and the broom received the microphone treatment. Roger was proud of himself for getting stuff done as he stared in the bathroom mirror approvingly. Dirty blonde hair blue-green eyes and a generally fit body that came from not overeating and lifting basic weights once a week or whenever he could get around to it. “What a handsome fellow” he thought to himself grinning as the music chanted ‘hop on it, hop, hop, hop on it’.
The smart young man skipped study, ate noodles and went to bed. Because awesome people needed their beauty sleep. THUMP, SCREAM, BANG, CRASH. Roger woke up with a start, something that was still being very loud had entered his home. Trying to stay calm while not actually achieving it, he rolled off his bed and crawled into the kitchen grabbing a knife from the bench along the way. Carefully he peered over the bench only to see a horrendous sight. To the left the front door was open, a body on the ground. Sarah’s body. She had almost finished her bachelor degree, just a few months left. Her parents had come around every month, so proud of their little princess that was all grown up. Unlike Roger’s parents, his mother left when he was four and his father, well, his father… He felt his Dad had raised him more out of a sense responsibility then love. Dad loved him, sure. Just not the same way Sarah’s parents clearly loved her. Had he been jealous? Sure, but it still made him happy to watch. He’d been booted out of home as soon as he hit 18, Sarah’s parents had begged her to stay home, finally compromising when she agreed to live close. Now they would never see her smile again, she wasn’t moving, her chest wasn’t rising or falling, and there were clearly bullet wounds in her chest.
Why? Why was this happening? She had so much life left to live. He could see her open door across the hallway, had she tried to come to him for help? He looked back to the right and saw two murdering thieves in his lounge room. How did he know they were thieves? They had large bags and they were clearly shoving some of the few valuables he had into them, that’s how. In horror movies people always yell at the characters telling them ‘Don’t go in there’ or ‘don’t do that’. Roger knew this and always kept this in mind. However, his mind wasn’t all together at this particular moment and he wasn’t exactly in a state to do the smart thing, sort of like in horror movies. As he looked from Sarah in the doorway to the murderers in his home he gasped with terror, which the one without a gun heard and turned.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Roger stood up on instinct with knife in hand, yes, he has terrible instincts, hopefully they will get better… eventually. Hearing Roger stand the other thief turned as well. Seeing the knife thief two raised his gun and fired. BANG, BANG. Everything slowed, it was as if the world itself stopped spinning. Pain. Roger looked down at his chest and saw blood. “Bastards” he thought to himself.
Looking back up at hands hovering in front of him he came to a decision. “If you assholes think you can get away with this you thought wrong. I won’t let you hurt anyone else.”
There were others in the building, some he knew well, some less so. He was a goner, his safety no longer mattered. He needed to do something to protect them. One final kumbaya. Time sped up, returned to normal, and he raised his right hand in a throwing motion. Back, forward, release. Adrenaline high the knife flew reminding Roger of kung fu movies for some reason. There was a squelching sound as somehow the weapon pierced the gunman’s eye socket. Thief two screamed as he raised his gun haphazardly. Roger dodged to the side. BANG. The gunman had missed falling backwards as he did so before going completely still. “Surreal” Roger murmured to himself, noticing the wheeze of his breath and the taste of metal on his tongue.
“You’re dead” thief one said reaching for the gun.
Vision going blurry and lungs choking on blood Roger rushed around the bench, across the room and into the gunman-to-be fists swinging. He was no boxer, but he knew the nose to be a good spot. “This counts as self-defence right?” hazy thoughts entered his mind before he heard a CRACK.
The gunman-to-be’s nose broke and his eyes were clearly watering. As thief one was reaching for his nose Roger socked him in the side of the head, feeling fingers breaking against the man’s skull. Silence apart from heavy wheezing as well as choking. Both thieves were now unmoving on the ground. “Shouldn’t that of. hurt more. I should. be screaming. right now” he spat out blood on the floor as his thoughts grew slower “there’s one more thing. I need to do.”
“What. Was. It?”
Mission to protect complete the young man fell to the ground beside the murderers.
“Oh, right” leaning to the side to spit out quite a bit of blood he tried his best to clear his throat.
“CALL TRIPLE ZERO” Roger yelled as loud as he could, he was actually pretty proud of his last words, young swagger and overconfidence coming back during these final moments.
With all the noise many of the buildings residence would no doubt be awake to hear the urgent and noble words. Even as the pain of his organs ceasing washed through him there was a slight smirk on his face. As the light disappeared from his eyes a few last thoughts passed across his mind, fleeting then gone. “I was. pretty heroic. Man I’m awesome.”