“You mother fucker! You pieces of shit!”

A bottle of beer flew across the room and shattered on the wall, spraying glass and alcohol everywhere. It just barely missed Dominic’s head, and tears were streaming down his face.

“I’m sorry! How was I supposed to know!?”

“Save your sorries! Pay me back!”

“But...but…”

“PAY ME BACK!”

“Give him a break, boss,” Lyle said, doing his best to placate their employer, who was both drunk and naturally disagreeable. Instead, he got a backhand to the face which knocked him on his ass.

“All my money! Gone! In only a second! How could you!?”

“I’m sorry!”

The back and forth between the two would probably go on forever, but fortunately, a fourth actor poked her head into the kitchen door and screamed at the top of her lungs.

“SHUT THE HELL UP!”

There was something about a screaming angry woman that pierces your average man down to their very core. Her angry look was enough to sober up the screaming doctor, enough to cause the prone ex-gangster to freeze, and enough to make the poor sobbing nurse stifle his tears in fear.

“Okay, you loud assholes, tell me what’s going on,” Lisa said, stepping into the room. There was blood on her face and hands, probably from a harmless dissection, but it looked intimidating nonetheless. “All this yelling back and forth is giving me a headache, and if you expect me to learn anything and pull my weight around here, you’re gonna need me to actually know how the human body works and shit.”

The one who spoke first was the drunk one.

“I told Dom to go put money on Lucky Lady, horse number 4, in the races,” Dr. Hawk started. “But then this dumbass went and put it on number 8! And guess what!? Lucky Lady won! He’s trying to scam me out of my money!”

“T-that’s not fair,” Dominic said in his own defense. “You didn’t tell me the number at all. And there was Lucky Lady, Lady Luck, Lucky Lucy, and Licorice Licker. I couldn’t tell them apart…”

“Why didn’t you write it down you dumbass!?”

“I didn’t know they’d have similar names!”

Dominic raised his voice just a bit, knowing that with Lisa around, Dr. Hawk wouldn’t be able to get as aggressive as before. The ex-gangster had only just recently been bossed around by two older brothers as they tried to form a small mafia, but that had backfired and both of his brothers had been killed. Since then, Lyle (another member of their gang) and he had been working for Dr. Hawk in his clinic, and though they thought the harsh leadership would end, it only got worse.

The old man was a dictator and a psychopath. He used the two to make gambles under his name. It was work, but it wasn’t great. In this economy, however, you took what you could get, and working for an underground clinic was a better job than most. The two had Hanson to thank for that.

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“I’m docking it out of your salary,” Dr. Hawk said, with finality. He calmed down and lit himself a cigarette as he spoke. “You better make sure you do it right next time.”

“If I get it right next time, do I get a cut?”

“Huh? No, why would you?”

Dominic was used to the unfair treatment, so he just sighed, and let his eyes water. With those watery eyes, he looked over at Lisa, begging her to do something.

There were only a few people who could get Dr. Hawk to do something. Lisa was one of them.

“Rowan,” Lisa started. Even though she had only been working with the doctor for a month or so, she already had his respect. Perhaps her ability to transform human bodies with a touch helped do that? Ah, yes, it should be noted that Lisa is a daemon and was blessed by a devil named Oriaxs, given the power to warp flesh and bones however she wanted. “No more gambling if you keep treating your employees like that. We’ll just all leave. I mean, I can practically do your job better than you can, at this point, so we don’t need you. We’ll put you in a retirement home.”

Being called his first name shocked Dr. Hawk and it also made him pout. His weakness to cute young women was astounding, especially since he was so old. It made him seem like a real grandpa.

“Alright.”

“And say you’re sorry to Dom.”

Begrudgingly, the doctor complied.

“Sorry, shithead.”

“And Dom? Say you’re sorry to the doctor.”

“S-sorry, boss.”

“And Lyle?”

“Huh? What did I do!?”

Before anyone could say anything else, there was a banging sound from the front entrance, then the ringing of the welcoming bell. Normally, the door was locked, and this sounded like a door being busted down. It made the entire staff go white.

“I’ll go check it out,” Lyle said, instantly changing his tone from casual to serious. His criminal blood still left aftereffects. “Dom, come with.”

“Yeah.”

As Dominic followed behind, he grabbed a kitchen knife from the table and gripped it tightly. He wouldn’t be able to use it in a fight, as he couldn’t find it in himself to hurt people, even for surgery, but he could use it to maybe threaten whoever came in. The clinic was for criminals, or other people who couldn’t pay to get into real hospitals. That meant those who came were the worst people out there, and oftentimes, they came in violently. The clinic was supposed to be a neutral zone, so anyone who cared helped defend the doc in times of need, but sometimes, it just wasn’t enough.

The two crept toward the front door as Lisa and Dr. Hawk went to the back, the doctor grabbing his vintage shotgun from it’s storage, just in case.

Yes, the door had been broken.

But not as badly as they had thought.

It was kicked in, but not kicked off the handle. The lock was definitely broken, but it wouldn’t be the hardest thing to fix. That was good.

What was not good was the crumpled body laying on the floor, slowly leaking out blood. It was a man with tan skin and very thick brown hair, who looked like he had just been beaten half to death. His clothes were torn and bruises covered his body, and when Lyle reached out to touch him, the man didn’t move.

“You awake?”

No response.

“He awake?”

Still, no response.

“Seems like he got beat up pretty bad,” Lyle said, pointing out the obvious. “He’s breathing, but not steadily. Go grab the doctor and let him know. I’ll make sure this dude doesn’t do anything, or that anyone was chasing after him.”

Now sweating, Dominic nodded rapidly, before dashing off to try and let his boss know. As he did that, Lyle stared down at the unconscious man’s body. He was pretty muscular, and there were scars on his fist, similar to the types Lyle had. This was a fighter. If he came here, he was probably some kind of thug. Two things stood out as very strange to Lyle as he studied the man. The first was the tattoo of a wolf on each of the man’s arms, and as he was flipped over, his chest.

The craziest part, however, were the marks on his bruises. At first glance, it looked like he had been driven over, but the wounds he took weren’t like someone who had been hit by a car.

The tire marks across his body were so very peculiar.