Levi got out of the shower and got dressed in his favorite flannel and jeans. As he

finished lacing his boots, he checked the time. 7:48am. That’s when he heard Alice honk

her horn outside, signaling Levi to get his ass outside so they could go get him a much needed phone.

He looked at where he usually keeps his mask on the counter, but it wasn’t

there. He decided screw it, there wasn’t enough time to look for it and rushed out the

door. After getting off work, Alice dropped Levi off so he could take a proper shower and

told him that she’d be back before 8am so they could get to the Apple store when they

open.

Levi got in and the 2 drove to the store, they didn’t talk much on the way over

because Alice was too busy blasting her favorite music and singing along. Meanwhile

Levi just stared out the window, debating if this was such a good idea. They pulled up

just as the clerk was unlocking the door and walked up to go inside.

The clerk was an older man, roughly in his 60’s. He turned around and saw Alice

and Levi approaching. His face turned sour “What are you doing here, freak?” every

word had disgust in it as he spoke.

“Excuse me?” Alice was offended. Levi stayed quiet.

“Not you, young lady. That one, right there.” He pointed at Levi.

“What about him?”

“He’s the reason my son has 2 metal plates and 8 screws in his arm. After he

mauled him that night, you know what I’m talking about. Don’t you, boy?”

Levi remained silent and resumed walking towards the man.

Alice looked at him and said “Levi, what is he talking about?”

“How could you not know? The whole town knows. He went on an unwarranted

rampage one night and hurt all sorts of good, hard-working men! Tell her, freak! Tell her

what you done.”

Alice realized he must’ve been talking about the night where Levi was harassed.

“That wasn’t his fault.” She mumbled as Levi continued walking towards the old man.

“Get back, freak! Or I’ll call the police, you remember last time, don’t you?”

When Levi was a few feet away from the man, the man cowered as he expected

Levi to beat him bloody.

Levi just brushed past him and said, “Excuse me.” Then he held open the door for Alice.

Alice walked past the cowering old man and Levi to go inside

the store. Levi followed and closed the door behind him. Ensuring the crazy old man

didn’t follow them inside.

“What an asshole!” Alice quietly shouted to Levi.

“Eh it’s whatever, just forget about it and help me pick a phone.” Levi went back

to his normal monotone self and began to browse around the store.

Alice was amazed at how little the interaction fazed him; it made her question how often stuff like this must

happen to him. The 2 were able to spend 2 hours of uninterrupted browsing around the

store and Alice explaining the phones better than even the workers there could. They

finally decided on the newest model of the iPhone. By the end of it, Levi felt more

exhausted than he usually does after work.

Alice yawned when they exited the store, she was finally hitting a wall after being

up for so long. She still wasn’t completely adjusted to her new schedule. Levi held the

door for her again, “That was fun, we should do this again sometime.”

Alice stopped dead in her tracks, she couldn’t believe that those words just came

out his mouth. She turned around to make sure it was actually Levi who said that.

“Or not.” Levi let out an awkward smile as he stared at Alice who looked like unnerved at his comment.

“No! Wait, I mean yes. Yes, we should absolutely do something together again.”

Alice was glowing, but her happiness was short lived as the look on Levi’s face turned

deadly serious as he looked behind her.

“There he is! G’morning freak!” a man shouted; his voice was raspy with an

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

underlying aggressiveness to it.

Alice’s heart dropped when she turned around and saw 3 burly & more heavyset

men approaching the 2 of them. Trailing behind them was the old man from earlier. “See

son! I told you he would still be here.”

“You were right, pa.” The man in the middle of the trio said, the more Alice

looked at the group, the more she realized how bad the situation was becoming.

The one in the middle wore a black sleeveless hoodie with ruffled brown hair and a goatee, on his right arm was a gruesome scar that

took up nearly the entirety of his outer forearm. The one on the right was rather plain

looking, completely clean shaven, in a blue flannel. The most unnerving thing about him

was the fact he had what looked like a police officer's badge on a chain around his neck.

The left one was an ugly bastard though and gave her more fright than the other 2. He

had long raggedy ginger hair that covered his eyes, a patchy red beard, and covered in old

school tattoos that were faded. His expression was the scariest part about him, his matted

ginger hair covered his eyes, but you could still see the toothy grin across his face with

his yellow stained teeth.

“C’mere freak, let’s have a talk about this!” The man in the middle shouted to

Levi while pointing at his scarred arm.

Alice was terrified, this was triggering memories of that night for her. Levi put his

hand on Alice’s shoulder and gently turned her around and hunched down a bit, so they

were eye to eye. Her eyes were glassy from the buildup of tears, but Levi had that goofy

smile on his face again. It gave her some semblance of comfort. He spoke in a gentle tone

that helped put her at ease. “Hey, I’m going to walk home from here. I’ll see you

tomorrow morning.”

She began to panic; he couldn’t possibly be thinking of going over to the men

who were getting closer by the second. “Levi, no!”

“It’s gonna be alright, just get in your car and go home. One more thing, I’m

going to have you hold onto this until you pick me up tomorrow.” He put the bag with his

new phone in her hand, making sure she was holding it before letting her hand go.

Alice began to feel a bit better as Levi took her hand in his, she nodded and ran to

her car that was parked to the left. Luckily the men were approaching from the right of

the store, otherwise they’d be blocking her only exit.

Alice got in and drove off as fast as she could, while glancing back at Levi who had now turned to face the men. ‘Am I doing

the right thing?’ she asked herself. Her first instinct was to call the police, but with Levi’s

reputation it will most likely just make the situation worse. That along with the fact one

of those men was already wearing a badge.

“How many times?” Levi asked.

“What’d you just say, boy?” The bald man with a badge shouted at Levi.

“How many time do we have to do this before you people finally leave me

alone?”

“Until you’re states away or 6 feet under. You’re not welcome here; you

should’ve left a long time ago!”

“Get him Cleetus!” The man in the middle shouted again and pointed at Levi,

that’s when the ginger man charged Levi. Levi charged right back, but when the 2 ran

into each other, Cleetus was the one who was knocked to the ground. “Ralph, help him!”

The man in the middle continued to bark orders at the others, this time the bald police

officer took out a baton and ran to Levi who was stomping Cleetus’s head as he laid

helplessly on the ground. His yellow teeth had become dyed crimson and were now

scattered across the parking lot. Levi let up and dodged Ralph’s attempted blow to his

head with the metal baton. Levi then tackled him to the ground and the 2 started

exchanging blows.

Levi was too preoccupied to notice the last man with the scar who had begun

running towards him. He tackled Levi off of his friend who had been beaten almost as

bloody as Cleetus, the only difference was he still had most of his teeth. The man

knocked the wind out of Levi when he picked him up and slammed him onto the ground.

Levi needed to catch his breath; he tried his best to take all the hits being dealt to him. He

hid his head behind his arms, so that most of the damage was being dealt to them instead.

When the man’s hits, started to slow from exhaustion, Levi took the opportunity to break

from his guard and smashed his forehead into the man's chin. The man recoiled and got

off Levi. The 2 returned to their feet. Putting some distance between them.

Both men were breathing heavily from the exchange, blood was oozing from the

gash on the man’s chin. Levi’s left arm had begun to swell and it hurt to breath, Levi

thought to himself ‘The tackle cracked a rib and the punches might’ve fractured my arm,

goddammit. It’s gonna be a pain in the ass at work tomorrow.’

The man looked around and saw his beaten friends laid out on the ground. He

became filled with a rage that overwhelmed whatever exhaustion he was feeling. “You

Bastard!” He screamed and reached for his belt to unsheathe a knife. But it was empty.

The man looked up and noticed that Levi was holding his knife in his right arm and had a

sinister smirk on his face. Levi regained his composure “It’s over.”

He charged the man who began to cower as his father did earlier, Levi plunged

the knife into the man’s leg. The man let out a blood-curdling scream as he collapsed to

the ground, grasping his leg. Levi left the knife sticking out of his leg. On that note Levi

began to turn and make his way back home. He just wanted to get back to his bed and

sleep, out of this cold and away from these ‘people’.

The old man ran to his son “Pauly!”

“Pa, I’m sorry. I thought we could take him, especially with Cleetus here.”

His father sarcastically spoke “Especially with Cleetus here! Cleetus was the first

one of you idiots to go down!”

“Please Pa, just call an ambulance.” His son pleaded while writhing in pain.

His Father just let out a deep beath “Fine, but you tell them it was a group of

bikers that rolled through and did this. I don’t need any more town gossip about you

getting your ass beat.”

“…Yes, Pa.” The man was defeated in every meaning of the word.