“YAHHHHHH” the teammates rushed on Richard as he stood facing the crowd with his hands spread out taking a famous celebration pose by his footballing idol and legend, Leonel Messi. The crowd cheered him on him as the whole atmosphere was electric.

PIMMMM PIM PIM

The referee blew his whistle for the last time today as he brought the exciting match to a close as soon as Bulaba kicked off, making the whole team rush to celebrate with the fans, they had just made it through to the quarter-finals of the tournament on goal difference.

Last year they were close to winning it when they were brutally eliminated in the semis by the team who eventually went on to win it, the Mustang academy, losing by six goals to a lone goal scored by Richard.

“Where is he” he mumbled as he looked around for a popular trouble maker as he sighted him walking out of the pitch in anger with his buddies as they left;

“What was I even thinkin,g,” Richard thought as he continued the celebration.

---

“Damn it, it’s already 8 pm, my mum hasn’t taken her medication yet” Richard said as he ran. His mum was critically ill as he barely had enough to cater to her needs. The family had abandoned him and his country couldn’t even care less.

Being young at that time and due to his mother’s request, he couldn’t go out to constructions sites as even if he went, he would be rejected, he was later left with the only choice of trying out for the local footballing academy in his community, he did his best as he caught the eye of a very important figure who decided to sponsor him and give him little stipends each time he played well so that he could take care of himself.

As time went on, he got better as the pay increased quite a bit but not to the standard payment as it all depended on his performance. This motivated him to make himself better than everyone else so he could be irreplaceable in any team.

Being a secretive person, he didn’t want to let anyone know about his mother as he took on the expensive bills by himself, doing the market runs and everything to help his mum, even going as far as to reject the accommodation in the academy. If a match was scheduled in a place he won’t be available at, he would hire someone to take care of her as he would be back the next day.

On this particular day of the match, he rushed to the pharmacy who had already taken note of him as they previously gave him drugs on credit due to his consistency as the resident nurse helped diagnose her and began prescribing the correct drugs.

He just spent more than half of his current stipend to replace a particular set of medications that had finished. On his way home he saw a group of boys leaning on one of the cars parked by the side but didn’t pay much attention to them as the local thugs and ruffians always hung around and most times fought, but he knew them quite well as his skills made him popular in the area. He continued walking when he noticed a car parking in front of the street as some boys stepped out;

“I don’t like the look of this, probably another gang war,” he said as he turned back to look for another route when he noticed the boys already walking closely behind him.

“Hey guys what’s up” he said as he chuckled nervously “how your side today na” he said in the local slang, pidgin, that was popular among the thugs;

“Wow, who would have thought the almighty captain would be fluent in pidgin” to his dismay a familiar voice entered his ears.

“Smith, what is the meaning of this” he said as soon as he looked at the speaker and confirmed his thoughts;

“Meaning of what if I may ask” Smith said as he shrugged feigning innocence.

“Come off it, I know you brought these guys here” he said as he turned to face the man closest to him, “ah Bullet, I see you, remember say, I bin roger you small something for morning as I comot” Richard said as he went to hold his shoulder but the hand was caught in a tight grip making him wince in pain a bit.

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“Boy, I know say you roger me, but see ehn” he said as he brought his face closer to his ear “roger pass roger” hearing this Richard knew what had happened, Smith had obviously paid him more than whatever he could afford especially with his parents money involved, as these thugs, it was only money that moved them, as if given enough they could kill their parents.

The thug said so as he landed a heavy slap across the face making him stagger back, feeling a slight sting and touching his lips he could see blood;

“Hahaha this is more fun than I thought, do you know how long I have waited to do this, but I always held myself back” Smith said as he began walking up to him and punched him in the guts making him get on his knees as he spat blood, but held the medications tight.

“You remember my warning today, if only you had heeded, if only you had done as I said then you won’t be in this situation” he said bending to eye level.

“W- w- what the hell did I do Smith” Richard asked making Smith laugh as he threw another punch to his face “don’t ask me such useless questions,” he said as he continued the beat down, but noticing how he held a bag out of harm’s way, he smiled as he reached out to it.

“What do we have here” stretching out his hand to touch the bag, Richard suddenly grabbed the hand in a tight face as he looked at him with a bloody face “Don’t go there” he said with a voice that sent chills down the spine of everyone. Smith tried to shake his hands off and proceed but the grip got tighter, the pain became unbearable after a few seconds:

“AARRRHHGGGH, don’t just stand there you fools, get him” he shouted out to thugs, as the first one reached him he swung a club towards Richard’s arm as a bone wreaking sound was heard. Still, he held on without shouting in pain, to them he looked like a monster.

The thugs had seen him run around and never took him seriously, but his endurance was on another level. Taking another hit to the hand, it fell weakly as he curled over to protect the drugs as he took the beatings from chains, clubs and blunt objects. Being too weak to hold on to the drugs as he just spat out blood and could barely see, he knew no one would intervene even the police as these were the top thugs in the area, the police had been bought a long time ago.

“Hahaha, look at how pathetic he is” Smith laughed as he took the medicine from his grip easily this time but with a little resistance.

“Seems like you do drugs oh great captain” Smith said as he covered his mouth in feign shock “wow, I never knew you would stoop this low to get such drugs, and knowing you I would assume you stole the cash to get these” he said as he took out the syrup

“Hmmm this looks tasty, but unfortunately I don’t do drugs” he said as he uncapped the drug and began pouring it slowly in front of Richard who could only struggle to put his arm to rescue any amount;

“Noooooo, please stop, I am sorry have mercy” Richard mumbled weakly as he looked on, even though he couldn’t see properly anymore he kept on looking as he tried to savor any amount. Smith laughed as he saw this pathetic effort and continued to pour it, on his palm was the white syrup that had began to mix with blood and sand.

Taking out another drug, this one was a capsule as he took them out and opened it pouring out the powder content in it on him as he laughed, tears poured down Richard’s face as he saw the image of his sick mother smiling as she looked at him.

Taking out the last drug this time that were a ground of capsules Smith popped them out as he ground it to powder on the floor then put it in the concoction in the boy’s palm “this should stamp our differences in your head as I don’t expect you to even put yourself on my level, you’d always remain beneath” he said as he dusted his hands and stamped on his head bruising it to the ground;

“Hey you” he called out to one of the thugs as he started to walk back to the car:

“Make him drink it”