1st Person

Wondering the streets of Birmingham, I realised something very important. I was in the past...yes I know, ‘Duh you fucking idiot’ but it finally began to sink in. Dirt and soot were indistinguishable from one another and every person I saw had at least a little on their person. It was on their, their clothes, their shoes, and their faces. These people looked horrible...oppressed...scared. It was sad actually. It wasn’t until I saw 3 boys huddled together in an alley did I stop my sight seeing. They were cold and shivering. Walking towards them, the moment they noticed me, I could see the fear in their eyes.

“Why are you out here alone? Where are your family?” 2 of the boys cowered in fear and put their head down, but one of them, the oldest looked me in the eyes. I could see the fear in his own, but I could also see the determination. I could tell this boy wanted to protect the other two no matter what.

“We...we don’t have a family. They died in the war.”...orphans. Real ones, unlike me who is only using it as an excuse. Honestly, it makes me feel kinda shitty, kids being orphaned is relevant now more than ever thanks to the war and I’m using the title like some kind of badge of honor.

“What are your names? How old are you?”

“I’m Tim and I’m 15.” the lead boy said. Black hair, green eyes, and dirty clothes with holes in them. There was even a large long street of soot on his cheek. The other boys seemed to have gained some confidence since their older brother was talking to me peacefully.

“My names Dustin, I just turned 14 this month.” the second tallest boy spoke. He shared his brothers black hair and green eyes, though his clothes looked a little better than the elder for some reason.

“I-I’m Carter...12.” the youngest spoke out from behind Tim.”

They’re older than I thought, which means they are smaller than they are supposed to be. Mild malnutrition? ...How the hell am I gonna help these kids. Whoever sent me here gave me these fancy ass clothes and a gun but no money. Wait, how the hell am I gonna help myself?! I have no money!

“I’m Michael. Nice to meet you boys but if you sit here, you’ll freeze to death. You have to get your bodies moving to produce heat.”

“This ain’t our first night on the streets, we know...we just don’t have nowhere to go anymore. We refuse to go back to that damn orphanage.” Tim spat with hate. Well there’s a story there if I’ve ever seen one.

“Doesn’t matter where you go, but you can’t sit still. How about you come with me?”

“Come with you where?” asked Dustin. I laughed and shrugged at his question.

“I don’t know, I’m an orphan too, I’m just wandering the streets right now. The destination doesn’t matter though as long as I’m not freezing to death.” The boys look at me skeptically and it takes a while for me to understand why. I don’t look like an orphan. In fact, I look pretty well off. My fancy clothes, shoes, and hair probably paints me as a wall taken care of kid.

“...Sure, it doesn’t matter where, but I’m tired of sitting here doing nuthin anyways.” Tim says with a smile. It seems they were not taught the rule ‘Don’t talk to strangers’. Well, it’s not like I’m planning on doing them any harm anyway, still though.

“Yea!” Dustin agreed and I got a slight head nod from Carter. We had nowhere to go, we had no food to eat, but we did have fun. 36 isn’t old, it’s more middle aged, but it’s been a while since my body could move so freely. We ran, tackled each other, dared one another to flirt with girls around the town, and had a good time. The fun distracted us from our hungry bellies and dire situation. I know I shouldn’t like it, but acting like a snot nosed brat was the best time I’ve had in a very long time.

It wasn’t until night came that the fun came to an end. As we were passing an alley were heard crying and yelling.

Everything seems to happen in alleys around here, why are there so many anyway?

Obviously we couldn’t just mind our own business and walk away so we took a peak and didn’t like what we saw. A girl was on her knees, tears in her eyes, and a man with a satisfied smirk on his face started pulling up his pants.

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“I don’t owe you shit bitch.” the man said, fixing his trousers.

“You fucking promised! Please! I need this money!” the lady yelled at the man. This didn’t look like a good situation. I noticed from the corner of my eye, Tim tightening in fist in a ball, almost shaking. I was kinda surprised they didn’t start bleeding from the way he was shaking and gritting his teeth.

He’s a good kid.

“Well next time if you do a better job sucking my cock instead of complaining I might pay you.” he then laughs, the fucker laughs. “Might. Your pussy was to loose for 20 Pence anyway. I wanted a quick fuck, not a sob story about how you’re too good to do things like this and how ‘this is only for now’. Fuck off, a whore is a whore, you’re no better than any other one. In fact, all of the good ones live in the brothels, that just proves you’re actually worse than the norm.”

Honestly my body moved on its own. Running up behind the asshole, he hears my footsteps and turns to see my fist flying into his face.

Well I really wasn’t trying to be sneaky anyway.

The man’s head snaps to the right and while he’s in shock, I hit him with another hook. He stumbles back a bit but he seems to finally get his bearings as his eyes fill with rage.

“You shitty kid!” he goes for a swing that I barely was able to dodge by moving backwards and moves to go for another. However before he could throw another punch Tim and Dustin crash into the fatass, making him tumble and fall. Without hesitation I jump in and start to kick the old man in the gut. It caught me by surprise when I saw the 12 year old little Carter begin punching the man in the face with a smile.

….something might be wrong with that kid.

“Carter stop for now, we need him conscious.” he looks at me for a second in clear contemplation on whether he should continue anyway. He eventually decides to listen though and nods in my direction. Even with this, he still gives the pig one last kick in the face before stepping back. The man groans in pain.

Something definitely wrong with that kid.

I turn towards the woman who looks borderline traumatised and give her a gentle smile. For some reason, I could physically see her body relax a tad, though she was still scared.

Oi lady, aren’t you a little too trusting? I know we’re technically kids, but you just saw us jump a grown man without any explanation. You should probably still be a bit more cautious. You don’t even know if we’re actually here to help you or not.

“How much did he owe you ma’am?”

“...20 Pence.” I try not to let a frown show on my face.

20 Pence? That’s like 20 cents right? That’s all? Oh wait, it’s 1919! Is this around the time where people could buy entire meals for a quarter?! I remember some old people talking about something like that when I was young. Maybe 20 Pence is actually a lot?

“Carter, rummage through his pockets and see if he has his wallet on him.” I order, and Carter does so without hesitation this time. He finds the wallet and throws it to me. Catching it, I opened it up to see...british money.

Why the hell is the Pound so damn long? Like there’s no reason for money to be this damn big, it barely even fits in the wallet.

The fucker only carried 3 dolla-, I mean Pounds on him. Luckily there's some coins in a little pouch and I take out a small coin. Luckily it literally says ‘20 Pence’ engraved or we would have an awkward situation. I flip the coin towards her and she catches it.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

“Emily!” she answers with a smile on her face, looking at the coin. I look down at the barely conscious idiot and give him a light kick that causes another groan.

“Listen up you son of a bitch, Emily here is under the protection of the Corleone Famiglia. From now on, if you fucking want her service, then you better damn well pay. You understand?” I get a small nod and I turn back to the lady. She was cute, long brown hair, hazel eyes, cute rump. She looked to be in her mid 20’s, possibly pushing 30.

Hey hey hey, isn’t this kind of a perfect opportunity? I need money, she needs protection, it looks like a mutually beneficial relationship. Now that I think about it, if she’s not good enough for a brothel, who is? Obviously I’m not planning on paying for sex, I could get that shit for free, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious.

“I’m sorry you had to see that dear, but from now on, if you have any problems find us and we’ll handle it for you. I’m Michael and they are Tim, Dustin, and Carter.”

“Oh um...thank you!” she says with a blush. Well ain’t she adorable.

“Are there any other meetings you have to attend tonight?” She hesitantly nods. “Well leave it up to us to protect you and make sure customers pay. I swear not a single person will harm you.”

“Are you sure…?” she asks looking down at the pig who lost consciousness. “I don’t usually do this, I just need money for this month, that’s all. I swear.” Whoa lady, you don’t need to defend yourself to me. I’m just here to start my business in the Underworld. Wait, isn’t prostiution still legal at this point? I mean, there’s brothels right? I guess I’m just trying to be an honest businessman.

“Of course, you are under the protection of the Corleone, we treat women with respect and make sure others do the same.”

That night we went around protecting Emily as she went to work and making sure that anyone who was pleased actually paid. We raised the price from 20 Pence to 50 and agreed on the half and half split. At the end of the night, we made 2 Pounds and gave one to Emily. I say ‘gave’ even though she’s the one who did all the work but she seemed to appreciate it anyway. I was actually very surprised at first on how few were willing to pay something like 50 Pence for sex with a relatively attractive women.

It wasn’t until an interaction with a customer that I was truly understand the value of money. The guy didn’t have enough money to actually pay for Emily and so asked his friends to pitch in like it was one of the most natural things in the world. They said sure and 2 of the guys pulls on 10 pence while the guy who was actually gonna fuck her handled the other 30.

“Next time it’s my turn to get the whore.” one of the dirty men covered in soot said. “She must be quite something if she’s so expensive.” Expensive? Really? Tim told me with the 4 Pound we had, we could live without worry for about a week. 2 if they are careful with it. 2 weeks...with only 4 pounds. How the hell did this make any sense?!

Nonetheless we found out that Emily lived alone and so asked if we could stay with her for a bit. At first she was wary but after we told her about our sad back story and how we lost our parents to the war she caved. It turns out that’s how she lost her husband the same way and she’s finally running out of her savings.

That Italian guy I have to fight later was so right, it is all about the war with these people.