Chapter 5 – Defiance

“Your face looks like a rotten peach.”

Willard smacked Ged. “He’s already suffering, have some empathy.”

“Sorry,” said Ged. “You sure you’re good, though?”

“Yeah,” said Lewiht. “A broken rib and a face that looks like a granny’s ass. I’m fantastic.”

“How many granny asses have you seen?” asked Ged, and they all walked to school laughing.

All the discontent between him and Ged was gone when Lewiht met with him and Willard yesterday for the first time since that incident. It has been a week since his father beat him, and he has been slowly recovering. He had a concussion and one of his ribs was broken. The symptoms of concussion had gone away mostly, but he still felt a lot of pain breathing—it felt like his broken rib was stabbing his lungs with each breath. Still, he was taking short and frequent breaths, which helped a lot with the pain. The bruises on his face were mostly gone, and the ones remaining had turned yellow.

He had been away from the school for the past week and this was his first day coming back. He had met Ged and Willard yesterday in a café, but other than that, he remained in his room all the time, with his mother on his side. His mother was mostly fine, as he luckily settled with only a slap for his mom.

“How are you feeling?” asked Ged, as they made their way through the streets of Zylos.

“I already told you I’m fi—“

“No, not your body. How are you feeling?”

“I…” Lewiht paused for a moment. He felt like… shit. Not because of his wounds, he didn’t care about those much. He felt like shit because he was powerless. He couldn’t do anything against that asshole. He couldn’t even lift a single finger when his mother got slapped. Lewiht’s stomach tightened and a burst of emotions rose inside of him. “I want him dead. I want him dead for what he’s done to mom!”

He couldn’t hold those emotions inside, and tears flowed down his cheeks.

“It’s okay man,” said Ged, putting his hand over his friend’s shoulder. “Let it all out.”

***

When they entered the classroom, everybody’s eyes were set on him, as he had already expected. This wasn’t the first time Lewiht got beaten by his drunk dad, so even though most students looked curious, they were not surprised. Lewiht had also scolded them before when they tried to show him sympathy, thinking that they were just trying to keep a good relationship with Togan Teremon’s brother, or trying to learn who had the balls to beat his brother, and not actually caring about his well being. Maybe Ged was right, though. Maybe they were being nice just because they cared for him.

Still, his old scoldings made a lot of the students wary of approaching him now. Except for Arabel.

“Are you okay?” She quickly ran to him. “What happened? Was it the principal’s son?”

Lewiht smiled as he saw Arabel’s cute, worried face. But before he could say anything, Ged stepped between the two and raised both his hands. “Hey, hey, let the man at least sit down first. I’ll tell you everything.”

Lewiht threw Ged an annoying look, but then walked to his seat.

“So,” Ged started to talk when Lewiht sat, the whole classroom listening to him. “We were going through this really dark alley behind Telmor’s bar, me and my bud Lewiht. It was around midnight and there was no one around, until four drunk men, their muscles as thick as a log, blocked our way and demanded money from us! Lewiht, being Lewiht, cursed at their mothers, and they got pissed! They didn’t know who Lewiht was, so they attacked us! You should’ve seen those drunks’ faces, though. They were even in worse shape than this guy’s.”

“Why is only Lewiht hurt, then?” Arabel asked. “You are perfectly fine.”

“Well…”

“Because,” said Lewiht. “He turned tail and ran like a little chicken.”

Ged stared at Lewiht, then hung his head. “Yeah,” he said, clearly disappointed for getting called a chicken.

Most of the class didn’t believe in Ged’s story of course, but Arabel still treated Lewiht like a war veteran, which Lewiht would’ve enjoyed if it wasn’t for his wounds. He was fine at first, but as the day progressed, he felt worse. His teachers insisted he’d go home, but he knew his father was not working today, so he decided to stay at least after school ended.

After school, he accompanied Ged and Willard home. They both insisted on accompanying him home, but Lewiht made sure he was okay and could walk home by himself. Plus, there was a cool breeze in the air which eased Lewiht’s breathing a lot. He did not want to see his father, so combined with the nice weather, he decided to take a little detour. He saw some law enforcers on one of the streets and he didn’t want to get questioned because of his appearance—which happened a few times this morning already—so he made the mistake of entering an alley to evade them.

He was in the middle of the alley when heard someone yelling behind him. “Teremon!”

Lewiht turned around to see four boys at the entrance of the alley. One of them was, of course, the principal’s son whom he had argued with before. The other three were not as big, but it was clear that they were older than Lewiht.

“You know, I was going to beat the hell out of you, but it looks like someone already took care of that!” The guy’s vile laugh filled the empty alley.

Lewiht’s shoulders tightened—he knew he couldn’t outrun them in his current state. None of them looked like they were here to have a conversation. Fuck you, Ged. He remembered the story Ged told in class. You jinxed it.

“I’m gonna be honest, Teremon.” The guy stepped closer. “As I said, I was really planning to beat you after all you’ve done that day in the cafeteria. But then I saw your miserable state today and when I was following you I thought, maybe we could work something out, and he doesn’t need to be beaten again!”

“Cut the crap and tell me what you want,” said Lewiht. His heart was going to beat out of his chest, but he somehow found enough courage to sound like he had no fears.

The guy let another foul laugh. “You have balls, Lewiht Teremon, I’ll give you that. You see, I did my research this past week and learned that you are quite prideful. I learned that you hate being compared to your brother. So let’s not pretend like you have any powers here. We both know you’re too prideful to use your brother’s name to threaten me, and we both know that you can’t do shit against me in a fight.

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“Are you here just to blabber?” Lewiht had no plans to oblige him, but he at least wanted to make him talk while he checked the alley for something that he could use to his advantage. “Tell me what you want already.”

“You’re going to have your brother recruit me to the Falcons.”

This guy is really an idiot.

He could easily lie by saying something like “Sure I’ll talk to him” to get away from this. Part of him wanted to do that. Nobody wanted to get their asses kicked after all. However, he remembered his mother’s bruised face. He remembered how he couldn’t do anything to stop his father. He remembered how weak he was. He had to be strong. His hands were trembling and he could feel his heart beating in his throat, but he still mustered the courage to put a crooked smile on his face. “Did you really spend those last, two poor brain cells in your brain to plan this?”

The guy’s breathing got noisy, and his lips curled into a thin line. “I give you one last chance, Teremon.”

“Well,” Lewiht said, his eyes fixed on a trash bin nearby. “Falcon’s are independent of Kel’daras, my brother has no power over them. He might have a lot of power in Kel’daras, but Falcons have their own management ranks.”

“Too bad, then,” the guy said and cracked his knuckles. “Boys.”

All four of the boys started to get closer, trying to encircle him. Lewiht slowly stepped back towards the trash bin without being too obvious. Luckily, the principal’s son was a bit too arrogant and he charged him first, alone. Lewiht picked up the lid of the trash bin and swung it. He hit the principal’s son right in the nose, but his broken rib stabbed into his chest and he screamed in pain. But his scream was cut short as one of the other boys kicked him to the ground.

Lewiht already couldn’t breathe well, but when one of the boys sat on his chest and began to punch him over and over, he started to suffocate. He desperately tried to inhale some air between the punches, but he couldn’t.

“Stop!” The principal’s son yelled. Lewiht finally tried to breathe, but his nose was full of blood and he accidentally inhaled some, which went straight into his throat and made him cough blood. He took a few mouthful breaths when the guy on top of him stood up, but the principal’s son quickly took his place instead, and pinned Lewiht’s chest to the ground with his knee, agonizing him even more. Blood dripped on Lewiht’s face—the guy’s nose was also bleeding from Lewiht’s attack.

“Look, you bastard!” He grabbed Lewiht’s middle finger and bent it slightly. “I’m a merciful guy! You either start to beg right now, or I’ll break your finger!”

Lewiht didn’t say anything. Instead, he used his last strength to pull a crooked smile again with his bloodied teeth. He wasn't going to give him the opportunity to say he made Togan Teremon’s brother beg.

“I said beg!”

He punched Lewiht with his free hand, but Lewiht didn’t stop smiling.

“Beg!”

He punched him again. Lewiht was still smiling.

“Beg you son of a bitch, beg!”

He punched him again, but Lewiht could see the desperation in the guy’s eyes. He didn’t have the balls to break his finger. He smiled defiantly once more. He smiled after every punch until the guy realized he couldn’t make Lewiht do anything. He and his boys kicked Lewiht a few more times, but they eventually left. There, Lewiht lay in silence, looking at the orange sky of dusk. He was bleeding everywhere and he couldn’t even lift a finger but felt stronger than he ever felt.

He begged me to beg, thought Lewiht, smiling as his consciousness was fading away. And I even managed to broke his nose.

***

It was already dark when Lewiht woke up in the alley. He had hoped for someone to find him, to wake up in his bed with his mom on his side, but the reality wasn’t always that convenient. His entire body was sore and his mouth felt like he chewed a mouthful of cotton. The blood on his face was coagulated, making Lewiht feel like something was stretching his skin.

He slowly got on his feet but fell over after a few steps. His body was screaming in pain, but Lewiht got up again and exited the alley. The lanterns on the street were lit, but there was no one around—it was probably past midnight.

His house wasn’t too far, so he clenched his teeth and put one foot in front of the other. He fell over many times but somehow found the strength to get up every single time. He saw a lot of drunk and homeless people on the way until he arrived at Noble’s Hill, but none of them cared about him. Outside of his school, his face wasn’t known and even if it was, nobody would recognize him with in bloodied state right now.

When he entered the Noble’s Hill district, he stumbled upon a night patrol, who helped him get home. The soldier wanted to take him to a hospital but Lewiht didn’t want that—he just wanted to get to his bed and sleep. If the guy knew who he was, he would’ve probably taken him to a hospital anyway, but Lewiht didn’t tell him his name or surname.

Eventually, they arrived at the front gate of his home and Lewiht tipped the soldier by giving all of his pocket money.

“I can accompany you to the front door too if you’d like.”

“No,” said Lewiht. “I’ll handle it from here. Thank you so much.”

The soldier left and Lewiht entered the garden, making his way to the door with small steps. He could see light coming through the windows, his mom was probably still awake. He knocked on the door and surprisingly, saw his father opening the door.

“Where the hell have yo—“ He paused when he saw Lewiht. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Lewiht wanted to go to his room but his father stopped him.

“Lewiht!” Her mom cried, running down the stairs. “Oh my poor baby! What happened?”

She attempted to check on him, but his father stopped her too with his bulky arm. “I said what happened, you little shit.”

Lewiht didn’t need to smell his breath to know that he was drunk again.

“Got into a fight, nothing serious. Just let me go.”

“I will decide whether it is serious or not! Tell me!”

“Korw please!” his mother yelled. “He’s hurt, look at him!”

“Shut up!” Korw yelled. “Who did this? Tell me their name, I’ll have them guillotined!”

“A seventeen-year-old boy,” Lewiht said and smiled as he did during the fight. “As you can see, he beat me better than you did.”

“You son of a…”

Korw stepped towards him, but his wife held his arm. “Please don’t Korw! Please I’m begging—“

Korw smacked Lewiht’s mother. She fell and hit her head on the railings of the stairs. She didn’t move.

“Mom!”

Before Lewiht could do anything, his father grabbed him by the neck and pinned him against the wall opposite the door.

“You will learn to hold your tongue against me, you hear me you piece of shit?” Korw started to strangle him.

It was the same. He was in the same situation as before. His mom was hurt and he was again too weak to do anything about it. As his brain got deprived of oxygen, his world slowly darkened. And I thought I was strong for a second. He pinned me like I’m some kind of toy. I’m good for nothing. I’m too weak. I’m sorry mom, I’m too weak.

His consciousness was fading away yet again when he thought of something.

He pinned me. He pinned me against the wall. The wall opposite the door.

Lewiht gathered every ounce of his anger and raised his hand to grab the frame hanging on the wall. He ripped it out of its nail and smashed it on Korw’s head, shattering the glass and the wood.

He was finally free of his grab. Korw was bleeding from the head, down to one knee. The frame was shattered and Togan’s ornate dagger gift was just standing there, waiting to be grabbed.

Korw held his bleeding head. “You little bastard, you split my head!”

Lewiht’s breath was bursting out of anger, fear, and… anticipation. When he saw his father was getting up, he grabbed the dagger and unsheathed it.

“Look at this!” Korw said, laughing like a maniac. “My son is going to kill me?”

As his father got closer, Lewiht swung the dagger, splitting Korw’s forearm open. He screamed in pain and dropped down to his knees.

However, Lewiht didn’t stop. He stepped closer to his father with small, stumbling steps, blood dripping off his dagger. His father’s eyes were wide open, and couldn't believe what his son just did. However, there was also disbelief in the same eyes. He still didn’t believe his son could kill him.

That was Korw Teremon’s last mistake in his life.

Lewiht stabbed him in the throat. The hot blood gushing out of his father’s jugular painted Lewiht’s body in crimson.

He could see the remorse in his father’s eyes in his last moments. But Lewiht didn’t feel anything. His father didn’t feel remorse when he beat his mom. He didn’t feel remorse when he tried to kill his own son. Why would he feel anything?

Lewiht collapsed backward, leaning against the wall. He looked at his father’s corpse with empty eyes, his breath shallow and rapid.

“I did it,” he whispered. “I did it, mom. I killed my father. He’s finally dead.”

Then he buried his face in his hands and cried.