The boss readied his fist. He had a huge smirk plastered on his face even though he got a beating. The kick he received on the side must've been hard because it showed on the way he stood, but still, he approached the sweaty boy in front of him with confidence.

The boy panted and knelt on one knee. Some of his messy brown hair stuck to his scalp and his clothes were dirty. Behind him was a terrified girl who cowered in fear.

The sight made some of the gangsters chuckle, but only the boss approached them.

'Is that all you got?' he asked, the smirk never left his face.

The boy stood up, still panting. The girl who was behind him gasped when he stood up.

'That wasn't even the beginning,' he replied.

'No, Hunter, he'll hurt you!'

'So what?' he looked back at her and asked.

More of the gangsters laughed and their boss joined them.

'Yeah, you better listen to her. I'll hurt you, you know. You can't go back to your mother that way, right?'

The gangsters' laughter just got louder, however, their leader silenced them by raising his hands in the air. His face contorted to an ugly frown.

'Too bad I don't forgive people. There's no escape.'

The girl covered her mouth with her hands and tears dropped from her eyes. The panting boy in front of her clenched his fist.

Surprisingly, he smiled.

###

Dennis said he arranged everything, but he didn't arrange anything. The only thing they did differently was that Dennis' elder sister drove them to the station. It took the good ol' 10 minutes it was known for and the train would obviously take the good ol' 30mins everybody knew.

Before that though, Dennis, his sister and Mark had an interesting conversation in the car.

'I don't get the difference, Dennis,' his 23 years old sister said. 'You could've just hired a taxi.'

'Valerie, it's just a way to make him feel more like I made a difference,' Dennis whispered from beside her.

'Well, I doubt he's fooled,' she replied. She reached out for the rear-view mirror above and lowered a little to steal a glimpse of Mark in the backseat. 'Mark, isn't it?' She fixed back the mirror. 'Sorry you have to deal with the hassle Dennis' brain causes.'

'I'm a well-behaved boy!'

'Oh, it's fine, really. Thanks for having me.'

'I doubt you're fooled.'

' Dennis always tried impressing me, but he's too bad at it.'

Dennis turned around on his seat and looked at Mark with a frown.

'I try my best!'

'Then don't try harder. There's no point.'

Valerie chuckled. 'To be honest, it's hard knowing who is older.'

'Don't say that, Valerie!'

It sure was hard knowing who was older. Even though both Mark and Dennis were 16, Dennis was 5 months older than Mark. People don't usually make a big deal about that, but normally they assume that Mark was older due to a higher degree of' 'displayed maturity'.

Mark didn't feel like bickering about Dennis' density though. He wasn't in the mood because he didn't sleep properly the day before. He even found some marks on his eyelids that morning. Too bad, Dennis didn't let him take a nap after school.

Valerie drove on, bickered with her brother and laughed. Mark stayed put on the backseat to take a short nap, but his nap didn't continue for long. The car suddenly halted and Mark experienced the pull of his safety belt as his body lunged forward.

He wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say as he fixed his position in the seat again. It always felt annoying when cars did this.

'What's that for, Val?' Dennis asked.

'Can't you see it, Dennis?'

Mark moved to the side a bit, so he's not blocked by Dennis' seat. The road was blocked by the police. There was a car wreckage and some long blue bags laid around it on the floor. Yellow police stripes blocked the road and dozens of police cars were situated around the wreckage.

'An accident...?' wondered Mark.

'Probably,' answered Dennis.

One of the police officers inspecting the scene walked towards them. Valerie quickly lowered the door glass.

Once he got there he said, 'Sorry Miss, but the road's blocked.'

'I hope nobody's hurt,' Valerie said. 'It looks like a nasty piece of work there.'

'No need to worry about that. Everything's under control. Though you'll have to take an alternative route. Do you need directions?'

Valerie shook her head and smiled. 'Thanks, officer, I'm perfectly capable on my own.'

The police officer took a couple of steps backwards and said, 'Farewell, then, have a nice trip.'

Valerie pressed on the gas and they went back on the road.

'Sorry, boys,' said Valerie. 'We'll have to take the long way.'

'What?!' Dennis exclaimed. 'We might not catch the train!'

'I can't do anything about that.'

'That did look like a nasty accident,' Mark thought.

'Do you think anybody died there? The cars looked seriously damaged.'

Dennis looked back at Mark and raised a brow. 'Why would we delve in any further? The police said everything's under control.'

Mark took out his phone from his pocket. 'The police always say that.'

Valerie nodded. 'True...'

Mark searched on the maps on his phone. 'The road was blocked since yesterday,' he whispered to himself.

Why would the police close the road for a whole day for a simple car accident? The cars did look heavily damaged, but the road was closed since the day before.

'Mark's gone quiet,' Dennis whispered to his sister.

'He was always quiet,' she replied. 'You're the loud one.'

'Between them,' Mark started, 'there was a man with no uniform.'

Dennis frowned his brows. 'So..?'

'He wore a badge too, though it was too small. I couldn't figure its shape.'

'How would you notice that detail in the first place?' Dennis looked back at Mark from his seat. 'We were there for like 10 seconds only! Why are you so obsessed with watching like that?'

'Do you think he was a detective of some sort?'

Dennis's face fell. 'Are yu saying it wasn't an accident?'

'I'm not saying anything,' Mark said. 'I'm only thinking.'

'Actually,' Valerie started, 'A rumor was spreading recently.'

'Eh?' Dennis said.

'Just,' Valeri bit her lower lip, 'just don t tell anybody, Ok?'

Dennis nodded. 'A rumor can't be something you don't tell people about, though.'

'They say a gang's roaming around town. They probably aren't planning on staying for long but, they're doing some shady business, maybe drugs and stuff. They're maybe blamed for some of the murder cases you read in the paper these days, though that's only a rumor.'

'It's quite funny the rumor has that much detail. Why aren't we hearing of this in the news?' Mark asked.

'You said it yourself, Mark,' said Valerie. 'The police always say everyhting is alright, but I just told you right? It's just a rumor. If it was authentic news, then the press would've found a thing or two on this, and made sure to spread it. Well, regardless, whether there is a drug trading gang in town or not, if any shady person approaches you, just say no.'

###

In the end, they missed the train. The trip to the station took an extra 15 minutes using the long way, and Dennis admitted they didn't have that much time when they took off, anyway.

Mark only facepalmed at his behaviour as Dennis spoke with his sister on the phone. They stood beside a pillar in the station so that they don't disturb the traffic. Yhe station was full for a reason or another.

Dennis finished his phone call and sighed. 'Valerie left us, and she's not planning on coming back.'

'I don't blame her really,' Mark said. 'Can't we take another train?'

Dennis shook his head. 'Next train to Juneborn is an hour and a half later. We'll definitely miss the movie that way.'

'Why didn't you just buy a ticket two weeks ago for the cinema here?'

'I wasn't quick enough...' He trailed on.

That was a valid reason. Kornwell city was a small city by all means. It had one theatre, and it couldn't actually cater all the Space Raiders enthusiasts in the city.

Dennis stood straight and faced Mark. 'So, since our plans for today were utterly ruined, how about I treat you to lunch?'

Mark shrugged. 'Whatever...'

Dennis took out his phone. 'Let's see which junkfood restaurants are around. I'm not really familiar with this place. Hope Valerie will come and pick us up later.'

Mark stole a glance from Deniss's phone and saw him searching in online maps of the region. It would probably take some extra time, so Mark scanned the station to find any free bench or some comfortable place he could sleep on, but they were all either occupied or too far away. He noticed how full the station was. He didn't leave Kornwell city that many times before in the past, but he remembered well it wasn't that crowded in the past three times he came to the station.

'Probably because it's a weekend?'

Mark gave up on finding a place he could lie at and sighed.

'I'm leaving to the toilet,' he told Dennis.

Dennis's frowned and tore his gaze from his phone to look at Mark. 'It's called the loo, the loo,' he whispered furiously at Mark.

'Nobody cares, Dennis,' he replied with a flat face and an exhausted voice.

Mark bumped with a police officer when he took his first few steps.

'Sorry,' he said.

The officer turned to Mark as if he didn't notice what happened. 'Careful, lad...'

'Yes, sir.'

When the officer left, a thought occurred to him. Were there more officers than there should be? If there were, then it might have something to do with the rumour Valerie told them about in the car. The police might've already caught wind of the gang staying in Kornwell city. It was debatable, of course, if they were really selling crack, but that didn't matter to him that much.

'Dennis,' he said.

'Hmm...?' Dennis didn't look away from his phone.

'Look around. Do you think there are more police officers than there should be? You come to this station often, right?'

'Why should we care?' he asked in a monotonous, low voice.

'It might have something to do with what your sister told us in the car.'

'Hmm...?' he raised his head a bit and scanned the station quickly before returning to his smart phone. 'You're probably right, but I don't think it should concern us, unless you're interested in trading marijuana. Oh God, there are too many options. This place is junkfood haven!'

'Forget it. Just wait for me until I come back.'

'Ok...'

The thought made him want to cry.

He heard from his classmates at school. They said there were too many special effects, they make a person believe that stuff is real.

Dennis wanted to find a restaurant as fast as possible, something to make Mark forget what happened, but Dennis noticed that even though he knew Mark for almost three years, he didn't know if he believeed McDonald's was for kids and prefered Burger king instead or not.

Mark didn't say anything, but Dennis was certain believed he was an airhead.

'I'll just ask him what he wants later,' he thought.

Dennis scanned the station for a place to sit on, but found most of them were full. He didn't bother searching any further. If there was any bench to sit on, Mark would've occupied it long ago. Instead, he slumped at the column behind him and watched the station for fun.

Sure, he did notice something interesting.

Mark asked him if there were more coppers than there should, and he didn't bother, but now he noticed it. Why were there officers checking the passengers leaving the trains? There were also a couple of them talking to the lady giving out the train timetables.

'I should tell Mark later. Maybe he won't be as mad now that I've played along with his detective game.'

Even though it piqued his interest a little, he didn't plan on delving any further. Police job is police job.

So he continued staring at the station, but he got annoyed quickly. It was too crowded to find something interesting.

'Maybe I should make up a plan before Mark comes back?'

He was certainly favouring him for junkfood, but there were a lot of restaurants around the station. He should make a quick guess.

That was when an alarm went off.

###

He hated it when it happened. It already happened twice before, so he knew the feeling. He tried to breathe slowly and steadily, maybe the headache would leave, but it didn't, and the nausea was so strong that he couldn't focus on his breathing properly.

That happened when he saw blood.

What he saw was way worse than just blood.

In front of the cowering and crying girl in front of Mark was a mutilated body. Its guts were ripped off, as if the perpetrator dug well inside and threw them around it, splattering the bathroom's walls and stalls doors with blood. Then there was the face that looked too damaged that it didn't look like one.

His heartbeat increased each second and the vertigo made him want to throw up. Mark bent down and knelt on his knees.

It was all out of his control.

Then it turned blank.