2026-05-19 15:01:26My fist slammed into his face before even I realized what I had done and if I am being honest, it felt good, because for far to long, these rich kids had treated the likes us me like trash and we were always afraid to fight them back. One phone call and they will destroy us.
Don’t get me wrong, I was still intimidated and slightly afraid, but at least I have bail money.
A sharp crack echoed through the rainy street as the rich kid stumbled backward violently, crashing against the side of a parked car. His friends froze instantly, their previous laughter dying in their throats.
For one second… the entire world became silent, that’s what it felt like. Even the rain seemed to stop as I stared at my trembling fist in disbelief.
The rich boy touched his bleeding nose slowly, staring at the blood on his fingers like his brain couldn’t process what had just happened.
“You fucking bastard!” his expression twisted and he charged at me immediately.
His fist slammed into my jaw hard enough to make my vision blur, sending me stumbling backward onto the wet pavement. Pain exploded across my face, but before I could recover, his friends joined in. And I expected that.
A kick struck my ribs, another hit landed against my shoulder and the third grabbed my shirt and slammed me against the car. By now you already know that my groceries were scattered all over the wet floor.
“Trash like you think you can touch him?!” one of them shouted.
I raised my arms instinctively as punches rained down on me, yet strangely… even while getting beaten, I was smiling because my phone kept vibrating.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Balance Updated: +$100,000
Balance Updated: +$250,000
Balance Updated: +$500,000
Every burst of violence, ounce of hatred even as little as every second of chaos, the account was rewarding it.
A kick landed against my stomach, forcing air out of my lungs painfully.
“Stay down!” one of them yelled.
Instead… “Haha.” I laughed and that made them hesitate, I kinda defeated their whole aim for beating me up.
The rich boy wiped blood from his nose angrily and grabbed my collar. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” he asked furiously.
I looked directly into his eyes, I swear I wanted to rip them out, but then my phone buzzed again.
Balance Updated: +$1,000,000
I did not see that amount, but I suddenly realized something terrifying, the account didn’t just reward sin. If the situation escalated or got darker, it paid more, and that’s sick. The rich kid shoved me backward again, because I laughed at the thought of it, they were doing me a favor without knowing.
“You think this is funny?” he asked.
But I looked at him carefully now, his expensive watch, clean clothes and confidence. I had now seen first hand the kind of confidence money gives people, a kind I had spent my entire life envying.
Then suddenly… a police siren echoed faintly nearby.
“Shit, let’s go!” One of his friends panicked immediately and the rich kid glared at me one final time before spitting near my feet.
“This isn’t over.” He said, but where does he think we will meet again?
Then they quickly disappeared into the rainy night leaving me alone. My chest rose and fell heavily as I slowly reached into my pocket and pulled out the phone.
Balance Available:
$1,940,000
I stared at the number silently. It may sound a bit redundant but stay with me, less than two hours ago, I couldn’t afford noodles, now I had nearly two million dollars. And I should have felt scared like a normal person would, or at least felt guilty. But instead, I felt alive.
That realization frightened me more than the fight itself. But it was a bit too early to realize the kind of monster that I was becoming. I swallowed hard, took the phone closer to my mouth and whispered,
“What are you?”
But there was no answer, I was expecting one at least from the spirit that made this possible, I really wanted to know.
A black luxury SUV suddenly pulled up nearby, its tinted windows reflecting the neon lights around us. I barely noticed it at first because my attention remained glued to the balance on my phone screen. Until the passenger window rolled down slowly and I saw the woman who sat inside.
She was beautiful, a bit cold-looking and probably in her early twenties like me. She was putting on silver earrings and a dark red lipstick. She must have added that glossy thing that Vannesa used to because her lips alone were reflective.
“You should get in before the police arrive,” she said casually, as though we have met before.
I frowned immediately. “What?”
“You heard me.”
I took a cautious step back. “But I don’t know you.”
“No,” she replied calmly. “But I do.”
“What are you talking about?”
Her eyes drifted briefly toward the phone in my hand. then back to me.
“The account,” she said softly.
“What account?”
Instead of answering, she leaned sideways and opened the SUV door slowly. “Get in, Lawrence.”
Hearing my name from a stranger’s mouth sent a chill through my spine. “I’m not getting into some random car.”
“That random car,” she said calmly, “is the reason you’re still alive right now.”
Almost immediately, flashing police lights appeared at the end of the street.
My eyes widened and I wondered who actually called the police. The woman checked her watch lazily.
“You have maybe thirty seconds before they stop here and charge you with assault.”
She was right, I looked down at myself, bloody knuckles and bruised face. But they would only notice my poor clothes. Against rich college kids? The police wouldn’t even listen to my side, plus they already ran away.
“What do you want from me?” I asked carefully, I mean what if she was just after my phone, or the account, knowing that I now have it.
A faint smile touched her lips. “That depends,” she replied.
“On what?”
“On whether you get inside the car you dumb ass!”
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33. Messed Up Visit
The car went faster than I had ever experienced a car go on a city street. Conrad drove with both hands on the wheel and an expression I had never seen on him before, something stripped down to pure function, every ounce of his usual contained calm redirected entirely into the mechanics of getting from one place to another place as quickly as physics allowed.Abby had her phone against her ear, calling someone, her voice low and fast. I sat with my own phone still connected to the unknown caller."Are they hurting him?" I said into it. My voice did not sound like my voice. "Tell me what you know. Right now."A pause."We do not have eyes on the location," the voice said. "We have the phone call Hargreaves made. We know the call went to a number associated with a private security contractor he has used before. We do not know what instructions were given." A pause. "I am telling you this because you need to move, not because I have answers.""Why call me at all if you do not have answer
32. Messed Up Move
The session ended at eleven thirty-seven in the morning, and by the time I walked out into the estate grounds, the Sunday sky had gone from the grey of early morning to something clearer. Not warm exactly, but bright in the way that early autumn sometimes manages, the kind of light that does not promise anything but is pleasant to stand in regardless.I stood on the stone steps for a while. Conrad came and stood beside me without speaking. That was one of the things about Conrad.After a few minutes I said, "It is not over.""No," he said."Hargreaves will fight the review.""He will fight every stage of the review," Conrad agreed. "He has lawyers who have spent two decades protecting this family's business. He will use them to protect himself. The review will take months. Possibly longer." He paused. "But he is out of the council. He cannot act from the inside anymore.""He can still act from the outside," I said."Yes," Conrad said. "He can."I thought about the unknown caller. Abou
31. Messed Up Session 2
The session began at eight o'clock exactly. Nine people around the table. The same formation as Friday, the same faces, the same careful distribution of stillness and attention. But the quality of the room was different. An emergency session carries weight that a scheduled one does not. Everyone present had rearranged their Sunday morning for this, and that rearrangement had a cost they were each aware of.Hargreaves sat in his usual position. Fourth from the right. Hands folded. Celeste sat directly opposite me, as before. On the table in front of her was a document folder that was thicker than the one she had brought on Friday.Edmund Pryce opened the session."This emergency convening has been called under Article Fourteen of the founding charter," he said. "A single council member has presented evidence of a direct threat to the network's integrity. The full council is present. The blood heir is present. We proceed." He looked at Celeste. "You called the session. You have the floo
30. Messed Up Session 1
There was no real decision made about it. We simply did not sleep. Conrad made more coffee at two in the morning and then again at four, and between those two coffees we sat in Vera's back room and prepared everything that needed to be prepared for a council session that was now six hours away.Vera had a printer. We used it.Every document was printed in triplicate. The financial routing records. The pharmaceutical contract. Ashford's forensic accountant verification. Abby's independent documentation with its separate provenance chain fully annotated. And Elias's sealed letter for the record, which I chose not to open, because it was addressed to the council and I intended the council to be the ones who heard it first.Ashford arrived at five with his sister's car and a face that looked like he had managed slightly more sleep than the rest of us, which was still not much. He sat down and looked at the stack of printed documents and did not say anything for a moment.Then he said: "Th
29. Messed Up Correction
The back room of Vera's bookshop held the silence the way old buildings hold cold. Completely. Evenly. Without apology. I had the piece of paper in my hand and I was looking at Conrad and Conrad was looking at me and between us was everything the last five days had been built on, which was apparently not the foundation either of us had believed it to be.Abby read the paper over my shoulder. I heard her breath change."Conrad," I said."Yes," he said.Just yes. Not a denial. Not a deflection. Just the single word of a man who has decided that the moment for managing information has passed.I set the paper down on the table. "Elias did not die of natural causes," I said."No," Conrad said."You knew this.""Yes.""How long?"Conrad looked at the table briefly. Then back at me. "Since three days before he died," he said.The room was absolutely still. "He told you," I said."He told me," Conrad said. "He had been ill for some time. The illness was real. But the progression was being man
28. Messed Up Conrad?
They came at eleven forty-seven that night. I know the exact time because I had not slept and the clock on the nightstand was the thing I had been staring at for the last forty minutes, watching it move toward midnight because tomorrow, everything that needs to happen can happen.The door simply opened and Conrad was there, and the expression on his face was not the usual contained calm. It was still controlled but the effort required to keep it controlled was visible."Get dressed," he said. "Now. Quietly."I dressed in the dark, out of habit or instinct, pulled on the jacket with the documents still in the inside pocket, checked the black card was where I had left it, and was at my door in ninety seconds. Abby was already in the corridor. She had her bag over one shoulder and her phone in her hand and was looking toward the front door with a focused smile."How many?" I asked quietly."Two confirmed outside," Conrad said from the living room. He was at the window, standing to one si
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