THE ONE

Augustine pov.

I was fast asleep on the floor when a bucket of cold water was emptied on my body. Immediately I rose.

My eyes caught a glimpse of his, he was furious.

“What are you still doing there? Get up on your feet and get back to work. Unless you want to starve, I advise you to do as I say,” my boss hissed as he walked out of the room.

I managed to get on my two left feet. Still feeling lightheaded, I staggered towards the door.

My name is Augustine, that's as far as I can remember.

I was found by some group of mercenaries who sold me off to my boss.

Ever since that day, my life has been miserable, he treated me like I'm nothing. Even his pets are taken care of better than me.

For the past ten years of my life here, I would say I only experienced pain rather than love.

I worked in his kitchen and in the bar, all I do is serve food, serve drinks, and washed the dishes when the sink is filled with dirty dishes.

There was one thing I hated though, that was how some customers behaved. A few of them were violent, and they liked to abuse the workers.

I have been abused by them before, beaten to a bloody pulp for no reason.

But I had no choice, I had to do it, or else I may not be able to eat.

As I served another random customer his meal, I noticed something strange about him, so after I was done, I immediately made my way to the kitchen, but he called me back. “Hey, you, come back here,” he demanded.

I froze.

Then slowly I turned towards him. “Yes, sir, how can I be of help to you?” I politely asked, keeping my distance from him.

He looked at me with a strange look on his face. “Huh, you mean you didn't notice this?” He pointed to his plate.

I hesitated, “Notice what, sir?”

“Come closer and I will show it to you,” he said.

I swallowed hard, shaking in fear as I slowly approached his table, but when I got there, he yanked my hair and shoved my face into his plate of food.

The customers in the restaurant laughed at me.

I even heard him laughing. Deep down I was angry, my fist clenched in rage, but I kept my cool despite everything.

Then he pushed me to the floor. “Get out of my sight, you pig,” he spat on me.

Then my boss walked in on me. “What happened here?” my boss asked the customer.

“It is your good-for-nothing waiter, he served me the wrong dish. When I asked him to return it, he slipped and spilled it all over the place,” the customer lied.

I heard his words from my end, and for some reason I was scared, but I wasn't surprised because that's what most of them did.

My boss knew about it, he knew that most of his customers were criminals, and he knew they were liars, but for some reason, he always entertained their bad behavior.

I saw the eyes of my boss, he was angry, and I knew what was going to happen after that. “I'm genuinely sorry, sir,” my boss apologized.

“No problem really, I will pay for it,” the customer insisted, but my boss refused.

After their conversation, my boss took me to a corner at the back of the restaurant.

When we got there, just like I predicted, he pulled out a long iron rod and hit me with it.

The pain was so intense that I immediately fell to the ground, rolling and crying in pain.

“You brat, I fed you and picked you up off the streets, and this is how you repay me? All I ask is for you to be a good servant and do as you are told,” Again he raised his hands against me.

As the beating continued, something inside of me broke. I endured everything crawled to a corner as he viciously beat the living crap out of me.

When he was done, he dropped the rod on my head and left.

There I was, injured and bleeding, with broken bones and unable to move. I dragged myself to the wall of the building.

Then the weather changed, and rain began to fall.

I knew I couldn't go inside because as punishment he usually locks us outside to sleep after beating us up.

Is this how I am going to end? Those I met here ran away, and those that came after me did the same, I'm the only person here.

That's it, tonight I will run away and exact my revenge on him.

So that night, I tore some parts of my cloth and used them to tie those parts of my body that were bleeding.

Then I picked up the same rod he used on me and slowly walked into the passageway, I knew he would be in his office.

So I went there.

As the door slowly opened, there he was, sitting on his chair.

As he saw me, he tried to intimidate me, but as soon as he saw what I was holding, he panicked and reached for his table.

He pulled out a gun.

Before I could react, he pulled the trigger on me.

My eyes widened in shock. Is this how I'm going to die, a slave?

Just as the bullet hit my chest, the force of the bullet threw my body against the wall, the impact was so intense that the wall broke.

I landed on the floor in the restaurant where some people were eating and drinking.

Immediately they saw me, they all panicked.

Then my boss walked out from his office through the space on the wall. “You will pay for this with your life.” He reloaded his gun and pointed it at me.

But somehow I was able to escape his second bullet.

That was when it occurred to me that I wasn't bleeding from the first shot.

Maybe he missed.

I hid behind a table. I could hear his footsteps approaching me. I could see his shadow from my end stretching towards me.

He is getting closer.

Then another bullet shattered through the table, with some pieces of wood making their way into my eyes.

The force of the impact sends me flying across the room, and this time I felt something piercing into my flesh.

I knew I was hit by his bullet, there was no doubt about it.

As everyone in the restaurant ran to and fro screaming, yelling and distressed, my boss walked over my body with his gun on my head. He squatted over my body.

Moments before he pulled the trigger, I summoned the courage and covered the pinhole of the gun with my palm.

Today, no matter what, I must regain my freedom.

Then I heard the gun going off.