บท 13: The Shake down
Leonard POV.
Leonard looked at the woman in front of him, who owed him $5000. He had brought 2 of his lackeys so they could pressure her into coughing up the money, Leonard lit up a cigarette, put it in his mouth and said "Listen up darling, it's been 5 months since you borrowed the money from my crew and the boss aint too happy about it, Ima need you to cough it back up."
Elizabeth didn't seem to have listened, but she was staring in their direction. Leonard was getting upset and raised his voice, " Hey, Are you deaf. I said You gonna have to cough up the money before we have to resort to other undesirable methods."
Elizabeth pointed towards them and said in a low voice, " Behind you,"
Leonard and the 2 goons turned their head and saw a teenager wearing a full face mask with only his eyes and mouth exposed. Leonard didn't know when he appeared behind them or how he did it without making noise, but Leonard was spooked especially looking at the glowing red eyes, but he didn't show it, People get all type of weird stuff online. " Hey, little man, you should fall back while you still can. This ain't got nothing to do with you."
Seeing the masked man unfazed and unmoved, Leaonard brought out a gun continued, " Look, I don't know what you been watching, but this is real life, that hero shit don't work here. You don't know what's going on. Plus, you are up against 3 full-grown armed men. Now I'm gonna give you 2 choices, it's either you get down or you lay down. So what's it gonna be?"
Verlin remained unresponsive. Leonard sighed. He just wanted to threaten the kid away. There was no way he was gonna use a gun in the city during peak hours. He looked at one of his goons,Derek, and said, " Straighen this motherfucker out."
Derek nodded his head and walked towards Verlin with a steel pipe, "Aye little man, Don't say we didn't warn you."
Derek came up to Verlin and tried whacking the side of his head with a steel pipe, but all this happened in slow motion in Verlin's eyes as he easily grabbed the pipe. Yanked it from Derek's hand and threw it behind him. Verlin opened his mouth and lightly blew at Derek (Pause.), and the force of the wind sent Derek flying, hitting him against the wall, instantly knocking him out.
At this point, Leonard was bamboozled. The cigarette in his mouth dropped to the ground. He pulled out his gun and pointed it towards Verlin and said, "Hey man, I think there is some sort of misunderstanding. We can talk things out. We dont have to resort to violence. "
But right in front of his eyes, the masked man disappeared. This time, Verlin really struck fear into Leonard's heart. Leonard turned his head sideways, and there was no sign of masked man around. Leonard put the gun back in his pocket and ran away from the alley. At this time, the 2nd goon and Elizabeth had long since escaped, leaving Derek unconscious in the alleyway. It was only after a couple of minutes that Leonard returned to pick him up.
Verlin POV.
When Verlin saw Elizabeth running away, he knew his job was done. Although he didn't really feel like a hero sice the person he rescued was also scared of him. He shook his head and headed back to the grocery store and appeared in the same spot he disappeared from. Rachel seemed to have expected him to reappeared as she stood in front of him with her arms crossed around her chest.
"Where did you? And where did you get that mask from?"
Verlin took off the mask and looked into her eyes and said, "I found it on the side of the road. I thought it was a shame to leave it there, so I went to pick it up."
"You must be thinking I'm a fool, right? OK, let's say you found it on some road. Explain why it's still has a tag on it. You can't go around stealing things just because you like it, If you want something, just say so."
"Stealing?"
Verlin realized what he did was just robbery. Although it wasn't his intention to rob a store, he just needed a mask to cover his face.
"I'll return it later."
"No, keep it. They didn't notice anything when you took it, right?"
"Well, probably not. I was going pretty fast."
"Good, now let's get some food."
Rachel grabbed his hand and walked into the store. Rachel went straight to the meat department to buy some beef and chicken. As they were walking, Verlin noticed they were getting a lot of stares. He looked at Rachel and asked, " Are you popular around here?"
Rachel replied while looking at the expiring date on some beef. "Not particularly, I am relatively low-key."
"Then, why do people keep staring at us."
Rachel seemed unfazed by the gazes and said, "The answer is quite simple, really. I am a very attractive woman, and you have very unusual hair."
As Rachel finished talking, a girl about the same height as verlin with brown shoulder length hair and green eyes, came up to them and asked Verlin, " Do you mind if I take a picture with you?"
"Huh?" Verlin had a confused look on his face.
Seeing Verlin confused, Rachel repeated what the girl said, " She asked if she could take a picture with you."
"I heard what she said, but I want to know why."
"Probably because of your unusual hair, plus you are moderately good-looking."
"Just because of that?" It seemed he had to do more research on the culture of this new earth.
Verlin looked towards the girl, who was looking at him with anticipation in her eyes, and he said,
"Sure, why not?"
"Thank you." She handed her phone to Rachel and went behind Verlin, put her arms around his neck, and put her face beside his. Verlin could feel her on his back and was a bit uncomfortable with this position, but he didn't complain and kept a slightly forced smile on his face.
After Rachel took the picture, the girl wanted a couple more and changed into different poses. After the pictures were taken, she asked Verlin for his contact information.
Verlin looked at Rachel, and she nodded her head. Verlin took out his phone and added her number to his phone. The girl was about to leave but realized she hadn't given him her name yet, " By the way, my name is Chloe. I'll contact you later."
Verlin nodded his head in response.
Verlin and Rachel finished shopping and returned to the car. Verlin was the one to break the silence and said, " Is that normal around here?"
Rachel shook her head, "Not really. The first time I've seen something like that. Do you want me to investigate her?"
"No, you don't have to. She seems like a nice girl, just a bit outgoing, I guess."
"You know, you are quite tolerant. If someone wanted to take a picture with me and tried those type of poses, I would have smacked the shit out of them, but that's just me, though."
" Well, thankfully, I'm not you. Let's just get to the clothing store and head back home."
Rachel started the car and headed towards the clothing store, and they arrived in a couple of minutes. Verlin noticed from the route she was taking but confirmed it when they arrived at the store. It was the same place he got his mask.
Verlin asked Rachel, " Why did you come to this store?"
Rachel looked a bit confused and said, "Since you robbed the place, I figured you liked their merchandise."
"Shhhhh, keep your voice down. I didn't rob the place, I just happened to borrow their product for the sake of convenience. I was gonna return it."
Rachel walked towards the store and said with a smile on her face, "Come on, let's just get your clothes and leave. No one knows you robbed the place, so it doesn't matter."
Verlin decided to keep quiet and followed Rachel into the store. When Verlin saw the prices of the clothes, he was certain that he had served justice. This store robs its customers on a daily basis. It was only right that they got a piece of their own medicine. Verlin chose a couple of plain looking t shirts, trousers, underwear, and some shoes. But the total cost was still over $3000.
Verlin felt a little bad for Rachel since she had to pay, but soon realized this amount of money meant nothing to her. Come to think of it, she lives in a mansion.
After they left the store, they spent another 25 minutes driving back to the house. After they arrived and unpacked the goods, Verlin went back to his room and lay down on his bed. He wasn't tired. He just wanted to stop moving.
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