"A journey begins with a single step"
Jason sat at his desk, tapping his fingers while glancing at the clock every couple of seconds, puckering his lips in annoyance. A loud bell echoed through the classroom as the clock finally struck 2:55. Jason grabbed his backpack, sidestepping his classmates and bolted out the door making his way to his locker. Once he had cleared his locker, he rushed outside the school and slowed down to a walking pace, trying to be inconspicuous as possible, glancing around every so often to check his surroundings, he finally made it to the front gate of the school, Jason hung a right and took off running.
The sun glimmered off the tall building that propelled out of the ground like great red wood trees. People scurried about while Jason slowed down; not even winded thanks to his time spent on his school’s track team. He strolled along taking in the mixture of scents made by the restaurants that littered the street; his favorite thing to do while walking in this part of town. So many different scents that he enjoyed, ranging from the freshly made pizzas, to the garlic knots and the donuts; memories would pop into his head as each aroma entranced his senses. Jason chose to walk down this path every day even though it made his journey home longer than it should be, but no one would be waiting for him.
The young man made his way along the sidewalk and into an alleyway. He suddenly stopped when he noticed a silhouette of a figure standing before him. He turned around and noticed two more silhouettes standing in the direction where he just came from. Sweat began to form on his brow and a sinking feeling formed in his stomach.
“Heya Jason.” The lone figure said. “I have to hand it to you; giving us the slip at school took skill and guts. But seeing as we now found you, there is no use in running anymore.”
“Hey now, I don’t want any trouble from you guys. What do you guys want from me now,” Jason replied.
“Well, for starters, we want your wallet and your backpack. Since of course, you made a fool out of me the other day."
“A fool? Oh shit, Tony.” Jason was surprised, how did Tony, one of the leaders of the schools notorious school gangs (if you can even call them a gang) was standing before him find him here in the city. Yesterday, Jason had accidentally spilled his lunch all over Tony, and of course Tony acted like it was an act of war against him. Jason was lucky, since a security guard had seen the whole thing and allowed Jason to leave while preventing Tony’s aggression to get out of hand.
“Yeah, your little security guard friend isn’t here to help ya now. Now give me your wallet and your stuff, otherwise it won’t be so good for your health at all.” A twinkle simmered from Tony’s smile.
“Hey Tony, can’t you let it go man? It was an accident after all. Let’s just tal-“
“Ain’t gonna happen pal,” Tony cut in and produced a blade from his jacket.
“Whoa, hey man” Jason held up his hands and backed away slowly, then stopped realizing that the two figures behind him also produced two blades as well. Jason was trying to think of a way out of this and noticed a ramp to his left. Making a mental path in his head, he took off running. Jason ran up the ramp, jumped onto a dumpster and jumped down behind Tony; Jason broke the fall with a roll and took off running again.
“Get him!” Tony shouted at his underlings. The three followed Jason out of the alleyway and into the street. Sidestepping everybody that got in his way, Jason put distance between him and his pursuers and was looking for a place to hide, while Tony and his underlings were pushing people out of their way, slowing the three down. Jason turned the corner and put some more distance between him and Tony. He caught sight of a store out of the corner of his eye and made his way over and ducked inside, making sure he wasn’t seen.
The bell on the door clanged and an old lady came to attention. Adjusting her glasses she smiled. “Oh, hello and welcome to Faith’s Flowers. My name is Faith” She said “We have a special today for Tulips and for the Lilly’s too; it’s buy one get one free.” She gave another old, wrinkly smile to the young man standing in front of her.
“Hello.” Jason said stepping out of sight of the windows and into a row of flowers.
The old lady noticed he was hiding from something. “Hey there young man, what are you hiding from?”
Sneaking a peak outside and seeing it was all clear. “A gang from my high school” He replied. “Accidentally spilled lunch on their leader and he and two others cornered me in an alleyway and I escaped, trying to find a place to hide. Think you could help me?”
The old lady couldn’t understand why kids these days would find violence in the littlest of incidents. “I’ll help you, don’t worry about them. Come have a seat in the back room and I’ll deal with them no problem.”
No later had the door shut to the back room that the front door opened, Tony filling its space. A few seconds later he was gone, chasing the false lead that the old lady had given him. Saying that the coast was clear, but he should stay put for a while, she let him out of the room. Jason looked around the flower store and came upon a bouquet of red roses and said “How much for this bouquet of roses?”
“Roses?” She thought for a moment “Well since it seems that you have had a rough day, they are on the house.”
“Really? I mean you have alre-“
She cut him off. “Don’t worry about it, really. Just make sure they are put to good use. Deal?”
“Deal” he said. “Thank you so much for everything you have done. Have a good evening” With that he left, shooting a smile that the Old lady who gracefully returned the gesture.
“You too, and be careful with your troubles.”
The young man hurried along the now packed street as it was now rush hour. Deciding that it would be easier to ride the bus home than walking, he made his way to the nearest bus stop. The bus came to a stop in front of him and he got on, paid for the rise and found a seat, making sure not to smash the flowers with his backpack. Jason rode the bus for a few stops and glanced at his watch. Talking to his flowers he muttered under his breath. “I was hoping to get you to your new home, but I guess that it’ll have to be tomorrow.” Jason smiled and got off the bus at the new stop and made his way to his apartment complex.
Once inside his own apartment, flipping on the lights he eyed the room. Ripped and water damaged wallpaper hung on the wall, brown carpet filled the space, a couch fill the left wall and a lone door stood in front of Jason on the opposite wall. The apartment was less than stellar and Jason could afford a more luxurious apartment if he so chose too, but he was saving up his money to move out of the city and get on with his life. “Home sweet home” Jason closed the door and swung his backpack onto the couch, holding the flowers in his hands he opened the other door and entered the kitchen. Acquiring a vase, he filled it with water, set the roses in it and with a smile of satisfaction he set the vase down on the counter and entered his bedroom.
Two mattresses sat on the floor on top of each other, a nightstand stood to the side with a picture atop it. Sitting down on his bed, he set his head into the palms of his hands and then ran his fingers through his hair, letting out a long drawn out sigh. “What a day” Looking up he took a picture off the nightstand, studying the details of the picture. “You guys would of loved to hear the adventures that I had today” He set the picture back down and opened the drawer and leaned over, grabbed a leather back book titled “The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” and began reading, losing himself in the fantasies of another world, another adventure, another life.
Jason walked down the street with his backpack; carrying the vase of flowers beside him. He made his way to a pair of gates, which he opened and stepped through. He made his way along the path and found the spot he was looking for. He knelt down and placed the vase of flowers before the two tombstones and produced a small plastic bag with a letter in it from his backpack. He took it out of the bag and began reading it.
Half an hour later Jason walked through the same gate that he had entered and closed it behind him, then walked down to the bus stop at the corner of the cemetery. Every weekend he would make this trip; it was a way of holding on to the past, even though he knew he should move forward. He always wanted to go to other places than this damn city he was in. He wanted to meet new people, see different sights, and explore the world. It was his dream, and he had almost saved up enough to do so.
Half an hour later Jason exited the bus and walked towards downtown. Abandoned buildings towered to the sky on both sides of Jason; he was walking in the bad side of town, that is, if you can say this town had a bad side to it. The streets were empty except for a handful of homeless people scattered around the front of the buildings. One of them walked towards Jason holding out his hand and asked for change. “Sorry, I don’t have any money on me” Jason said, shrugging and quickly walked past him.
Jason walked past a huge abandoned hotel and noticed three other teens in jackets spray-painting the walls. Jason noticed one of them saw him as he walked by; it was one of the underlings from yesterday. The underling turned to the other two and all three looked his way. Jason quickly looked the other way and started to walk even faster as the three followed him.
Jason stepped into an alleyway to try to put something between the three underlings that were following him. He made his way down the alleyway and into the adjacent one before having to stop. One of the underlings stood in front of him. “Dammit, not this shit again”. The other two underlings quickly closed the distance behind him, and surprised Jason when they grabbed him and held him in place. Jason struggling to get free asked “what do you want?”
“You.” The underling in front of him said. He clinched his fist and punched Jason in the stomach. The other two began to drag him back to the abandoned hotel. Jason struggled again and was met with a hit in the back of the head, knocking him out cold.
Jason awoke, he tried to move his arms and legs, but couldn’t. Feeling lightheaded he looked at himself; he was tied to the chair arms at his sides. These guys obviously didn’t take the hint from movies that arms should be tied behind the chair. He looked around the room, his backpack and wallet was lying on the table in front of him; his items scattered around the table along with others that weren’t his.
The door opened with a bang and none other than Tony walked through. “Well well well.” He said “Glad you are finally awake.” He smiled as he walked over to the table and sat down, picking up a spray can and using it on his hair and set it back down. He took out a comb and styled his hair like they did in Grease. “You didn’t think you can get away that easily now, could you? Giving us the slip yesterday was pretty good if I do say so myself. But it was all for naught since you are here now. “
Jason just stared at Tony as he gloated. Tony walked around the room telling in detail what he was going to do to Jason from his defiance. As Tony turned around Jason reached into his pocket and produced a lighter, and lit it, trying to burn the rope. The door opened again and two more of Tony’s underlings walked in and stood behind the table. They started packing Jason’s and apparently Tony’s stuff into the backpack. “…everything that you own on you is now mine, you got that Jason.”
The rope began to burn as Tony continued to talk. The smell of smoke filled the room and Tony looked over as Jason. Jason quickly put the light back into his pocket and Tony walked over. “You wouldn’t be trying to escape now, would ya Jason?” he said with a smile. “Anyways” he turned towards the two underlings. “You two, go get a gas can, pronto.” The two followed orders and left the room. As Tony watched them leave the room, Jason had broken the rope and freed himself. Tony turned back to Jason. “So, do you like fir-” Tony was cut off by a punch to the stomach from a now free Jason. “How the..” He trailed off as Jason pushed him over the table.
Jason grabbed his wallet and backpack on the table and took off towards the door. The door to the room opened as Jason reached it. Two underlings stood in the doorway holding two gas cans each. Jason crashed into both of them and the two fell over, gas spilling everywhere.
Tony then pointed to the underling closest to Jason. “You. Get him,” then pointed to the other. “and you get the other guys and tell them to get up here.” The minion closest to Jason got up and went towards him and stopped, Jason was holding a lit lighter in his hand with a stream of gas flowing towards him. The underling was standing in a pile of gas as Jason knelt down and lit it ablaze. The fire flowed towards the underling, but the underling was already running out of the puddle the direction opposite of Jason. Fire filled the hallway as tony emerged from the room; he stared over the fire at Jason. “Go around to the next hallway and get him.“ he said.
Jason began running towards the door at the end of the hallway and opened it. Awesome Jason thought he looked over at the sign; it read Floor 25, Not awesome. He heard footsteps below and looked down; more underlings were coming up a few floors below him. He decided it was best to go up, and possible find another stair case and lose his pursuers.
Jason made it to the top of the Hotel, he was running down a long hallway trying to find another stair case; he opened a door at the end. “Damn it, again” he said out loud. He couldn’t seem to find a door that could lead to a possible exit, but what was worse was that smoke was now filling the hotel. He didn’t have much time, he needed to find an exit, and soon. Otherwise he would be set blaze, along with the building.
“There he is” he heard a voice say behind him, Jason took off running again down another hallway. He noticed that it was a dead end expect for one door at the end of the hallway. Jason hoped that it would lead to his freedom from this place, and Tony. He ran and felt the air get cooler, the air was getting cleaner, and a light was shining below the door. He rammed into the door and it opened without any resistance.
Jason covered his face as he was blinded by the bright sun.