Nunew is a hostage, he's been defaulting on his loan and the boss has reached his limit. It's time to pay one way or the other. It's already the worse case scenario when he's snatched up by an opposing clan. How is Nunew going to survive?
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The dripping of the faucet was so loud, Nunew wondered if it was a recording playing on a speaker somewhere in the dark room. It had to be some kind of torture. He had been in there for hours already, but with the damn incessant drip, it felt more like a week. He fell back onto the dirty mattress with a huff, he was in so much pain, his hands uncomfortable in their binds. There was no way he would survive this time. He pushed his luck for so long, he knew it was all about to come crashing down on him like a house of cards. No, more like a house of bricks after getting hit with a wrecking ball.
He really thought his mom would survive the cancer and between the two of them they could pay off the debt in a couple of years. He had hope, he had so much hope and it was all for nothing. His mom died alone in a hospital bed while he washed dishes and got slapped around by the cooks in the kitchen. When he got to the hospital and saw her body wrapped up in white sheets, he didn't even cry. The shock was so encompassing that he sat by her bedside until they wheeled her away for cremation. He never picked up the ashes because he couldn't afford the fee.
Nunew held four jobs for three months, but the fee was too big. Every time he missed a payment the loan shark would higher the number. There was no chance he could pay it any more, he couldn't do it alone and in retrospect even with his mom alive they still wouldn't have been able to pay it.
Niran's men got tired of his pleas for an extension. They came to pick him up at the laundromat and though he ran and hid, they eventually found him. He fought hard, but was small and there were too many. They bruised him up, tied his hands up and told him Niran would come to get his money one way or another. He knew what that meant. Niran looked at him with lascivious eyes and had from the very beginning. It was probably the only reason he was able to get the loan.
Nunew was scared, he was angry, he was hungry, but all the emotions fused together and became apathy. It had been like that since his mom died. He felt so much that he felt nothing. Like a perpetual state of shock. He was in limbo, neither dead or alive. He made money and the gangsters took it, he barely had enough to keep a roof over his head, food in his belly. He thought maybe Niran's men were doing him a favor by killing him off. Another rat dying in the race.
Suddenly there was a loud bang and gunfire erupted, lots and lots of gunfire. It was an automatic response, he ran to the corner of the room and tried to make himself as small as possible. The piss bucket stunk so much, the entire room smelled like piss, the floor caked with trash and debri. He thought perhaps he had pissed himself out of fear, he checked, it wasn't. There was screaming, banging, noises so loud and terrifying the dripping of the faucet was starting to sound like a soothing song. It felt like the battle outside went on forever.
He finally let out a scream when a bullet came in through the wood door. It ricocheted near him, he felt the soft burn in his arm. He crawled to the other corner and covered his head with his arms. He was shaking all over, it felt like his body was convulsing. Death was coming, slowly approaching, like black tar sliding in under the door frame.
