The Lost Talisman

Tarik

Tarik ran left to right barely missing the ledge. He crashed straight into a brick wall and he could practically feel his nose break. He glanced up to see three boys standing over him grinning like the lunatics they were.

"No place to run now," one of them grinned.

Tarik tried to scoot further away from them but he was up against the wall. He glanced at all three of them and watched as they clenched their fists and raised them. Tarik closed his eyes and tensed his body.

"Tarik!" came an angered voice from his house. He sighed and walked up to his mother and father standing outside the front of the house. His mother Meilin was glaring at him and his father Rollan seemed like he was trying to laugh at his wife's seriousness.

"What were you doing after school going around getting punched?!" she yelled at him, Tarik winced at the loudness of it all. 

He shot a glance at his father who shot him a quick grin and a I-hope-you-survive-this look. Tarik looked back up at his mother.

"Well-" he started only to be cut off by his mother, "You could have died!" Tarik saw his father laugh and quickly changed it into a loud cough, "he wasn't going to die. It didn't seem too serious" he pointed out mildly to his wife.

 Tarik winced as his mother turned on him.

"It is serious, and I don't want it to happen again" Her voice changed to a deadly soft one and his father sighed, seemingly to give up on the argument. She looked Tarik up and down

"Come inside," she said, "I'll clean you up and then you go to your room and don't go to the market tomorrow." Tarik opened his mouth to argue but one glance from his mother made him stop. He was in deep trouble.