Underground (Levixreader)

Chapter 1

Most people hated the Underground.

Sitting in my little workshop, in the back of Ed's garage, I didn't think it was that bad. But that was just in the case of people as fortunate as I was, because unlike myself, the inhabitants of this small town were stuck there. Shady businesses that needed to be run, scores that had to be settled and debts that still weren't paid kept them from even thinking of running away.

If you were a passerby, it meant you were probably a clueless privileged kid. If you lived there, it meant you had to find a way out before the Underground got the best out of you.

And still, no one left.

Because as tough as life was there, no other place accepted these lads.

So they threw their fists around, punched the pedal and shot the bullets, carelessly swinging their knives with the weight of the world on their shoulders.

And then there was little old me, a vagabond that never truly belonged anywhere and who found peace in this place, in the way it enabled her to embrace her demons and forget everything.

The Underground wasn't truly an independent town, but it was isolated enough to be treated as such. In the suburbs of Shiganshina, one of the biggest cities in Maria, its buildings stood tall but lanky, lacking a solid structure or constant maintenance. The walls were cracked, the houses were crumbling and the roads were bumpy.

Well, not all of them, because if they was one path everyone took care of, it was the illegal racing circuit that circled the region. A never-ending loop. But it brought in good money, so people were more than willing to maintain it properly. Ed's shop –The dodger's shed- overlooked it, and I often found myself watching the cars speed past when the work hours ended up being a bit longer than expected. Sometimes, I'd even go there, sitting amongst the thieves and the conmen and cheering for our garage's clients. I despised most of them, but it gave me a good excuse to scream along.

Most days, when I had too much time on my hands and very little to do to keep my mind occupied, I'd go to the Pit and drown myself in the ambient violence. The structure was worse than the rest of the town, which was a pretty impressive feat by itself. It really lived up to the name: The Pit of the Underground, a waking nightmare for the folks of the nearby city. If the race track was tightly regulated, the same couldn't be said about the fighting ring. Its ground was stained with red, and its visitors rarely left unharmed, but again, it was a pretty good source of revenue, so no one really cared about the unruliness of it all.

As I checked my phone and deleted the message notifications from my dad, I noticed that I still had a bit of time before I needed to head back home. Ed had told me about a pretty big race that was taking place that night, and he'd invited me to join him at the track. Eyes darting between the finished piece in my hands that I still needed to deliver and the numbers that remained unchanged on my screen, I let out a sigh and picked my jacket from the chair on which it was laying. Might as well go socialize a little.

I didn't really like meeting people around here. I loved living amongst them, sharing their days and fixing their things, but I wasn't too sure anyone could guarantee my safety if they knew how rich my family was. Even Ed, with all his contacts and his hardly earned reputation advised me to keep that hidden.

Not that my dad gave me any money, or that he'd bother with paying ransom to some kidnappers. But the others didn't know that, which made me ridiculously vulnerable if anyone set their eyes on me. I had a gun and a knife that I wasn't too clumsy with, but if I ever ended up being surrounded, I'd be done for.

The path from the shop to the track wasn't too long, but I purposefully dragged my feet, enjoying the calmness of the town at this hour, since everyone was either at the Pit or the track, cheering and fighting and relishing in the violence.