Keep fighting

Chapter 2

I took off running down main street, tears streaming down my face as I ran into the apartment that I share with my six cousins in the bad side of Nashville, Tennessee. The door slamed open upon my arrival, the room silenced when they noticed the tears.

"Ash, where's Jake?" my older cousin John asked. He is only my elder by 6 years but he still treats me like he's the biggest man in the world and I must bow and kiss the tip of his shoe. The sound of his voice makes me absolutely sick. Its a very high pitched whine normally, but as he asked this question his voice sunk to a deathly deep tone.

My body shook with sobs and I fell to my knees. Everyone surrounded me as they waited for me to control myself enough to speak. I couldn't manage the simple words on my tongue to be spoken. I thought back through the events of the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We walked down the alleyway in a comfortable silence. The sounds of traffic and a far off confrontation fill the air. He takes the lead as my ten year old legs struggle to keep up with his increasing pace as we near the location of our next hit. He carries both duffle bags as I carry the cargo bag that, even though it has been lightened, causes me to struggle under the weight.

I'm considerably small for my age but am still a strong fighter. My cousins taught me from the day I first came to this city for the summers at the age of 6 all the way to my current age of 10. Thinking back to the first time I ever got into a argument with my parents ending with a black eye from my mother. I recalled dialing my cousins number and telling him what happened, my bottom lip quivering as tears fell onto the carpet below my feet.

"Jake I want to come live with you in Nashville. I want to join the gang really badly, pleeeaaasssee." I remember the giant puppy dog face that I put on even though he couldn't see it himself.

He told me to put my mother on the phone and I went to my room and layed on my bed thinking that my dream of leaving New York and living in Nashville with my cousins who were gang affiliated at the time would never come true. Later that night after my mother getting off the phone she came into my room and said that I will be living with my cousins in Nashville for the summer and will come back end of August to New York to go to school.

Even though that wasn't entirely what I wanted it was still better than being stuck at the house with an abusive mother and a drunken father for the rest of my life. I packed my bags and had accompanied my mother to the airport where they put me on a plane to Nashville where my cousin would then pick me up.

I got to the airport late in the daylight hours and went to the apartment with my cousins, that night they taught me the basics of defending myself in the city. We were part of a gang and got into frequent fights and quarrels with rival gangs. After four years of going to Nashville for the summers and practicing my fighting back at home, I got very good.

I smiled as I reminisced but I began to lag behind and my cousin yelled back at me to hurry up. "Pull your head out of your ass, we need to be in and out quickly, they aren't going to be out for long so lets get this done." I just nodded and started jogging to keep up better.

We finally got their a little bit later then planned due to my lagging but as we got to our rival gang house we could still tell they were not back yet. We worked fast as my cousin took out two containers of gasoline from his bags and I took spray paint from mine. I moved around the house fast but still sticking to the shadows incase the gang did come back early. I found a concrete wall that most likely wont come down on the backside of the building and quickly spray painted our signature flame logo.

Our gang sign had become so familiar to me that when I became old enough I planned on getting it tattooed just like all my cousins and other gang members had on their chests or arms. I worked fast and made sure it was bright and visible, we wanted them to know exactly who dared to burn down their hang out.

As I stepped out of the building the burning smell of gasoline was assaulting my nose, my cousin had spread all of the two cans. We quickly packed up and as we began to walk away my cousin light a cigarette with a single matchstick and threw it to the edge of the gasoline, igniting the building.

We stood and watched for a minute as my cousin took a puff of his cigarette and blew a stream of smoke straight into the air then dropped the cigarette to the ground and stomped it out. "I'm gonna quit smoking one of these days." I scoffed at his words as he said them

"You'll as soon quit as you will die" I said back in a snarky remark. He reached over and shoved me off in the direction to walk to get back to our apartment, as we began to walk off I couldn't help but think about my last words. I had no idea how true those words were.