Deadly Devotion [on hold]

chapter one | the beginning

"Everything can change in the blink of an eye."

Zach didn't like this part of town. He had always hated it and having to walk past it after his shift at the pizzeria every night didn't help. There were stories about this area. Stories that didn't have any happy endings but the worst endings you could possibly imagine.The chilling wind almost knocked him off his feet as he trudged through the crunchy snow that covered the dark road. He couldn't help but shudder at the freezing draftiness and he felt as if his legs had turned to lead for they were numb. 

He picked up his pace, the harsh, cold wind tousling his dark blond hair and leaving his face feeling raw. It was colder than usual and he had to clamp his teeth tight together to stop them from chattering as well as tighten the scarf around the lower half of his face.

He could remember once when his brother, Jack, and himself were kids and had walked past this road, Jack had told him, "Don't ever walk this road alone, Zach. You never know what might be lurking around the corner," which made sense since every week they would hear a story on the news about a burglary, a shooting or a murder that had happened here.

No one knew why so many people were disappearing without a trace or why bodies of men were turning up in corners of dark alleys – some dead and some alive, though too terrified or on the brink of sanity to respond to questions regarding where they vanished off to.

Zach could remember when he was seventeen years old – which was four years ago – and he was playing on his playstation in front of the television while his parents were having a whispered conversation with their neighbors, the McAndrews, with grave looks upon their faces as their cups of tea grew cold. Zach had heard snippets of their conversation which mostly included the words and phrases 'dead', 'lost', 'found but utterly insane!', ' landed himself in a hospital he did!', 'thinks his own family wants to kill him!', 'no one's ever seen him before but was horribly injured!'

It ended up being an eerie tradition to watch the news every week if not every night just to make sure no one they knew were caught for what, no one really knew.

All these stories and thoughts flooded Zach's head as he headed home as they did every night making the hairs at the back of his neck stand. Zach carried on with his resolution of not looking at anyone, not making eye contact and just concentrating on getting home. But commotion ahead of him made him stop in his tracks as he saw three black lumps – two hunched down while another lay on the cobblestone.

One of the persons standing shifted to the right and Zach saw that it was a man when the weak beam from the street light fell upon him, illuminating his features which looked menacing as he looked down at the person on the ground. As if hearing the raging war of questions and turning of gears in Zach's mind, the man looked up abruptly, his eyes taking in the appearance of the intruder.

Oh no.

A look of shock flashed across the man's face before being replaced by a look of irritation. He bent down and uttered something to his partner who was now on the ground, thrusting punches at the other man who looked defenceless. The second man stopped throwing punches and looked at Zach instead who seemed to have been frozen to his spot, unable to move though his brain was yelling 'Move! Get out of there, you idiot!'

The second man stood up and stared at Zach with his balled fists hanging tensely at his sides ready to attack. The two men stepped over the man writhing on the ground in pain and started towards Zach who seemed to be jolted into reality and realized that if he didn't make a run for it, he was done.

With that incentive he started backing away before turning around and running although the snow made it hard. He had run about two steps when he felt something heavy and hard collide against his back sending them both flying before crashing painfully. Zach felt crushed under the weight of the warm body on top of him and started thrashing about trying to sink his fist onto some skin but failing.

The man on top of him got up and yanked Zach to his feet and held him by the front of his jacket before shaking him and asking in a demanding tone, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Walking home," Zach rolled his eyes unable to stop himself and felt a shooting pain on his left cheek where the man's knuckles connected filling Zach's mouth with warm blood which he spat out. "What the fuck?!"

"Mind your mouth," sniggered the black haired man who first saw Zach as he walked closer to the two. "Wouldn't want to get in trouble would we?" He raised his eyebrow almost comically.

"Let go of me," Zach said as calmly as he could, sounding braver than he felt.

"Not after what you just saw," the second man, who Zach saw was red-headed with cuts covering his face, said before making a 'tsk-tsk'ing sound and Zach started to lose his temper.

"Look, I don't give a damn what you do with your spare time. Although, I have to say your hobby is worth giving more thought to," he said, glaring at the two men, with a jerk of his head towards the heap of a man a few feet ahead of them.

"Got quite a mouth on him, hasn't he?" The redhead asked his friend with an amused look on his face and the latter nodded with a similar expression on his face.

"For the last time, can you let go?" Zach said as calmly as he could.

"You honestly cannot think we'd let you go? No, no, blondie," the redhead shook his head. "You're coming with us."

"Look, I'm sorry to rain on your parade but I'm not interested in chilling with you guys so if you would just let go of me, I'll be heading home," Zach stated.

"You're not getting away. That's final," the redhead said with a glare before turning to his friend and saying, "Get that lump of dung, Cam, and we'll head off. Boss will wonder where we've been."

Boss?

The black haired man nodded before walking over to the man on the ground and picking him up, supporting his weight as he led the staggering man to a car parked close by and throwing him in without warning.

Zach felt himself being dragged and his eyes locked onto the redhead's face and he punched him square in the jaw and though the redhead winced in pain, he did not let go and instead grabbed a cloth from his pocket and pressed it to Zach's face after saying, "sleep tight, blondie" and punching him in the jaw, sending Zach into an endless darkness.

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Okay so I've been planning this story since forever and I've bugged everyone I'm close with on Watty asking their opinions on this! I finally decided to post it and this is my first ever original work that I decided to write and post! Hope you guys like this! Please do leave a comment on what you think because feedback helps so much! Don't hesitate to drop a vote if you do like this! 

I CREATED A TRAILER FOR IT! WATCH IT ABOVE!

- Pooji