Adi & Mikey

Chapter 4

We were in the projects, you know, the 'ghetto part of town'. Yeah, well that's where we lived. I was 7 and my brother was 9. My dad was struggling with bills and he hadn't started building his own gym yet. We lived in the projects, with my uncle, Jace Martinez. My father left to go apply for more jobs and my brother and I were upstairs in our bedroom. We never really went downstairs unless we had to, our father told us to stay in the room until he's home, so we did, except for today. We heard muffled yelling and screaming.

As young children, we were curious. We wondered down the squeaky wooden stairs that had a faded dark red carpet covering it. We heard it coming from the basement, we've NEVER been in the basement.

The door was cracked open, my brother was behind me and I slowly placed a grip on the rusty door handle. My brother quickly rested his hand on my shoulder, I turned around and his eyes widened and he shook his head no. I gave him a 'Come on" look. He sighed and nodded for me to continue.

I softly opened the basement door and the yelling became much more clear and louder. Without making any noise, we slowly made our way down a few steps, just enough so we could peep to the back of the basement without anyone acknowledging us. I was the farthest down and Mikey was a step above me.

There was 2 big scary looking guys standing with their backs towards us. My uncle stood in the middle of them, a little closer to a single chair that was placed close to the farthest basement wall.

On the chair, was a fairly skinny guy, with light hair and light brown eyes. He was tied up on the chair by his arms and legs.The chair was placed on a huge plastic sheet. He looked exhausted and could barely keep his eyes open. I don't blame him, he had blood, cuts, and bruises all over him.

My uncle paced back and forth, never looking behind him, towards the stairs. The two guys stood their ground and never stopped looking intimidating or like a brick wall. Mikey and I looked at each other as Uncle Jace paced back and forth.

"Why couldn't you have just did what I asked, Ian? All this could have been easily avoided. I wouldn't have you here while my niece and nephew played upstairs." He sounded angry as he stopped pacing and paused in front of the injured guy, who I'm guessing was Ian. At this point, the guys head was hanging down in front of him as he breathed heavily and very few drops of blood and sweat dripped down from his nose.

My uncle crouched down in front of him and pushed his head up. He viciously grabbed on to the arms of the chair, where Ian's wrists were tied with a rope. He squeezed his wrists and stared up at the stranger. "This is all your fault. All you had to do was kill her. She was too curious and had some kind of mind control over you. She tried to sabotage our work together. Can't have that now, can we?" He said sarcastically as he quickly stood up and crossed his arms.

"P-Please...W-We have the kids...my boy and girl...K-Kill me, but not my f-family..." The stranger struggled to say as he tried to catch his breath. At this point, Mikey and I were more intrigued with their conversation, not because we wanted to see the guy killed, but because we never saw this side of our uncle. We just couldn't look away.

My uncle got angrier. He started screaming in his face, saying how he was un-loyal to him and a liability. "What kind of business man would I be if I let you walk? Everyone will start to do whatever they please because they'll know me as the guy that let the snitch walk free." He sighed and started to pace again. "Don't worry though, I'll give you some pity, We won't touch the boy or the girl. And lucky for you, we won't touch that bitch Sarah either." Ian let out a sigh of relief.

My uncle tensed up and stopped in front of him. "Sorry my friend, lessons have to be taught." The guy tried to plea for his life as my uncle pulled out a pistol from his waist and shot the guy between his eyebrows effortlessly and swiftly. A gunshot echoed around the basement and my brother and I ran out as the guy sat their against his will, lifelessly.