The Debt

Fortune Cookie

Author Note:
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Chapter 1: Fortune Cookie

"We're leaving in 10 minutes," cries mum across the hallway "If you don't come now then you'll never see your brother again." I reluctantly follow my mum out towards our burgundy red Range Rover.

My name is Sho. But most people call me S. My life changed dramatically in 1998 in Texas, America.

It is Christmas eve and my family and I are going to a restaurant to farewell one of my five brothers, Daniel, who is leaving to go overseas and find a job as a lawyer that earns a wealthy amount of money (not that we need it).

After the fulfilling meal we thanked the waiter and I spot a boy who is watching us this whole time and he is holding a bowl of fortune cookies with a sign saying "fre." I curiously drift over there. Daniel sees where I'm heading and tugs my silk scarf abruptly and whispers in my ear "Look at his hands, they are filthy, I wouldn't take one of those fortune cookies."

Though my ignorance got the better of me and soon I am helping myself to a large one I found near the bottom of the bowl, nearly tipping all the other cookies out in the process. I nod my head as thanks and then turn my back on everyone and pull out the slip of paper.

It's tattered and torn and the writing is scribbly and nearly illegible to read: Leave Ameica imediately never com back or else... The words after else are smudged and I try to decipher them but nothing fits with the few letters that are left.

Speculating I turn the paper over and over in my hands. There are a few words on the back: Say nothng 2 no one! My heart leaps as I realise it's threatening whoever this note was specifically written for.

It wasn't until I stare at the page until the words on the note start to blur that I realise it has in tiny text the words scrawled Omar at the bottom left of the page, that is my surname. I look back at the boy but he's gone...

Daniel hurries over and starts to usher me out, muttering in annoyance that we might be late leaving and miss his Cosby show.

We start heading back to the car and despite Daniel's fingernails digging into my back pushing me forward, I turn around and notice that the boy who was giving out the fortune cookies is watching me from behind a row of rubbish bins.

His eyes are toxic black and my body slightly spasms at the sight of them, though there is something about him that makes me ignore Daniel's nagging and curiously I head towards this stranger.