The Fall
Chapter Zero
Chapter One - "Freeze"
Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV
Part V
"None of you told her?" The gang leader's irritating voice was followed by a louder, degrading laugh. "Your deadbeat dad lost another bet, sweet heart." His voice quietened. "Twenty more. Then you'll be three."
Nathan's eyebrows drew closer together in his confusion - and closer still as clarity on what he'd just heard invited a profound curiosity. Was this it? Was the mathematically improbable recurrence of the number three, leading him to assist in seeing this girl freed? Eager to seize the meaning in his life that had eluded him for too long, he allowed the tenuous visual similarity between the number three and a set of opened handcuffs to convince him it was.
He turned around purposefully, placing his smartphone back in his trouser pocket and beginning to button up his suit jacket. "Name your price."
The pimp removed his hands from the girl's cheeks and turned towards Nathan smiling. "Ellie's the best there is, aren't you, doll?" He looked at her unresponsive face and then back at Nathan. "25 K for an hour of whatever you rich fuckers are into." He looked at his disciples. "We all know you're kinky bastards up in the heights."
They began to laugh, but their amusement soon dissolved into an awkward silence upon the observation of Nathan's unimpressed face.
"So five hundred thousand and she can leave, I presume?"
The gang leader appeared bemused for a second. "You want to buy her for yourself?" The smile that proceeded his inquiry seemed to convey a sense of approval. "I knew you weren't as boring as you looked. But if you want to buy her to keep, it's gonna be five million."
As Nathan took a step forward, Ellie took a step back and fear presented itself on her face. "You said twenty more to the girl. At twenty five thousand each, that would make the total half a million."
"You shouldn't have been listening to my conversation." The leader complained. "But I don't give two fucks what you heard. It's five million if you want her for yourself."
It was now evident to Nathan that the talk of twenty more had been a lie. This man had no intention of setting the girl free, but he would be happy to sell her now for a worthy enough price. "I do not want to buy her." He explained. "Only her freedom." He took another step forward, evoking a sense of unease in several of the younger gang members.
"Well if you want to be a good Samaritan, that's your choice." He looked back at the girl and placed an arm over her shoulder. "But the price is the same. Five million Satoshis and she walks out of here with you."
0.05 Bitcoin was practically nothing to Nathan. He knew he could simply pay it and be done with this. But his distaste for the gang leader, and the understanding that to him, it was a lot, made the decision to pay the asking price an impossible one to make. He examined the group in front of him, measuring their might against his own.
"Here are your options." Nathan asserted, taking another step forward and provoking two of the gang members to rise to their feet. "I can pay you five hundred thousand, and she will go free." He took another step forward, prompting the gang leader to step backwards and signal the remaining seated followers to stand up. "Or, I can pay you nothing, and she will go free."
The barkeep's voice interrupted. "Take this outside will you, lads?" His voice carried the understanding that he'd likely be mopping up blood again tonight after all.
Ignoring the bartender, the gang leader responded from a step further away than his younger protectors. "You might be big, but there's seven of us." He explained. "Don't be stupid enough to think this is going to go your way." His tone of voice betrayed the cockiness of his words.
He was afraid, and Nathan knew it. Even if it was more the threat of later repercussions than what was about to happen now, Nathan intended to use the fear to his advantage. He turned his attention away from the frightened expression adorning the leader's once confident face, and directed it towards his underlings. "You can step aside." He offered. "Or I can go through you."
The youngest of them, looking as petrified as he was scrawny, stepped to the side and backwards to allow Nathan to pass. His cowardice was rewarded in kind by a pool cue to the back of his skull, knocking him to the floor unconscious.
"Anyone else wanna break their oath?" Their leader was no leader at all. The panic on his face and in his voice spread quickly to his acolytes. But afraid to receive the same treatment as their youngest, the others drew weapons and took a protective formation around the headman.
"Seriously, guys. Not tonight, please." The barkeep's plea was futile.
Nathan grinned. "So be it." He said, as a welcome dose of adrenaline filled his blood.
He stretched out his lengthy arm to the pool table, taking a ball in his grasp. One of the gang darted forward and slashed a knife towards his wrist. Nathan withdrew his hand swiftly and directly towards the head of his attacker, knocking him to the floor as his blade scuffed the edge of the table. The next goon to step forward was instantly greeted on the forehead by the same pool ball thrown at high speed. He collapsed backwards onto the gang leader's feet, stirring a response.
"Fucking kill him!" He barked, while grabbing Ellie by the arm and stepping further backwards away from Nathan.
Two more gangsters rushed forward, one holding a lengthy make-shift blade and the other wielding a pool cue. Nathan stepped closer to the one on the right, inviting a swing of his cue and catching it between both hands. A powerful tug freed the cue from his opponent's grasp, and a familiar whistle filled Nathan's ears as he whipped it through the air and towards the head of the other.
Barely a few seconds had transpired and now four bodies lay on the floor - three unconscious and one whimpering in pain. The remaining two disciples shared a glance and then backed away from Nathan to allow him to pass.
"Cowards!" Their leader snapped, dropping his cue to the floor and withdrawing a knife from his jeans. "You're both fucking dead." He pointed the knife to each of his mutineers and then placed it to Ellie's throat, taking a position of defence behind her.
Nathan chuckled. "They're cowards, are they?"
"Yes they fucking are." He reiterated, too unnerved to observe the irony of his accusation. "Now stay back." He threatened, pressing the blade closer to Ellie's throat.
The realisation that this was the most enjoyable night he'd had in some time, landed upon Nathan. But looking at the terror on the young girl's face he was reminded of his purpose. "Free her." He urged. "Now."
"I don't think I will.." The leader replied, beginning to inch his way towards the exit. "Come any closer and she dies."
"If she dies, you die." Nathan responded, taking another step forward.
"I mean it." He replied loudly, side strafing hurriedly towards the door.
"I don't think you do." Said Nathan, taking yet another step towards them.
The head honcho stopped and pressed the blade tighter to the girl's neck, piercing her skin this time. "I will fucking kill this bitch if you take one more step!" He yelled, his voice heavy with desperation.
Nathan was excited by the notion of calling his bluff, but was saved from the need to by the bartender, who was creeping up behind the gang leader with a baseball bat in hand. "Look behind you."
"What the fuck?" Complained the bartender, unable to comprehend Nathan's decision to expose his position.
The gang leader spun around hastily and pointed the blade towards the barkeep. "Step back!"
Nathan acted immediately, striding forward and grabbing the pimp's extended arm by the wrist. He tightened his grasp, feeling the bones fracture beneath his hand, and watching a loosened grip allow the knife to fall to the floor.
The thug cried out in pain, but tightened his arm around the girl's neck. "Let go of my fucking arm, you freak."
Nathan squeezed tighter, provoking louder screams of pain. "Let go of her." He said calmly.
Ellie, whose pale face had begun to turn blue, took matters into her own hands and stomped with the full force of her heels onto her attacker's foot. He wailed in agony and loosened his grip from her throat.
With one hand still clutching a shattered wrist tightly, Nathan grabbed hold of the thug's neck with the other and pulled his face closer. "Where's that smug laugh of yours at now, tough guy?" Nathan's words and his smile were intended for one reason only - to humiliate. He looked to the bartender's still confused face. "Forgive me." He explained. "But I couldn't allow you to take this pleasure from me."
He followed his words instantly with a powerful headbutt, landing directly on the nose of his prey. A tsunami of blood crashed against Nathan's chest as the man's unconscious body fell backwards onto the hard floor.
Closing his eyes, Nathan took a moment to relish in the excitement of the night. The imagined sound of trees rustling in the wind and the pungent smell of blood in the air, led to him feel as much of a fool as the man laying on the floor ahead of him. Soon to be twenty four years old, he felt ashamed to have only now learned that one needn't be in a forest wielding their favourite bow, in order to experience the familiar thrill of a hunt.
With his heart rate beginning to normalise, he opened his eyes to find Ellie staring directly at him. She spoke not one word, but Nathan could sense the gratitude she was communicating to him. Peering deeper into the indebted stare of her large green eyes, an unfamiliar feeling set ablaze in his chest. He did not know how to label the emotion, but he knew that he felt powerful, admired, and more than that - needed. The excitement begotten through the night's violence was quickly overshadowed by a stronger sense of accomplishment. Within the appreciation on that young girl's face, he discovered the promise of purpose, and the potential to find a better use for the advantages bestowed upon him at birth by his father.
"You." Nathan called, looking at the last remaining gang member on their feet, the other having fled through the exit amidst the commotion. "Take the girl home to her father." He stepped closer to the frightened lad and placed a hand upon his shoulder. "If she doesn't make it there." He threatened. "I will know."
The youngster swallowed loudly, choking on a swell of anxiety. "I can't." He confessed. "Her father's dead."
Nathan looked at Ellie. Her facial expression did not change, but a tear took life under her eye and fell upon her cheek.
"He killed him a week ago." The boy continued, looking down at the unconscious body of his gang's leader.
Gary waddled over from the bar, accompanied by his stench. "Poor girl." He said. "I will look after her." He suggested. "If there's no one else to."
His dramatised compassion was believed by no one. But before any had the chance to tell him to sit back down, Ellie stepped forward and planted a boot between the fat man's legs. The scream that ensued filled the room with the foul smell of his breath. He dropped to his knees with his hands between his legs. "Bitch." His complained was barely audible, having too little air in his lungs to speak.
Nathan smiled in surprise at the girl, and in satisfaction to see Gary in serious pain. But as she stepped back in front of him and looked in his eyes once more, his amusement was replaced by fear. He was afraid of the responsibility that seemed to be calling to him. He had thought the numbers were leading him to set her free. Yet the red pool ball laying at her feet, the one he had used to take down two of her captors, and sporting the number three upon it, seemed now to be suggesting that her freedom was not all that was being asked of him.
Nathan was no role model. How could he ever be, having been raised himself by the likes of Eldridge? He tried to convince himself that the girl was strong enough to survive out there on her own, and that he had fulfilled the divine request put forth by the Master of Three's. But the silent request he interpreted through her sorrowful gaze left him little choice.
Removing his smartphone from his pocket, Nathan paid the bartender the half a million he had intended to pay for the girl's freedom, and then summoned a carrier to the district. He took a deep breath, wondering how long it would be before he was made to regret this decision, and then looked up at Ellie. "Have you ever seen the Heights, girl?"
A revised version of the completed chapter one coming soon.