I think I've made it pretty clear that it's really hard for me to get a full night of sleep. Just a paperclip falling to the ground is enough to get me running over to Elena and Yulia's room. As a lioness, I gotta' keep my cubs safe.
So I think it's a no-brainer that the sound of a window smashing is enough to get me out of bed in an instant.
Of course, the very first thing I did was run straight over to Elena and Yulia's room and made sure that they were okay. The girls both were sleeping peacefully as if nothing happened. I let out a sigh of relief. I then gave them both kisses very fast and headed to the living to check out where the smashing came from.
And that's when I saw them.
Now I'm normally very polite with people, even if I've just barely met them. Like I said before, I'm a pretty nice guy. But I've never been all that crazy about people showing up at my house without warning. Not even my friends, parents, or sister. So I probably would've been pretty irritated with anybody who randomly dropped in around midnight. Especially if said visitor felt the need to make loud smashing glass noises that could have easily woken and scared my daughters.
So I couldn't help but come off a little rude with these four men who I've never seen before standing in my living room. And the fifth man that immediately climbed through the living room window that was smashed. From the tattoos covering the men's arms as well as they're tattered clothing and headbands on about three of them, it was obvious that these guys weren't paying a friendly visit and just hadn't yet been taught the ability to knock. Yeah, they didn't necessarily deserve my kindness.
As I entered the room, the unwelcome visitors all looked at me for a second and practically all of them got smirks on their faces. I guess because a man/teenage boy in just his tighty-whities was a funny sight to them. Inside, I was thinking: "Yeah, you won't have those goofy little smiles for much longer."
The fifth man who entered the room walked up to me with a really stupid grin. Like he was trying really hard to act like one of those intimidating tough guys in the movies. It was actually kind of hilarious.
"I've never really been a fan of surprise guests," I said to the fifth man. "I'd really appreciate if you called next time."
The man snickered. "You must be the pipsqueak that's been giving my gentlemen a hard time."
"Gentlemen? You talkin' about them?" I pointed to the four other men. "When I think of gentlemen, I I usually think of guys who dress a little better than that. You should choose your words a little more carefully."
"Shut your mouth, you little prick!" one of the other intruders shouted.
"Tyrone, shut the hell up!" another one of the intruders replied.
"Shut my mouth?" I replied. "That's a little rude. Isn't this my house you decided to show up unexpected and completely unwelcome in?"
"Did you by any chance interfere with a group of men who tried to take a little merchandise off a negro the other day?" the fifth man asked me.
"Oh, you mean those rats I exterminated the other day?" I replied. "Yeah, I kind of had to get rid of them. They were a pretty big problem. When you have a rat problem, you typically want to do something about it."
"Those 'rats' happened to be the members of a little group here in Dallas called The Panthers. And they just happened to be associates of mine. You see, I'm associated with several groups across Texas. I've been doing work with them for quite a while. They're the ones who help me make a living. So you see, I can't exactly have them 'exterminated.' I kind of need these gentlemen around if I want dinner on the table every night. And I get a little disappointed if I don't get my dinner. So I'm just here to make sure that my business isn't disrupted any further."
"To be honest, I'm only listening to about half of what you're telling me. I'm usually asleep by now, so I'm feeling pretty tired. Also, I tend to not care about what some goateed guy who breaks into my house at night has to say. Sorry, that's just how I am."
"I never did introduce myself. My name is Richard Swenson. Or Richie for short. And if you didn't catch that, it's fine. Because I'm sure my name will be burned into your brain matter once we're finished here."
"Alex Cooper. And I'm sure that name will be burned into your brain pretty well once you leave my house tonight. I'll probably just forget you ever existed in a week."
"I see you're not a boxer guy."
"I actually am. And I used a couple of my tricks to clean up some rats who supposedly call themselves panthers a couple of nights ago. If you want to see some of those tricks, I'd be happy to show you. I can't guarantee you'll be able to leave my house still standing on two feet though."
"Sounds interesting."
I was hoping our conversation would last less than a minute, as I really wanted to get back to bed. But I guess these guys prefer to take their sweet time before actually making their attack. Oh well, life isn't always perfect.
"So you see," Richie said. "The original plan was to take care of you while you were asleep, but I guess you turned out be a light sleeper. So it looks like our plans will have to change a little."
"Yeah, I'm a very light sleeper," I replied. "It really came in handy when I had children. And yeah, your plans will definitely have to change. You know, the only reason I haven't already beaten the crap out of you is that you haven't actually bothered to attack me since you've gotten here. Sure you broke my window, but I can let that slide. Since you clearly are a little uncertain about picking a fight with me, I'd be happy to cut you a deal. If you leave right now and never come back, I'll pretend this never happened. I won't even press charges. I won't even make you pay for the window. Does that sound fair? If not, then I'd be happy to give you and your friends a quick boxing lesson. I've been wanting to get back into training for a while anyway. So what's your decision?"
"Here's my decision...UNLOAD!!"
With that, all five men pulled pistols out of their pockets and aimed them at me. The very instant I saw the men reach into their pockets, I jumped out of the way. You see, I do a pretty good at analyzing people. And these guys definitely looked like the type that would have pistols in their pockets ready to fire at me. I mean, the guns were clearly visible in their pockets. I just had to be ready at every moment. And when that moment finally came, I was able to perfectly dodge every single one of their bullets.
Right after I jumped out of the way of the gunfire, I immediately struck the very first guy I saw in the hands and knocked his pistol clear out of his hands. Not even a split second later, I struck him in the face. With a kick, I struck a second guy in the hands and knocked away his pistol. I then immediately jumped away to avoid at least two more bullets that I knew were coming. They didn't even come close to hitting me. In about two punches and three kicks, two guys were on the ground in pain and another guy lost his gun. After dodging two more bullets, I knocked a third guy to the ground in one punch and kicked the fourth guy's gun away. In one punch and kick, that fourth guy collapsed right against the TV and fell to the ground with it. Normally I'd be pretty concerned about my TV since it's the one of the few things that helps me relax in the evenings, but I was a lot more concerned about a group of scumbags trying to kill me at that moment. After successfully dodging about two of Richie's bullets, I leaped in the air and kicked his pistol against the wall, nearly hitting a lamp. I then proceeded to give Richie a good punch to the stomach. I assumed I was going to finish off everything at that moment, but then something happened that I wasn't entirely expecting. Richie dodged my punch. Oh man, it looked like we had a semi-decent fighter on our hands.
Richie jumped away from me and sprinted to the other side of the room. I turned around and charged at him.
"Jean, throw me the bat!" Richie shouted right as I got close to him.
Before I could attempt another swipe at him, Richie leaped away from me and ran towards the stand that the TV was standing on a second earlier. Jean, the guy that had knocked the TV over, slowly (more than likely in a lot of pain) grabbed a bat from the ground and tossed it at Richie, who caught it. Pardon me for not noticing that bat a second ago. I was a lot more focused on the people that owned it.
Richie held up the bat like he was ready to swing at a curveball. I took a step back and stared at him for a moment. Not something I'm really used to, I'll admit. Boxing and MMA aren't exactly the type of sports that involve bats.
Richie stepped a little closer towards me with a giant grin on his face. He kept the bat positioned like he was going to try to knock my head off. Once again, I needed to be ready at any moment. The instant he swung that bat, I needed to jump and give him a nice kick to the side of the head. That should be enough to where I could knock him senseless and then kick that bat clear out of his hands. Then I could finish him off in a few punches and that would be it. I could hardly wait to clean these idiots off of my floor and finally call it a night.
"Come on, you long-haired dwarf," Richie said, as he continued to walk close to me. "Take another shot. I'm waiting."
"I'm not a baseball expert, but I'm pretty sure that's interference," I replied. "You're pretty much out already, yet you still won't sit back down at the bench. I mean, look at the ground, that's already four strikes."
"I'll show you a strike."
"Oh, that should be interesting. If it's anything like your attempted strikes with bullets, I'd love to see it. At least it gives me a little exercise. And a really good laugh."
"Alex Cooper, was it? You've got quite a mouth on you. Maybe that's where I should hit you. I hope you enjoyed whatever you had for dinner tonight, because it was probably the last time you'll get to eat solid food."
"I actually had a pretty average dinner. I'm not the best at making mashed potatoes. But it's okay, because I'm looking forward to cooking up some delicious turkey burgers for lunch tomorrow. Mmmmmm. While you will busy at the police station with quite a few broken bones."
"We'll see about that."
I was about to throw in another smart remark, but then something else happened. Something I was really hoping wouldn't happen.
"Papa?"
My heard nearly dropped out of my chest.
Oh...no, I thought. Oh God no.
Elena and Yulia both walked into the living room. They took one look at Richie and froze in their tracks.
Richie looked over at the girls, still holding that bat up like he was going to swing it. A grin very slowly appeared on his face. The instant I saw that ugly little grin, I felt hot lava dripping from my brain.
Don't even think about it, I thought, clenching my fists. I'm warning you.
"Hmmm," Richie said, moving close to the girls. "What do we got here?"
As Richie approached the girls with that bat high in the air like that, Elena and Yulia both dropped to the ground and huddled close to each other. The looks on their faces showed intense fear. I suddenly felt steam shoot out of my ears.
Now, I usually try to stay as calm as possible. Even in very dangerous and intense situations, I try my hardest to be as chill as possible. But there is one line that you never cross with me. Ever.
In a very, very loud and menacing tone of voice, I said to Richie: "SO HELP ME GOD, IF YOU LAY ONE FINGER ON THEM, I...WILL...KILL...YOU!" Every syllable of my words were filled with so much rage and fury that the whole apartment practically shook. My heart was beating faster than the speed of sound.
After I made my threat, Richie stopped in his tracks and his ugly grin faded. He looked at me for a brief moment. I could see the terror in his eyes. I legitimately thought he was going to leave a puddle on the ground that I would have to clean up later after the police are gone.
After staring at me for a brief moment, Richie's ugly grin returned to his face. He then threw the bat on the ground, which rolled away out of my sight.
"Relax Bud," Richie said with a tiny chuckle. "I wasn't going to hurt them. I was only having a little fun with them. I used to do the same thing to my little brother. Old habits just die hard, you know?"
I really, really wanted to run up to this guy and knock him out so hard that he wouldn't wake up for another century. But my little babies were sitting right there. Terrified. I couldn't do any more fighting with them right there. I had to get them out of here. They weren't safe in this environment. I needed to get them as far away from here as possible.
"I only wanted to take you out after all," Richie continued. "Hurting two little girls wasn't part of the original plan. And I usually try to stick to the original plan as much as I can. So they should be perfectly fine."
I began to think fast for what options I had. Elena and Yulia were sitting down to the right of him. What I could do is run up and give him a nice kick to the side of the head and knock him over to the left and away from the girls. If the kick was successful, I would have enough time to scoop the girls up and run out of the house. Then I could run over to Hayley's house and call the cops over there. If he manages to dodge the kick, I can give him another kick with my other foot and slam his head against the wall. If he dodges that, I'll just give him a barrage of punches that he won't expect. Then he'll fall to the ground on the left and I can run and grab the girls. Richie was going to regret ever setting foot in this apartment.
"You have some pretty swell fighting skills," Richie said. "I kind of admire you for it. I can probably learn so much from this fight. I'll have plenty of experience if I ever come across a guy like you again. What do you know? You're actually doing me a huge favor. I can't be any more grateful."
NOW! I screamed inside my head.
I charged at Richie, ready to strike my foot against the side of his head. But just as I was about to raise my foot, I felt something very large strike me in the back of the head.
Everything then completely faded to black.
ns 172.70.131.212da2