Chapter One
Billy stretched his neck from side to side as he waited for Wilson to get out of the way so he could punch out and get the fuck out of there. Eight fucking hours of overtime and he was done in. This made it four days in a row and tomorrow was Friday, damn it, he didn't want to be stuck working until nearly midnight. Management needed to give in and admit they needed more people on the second shift instead of forcing the morning shift to double up.
It was dark as he made his way out into the street, waving to the half dozen guys spilling out with him who were headed over to the west end busses. He was going east: the only one headed in that direction. Usually that didn't bother him, but it seemed pretty damned dark tonight, clouds hiding the nearly full moon. Billy frowned as he walked along. Several streetlamps were out as well, and the street in front of him seemed to close in like a tunnel.
It was a warm evening, but a sudden breeze had him shivering, goosebumps rising up on his arms. The shadows seemed full of eyes, his every step dogged.
He shook off the strange feeling of being watched and strode a little faster. It was just his imagination. He was tired and hungry and it was dark and his mind was playing tricks on him.
Of course, those footsteps didn't sound like a trick. In fact they sounded like more than one person following him, like maybe there were three or four pairs of feet to go with the eyes boring into him.
He sped up some more, letting his backpack slide off and into one hand. He wrapped his fingers around one of the straps, ready to heft it if he had to. He started to cut across the street. Southdown would take him home the long way round but it would be more populated this time of night than Franklin Road was.
He was about halfway across the street when the footsteps grew shadows, and had nearly made it to the corner when the shadows melted into men. Well, kids really, teenagers. A whole gang of them. They were all dressed alike, in jeans and black t-shirts, their shoes bright and shiny in the darkness. Fuck, those things were expensive, certainly way out of his own budget. They each wore a band around their left arm. He couldn't make out the color in the darkness.
"Hey man, you can't come this way unless you pay the toll." The speaker had a scar on one cheek and was a good head taller than Billy, probably had fifty pounds of muscle on him, too. A hand was laid flat on his chest and Billy was shoved back, right against another gang member.
"Watch where you're going, man."
"Oh, so now you're dissing us as well as trying to walk through without paying the toll?"
"Hey, this guy is dissing us!"
"Yeah. Get him."
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