𝐀 𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐠'𝐬 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐧 | 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 1

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 5 - Hangout spot for Thugs

💜✨♕︎  𝐉𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐚 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐬𝐨𝐧  ♕︎✨💜

Kendra has an eight-month-old baby girl and a two-year-old son. I'm not surprised she didn't show up to school, she's a single mother and she takes care of her kids alone. Sometimes her neighbors watch the kids while she goes to school, but when they don't she has to stay home and look after them. Every day I wake up I ask God to not make something like that happen to me.

I want children, but I'm not ready yet.

Saturday night was a case of 'Having fun gone wrong' and luckily, it wasn't too wrong. I wipe the sweat off my forehead as I keep walking, the road is rocky and bumpy, and the lane that a car can barely pass through is lined with zink fences that have been spray painted on. A few trees on people's property hang over the road to provide cool shade from the mercilessly hot sun, and I pass a few shops on my way home. I was walking peacefully and humming a song when one of the zincs flew open with a screech, startling me.

Three men in full black outfits and ski masks come out, when they saw me they paused and assessed me.

“What you doin' on Krimsun Lane, little lady?” one of them asked, eyes traveling up and down my much shorter body.

“I'm going home,” I answer timidly.

“Don't ya know ya ain't supposed to walk here alone past six in the evening?” another guy said. I recoiled to the fence behind me when he brought a long black gun from behind his back to hold up in the air. “Woah, chill shawty. I ain't gon' hurt ya. First time seein' a gun?”

“No,” my voice was soft and tiny, I held my rapidly rising and falling chest. “It's my first time seeing one so big though. It's terrifying to look at.”

They chuckled at me.

“Alright, little girl, run along now. Don't let nightfall catch you on this lane. You're too beautiful to wind up naked and dead under a bridge or in a field,” the third guy pulled out a gun and pulled the safety off. “And remember, Snitches Get Stitches, ya ain't seen us or heard from us. Aight?”

“Yes, sir,” I straightened and gulped, holding my head down.

“Walk safe. May God cover you under his blood. Too many young girls go missing and end up with their throats slit in this town. It's disheartening,” the first one who spoke to me patted me on the shoulder before slinking away with his friends.

I cooled down soon after and kept walking. I just met thugs, probably gang members, and they didn't hurt me. Granny always told me thugs were heartless and ruthless people – did she lie to me?

That wasn't a show of heartlessness.

Well, whatever it was isn't any of my business, I'm just glad they didn't harm me. I also had no idea about the rules of this place, or that many girls go missing in town. I checked my wristwatch and saw that it was already twelve minutes past six, and the sun was beginning to set.

I walked more briskly this time, determined to get home before it was too late. If I hadn't stayed back for extra classes I would've been home by four. I was buried in thought thinking about what I had learned today when I came across two men leaning on a white wall, they were chatting with joints in between their pointer and middle finger. I slowed down, eyeing them cautiously, before passing by as if I didn't see them. They went silent, I felt their gazes burning holes in my back, I didn't turn around. I was too afraid to.

The nearer I got to where I lived the more men I came across in little groups at random spots on the lane, and each time I arrived they stopped talking – all eyes and attention on me. My heart was beating erratically in my chest, I felt like crying. I walked here often and never before have I come across many people, it's usually an empty road. I'm scared. The earlier warnings rang in my head like church bells.