The World Below [DNF]

Chapter 31: Touch-starved

George POV

It wasn't no longer a surprise that life could change rapidly. George had experienced it once already when his mother left and his father moved him across the world. 

Waking up in that empty warehouse, to his friends shaking him desperately with tears streaming down their faces. It didn't just change his life situation, it changed him on a much deeper level. The situation still appeared so surreal. The blood from the dead man that had covered him from head to toe, his dead father's body on the floor, the intense pain radiation from his throat.

He rarely thought back to that day or reminisced over the journey that'd taken him to where he was today. His father still remained a heartless monster in George's eyes. Death was the least he deserved. 

But parts of him could never shake the loss of security that he'd felt when he'd realized what had happened. It was bound to happen at some point, and George knew that his dad had been aware of that fact. 

George's own roll became clear after that day. However, he'd witnessed first-hand the flaws in his dad's way of running his gambling empire. Fear was a powerful weapon but too much could result in desperation, and a desperate person was unpredictable.

George hated unpredictable people. 

The exact details of his father's death was unclear. That it had been an execution was obvious, but how the people had known where to look was still a mystery. Karl and Sapnap had both witnessed it, but both claimed to not know how it all happened. If he believed them or not was up for debate. Nonetheless, it wouldn't change the outcome in any ways, so George didn't waste energy dwelling.

But one question had bugged him since day one. 

What really happened with Clay? 

George spent years trying to get answers, but it was as if the boy never existed. It drove him insane in the beginning, but it became too unbearable, and his new "work" didn't leave much time for feelings. Sapnap used to tease him to try and get him to react, however George simply wouldn't allow himself to feel. He knew that it would be his doom once the mental barriers would crash. But if the death of his dad taught him anything, was that there's no point in thinking too far ahead. George expected to face the same fate one day and it was impossible to know when. There was no way out of for him. He resented his dad for making sure that George wouldn't have another choice then to get involved in his shady world. 

But his dad had been right nonetheless, George fitted well into this type of stuff.

School wasn't an option after that day either, he went straight into planning his future in other ways.

However, George was aware that he couldn't use the same method of controll as his father had done. He was merely a teenager when it happened, and he would've been seen as an easy target. 

George decided that he needed a different tactic. The tactic in question was named Schlatt. His tactic consisted of a greedy, cruel bastard named Schlatt or more commonly known as "404". The man possessed the same intriguing qualities as his dad, but lacked any form of strategical thinking. That was George part in all of this. Schlatt was the face outwards and George was the brain. It was sort of a protective mask for George. Schlatt adored the power and money that he received from everyone believing he ruled an entire gambling empire and George gladly stepped back to the security of not begin seen as the main man behind the operation.

His friends had surprisingly enough tagged along once George had been forced to explain his diseased dad's occupation. That Sapnap and Quackity had agreed to partake might not have been too surprising. However, his shock when Karl chose to join them as well, was unmatched. He might have been the only one with a realistic chance of a normal future. The reason later revealed itself to be love, love for the ravenette boy.