Old Fashioned

Chapter 8

     BANG! BANG! BANG!

     The sound of someone pounding the front door the following morning startled both Alex and Tai awake. For a moment, Alex believed he had merely been dreaming, but that didn't explain why Tai was awoken as well.

     They'd been sleeping curled up together, with Tai's back pulled up against Alex's chest, and his arms fully wrapped around him. Now he was gripping onto him with a newfound intensity, slipping into protection mode.

     "We know you're in there, Wiz!" a voice shouted from below. "Come on out!"

     Tai sat bolt upright, eyes wide in fear, turning white as a sheet. Alex nearly jumped out of his skin, sitting up too, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, the adrenaline washing all traces of his fatigue down the drain.

     "What the hell?" he asked in a raspy morning voice.

     Tai appeared frozen for a moment, before the door was banged on yet again, intensifying with each passing second, signifying the visitor's festering impatience, which wrenched him from his stupor.

     "Stay here," Tai ordered in a voice that didn't want to work, before quickly slipping out of the bed. Tugging on a pair of jeans and a ratty black t-shirt, he silently slipped something from the nightstand drawer without letting Alex see, then headed downstairs.

     Alex was still barely processing what was going on, so he let Tai go without another word. Once he was gone, however, Alex slid out from under the covers, haphazardly pulling on a pair of pants, and padded over to the door, listening intently for whatever conversation was about to take place. Based on the hostile voices, he wasn't dense enough to assume this would be a pleasant exchange.

     The banging didn't stop - not until Tai got all the way downstairs and cracked the door open, and when that happened, things only got exponentially worse.

     Despite the apartment having one of those chain locks that kept the door from opening more than a few inches, Alex heard the screws snap right out of the wood as the door was kicked in.

     Several sets of footsteps barreled inside, followed by sounds of a struggle as Tai yelled at them to get out, before he was cut off by a strangled cry, with several coughs and gasps after.

     "Where is it?!" the same voice from earlier demanded. "Where the FUCK is it?!"

     At the first sign of violence, Alex flung the bedroom door open and flew down the stairs, only using about half of them on the way; it was honestly a miracle he didn't fall.

     He stumbled upon a group of six men who had flooded the small entryway, all adorned with guns, piercings, tattoos, and deep scowls. One appeared to be in charge while the rest were merely grunts.

     Tai had been forced to his knees, each arm pinned by one of them, completely immobilized. A bloody gash had sprouted on his forehead, dangerously close to the knot where his concussion had been, with a lone pistol kicked across the hardwood.

     Upon hearing Alex enter, their heads snapped up and the grunts not restraining Tai pointed their guns at him, looking for all the world like they were begging for an excuse to use them.

     "Who the fuck is this?!" the ringleader snarled at Tai.

     "N-No one!" Tai coughed out. "He's no one, I swear- he has nothing to do with this-"

     "Bullshit!" the man snarled, kicking him in the gut, causing Tai to double over with a wheeze. "You don't keep company unless-"

     The man paused mid-sentence, looking back at Alex, then noted how he was missing a shirt. The pieces seemed to click into place, and as he put two and two together, a sick grin weaseled its way onto his face.