Hammered Humanity (✅)

Chapter Seven

The sun had just gone down and darkness was quickly approaching in the time it took for the high school janitor to walk from his local bar to his truck. The bar was a favorite hangout for a bunch of his klansmen buddies and they had just met to discuss plans for their next meeting.

The middle aged man was so caught up in the thought of leading the others in their ceremony, that he didn't notice the figure in a dark coat with the collar turned up to hide their face.

The figure quickly closed the distance between himself and the Klan leader, the victim having no time to react whatsoever.

The figure struck the janitor on the side of the head with his special 32oz ball pen hammer, causing the man to crumble to the hard ground below.

"Ugh! What the fuck?! Do yer know who you messin' with?!" the janitor yelled before noticing the big and shiny weapon, the name Sarah engraved in cursive down the side.

"That's Ray's hammer!" the janitor, with blood gushing from his head, spluttered idiotically. "He never goes anywhere without his hammer, but yer not Ray!"

"How very observant of you..." the figure spoke monotonously. "We obviously aren't Ray, but his hammer has done a very good job these past few weeks. Make sure to thank him for us."

Before the janitor could process the man's words, the figure raised the hammer, but suddenly he was tackled out of nowhere, kicks coming from every angle around him.

The figure's first thought was the other Klansmen had ran out to aid their leader, but that idea was immediately debunked when he realized both him and the janitor were being assaulted by a large group of Latino men.

The hooded man quickly made sure to properly cover up before breaking free and sprinting away, grabbing the hammer on his way. The last thing he needed was to leave evidence behind.

He looked back to see the others still kicking his target while the rest of the group failed to keep up with him.

'We have a plan and that doesn't involve getting beaten to death by the local Hispanic gang!' he thought. 'I hate when one of our projects gets ahead of itself, but no matter. This just adds a new pawn to the chessboard.'

Greg finally entered his house to find his parents watching TV.

"So how was the date?" his mother asked without even looking up at him.

"Oh, Brenda, let the boy have his secrets," his father scolded, winking at his son who promptly rolled his eyes.

"Sadly, it wasn't meant to be," Greg answered, not exactly lying.

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm so sorry!" his mother cooed, jumping up to crush him in a hug.

"Don't worry, bud, she's out there," his father added. "And hey, maybe she'll show up sooner than expected!"

"What do you mean?" Greg asked, raising an eyebrow in concern.

"Well, tomorrow night we invited a few people from town to have an end of summer cookout!" his mom answered for her husband. "We're having Nick, the Robinsons, and the Louis family that just moved to town! They have a son with special needs and a daughter your age!"

"So don't be a perv if she goes swimming," his dad laughed as his wife slapped his arm, both not noticing when Greg left without another word.

Up in his room, Greg locked his door and took off his clothes, staring at the bruises that were beginning to darken.

"We'll be sore tomorrow, but at least they didn't hit anything noticable," he muttered to himself as he placed the hammer and jacket under his bed before collapsing on top of it.

"I guess we'll have to put off our project until Wednesday and just be a perfect family tomorrow," he sighed before drifting off to sleep.