Invisible Boy

Chapter 13

They're waiting for me.

There's no other reason they're here and it's the only reason I walk up to the car we were in earlier. I knock on the window. There's a soft click of the doors before the back door is pushed open. Sure enough, Clover is sitting in the car with a smile that only grows when the car door shuts behind me and I reappear, bag in hand.

"My, my, my." Clover whistles when I hand him the bag. "You actually got it."

His eyes widen when he sees how much I got. Throwing his head back, Clover cackles in a rough sound like that of a crumbling paper bag. He hands it off to Mop Head, who shouts in victory while Blondie is already digging her hands through it.

"Here I was startin' to think you were tryin' to play us," Clover says while, once again, throwing his arm around my shoulder. I scowl.

"I couldn't get out in time before they noticed the money was gone."

"But you got it and yourself out before gettin' caught. You're truly excellent thief material."

I'm too mentally exhausted to sass. Sighing, I ask, "Is that all for tonight?"

"Oh, why so down?" Mop Head teases, leaning back to pat my face with a stack of cash. I clench my eyes shut while he does so. I just want to go home.

Clover pats my shoulder far more roughly than he needs to. "Hey now, he could have been caught. Let's go a little easy on 'em. Besides, I think he's learned not to be a smug little shit all the time, haven't ya?"

I don't answer, which is good enough for him. Snickering, he shoves me into the door again.

"Now get out. We need ya rested for Saturday."

"And what about after?" I ask. For a moment Clover seems pleased, probably thinking I've decided to switch sides, but I crush that hope real quick. "I don't want to do this. How come you're the only ones getting a pay off? After Saturday, won't you have enough to live off of? Leave me and my family alone and I'll do it without question."

"You'll do it without question anyways," Clover growls.

"And if I don't?"

Clover moves too fast for me to respond. I'm shoved into the door again, but this time, there's a gun pressed into the bottom of my chin. The barrell is pressed so roughly that it's hard for me to breathe. I gasp for breath. Clover only pushes forward until I'm clawing at his wrist.

"Listen 'ere. I don't give a shit about your moral compass. You're one of us now, Freak. Saturday, the day after, a year from now, you'll do whatever I tell ya because if ya don't I'm gonna kill everyone you love and make you watch. Do you understand?"

It's a rhetorical question seeing as I can't breathe.

Clover retreats allowing me to take a deep breath. My body is wracked with coughs while I try to regain my composure, taking deep breaths followed by short ones then not able to make them at all. I'm rubbing my neck that's throbbing and probably already red.

Like earlier, Clover opens the door and pushes me out. I roll out onto the road, hissing when the asphalt rips open the skin of my elbow. Looking up, I see Clover glaring down at me when he says, "You're not the hero anymore."

He slams the door. The car peels off onto the street. The second remains, sitting silently. Whoever is within is likely watching and I can't help but to wonder if it's Kane. The thought infuriates me.

"What are you doing, Micah?" I whisper while getting to my feet. Blood is dripping down my arm. I try picking some of the rocks out of the wound, hissing each time I do.