He knew that it was too late to leave the room. Simon would either hear or see him long before he could make it into another one, so Kyle quickly hid in the one place most people would normally ignore, behind the door they would open.

As he listened to his half-brother’s steps coming closer, he was racking his brain for a way that would allow him to make it out alive. He had always known his half-brother to be a brute, but the state Tim’s body was currently in, only proved that he had vastly underestimated him. He was a lot more menacing than he had ever imagined, a true monster that Marie and his Aunt Kiki had been forced to live with for far too long.

Kyle’s only saving grace was that he wasn’t the only one in the room who needed to fight to survive, and unlike him, Tim quickly demonstrated that he wasn’t someone who would shy away from using violence. After he had delivered a punch, he started to get out of the bathtub, placing one foot over, but in doing so he slipped on a bit of his own blood, his other leg still trapped.

From the looks of it, that one punch had taken a lot of energy out of him, not too surprising considering how much he had been tortured already. He barely had the strength to put his hand out, to cushion his falling body.

Looking up, he continued to take his other leg out of the bathtub, yet Simon had already recovered. Not only that, but his leg was lifted and there wasn’t much that Tim could do as he saw a foot getting closer and closer to his face. Just before it hit, though, a flying shampoo bottle hit the assailant right on the nose.

Alas, despite the teenager using all of his strength, the damage was negligible, yet it was enough to make Simon’s aim slightly off. Without this intervention, Tim’s skull might have fractured from the kick. Still hurt, this amount was something he could bear through. Not losing any time, he tackled his torturer. After grabbing Simon around the waist, he pushed off both his legs to slightly lift him off the ground and slammed him onto the floor, positioning himself on top.

‘I guess that guy had a lot more strength than I thought. Gangsters are used to being in these types of situations, fighting for their lives, but…what do I do now?’ Kyle wondered, his inexperience clearly showing.

He still had the knife in his hand, yet he hesitated to use it. Slashing and stabbing someone were two different things, especially since he had only done the former earlier by following his self-preservation instinct. The idea that he could be the one to end someone’s life, even if they were a monster like his half-brother…

Squinting his eyes, Kyle was ready to make a break for it. Right now, Tim was in an advantageous situation, so now was his best chance to get to safety. Although Simon would know what he had done, he would just have to take the punishment head on.

‘What if he tells Damion about this, though… or what if Simon dies… will Mum get punished instead of me? Will Dad get revenge on Marie and Aunt Kiki?’

“Hey!” Tim shouted out, noticing that the teenager was making a run for it. “If you don’t want to get involved, then call Damion. Tell him to come here to deal with a traitor!” The gangster continued to punch Simon, who kept both hands up, guarded and covering his head.

‘That’s right!!! He’s a traitor!!! Simon had captured and tortured another member of the Underdogs here!!! With this being the case, Dad won’t punish me, but he might even reward me! That will solve all my problems! He won’t be able to tell him anything, and all of us will be able to live in peace without him!’

Taking the phone out of his pocket, he took it off aeroplane mode. A number of messages came through, including that of missed calls, but he didn’t have time to look at them. He pressed the one speed dial button he had never used before.

‘Of course, he won’t answer a call from me during working time. I’ll just have to send him a message.’

Come to Simon’s apartment now! I need help!

With the message sent, Kyle could only hope his father would rush over, but looking ahead, something had happened. Tim had stopped punching. His body was as still as a statue, and the next second, as Simon tried to get up, the gangster’s body fell to the slide slamming against the floor.

Now that he had a better view, Kyle saw that his would be saviour was dead. Sticking out from his temple was the set of pliers his half-brother had brought in with him to the bathroom. During the struggle, using them, he had slammed them right into the side of Tim’s head. They were shoved with extreme force and depth.

Standing up, Simon looked to be a bit sore himself. His body hurt, but that didn’t stop him as he walked past the corpse in anger, slamming his foot right into the pliers, sending them deeper into the man’s skull.

“Shit, I didn’t want to kill him.” Simon gruffed as he approached Kyle. “I still needed the intel he had! This is all your fault!! You should have never been born in the first place!!!”

The teenager cursed himself for having texted in the bathroom. He rushed towards the door, attempting to get out, but his half-brother’s steps were bigger than his. Just as Kyle opened the door slightly, he received a kick to his side, and fell to the floor on his back.

Instinctively, he put up his arms, as he had seen Simon do earlier, though it had little to no effect. His half-brother kicked him once, destroying his feeble resistance, and the second kick made him lose consciousness, the last thing he saw was the sadistic smile on the adult’s face.

He had no idea how long he had been out, but as he woke up, it felt like all the pain in his body was coming to him at once. His whole body was throbbing with each beat of his heart, and when opening his eyes, he was surprised to see someone standing there.

“M-mum… i-is that y-you?!” Kyle mumbled, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

As he tried to stand up, he felt his hand touch a liquid, and from what he saw, he appeared to be still in the same bathroom. This made it even more bizarre that he saw his mother there. Was it all a dream? When looking closer at his mother, he saw that she held a pocket knife in her hands… next to her was Simon, lying motionlessly in a pool of blood.

Before he could comprehend the situation, there were knocks on the door.

“Simon, are you in there?!” A deep and familiar voice resounded.

*****

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