Due to the events that had occurred, Gary had trouble sleeping. It was a little past midnight, and he had already received his usual message stating that it would be the full moon in six days.
‘If I can’t find a way to get rid of these markings, in six days time, both Barry and Gil could be in serious trouble.’ was Gary’s thought.
A few seconds later, after having this thought, Gary had received the other message about receiving stat points for successfully having gotten rid of one of his marks.
‘Whoa, what the hell just happened?’
At that moment, his body started to feel stronger. His muscles bulged for a few seconds, and his insides started to adjust before relaxing again. It was a similar feeling to when Gary distributed his stat points, so he immediately went to look at his system screen.
The first thing Gary could see was he had gained 100 exp points. As for his stats, one thing had improved among them all, and that was his Dexterity.
[After successfully hunting a target, a single stat point has randomly been allocated]
Reading the notification, Gary understood what had happened. Still, he wondered if the stat could go into his health or energy. If it couldn’t, then it was better to use his stat points from levelling up and put them towards Health or energy.
It was then checking out his system that Gary had seen something else and another notification screen.
[Although you had successfully hunted your first target, you didn’t eat him!]
[In order to grow stronger, consume your hunting target for additional stat points]
At first, Gary was just happy about receiving additional strength. His goal was to get stronger so he could help out his family, but then when he realised what had happened, who’s marking had disappeared. Everything was starting to make sense. The system message had explained it to him. There could only have been one person.
Gary had the sheets covered over his head, and he was shaking at the thought.
‘I was the one that ended his life, his life. He actually won’t live to see tomorrow. He won’t ever think or feel again.’ Shaking his head, he started to try to reason with himself. ‘But he tried to kill me? It could have easily been me not seeing the next day.
‘He actually stabbed me, that…that bastard stabbed me!’ Thinking about this, Gary was tensing his fist. The more he repeated the scene in his head, the angrier he got.
Images back to when he was in the alleyway appeared, of Gary on top of Barry, having pinned him to the ground. It had continued off, from before the policeman had interrupted him. At that moment, Gary saw images of himself digging into Barry and eating his flesh.
‘If you were going to die anyway, you could have at least let me eat your flesh. What a waste of energy and probably stat points as well.’ Gary thought.
A lapse in thought, Gary didn’t know what it was and soon pulled the bedsheets off his head.
‘What was that thought? Why did I just think like that? I…I don’t feel like myself anymore. It’s more like another personality is inside of me, trying to get out!’ Gary’s body was sweating.
“Arghh!” Gary moaned, pulling the bed sheets towards him and ripping them slightly with his fingernails. He killed someone, and he didn’t even feel bad about it. He didn’t understand what was going on.
“Gary…is everything okay?” His sister asked, rubbing her eyes. “You’re covered in sweat. Did you have a bad dream or something?”
A bad dream. Gary wished it was all a bad dream at this moment, but for some reason, seeing his sister next to him had calmed him down. The strange thoughts he was having were chucked to the back of his mind. He couldn’t let his sister see him like that.
Amy started to rumble through her drawer by her side until eventually pulling out what looked like a pendant. She then walked over from her bed to Gary’s, who flinched a little. It was a strange reaction, but his sister wasn’t scared and carried on moving forward and then slowly placed the pendant around his neck.
“I want you to have this. I realised the other day when we were speaking you have a lot on your mind, and for you to act out like that at school and now have trouble sleeping, you must be under a lot of stress.
“When I have exams and stuff, I just hold onto that and start thinking about dad. It’s the only thing I have left from him. I think you need it more than I do right now.”
Gary wasn’t sure what Amy had done. Placing the strange pendant over him, it felt like a magic spell. All his worries were disappearing. He wasn’t sure if it was a placebo effect or just because it had come from his sister.
“This was from Dad. I can’t take this.” Gary said, attempting to pull it off, but she soon pushed down on his hand.
“Please, I need some sleep, so wear the damn thing.” Amy turned around, covered herself in sheets, and went back to sleep.
The small interaction he had with his sister had set his mind clear again, but it didn’t let him escape from the reality of what he had just done. As Gary was going to try and get some shut-eye, his sensitive ears could pick something else up.
It sounded like someone was sobbing. Looking to his left and seeing that his sister was fast asleep, Gary decided to head towards the noise, and that’s when he could see it. His mother was sitting in the kitchen at the dining table with a bunch of letters in front of her.
Her hands were constantly rubbing her face as she was highly stressed out.
‘What am I going to do? I can’t delay it any longer, but if we move to a tier four city. Then their life, their future and everything will be ruined for them.’ His mother thought.
She could see a shadow cast over the papers looking up. It was her son Gary, and in his hand, he had something for her.
“Take it, mum, it’s money. Money I have been saving up for a long time. I’ve been doing things here and there, coming up with businesses with Tom.” Gary answered. He was hoping he could have come up with a better lie, but in the end, he wasn’t able to.
His mother, looking at the money in Gary’s hand, could tell that there were a lot of bills. It was no small amount for a high schooler. Which meant either he had been saving money for a long time or Gary had done something else to get the money.
“We’re not,” Gary replied. “Me and Amy both know we are not okay. We know how hard you work, mum. I always wanted to help. Now’s not the time to be stubborn. If we can’t pay some of these bills, we will have to move. So just take the money.” Gary said, leaving it out on the table and walking back to his bed.
He had learnt something from Amy. If someone refuses to take something, then just give it to them and run away before they can refuse.
“Gary.” His mother called out. “Thank you…”
Heading back to bed, Gary realised something speaking to his sister and mother. His motivation for doing everything he had done in the first place. He needed to make money and protect his family from the members of the Underdogs.
Damion and the others had killed plenty, of course they had. The gangs in the area and others were killed every day. They didn’t hesitate, and these were the type of people he was up against.
‘There’s a good chance that at some point, I may need to kill again and if it’s for the sake of protecting my family. I’ll do it in a heartbeat.’ Gary told himself.
What Gary didn’t know was that this exact thought that he had would come far sooner than he thought. Outside his apartment block, a figure could be seen standing through the smog staring at the very top into Gary’s apartment building.