Rags To Riches: The Riveting Tale Of Jason Smith

Chapter 0002

Jason grumbled as he approached the huge abandoned warehouse, "What sort of punishment is this? Why will she tell me to come and steal something from the gangsters here? I'm sure she knows they'll beat me up if they find out. but since I need the money from her I have to swallow my pride and do it..."

He crept into the abandoned warehouse and luckily for him, there was no one around. The entire place reeked of nicotine and masculine sweat, the floors were stained with grease and there were barrels of oil packed at different locations. He also saw a brand new hot rod car and he shook his head wryly, '...that must've been a stolen item.

He was about to walk up to it and check it out when he heard the revving of car and bike engines outside. 'Oh no! They're back!'

He couldn't leave the warehouse, so he quickly ran behind one of the barrels and hid just in time as the huge gates opened up to usher in the poorly dressed gangsters that were around fifteen in number– They were all dressed in different shades of black, with rags tied around their heads and wrists.

"Yeah!" One of them yelled loudly, "That was one big heist!"

"Hell yeah, I can't wait to go on another one," another of them said,

"Another one?!" Someone else yelled, "Relax man! We've got enough, let's drink, have fun and make merry. There's more than enough to spare!!"

"Hahahaha!!" His colleagues laughed raucously in chorus,

"We're gonna go to the strip club and get ourselves some bitches!!"

'They're distracted now, I think I can find a way to escape, I can't steal her jewel with these guys around...' Jason thought as he looked around, trying to find an escape route out of the warehouse.

As Jason tried to crawl away, his hand hit a dusty cloth and it sprayed dust on his face. Suddenly, he had the urge to sneeze but he covered his mouth and muffled the sound, "Achoo!"

He froze in fear thinking that the gangsters had heard him but they continued their noise, meaning that they didn't hear a thing. He was about to heave a sigh of relief when the leader said something that made him almost piss his pants in fear, "Shut up everybody!!"

The whole place became as silent as a graveyard and all the gangsters stared at their leader, who now had their undivided attention.

"Did you guys hear that?" He asked,

"Hear what?" One of them asked in return,

"The whole place was noisy so if there was any sound that was made, I'm not sure we would've heard it..." Another one defended himself,

"Tsk! Pathetic excuse," the leader sneered, "a good thug needs to have his senses with him at all times. Like now, we have an intruder amongst us!"

There were murmurs amongst the crowd in response to the leader's statement. As he spoke those words, Jason felt fear and panic course through his veins.

'I have to get out of here! If I don't, these thugs will find me., to hell with Amara's jewel, I have to get out of here. I can always back' Jason thought,

"Fan out! Find that intruder!" Jason felt his heart sink into his stomach at those words and he moved his body, lest the thugs caught up with him there.

He tried to run towards the open gates but it seemed he underestimated the speed of the thugs because they caught up with him and dragged him to their leader.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" The leader mocked as he bent down and stared into Jason's green eyes.

"N..n.. nothing sir, I just h.. happened to stray into your hideout, I mean no harm." Jason stuttered in fear,

"You mean no harm, huh?" The leader sneered, "Then what are you doing in my den?"

"B.but I told you, I j..just happened to stray into this place," Jason replied shrewdly,

"Hahahahaha!" The leader laughed heartily at Jason's cowardice, "I hear you. Stray dog. Well, let me teach you a lesson so that next time, you won't stray into people's homes again."

"N..n..no, please don't, I...I promise not to come here again." Jason tried to plead his way out of the situation but the leader of the gangsters wasn't buying it. He beckoned on his men and they descended on Jason, beating him to a pulp.

As they were beating him up, one of them who seemed like he was intoxicated by a hard drug lifted an iron rod and hit Jason hard on the head. The hit instantly rendered him unconscious and that was when they stopped beating him and unanimously turned to the one that hit him, "Why did you do that? Look, he's dead, what are we going to do about his body?"

"Shut up, fools! He's not dead." The leader of the group said after checking Jason's pulse, "I think he just suffered a mild concussion, but we need to get him out of here."

The gangsters looked at each other in slight confusion, their leader was a learned man so sometimes, he used words that they did not understand.

"Don't stand there doing nothing! Help me move this body!" The leader snapped at them, "And as for you, Smoke, you'll be punished for your recklessness, if you were the one that was hit like that, would you have survived?"

Smoke grumbled a reply with his head bent in shame, knowing fully well that his punishment wouldn't be slight at all.

****

After Jason was hit on the head, he began to see a strange memory in his head. In the memory, he saw a middle-aged man giving him a pendant. The man was speaking in hurried hushed tones and the only words that Jason could make out were; "you're the heir... There's a car accident... Enemies that want to kill you..."

He tried to focus harder and listen some more but he fell into total unconsciousness.