BlueK Dynasty: The 1st Seven Days by m.o mcleod

stay here? This place is empty.”   
    “ Not for
long it won’t be,” answered VIN. “As soon as it opens up tomorrow
morning, someone’s going to find your pretty little Mona. That was
her name, right?   
    Leon looked as if he was
about to cry all over again.   
    “ Leave
him alone,” said Santino.   
    VIN huffed. “Stop trying
to be Mr. Save-a-Captain, alright?”   
    Santino ignored VIN and
his childish ways, and walked back toward the break room. Kosner
followed, leaving VIN with Leon.   
    “ Well,
are you coming?”   
    Leon jumped at VIN’s
voice. He didn’t want to go anywhere, not with these guys. He
didn’t know what was going on. All he wanted to do was go home, but
his parents probably would be there watching his nieces and
nephews. He didn’t want to bring this drama back to his house,
especially since it involved the death of his
coworker.   
    Leon shuffled his feet for
a moment and followed the two guys. The big one came behind him,
and he truly felt his life was in danger. What if these guys were
kidnappers and were trying to hold him for ransom in trade for his
parents’ four-bedroom house? All around the big cities, especially
Alexandria, kidnapping and ransom cases were becoming the norm. The
schemes went like this: kidnap someone with a huge house, and have
them sign it over in trade for the loved one.   
    Leon didn’t know what was
going on. There were a million and one questions going through his
head. It seemed as if the tall one was the leader. Still, nothing
could explain why they looked hideous, like monsters out of a book.
Though they dressed themselves up, they couldn’t fool the naked
eye. They weren’t anything like average citizens for
sure.   
    Out on the empty
backstreet, Leon saw things he had never seen before. A slight
drizzle had begun, and it seemed to distort everything. The dim
streetlights glowed bright. He noticed the cracks in the
pavement—all of them, even the tiny fractures. He noticed the
graffiti on the buildings, how colorful and intricate the patterns
were. Even the night wasn’t black, more like a grayish coal color.
The stars, though still blocked out by the city’s murky smog,
seemed to twinkle a bit. Leon’s vision had doubled, even
tripled.   
    “ What’s
happened to me?” he whispered to himself. Then he felt a hard shove
from behind.   
    “ Keep it
moving.” VIN said.   
    Santino looked back at
Leon and VIN. For some reason VIN had taken a liking to the new
guy, and not in a good way. “Hey, Leon, let me talk to you
quickly.”   
    Leon was glad he had a
reason to get away from this bully. He made his way up to the
front, and came in between the smaller one and the taller one on
his right. “What’s your name?” he asked the tall
one.   
    “ Santino.”   
    Leon pointed at Kosner and
asked him the same thing.   
    “ Call me
Kosner. The guy behind us is called VIN.”   
    “ As in
the vehicle number of a car?” asked Leon. He couldn’t believe his
luck. Here he was being kidnapped by three thugs. His mother would
have a fit.   
    Santino looked over Leon’s
head. Kosner looked back at him with a ‘yeah, he went there’
look.   
    “ No, his
real name is Vincin,” said Santino. This new guy turned him off. He
felt Leon had a judgmental vibe and wondered how he would affect
the group’s camaraderie.   
    Santino directed the
others toward the AirTrains. The Trinidad Gym was in the middle of
the city, and they needed to get there as quickly as possible.
Walking any farther was out of the question since there were too
many of them. No way could they go unnoticed.   
    The four followed the
walking traffic into the AirTrains tunnel that led up to the
platform.   
    “ Keep
your head down and don’t talk to anyone,” Santino instructed the
group.   
    “ VIN,
try not to mess with anyone, including babies and pets,” joked
Kosner.   
    The men huddled together
as they made their way through