The noise of his foot hitting the ball was only outmatched by the noise of the ball connecting directly with Freddie’s nose. Unlike Gregory, he hadn’t been expecting the sudden return and soon found himself sprawling backwards into the grass. Even Gregory himself stood there dumbfounded for a few moments since even he hadn’t expected his kick to work that well. Then came the sudden shouts of Freddie’s friends on the field and he saw seven guys running toward him with angry looks on their faces. Brilliant.


    Taking off into a run, he immediately broke for the gates to the park. With no one else around he sure as hell didn’t want Freddie’s cronies to get their hands on him. It didn’t take him long to work out that they were going to get to the entrance before he was. One he could have handled, two or three even but there were going to be at least five or six of them there before he was and he had no chance with those odds. The high fences around the park’s perimeter meant that he wasn’t getting out any other way, certainly not whilst being chased. So Gregory quickly took a sharp turn and ran toward a smaller brick wall that he quickly vaulted over in order tond in the enclosed gardens of the park. It was a cerge enough to get lost in and had plenty of hiding spots.


    Apparently none of Freddie’s friends had it in them to vault the wall in the way Gregory had done which bought him some time. He carefully slid under a thornyyer of bushes, not without a good degree of pain in the process, and then settled to silence. Footsteps soon followed as did voices.


    “Freddie for fuck sake put that away! Come back to the game, he’s…” Jte’s voice.


    “Shut the fuck up! That little prick’s not gonna be able to kick anythin’ again!” Freddie screamed.


    Gregory shifted slightly through the bushes to glimpse through a small gap. What he saw made his heart almost fall into his stomach. Freddie had a knife.


    He’d always seemed unstable but a fucking knife!? That definitely took this from the ‘not wanting a wedgie’ scenario it would have been three years ago and gave it some underwear staining new possibilities. Gregory checked his hiding ce and let out a silent breath. At least he’d picked a reasonably good spot to keep away from these lunatics.


    “Find him for me!” Freddie’s voice again, closer this time.


    “Fred, mate, he’s…” One of the others, unsure of where this was heading.


    “I said find him!” Definitely unhinged.


    What followed was the most tense and terrifying half hour of Gregory’s life. It hadn’t taken them long to start snooping around his hiding ce but thankfully the two who hade looking didn’t particrly want to get sliced up by thorn bushes for Freddie’s grudge. They didn’t get near enough to spot him. After a while the sound of footsteps had died down and the sky had begun to grow dark.


    Gregory thought it was time to move and quietly began to shuffle toward the gap in the bushes where he could stand up without hurting himself too badly. That was when he felt the earth beneath his hand give way to something cold, smooth and small. At first he flinched thinking that perhaps he’d just picked up a slug or a worm but as he turned his head to nce down along his right side he saw the tiny shard of metal gleaming in the dirt. Curious, he plucked it between his fingers again and pulled gently to reveal a small silver ring. It took him a while to shuffle over to the gap in the bushes but when he did he sat up and lifted himself into a crouch to examine the thing. It was smooth on the outside with an intricate pattern etched onto the metal on the inner part of the band. It definitely appeared to be silver and it was quite a pretty thing to behold. In fact it was so distracting that as he stepped out of the shrubs and onto the path of the gardens he didn’t notice Freddie creep up behind him with his knife held out and a look of pure madness in his eyes.


    “Got you now you little fucker!” The harsh whisper was spoken in Gregory’s ear soon after he felt the painfully sharp edge of the knife on his throat.


    “Freddie please stop it! You’ll go to prison!” Jte’s voice was now quivering with the nerves of someone who was evidently in way over their head.


    “No I won’t you stupid slut. Just gonna teach this little bitch a lesson. What’s that you got there queer boy?” Freddie snatched the ring from Gregory’s fingers and looked at it.


    After deciding it wasn’t worth a whole lot he flicked it towards Jte who fumbled and then let it drop on the path at her feet.


    “There, take that and shut up.” Freddie growled at the girl in a way that scared her so much that she moved forwards and picked up the ring.


    Gregory noticed the shimmer of tears in her eyes. Oh yeah, it was always the pretty ones that went for the raging crazies.


    “Well put it on then you silly cow. Lets show queer boy here how nice his new ring looks on you before I pop one of his ear drums then make him beg not to do the same with the other.” The knife lifted from Gregory’s throat and he felt it graze along his cheek. Any move and the thing would probably rip off half his face. He took a long deep breath.


    With trembling hands, Jte took the ring and slipped it onto her finger.


    Then the entire world fell into darkness.N?velDrama.Org owns all ? content.