Allow yourself to be like a willow tree that is easy to bend but not easy to break. Otherwise, you will be the next oak tree who will rend while fighting the wind..........
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It was midnight and Roveign city was surely silent, but only on the surface. The core of it was filled with lights and shouts! The only fighting arena of the city, used by the underworld goons to show off their mighty bodies once in a while, was engulfed in cheers. A certain name could be heard in the sea of screams.
“Howard!!!!!!!! Beat his ass!!!!!!!”
The man was huffing in sweat by clenching his fists in front of his face. Sweat dripped from the edge of his face and his rough brown face was sparkling in the dazzling lowlights. He turned back to look at the person who caught his attention, mostly distracting him! Seeing a woman shouting like a crazy person, his face covered in disgust. He turned his face away after giving a cold glare at her, “BITCH!!” He spat aside.
“KYAAAAAAA!!!! He looked at me!!!!!!”The women shouted crazily as well as ignoring his glare.
Howard despised three things in life the most. The woman was one of them! For him, they were nothing but just some bitches in heat who craved sex and money!! As for the place he grew up in, Howard’s thinking wasn’t fully wrong since the place was the darkest part of Roveign city. The underworld where drug dealings, kidnapping for money, prostitution, racketeering, internet fraud, smuggling, entryism, extortion, loan sharking, human trafficking, money laundering, robbery, Terrorism, bootlegging, arms trafficking, gambling, bribery, skimming, murder and forgery Allies, these were the common criminal activities there. Not to mention these were the meanings of living for underworld bosses of Roveign city. Being the Don of them, Howard couldn’t skip those rules either.
Barely trying to live, Howard tried his best to avoid nuisances. No bad reputation among the underworld bosses made him rise to the throne of the Underworld Don sooner than anyone expected. However, he didn’t lack in any way either. His solid body which was like a rock in others’ vision and the ability to move a whole gang alone was the real deal for him to be respected among the big bosses. Rather than respect, he was a terror for them.
Back to the fight, Howard’s opponent was observing him. He was waiting for the finest opportunity for an opening. Cause he knew that the man in front of him could take his life right on the spot if he had made one big mistake. So, no loopholes were accepted. His face was already beaten to a pulp and seeing his girlfriend screaming for Howard when he should be the one in his place made it clearer that his face lost its beautiful shape! And he might have lost his girlfriend on the way.
Howard was waiting for his opponent to make the first move, but watching him standing was the last thing he could expect at that time. He was losing his patience and was about to rush to him and hit him hard on his face.
“Big bro!” Howard looked back following the soft voice. A boy with a slender figure was staring at him intensely. Suddenly The boy smiled brightly in return, “NOW!!”
Howard grinned at him and bent down to dodge his opponent’s only chance! In return, he hit him hard with a feisty punch on his ribs. Blood gushed out from his mouth and coloured the floor red. As if that would have made Howard less angry at the person who tried to hit him from behind! He kept hitting the man with several strong punches with his bare hands, no gloves at all! It could be guessed that Howard’s rock-like hands broke many ribs of that man seeing the whole gallery gone to silence from the sounds of bones breaking.
“OOPS! Now he has done it!” The boy sighed and kept watching Howard punching the man as if he was his punching bag. There was anger in those burning ember eyes of Howard. They were declaring, “No mercy!!” Even the rookie goon who was playing the role of a referee ran away from the arena long ago. There’s now left a beast and his prey.
“Shit!” The boy jumped inside the barrier of ropes and rushed to Howard, trying his hardest to pull him aside.
“Calm down, bro! You are about to kill that guy!!”
“ Let me go, Neo!!!”
Howard was struggling in that boy, Neo’s arms. Neo could barely keep up with his muscled, huge and bulky body. It was like he wasn’t pulling Howard away, but Howard was the one who was pulling Neo towards the almost dead man. Seeing no other options, he signalled some other men standing aside. They nodded and took the injured man away from Howard’s sight.
People started leaving the place with heavy hearts since the fight didn’t end properly and they lost money from both sides. There was a rule in this arena that if nobody had won the match then betting money from both sides would end up in the Bet Master’s pocket, who worked for Howard. And winning in that arena meant embracing one’s grave.
Neo got some punches in return while trying to hold Howard back, “Big broooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop, will ya? You’ve been beating me this far!!”
Howard stopped struggling and turned back. He tightly held Neo’s face in his grip and kept checking his face and body thoroughly. “Where are ya hurt, buddy?”
“Blo...blothel..will ya let mah face go?”
“Oh!” Howard instantly let go of Neo who started to touch his soft face confirming it to be in intact shape.
Howard softly gazed at his hands. They were a bit painful. But it was nothing compared to the pain he had to endure since childhood. Neo grabbed a situation of his own as soon as he saw Howard gazing at his hands deeply, “Bro! You have to give me mah share!”
“What share?” If a glare could kill somebody, then Neo would have died right there!
“Ehe...hehe hehe...you know? The share for giving a hand to ya earlier….”
“Don’t remember!”
“Whaaaaa……? What?!” Neo followed Howard as he tried to walk away from the place. “Big bro! Wait for me…..”
Howard kept brushing his ears, “SHUT THE HOLE, YOU DICKHEAD!!”
Neo halted for a bit, seeing Howard angry, but soon got comfortable as he saw the other boys from Howard’s group start following him. “He might be scary sometimes! Heh!” Waiting for a while, Neo chased after the gang.
“Madam, won’t you go to today’s party? It’s an honourable day for the Anderson family.” The girl with slightly reddish-brown hair, fair complexion and a slender figure, who was writing something on the paper in front of her, looked at her maid. She was standing before her holding the tea tray. The girl slightly smiled at her and then again concentrated on what she was doing, “ You remember grandma’s words right, Nina?” “Which one? She gives you a lot of hearing. Which one are you talking about?” “NINA!!!!!” The girl glared at her maid seeing her sarcastic behaviour. The glare had a perfect effect on her since Nina remembered the answer to what she was asked, “……….You…you mean the last one?!” “….Yeah. The last one. I can’t show my face to her until I get married to a man within three months.” “But madam Eleanor, where are you going to get a man to get married? Not to mention who would also be a gentleman!” Nina sulked while scratching the tea tray and diverting her gaze away from
Howard reached his den with his gang after they got their share from the Bet Master. When they meant to share, Howard got the major share! About eighty percent of the whole sum. As the gang could earn a whole lot of money just from a fight, Howard often took challenges. And also people from the underworld liked to strike at Howard so that they could prove themselves better than him. It was the underworld. A world within a normal world. Far different from the place where normal people lived. People like Howard never had a life like usual guys who had families to live with, jobs to do, responsibilities to fulfil and promises to be kept. But for persons like Howard, none of them mattered since he didn't have any of them. No family, no job, no responsibility and neither did he make any promises. And even if he made one by mistake, there was no such rule that it should have been kept! He was a carefree guy who had to maintain his position as a don to survive. And his juniors held onto
Nina left the tray of tea and snacks a while ago on Eleanor's table. But Eleanor was so busy that she couldn't set time aside to enjoy it. Afterwards, it got cold. However, she had no attention to it. She was roaming all over her room looking for an important file. "Where did I keep it? TCH!" Suddenly the phone rang. Eleanor squinted her eyes since it was an unexpected call. Although she was kinda troubled by it, Eleanor picked it up. “Hello? Eleanor Anderson speaking here.” "Eleanor!" A female voice whispered from the other side of the phone. Somehow the voice made Eleanor jump out of joy, " Oh my!!! Aunt Laura! After a long time." It was Laura Anderson on the other side of the phone, the one and only daughter of Miranda And also Eleanor’s aunt. The one who first gave Eleanor blessings other than Eleanor’s father was Laura. She had no child of her own and had only an adoptive daughter named Lione. But for some reason, Laura used to love Eleanor more than Lione. Although she nev
“Where are you taking me? Le..let me go!!” Aiden was moving like a cockroach in the capture. His eyes were blindfolded and his hands were tied to the back. "Shut his goddamn mouth!!!" Howard shouted which ended up echoing in the room! Suddenly it was pin-drop silence. Nobody spoke or moved. "Who..who are you?!" Fear could be sensed in Aiden's voice as if he could guess a little bit that he was standing before his death. But he shouted again while crying, " I asked...who are you? Do you know who I am? Let me…" Before Aiden could even finish his whole line, Leo put a sock in his mouth. Aiden kept struggling as he couldn't breathe! He gulped his words and tears fell down his eyes. "Take him to our old place." Howard signed the back door to Tany and Leo to take Aiden away from his sight. By lugging Aiden, Leo and Tany took him outside the room where loud sounds were coming from. There was a casino beneath the room and it was where Aiden used to gamble! The sound hit Aiden's eardrum
“Hello? This is Eleanor Anderson here. May I please speak with your Senior Officer in charge?" Eleanor called the Roads and Highways Surveillance Office. "Please, hold on a minute." A polite manly voice responded to Eleanor's phone call. A beep sound came into her ear as she was wearing a mini wireless Bluetooth headphones. Eleanor left home about half an hour ago to look for Aiden. But there was no information about her father yet! She was on her way to the Roads and Highways Surveillance Office. But she took the road to the party at first. Since Eleanor was forbidden to show her face in front of Miranda, a long road was the best choice for her until everyone from the Andersons left the party hall. She inquired about almost everybody she knew, who attended the party today. But no one had seen Aiden. "It means he didn't go to the party.", Eleanor murmured while waiting for the Senior Officer on hold. She tightly held the wheel. Her eyes were burning in rage when she thought how irr
"Sir, the place we are going to isn't suitable for people like us. So I would like to tell you to stay calm.", Paul warned Mr Dixon who was looking outside the window and watching the car being devoured by a big tunnel. Cars were passing by. Some were looking at his car repeatedly while driving. It was a daily scene for Mr Dixon. But he was awestruck when he saw a tunnel beneath the tunnel! It happened a while after they entered the first one. Suddenly Paul told the driver to pull the car aside. He got down from the car and went near the tunnel wall. Mr Dixon was dumbfounded seeing a voice checker inside the wall. Paul took a deep breath seeing Mr Dixon staring at him intensely. He let out a sigh and went near the checker. A voice came out from inside when he tapped the button, “Say the code!” “Fuck you, Roveign!” “Voice recognised. You can enter now.” “.................” Paul was about to cry. Mr Dixon watched the whole show. He was so loud that Dixon was on the verge of laughin
Eleanor took a detour from the place where the van was last seen. However, there wasn’t any secret passage or any other linked road. She took another three rounds to confirm, but there wasn’t any clue where the van might have gone. Eleanor stopped the car far from the tunnel. It was almost getting dark. The sky was filled with bright stars and birds were returning to their nests. The view made Eleanor more depressed thinking about the uncertainty that she could find her father. Eleanor finally realised that Roveign city was far bigger than she had imagined. She didn’t know a thing about that place even though she had been living there for twenty-two years. It was a jungle and if you weren’t strong, you wouldn’t survive there. The anxiety and fear Eleanor was feeling, was sign of facing a beast. Or more probably facing a certain someone. Eleanor sighed while looking at the night sky. It was cold. She rubbed her arms to keep herself warm. Yet she couldn’t tolerate the cold wind that w
That was the first time when Howard felt uneasiness around men. He was feeling suffocated to breathe as he noticed four eyes were staring holes in his body. “Are they gays?!”, was the only question circling his head. He couldn’t meet their eyes and kept looking at the casino downstairs. Feeling the pressure and not being sure if his boss was going to start the topic first, Paul broke the silence in the room, “Haha, the meeting was unexpected. Don’t you agree, Sir?” Mr Dixon kept looking at Howard without replying to Paul and that confirmed Howard’s doubt, declaring Mr Dixon as a homosexual. Howard thought of making himself clear before a misunderstanding had started. He cleared his throat, “I’m straight!” However, hearing Howard clearing his throat, Mr Dixon also at the same time said, “I’m sorry.” But then again, Howard’s weird line forced him to ask again, “I’m sorry?!” “Ya’ve been staring holes in me!”, Howard protested. Realising their mistake, Paul and Mr Dixon started stam