“Come on, do it. I dare you to,” Collen mumbles with a smirk, with blood getting off his mouth.

This punch will obviously smack the life out of him, but do I really wanna do it? How do I kill a friend? Sure he’s tried to but it’s the drugs doing that, not him, well at least that’s what I hope is the case.

“Bra, I know that you’re hurting, but you’ve got to try and fight this drug because it’s controlling you,” I say and then release him from my grasp. “I don”t like entertaining the thought of violence,” I say.

Collen stands up, and wipes the blood off his mouth. His body doesn’t look as strong nor as well-built as it did when we were fighting. It’s pretty average. Can it be that this drugs increase your strength and energy immensely when you’ve been angered or frustrated, I wonder.

I feel my heart going back to normal, the muscles in my arms have drastically decreased, my body returns to it’s normal weight, and I feel alot weaker than ever before. I can barely move. Even Collen’s body weight has reduced to it’s normal size too. Maybe the drug wears out quickly when you’re angry, maybe that’s why you feel that sudden adrenaline rush on your body, I think.

Collen sits down. “I think I’m gonna pass out at any given moment. Man do I have one hell of a headache,” he mumbles.

“Man, what’s wrong with you?” I ask. “You could’ve killed me.”

Collen clutches his head. “Bra, I am so sorry, I really don’t know what came over me,” he says apologetically.

“Sorry? Sorry ain’t gonna heal my wounded arm.”

I take a cleaning cloth and wrap it around my slashed and wounded arm.

“You need to quit using drugs and you need to get some serious professional help,” I add. “Look, the reason that I came here is that I need your help…”

I explain the whole story to Collen.

“What? So you need me? Me to help you rescue your mother? No ways I still wanna live,” Collen says.

“Are you really that selfish?” I demand.

“Dude, we’re just teenagers, what can we do against thugs like Mr Jacob’s without getting killed, the best thing you can do right now is to call the cops?” Collen says.

I could do that but then that fat officer will trace my call and could call Mr Jacob’s to kill my mom. “Okay, suit yourself, but know that I’ll have to come clean about everything,” I say with a smirk.

“Come clean about what?” Collen asks scratching his head.

“Everything! About your involvement in this and you selling drugs at school… I’ll be under oath,” I say.

“Is that a blackmail?” Collen asks.

“I’m asking you as a friend – do the right thing,” I place my teeth to tightly tie the cloth on my arm.

Collen then sighs. “Okay, what do you need me for?”

“Tell me everything that you know about Mr Jacob,” I say.

Collen tells me that Mr Jacob’s used to be a scientist for the army long before he became a businessman. “He was fired because he believed in a philosophy of strengthening the human race’s qualities,” Collen says.

“What kind of qualities?” I ask.

“Well, I ain’t sure. But he was working on something that was extremely top secret, something that would make the human race to become more powerful,” Collen explains.

“So whatever he was working on, it was going to be used by the soldiers in the army?” I ask.

“Yeah, possibly,” Collen responds.

“Could that something which Mr Jacob’s was working on be a drug?” I ask.

“Ha, I doubt…” Collen thinks for a second. “You might be right though. Ah, what am I saying, you’re damn right. That’s gotta be it. And the drugs that we’ve used, they could be the one’s which Mr Jacob’s was working on during his time as a scientist?”

I stand up, and look out the window, it’s become very dark outside.

“Yeah, you said that he wanted to change the human race into a powerful race back then right?” I ask.

“No, I said that he wanted to do that to the soldiers in the army, soldiers need strength,” Collen says.

This is really so confusing for me, I just can’t put all this pieces together. I then get a flashback of the school pupils that were at the hospital, the doctor had told me that everyone there including the school’s teachers were diagnosed as being under the influence of some sort of drug. I then get another flashback of when Justin was talking with that guy who had a scar on his face, justin mentioned that they would target schools to sell drugs.

Yes, that’s it, with the money that he has, Mr Jacob’s must have bribed one of Old Stallian’s official’s into giving school pupils the medication – but the medication being the drugs. It had happened at my school too – officials would come around and give everyone injections to be immunised against different kinds of illnesses… I explain this thought to Collen.

“So that’s how they’re selling drugs at schools in Old Stallian,” I say after explaining.

“Wow, no one would be suspicious of that. By the way where is Justin,” Collen asks.

“I’ll explain in the car, let’s roll.

“Where to?” Collen asks.

“To Mr Jacob’s house, we’ve got to settle this one way or another.”

“What! Are you crazy? You want us to go to Mr Jacobs’ house now, unarmed and sluggish like this?” Collen asks.

“Yeah, you got a better idea?” I say.

“No, not yet but…”

“But what, it’s non negotiable, every second counts,” I say seriously.

“It’s complete suicide, man. Do you think that Mr Jacobs will let you in on a silver platter?” Collen asks, with a shocked look.

“No, but we’ll figure out something on our way there,” I say.

“By the way, where did you get that info about Mr Jacos?” I ask.

“From the Stallian Times, why?”

“I think we should contact them – this is a serious issue,” I say. “The public needs to know about Mr Jacob’s business of selling drugs,” I add.

“Without proof, man we got nothing on him, let’s figure out first how we can rescue your mom then the rest will follow,” Collen said.

We arrive at the train station. A train comes and we get in on it, heading towards Stallian Tycoon, where Mr Jacobs stays. Stallian Tycoon is an area of wealthy people, it’s really a classy area to live in. We arrive at Stallian Tycoon and take a 15 minute walk to Mr Jacobs’ house. We’re now standing a few metres away from his house.

“How do we get in, and how do we get past the security?” Collen asks.

“Well… I’ve never seen a security guard at Mr Jacob’s house,” I say.

“But then, how does he protect himself as a druglord?” Collen asks.

“Who knows, maybe there are booby traps in his house or something like that,” I reply.

“You’ve never got in his house then?”.

“Yeah, I haven’t actually seen the inside of his house come to think of it, I haven’t got in before,” I exclaim.

“But I don’t understand, why would he hold your mom as hostage, why didn’t he do it when you used to go there?” Collen asks.

“I really don’t understand what’s going on here. In fact I don’t care, I just want to rescue my mom,” I respond.

“Okay…” Collen utters.

We climb a short tree, from it we can see the inside of Mr Jacobs house. Well, nothing much seems to be happening, there’s no one on the outside, which means there aren’t security guards.

“You’d think that he would be more clever and boost his security,” Collen says.

My gut feeling tells me that there’s more to this than meets the eye.

“Let’s jump through the fence,” Collen says.

“No, they’re wired, we’ll be electrofied alive, man”.

“Okay… What then?” Collen asks.

“The fat police officer must be inside now. How about we get him to get out?” I say.

“Will he even listen to you? I mean you told him to meet up with you at Precious’ house and you ditched him, I’m still quite suprised why he hasn’t called you and asked you why?” Collen asks.

“I don’t know, let me call him,” I take out Precious’ phone and call.

It’s ringing.

“Heh hem,” I prepare my voice.

“Hello,” a voice says.

I pretend that I’m the fat officer’s partner.

“You gotta come and back me up, there are two thieves on the loose, they’ve stolen money from the bank, just get to town now,” I say convincingly.

I drop the call. “Hold thumbs that he believed…”.

“That was lame, couldn’t you have thought of something better?” Collen asks.

“As if you had a better idea,” I say agitatedly.

Before Collen responds the gate to Mr Jacobs’ house opens, but there’s no car outside, suddenly the garage is opened. I spot the fat officer getting inside it.

“Now’s our chance to get in, let’s run for it,” I say.

We immediately run through the open front gates and hide behind a small bushy plant. We watch as the officer’s car passes through and closes the gate remotely. We bend and we walk until we arrive to the mansion.

“How will we get in without setting the security system off?” Collen asks.

“We’ll find another way to get in,” I reply.

As I look up, I realise that there’s an open window. I show Collen and explain we’ll have to climb and he nods. We climb until we arrive to the window, fortunately we didn’t make a single sound. Inside, the whole house is dark, but before we came in, I could’ve sworn that there were lights.

“I can’t see a damn thing,” Collen whispers.

“Shut up… before someone hears us,” I respond.

I then stumble on something, lose my balance and fall down. I roll down and hit the floor. Collen then falls on my back, he must’ve stumbled too. Suddenly the lights are switched on. As I look behind, I see the stairs, they were the cause for us losing our balance.

“The lights are on,” Collen says.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed”.

We suddenly hear claps.

“Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!” a voice says.

I turn to see and it’s Mr Jacobs, he’s standing with two men wearing black suits, they’re wearing black gloves too.

“You…” I say.

Mr Jacobs pours wine in his glass and takes a sip. He turns around like I’m not even there. This is an insult to injury.

I stand up and say, “Where’s my mother, you coward?”

Mr Jacobs then lights his cigar and takes a puff. The nerve of this man, I think to myself.

I advance forward, ready to smack his head until the men wearing black suits block my way by pointing a gun right in my face.

“Benard! Benard! Benard! Still the same impatient lad as you were before you got mugged,” he says.

“Where’s my mom, you bastard?”.

“Impatient isn’t the right word to describe you, still quite the feisty young lad, I see,” Mr Jacobs says gallantly as he takes a sip of his wine.

“Listen here, you overgrown piece of trash, I’m not here to chit chat so it’s either we do this the easy way or the hard way,” I say.

“Oh, is that a threat?” Mr Jacob’s asks as he takes another puff on his cigar relaxed.

“Damn straight it is,” I say, making my hands into fists.

Mr Jacobs turns around and looks at me, with a sudden vicious look on his face.

“Let’s see here, you’re unarmed, you’re wounded and you’re physically drained, and yet you’re the one making threats?” Mr Jacob’s asks.

“How do you know that I’m unarmed?” I ask.

“My house has a built in scanner that scans anything made up of hard metal, it would’ve rang if you had any weapon right now”.

Mr Jacob’s says as he places the cigar on his mouth. I turn to Collen and he looks at me with an ‘we shouldn’t have come here kind of look’.

“But then how did you know that I was coming?” I ask once again.

“It was simple, you called and the officer recognised your voice and he traced that you were just outside of the house,” Mr Jacobs says with a smirk.

Just then the fat officer gets in. He looks at me and I look at him with a disgusted look.

“A perfect example of corrupted police officers,” I say disgustedly.

“Am sorry boy, it’s nothing personal, just business”.

“Businees through my mother?” I say angrily and the men wearing the black suits place their silent guns right on my head, reminding me not to make any sudden moves.

“Don’t blame me boy, blame the gorvenment for paying us cops peanuts,” the officer adds.

I then look at Mr Jacob’s, he throws his cigar at the bin.

“I’ve tried to place all the puzzle pieces together… but I just don’t get why you’re doing this,” I say.

Mr Jacobs pours another glass of wine, and swirls the glass in a circular fashion before taking a sip.

“You wanna know why, boy? You really wanna know?” Mr Jacob’s asks. I nod.

“A few decades ago, I worked with your father as a scientist for the Stallian army, it was in the civil war. There was a lack of medication for our soldiers so your father and I were assigned in solving this problem.

“One night on the lab, your father and I were mixing different chemicals, mistakenly your father spilled some of his chemicals into mine and when we checked on the readings of it it showed an magnificent and extraodinary way of healing the body way quicker. After more testing, we found out that this new drug was able to increase one’s strength phenomenally. It made one to lose fear of almost anything – exactly what was needed in the heart of a soldier,” Mr Jacobs explains.

“This was something that was going to make me the richest man in the world after 10 years of being paid peanuts as a scientist. But your father didn’t see it that way, he was afraid of the side effects of the drug which made one to lose control of one’s well being and made one lose consciousness. As he was the major scientist in the army the general listened to him and the project was closed. Everything looked hopeless until there was an attack on the camp. There was chaos everywhere – it was every man for himself, I saw you father go and hide in the lab assisted with the local soldiers. Then a grimy thought came to mind, I picked up a grendate and threw it into the room. It blew, killing your father in an instant.”

“Your mother lived in New Stallian at that time, and you were still a few months old. She had to move to Old Stallian as she couldn’t afford to stay there anymore,” Mr Jacobs continued. “It was when I had decided to quit my pathetic job as a scientist and start to make this energy drug and sell it to illegally, I made money three times my salary in a month.”

“Seeing that your mother was now living in a not so luxurious life, and unemplyed I took pity for her and gave her a job as a maid, it was the least I could do. Haha!!” Mr Jacob’s laughs as I stand there horrified.

I start to feel a burning rage inside, an undescribable feeling mixed with anger.

“When I asked your mom to move in with me, she was emphatic, she didn’t think twice. It was only when she found out about my idea of polluting the whole area with this drug at Old Stallian through the water system – which would mean that all the water would be contaminated with the drug, that I decided to take her hostage. The plan would mean that everyone would need to evacuate the area and I’d be able to buy it up without paying anyone and start a golf estate. But, I knew that you would coming looking for her and stymie my plans…” Mr Jacobs stops and ooks at me – I’m stunned.

My biceps are increasing with every tick of my heartbeat. I can hardly feel the pain on my wounded arm. I look at Mr Jacob’s, he knows that my strength has increased substantially.

“You’re dead!” I shout.

“Kill him,” Mr Jacob’s shouts.

I quickly touch the arms of the men wearing the black suits and lift them upwards to take their aim away from me. I squeeze their arms very hard in such a way that they both lose their grips on the guns. And they fall down. I kick both guns away in the process and Collen picks them up. Both men stand up, clutching their arms. They look at Mr Jacobs, confused.

“I said kill him,” Mr Jacob’s furiously shouts.

“One move and I’ll shoot,” Collen says.

“Ha, you fool, both guns are unloaded, how dumb do you think I am,” Mr Jacobs says.

Collen pulls the trigger, and nothing happens. The men in black suits kick me in the chest while I’m still focussing on Collen and nothing happens.

The other guy picks up a bottle and hits me with it, blood flows through my face but I don’t feel pain at all. I beat him with an upper cut and he bites his tongue. I then hit him with my knee on the stomach and he clutches it.

The other guy comes at a frantic pace and I quickly bend and when he’s about to punch me I quickly throw him into his partner. He lands awkwardly on him… they’re out.

I then turn my attention swiftly at Mr Jacobs, he quickly looks at the fat officer.

“Where’s your gun, you moron?” Mr Jacobs asks, placing a firm grip on the police officer’s uniform.

Collen throws a gun and it hits the lights out of the officer as he falls down.

“Bulls eye,” he says.

Mr Jacobs hurriedly jumps towards the officer to take the gun – I quickly kick it out of his grasps. And I kick his face with the inside of my boot, I pull him up and place six punches right in his face. Mr Jacobs face is not totally covered with blood on his face.

His nose is running out with blood and his mouth too, he coughs and the blood spats on my shirt.

I grip his neck firmly, I fold my fist, wanting to finish him off.

“Ha, ha, you fight like a girl,” Mr Jacob’s laughs then he coughs up more blood.

“Go ahead, finish me off if you’ve got the guts, I dare you to…” I cut Mr Jacobs’ sentence short by headbutting him.

“Benard, don’t do it man,” Collen shouts. “It’s not you, it’s the drug controlling you.”

I lift my fist and say: “This man killed my dad, and to add insult to injury, he has held my mom hostage, he’s drugged the whole area of Old and Middle Stallian. All for his own personal gain, why should I spare his life? Tell me! Tell me, why???.

“That’s what the drug is telling you to do, after it has worn off, you’ll feel very bad about it, bra,” Collen says.

“He’s destroyed my life, my father’s life, my normal life, he’s made me to use drugs unknowingly, and yet I should spare him, he has killed innocent people and still I should spare him?” I ask shoutingly.

“I know it’s hard bra but don’t go down to his level, or you’ll regret it for your entire life,” Collen says.

I turn to Mr Jacobs. He says forcefully, “If… If… you kill me, you will… will never find your mother and you’ll be jailed for life.”

I can feel my rage start to come under control. My anger starts to disappear, my physical strength slowly degrades. I start feeling the pain from my wounded arm.

If I’m going to do something, it must be now, before my strength goes to waste.