Chapter 1:
"Shit. Shit. Shit" Jason whispered as he ran through the streets.
He looked over his shoulder as he ran. There was six guys chasing him, though they were about twenty yards away from him, they could still easily see him. Quickly rounded the corner of a house Jason jumped a chain link fence leading to the backyard. He ran through the backyard and jumped the fence separating the next yard.
"Where are you fucker?" A male voice could be heard through the streets.
He'd been chased for the last hour. Every time he thought he had lost them they would catch sight of him again. He couldn't seem to shake them.
He was being chased by guys from one of the local frats, which had been throwing a party for the students from the local college, and they were pissed.
. . .
Jason didn't go to this school, however he had some friends who did.
He had been content to just hang out with his friends and get drunk, but one of his female friends told him a girl had been checking him out. Jason wasn't one to usually approach a girl, let alone one as pretty as the girl his friend claimed was "checking him out." But his friend wouldn't relent and pushed him in the direction of the girl. He hadn't even gotten a word out when a jock type guy stepped up to him, pushed him, and asked "You looking at my girlfriend?"
"N-no" Jason had stammered, he wasn't even sure where this guy had come from or if the girl he had been about to talk to was indeed this guy's girlfriend. He tried to act as if he was going to walk by the girl, but the jock wasn't letting him off easy.
"Did I 'say' we were done here?" The jock said as he grabbed Jason's shoulder.
"Listen I'm not looking for trouble, okay dude?" Jason had said as he shrugged the hand off and tried to walk away again. The other people at the party had taken notice and were all starting to watch. Jason felt a flush creep up. He glanced at his friends most of which hadn't even noticed, save Suzie the girl who had started him on this course. But all she did was shrug and get her boyfriend Kelvin's attention. But that's all it took for Jason to drop his guard. He didn't even see the fist before it slammed into his jaw. He staggered back as his hand came up to his face.
Jason had grown up with an older brother, who also happened to be a black belt in karate. He had learned to take a punch at an early age. He also studied karate some himself though he never made it to black belt. His instructors had taught him humility and never to harm another person as long as it could be helped.
"Ok I got the message." Jason said, trying to diffuse the situation, raising his hands to show he didn't plan on continuing the fight. But the jock just seemed to be getting warmed up.
"Look the little pansy won't even fight back." he laughed to his friends.
"Enough John." the girl Jason had been approaching spoke up.
"Stay out of this Kim." John had nearly growled at his girlfriend.
"No, you're being an ass. Again. And I'm sick of it. We are at a party, we are supposed to be having fun, and here you are picking on some kid for walking near me! We are fucking done, I'm sick of your shit!" Kim had shouted as she started walking out of the party.
During their exchange Jason had tried to sneak away from John, but John clearly had a lot of friends at this party as two of them pushed him back to the center of the, now circle, of party goers. Jason looked around for his friends but couldn't see any of them. He brought his attention back to John in time to see another punch coming from John. Instinct took over and he used his left arm to block John's right.
"Look I don't want to fight you!" Jason yelled as John aimed another hay-maker at his face. Jason deftly blocked this one as well.
"I don't want to hurt you John, you only hit me cause I wasn't paying attention. You choreograph your punches. Can we just call this, please?" Jason asked as he blocked yet a third punch. "I'm not the nerds you beat up in high school. I don't want to do this."
"I think you're all talk bitch. And I'm going to fuck up your face!" At this point one of Johns friends grabbed Jason from behind, pinning both of his arms to his sides. John then quickly landed two punches to Jason's face.
'Ok, now it's starting to hurt.' Jason had thought while he was being hit.
"Hey ass-face, why don't you fight someone who wants to fight you?" Kelvin said as he tried to push his way through the crowd of students. Kelvin was Jason's best friend, along with his girlfriend Suzie, and the reason Jason was at this party. He was also belligerently drunk.
"Kelvin stay out of it." Jason said while still being held by John's friend.
"No, this bastard wants to keep hitting you when you won't even throw a punch! I'll kick his ass if you don't want to." Hearing these words more of John's friends appeared and grabbed Kelvin's arms preventing him from living up to his words.
"Leave him alone!" Suzie shouted as the guys grabbed her boyfriend.
"Yeah he'll stay put just let him go." Jason said to the students holding his friend.
"I guess we'll have to just beat both your asses huh?" John said eliciting laughter from his friends and the students around them. To prove his friend's words one of the students holding Kelvin went to hit him in the stomach. But Suzie grabbed his arm preventing the blow.
"Get off me bitch." The kid said as he roughly shoved Suzie to the floor.
"Fucker!" Kelvin shouted.
That's when Jason finally had enough. In high school he had always defended the kids the jocks chose to pick on. Usually inserting himself into their wrath to draw it from the kids who couldn't defend themselves. He'd gained a reputation in high school of being their protector. He always backed it up by holding his own, to the point that jocks began to pick on kids less and less. His school mates knew you could beat Jason senseless as long as no one else was being threatened. But involve someone Jason saw as an innocent and it was on. Too bad none of these students had gone to high school with him.
The sight of someone throwing one of his closes friends to the floor, allowed Jason to do what the jocks had been asking for.
Fight Back.
Jason threw his head back connecting with the nose of the student holding him. The kid fell flat on his back with a grunt, blood covering his face. The noise alerted John, causing him to turn his attention from his friends, Kelvin, and Suzie. Just in time to see Jason as his hand shot out. He didn't make a fist just bent his fingers at the second joint. He did this to avoid hitting John's chin as he struck John in the throat. Jason then stepped past John before he even fell to his knees. As he did all the students took a step back as if he might go for them next, all except the two holding Kelvin. Before either could react he caught the one who had thrown Suzie down between the legs with a swift kick. He then rounded on the last who was backing away with his hands up. Seeing the boy didn't want to fight stopped Jason from going further. He helped Suzie up and grabbed Kelvin, dragging them both to the door of the frat house.
"We are leaving."
"Where the fuck did that come from?" Kelvin asked as they left. While being best friends they hadn't met until a year previous, while studying abroad in Australia.
"I took karate as a kid, ok? Let's go before his frat brothers decide I just made their whole fraternity look like pansies."
"There he is!"
"Too late. Look get Suzie out of here they probably don't want either of you any way." Jason said as he backed away from his two friends. "I'll lead them away and meet up with you at your dorm, ok?" He didn't wait for an answer as he ran back towards the house, so the frat guys could see him clearly. He had then taken off as fast as he could running down the street.
. . .
That was an hour ago.
'I've gotta find a place to hide.' He thought as he looked around the back yard he was in. He had no clue where he was and more than likely wasn't going to be able to find his way back to the campus. As he looked around the houses he thought he saw a window open on a ground floor. 'Lucky it's spring in a college town.' He thought as he hopped another fence to get to the open window. 'No one is worried about being robbed as the most they have is a laptop.' He could still here the sounds of his pursuers looking for him. As he got to the house he felt his phone vibrate.
It was a text from Kelvin: "We are in my room. Where the hell are you Dude?"
Jason quickly texted back: "Not a clue" Before turning his phone on silent. He didn't want it to go off and alert anyone in the house he was about to enter. Slipping his phone back in his pocket he slid through the window as quietly as possible. He could hear the frat brothers coming behind the houses, and while he didn't want to go further into this house he didn't think it safe to stay by the window. He slowly made his way further into the house. As he reached the main living room he saw giant Greek letters over the fire place. Not having joined a frat himself he couldn't read them. 'Great another fucking frat.' He thought to himself as he looked for a place to hide. He saw three doors on one wall but couldn't tell if they were rooms or closets. Just then a light further in the house came on and he heard rustling. 'Shit someone is up.' He dashed to the doors and just guessed as he pushed through one.
He tried to be as quiet as possible as he entered but he heard rustling as he turned around. He was clearly in a dark bedroom. There were two people moving around on twin beds a little further into the room. Jason held his breath as he waited for the inevitable discovery.
