1 Sixteen tons

Compared to the daytime hustle and bustle, the night in Red City was always in full swing. Nightclubs and bars throbbed with music, the tempting aroma of street food in the air, honks in the streets, laughter and inaudible conversations on the sidewalk, architectural marvels and towering buildings almost merging in the sky. 

It was what they call beautiful chaos, and in this beautiful chaos, a small high school boy's existence easily went unnoticed.

His right eye was nearly closed due to swelling, blood dripped from his nose, and his uniform was tattered. He dragged his feet along the busy street, swaying, almost drifting. Everyone around him seemed like a blur. Earlier, his body had ached, but now, all he felt was numbness.

"Useless nosy bastard!"

"Take down his pants."

"Haha! What a tiny weeny you got there!"

"This is all the money you got? Damn. You really are useless. Go teach him a lesson."

Despite the symphony of sounds in the city, the high school boy could only hear his bullies' voices. The bullies — the ones responsible for his paralyzing misery — filled his head; their voices played in his mind on a loop.

"Ah…" the young lad clasped his ear, wishing to tear it apart if only it were as easy as ripping a piece of paper. But it hurt. Even with the numbness, he couldn't do it.

Tears slowly blurred his vision, a mixture of laughter and sobs escaping him.

"Damn it," he hissed through his bloody, smeared teeth. "Damn it!"

This time, the young man garnered some attention from his surroundings. However, instead of concern and sympathy for his physical state, their eyes brimmed with hostility. Many hurriedly distanced themselves from the young 'delinquent.'

"Tss." He hissed, observing the looks on people's faces. "What's the difference?"

He scoffed again, shaking his head as he resumed his languid and heavy steps. These looks were nothing new to him. Every day, he faced similar disdainful looks from his classmates. The stares made him wonder whether he was truly at fault for being bullied. It was just as bad as the indifference he received from those who turned a blind eye to the bullying.

Classmates, teachers, strangers... they were all the same.

They never cared.

No one would save him, and his life would continue to be a living hell. Unless his bullies died, or he would.

"Death…" a chuckle resonated from within him. "Sure. Let's end this once and for all."

His low chuckles gradually grew louder, compelling everyone around him to create distance. He laughed as if he had finally found the answer to his problem.

"If I don't die tonight… I will just kill all of them. Tehee!" he chuckled through his grin, oblivious to the fact that the pedestrian light had turned red. "Hehe."

"Hey!"

The young man continued to cross the road, ignoring the call from behind him. He just laughed and laughed, deaf to the honks from his side until another loud and prolonged honk rang in his bleeding ear. When he stopped and turned his head, all he saw was a blinding light beaming at him.

Time slowed down, blinking a couple of times as he stared at the incoming truck.

"Ah." A short sound escaped him as he watched the truck move closer. "Hah."

They said when a person is hovering between life and death, their life flashes before their eyes. However, the young lad only felt relief the closer his doom approached. His memory and the flashback were akin to a ghost town.

Another honk rang, but it sounded more distant now. He slowly closed his eyes, anticipating the pain to come, which arrived in a split second.

"Kyah!!!" a woman from the sidewalk shrieked and fell backward, eyes wide at the body that flew through the air. She covered her mouth in disbelief, shuddering as the sound of his body colliding with the truck deafened all the other noises around.

For a moment, the city, which had been bustling with various sounds, fell silent. It was pin-drop silence. Everyone just looked at the body lying in the middle of the road. The truck that had crashed into the boy stopped several meters from the scene.

"Ambulance! Call for help!"

After a moment, time resumed as screams and panic erupted in the air. People rushed to the scene; some even got out of their cars.

"He's still alive!" yelled a man who had come out of his car to help the boy.

As the commotion ensued, the boy panted for air. He lay on his stomach, staring blankly through the gaps between everyone's legs. There, he could somehow see a man coming out of the truck. He might not have been in the right state of mind, but he could have sworn the driver of the truck squatted down as if he knew the boy could see him.

"Hah…" the boy moved his finger with great difficulty, blinking wearily. But for some reason, despite the distance he had from the truck driver, he could see the latter perfectly clearly.

The truck driver moved his mouth slowly and carefully, allowing the boy to read his lips.

[Oops. Wrong dude.]

Huh?

The boy blinked once more, and this time, all he saw was the truck driver returning to his truck. He saw it speed away, but after another blink, the truck was still there, and the driver who emerged looked different. Before the boy could wonder, he fell unconscious.

******

Meanwhile, a man named Lucky sang along to the song playing on the radio while speeding down the highway.

"You load sixteen tons. What do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt." He snapped his fingers in tune with the music, rocking his head rhythmically. "Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go~"

His mood was rather jubilant, despite running over a poor boy moments ago. "If you see me comin', better step aside. A lot of men didn't, a lot of men died~"

"Time check!" Lucky exclaimed, taking out a pocket watch from his jacket. "Just right on time."

He grinned from ear to ear, thinking he was only a few minutes away from completing his task. After tonight, he would finally return home after a very long time. He would escape the hell he had fallen into due to his past mistakes.

"One last time and everything will be set in order," he told himself, laughing evilly before singing once more. "You load sixteen tons. What do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt…"

Lucky's singing trailed off as he heard loud honks from his side. A blinding flash caught his attention. He turned his head, and all he saw was a larger truck hurtling toward him.

"Be gone," Lucky snapped his fingers, but alas, he remained in his spot.

At that moment, Lucky could only hear the fading honks as the blinding light approached. The song on the radio continued to play, making it the last thing he would hear.

[Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go… I owe my soul to the company store~]

"Son of a —!"