I felt my hand being grabbed. Turning to look, I saw kid Brian staring at something passing by, his expression confused.
"What's up?"
But he remained silent, his eyes fixed on the mismatched buildings.
As we travelled through a narrow path, just wide enough for Brian's car, we reached a dilapidated three-story building. Its windows were sealed with bricks. Brian stopped in front of a large metal gate, wide enough for a vehicle to enter the premises. He got out to open it, then came back and drove the car inside before getting out once again to shut the metal door.
Kid Brian asked, "Where-er is h-he taking us, Arwin?"
"To meet with his friend." I calmly replied, but even I was getting suspicious.
'Could he- no he can't, right?'
Kid Brian whispered in terror, "Do yo-you think he is-s a kidnapper, my mo-mother always tol-told me if I didn't behave som-somone would take me a-away in n-night."
I wanted to disagree. I mean it was Brian, but even I was starting to feel unnerved. So I gestured for kid Brian to open the door, only for Brian to pull on the half-opened door as he looked at us.
"Why are you guys opening the door?"
Scaring kid Brian back inside as he stuttered, Brian looked at me. Even I was starting to assume that the worst. That he was a human trafficker—the kind who would wait and get close to you as a kid, people who would play the long game. And when you had finally let your guard down, they would snatch you, and you would never to be seen again.
He immediately slammed the door shut, locking all doors with his small gadget. He stood outside the car, and with an increasingly cold expression he kept his eye on us, like a butcher deciding which chicken to pick and kill. Then he began calling someone on his phone.
Kid Brian increasingly became frantic, searching the car for any opening through he could escape from. I tried to think of something—anything that could have helped us get out of this situation, but my brain felt like someone had poured molasses into it, freezing my ability to think.
"Pfft, hahaha." suddenly the tense situation burst like a bubble with Brian's laughter. "Oh! Oh you guys should have seen your own faces."
"Hahaha" his laughter stung my heart.
As he slowly calmed his laughter, he unlocked the driver door and got back in, but kid Brian was still clinging onto me. Brian looked back at us, "You guys get scared too easily."
Anger coloring my tone, I replied, "And you shouldn't have done that."
He started the car once again and drove into the car elevator, pressing the 1st floor, "And you froze up Arwin, what would you have done if I was a real kidnapper or human trafficker?"
My lips tightened into a thin line, as I tried to come up with a rebuttal but Brian beat me to it, "Do you even know where you are? Or even if somehow you were able to escape, where would you go? You don't know anything about this street. What's stopping someone like me from finding you again?"
"Then at least it is better to run than-", I was cut short by him again, as he asked kid Brian, "Child, do you know where we are?"
Brian looked back at us or more specifically at kid Brian, who nodded fearfully.
"See at least he kept an eye on his surroundings, you on the other hand didn't know where you were being taken and didn't even have the thought of taking notice of the paths and turns we took. You need to be more careful, be too trusting and you will not even know when you were stabbed in back. Like a trusting fool."
I narrowed my eyes, wanting to argue, to get angry, only for it all to get stomped down upon seeing Brian turn remorseful. He faced straight ahead, and we saw an overhead garage door. Brian lowered the window to speak into the smart doorbell, "It's me Ant, I want to fix the steering wheel, it has gotten loose."
Immediately the garage door opened, as he slowly drove inside. We saw a typical car repair shop, except it was on the first floor. A man stood facing us. He had a rough-looking shirt with an apron over it, covered in dark grease and black soot. He also looked considerably younger than Brian, with dreadlocks closer to the shade of ginger than brown, though it could have been hair dye.
Brian got out of the car, and the two clasped each other's wrist, as kid Brian and me stayed inside the car. Brian turned towards us, "Oh come on, it was a joke Arwin."
"Bullshit," I angrily replied, almost shouting.
He walked up to the car and knocked on the door window to get my attention, as I was ignoring him in anger, "Okay, look Arwin. I agree that was bad on me for scaring both of you and I am sorry for taking my frustration on you. You can be angry with me, but Antonio has done nothing wrong for you to ignore him. I am sorry Arwin, you to Brian."
I looked at his guilty expression, and swallowed my anger to exit the vehicle from my side. As kid Brian followed my lead to not be left behind in the car. Walking up to Antonio, while keeping my eyes on Brian.
The man opened his mouth to greet me, but I greeted him first, "Good afternoon, Mr. Ant."
Raising an eyebrow, he replied, "Well, it's Antonio and what's your nam-" he studied me intently before turning to Brian with a sigh.
"He did something wrong, didn't he?"
I nodded.
"Don't worry kids. I'll shout at him for making you kids sad. You can count on me for that." he called out to him, "Come here, you ass. You think scaring young kids makes you look strong? You just look old—Brian, I am old."
I studied Antonio's face more thoroughly for his statement, only for him to wink at me.
He then turned to kid Brian, "And what's your name, scared kiddo."
"Bri-Brian M-Mr. Antnio."
He smirked at the mispronunciation of his name, before suddenly recognizing something important.
"Aye, Brian! He got your name."
He observed kid Brian more intently and then looked back at Brian, who was standing a short distance away. Antonio grabbed kid Brian by shoulders and pointed at Brian with a smirk.
"You're scared of this guy? Kid, he also used to be a scaredy-cat like you. You shouldn't be scared of him, did you guys know how much I used to bully him? I always made him steal things for me, and since he was so short back then, he would rarely get caught. Did you kno-"
Brian pushed his pointing finger down, wearing a tired expression, "Later Antonio. Not now-"
"And you think scaring the kids is okay?"
He looked at us and apologized once again, "I shouldn't have done that, even if it was for fun. Both of you are too young. I am sorry for scaring you kids."
With a complicated expression on his face, he stepped through the open door to our left and closed it behind him.
I turned towards Antonio, "What happened to Brian? The only time he had ever said fun with that kind of expression, is when he was trying to hide his anger."
Antonio smiled ruefully, "It's not for kids like you to worry about, you're all too young-"
"You came from the same orphanage as Brian, right?"
Raising an eyebrow as surprise crossed his face, "How did you-Oh! You are that kid he's been talking about."
I asked again, "What happened to Brian? Did he..."
I left the question open-ended, hoping he understand think that I had already pieced together the clues.
Which was a lie.
Antonio smiled sadly, before replying, "He lost two friends today."
---
AN: The old ch "9" was posted on 26/12/2025
CH Facts: Graffiti is older than people think. It is not some modern concept of vandalism. Rather, ancient people were writing and drawing on walls long before spray paint existed.
In Roman society, writing on walls could have been a normal form of communication. People left jokes, poetry, names, drawings and even personal messages.
More than 10,000 pieces of graffiti have been found in Pompeii. That includes jokes, arguments, love messages, advertisements and political opinions.
Without graffiti, historians would have lost an important window into the daily lives of ordinary people in the ancient world.
(PS: I am not encouraging people to go and spray graffiti in an act of preserving a window to our time. I ain't taking fall for you guys, SD cards are doing it just fine.)