All names have been shortened to protect identities.. although.. they haven't done anything wrong. This happened to me a few days ago, and I felt I had to write about it. I haven't quite finished yet but here is the raw, first draft. I wrote this in about two hours, so it will probably be strange and full of flaws.
It had been a brilliant day. A few hours messing around in the park, playing in my house and then off to the cinema. The film hadn’t been that great but that wasn’t the point, it was just going out with your friends. Just laughing and joking and generally having fun. Not wanting the fun to end, we decided to end the day with another trip to the park. The perfect end to the perfect day. But that day was going to end less than perfect, worse than we could ever have imagined…
***
I sat on my doorstep, fiddling with my shoelaces. When was that boy going to be ready?
“C! Hurry up!”
Why did he take an eternity to use the toilet? All the others had run on to the park, and as usual, I had to wait for my little brother. I dumped my bag inside the door and moved the other’s bags over so there was space to walk in.
“Be back by 6.30, dinner should be done by then, okay?” My Mum came out of the kitchen.
“Yes, Mum…”
“Be careful!” she smiled, giving me her usual warning.
“Yeah, okay!” I rolled my eyes.
My brother ran out of the toilet and quickly put on his converses, speeding out of the door.
“Hey! Wait for me!”
C didn’t stop but continued on his way to the park. Oh well, I thought, it wasn’t that far anyway. I climbed up the stairs and opened the gate. T was standing outside, holding his phone.
“I’m just calling my Mum.”
I nodded and walked along the path with him as he chatted to his mother in Vietnamese. I heard the word park a few times but I was mostly concentrating on the scene ahead of me.
H and K were sitting on a rock outside the park, looking very uncomfortable. My brother was already inside the park, where a gang of boys had crowded around the swings. They were all dressed in black and grey, wearing the same type of ominous hooded jacket and some with grey hats, which reminded me of a fishing hat. T had finished his conversation and had now joined me in staring at the gang and our friends.
“What’s going on?” I said, looking at K and H. “Aren’t we going into the park?”
“Those people are from my school.” H said, looking uneasy. The gang came closer to us, pulling up their hoods and jackets, so we couldn’t see their faces. Something bad was about to happen. I could feel it.
“I don’t think we should go in there.” Said K.
I called C over and told him to come out.
“Let’s go over there instead.” I said, pointing to the bigger section of the park.
T, H, K and I ran over to the grassy area and watched, as the gang seemed to follow my brother and his friend. I turned around and saw my brother clutching his face, quickly walking away from the gang. I felt anger rising in my chest. Had they hit him? What was going on? We ran back to the small park, T and K ahead of me, while I jogged behind. C came over to the fence with S and looked at us through the bars. If they had hurt him I would kill them, I thought, looking at my little brother, his face red with either fear or an injury.
“Let’s go.” He said, still holding his face.
“Did they hurt you? What happened?”
“No. Let’s just go.”
I could tell that something was wrong, so I stopped asking him questions and did what he said.
T and K looked confused, but agreed and ran into the bigger park with C and me. We ran like mad through the gate, not knowing whether we were in trouble or just having fun. We ran into the middle of the park, on the soft part where cricket was played. I turned back and saw the gang leaving the park, some of them on bikes and heading towards us. The mood suddenly changed and we knew it was serious. I swore under my breath as we ran, feeling as if my stomach was going to implode with fear. What were we going to do? My sides ached already from running, what if I got left behind?
“Oh my god, oh my god!” I whispered, looking at T and K, but they were too busy running.
I turned around and saw S in the distance, limping along slowly. He couldn’t run very far, not with his bad leg. Oh no! What if they caught up with him?
“Come on, S!” one of us called.
C ran towards S, trying to make him catch up. “You lot keep going!”
We didn’t answer but continued running, out the park gates, up the slope and down the road.
“Let’s hide in there!” K said, pointing at a low wall with bins underneath it. I didn’t think that was a good idea but I dived behind them, sitting on the floor with the others, H on one side, and T and K on the other. C had caught up with us and came around to us, not even bothering to sit down or duck. There was no sign of S, but there was no time to worry about him. Hopefully he had gotten away. My stomach was like a tumble dryer at this moment and my head was swirling, while my heart beat fast in my chest.
“C, get down!”
“There’s no point, they’ll find us anyway.”
“GET DOWN!” I said, making wild hand motions.
C shook his head. You idiot, I thought, looking around, they were coming for us. I could hear the bikes coming up the slope, and their low voices mumbling behind me.
Suddenly C looked up and nodded at someone behind me. They were here.
“You okay?” someone said behind me, clearly talking to my brother.
He nodded and clasped his face again, pretending to be in pain. My brother, the actor, I thought.
“Hey, where have your friends gone?”
C looked down at us and within seconds the gang had surrounded us. They stared down at us, looking at us in disgust as if we were the scum of the earth. At that moment, I knew that it was all over. We were dead meat.
The apparent leader stepped in front of us and looked at the four of us, sitting on the floor with the same expression of horror on our faces.
“Get up!” he shouted, not even bothering to look at us.
T and K got to their feet immediately, so I did the same, my knees shaking as I stood up. I looked sideways at them, but they were looking at the huge gang of people that were looming over us like gargoyles.
C gasped and held his head again, feigning pain.
“You alright?” one of them said, but I didn’t think they really cared.
“No, my head’s bleeding. Can I go home to my mum, she’s a nurse?” he looked at them with pleading eyes, looking more scared than I have ever seen him. At least he could think straight enough to come up with something.
“Yeah, you can go.”
C dodged past them and ran away as fast as he could. I didn’t have to worry about him anymore; at least the gang couldn’t get to him. With C gone they returned their attention back to us. One of them looked at H.
“You can go now. If you don’t want to see your friends hurt.”
“No!”
I turned to her and felt a small wave of relief rush over me. She was a good friend. But I was still so confused. Why had they chased us? What was going on? I plucked up the courage to ask them, but I instantly regretted it.
“Erm… What’s going on?” I said quietly, in what I thought was a normal tone of voice.
“Shut up!” the biggest one said and began to pace up and down, looking at all of us. “You don’t ask questions.”
I frowned slightly but I was too scared to do anything more. Their attention was again focused on H.
“You got our friend into trouble, didn’t you?”
H looked shocked but somehow seemed to remain calm.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t act smart.”
“These your friends?”
“Yes…”
The leader walked over to K and T. I watched as he asked them questions, feeling even sicker.
“This your sister?” he said, pointing to K.
“Yes…” T said, moving back slightly.
“Let her go, she’s only young.” Replied another boy, “So she doesn’t have to see her brother get beaten up.”
I could see the shock in both their faces, but they made no attempt to escape. My hands were shaking now, by my sides, but I wanted to swing them out and punch the guy, but I was too overcome with fear. It would just make thing worse anyway.
“How old are you?”
“Fourteen.” Was the reply, but even this small answer seemed to enrage them, as if T had just insulted them. It seemed this made him old enough to fight, but I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
The gang discussed this among themselves, but they didn’t seem to want to take things further. They were looking for something else now…
“You got a phone?” he addressed H now, looking down at her pockets.
She shook her head quickly but I knew she wasn’t lying. It was at my house, in T’s bag, safely hidden away. They abandoned her and moved over to me.
“What about you then? Are you even a girl?”
“Yeah…” I whispered, hoping he wouldn’t hear me.
Three or four hands immediately rifled through my jacket pockets, pulling out my phone, oyster card and even the cinema ticket I had bought a few hours ago.
“Aww, this phone is Sh**! Does it even work?” the leader said, holding my phone in his dirty hands. ‘If it’s so rubbish, give it back then!’ I thought, but it was only a stupid phone and I barely even used it. I’d rather lose that than my life. He pocketed it anyway and let the others continue rifling through my pockets. The cover of my oyster card was replaced, empty, of course and the ticket thrown on the floor once they realised it was used.
Sometime after this, T and K were allowed to go. I had no idea where they were or if they had gone for help. The only thing I was concerned with was getting away from these evil thugs and putting as much distance between us as I could.
Some of the boys started asking H questions again and threatening her, but I was unable to hear them properly, as another boy had pulled me away from them. Another boy told him to leave me but his intention was not to spare me any trouble.
“Nice trainers.” He said smugly, “Take off your shoes.”
I looked down at my converses and went to take them off, but the other boy pulled me away from him.
“No, no, just leave it.”
I wondered what was going on. Surely he couldn’t be helping me?
“Send me a pound and I’ll let you go.”
Of course, I thought, he must have wanted something. I quickly pulled whatever money was left out of my pocket (two pound) and placed it into his open palm.
“Remember if you call the police we know H.”
“Yeah, yeah I know.”
He repeated this several times before he pocketed the coins and left me. I took this as permission to leave and snatched one last look at the gang. One of them hit H in the face, knocking off her glasses. My heart was pounding and a sob tried to force itself out but I didn’t have time to cry yet. I ran. As fast as I could, back into the park and across the grass. I started to sob then. A woman watched as I ran by, but she offered no help. I didn’t stop until I reached the end of my road, and saw T and K standing by my house...
(To be continued.)
