Chapter 231 - Bait
[13 Days till the next full moon.]
[Your bloodl.u.s.t is increasing.]
[40 Exp has been gained from current Bond Marks (4)]
[Exp 596/2876]
Waking up that Sunday morning, the weather was quite dull with a grey sky, perfectly matching the mood of a certain green haired teenager. There wasn’t much suns.h.i.+ne to enjoy, not that it often came through the thick smog that seemed to cover Slough somewhat.
‘Maybe I’m feeling this way because it’s getting closer to the full moon.’ Gary thought after seeing the message.’ Either way… the Pincers took something away from me, so it’s time I take something from them.’
Carrying on his back, Gary had a bag of all the things he would need, and just as he was about to head out of the door, his sister came rus.h.i.+ng out of her bedroom, tears rolling down her face.
“Gary… Gary, did you hear?” His sister could barely say the words she wanted. Her throat was too choked up. “I…I just got a me-message from Sta-Stacy’s parents… the-they found her in so-some hospital… a-and Stacy di-din’t make it… sh-she’s d-dead… ”
Gary stopped just before opening the door. This morning he had read some news about a local girl who had seemingly overdosed on drugs. As expected, the Pincers had covered up the teenage girl’s death, so it wouldn’t link back to it.
Everything in that news article had been utterly false, the hospital, the way she had died as well as where she had died. Just thinking about it, Gary’s hand was tensing around the door handle. For a moment, he considered staying and comforting his sister through this tough time.
Unfortunately, staying here with Amy, wouldn’t change things with the Pincers. The longer they were allowed to remain operating, the more the girls working for them would suffer.
“Amy, I’m so sorry to hear that… she was your best friend… but I’m sure those people that did this to her will receive their karma.” After saying these words, Gary opened the door and quickly closed it behind him.
Letting out a big breath, it was time for him to head to the pool club. On the way there outside his apartment block, he saw Mr Morten outside, sitting on a bench and looking troubled. Still, when he saw Gary, the old man smiled.
‘The people here, they’re struggling as well.’
———
A short while later, Gary had reached the Wolf’s Pool Club. It wasn’t open to the public yet, but everyone was there, including Austin’s three friends who had essentially become employees of the place. It had been getting a good flow of customers lately, enough to cover the teens’ income while also making profit for Gary and the others. They took over the duties of the others, giving them more free time.
Miss Degrace was in charge of them and would inform the three of their duties, as for why they were here now with the others this early, the high schooler didn’t know.
“Let’s get straight down to business.” Kai stated with a smile, now that they were all here.
“We had trouble gathering information about the Pincers yesterday, but we still have a lead. Austin’s friends did a good job finding out that those working in the school area are linked to the Pincers.
“Apparently, they don’t just deal with school kids, but they also scout the streets trying to entice pretty looking girls into an easy way of making a living. Sometimes they even trick them by saying it’s for modelling, and things progressively worsen.
“Seeing that these guys deliver the girls, they must have some idea who and where the real Pincer leader is. Even if they don’t personally, finding out the contact person, should help us uncover their leader since it all stems from them.
“We know the general area they work in, and because it’s the weekend, they will be busy on the streets as usual. All of this information was gathered by our three friends here.” Kai gave the credit that was due to the three from Austin’s school.
Innu already knew them, since they were the delinquent trio from his former cla.s.s. They were also those that had gone up against Billy when he had come to their school, and they had suffered more than just a few broken bones doing so.
Honestly, Gary didn’t know how reliable or strong they were because it was hard to compare normal humans to the Omega wolf. Still, if the stories he would hear them brag about in the shop were true, they were at least quite the strong fighters when going up against normal delinquent students.
There was Bo, who had an afro on top of his head, and was relatively thin in his body frame but tall. Then there was Felix, who was the polar opposite, and on the smaller side. He always had a scrunched up look on his face as if he was constantly angry about something. Last, but not least, there was Alfie, who was mostly silent, Alfie’s hair covered his face and he usually went around with his hands in his pockets.
According to Austin, they were his trustworthy men who would always help him, no matter what the cause. For example, they didn’t even ask to be paid for working at this place because Austin had requested them to do it. However, Kai had insisted that they couldn’t have them work for free, even if only to gain their trust and loyalty in the long run.
“Alright.” Bo began, nodding his head. “It’s like hard to explain, but these guys like don’t like come out all the time. Like they sometimes act like p.u.s.s.ies, so like, if they see us then, it might like, you know, scare them.”
It was clear to Gary that afro boy wasn’t the best of speakers at times, but there were quite a few people in his own cla.s.s that would talk like Bo.
“What he’s trying to say is, if those guys see us all together approaching them, there is a good chance they’ll go off running.” Austin explained. “At the same time, they don’t exactly make it obvious what they’re trying to do. They’ll work in groups but approach girls on their own, so it’s hard to tell who is exactly working for the Pincers and who is just trying to hit on pretty girls.”
“So we need bait?” Kai summed it up, nicely.
The group was thinking about it for a while, until eventually all of their eyes looked towards Marie, the only young girl currently in the room with them.
“Is she… good enough?” Kai asked, raising his eyebrow.
Hearing this, her whole body was shaking with anger. Her hand was raised and swung out, giving a big slap across Kai’s face. It was so loud the others could feel the power behind the strike, and on top of that there now was a big red mark on Kai’s face.
Innu was just shaking his head at the scene, for as much as Kai seemed like a playboy, he certainly didn’t know how to speak to girls like one.
It was then that Marie took out the two scrunchies from her hair, she no longer had the two large pigtails, and her hair went down halfway on her back. She straightened it with her fingers a few times, and the others couldn’t quite believe it.
Just with the change of hairstyle, Marie looked like a completely different girl. The delinquent trio all gave her a thumbs up, which caused her face to go red.
“It’s a good start, but if you could put on some more makeup, I think it could work even better.” Austin suggested excitedly.
“I think Marie will make the perfect bait, she is a really pretty girl.” Gary agreed, coming over to her. He then noticed something, he could hear her heartbeat thumping louder as he got closer and could tell it was getting faster.
“Are you okay?” The Howlers" leader asked her, worried.
“Yeah… I-I’m fine… just a bit nervous.” Marie smiled back. “I’ll happily play the bait. Finally, I’ll be able to do more than just watch from the sideline.”
Smiling back, Gary wanted her to know something.
“Marie… don’t worry, I’ll be watching you the whole time. I promise you, I won’t let you end up like Stacy.”
The high schooler continued to be blissfully unaware of why her heartbeat had increased once again. However, the teenage girl just nodded, and a small smile appeared on her face.
‘We will take out the Pincers today…they will get their karma as promised Amy.’