I drove to the hospital as fast as I could

I asked for the room at the counter and rushed to the room

When I got there, I saw Joshua in a bed with tubes coming out of him, there was a  nurse in the room checking on him

“Nurse how is he, is he going to be ok” I asked with my voice filled with concern 

“He’s out of danger for now, are you his family?”

“Yes I am” I didn’t know if Joshua even had family so I decided to say I was amd play the part

“Here sign this” she handed me her clipboard

I took the board and gave my signature on the places she told me too “what happened” I asked when I finished signing the papers

“We don’t know the man who brought him in didn’t say anything, he paid for his treatment and gave us a number to call, but I’ll tell you this from my years of experience I’d say it wasn’t some accident”

I hand back her board

“Oh, I almost forgot, here” she took out a phone from her pocket and handed it to me “The person who brought him in said to give this to the person who came for him”

“I’ll give you two some space now” she says and turns to leave

I closed the door behind her after she left, I pulled out a stool and sat down beside the bed

“What happened man” I said but there was no reply as he lay there only the rhythmic beeping coming from the monitor could be heard in the room

He just lay there in place without moving 

I still remember the first time I met him

I was going up to my room when he stopped me on the stairs up trying to shake me down but I beat the shit out of him and stole his money instead

I though that would be the end of it but funnily the next day he was back again with more guys for revenge but they did not last long too

I was going to beat him up again after dealing with his friends and that time i was going to make sure he wasn't coming back but he stopped me and made a deal with me instead said he would do anything and could get me anything  if I let him go 

“Always the hustler, weren’t you” I chuckled to myself in the quiet room but ho response back

"You're going to get better man you have to" I said to him

As I sat there revisiting my memories the phone that the nurse had given me suddenly started to ring

There was no name 

“Yes” I answered the call

“Hello Cain” I furrowed my brows and stood up from my seat

“Who is this” I went ahead and checked outside the door to see if anyone was there after which I pulled the curtains and checked the windows too

“Just someone concerned so how is our friend doing, also I came by yesterday but sadly you weren’t home” it was him the one who put Joshua here, looks like he came to my place yesterday looking for me too, thank God I wasn’t there last night

“What do you want”

“Oh, that’s very simple question all I want is you”

“why”

“Now that is something that I should be the one asking, why would someone I have never seen or met before come after me" every hair on my body rose up as I realized who it was and I froze

"Oh, did you think you would go unnoticed, people tend to take notice when a car drives to and from a quiet remote place for a week”

Fuck it was him, it was Deathstroke, shit I stared to look around the place as fear started to set in

“I will send you a location, meet me there and if you don’t come and try to run instead just know i can send more people to the same place in the same way I sent you friend”

He cut off the call

“shit”

Deep trouble that was what I was in

My first thought was to run

I got out the hospital and I drove back as fast as I could 

I rushed to my apartment and started packing anything i would need, I needed to dissappear, this was Deathstroke some one who would not hesitate to kill me without second thoughts 

I had made a mistake I thought I was smart about it but no I had made a mistake a very big mistake

But as I was going through my drawer I suddenly stopped as I found something inside 

I stared at it for a while before taking it out and taking a seat in my bed

In my hand was the thank you card from Alice 

I opened it again and read it and i found my not fully filled and controlled by fear for a little while

And this little time allowed me to think back again of Joshua

I was the reason he was there my greed had caused this

"But if I do not run now it would be sucide" I was talking to myself, if I ran now, others were going to suffer the similar fate because of me, as I thought this the faces of Clara and Alice started to appear in my mind

I suddenly couldn’t do it, I couldn’t run, I was sure if I did, I was not going to be the same anymore, I was changing ever since I came to this god forsaken world, I was changing and if I ran now, it would seal my fate

No, I couldn’t leave, if I left I would lose a part of me and that would haunt me for the rest of my days

I had to face the consequences for my decisions

I couldn’t run, I couldn’t kill a part of myself 

I steeled myself and made my decision, I turned to leave but before I did, I remember something

I took my bag out and opened it, there would probably be no better time than now for this