Jason Park thought, freaking white-collar bastards.

 

Stepping out from the revolving door, he threw his striped ties on the pavement floor. He left it and stood by the side of the street. He raised his hand and hail a cab in the middle of the busy street of New York.

 

“Mister, you dropped your tie,” a girl dressed in a scout uniform handed over his tie.

 

“I don’t want it,” Jason said.

 

A cab arrived on time as Jason went inside leaving the scout girl dumbfounded.

 

“Where to?” asked the cab driver.

 

“Van Horn Street, Queens”

 

The driver wanted to have a little chat and kept on talking but Jason, on the other hand, didn’t care about it as he took out his phone and played a mobile game. His action shuts the driver’s mouth. The driver grumbled but Jason turned deaf to those sounds. Jason focused on his game trying to forget about those bastards.

 

“Shit,” Jason cursed out loud making the cab driver jumped out of his seat in surprise. The man didn’t care one bit about the displeased glance of the cab driver. Soon, the cab stopped by the street in front of an apartment building.

 

“We’re here,” said the cab driver.

 

Jason glanced to the side and saw the old apartment building. He got out and paid him the fare. The cab driver grabbed the money and stepped on the throttle.

 

“Hey, my change,” Jason was fuming seeing his money being robbed like that. All he could do was waved the middle finger at the leaving taxi. “Damn it,” he raged out by the side of the street swinging his fists like a mad man.

 

As if his day couldn’t get any worse. Like stepping on a pile of dog shit, one after another. He stomped on his feet making his way to the apartment building. He got inside his home and slouched on the couch. He stared at the empty air in a daze, emotionless like a puppet.

 

But then he heard loud moaning coming from the other side of the wall. It seems someone was having fun during the day. The question was, what kind of people moan that loud? The wall of his studio apartment isn’t that thin.

 

“Argh,” he couldn’t stand it anymore. Listening to someone having the pleasure of their time only pushed his irritation to the maximum. He stood up and kicked the innocent couch.

 

“Ouch,” he jumped and grabbed on to his big toe, clearly in immense pain.

 

Foul words kept on coming out from his mouth, cursing everything. From the couch to the white-collar bastards, the couple from next door and last but not least his shitty life. Jason sat back, resting his head on the out-dated couch. He remembered the words of his grandmother.

 

“Jason, no matter what, you’ll always have us in Toronto. Come back home whenever you like.”

 

That smile of hers only gave warmth to the cold dull heart of Jason. Just remembering it carved a smile on his face.

 

“What the hell am I doing?” he said.

 

A confusing time for Jason as he didn’t know whether to give up in his dream. A dream of becoming big on Wall Street. It’s been six months since he had been living in this bustling city of New York and his job hunt wasn’t doing good. The silence was broken by the sound of a grumbling stomach.

 

“Out N In burger sounds pretty good right now,” said Jason.

 

Although he’s Asian Canadians, yet his favorite food is the all American food known throughout the world, the burgers. He got up and changed to a sweater and a pair of khakis. He grabbed his phone and wallet and went out of his studio apartment.

 

Walking down the corridor leading to the lift, a door opened to his side.

 

“Hey bro,” someone greeted Jason.

 

Jason glanced to the side and saw a man standing a head taller than him with a beanie on top. He noticed the reddened eyes and the lingering smell around this neighbor of his. Jason caught a slight glance within his room and they were a few people who were no doubt relaxing to their utmost in a rather weeded way.

 

“Hi, frat guy,” replied Jason.

 

“It’s Fred, man,” said Fred, “So where you going?”

 

“Burgers.”

 

“Oh, nice. I’ve been starving,” just like that, Fred tagged along.

 

Jason indulged this carefree man while chatting along the way. He didn’t mind the company since he did have known Fred for quite a while. In his opinion, Fred isn’t a bad guy.

 

They walked by the side street pavement for a few blocks as the fast-food franchise wasn’t that far from where they were living. They ate and satisfied their hunger, but not without having a few more rounds of burgers complementary of the frat guy.

 

“That was radical man,” said Fred as he licked his fingertips.

 

Although Jason was grateful. He wondered how this man got all this money, considering how he looks and his daily activities.

 

“Fred, where do you get all the money?” asked Jason as he pointed at the empty trays on the table.

 

“Business man, business,” smiled Fred.

 

He took something out from within the inner side of his pocket. A small plastic packet with something dry inside of it. Fred slid it on the table. His action caught Jason off guard.

 

“Dude, keep it,” he was flustered and shoved the packet back at Fred. That was definitely not an ideal business idea for him to put his hands on. Going to jail in the states was not one of his aspirations.

 

“Relax man, I do this all the time, nothing is going to happen,” said the man who was waving his merchandise in the air. Jason looked around as he was nervous. A cop popping out of nowhere would be the most disastrous thing.

 

“Hey, over here,” Fred called out to someone.

 

“Wait, why is he coming over here?” Jason was getting suspicious.

 

“He’s a customer man, don’t you know about customer satisfaction and service? You need to be polite at all times when dealing with a customer,” out of sudden he was explaining like an expert in customer service.

 

For Jason on the other hand, being involved in an illegal business deal wasn’t an option.

 

“Fred, thanks for the burgers. I got to go,” Jason got up and was planning to leave.

 

“Cool man, we should do this often.”

 

Definitely something Jason didn’t agree with. Jason passed by the customer who looks quite shady with bleakness all around him. Walking down the street he was heading home without much thought. It was cold as he kept his hands inside his sweater pockets. Only the street lamps accompanied his way back home as night had already covered the sky.

 

For a man like him who was close to reaching thirty years of age, the meaning of success was like a burden to him. He couldn’t stop thinking about the unknown future since the day he had been living in New York. Jason thought of screaming his lungs out but he wasn’t that type of person.

 

An introvert at best, never much of a people kind of person. Not that it was bad but everything has its pros and cons. Jason was having thought of quitting his attempt in reaching his dream but then something else disturbed his lonely walk.

 

“Help,” a woman’s voice rang in the air.

 

A dark alleyway was a few meters away from him. He assumed that the voice probably came from there. He walked in a casual manner as he wasn’t in a rush. While passing by the dark alleyway, he glanced and was quick to turn his head back straight towards the road.

 

He walked down the pavement as his pace quickened. His pupils were quivering as he recalled the face of that woman. Although it was only for a slight second, the despairing look on that woman was burned into his memories. She reached out her hand towards Jason yet something else dragged her away deeper into the alleyway.

 

Jason saw it all and his body was trembling. He knew the crime rate was incomparable compared to back home. He shrugged it off after knowing the statistics but seeing it happened right in front of him made him realized the atrocity of a human being could reach. Yet his legs stopped walking as he stood in silence. His fists were clenched tightly to the point of shivering.

 

Should I save her?

 

He thought of saving her. But he knew he wasn’t the heroic type. Back in the day when he was just a high schooler, he was like any average student. Minding his own business and didn’t care for any bully situation among the students. He was like the rest of them, a looker and not a do-er.

 

I should call the cops.

 

But that thought stops right there as he knew even if he called at the moment, it would all be over when the blue blood come. He should have just left like he used to. He was about to take another step but the voice came back.

 

“Please, help,” the voice dragged out as if haunting Jason’s ears.

 

At that moment, a terrible idea just came. Even Jason himself felt it was ridiculous but at that moment, he felt he needed to do something. Not because of the woman.

 

But for himself.

 

“Damn it.”

 

He turned and ran back to the alleyway. The faint scream of that woman was resonating within the alleyway. His throat felt dry and his body felt cold. This was the first time for him to attempt such a thing. He ran inside the alleyway as he shouted.

 

“Let her go.”

 

“He..lp...” a disembodied voice echoes through the darkness.

 

“I’m warning you, let her go, or else I’ll call the cops,” said Jason as he took out his phone and opened up the flashlight feature as the alleyway was too dark for him to see anything.

 

Yet the moment the light shined upon the alleyway. His whole body froze. The woman’s hand reached out to him yet he was rendered speechless seeing the scene in front of him.

 

What the...

 

The woman’s body was being mauled by this creature. A humanoid creature squatting right beside her body. He could definitely hear the sound of something being munched and crunched. Then the humanoid creature turned its head around as it shocked Jason’s entire being.

 

“Goblin?”