A Luke, face flushed with fatigue, rocks up to his place of work.
Wearing high-vis work trousers and its matching hoodie, he blends right into the atmosphere without drawing any attention to himself.
Though he does catch the gaze of a few guys he works closer with.
"Alright bud, decided to have a half day, is it?"
"Sleep well, did you?"
"Nice of you to join us, lad!"
Luke walks off, visibly sighing to the sound of people bursting out in laughter behind him. If not for working with those oldies for so long, he would be more self-conscious, but it happens so often he got used to just taking it on the chin.
Besides… he's only 3 minutes late!
Walking throughout the whole of the site, he eventually makes his way towards the boss's office, as asked via text. And in said office were two people.
The boss, of course, as well as the foreman who's in charge of distributing all the tasks to the workers.
"Luke, you're late."
The boss, Jack, says in his stern tone of voice he intentionally projects to make himself more 'intimidating'.
"Well boss, if we came in together people might get suspicious!"
"Pffffttt-!"
"…"
Silence settles over the room immediately. Only the sound of suppressed childish giggling from Luke and the foreman sounds out, as well as the audible sound of Jack's blood pressure rising as his forehead veins bulge angrily.
"Tim, out. Luke, sit down and stop being a prick, we have something serious to talk about."
And like that, the light atmosphere fades, leaving only the slightly tense feeling permeating the surroundings, leaving that weird rising pulse that sparks unease.
Gruuuuuuuuuu
Click
The sound of chairs tucking in and a door opening then clicking shut echo across the cold, empty room—doing nothing to quell the unease.
But unlike usual, Luke isn't the first to break under that pressure. The weird 'dream', or whatever it truly was, did wonders for his willpower.
"So… Luke, good weekend?"
"No, pretty shit, if I'm honest. And it dragged on and on, which is surprising really—considering it was only one day off. A single day! Really overworking me, aren't you?"
"Haaaa. This is one of the reasons you're being called in today, Luke."
Jack palms his forehead tiredly as he sighs, though he doesn't stop looking at Luke with the angry yet very guilty expression.
"What do you mean, Jack? What have I done?"
It's only now that the silent dread settles in and Luke notices that something is wrong. The good relationship the two of them shared has been strained, damaged by something he hasn't recognised yet.
"Luke, I'm sorry for this, I truly am, but
Luke lashed out at the people he once called colleagues indiscriminately, barging past them.
And due to his outburst, they didn't even bother trying to stop him. In fact, all of them froze up in shock. The guy who they all had a good opinion of, someone who could laugh and joke with them as well as get work done as needed, had suddenly stormed out of the building spouting profanities.
So, instead of taking offence, they decided to get the answers out of the boss man himself.
…
..
.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. FUUUUUCKKKKK!!!"
Luke screamed out in anger as he left the site, drawing the startled gaze of the strangers all around him.
'No, no, no! What can I do! I don't have any money and I need to support our household. Shit! I shouldn't have trusted that jackass and bought that acid off him.'
Pulling his hood up as rain started to fall, he ducked into an alley to cut his journey short. That is… until he bumped into someone familiar.
"Yo bro, long time no see. You been good, yeah?"
The man, dressed head to toe in black and grey clothing as well as a balaclava concealing his identity, was nonetheless instantly recognisable to Luke.
"…Sam."
He almost spat out the man's name in a mixture of complicated emotions, primarily consisting of a type of anger.
He freezes up, his rampaging emotions cooling down significantly, locking him into an icy type of calm, ready for anything.
"So you got the money then, yeah? Trust me, you don't want to miss another payment. 'He' is already pissed."
'Shit.'
"I'm going to need a bit more time. I was just sacked for unjust reasons, so I will sue my old boss and get enough to pay you off, even with the intere—"
BOOOF
"Ughhh-"
Before he could request more time, even accepting the demand of increased interest, that wasn't good enough for the petty hoodlum who thought he was big and hard just from his position.
"I'm afraid that isn't good enough, bro. We were kind enough to offer an extension the first time, stupid enough to accept it the second. But now, the third? Do you think I'm dumb, bruv? Do you think I'm weak?"
Thud
DOONNNG
The man, Sam, was handed a metal baseball bat from one of the men behind him and he hit Luke across the back, knocking him to the ground heavily.
"But… it's not like we didn't expect this to happen, so we have a little meeting to attend. Bag him and knock him out."
Bang
Luke was smashed in the back of the head and, as a result, was knocked out.
…
..
.