Stitch

                                                      Prologue

One foot after the other, steadily but slowly I walked forward into the building.

This is it, the moment that I’ve been training for. I just need to put one leg in front of

the other, as if I own the place and not that middle-aged man sitting at the bar. You

could see the rigid scars of his battles ending sharply on his face; his skin was

sagging down, a few of wrinkles around his eyes, and the deep, long lines on his

forehead caused by stress. For a man who holds a lot of power, his posture is

saying something else; slouching down with his head is bent, concentrating at the

granite countertop.Large hands wrapped around a glass filled with his personal

favourite Samuel Adam's Utopias beer. 

            The person next to him was talking to him without making direct eye contact.

He was young looking, in about his early 20's. His hair was spiked up, almost as if it

were a porcupine. His clothing looked like it was made of grease. Their body

contact clearly indicated that they weren’t comrades.

I drew near them and I stopped directly behind the old man. He turned aroundfacing

me. I just stared at him. I knew that he wasn’t a patient man, and I was testing him.

         “Girl what do you want. It looks like to me you probably need some money; but

that pride of yours isn't allowing you to say anything isn’t it, beautiful." Anger carried

through my veins and I could fell my mouth quivering. My eyes hardened, focusing

on only him. My breath came out rapidly in and out. No body calls me that, no body.

I reached into the pocket of my jean and got out a letter, and gave it to him. He

opened it up and he froze staring at the seal on the upper right corner. I tried not to

show my delight.

            "Surrender, ha, like hell I would! Listen to me girl I am not going to hand over

my hard work to you". He face scrunched up in displeasure and annoyance.

"I could let you be second in charge. I know well enough that these men and

women trust you and would never listen to me" 

              "And you think you can beat me in a battle," he started to laugh. The young

man beside him glanced over at me, slowly eyeing me up, but not sharing in his

laughter. I sense a vibe that he knows something, and that he isn’t willing to share

with the old man.

 "Listen to me old man, we fight, you lose; you become my second in command. I

lose you, kill me, Easy right? Or you lose and I kill you, either way we're still going

to fight, and I’ll become the leader".

"Pestering little bitch aren't you" he snorted. 

“Let’s fight on stage. Tell your people what's going to happen. You know the

rules." 

"Don’t tell me what to do, little girl," 

"Get used to it, old man".    

I walked away from him, towards the stage where people were dancing. I leaned

against the stage waiting. Did he run away or something? The people dancing and

drinking around me were starting to look at me confused since I wasn't participating

in their actions. Then I heard his voice.

"Brothers and sister, let’s get to business tonight," a roar of agreement arose.

Finally we've started. 

"As you all know we've been having difficulties with the neighboring gangs." Many

boos and lets kill them were shouted."Okay, okay, let me finish. I have an idea

on how to discard them but first we have a bigger problem that just waltzed in here.