everyone around him dies

Part 12

Perhaps upping the ante when it came to scamming wasn't their brightest idea ever. Concerns about money had been building up over the years and they had perhaps developed a bit of overconfidence in their abilities.

Well, mostly confidence in their ability to run away if shit got dangerous. They could afford to target people who might deserve it more than kindly old grandmothers and subsequently they could scam more money with a clear conscience.

Upping the stakes and upping the potential consequences. They'd moved beyond playing games in the park and into wallet scams. The trick of the wallet scam was that unless a person was willing to steal another person's waller, they wouldn't get scammed.

It was simple and clean and so long as they ran away quickly, they were unlikely to face any consequences from a person who was more than happy to steal another person's wallet. What were they going to report to the police? I tried to steal a wallet and got scammed instead by a punch of punk kids?

They were always careful not to show up at the same time though. Being twins made them automatically more recognizable. Cale's red hair was also an overly recognizable feature so it was usually better for Roksu to be the face of the scam while Cale supported from the background.

That was why Cale wasn't able to immediately pull the plug on their current scam when he spotted just who Roksu was talking to. Cale paled immediately as memory provided him with just where and when he'd seen him before.

It wasn't just that it was the terrifying benign face he'd seen years ago now. Nor was it the fact that the face hadn't changed one bit in that time. Although the memory of the very specific day that Cale had seen him burned into his memory was certainly concerning, that wasn't his biggest reason for wanting to get his brother as far away from that bastard as possible.

It was the way the insane bastard looked up and made eye contact with Cale through the crowd that made his blood run cold. As though he'd seen through the entire trick and the only reason he hadn't done something about it was for momentary entertainment.

Cale knew the guy looked dangerous. He cursed himself for not mentioning it to Roksu the first time he'd thought so. Then again–the man had somewhat disappeared from Cale's memories after their encounter at the dojang. It was reasonable, considering all that happened afterwards, but it suddenly struck Cale as strange how thoroughly he'd forgotten about the suspicious looking bastard until this very moment.

He regretted the scam. All of them. No amount of money was worth endangering Roksu. His feet moved with the urgency of a man who knew he wouldn't make it in time and spurred forth by sheer terror flooding through his veins.

The man smiled at him and returned the wallet to Roksu, walking away into the crowd without a word.

Cale still didn't stop until he'd reached his brother, pulling him back and sprinting away from the spot. Roksu, knowing better than to ask questions when Cale was so panicked, followed suit wordlessly.

The pair reached an empty alleyway and attempted to catch their breath.

"What's wrong...?" Roksu asked between panting gasps, clutching his splitting side.

"That bastard–did he say anything to you?" Cale asked urgently, trying to determine the form this danger would take. It was possible that the teen had a baby face but he really looked like he hadn't aged a day since the last time Cale had seen him. He even appeared to be wearing the same clothes.

Roksu shook his head. "Nothing out of the ordinary. He just returned the wallet and told me to take it to a police box."

Cale wondered if they ought to go to a police box right now for completely separate reasons. He got chills thinking about the guy.