Jerome's P.O.V.
I glared at the suspiciously darkening sky as I stepped out of my front door with my coat around my shoulders. Come on, for one day can it not rain so I can walk to the shops in peace without drowning?
The shops were only a 15 minute walk away from my apartment and it had been raining for 4 freaking days by that point, so the break in the weather was somewhat of a blessing. The distance was too short to get a cab or a bus to but I didn't want to get soaked.
Pushing my earbuds in I set out for the long, cold, freezing walk ahead of me and just ignored the world around me for one more day.
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I was in sight of the shops when things started going down. I didn't hear the yell, but I certainly noticed when a boy racer car sped past me, on a mostly empty road by the way, followed by a crowd of young men running up the road after it.
All of them were wearing leather jackets and leather pants and I froze up, unsure of what was happening. Why the hell was a group of young men running up the road in jackets that looked like they had gang patches all over them?
And then I heard a shot.
My immediate reaction was to find where the shot came from and get as far away from that place as possible, but I didn't get that chance.
Suddenly I was shoved to the ground from behind, my hands only just catching me before my face became a pancake on the ground. I tried to get back up but a hand between my shoulder blades forced me to the ground again, this time my hands not quite catching me, my face going straight into the concrete.
"Aghhhh!" I cried out, rolling onto my back with my hands coming to my face and to my now bleeding nose that was definitely broken.
As I rolled over I suddenly came face to face with at least 6 young men, all about the same age as me but every single one was over 6 feet tall and built like bodybuilders. Well, shit, I thought to myself, this isn't going to end well.
The first punch was the worst one. It landed right in my stomach, causing me to curl up on my side and cough violently. I tasted blood in my mouth and I didn't know if it was because I bit the inside of my mouth or because the punch had done more damage than I thought it should have.
"Looks like we've got a pussy boy here, let's see if he likes us more after this!"
My first instinct was to cover my head but a few seconds after the punches started coming in rapidly I realised that might not have been the best place to protect. My head had a thick skull and a messed up face would be the least of my worries, especially if there was internal damage because I didn't protect my stomach.
Most of the punches landed in my lower stomach, the most vulnerable area of the body because of internal organs, and I felt every single one of them. It wasn't long before bile started rising in my throat along with the familiar metallic taste of blood, dripping onto my ground as the punches continued.
I screamed out loud when a foot stamped down on my leg and I heard the bone in my lower leg snap in half. The only response I got from my attackers was laughter and sniggers, and also congratulations towards whoever had snapped my leg in half and then someone stood on it again.
The pain was the most intense that I had ever felt in my entire life, shooting through my entire body like bullets from a gun- wait shit, someone had had a gun!
The thought made me try to sit up but I was pushed back again by more punches and kicks, with what felt like more force being applied each time. Blood was being spat from my mouth at an alarming rate and it was then that I knew there was more damage that I thought, because that amount of blood couldn't come simply from biting the inside of your mouth.
