Deification

Deification

1

The entire south side of the city was known as The Slums. The businesses throughout the entire south side were either run by people trying to make an honest living, trying to get enough money so that they could move out of the neighborhood, or by criminals. Of all the gangs that were selling drugs, stealing cars, or killing rival gang members, the most feared gang in the entire south side was the Party Kings.

Like almost everyone else in the neighborhood, the young couple who ran the small workshop were known by their nicknames. Steel was a young man who wasn't afraid of hard work. Ever since he was a teenager, he worked on people's cars, fixed electrical appliances, and made a variety of things out of metal. Everyone called his girlfriend Musk. The last gift she received from her mother before her mother died was cheap musk perfume. Ever since then, she only wore musk perfume.

Steel and Musk lived in a small room in the back of their workshop. The room was just big enough for a single bed, a small fridge and a closet. Some of their belongings were in the boxes in the bathroom between their room and the closet-sized room where they kept their tools and spare parts. In their workshop, the couple just finished repairing a customer's old sedan. Steel was busy throwing the pieces of scrap metal in the big recycling bin in the back corner when he heard gunshots in the street. Musk yelled at him to get down as she took cover behind the counter in the corner at the front of the workshop. She pulled out the .22 revolver that they kept hidden behind the counter for in case someone tried to rob them.

In the street, two members of the Party Kings gang were shooting at three street dealers of another gang that they were chasing. Steel and Musk heard people shouting and screaming in the background as more shots were fired. The gang member ran down a side street. Steel crawled to the front of the workshop to see if Musk was OK. They could hear a car speeding a way in the side street along with the sound of more gunshots. After a few minutes, they looked out at the street and it appeared as if everything was back to normal. People were walking down the street, talking and acting as if nothing had happened. Gang violence was a daily occurrence in their neighborhood.

Six blocks away from the workshop, there was a house that stood out. This house was bigger than all the other houses on the street and it had high walls all around it. The man sitting at the driveway gate was armed. It was the house of the leader of the Party Kings.

Inside the house, the living room looked like an art gallery. The paintings on the walls and the sculptures alone were worth more than anyone else in the neighborhood could ever even dream of earning in their lives. Tank and Crystal sat on the black leather couch, each with a glass of red wine in hand. Tank was the leader of the Party Kings. The most feared man in the entire neighborhood. Crystal was his wife. As pretty was she looked in her designer clothes, she was just as cruel and heartless as he was. Sitting on the chair in the corner next to the couch was their son, Shade. His chair looked more like a throne. There was a small table in front of him with two small leather bags on it.

Two armed gang members brought a young man into the room at gunpoint. The young man – struggling to find work – came to house to ask if he could work for the gang as a street dealer. Tank and Crystal got up and began asking the man questions as they walked around him in circles, looking at him as if they were judging him. Every time he opened his mouth to answer one of their questions, he could feel the two guns that were being pressed against his back. After answering all of their questions, he had to kneel in front of Shade's table. He was first told to vow that he would serve the gang by selling whatever drugs they gave him to sell, to never tell the police anything, and to stay loyal to the gang. After doing so, Shade got up from his throne and took out a small ritual dagger. For a moment, the young man thought he was going to be killed. Shade kissed the dagger before he pressed it against the man's forehead. He began whispering something in a foreign language, then took the dagger and made a small cut on the back of the man's head. The pain of the cut made him want to get up and run away, but he knew he would be killed if he did. He stayed silent and tried to act brave by not showing he was in pain. Shade held the blade underneath the cut until there was enough blood on it. He took the dagger to the table, touched the blood with his fingertip and drew a small strange symbol on the table with the blood. He opened up his two bags, took crystals out of one and bones out of the other. He began chanting as he dropped the crystals and bones on the table. He chanted louder as he began performing some sort of tribal dance next to the table. After doing so for more than two minutes, he looked at his parents, nodded and sat back down.

Tank told the young man, “You'll be given product to sell. You bring the earnings straight back here when you sell everything.”

Crystal took a sip of her wine before she said, “You steel the money, you die. You use the product, you die. Now thank your next ruler.”

The young man was ordered to kiss Shade's shoes, thank him, and say how powerful he was.

2

Early the next morning, Steel and Musk were sitting on their bed eating breakfast. They finished their porridge, got dressed and opened the workshop. As soon as they started working, another customer came in and asked how much they would charge him to fix his scooter. Considering in state the old scooter was, Steel still gave him a fair price for the repair. The customer left his scooter there and as he walked across the street, a street dealer approached him and tried to sell him meth. He declined and kept on walking. Seeing the dealer approach another person who was walking past the workshop, Steel chased him away.

“Get! Take your dope and get out of our street!”

The dealer laughed as he walked away, arrogantly saying, “The Party Kings own these streets, dog!”

Musk stood at the door with the revolver hidden underneath her jacket, ready in case the dealer pulled out a gun. When Steel went back into the workshop and the two started working on the scooter, two of the people who lived in the semidetached house across the street came over and thanked him for chasing the dealer away. They also warned him that the Party Kings were ruthless.

After selling all the meth and ecstasy tablets he had in his bag, the dealer who Steel had chased away went to Tank's house and gave him the money. After he'd received his cut of the earnings, he told Tank about how he was chased out of Steel's street. Crystal laughed.

“Are there really still folks in the hood who think they got a say 'bout what we do on the streets?”

“This fool tryin' to be Mr Hero,” Tank said. “He don't know how many enforcers and dealers we have workin' for us. He needs to be schooled in the Party Kings' laws of our streets.”

Shade was sitting on his throne with the skull of a cat in his hands. He pressed the skull against his chest, and said, “Anyone who is against our ways and who tries to go against our divine family's laws must be killed. Their deaths will be a sacrifice to the spirits of our ancestors and, through me, we will be blessed for killing anyone who resists our ways.”

The dealer knelt at Shade's table and placed his head on it. There were numerous old cut scars on the back of his head. Shade used his dagger and made another small cut on the back of the dealer's head. He began doing a ritual. Tank, Crystal, and the gang members in the room all knelt down in front of Shade as he did the ritual.

“Our people are ready to attack those who resist our ways. The dark spirits will guide them on their mission of vengeance.”

That night, three gang members were sent to the workshop. Steel and Musk were in their room. Sitting on their bed, enjoying the dinner she'd made. Both of them froze when they heard the sound of a window being broken in the workshop. He grabbed the baseball bat next to the bed and Musk grabbed the revolver off of the bedside table. They quietly moved into the dark workshop.

The three gang members were busy climbing in through the broken window. One had a bottle filled with gasoline in his hand. He began pouring it on the floor. The other two were bumping into things as they tried to find their way to the back of the workshop in the dark. They knew that the couple lived in the back of the workshop. One accidentally bumped into a tool closet and when he turned to his left, Steel struck him in the face with his bat. The sound of him falling a rack with steel pipes on it made the other two gang members open fire. They blindly fired in random directions in the dark. Musk returned fire. With her second shot, she wounded one in the stomach. The one who'd poured the gasoline set it alight. The entire workshop lit up with the bright light of the flames. More shots were fired before the gang members frantically tried to escape. The pulled and punched at each other as they escaped through the broken window. Steel and Musk went after them. They also climbed out through the window and ran after them in the street. Musk shot two of them, killing them. The third one fired back at them with two guns, forcing them to take cover behind a parked car. By the time they wanted to continue going after him, he'd already disappeared into the darkness of a side street. They knew they weren't going to catch him. They ran back to their workshop and began battling the fire. Musk used the only fire extinguished they had on the fire. Steel used a big dirty bucket to get water from the bathroom and threw it on the fire. Choking in the black smoke that was filling the workshop, they didn't stop until the fire was out. It was only when they went out into the street for fresh air that they heard the sound of sirens.

3

The police officer who was questioning them about the incident could see that Steel and Musk were in a state of shock. Even as the two held each other in their arms, he could see their hands were shaking. With the damage done to their workshop by the fire and fearing for their lives, they didn't know what to do next. They saw how the bodies of the two gang members were put into body bags and taken away. They had to go to the police station to answer more questions and make a statement about what had happened. As they were being taken away in the back of a patrol car, they could see the people who lived in their street staring out through their windows.

After more than two hours at the police station, they were taken home. Seeing the extent of the damage caused by the fire, it was enough to make most people give up, but not Steel and Musk. As angry, afraid and tired as they were, they didn't allow this to break their fighting spirit. Standing in the middle of the workshop, they embraced each other and spoke of how they were going to overcome the threat of the gang, and how they were going to repair the damage to the workshop.

Tank, Crystal and Shade were outraged. Hearing the gang member telling them how he and the other two ran away from Steel and Musk made them angry. Shade pointed his dagger at the cowering gang member, and said, “You are a disgrace to me and the family. You serve us and must be willing to die to do what you were told to do. You no longer deserve the honor of serving me and my parents.”

He ordered another gang member to take him out back and execute him. The gang member was begging for his life as he was dragged out of the room. Tank and Crystal looked at their son as he lit sage and began chanting. He took a handful of crystals out of one bag and a handful of bones out of the other, dropped them on his table and chanted louder as he looked at them. He stopped chanting when he pressed his dagger against his chest, inhaled some of the sage smoke, and said, “We need to gather our tribe. Our ancestors want us to teach anyone who is against us that we are above them all.”

Tank and Crystal bowed in front of Shade.

At the workshop, a few of Steel and Musk's friends join them and help in any way they could to try and repair the damage to the workshop. Everyone in the community always admired them and looked up to them for working so hard to earn an honest living, and for never letting the gangs drive them into living a life of fear. One of their friends told them what everyone else was thinking: that they should prepare for the worst, because there would be repercussions for their actions.

Steel and Musk left their friends to watch over the workshop while they went to a pawn shop to sell a few of their belongings to get money to replace some of the items that were destroyed in the workshop. Neither of them noticed the car that was following them. The car followed them home. One of the two gang members in that car phoned Tank and told him that 'the targets' were home. Seeing the car racing away, two of Steel and Musk's friends already began predicting that something bad was going to happen in their part of the neighborhood.

Fifteen minutes later, Tank, Crystal and Shade – along with their bodyguards – left their house in a black SUV. The six vehicles driving in front of them and the five vehicles following them made up their entire gang. Every gang member had been called to gather at their house. They were on their way to the workshop. Instead of driving directly to the workshop, the vehicles drove down every street in the neighborhood. The people referred to this as a hit brigade. Every time the people saw a hit brigade driving through the neighborhood, they knew somebody was going to be killed. It was the gang's way of making everyone fear them more. Word quickly spread throughout the neighborhood that a hit brigade was moving through their streets. People phoned each other to tell them to get indoors just in case the hit was going to take place on their street. That was how Steel and Musk also heard about it. They instantly knew that the hit brigade was coming for them.

They run up and down their street, yelling at everyone that the hit brigade was coming to their street. People ran to get into their homes or shops and locked their doors. When they ran back to their workshop, Steel and Musk went to their room and opened the small hidden compartment at the bottom of their closet. There was ammo for Musk's revolver and a 9 mm pistol in the compartment. The pistol had once belonged to Steel's dad. He'd hoped that there would never be a reason for him to use it, but he knew that if the gang were going to attack them, it would be a matter of kill or be killed. After collecting their guns and ammo, they left the workshop and hid in a alley a short distance up the street.

Less than ten minutes later, the hit brigade slowly began driving down their street. Some of the people who were looking out through their windows ran for cover when they saw them. All of the vehicles stopped in a long line in front of the workshop. The gang members in the first two cars got out with their guns in hand. All of the other gang members looked all macho and arrogant as they got out of their cars and walked to the front of the workshop. When Tank, Crystal and Shade got out of their SUV, they were surrounded by bodyguards. Two of the gang members began kicking the workshop's door. Another one was about to climb in through the broken window when Steel fired the first shots. Three gang members were struck and killed. All hell broke loose. Tank, Crystal and Shade took cover behind the SUV. Not knowing where the shots were coming from, everyone else in the gang opened fire in random directions. Musk also began shooting at the gang. She killed two and wounded one. When the gang members saw where there shots were coming from, the began shooting at the entrance of the alley and began moving towards it.

Steel and Musk ran down the alley as fast as their legs could carry them. Just as they reached the other end of the alley, the gang ran into the alley and began shooting at them. Bullets struck the wall just as they ran around the corner. The chase was on. Luckily for them, they knew this part of the neighborhood well. They knew where every side street, alley and narrow path between houses and businesses were. When the gang members realized that they'd lost sight of the two, the entire gang split up into small groups and continued their hunt.

A small group ran down a side street looking for them. When they ran past a parked car, they didn't see the two hiding behind it. Steel and Musk came out from behind the car and opened fire on the group, killing them all. They quickly collected the dead gangsters' guns and ammo and continued running.

Minutes later, Tank, Crystal, Shade and their bodyguards came running down that side street and stopped when they saw the dead bodies. Tank was furious. Crystal tried to hide that she was starting to panic. Shade crouched down next to one of the bodies and dragged his fingers over the bullet wound in the dead gang member's chest. After using the blood to draw a line across his forehead, he told them that if they didn't find and kill the two who were going against their tribe, they would all suffer the wrath of their ancestors. Everyone listening to him acted as if they thought that his word was law.

Steel and Musk were running down a side street and reached the train tracks. They had to stop and wait for the train to pass before they could continue on to the next side street. As they waited for the train, they kept looking around for any sign of the gang. Once the train had passed, they ran towards the next side street. Bullets flew past them as gang members came running along the train tracks towards them. They ran into the side street and took cover in the entrance to an apartment building. When the gang members ran past them, they opened fire on them, killing them all. They were still busy taking the dead gang members' guns when more came running towards them from the other side of the side street. They took cover in the apartment building's entrance and returned fire. As they shot and killed the gang members, they could her the fear-filled screams of people in the apartment building. One gang member who'd been wounded in the arm when the gunfight began in front of the workshop sounded like a mad man as he came walking up the side street. He fired shots, paused and yelled out Shade's name, fired more shots, paused and yelled that anyone who was against Shade was going to be cursed. Musk put the brainwashed wounded gangster out of his misery with a bullet to the chest.

Tank, Crystal, Shade and their bodyguards were running down an alley when the last remaining group of their gang came running in the opposite direction up the alley. They stopped and heard from the gang members of more bodies of killed gang members that were found in a alley nearby. Tank and Shade were enraged and began mocking the gang members for being weak and that they deserved to die.

Gunshots echoed down the alley as Steel and Musk opened fire on the last remaining members of the gang. Most of them were struck and killed before they could even return fire. The remaining members forced Tank, Crystal and Shade in behind a large trash container for cover before they returned fire. All three of them took out their guns and also began shooting. They were so focused on protecting themselves that they didn't even notice how their gang members were dropping like flies. The last two bodyguards ran down the middle of the alley towards Steel and Musk with their guns blazing, only to be shot and killed.

Tank, Crystal and Shade kept shooting until their ran out of ammo. Tank looked among the dead bodies for more guns. He was about to pull a gun out of a dead gang member's bloody hand when two bullets struck him. One struck him in his side and the other tore through the side of his neck, killing him instantly. Crystal and Shade went crazy when they saw him die. In their minds, this was impossible. They regarded themselves as invincible and thought nothing could ever hurt them. They took the guns of the dead bodyguards behind them and were about to continue shooting when Steel and Musk were standing right next to them with their guns pointed right at their heads. Shade stuttered as he began yelling out a strange chant, hoping that his magic could save them, but when Crystal tried to raise her gun to shoot Musk, she basically signed her own death certificate. The seven gunshots echoed down the alley, followed by an eerie silence.

One week later, Steel and Musk were still busy repairing their workshop along with a small group of their friends. More people began supporting them because, unbeknownst to them, they were becoming community leaders. In the coming months, they were going to become more involved with the community, hold rallies against gang violence and drugs, and fight the other gangs in any way possible.