Vengeance Club

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/51908830.

Rating: Explicit
Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Category: Gen
Fandom: Original Work
Additional Tags: Dark Humor, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Intense Profanity, extreme
violence, Revenge
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2023-11-29 Updated: 2023-12-13 Words: 13,247 Chapters:
14/19
 Vengeance Club
by fabunculus

Summary

You know, the Kowloon Walled City was a shitty place. A lot of crime there, you know, I've
said it a million times. We tried to bring retribution upon those criminals. It's been years now.
How 'bout I tell you about it? Oh, right, mind the tags and shit, this story's actually fucking
hilarious.

Notes
See the end of the work for notes
 Chapter 1

“Well yeah, I hadn’t seen the goddamn sun until I was eight years old. See, that’s what living
there was like. People like us didn’t get to experience these 'normal' things you got to so
early. As far as I knew, before I was eight, at least, the sun didn’t fucking exist. I can say
‘fucking’, right? Wasn’t real, you know, under all that concrete and shit. Oh yeah, and
hygiene, that was a fucking joke. The Kowloon Walled City was the kind of place where
even a bucket of clean water was a luxury. I mean, there was only six goddamn water-
connection-things in the whole place. Some of the stupid rich and wealthy guys, they got to
tap these stand-posts, get their constant supply of water. Isn’t that rich, super wealthy people
got to have a supply of clean water! Ha, now I can just turn that faucet on and drink my fill.
Me and my buddies, we had to travel across these seven something acres of city with buckets
around so we wouldn’t die of thirst and shit.

“Anyways, that’s what it was kinda like. I only got to see the sun at’all at’all, because my
tiny legs willed me to. You know how the city was fourteen fucking stories high, and the
whole place is a goddamn maze! That dun’ matter now. Me and my buddies were curious
explorers. So we had to get past a ton of places. Super dangerous, you know, we learned to be
stealthy enough to get around without losing a damn leg, but you know, after a few years—
that’s a joke, anyways after a while we were finally able to get to the roof, and I didn’t wanna
get back down ever! Smelled o’ shit, people always liked to toss their trash bags up there and
let it stink, but it was fresh air for once.

“Anyways, about my buddies. We were kids, you know, teens. Our parents were dead and
shit, so we could only rely on each other. We were able to find a way to cop an apartment,
which was a damn lucky thing, but who was gonna stop us, the police? What’s a landlord
gonna do to a bunch of kids ready to fucking eat? Old lady was scared out of her mind, I tell
you. But we did her services and shit, because we weren’t heartless. Oh yeah, speaking of
that. So even if we were born in the state we were in, in the world we were shat into, you
know, there was still a piece of justice in us. Anyone woulda thunk it. It’s unfair, how you’re
born into this dingy shitty place, might as well do your best to make it mean something. So
we didn’t have to think much, me and my buddies. No police? We be the police. You know,
crime was so big of a problem in Kowloon that it barely was one anymore. It simply just was,
you know, so me and my buddies thought of an idea to maybe make our lives a little less
shitty. Or boring, whoever the fuck cares, it dun’ matter how it started. We were kids, for
Christ’s sake. And since we were born bastardized, illegal pieces of shit, we were criminals.
We could do whatever the hell we wanted. We could just say we did it in the name of justice,
just to save our asses. Ha, but no, we actually cared. We wanted our own justice, so me and
my buddies made a lil’ group. An organization of us kids.

“Well, I’m getting tired. I’d tell you more tomorrow. Usually I’m awake even after two in the
morning, like, we barely had an idea of what time it was in that damn city, but maybe I’m just
exhausted. S’not even midnight yet, but oh well. You know, thanks for letting me sleep on
one of your beds. I know your kid is in college and all, but maybe for the week I can be your
kid. I’m his age, I can help work. Y’all would just have to listen to my story, only condition.
But really, thank you for offering me the bed. Oh, and that nice shower too. It’ll be my first
night sleeping in a real bed.

“The name? What, of our little group? Oh, we called ourselves the Vengeance Club.”
 Chapter 2

“Right, so we were made up of five kids. Five including me. So yeah, I’m 'legally' Qiang
Hao. I mean legally as in my parents gave it to me, but our group, the Vengeance Club, just
called me Dou. In fact, the group were the only people who called me Dou. No other damn
soul called me Dou, and no other damn soul ever will anymore. As far as I know, I’m the
only one left of the club. Makes me sound cool, dun’ it? Makes me sound mystical and shit.
Anyways, that’s who I was. And then there was Tanji, and Naoki, and Maya, and Bingyan.
Bingyan was our youngest. The little shit. He was our youngest, only about ten. Yeah, he was
only ten. You know, he didn’t really participate in the club, he was too young. It’s—actually,
it’s fucking crazy. We were planning to raise him in that shit-hole city, I suppose we’d
already done lost our hopes of getting the hell out of there. Then it came down, but yeah,
anyways, I’m the only one left.

“Anyways, the justice stuff. So like I said before, a million times, Kowloon was not a safe
place, you know. One corner you got a kindergarten that supports the miserable poor parents
there, but walk around for a bit and you’ll find a club that kidnaps them and kills ‘em. Really
nasty shit. Actually, no it wasn’t that bad, but it was pretty bad. No, toddlers weren’t getting
killed, just teenagers. The crime lords organized this shit. Sold teens like toys. Were used like
‘em too, really nasty shit.

“And so our club, we took it like it is! All these nasty crimes happening all around the place,
and no one to stop them. Well, we knew people won’t listen to good. Not when that kind of
thing dun’ exist anymore in a place like this. People were living like animals. To hell with
‘good or ‘bad’. But we had a drive in ourselves. We’d do something about it. Equal
vengeance. If a man killed a man, that man shall die. No shit, you’re telling me, but I mean
die. If you stabbed someone fifteen times, you ought to be stabbed fifteen times. Eye for an
eye. In the exact same places too, you know.

“Our group was able to connect to some adults. You know, people smarter than us. They
made deals with Tanji so we could get paid to enact our vengeance. Tanji would tell us about
the description, location, everything about a guy, and specifically what crimes he did. And
we’d find that person and do the same exact thing to ‘em. That was our thing. We stayed
alive doing this at’all at’all, because like I said before, our clients, the guys Tanji made a deal
with. I just said it, they’d pay us good money. We could feed each other, you know. We loved
each other, you know.

“In the city we were on the tenth floor, I think. And we were able to live in an apartment
close to the edge. Where we got nicer apartments, and the sun. Mind you this was some years
after eight. It was still cramped as shit. Whole entire apartment was probably as big as one of
your fucking . . . about half as big as this establishment's bedrooms. Yeah, half of that. Our
whole thing. We all slept in the same room, and shat in another, and that was our luxury. And
we cooked and ate and washed and did everything a normal kid did in another room. There
was no shower, but around the city a lot of water was pouring in from up above. It always
did. Pipes and shit, wasn’t super clean or warm water, but I saw naked bodies all the time just
standing in the streets, showering. Well, as much of a street these things were. More like
corridors. Like a labyrinth. Crazy shit. It was always dirty as shit too, filthy place. Not a
fantastic place to kill crime if it looks like crime gets fucking cultivated there. But like I said
before a million times, we still had our drive.

“Anyways, I’m getting sidetracked. This was about the club. You asked about our first
victim. I remember it clearly, still. I remember every fucking thing actually.

“The first dude we got raped a thirteen-year-old girl and then shot her.”
 Chapter 3

“I usually wasn’t the one doing the actual killing most of the time, since a lot of the victims
were girls. So we had half and half boys and girls. It is what it is, you know. Bingyan dun’
matter, he didn’t do shit, and like I said a million times he was too young. So if we got
anyone who did crimes against a woman, it’d either be Naoki or Maya on the job, you know.
And if it was against a dude me and Tanji would get on it. But I was still kind of monitoring
shit. We always worked as a team. Two or more people on a job, you know.

“And this was our first job, we only got the dude’s last name. Fucking “Chan”. You know,
only girly boys who got sodomized and liked it were named fucking Chan. Only cute dudes
who suck dick day and night were named Chan, but goddamn I remenber he was ugly as shit.
All of us were, but damn he was ugly as shit. Tanji told us he was like sixty-three, and he was
balding, and five foot eight, and I swear to God he was modeled after the Buddha. Rolls so
fat you could feed a family. That’s a joke, he wasn’t obsese, just this normal looking middle
aged guy. Most of the time he was wearing some sort of blue polo shirt and some khakis. I
mean, goddamn maybe he had money. It’s not like we’re completely destitute, you know, we
still got clothes stores, hell, we got all kinds of stores in Kowloon—damn it I’m getting
sidetracked again.

“So anyways, our first guy was named Chan, and since he raped and killed a girl, it was
Naoki’s responsiblity. You know, she was a nice girl. I’d never in a million years had seen her
as a woman, but she was a nice girl. Never loved anyone like that anyway. She had slitty
fucking eyes, you know, like it was kind of hilarious. She looked like a 1940s cartoon. But
anyways she had long black hair, and every time we were gonna leave our apartment to do a
job or whatever, she’d always tie it. Like, always. In fact maybe she tied it every time she left
that goddamn apartment. I dun’ know why I remember.

“So since Naoki didn’t have a dick and all that—oh right, you remember. No, we do the exact
same thing the criminals did. Chan raped this poor bitch, so we were planning to rape him
too. But you know, Naoki dun’ have a dick, so we had to go get some materials. Compensate,
you know. If you walked a couple minutes and went down some stairs, and corridors, and
other maze-y shit there was an iron factory.”

Naoki stepped out from the stairs and skipped across the hallway. The sludge on the cold
concrete floor stuck to her feet, but she didn’t bother to scrape it off. She turned a corner, and
heard noises of machinery. She came across an entry-way and stepped into the factory.

Within the chalky floorboards and the rusty primitive tools Naoki approached the single
worker hammering away on a piece of metal.

“What do you want?” he asked. He chewed on his cigarette.

“I need a large metal stick,” Naoki said.

“What do you mean.”

“Something, maybe about as thick as my arm.”

“What’chu gonna do with it?”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

The worker set down his hammer and trudged to the back. He opened a bunch of drawers
and fumbled around in them. Naoki stood there, her hawk-like eyes scanning the factory.

“This what you want?” The worker turned around and presented a metal dowel. Naoki
studied it.

“This is fine,” she said.

“It’ll be one yuan.”

“I’ll return it.”

The worker stared at Naoki with a puzzled expression.

“What the hell is a kid like you doing with this rod?” he asked.

“It was actually fucking hilarious, you know, she was able to get the goddamn thing for free.
I mean, it was only one yuan, but she still got it after she promised to clean it after. You
know, shit gets precious, but that worker was young. He gets fun.”

“Usually around eight p.m. Chan’ll exit the Golden Beak Restaurant. The client doesn’t know
where he lives, but he sees him leave like that every day.”

Tanji shrugged. Naoki stared at him.

“I mean,” he continued, “that’s all the information he gave me.”

“You know, Tanji was the smartest one. He looked smart too. Hair was short, had a bald
patch, but he’d be cruel as shit if he wanted. I guess smart people tend to be cruel.”

“How does the client know what restaurant he goes but not where he lives?”

“Because the last time the client was with his kid, was when they spent her birthday at the
restaurant.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“You know what’s the real kicker? I’ve heard crueler things before. Fucking cruel as shit.”
 Chapter 4

“Table for two.”

“Right this way.”

Naoki and Dou followed the waitress to a table and sat there. They were handed a menu.

“Not every day we get to eat at someplace like this,” Naoki said.

“You know, I was never a picky eater. Never got a chance to pick anyway. I’s a simple guy,
you know. Simple as shit.”

“Well, you have to pick something from the menu.”

“You pick.”

“Fine.” Naoki raised her hand. The waitress came over.

“Ready to order?”

“Yeah, can I get stir-fried pork and bean curd, and the bitter melon.”

“Will that be all?”

“Yeah.”

After the waiter left, Naoki leaned into Dou.

“Check your bag again.”

“So I checked it. We had my dad’s revolver, and the metal dowel. Oh, and a lighter, and rope.
What was the lighter for? Oh, well the only reason the client knew his daughter was killed
at’all at’all was because the letter Chan left on his door. Something about his experience with
the girl and her virginity, and like her saying a bunch of shit. You know, when something
happens to you, you try to stay innocent and say shit. Shit like “it burns” over and over again.
Sick psycho, I tell you.”

“There he is.”
Naoki looked to the entrace of the restaurant and saw a middle aged man enter, with a polo
shirt and khakis. When he sat down, the waitress went up to him with a smile.

“The usual, Mr. Chan?”

“And in that moment I could almost hear the pistons and cogs working in Naoki’s head. She
wasn’t a retard, you know. Anyways, we watched him eat and shit, and he ate like a normal
fucking human being, you know. They hide in plain sight, you know.”

Naoki peeked from the doorway and watched Chan disappear above the stairs. She waited
for a moment, then crept up, Dou following behind. When they reached the top, they saw a
door. Naoki waited for a minute and then knocked on it. A woman about forty answered the
door.

“You’re not residents.”

“We’re looking for Mr. Chan.”

“He just entered his apartment.”

“May we come in?”

“No.”

“We’re gonna kill him.”

“I remember the woman was very still. Like a fucking statue and shit. Really eerie shit.”

“Don’t cause a ruckus,” she said.

“Seems like everyone knew what the Chan fucker did, but it’s fucking Kowloon. No one
gave a shit, you know. No one except for us, you know. They were probably scared as shit
too, you know.”

When the two entered the door, they were in another corridor. There were doors for
individual apartments, and at the end was the common kitchen and washing machine.

“Dou,” Naoki whispered, “I’m really scared.”

“I’ll help get him down, you’ll be okay.”

“He didn’t break her feet. It’s not what we should do.”

“Relax, it’s our first time.”

Naoki went up to door 308.

“The land-lady said he lives here.”

“Then he lives here.”

“You know, maybe Chan was a retard. Shaken as a baby or something. It only came to my
mind in that moment that maybe he locked his door.”

Naoki turned the doorknob and it opened. It was dark. She heard snoring, and saw the lump
of man face down on his bed. There were cans of beer strewn around the floor. She had a
switchblade in her hands, and was staring at Chan’s feet. Dou closed the door and locked it.

“He’s out cold,” Naoki whispered. She fumlbed around and turned on the light.

“And fear just shot me, you know. Like he would wake up from that, you know. But maybe
he was actually a retard. Like, actually shaken as a baby or something. Smelled really bad in
there too. Like sweat and jizz.”

Mr. Chan did not stir. His snoring still sounded. Naoki bent over his heels, and positioned the
blade over them.

“You sure this’ll stop him from moving?”

“Fuck it.”

Naoki slashed at his feet. Mr. Chan awoke and started screaming. He leapt up and grabbed
Naoki.

“And she started screaming, you know, really terrifying shit. Dropped the knife too. So I
pounced on him. The fat fucker. He was hard to get down. I had to bite on his ear to get him
to let go. Somehow his blood tasted better than that ear. Naoki then took out the rope from
the bag, and tied his hands together. I tell you I had my whole fucking weight on this man,
crazy shit.”
“Who the fuck are you?! Let me out you bitch!”

“Do I still need to keep him down?” Dou asked.

“Try getting off of him.”

Dou stepped off, and watched as Chan squirmed around.

“I’ll kill you both, you fucking chinks!”

“Where’s the rod?” Naoki asked.

“Shit, it fell out of the bag.”

Naoki crouched down and looked under the bed. She saw the dowel and grabbed it. When she
pulled it out there was a cockroach on it. She screamed and threw the dowel. The cockroach
slithered back under the bed.

“Fuck! Dou, stop laughing!”

“Meanwhile we still had Chan bleeding like shit on the ground, it was actually hilarious.”

“Help! Help me, I’m getting fucking killed here!” Chan shouted.

“No one’s helping you, goddamn it,” Naoki said. She held the dowel above the lighter until it
turned dark red. “Dou, take off his pants.”

“What the fuck are you doing?!”

“I struggled to get them pants off of this fucker. But it was possible. His ass was hairy as shit.
Ugly fucking dude.

“Anyways I saw this rage inside Naoki. I had to hold this fucker down while she thrusted that
bright red thing crazy fast. It was actually hilarious, and the dude was screaming so much, I
had to grab the pillow and stick his face in it. It wasn’t the most luxurious job, you know, it
was awkward as shit. But we did what we did. He was in loads of pain, it was awesome. And
the blood coming out of his heels, I think ‘twas a job well done. But we didn’t wanna rape
him for-fucking-ever, so we eventually stopped after like three minutes, It’s how long he
probably lasted with her anyway. God, that’s hilarious. But he also shot her when she was
trying to escape, you know. He was done with the girl, and she tried to escape, and he shot
her dead before she could open the door.”
Naoki threw the bloody dowel into the bag, and took out the revolver. She clicked it.

“No, no no no!” Chan shouted.

“Wait!” Dou shouted.

“What?”

“Look!”

Naoki looked behind her and saw a pistol sitting on top of the drawer.

“I thought it would be extra nice if we used the same gun he used on her. Real justice, you
know. We also wanted to time it just right, you know, kill him just as he was about to open
the door.”

Naoki put the revolver aside and grabbed the pistol. She cocked it.

“You can try to escape if you want, Mr. Chan.”

Dou sliced the ropes open and Chan scrambled upwards. He fell over, screaming at his
bloody heels, and grabbed at the doorknob.

“Now, now!” Dou shouted.

Naoki fired the gun. It missed, and shot the door open. Chan got to his feet. Naoki fired
again. Hit his leg. He ran out of the apartment.

“Shit!”

Naoki ran into the hallway and saw Chan running for the exit. She shot again, but it only
clicked.

“There’s no more! He’s escaping!”

Dou grabbed the revolver and ran out the apartment, He saw Chan disappear behind the
door, leaving behind a trail of blood. He sprinted past Naoki and stumbled into the stairwell.
Chan was running downwards. Dou followed. He pointed the revolver at Chan and squinted.
He shot. Missed.

“Help me!” Chan shouted. Dou ran downwards. He slipped over the blood, and tumbled
facefirst to the floor. The revolver skidded away. Dou crawled to his feet, grabbed the gun,
held it up. He saw Chan running down.

“And then I had a crazy fucking idea. Almost cost me my life, you know.”
Dou climbed on the rails and jumped. He landed on top of Chan, and they both rolled down
the stairwell. They crashed into a wall, and Dou stumbled up, gripping the revolver.

“Please, God!” Chan cried. He covered his face. Dou fired once. Hit his chest. Chan started
to whimper and convulse. Fired again, hit his head. He became still. Dou stepped off of the
man, and looked around. His hands trembled.

Naoki came running down. She looked at the corpse, then at Dou. They ran downwards, into
a corridor, to a dark alley-way. There was a cascade of muddy water from above. Naoki took
out the dowel and put it under the water. It was still hot; it sizzled.

“We were both out of breath. And I probably broke a few bones. Mind you, I was fourteen.
Eventually, we found our way back to the iron factory. He looked thrilled, you know. We
gave him back the rod, even though it probably had a million STDs on it. Oh, and Chan’s
body was taken by some cartel organization. Probably cut him up and ate him or something.
Crazy shit, you know.”
 Chapter 5

Naoki entered the apartment. Dou followed behind. Maya stood by the sink, watching them.

“Dou, you’re covered in blood,” she said.

“Don’t worry, it’s not mine.”

Maya looked them up and down.

“Tanji’ll be back soon. Sit.”

Naoki and Dou sat on the floor as Maya went into the restroom. She returned with a bottle of
vodka and a rag.

“Dou, what are all these bruises from?”

“I’ll be honest with you, I won’t lie about it, you know. Those stairs did a fucking number on
me. I was purple all over. Didn’t even realize how bad it was until I tried walking like a day
later. Really bad on my legs. Because you never really feel the pain until a day later, you
know. It’s like when you work out. You only feel the shit after a day.

“Anyways Maya was rubbing the alcohol on me, and some of it hurt like shit, but then she
told me to go to bed. I was the one who took heavy damage, not Naoki, but Maya had her do
something else too, I don’t remember what. All I know is that Naoki stayed in the house,
because she had her hair undone. And then Maya went into the bedroom with me.

“She was the only person I knew who I saw as somewhat of a woman. Really wavy hair, the
cutest nose. And she looked so peaceful all the time. Only pretty person in the damn city, and
she had massive tits. She was two years older than us, yeah. Really as traditional as a woman
got around. You know, she really was beautiful, and sweet, and shit.”

“So,” Maya said, “you’re actually a fucking retard.”

“What did I do?”

“You want to fucking be theatrical and shit? Be poetic with the revolver? Are you fucking
stupid? Look at you.”

Dou looked at himself.

“I was originally gonna have you help with organizing our shit, but now your ass gets to
sleep in bed and be lazy while I’ll have to do more fucking work.”
“I’m sorry, Maya.”

“The only reason you’re alive at’all at’all is because I feel bad for you. You’re already half-
fucking-dead already.”

“I’m very sorry, Maya.”

“And the blood too. You know how actually fucking hilarious that is? If I’d seen it I would’ve
laughed. In fact I might laugh right now! How’d you slip like that?! Are you stupid?”

Maya heaved out a massive sigh and started walking out of the room.

“I’m living with a goddamn mongoloid in here—”

The door closed. Dou sat for a moment, and got up.

“I felt really bad, so I decided I could help out. I thought I could help fold the clothes, since I
saw them in a giant fucking pile in the corner of the bedroom, so I got to work. And I was
doing the clothes right, and so I started thinking. We were already in some shit hole, with
disgusting hygiene and shit. No one even cared to do makeup around here, because it dun’
even matter. So as I was folding the clothes, I thought about it. You know, it’s not even about
making Maya happy. Of course I wanted to make Maya happy, but I thought about those
deeper things, you know. About why taking time to do that kind of shit even mattered
anymore.

“And in the end, the clothes were done. Goddamn it, I remember I completely destroyed
them. They were folded terribly, since my hands trembled so much. They hurt, but I also felt
really tense. I mean, who wouldn’t, I still had fucking Chan’s blood on me. It was fucking
hard! Oh well, but I tried. Actually, I didn’t finish folding them. I gave up near the end, and I
just slumped back in bed.”

Dou woke up. He saw that he had bandages over his bruises. He looked at the corner, and
noticed the clothes were gone. He stood up and walked out of the room, where Maya, Naoki,
and Tanji sat on the floor around the dinner table.

Dou only stared at Maya’s face, expecting judgemental gloom. But she smiled at him.

“I was just about to come wake you up,” she said.

“Apparently she gave me the bandages while I was sleeping, and only noticed the clothes
after that. Tanji told me that she thought I did a horrible job, and redid it all. I dunno why I
told you this fucking story, it dun’ seem important now that I think about it. . .”
 Chapter 6

“Tanji was the same age as Maya. So usually he and Maya were technically the leaders of our
club, but not really. Everyone did their part. But most of the time Tanji was involved in a lot
of stuff. I really respected him, you know. Like I said a million times, he took care of the
clients, and he also fetched water for us. And bought food for us. He did a lot of shit.
Sometimes I wanted to impress Maya by doing some of the things he did. That made me
happy some days. Like sometimes, I’d put in my effort to run down to the third floor and go
to the fish market. I’d gone there enough times that I even knew how to gut a fish.

“I mean, I wasn’t fucking jealous of Tanji or anything. I mean, anyone can say that, but inside
they really feel jealous, you know. At least, I don’t think I did. Especially not in a place like
Kowloon. You didn’t have time or enough space in your heart to be jealous of anyone. I only
admired Tanji.”

“You know, on the roof, there were people who bred pigeons. But these weren’t any fucking
kind of bitch-ass pigeons. They were racing pigeons and shit. I mean, the only reason I knew
birds existed at’all at’all were because of these damn birds. Tanji introduced me to them.”

He opened the cage. From it Tanji took out a pigeon. Dou looked up at him in amazement.

“My dad used to breed these pigeons,” Tanji said. “Now, I take care of them.”

“You take care of a lot,” Dou said.

“It’s not hard to take care of them. I don’t really have to put them in cages.”

Tanji put the pigeon inside the cage and closed it. He studied the other cages around it, and
walked out of the tent. Dou followed, taking in the scenery of the roof. He saw the telephone
poles, the air conditioning units, and the dimming sky.

“I only really have to put the pigeons in the cages at night.”

“Why do you let them out during the day? Won’t they fly away? How would you make your
money?”

Tanji looked at Dou.

“For some reason, they decide to stay here. They could leave, but they don’t. Maybe they find
a strange comfort here.”

Dou was silent. He looked down, and took a deep breath.

“I saw myself as one of these fucking birds. When Tanji told me that, it was at that moment
that I knew I could leave whenever I fucking wanted! So inside I thought of ways I could
leave Kowloon, get my shit figured out. But I didn’t think about it too damn much, because I
was paying more of my attention to Tanji, you know. But you’d had to think about it. You
might be asking me why I’d want to stay in Kowloon at all. Maybe there were chances I had
in there that I might’ve not had in any other shitty place. Oh well. But in that moment I was .
. . fixated on Tanji. Really respected the guy, you know, felt like I could trust him on
anything. And I could trust Naoki too, and Maya. You know, I said it a million times, Maya
was a really nice girl.”

Dou went back into the apartment carrying a bucket of water.

“One day I wanted to do some extra help, since Tanji told me he would be going with Maya
to slaughter this pig that one of his friends got. Naoki had to compensate so she took care of
the pigeons. And since I felt useless, I wanted to get the water, you know.”

He set the bucket by the door, and heard a creak from the bedroom.

“I thought there was a burglar. Tanji taught me to be wary of them. I trusted a lot of things
Tanji said. Anyways, when I grabbed a knife and went into the bedroom, I was honestly
pretty fucking terrified. But my rational mind told me it was some rat or something, you
know.”

Dou opened the door.

“You know, there was nothing in the room. I was paranoid for nothing, but I suddenly felt
like I had to run, you know. I ran for like twenty whole fucking minutes. You know where I
ended up eventually? On the roof. I thought’ve going to Naoki, but I was on a completely
other side of the goddamn city. But I was on the edge of this building, and I was looking at
the sky.

“Anyways. I’ve . . . I’ve never been suicidal, you know. Not when everything you do is trying
to help you survive, or something. But I thought about what Tanji said about the pigeons.
Those damn birds could leave any time they wanted to. I could leave any time I wanted to.
All I had to do was jump off, and land on one of the tall buses that drove by so I didn’t
fucking die. Anyways, after a few minutes I returned back to the apartment. I didn’t jump,
I’m not stupid.
“Then how did I get the scar on my foot? Well, on my way back to the apartment I thought I
could take a look at them damn pigeons. Naoki wasn’t there, she probably already returned.
So I opened one of the cages, and tried taking one of them birds out. But I guess they didn’t
recognize me, and they started biting me and shit. In this scuffle and shit I got my foot
trapped on some nails lying around. Nasty sliding slice, you know. When I got back to the
apartment crying my ass off, Maya gave me even more bandages. You know, it was actually
fucking hilarious. But yeah, that’s how I got the scar.”

In the bedroom Dou saw Tanji on top of Maya in bed. They were both naked. Dou’s hand
trembled. Tanji cocked his head towards him. His eyes were wide.

“Hey!” Tanji shouted.

Dou dropped the knife, slammed the door, ran.

 Chapter 7

“It was a couple years until we got our next big job. There were a lot of small jobs, like
people stealing from others, so we steal something they had as well. Of equal value, you
know. That stuff wasn’t hard. We considered things big jobs whenever they included children
or murder. Usually it was both. But it is what it is. We thought it was another stealing job.

“Usually, stealing jobs were easy. There was this one time we had this old woman stealing a
bunch of toys from a toy shop, repainting them, and selling them herself at a higher price. So
we went in her apartment and stole two of her pots. It was what the client wanted, you know.
We always do what the client wants. At least, that’s what Tanji told me. I barely know shit
about who the clients are, even though I don’t think that’s good for business. You gotta know
where you’re getting your fucking money from, you know. It’s not that I wouldn’t accept it,
but it’s better in the name of “personal emotional safety” to know that your money came from
a cartel that likes to kidnap kids and fucking kill them rather than not, you know.

“But I didn’t care that fucking much, it’s not like I wanna be a mensch or anything. But I
think you ought to know your clients and shit. The only way you get your money at’all at’all
is because there’s a client, you know.

“This time, it was some dude at a restaurant who said he was getting stolen from. He’d find a
lot of his produce cut in half on the weekends, because someone was coming and taking their
shit! You know, I feel bad for both fucking sides. On one hand, you gotta feed a bunch of
people so you don’t go fucking bankrupt. You know, you gotta cook day in and day out, and
sell it for a cheap price because you’re living in fucking Kowloon and shit. It’s not fair, you
know. On the other hand, you got someone who’s starving to death. Survival of the fittest and
shit. So you can’t help but feel bad. But the client was paying us a handsome bit of green for
us to steal something valuable from the thief, so the Vengeance Club didn’t really have a
choice, did we.

“Tanji and I were the ones set out for the job, since the client was a dude and all. I mean, if
you really think about it, this job was somewhat of a big one, you know. Well, at least to me,
you know. I don’t know how everyone else was fucking thinking about this job, but I think
it’s important. At least, I looked like the only one who thought it was important.”

Tanji and Dou walked into the kitchen. They saw cooking utensils hanging on wire racks, and
sudsy water covering up dirty plates. On some white plastic tables they saw workers hacking
up seafood. There also was the roaring fires, and the sizzling, and the constant clanging of
metal. Dou covered his ears.

“Where’s the manager?” Tanji shouted.

“What?” one of them yelled.

“The manager!”
“The what?!”

“Boss!”

“Office!”

“Where?!”

The worker pointed to a door next to the freezer. Tanji gave them a thumbs up.

“Order for braised fish in mapo soup!” a voice called.

“Come on.” Tanji gestured to Dou.

The two walked to the door and knocked on it. Tanji turned around.

“Stop covering your ears!”

“What?”

“When does your restaurant close, Mr. Li?” Tanji asked.

“Ten p.m.”

“We’ll be staying here in the kitchen We’ll hide beneath the sinks. When the suspect arrives,
we’ll follow him to his apartment.”

“I want you two to injure him and steal something valuable from him.”

“Yes sir.”

“Once you do this, I want you to take a photo for proof.”

“Not a problem, sir.”

Mr. Li opened his desk and took out a Polaroid.

“And for this I will pay you 8,000 yuan.”

“We’re very grateful for your generosity, Mr. Li.”

“Honestly, with all the money he looked like he had, I’ll bet he was just some sadist who
wanted to see some broken bones.”
Tanji and Dou crouched low. They shuffled under the table, and positioned themselves in
between the sinks.

“Tanji, I’m fucking cramped.”

“Deal with it.”

They looked out of the tiny opening around the pipes, and scanned. The last worker exited the
kitchen.

“Now we wait,” Dou whispered.

“I’ll be honest with you, it felt like for-fucking-ever squatting down like that. In reality,
maybe it was only five minutes, but goddamn it was the longest five fucking minutes I’ve
ever had to subject myself to.”

“Look, look!”

Tanji watched as the backdoor opened. A hooded figure tip-toed in. They were short.

“That’s our suspect,” Tanji whispered.

The suspect looked around, then waddled over to the freezer. Dou squinted as the suspect.

“Damn this dude is short."

“Wait a second Tanji that’s a fucking child.”

 Chapter 8

The duo crept up behind the corner and watched as the child carried a giant bag of
vegetables behind him.

“You approach him,” Dou whispered.

“You do it!”

“Fine.”

“So I walked up to him, you know. We thought that he was stupid, because he looked like a
young fucking kid.”

“Ah!” the child shouted. He began to run away.

“Wait, wait!” Dou called. “We’re trying to help!”

The child turned around.

“You look like you’re having a hard time carrying that, could we help you?”

“Oh! It sure is heavy!”

“Now that I think about it maybe he was a fucking idiot.”

“What are we supposed to do?” Tanji hissed. Dou shrugged. He carried the bag of
vegetables with the child by grabbing on the plastic wrap.

“What do I know? I’m just helping this kid carry his shit.”

“What about the job?”

“We’ll figure that out when we get to the apartment.”

The child knocked on the door. The landlord appeared.

“Who are the kids behind you?”

“They’re helping me! They’re gonna leave soon.”

“Be quick, you two.”

The two followed the thief to his apartment. He knocked on the door.

“Sister, I’m home!” he said. “And I brought some friends.”

The boys looked at each other when they heard no response.

“Come on, let’s go in!”

The three entered the apartment. Tanji widened his eyes.

“There was . . . a girl in there. Well, first of all the apartment was fucking tiny. Just like
everyone’s. Like, that’s a fucking given. But there was this girl sitting on the bed, she looked
about seventeen? I dunno. And she was laying in bed, and there was only one bed. It looked
like the kid slept on the floor or something so that he could give his sister more comfort.
Why? Well yeah, that’s the point. Lady had no fucking legs.

“They were stumps. She was a goddamn amputee. There was a fucking wheelchair in the
corner of the place, and he probably stole that thing too. So this kid, was doing all this shit to
help his sister out, and him, you know. What a fucking saint. Isn’t he a goddamn saint.”

“What happened to her?” Dou asked. The child was unpacking the vegetables.

“Oh, my sister? She’s paralyzed below the waist. Genetic thing or something. And she was
addicted to meth. It’s not too good.”

“One day she couldn’t pay for her dope. Nevermind, that’s cocaine. But you get what I mean.
Got into some bad business with her dealers. Threatened to chop her up. Luckily she was
paralyzed. Couldn’t use her legs anyway. She offered to cut off her legs to sell. And then,
she’s an amputee.”

“Tanji, I feel really bad for these people.”

“What should we steal?”

“I might be a stupid fucking kid, but I’m not heartless. You know, I liked this kid. Reminded
me of myself when I was younger.”

“What’s your name, kid?”

“Bingyan!”

“I told Tanji I wanted to adopt him. Steal something ‘valuable’, right? How about I ‘steal’ a
whole goddamn human being? And then leave the sister by herself. She could crawl around
and get someone else to help her. But I felt really bad for Bingyan and shit. Tanji said I
couldn’t, that we couldn’t feed him, but I begged and shit.”

“Please,” Dou cried, “just let me take him home!” He turned around to Bingyan.

“Look, you can live a nice life if you live with us, you’ll have a lot of friends and you won’t
have to work like this so much.”

“But my sister . . .”

“No!” Tanji said. “This money we’re getting is supposed to help us have a better fucking life
here. We’ll live the same way if we add this kid in the picture.”

“You know, what Tanji said was smart. It was kinda cruel, but really smart.”

“I’m right here!” the sister snapped. “You’re not taking my brother away from me.”

Tanji looked at the girl. She sat still in bed, but her eyes were glaring.

“You won't take him!” she said again.

“Shut up!”

“Make me then!”

Tanji walked around the apartment, and opened a drawer. In it he found some nails, a
screwdriver, a roll of tape, and a knife.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Tanji took out the roll of tape and approached the sister.
“Wait,” Bingyan said, “don’t hurt her!”

“I’m not.”

“Stop it,” the girl shouted. “Get off me, you fucking—mmph!”

“Tanji,” Dou said, “maybe this is a little far.” Tanji put the tape down, and stared at her. At
her body.

“Fine,” Tanji muttered, beginning to tape the girl’s hands together. “You fucking chink. Take
the goddamn kid and go.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be back later.”

Dou looked to the girl whimpering as Tanji tied her up. He turned back to Tanji, who was
staring at her breasts and her thighs.

“If I really really really had to be fucking honest, that girl looked sexy as shit. You know, she
had the fat going in all the right places, and she had nice tits, and legs. She probably had a fat
fucking ass too, but I don’t know. Either way, I still felt . . . not good, you know.”

“What are you doing?” Dou asked. “Bingyan, could you step outside for a moment?”

“Are you going to hurt my sister?” he asked.

“No, she’s going to be just fine, we’re just setting up something.”

“Setting what up?”

“Bingyan, be a good little boy and step outside please.”

“Okay.”

The child walked out and closed the door.

“Look,” Tanji said. Remember Mr. Li said something about injuring the thief. And taking a
photo of it. I’m just trying to injure this lady to take a photo and get our money. I can’t just
show her like this, because she’s been an amputee for a long time. Mr. Li wouldn’t get
convinced that we cut her fucking legs off. But she’s paralyzed. I found a knife in that drawer.
If I just stab her in the leg, we can take a photo, it won’t fucking hurt the girl, and we can get
on out. And about the stealing, we can just tell Mr. Li that we stole the fucking kid and sold
him. How’s that?”

“Okay, okay, fine.”

Dou took in deep breaths as the girl tried screaming and wriggling through the tape. Tanji
took out the knife.

“Give me the camera.”

Dou reached into his bag and took out the Polaroid. He handed it to Tanji.

“Okay, now leave.”

“I’ll admit, that idea really was smart as shit. I just . . .”

The girl stared at Tanji with tears budding at the rim of her eyes. She tried moving her legs,
with the knife bobbing around in it. Dou stood helplessly as Tanji unbuttoned his pants.

“Go, Dou.”

Dou scrunched his hands into fists. He looked to the girl. She shook her head at him with
almost pleading eyes.

“Hey! Fucking leave!”

Dou rushed out of the room and slammed the door.

“You know, while I was helping clean up the cafeteria, I heard some of the younger orphans
talking about dolphins. How they’re super smart, and shit, but they rape each other. Is that
true? It is? Goddamn. I’ve never heard a thing like that in my life. I mean, I only knew
dolphins existed at’all at’all was because I saw a show on this cruise I snuck onto coming
here. That ride was fun. Yeah, I snuck on it. They had a show for dolphins and shit, it was a
massive fucking ride. And I thought they were so nice. And kind. And cute. But the males
rape females for fun, and they’re super smart and shit. You know, dumb people are violent.
Like, I’ve met some stupid fucking people, and they all tend to be violent. But I said it a
million times before. That smart people tend to be cruel.”
 Interlude

Dou took a deep breath, then took a sip of his coffee. The nurse sitting across from him
looked down.

“You must have had a terrible upbringing,” she said.

“Well, no fucking shit,” Dou laughed. “I’m not even done with the goddamn story.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“What?” Dou asked. He put down his cup. “Oh, I wasn’t upset.”

“Oh? Haha—”

“No no no,” Dou said quickly. “This is just how I talk, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been
talking to you all rude and shit.”

“It’s alright,” the nurse said. “I should’ve already known how you speak.”

“But you’re right,” Dou said. “I mean, you say that every time I finish a bit.”

“Sorry—”

“Hey, it’s fucking fine, goddamn.” Dou took another sip of his coffee. The nurse raised her
eyebrows in amusement.

“I’ve noticed you drink coffee very late in the day.” She pointed to his cup.

“Oh,” Dou said. He stared at his cup as if he had just realized it was there. “Is there
something crazy about it?”

“Well, how do you sleep at night?”

He looked back at her in confusion. She was a young nurse, with smooth black hair and a
fox-like face. Her posture was straight, and her lips were pressed in taut seriousness, but she
asked the question with a tone of tender empathy.

“Why . . . do you ask about it?”

“Well, I’m seeing you wander around the foster home, basically aimlessly, and I’m
wondering how you sleep every night.”

“What’s this have to do with coffee?”

The nurse tilted her head.

“Do you not know that coffee has caffeine?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you know what caffeine does? ”

“I dunno.”

The nurse made a worried expression. “Coffee makes you energized”

“Don’t any food make you energized?”

“But coffee and tea make you more energized than other things, because it has caffeine.”

“Oh,” Dou looked at his cup. “I never noticed. I guess that’s why I can’t sleep at night. Ever.”

“Yes . . .”

Dou laughed, drinking the last bit of coffee. “Usually, I make myself tired and sleepy by
masturbating in my bedroom for thirty fucking minutes.”

“Oh . . .”

“Yeah, and after I’m done shucking corn, I go outside for a walk.”

“Qiang Hao, the doors are locked at night.”

“I escape through the roof.”

“How the f—how do you get to the roof?”

“I run to the third floor . . . ? Oh, I can’t do that, right?” Dou sighed. “Old habits.”

“You’re nineteen. You should know better.”

“I should.”

“But you’re still a good kid. I see how you act around the little ones.”

“How’s that?”

“How kind you are to them. You were helping kids throw away their finished food, and
helping sweep their bedrooms. I’ve heard them tell me how sweet you are to them. They also
tell me how much you swear in front of us.”

Dou fell silent. He crossed his legs together and formed a thin smile.

“It’s my instinct.”

“We’ve also noticed the small permanent marker tattoos on their arms. The other staff think
it’s cute.”

“I guess.”
“I would tell you to stop doing all this, like all the other staff would say, but I personally
don’t mind it.”

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Nurse Yue.” She pointed to her name tag.

“I mean your first name.”

Nurse Yue stared at him for a long time.

“Mei.”

Dou stood at the ledge, overlooking the city. The breeze stung him, but he didn’t move.

I really ought to listen to that nurse sometime. She’s cute.

He looked down to the roads below.

Every night I think about it. Why would I ever want to take a fucking walk?

Dou took a deep breath. Waited there. Stepped backward and skipped into the building.

As Dou walked downstairs to the bedroom hall, he heard crying from one of the rooms.
There was also muffled shouting. Dou hurried downstairs and tip-toed to the door. He pressed
his ear against the wood.

“How dare you steal! How dare you!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I won’t take the toy again!”

“Have you no respect to this home?! You should be grateful we feed you every day!”

There came a whacking sound, and Dou winced at the child’s cry.

“How dare you disrespect your elders like this! And this tattoo. Who drew this!”

“I did!”

“How dare you lie to me!”

Another whipping of the stick. Dou quickly grabbed at the doorknob, but it was locked.

“Who’s there?!”

Dou scrambled away from the door and hurried downstairs.

 Chapter 10

“Don’t you think he’s getting awfully close to that kid?” Maya asked. Naoki looked into the
bedroom and saw Dou with Bingyan.

“I’ve never seen him act like that,” she said.

“Why did you steal those vegetables, instead of just buying them? You talk like you’ve got the
money.”

Bingyan shrugged.

“It’s because stealing is cool!”

Dou shifted around and got up.

“Where’d you learn that?” he asked.

“I saw a movie where there are people who, who who steal! And they were very cool!”

“Oh!” Dou looked into the drawer and took out a permanent marker. “Well, there are much
better ways to be cool.”

“How?”

“You’ve seen the tattoos those characters wear, don’t they? Don’t you think those are cool?”

“Yeah!”

“How ‘bout I draw you one?”

“Sure!”

“You know, Mei, I saw him like a little brother. I barely knew this fucker, but I still felt
responsible for him, you know. Like an older brother would.”

“What’s it say?”

“Hold on, I’m not finished.” He drew a few more strokes on Bingyan’s arm, and stopped.

“There we go. If I do any more it’ll get fucked up.”

“But what’s it say?”

“Look in the mirror.”

“Where’s that?”

“You know, it was actually fucking hilarious seeing Naoki’s reaction when I waddled
Bingyan to the restroom. Like a fucking caboose. Her face was a damn masterpiece.”

“Wow!” Bingyan said, eyeing his reflection. “It’s so cool! I don’t know what it says!”

“It says ‘Xiao Dou’, kid. I’m Dou, and you’re Xiao Dou.”

“I mean, you’re not Chinese, you wouldn’t know what that means. But it’s funny. ‘dou’
means ‘bean’. And ‘xiao’ means ‘small’. So he was the little bean. What, you’re gonna throw
up?”

“I don’t feel so good.”

“Why not, Bingyan?”

“I’m hungry.”

“We started eating dinner together. We had more food to accommodate for the little shit, but I
still felt bad. I ate a little less so that he could eat more. If I really had to be ugly about it, I’d
wager I’d probably die from getting shot way before he’d die. And I thought he still had
some future. Well, some future. I’ve no idea. He never got to experience it, you know.

“A month later there was another job for us. Something about a murder. Maya was out
getting water. Tanji cared for the pigeons, and so I was on the job. I was on the job a lot of the
times, but I didn’t mind. It felt kinda fucking fun, you know.”

“Killer,” Tanji said, “tied the boy up, and stabbed him around seventy times. He lives down
low. He’s a fishmonger.”

“I had my job, but I felt skeptical leaving Bingyan with Naoki. I said it before a million
times, I dun’ think Naoki was the motherly type. In honesty Maya should’ve taken care of
him. Hell, she could’ve even breastfed him. That’s a joke. Anyways, we’ve had Bingyan for a
month, right, so I thought it was fine.”

Dou tightened the ropes, and stood up. The man struggled on the wet, fishy floor, crying for
help. A few lengths of rope were tied around his mouth so that he could only barely speak.

“Goddamn, your place smells o’ shit.” Dou winced, staring at the gutted fish lying on the
table. “You know, splinters would get in and shit. And the plasic buckets too, come on.”

“Fuck you,” the man said.

“Your name is . . . Yu-Ze. You know, that’s funny. Kindness and goodness. That’s what your
name means, right? Well, I guess you never needed to think about it.”

Yu-Ze wriggled around, but he could not budge his tied feet and hands. The water on the floor
soaked the ropes in his mouth.

“You know, I’m nicer than the other guys. Naoki’s ugly as shit, and kinda silent. Tanji’s a
fucking rapist. Ain’t none better than me. Oh shit, maybe I shouldn’t say all this.”

“Fuck you!”

“I got it the first time.” Dou grabbed the filleting knife from the table. He bent the blade.

“This is mighty flexible. Funny how you used this to kill a kid. You’re wearing a tank-top, so
I’ve got to give props for easy access.”

Dou sighed as he heard Yu-Ze start to scream.

“You know, it’s a real shame you never got to meet Maya. She’s a real fucking hottie.”

Yu-Ze began thrashing around more.

“Goddamn, I didn’t even stab you yet!”

Dou kicked the back of Yu-Ze’s head.

“Oh shit, I didn’t accidentally kill you, did I?”

He heard an audible groan coming from the man.

“Thank goodness.”

Dou bent down low, positioned the blade at Yu-Ze’s back. He stabbed downwards, but the
blade got caught in the fabric and bent sideways. He heard Yu-Ze scream.

“The fucking blade didn’t even go in, you mongoloid dipshit! Wait, let’s see if it works when I
slice towards me as I stab.”
Dou did so, and the blade sliced cleanly in. A guttural cry erupted from Yu-Ze.

“Right, so anyway. Maya.”

He stabbed again. More thrashing.

“She was a real hottie. Massive fucking tits.”

Stabbed again. More screaming.

“Really a shame you never met her. Are you a virgin?”

Stabbed again, and again.

“I am too, you know. Maybe you’re a virgin.”

The stabbing pace grew quicker.

“If you’re a virgin, I’m sorry, you know—you’re screaming too loud.”

Dou grabbed the back of Yu-Ze’s head, lifted it upwards, and stabbed in the side of his throat.
Sliced, and severed the vocal cords. Resumed stabbing.

“Anyways, there’s this new kid. He’s named Bingyan. A nice little shit. But a good kid. You
know, I’m planning to raise him so he can have a decent fucking life, you know—are you
already dead?”

Dou stepped off. Yu-Ze had stopped moving.

“Okay.”

He set down the knife, and left.

When Dou returned to the apartment, he knocked on the door, and waited. The door opened
some moments later.

“Hey Naoki, I’m back—”

“I’m sorry!” she cried. Naoki covered her mouth, her eyes wide.

“What, what happened?” Dou walked into the apartment, Naoki pulling at her hair.

“I didn’t know, I didn’t see him!”

Dou stopped, and turned to Naoki. Her hands trembled, and she pointed to the door. Dou ran
into the bedroom, looked around, and then in the bathroom, and then back to Naoki.

“Where is Bingyan?”
“I don’t k-know, I was just turned around for ah-a second and he ran off somewhere—”

“What do you mean, he ran off somewhere ?”

“I, I just—”

“Where is Bingyan?!”
 Chapter 11

Maya cracked open the bedroom door. She squinted to see Dou lying down on the floor in a
fetal position. She closed the door.

“It’s been days,” Naoki whispered. “He hasn’t eaten since yesterday.”

Maya shot her a look.

“You think I don’t know that, you bitch?”

Naoki hung her head low.

“How could you lose the child like that? What kind of woman are you?”

“I don’t know.”

“You hardly look like one.”

“I know.”

Dou lowered his eyelids and smiled weakly.

“It’s not like I didn’t love Naoki. I loved every goddamn person in our group. Even fucking
Tanji. You know, at this point, I didn’t have an idea of how bad crimes were. Yeah, let me
talk about this. I didn’t know how bad rape was! I barely even fucking knew what it was. Of
course it was bad, but I viewed it equally as bad as stealing, or lying, and shit. No one really
teaches you the hierarchy on how fucked something is. I never learned it. The only thing that
topped everything was murder. And what’s worse than murder? Excruciating murder. Now I
see these news on your televisions and shit, and I saw this one dude who fucking stabbed
someone to death. It was a court scene, you know. And they sentenced him to electric chair,
you know. What the fuck! That’s not the same goddamn thing! If you commit a terrible
crime, you ought to have that terrible crime committed back to you. If you rape someone, you
ought to get raped back. There’s no such thing as ‘what if the perpetrator enjoys it’, because
that’s the whole damn point. Against your will.

“But why was I born in the Walled City? Wouldn’t that be a crime? Wouldn’t the people who
enable our shitty living ways deserve to live in the same damn place? Now that I know how
nice life is out here . . . well, I mean to say how much nicer life is out here . . . Or maybe I’m
stupid. You know, it’s actually fucking hilarious, listening to myself say this shit. There’s
probably some factor or something, actually I have no idea what I’m fucking talking about.
Maybe I shouldn’t had said all that.”

“Anyways, there was a new job.”

“Some young man in black stole something from the cartel.”

“I’ll do the job!” Tanji heard Dou call from the bedroom. He watched as Dou bounded out,
putting on his shirt.

“Are you sure? I can do it if you want.”

“No!”

“Why did you take the job?” Mei asked.

“Maybe it would take my mind off Bingyan.”

“Where’s the apartment?”

“It’s on the

“tenth floor, which was actually interesting, because it’s the same fucking floor as us. What’s
even crazier is that it’s an apartment complex close to where we found Bingyan. Except, you
know, a bunch of floors higher.”

Dou stepped up to the door and knocked on it. There came no answer. He looked down, and
pat his pocket, feeling the switchblade in it. He knocked again. Still no answer.

Dou turned the lever, and the door opened.

“The apartment complex designs are all pretty similar. One big hallway, and then a bunch of
doors and shit. That’s how we lived too. The landlord was probably sleeping, it was a damn
dark day. Raining too, I could hear it. This complex was one of the lucky ones that got to live
on the outside of the city a little.

Anyways, there was a sign on the landlord’s door about giving free candy on Fridays, and
that was all the decoration in the hallway ever. The apartment number was 444. All I had to
do was steal something valuable.”

Dou fished the lockpick in the door, and it unlocked. He slowly creaked it open and peeked
inside. The apartment was almost desolate, consisting of only a bed, a desk, and a trash can.
Dou looked in the trash can, and found some paper, pomegranate peel, and an unopened
peanut candy. He looked in the desk, and found only blank paper and a single pen.

“And I was standing there thinking, what the fuck was I supposed to steal? The guy had
fucking nothing.”

Dou looked around, shrugging.

“Well, and then there was the bathroom.”

Dou knocked on the bathroom door and held his switchblade in his hand. When no response
came, he opened the door, and noticed the dismembered body parts hanging from the ceiling,
a bucket of blood on the tiled floor, and a head with its face skinned off in the sink. Next to
the toilet was a shower with the curtains closed.

Dou swallowed some saliva, and drank some coffee.

“You really shouldn’t be drinking this so late,” Mei said uneasily. Dou looked up at her. He
blinked, then looked down, his hand covering his face.

“The whole . . . bathroom . . . was tinted red. There was blood, fucking, everywhere. The
head in the sink, it was, fucking . . .”

Dou shivered as he looked around. The limbs were hooked to the ceiling with chains. Skin
was flayed off. There was a jar of fingers in the corner by the shower. His eyes slowly moved
to a hanging limb above the fingers.

“It didn’t even look like an arm, or a leg at first. It was just, a log of meat.”

Dou inched closer to the limb, realizing it was a dismembered arm. He squinted, seeing a
smudge of black on the opposite side. He reached forward, and turned it around to see the ink
clearly. He made out the words ‘Xiao Dou’.

Dou noticed something move behind the shower curtain.

 Chapter 12

“I’ll never forget the face behind that curtain. I’ve seen the person a few times after that, but
I’ll never forget that face , at that time . It put the fear of God in me, you know.”

“What was the face like?”

“Well, I only saw it for a second. I don’t remember much more after he stabbed me.”

A blade shot through the curtains. It plunged into Dou’s shoulder. He screamed and fell back.
He slid against the blood. The man stepped out from the shower curtain. Dou scrambled up.
Started for the door. The man slashed at his back.

“I think I still have the scars. He made a long slice, you know.”

Dou ran out of the apartment. He saw the man standing at the bathroom. He was pale, with
tousled black hair, and a tight black jumpsuit.

“I could’ve sworn he was a ghost. Nothing human.”

Dou ran into a dark alleyway and stood under the running water. He shuddered, and sat
there, silently. There appeared to be no one following him. He looked down and watched the
blood pool on the floor. He felt at his back, trying not to touch the wound.

“The only thing Maya could do about the stab was apply ointment, and bind it. I was wearing
a cast around my chest. Made it hard to breathe and shit.”

Dou stared at Maya. Tanji and Naoki stood beside her.

“I knew it was Bingyan, because I saw the tattoo I made.”

He tried taking a deep breath, and felt the binding squeeze his chest.

“Does that mean this killer knows who we are too?” Naoki asked.
“I don’t know.”

“The client said they lived in the East side,” Tanji said. “Apartment twelve, sixth floor.”

Dou gave a look to Naoki.

“What’s wrong?” Maya asked.

“That’s where Chan lived,” Dou said.

“Who was the client?” Mei asked.

Dou was silent.

“How would I have known we were dealing with a fucking relative?!” Tanji shouted.

“You’re the one who takes care of this goddamn stuff,” Dou said. “What was the meeting
like?!”

“He was wearing just, all black. And looked young.”

“The client is the goddamn killer, you fucking idiot!”

“How would I know?! If you didn’t fucking adopt that fucking kid, we wouldn’t be here!”

Dou felt the blood rising in his head.

“You’re a fucking retard, you know?”

“You brought us into this!” Tanji said.

“How is it my fault?! If Naoki didn’t fucking lose him, we wouldn’t fucking be like this!”

“Why are you putting this blame on me?” Naoki screamed.

“You lost the goddamn kid! I trusted him with you, and you fucking lost him! I had to see his
goddamn body parts in a fucking sink !”

“It’s not my fault!” Naoki said. “If I stayed with him, I might’ve gotten attacked too!”

“You should’ve!” Dou shouted.

They all fell silent. Maya rubbed Naoki’s shoulder as she cried.

“It doesn’t matter,” Tanji said. “We’re now all in danger—”

“Don’t you fucking talk to me about ‘it doesn’t matter’!!” Dou coughed. His voice was
hoarse. “I wanted to raise that fucking kid! I had to see his goddamn guts, and I had to do so
much dirty work for your fucking ass, fuck your pigeons, fuck you!”

“I helped raise us all,” Tanji said, “I’m the reason you have a life to live at all, you
ungrateful piece of shit!”

“Do you know how much blood is on my hands?!” Dou screamed. “Do you? I’ve had to
fulfill so many fucking jobs, had to slice, stab, shoot, steal, and that was for the goddamn job!
You raped Bingyan’s sister!”

Tanji struck Dou against the cheek, and he fell to his knees.

“You’re lucky I keep you around instead of killing you like how the drug lords killed your
goddamn parents!”

“Tanji!” Maya shouted. She shoved him away from Dou. “That’s enough!”

“Dou, who was the client?” Mei asked again.

“Don’t fucking call me that.”

Mei put her hand on Dou’s shoulder.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “It doesn’t matter. We just had an argument.”

The lights were off. Everyone was in bed. Dou was in the corner of the room, sitting beside
Naoki.

“Dou, you should sleep,” Naoki whispered. “The door is locked. We’re going to be okay.”

“I’m scared, Naoki.”

“I am too. I’m going to stay with you, don’t worry.”

“Okay.”

“We’re gonna escape from this hellhole tomorrow. We’ll run. All of us. We can brave the
world out there.”

“We won’t survive.”

“We can. The world could kill us, but that man will.”
“She was wrong. It was winter time. It was cold. The killer could have killed us. The cold
will kill us. It doesn’t care who you are, or how much hope you have.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll stay right here with you. I’ll save us. I won’t leave.”

Naoki put her hand on Dou’s cheek.

“But it’s weird. Even when I was in the apartment and shit, sleeping with everyone, their
body heat and shit, even when Naoki had her damn hand on me, I felt so cold. It was what
she said.”

“What do you mean?”

Dou watched as Naoki slid into the futon, and turned away from him. Her hair was tied up.

“I woke up in the middle of the night that night. Around four in the morning, or some shit.
Naoki was gone. We had the gun we took from Chan in the drawer. That was gone too.”
 Chapter 13

“Where is she?”

“She took the gun with her?”

“What is she, stupid?”

“She’s going to try to find the killer herself.”

“Tanji was like, ‘fuck it’. We already made plans to escape that day and shit. Tanji had called
a past client, and he paid almost all of the money we were able to scrape up and save for the
years for them to pick us up in a taxi and take us somewhere to live. One of Tanji’s distant
relatives. We were going to sneak out, get into a car, and get the hell out of Kowloon.”

“It was the end of the day, and Naoki still hadn’t came back. We didn’t go looking for her. We
just drank our water, and waited. Tanji made some calls and shit, that’s it.”

“It probably wun’ my place to think it, but I was wondering about life after we’d escape.
How I’d handle shit, how I’d handle leaving Naoki behind. It felt like a betrayal. How I’d go
to school. But I dunno. There were so many things firing off in my mind, and nothing at the
same time.”

“But I knew if I wanted a life, I dun’ want be smart at it. You know, just get a little job, make
some money. Get a bed to sleep in. Food to eat every day. I didn’t want much. We barely had
that much in Kowloon. And maybe I could have a wife, or a kid. I didn’t want to
overcomplicate shit. Don’t do things too smart, or else I’d start thinking about other shit.
Start thinking about it in a different way. I keep saying the same goddamn shit, it’s actually
fucking hilarious.”

Dou followed Maya and Tanji through the corridors. He passed some people going about
their day; a frail old woman carrying a bucket of fish, a man receiving herbal medicine from
a doctor, a man pounding at a scrap of metal . . .

“It still baffles me how some folks could just suck it up and have their normal life. Well, at
least as normal as it could be, there.”

The three stepped into a narrow corridor, and walked into a restaurant. They passed the
people eating, the conversations, the music, all to the back of the restaurant to a door. Tanji
opened it, and it led to a supply closet. The boys pushed aside the shelf at the opposite end of
the room, and there was another door. The three walked through it, down a set of stairs, into
a tunnel. Sickly green light pulsated from the lights in the corners, and Dou’s feet ached from
the cold floor. The three eventually came upon a door labelled “Import”. Tanji opened the
door, and they walked some more stairs upwards until they went into a garage. A young man
was there waiting for him. He approached Tanji and hugged him. Dou watched as Tanji
introduced the man to Dou and Maya. He shook hands with them, and introduced himself as
Mr. Ding. When he gestured to the three to get into the taxi, he walked over to the corner of
the room to flip a switch to open the garage. Dou flinched as the sound of a gunshot struck
him, and Mr. Ding fell to the floor, with a bullet hole in his head.

“Oh my god!” Maya screamed. Tanji grabbed her and stood back.

Dou turned from the blood splatter on the wall to the doorway.

The man in black stood there, with a gun in his hand.

“Who are you?!” Tanji shouted.

The man was silent. He only put the gun down, and pulled out a different one.

Dou watched as Tanji started for the garage switch. He felt a dart hit him in the chest. He fell
to the ground, becoming sleepy and watched Tanji collapse with a dart in his leg. Dou heard
a dart shoot Maya as well. She crumbled to the floor.
 Chapter 14

[TRIGGER WARNING FOR EXTREME VIOLENCE, PROCEED WITH CAUTION]

Dou awoke, feeling something pulling his arms upward. He saw Tanji, Naoki, and Maya
around him. His vision cleared, and saw that they were all in one corner of a room, with their
hands tied by chains, which were attached to the ceiling. There was a metal door in the front.
They were all naked.

“Where are we?” Dou mumbled. He shivered in the cold. He watched Maya lift her head
slightly, with foam at the corner of her lips.

“Freezer.”

He looked to Naoki, on the opposite corner. Her hair was still tied up. There were stitches on
her stomach. Dou looked down and noticed stitches on his stomach as well.

“What . . . happened?”

“I’m so cold,” Dou heard Tanji mutter.

The door opened. Dou cocked his head up and saw the man in black walk in with a rusty
hacksaw. He brushed his hair from his face, and studied the four. He then approached Maya.

“What are you . . . doing?” Maya asked. The man positioned the blade at the chains above
her and started sawing them. Dou was able to read the word “SEI” on the man’s name tag.

“What are you going to do?” Tanji asked.

The chains broke, and Maya fell to the floor, her legs trembling. Sei bent down, and held her
up, caressing her breasts, fondling her shapely buttocks. Maya started grunting, and
squirming.

“Stop . . . doing that,” Tanji croaked.

Sei looked at him, and smiled. He grabbed Maya by the hair and lifted her up so she was
kneeling on the floor.

“You have beautiful boobs,” Sei said. His voice was smooth, and almost womanly. “Does
your boyfriend like them?”

“Please,” Maya said. “Don’t hurt me.”

Sei positioned the hacksaw at her throat.

“No!” Dou shouted.

The blade sliced through. Maya started screaming, and she grabbed the blade, trying to pull
it away.

“Wait!” she gurgled, “Please!!”

Sei continued to saw through, and Maya’s screams became hoarse gasps. Blood pulsed out,
and splattered on the floor. Tears streamed down Maya’s eyes. They mixed with the bubbling
vomit leaking from the neck. Sei ripped the head off, and her body spasmed once, her breasts
jiggling with bile running down. The body fell to the floor.

Dou began to retch. The pool of puke got under his feet. He heard Tanji screaming, and
Naoki wailing. Blood pounded in his head. He watched as Maya’s head rolled over to his
feet, the hair drenched in his vomit, and the blood on her face.

He looked up. Sei sawed off the arm, and threw it to the pile of limbs in the corner where
Maya used to be.

“Sorry,” Sei said. He walked over to Dou, picked up the head, and tossed it in the pile. “I
didn’t mean for that to happen.”

Dou’s heart pounded out of his chest. His tears streamed down, and dripped to his feet.
Tanji’s screaming had reduced to labored mewls. Sei looked at him, then approached him.

“Wait, wait wait wait!” Tanji cried. Sei grabbed the chains, and sawed them off. When Tanji
fell downwards, he also sawed off the cuffs, freeing him. Tanji scrambled to his feet and
cowered in the corner. Sei tossed the saw to the pile of limbs, and pulled out a gun. He
stepped over to the dismembered torso, and pointed the gun at it.

“Fuck it.”

Tanji shivered, then looked at the body, blood still oozing out.

Sei cocked the gun.

“I can’t!” Tanji screamed.

“Fuck it,” Sei said again. “Do you need help?”

He picked up the body by the neck orifice, and walked up to Tanji, who stuck himself to the
wall as much as possible. Dou watched the nipple brush against Tanji’s penis, and it became
erect. He gagged again.

Sei put the body down. Pointed at it again.

“Now fuck it, please.”

Tanji fell to his knees. Sei crossed his arms.

“Go ahead. You did this before, haven’t you?”

“Who are you?” Tanji mouthed while shaking his head.

“I’m a surgeon,” Sei replied. “Don’t worry, she wasn’t pregnant.”

Tanji looked up.

“Now fuck it.”

“I can’t!”

Sei pointed the gun and shot Tanji’s stomach. He crawled back, bawling in pain. Sei walked
over to the body, dug his fingers into the vagina, and ripped it open, tearing away flesh. He
then shoved it onto Tanji, and pushed until his whole head popped in. Tanji’s muffled cries
rattled the body, and he tried pulling it off. Sei grabbed his hands, and shot at the wrists. He
then twisted and pulled the hands off.

“Stop!” Dou shrieked. He fought in his chains. Tanji’s other hand had been shot off. Tanji
continued trying to pry the body off, but the blood made it slippery. His movement slowed,
and eventually he slumped down. Sei bent down, shot Tanji in the chest.

“Please,” Naoki mumbled. “Please don’t hurt us.”

Sei looked curiously at her.

“I can make you feel good,” she said. “Just let me out, please. I’m so cold.”

Sei smiled again, and touched her face.

“Make me feel good?” he asked.

“Yes!”

“Honey, you barely look like a woman,” he said.

Naoki scrunched her face into an anguished sob.

“But you’re cold. I can fix that.”

Sei walked out of the room. Naoki gave Dou a weak look.

“Dou, I love you.”

Dou’s lip trembled.

“I’ve always loved you, Dou.”

He shook his head slowly.

“I’ve . . . always loved you too,” he said.

Sei walked in with a jug of gasoline. He splashed it over Naoki, who broke out into sudden
yelps.

“Mister!” she cried.

Sei took out a lighter, flicked it on, and dropped it. Naoki went up in flames.

“Naoki!” Dou wailed. Naoki started wriggling around in the chains, and her skin blackened,
and her hair burnt off, and her screams dried to a crisp. Sei turned to the weeping Dou, and
picked up the gun. He shot Dou’s chains off, and Dou dropped down to his knees.

“How would you like to—”

Dou leapt up and punched Sei in the throat. He stumbled back. Dou grabbed Sei’s arm, and
bit on it. He felt his hair being pulled on. Dou tasted blood, and ripped off a hunk of flesh. Sei
dropped the gun. Dou grabbed it, and shot him. Hit in the shoulder. Tried shooting again. No
more bullets. Dou threw the gun at Sei’s head. It struck him against the nose. Dou dashed to
the door, turned the doorknob, opened it, ran.
End Notes

Hello! I want to clarify for those confused that this is not a memoir. I am not telling a story
about myself. This is an original short story that I will spend every day updating, and writing.
It is currently my most experimental and intense work. If enough people like this story, I
could post some of my other work for you all.

Thank you for reading, and I hope Vengeance Club entertains you.

Please drop by the Archive and comment to let the creator know if you enjoyed their work!