Yep. That’s blood I taste. The concrete is cold and my body aches. The three thugs are standing over me, one of them with a particularly shit-eating grin: “And stay down, bitch!” Yeah, I probably should. But then I’ll look like a bitch so…

I use every ounce of my strength to push my body up. I’m barely to my hands and knees when the head thug’s boot pounds my face again. I collapse to the ground, and everything is fading to black. I should’ve stayed down…

As I start to come to, the first thing I notice is the splitting headache followed shortly by a dull pain spread across my body. Blinking open my eyes, it’s only now that I realize I’m not on the concrete I was so peacefully resting on earlier. Instead, I’m in a rather fancy bedroom on a really soft bed. I can see a large painting across from me, hanging over an immaculate fireplace. A plush, leather armchair sits in the corner of the room. One of the walls has a floor to ceiling bookshelf chock full of novels, pottery, and small statues working as bookends. The sheets of the bed feel like silk and look like the most expensive fabric I’ve ever seen. I start pushing myself up on my elbows, coming to a halt as the dull pain in my insides quickly becomes a sharp jab. “Ah, fuck…” I slowly lower myself back down when I hear a voice come from right next to me,

“You should be careful. You’re quite badly wounded.”

Flailing a bit in surprise, my heart rate soars and my body releases enough adrenaline to keep me from feeling too much of my wounds’ backlash. “Whoah! What the fuck?!” Sitting in a chair next to my bed is a tall-ish Asian guy who can’t be over 22. He’s got kinda long, black hair and a rounded jaw line. His brown eyes look like he’s got nothing good planned, and his smile doesn’t help. Wait… He’s Asian, but he had a British accent? Also, where the fuck am I?! “Where the fuck am I? And who the fuck are you?” Now that I’m sitting more upright, I look down to notice I’m not wearing a shirt and feel I don’t have any pants on either. I have simple bandages and pads on where I must’ve been bleeding. “And where the hell are my clothes?!”

The guy chuckles and looks back at me with a softer stare and a gentler smile. “Don’t worry, Charlie. I took it upon myself to wash your clothes for you. They were covered in blood and dirt after all.” He reaches to his left to the bedside table. Grabbing a small bottle, he pours two pills into his hand. “As for myself, I am Luke Ito.” He reaches for a glass of water on the table and holds it out to me along with the pills. “Don’t worry, it’s just some aspirin. I have a doctor on his way to come take a look at your injuries. He should be here soon enough.”

I reach out slowly and take the cup and pills. They look harmless enough. I pop them in my mouth and take a gulp of water. Luke holds his hand out again to take the glass from me. “OK, Luke. A, you still didn’t answer where I am. B, how do you know my name? And C, why the hell did you take off my clothes?! Are you some kinda weird perv?”

His laughing doesn’t ease the rising tension inside me. “Calm down. I took off your clothes because I didn’t want you to get my sheets dirty and the doctor will need to see your body anyways. When I took your pants off, I checked your wallet to see who I’d just let into my home. Which, of course, you’re in. This is my house.”

This guy is full of shit. “This is your house?! How old are you? What do you do to own a place like this?” No way in hell he owns this house.

“Oh no! My parents own the manor. I’m only twenty-one. I’m currently attending university here in New York, so my parents allowed me to stay here.” Oh so he’s one of those people. Livin’ off his parents dime. He stands up and walks around to the foot of the bed. “But enough about me, I’d like to talk about you. I’ve got a job for you.” He smiles wide with a childlike excitement.

“Look man, if your job is something ‘upright,’ I doubt I’m gonna be qualified. If your job is something more under the table well… look at me. I’m probably not gonna be cut out for that either. So thanks for the offer, but I’m gonna pass.”

“You haven’t even heard what the job is though.”

“And I really don’t want to.” His smile melts into the disappointed look of a sad puppy. He looks like I just killed his pet… I sigh deeply. “Fine. What is it?”

His smile explodes back onto his face. “I’d like you to be my butler!”

I stare at him blankly. “No.” He gets sad again. I don’t feel bad this time. “Hell no.” He looks down, defeated. “What the hell did you think I was gonna say? ‘Oh yeah, I’d love to live as a servant to some rich stranger. Thank you, sir!’”

He takes a deep breath and starts to look back up to me. This time, his devious smile has returned. “I know you’re probably homeless. The ID in your wallet was more of the ‘state-issued’ kind and there was no debit card. Based on the fact that you seem to only have two dollars to your name, I think you could use the money. It comes with free food and housing too. You’d be making more money than you’ve ever seen. Or… I suppose I could just turn you in for breaking in. You know, the stuff you took was worth a whole lot, so the fact you only have two dollars means that whoever you sold those jewels to ripped you off. And that window you broke to get in was worth more than you.” He’s walked back around to the side of the bed to stand over me.

Shit, I knew this house looked familiar. “Good, if you chose to spend money on a window worth thousands instead of giving it to people who could use it, then you deserve to have it smashed.”

“I’m trying to give that money to someone who needs it. You.” I can’t tell if he’s being truly sincere.

“Yeah, sure. But, why me? You said it yourself, I’m a homeless, broke thief from the streets. Not really butler material if you ask… pretty much anyone.”

“Well I thought I should give you a second chance. Plus, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think you’re pretty cute too.” He smirks at me as I furrow my eyebrows. Opening my mouth to respond, I’m interrupted by a doorbell. “Ah, that must be the doctor. I’ll be right back with him. We’ll get you properly patched up.” He leaves before I can say anything.

A few minutes later, he comes back in with a man in a tweed jacket, holding a large black bag. The guy’s not wearing any scrubs or a white coat but as he starts to unload medical supplies out of the bag I assume he’s probably legit. He pulls out a needle and jabs it into a small bottle. Filling it up, he looks to my terrified face. “Oh, don’t worry. This’ll just let you sleep while I’m fixing you up. I don’t want to hurt you too much since you seemed pretty banged up.” Even though I don’t trust Luke, I find myself looking to him for assurance. He gives me a genuine smile and nods. I take a deep breath as the doctor slides the needle into my arm and the darkness takes me back under.

When I come to, the doctor is gone and I have new bandages over my wounds. My body still hurts like hell but I admittedly feel a bit better. Luke is sitting in the chair next to the bed reading a book. As I sit up, he looks back up from his book. “Oh! You’re awake. You’re clothes are here on the bedside table.” Sure enough, my old tattered clothes looked brand new… well, except for all the holes. “I want you to rest today though. We can start your training tomorrow.”

I turn and dangle my feet off the bed. “Sorry bud, I’m pretty sure I told you I didn’t want the job.” I start to stand up and quickly stumble from the pain. Luke quickly springs up to catch me, but I push him off when I have my footing back. “I don’t need your handouts.” I grab my clothes and start pulling on my pants.

I can feel his eyes burning into me, singeing my skin from head to toe. “You have a lot of scars, huh? Where are they from?”

“None of your business, that’s where.” I turn my back to him as I zip my jeans and start to buckle my belt.

“Is this one a bullet wound?” I feel his hand rub the back of my right shoulder where the exit hole was.

“Yeah, I got caught in a drive by. Happy?” I pull my shoulder away from him and try to slip my shirt over my head. My progress is quickly halted by a surge of pain erupting through my body.

I hear Luke laughing behind me. “Let me help you out. Turn around.” I stand, fuming in anger for a moment, before swallowing my pride and following his directions. It’s only now that I realize he’s got a good two inches on me, I have to look up a bit to meet his eyes. He reaches out for my shirt and I let him take it. “OK, put your arms up.” I put my arms up as high as I can without hurting myself, which is only about halfway. He steps closer and holds the shirt over my head. Sliding it over me, he grabs my arm and helps guide it through the sleeve slowly. Repeating it on the other side, he pulls the front of my shirt down then wraps his arms around me to pull the back down too. He’s uncomfortably close to my face. I try not to make eye contact, but when I look at him he’s got a confident smile on his face. My cheeks are burning.

Stepping back, I grab my hoodie and turn away from him. “Thanks,” I mutter. Pulling my orange hoodie on and zipping it up, I start walking for the door. “But I’m still not working for you.” As I reach for the door knob, my whole body tenses up. A burning pain shoots from between my shoulder blades and out through every muscle. Is he… tazing me? A second later, the shaking stops and I collapse to the floor.

“I had the doctor implant that. It’s a state of the art little chip. Anytime you step out of line, I just have to press this button and… zap. Breathing heavily, I look back to him in horror. “Let’s get you back to bed. I want you to rest today. I’ll bring you your dinner soon.” I try to crawl away from him but my wounds and the fatigue from the shock drained every ounce of strength I had left. As he walks over my mind races for something to do. I try with everything but I can’t move a muscle. As he grabs my arm, I try and pull away but it only hurts more. I have no choice but to let him help pick me up and put me back in the bed. “I’ll see you in a bit, Charlie. I promise you’ll really like working for me. It might just take a little while, but I can wait.” He gives me one last warm smile before leaving the room.