It was still light outside, but space seemed to warp around the edges of Rae's vision, as if his sight was being consumed by an envelope of darkness. He felt that familiar lens of anxiety focusing a relentless flood of fear down upon his racing mind. The primal feeling of panic washed over his entire body as he turned to run down the back alley. With desperation in his eyes, and a quickened rhythm in his heart, he fled from the source of his torment. He could still hear their footsteps, those savage thugs from the Top Dog gang.

No doubt, Ronnie Maxis had discovered that Rae was still buying Tranqs, a street term for Tranquilizers, from his Dealers. It was at this moment, Rae began to curse his desire for just a bit of relief. Why did Ronnie have to be the only source of Tranqs in the entire city? And more importantly, why did his life suck so much that he was turning to Tranqs to ease his nerves in the first place? Ah yes, that was largely Ronnie's doing as well. Wasn't it a bit too ironic that the bully who had made his life a living hell since elementary school, was also the leader of the gang supplying him with the Tranqs he was using to escape his anxiety and depression?

"It was supposed to be just a quick trip out to pick up school supplies." Rae thought, as he panted from exertion. He began climbing over the fence that was blocking his continued escape down the alley.

"So how is it, I am running from these assholes again? Please life, can't you just let me live normally for one day? How am I supposed to get past my last year of school now? Ronnie is going to literally kill me. There's no way I will be able to make it through another whole year..."

As he landed on the other side of the fence, Rae's thin frame toppled over planting his head against the wet pavement of the back alley. He had tripped over his tail, which had fallen out of his pants, during his hastened scaling of the fence.

Rae was not the most physically fit 18-year-old; he didn't lift weights, and he had never been in any sports at school. The other kids would have just made fun of his abnormal ears and tail even more. Rae hated his body. If only he had not been born with these unwanted cat-like fluffy ears and stupid tail, maybe he could have made friends easier, and lived a life free from torment and bullies.

"Ahh shit! They are gonna fucking catch me! I'm really going to die!" Rae thought, as he lifted his ringing head from the concrete.

He needed to get out of there immediately, but he was now dizzy and his vision was obstructed by his wet and shaggy dirty-blonde hair, which was hanging down in his eyes. He made one last attempt to drag his face up from the street, now covered with dirt smudges and wet puddle drippings.

But it was too late, he wasn't fast enough this time. He felt two big hands grasp the back of his golden-brown colored hoodie, and jerk him up roughly into mid air. It was high enough that the tips of his toes dangled just barely above the ground. Rae was only 5 foot 7 (170.18 cm), but for someone to be able to lift his entire body up like a rag doll —he knew it must have been one of Ronnie's Enforcers.

"Roland?! Wait man please, I'll pay double for the Tranqs if you let me go." Rae pleaded with his huge thug of a classmate.

"Shit he's even bigger than I remember! Did he grow again over the Summer?" He thought. To Rae looking at a pissed off Roland, was like gazing into the roaring maw of a big angry bear.

Roland was the dumbest of Ronnie's Enforcers. He had a reputation for being an idiot —a dangerous violent idiot. Rae had managed to trick Roland into letting him go once before, but he had a feeling that was unlikely to work this time.

Ronnie had banned Rae from buying anything from the Top Dogs after one of his Dealers who had sold to Rae was arrested. Of course, Rae would never have dared to snitch on them for fear of retribution, but Ronnie didn't care; rather, he enjoyed the excuse to have his thugs beat the shit out of Rae on sight. Like most events in Rae's life thus far, he considered himself to simply be at the mercy of Fate. But for Rae, there was no mercy, there never was.

Since it was Roland, who was a known dumb ass with a penchant for greed, Rae thought maybe he could get away with a bribe. As he was contemplating a potential bargaining point to get Roland off of him, the giant 6 foot 3 (190.5 cm) thug hoisted him up, and slammed his back into the brick wall behind them.

"Shut the fuck up you whiny bitch!" Roland growled. He looked particularly pissed off to see Rae. "I don't wan'a hear your smart-ass, Dosri. You tricked me last time, and the boys've been laughing at me 'cause of your bullshit. Nah, I'm gonna beat da shit outa ya, like I shoulda done last time!"

The big thug punched Rae in the gut hard knocking what little breath he had left right out of him. "The boss might even give me a promotion for this." Roland said stupidly. He already held the top rank in the gang anyways, but he was too dumb to realize this made no sense.

"Wait..." Rae wheezed and gasped, "I-I'll do your homework for the rest of the year and your projects too." He made his second pitch at a bribe. The skinny boy's fluffy ears laid down along his mop of frazzled hair, as they did whenever Rae felt negative emotions. He normally kept them hidden under a hood or hat, because he had been picked on for having them his entire life. But now they had been exposed, since his hood had fallen down after Roland began to man-handle him.

"I heard he was held back an entire semester again, maybe this will—" Rae's thoughts were abruptly cut off by a body slam onto the ground and Roland's boot on his chest.

"Heh, you lil snake, you wan'a bribe me this time, Dosri?" Roland said, as he twisted his boot on Rae's ribs. He had a sadistic smile on his big ugly mug as he listened to Rae's little winces of pain. "You'll have'ta do better than that, shit-head," he said, and spat on Rae's face. "Throw something else in, and maybe I'll think about it..."

Roland flashed a big dumb grin, and as he looked down at Rae he made an odd expression. "You know..." He leaned down pressing his foot harder into the smaller crumpled boy beneath him, and looked dead center into Rae's bright hazel eyes. "...word is you just love suckin guys off for cash. Hows about you gi'me dat for free?" Roland sounded prideful of this brilliant idea, like this was a deal Rae should be honored to receive.

Rae turned his head sideways, so as to not look at the stupid lustful grin on Roland's ugly face. He felt an intense mixture of embarrassment, at what Roland wanted from him, and hatred towards this douche-bag, who had tormented him more than once. "I should have fucking known this jackass would want something like that, after all..." Rae thought, as he began to tear up, reaching his limit on the amount of bullying he could endure for the day.

"You fucking asshole!" Rae lost it, snapping at the bastard pinning him to the damp alley floor. "You're the one who started those rumors in the first place! You know damn well, they aren't true. I've never done shit with guys, and I'm sure as hell not sucking you off."

Rae sobbed thick tears of disbelief at the cruelty of his current situation. He turned his head back, so as to look at his tormentor, and showed Roland his anger, hatred, and defiance of his sick demands.

"Go on then you fucking prick! Beat me up, like I know you want to!" He screamed, open mouthed, at the giant grizzly bear looming over him.

He stared off into space, trying to psych himself out of this world, in anticipation of the inevitable thrashing he was about to take. At least if he was going to take a beating, he was going to take it like a man, and not debase himself for Roland's pleasure.

Reality crashed into Rae's rib cage in the form of Roland's size 16 boot.

"Listen'er you li'l punk-ass bitch!" Roland snapped, as he sent Rae flying across the alley. "Are you calling me a fa**ot?!"

At this point, someone looking at Roland could have easily imagined steam shooting from the brute's ears. His face morphed into a weird mixture of pale and redness. Somehow Rae's berating had unscrewed something in Roland's leaky faucet of a mind.

"If you ever..." The big boy leaned over with a strange hesitation to even touch Rae. "If you ever tell anyone that lie..." He grabbed Rae's hair, and jerked Rae's head up so close to his own that their Irises were practically touching. "I will fucking rip your damn head off!"

Rae shot him a defiant look. He had stopped crying, even though his whole body, right down to the tip of his tail, was trembling in abject fear. He refused to cry out and give his bully the satisfaction. He had learned over the years that so many of the assholes that liked to pick on him, just enjoyed seeing his reaction to their cruelty.

"Fine!!" Roland finally let go of Rae's hair, and flung his head down to the ground.

"Ahhh!!" Rae gave a small cry of pain.

"Keep yer mouth shut about dat," Roland said, "I expect your bitch-ass to do my homework and projects for the year."

He began to pace. He had a nervous and uncomfortable look about him as he laid out his demands. He seemed to be having trouble collecting his thoughts.

"If you forget any of it..." He kicked Rae again to reinforce his point, another small scream of pain followed from the boy. "...or do anything else to piss me off, you won't be able to suck off anymore dudes, cause I'll tare yer damn lips off, and shove em up yer ass! We clear, Dosri?"

Rae was shocked that the blows had ceased raining down on him. He had thought Roland might even kill him. He shakily and reluctantly nodded his head in agreement.

"You're letting me go?" Rae asked apprehensively, whimpering as he held his stomach and sat up. He had received a bruise on his face below his left eye from the beating. He was sure his ribs were also visibly bruised, even though he hadn't looked yet. Even still, Rae refused to cry anymore in front of this savage.

Roland continued his demands and indirectly answered Rae's question. "If you tell anyone I let you go —I will kill you..." He said in a very threatening tone. As dumb as he was, he did realize his position would be in jeopardy, if Ronnie found out about this.

"A-And if ya get caught buyin anymore Tranqs from the Boss's Dealers you're dead-fuckin-meat. Plus, you are going to pay me the same amount for the Tranqs. Gi'me your fuckin wallet you wuss."

Roland still looked oddly flustered as he reached into Rae's pocket, without waiting for Rae to hand it to him, and grabbed his wallet. He took out all of the cash Rae had on him, and threw it back at him.

"Don't le'me catch your bitch-ass on dis side of town again —Loser, this is Top Dog turf!" Roland said. He thumped his chest and made a mock howling noise, in that ridiculous gesture the boys from the Top Dog gang often performed. It reminded Rae of a big dumb gorilla beating it's chest.

Roland was still frowning with a really pissed off look on his face. He turned to walk off, and as he did he stepped down hard on Rae's tail. Roland didn't even react to his last act of cruelty towards the boy, though he heard Rae scream in response. Instead, he just kept walking.

"AHHHHHHHHHH FUCK!!!"

Rae let out a primal scream, as one of the most sensitive parts of his body was attacked. His tail had always been extremely sensitive. Rae cradled it gingerly, as he felt a throbbing stinging sensation radiating up the entire length and into his lower back.

"Fucking idiot weirdo," Rae thought, "What the hell is his problem? Dammit it fucking hurts! I would rather he had kicked me a few more times, than step on it... This year is... it's really gonna suck."

Rae tucked his poor stinging tail back into his pants, pulled his hoodie over his ears, peeled himself up off the sidewalk, and began to stumble his way back home.