PARTY!” screamed Ralph.

  Everyone in the club started busting a move, the ground was shaking, eardrums exploding.

  Upstairs was the quiet area, settees, a bar and tables. Magne, Kalista and Durvey were sitting down playing blackjack.

  “Hit,” said Magne. He had an ace and a two. He was given a seven. “Stand,” Magne answered with delight.

  “Drop,” replied Durvey.

  Magne had twenty, but Durvey and Kalista both had a king and an ace.

  “Blackjack,” said the couple.

  “C’mon, can we leave now?” asked Magne.

  “Just ‘coz I'm winning,” replied Kalista.

  “…And I'm tied even with you,” Durvey added.

  “Fine, I’m leaving,” said Magne.

  He left the room with a slam of the door.

  The whole lounge started counting. One... Two... Three… He always came back. Six... Seven… The door opened and in came Magne looking as pale as a ghost.

  He entered the room of three hundred people.

  “YAY!! Wait, what?” Gunshots were fired. Everyone screamed and dived to the floor.

  The four thugs were back with police outfits on, luminous green coats and black hats. But they brought more friends.

  “Where are they!” screamed one thug, scanning every single teenager.

  “There,” shouted a tiny thug, pointing at Durvey.

  “You,” said the leader. “You set us up to the police.”

  “Who? Me!?” shouted Durvey.

  “Yes you!” screamed the leader. “You have just created a problem for us.”

  He took his hat off and revealed a scar from his forehead to his nose.

  “The police have our fingerprints and will have posters around the whole country.”

  The short thug took his hat off too. He had a squint in his right eye. “We’re going to take you hostage and wait ’til every single parent pays us £1000 ransom for you,” explained Squinty.

  “While we go and get supplies for ourselves, you can be babysat by our new friends, ‘the Six Stones’,” said Scarface.

  The six bulky men stepped forward and pulled out guns to emphasise how big they were. There were two AK-47s, one Desert Eagle and three Skorpians.

  A smell of fear and dust filled the room.

  Kalista was just staring at the guns, making sure a trigger wasn't pulled.

  “You’re not going to get away with this,” said one of the Evan brothers. There were five brothers in all. Every one of them was into karate and kickboxing. The two eldest were twins, both on their brown belts, the middle two were purple belts and the youngest a blue belt.

  The youngest three took on the Six Stones and the oldest two took on the four thugs. A fight with guns against fists is predictable, but when they are skilled fighters, that’s a different game. The youngest three had knocked out two of the Stones and the oldest two were having quite a fair fight.

  All of a sudden … Pew!

  … A suppressed gun shot two of the brothers, one of the older ones and the youngest son. “Ahh,” screamed the youngest as he was hit.

  “Timmy!” screamed the other three brothers.

  Timmy was rolling on the floor, clutching his right arm. “Ahh! J-Jonathan,” he shouted.

  The four brothers looked over their shoulders to find Jonathan lying there with his eyes wide open and a bullet straight through his chest.

  Magne stood up and started walking over to Jonathan. The eight conscious crooks stood up and pointed their guns at Magne. He stopped and put his hands behind his head and started walking again.

  “What are you doing!?” asked Scarface.

  “I’m closing his eyes!” screamed Magne.

  He was quite close to the twins. He lent over Jonathan and put his hand over his eyes.

  Kalista walked over and hugged Magne. She told him to walk back to Durvey. But where was Durvey?

  Was he taken by the thugs?

  Had he escaped?

  Had he gone to find help? …

  Find out in the next book: Durvey’s Adventures - The Escape

  Cynan Jones

  Cynan Jones is the author of three novels, The Long Dry (Parthian, 2006), Everything I Found on the Beach ( Parthian, 2011), and Bird, Blood, Snow published this year as part of Seren’s ‘New Stories from the Mabinogion’.

  His work has also appeared in New Welsh Review and Granta magazine, and in various anthologies.

  Some work from the 2011 DylanEd project – “Telling Their Own Story” – is also available on Kindle from Amazon.

  For more information on the project, visit https://www.dylanthomasprize.com/dylaned/

 
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