CEX SUB CON

Under my bed there is a severed head and some pale, disembodied hands. I have cut them off of a mafia-type dude. I have the head because there is a bullet in it that I want to get out, and I have the hands because of something about the knuckles or the knuckle bones.

I wake up and a boat with my class has landed at this dock. It is swarming with mafia-type guys. They are shooting at us. Everybody is scrambling to get onto little boats and get into the town. The town is on the water and there are few streets-- and these are not canals, this town is off-shore, out in the ocean. I get on a boat and think, "I have to take care of this mafia problem or the whole class is going to get killed because of me." Under my clothes I have a black ninja outfit, but it's not stupid looking. It looks pro. But I have never been taught how to be a ninja, I have only taken up this role recently out of necessity.

In a Chinese restaurant in this town's "downtown" area, a few classmates and I find a little safety. Some girl sits really close to me and then another girl starts touching my head at one point. I am confused because I don't think I have any history with either of them. All I can think about is putting an end to the violence.

All the other students hiding out in the restaurant decide it's time to go to class. I tell them I will join them shortly. They go through a secret passageway in the back of the restaurant and I am left alone. Some bad guys show up. I am really scared because I don't have any special powers that make me sure I will win. Scared as hell, I manage to not get shot and to kill all the bad guys with a sword that they didn't know I had.

I go into class late and find my seat. It is seat 62. It's a big lecture hall. I am embarrassed for being late. I am not able to think about the teacher's lecture because I am trying to figure out who the boss of the mafia guys is. If I figure that out, then I can probably stop the danger, although I am just a kid and I have no idea how I will get information about a mob boss. I think that maybe if I fight some more dudes and kill them all and stay alive, I could try to keep one sort-of alive too and make him tell me-- but realistically, I think, I was so scared out of my mind while I was fighting those guys that I don't really believe I have much chance of intentionally keeping a dude kind-of alive.

Soon, though, another student gets up to go to the bathroom, and something makes me realize that HE is the boss of the mafia guys! He is my age but he is big with a bald head and he is Asian, which completely throws me for a loop because I'm a ninja and all the bad guys are mob dudes. It's a perfect scheme. Why he wants to kill his class is not clear, but it's obvious that is what's up. I follow him out without saying anything.

He goes into a hallway and starts running. I jump on his back. We are in a narrow hallway and there are lots of framed pictures of varying sizes hanging up. You can touch both walls of this hallway if you stand in the center, that's how narrow it is. It is short, too, with no doors down it, and at the end there is a glass door that opens into the outside. I understand that he is trying to get to that door, and when he does, all of his bad dudes are going to be out there and see us and kill me instantly. So I can't let him get to the door, but I am on his shoulders and he is too strong for me to stop him. So I grab a little picture and bash him in the face, but he doesn't care. So I grab the biggest picture as we pass by it and I use the wire that's nailed to the back to strangle him. I don't take it off the picture or anything, I just loop it over his neck and start twisting the big picture around. The picture is in between our heads so I don't see him die but I feel wet blood on my fingers. He falls down.

I also realize now that the trouble is not over. I don't have any of my stuff-- at some point I took off my regular clothes and my passport was in my pants' pocket, and my other clothes and books are in my room on the boat that brought us here. I think and decide I probably don't need my walkman or my clothes, the passport is the only thing that bugs me because I will obviously have to get out of this country now that I've killed some people, including a powerful gang leader.

A horse-driven cart pulls up outside the glass door. Two old ladies from the Chinese restaurant are driving it. I had talked to them before, I realize, and told them to meet me here for a getaway. They are going to drive this horse cart to another part of China, a small town that is a ways away from here. I decide I am going to stay and learn some more fighting ninja shit-- that maybe the bad dudes will be expecting me to go back to the US and wait for me there, or get me enroute. Or maybe the government will think I am just a killer. I am really anxious and worried about living in China all abruptly like this, but I tell the old ladies that it's what I gotta do. They take off and I crouch in the back of the cart.

Nobody speaks Chinese at any point, everybody speaks English.