The Middle Big Brother: Heathcliff's Story

.......

Thought you could get away that easy, eh?

I bring the suffering that was promised to you when you cast me into the world of the bristly!

Bringing punishment to the thief who stole the child's hair salon coupons was a long and arduous journey.

If all the child wanted was simply revenge, it would have been more efficient to rely on the element of surprise to capture and mete out the deserved consequences.

But that simply would not do. "Uncool" solutions were not an option for the child.

Heart-pumping electronic dance music, fully slicked-back hair, and flashy sunglasses still worn even in the dark of the night...

These were the hallmarks of a "badass" and "cool" entrance befitting a Big Brother of the Middle, thought the child.

Oi, half-pint... You the one who nicked my coupons?

W-what the hell... I'd heard you might still be in pursuit, but... You came all the way here for that, you damn stalker?!

... Stalker? Mate, you seem to be under some grave misconception, 'cuz goin' after a thief ain't the same thing as stalkin' someone.

... It's terminal audacity to think that, innit?

Well, what else am I supposed to call an obsessed freak who chased me all the way across the City from U Corp. Great Lake?

It gets to a point, man.

Failure to recognize your own crimes... Blatant lack of apology or any sign of remorse for stealing the victim's deserved lusciousness... Insistence on contentious behaviour...

Looks like you're gettin' another line in the Book -

... Eh?

Oi, who added this already?

This individual's violation was logged for later punishment in accordance with Title 6, Section 2, Row A.

... Yeah?

Yes. Because the individual's behavior met the specific conditions required to invoke the aforementioned article.

But... this bloke's... Eh, nevermind. You did good, lad.

Alright, let's get this back on track...! The point is, you've just bought yourself another line in the book.

... All this over a lousy coupon to a hair salon, you crazy bastard?

I told you I'll pay you back for it, didn't I? Time and time again, I asked if we could make a deal, and you refused to listen every damn time...

A lousy hair coupon, really? After narkin' me, insulting me by assuming this grudge could be swept under the rug with bribery? A lousy hair coupon?

Searching for sections relevant to "narking."

No, forget it. I think I can forgive that minor slight as long as he returns a little something.

That hair coupon you nicked from me... Hand it over.

.......

Get your noggin ready, 'cuz this ain't just about the coupon anymore.

It's about the shame of having to show myself under the sun day after day with a hairdo that has slid so far into the world of the bristly... It's about the desperation of wanting to hide under a cap, yet having to parade around my humiliation... because wearing a cap would've sapped even more vitality from my hair!

... All of that has coalesced into this simmering wrath as I journeyed to the east... And I haven't even begun my Pilgrimage of Loyalty to earn the right to become a Great Brother!

The only thing that'll put this righteous anger to sleep is... to become luscious.

That's right, you daft bastard. That hair coupon you stole from me is now lusciousness incarnate.

What I'm sayin' is that I'm generous enough to turn a blind eye to your... minor insults as long as you return an object of such significance back to my hands. So quit stallin' and cough it up.

Huh. And what if I said I can't even if I wanted to? What then?

Art thou refusing to return what belongeth to the rightful owner?

No, as much as it narks me to admit it... That wasn't a refusal.

Your hair, it's become...

... luscious.

The Little Siblings' eyes instantly darted toward the coupon thief's hair at the child's comment.

The hair looked as though it would flow and wrap gently around the hand when one combs through it with their fingers...

... Frankly, the subtleties of hairstyling weren't immediately apparent, but borrowing the child's vocabulary, the thief's hair must have become... luscious.

And the fact that such an elevated state was attained not by the child but the thief meant that -

You little shit! Just stealing Big Bro's hair coupons wasn't enough, huh? You just had to use it too, huh?!

'Course I did! Why do you think I stole it in the first place?

I mean, just think about it in my shoes. There's really no point in getting a single line forgiven when I'm already neck-deep in your Book of Vengeance, get what I'm saying?

And hey, thought I might as well go enjoy a nice visit to the private hair salon when I got the chance, since you're gonna come after me for the rest of my life anyway. Salon du Moelleux, was it? Sure lived up to its name, hah!

... He must be mad.

Was it wisdom, or foolishness?

The thief's name was indeed attached to a countless number of Vengeances in the Book, which included stealing from the child's safe, fleeing from the Middle's Vengeance - and everything that happened between then and now.

Like he said, getting a single Vengeance forgiven wouldn't make a nick of difference anyway.

Because whichever excuse he had to give, it would end in his execution.

He sure is awfully mouthy for a bloke about to pop his clogs... You lads reckon he's got Life Insurance or somethin'?

A single execution may not be a sufficient counterweight that negates the grudge. However...

Mm. There exists precedent for a crime not entirely dissimilar to the one currently being addressed, in which a subject whose life was Insured was killed over a dozen times to be rendered into a state of post-resuscitation mental degradation and punch-drunkenness prior to complete and total extermination.

Y-yet the villain doth persist in uttering such vile insults to our Big Brother!

In moments such as this, m-methinks justice ought to be delivered posthaste...

Hmm... goin' off Great Brother's advice, either way's decent enough...

What's your take, Sinclair?

Um... How about tenderizing him half-dead first? You'll have an easier time deciding what to do with him once he's too busy swallowing teeth to talk back.

…….

... Hah! I like the sound of that!

Oh! Th-that's...!

Perhaps the child was pleased with the suggestion,

Because he produced an adorably tiny sticker from the inside of his coat and pressed it neatly onto his Little Brother's Book.

Thank you, Big Bro...!

Right, let's crack on with it, then. Let's give him a proper thrashin' before thinkin' about what comes next.

You seriously think Life Insurance's what I'm planning to fall back on?

You don't actually believe that I spotted you chasing me across half the City and just... didn't bother setting anything up, do you?

That sound... Something's closing in. Meursault, what time is it?

It is currently 3:13 in the morning. The Night in the Backstreets has begun.

A tremor spread through the ground, drawing closer with every passing second. It was the sound of the Sweepers flooding through the roads - for Backstreets residents, a rumble on the road as familiar as the rumble of one's own breath.

Still... there was something off about this whole situation. The entrance through which the child and his Little Siblings chased their mark looked hastily put together, and the thief was already sprinting toward another room.

It didn't take long for the child to piece things together. His voice sharply cut through the air as soon as he realized what exactly the thief had in store.

...! Grab that bastard! Now!

Bollocks, I knew somethin' about the entrance looked makeshift...

Hahaha!! Too slow!!

Have fun getting swept away, dumbasses! They won't even leave a bloodstain behind once they're done with you!

Fie! The wretched villain hath fled into the adjacent room! Our righteous fury shall smite through the door and -

*fume* ... Nah. That ain't some hideout - that's a proper residential area.

That cheeky half-pint used his noggin, didn't he.

... Looks like we're gonna have to hold out against the Sweeper waves, Big Bro.

Don't ya worry your little head now, lad.

Even if we get swept away by the waves... the Middle'll settle that score proper. Nobody walks away from the Vengeance.

The Night in the Backstreets passed, as it always does.

The thief stepped out from his building, bold and smug.

He congratulated himself for this well-thought-out plan that finally shook the persistent stalker. No one can survive the tides of Sweepers that consume everything and everyone in their path, he believed. Not even the child.

However... he seemed to have underestimated the child's tenacity - the unyielding doggedness of the Syndicate that calls itself the Middle.

Y-you... Stalker freak! How are you still alive?!

That it, then? All that prep and you're already done?

Shit... Damn it!

L-look, don't kill me just yet. There's something you should know...

Wha, that you weren't actually the one who nicked the coupon?

Exactly, I'm not the thie - wait... Y-you already knew?!

Course I did. That bloke in the security footage wasn't anywhere near as tiny as you, half-pint. Gives it away, innit?

Ah... Ahh...!

Been givin' it a think, yeah. Whether I ought to crack your skull open like an egg... or just keep killin' you over and over till this burning anger's spent and satisfied.

W-wait! I'll talk. I'll tell you everything, so please...

It ain't my business findin' out what bloody ties you've got to the real thief now. My lads'll dig 'em up soon enough.

And you not bein' the thief makes no difference either. You've already gone and earned yourself a fresh grudge with me with that little trick you pulled.

Truth be told, I'm sick of this whole mess givin' me a headache. Got a Pilgrimage of Loyalty comin' up, yeah? Proper nightmare, that Labor. I'd rather clear out all the useless rubbish clutterin' my path before I dedicate myself to it.

I... I can help you! Let me ditch that fucking thief and work for you instead...

That does it.

You flapping your lying gob, baskin' in that lusciousness like you're the only one who earned it...

That's about enough to get you and every last sod tied to you...

... IMMEDIATE, COMPLETE, AND TOTAL EXTERMINATION!