Without Knowledge

There was a time when things were normal. Life was good then. All I had to worry about was school , my younger siblings and mom. Nothing was to complicated. Sometimes I would have to go do extra jobs to help out with rent but that was the worst it got. Life was truly great. But one day it all changed. I got sucked into a life I would have never imagined. All because of a coincidence.

I’m an average kid . Seventeen years old, an athletic body and Short black hair that I kept in a fade style cut. Im the average male height, with a lighter brown skinned complexion and hazel eyes that people said carried more weight than someone my age should ever have. Oh and my name, it’s King, King Solomon. First name King, last name soloman. My parents must have thought it was a good omen to name me that . Mom always told me I would be great and wise like the great king Solomon once was. It was great when I was younger, made me feel confident about myself. But as I got older I realized I just wasn’t the person she hoped I’d be. I was a hard worker and made sure to always take care of the family but I wasn’t very good at school and I could never keep a job. My dad was never in the picture so my mom had to take care of 3 kids by her self. She was always working hard to provide for us , so to try and take some of that stress of of her I would pick up part time jobs every now and then. Although things never went good for me. Over and over I lost the my job. No matter how hard I work , how much sweat I put into my job, I was always got fired for one reason and one reason only . Because I had no skill. And here I was again . Coming home from another failed position at a car washing business.

I sat at the bus stop, staring at the cracked pavement beneath my feet, trying to swallow the anger bubbling up in my chest. It wasn’t like getting fired was new to me—hell, I was used to it by now. But it didn’t make it any easier. Just your average, every day kid hat was willing to put in hard work to earn for his family, yet, no one ever saw past one thing.

No Skill.

In a world where everyone’s born with some special ability, something that sets them apart, makes life easier, more exciting, or just plain better—I got nothing. Same with my family. My mom, my little brother Jay and my little sister Jelissa. We were the unlucky 1 in a million. Everyone had some ability, they could fly, bend fire, read minds, or whatever else came with their Skill, but us? We couldn’t even float.

Most humans are bestowed an innate skill at birth, but you can also gain or buy skills along your lifetime. But there’s a catch . To gain a skill you have to already have at least one. And when it comes to buying one well….The pricing is outrageous to say the least. Even basic skills are expensive to people like me.

I live in a section of the kingdom called the inner exterior, a name that lets anyone know that you are a weakling with little strength. The kingdom I live is called Manchester kingdom in the country of wisteria. It’s very large with 2 walls encasing the inner most sections. The inner walls protect the palace but also separate the people. We are separated into 3 groups.

The exterior, which are those who live on the outside of the walls but within Manchester territory , which expands for a few hundred kilometers in each direction. The people who live here are exiles, refugees, and prisoners of war basically those not allowed to live within the safety of the walls.

Then there is the inner exterior which is the living quarters between the outer and inner walls. This is where they stick all the low level citizens who have weak and basic skills that would only do good helping economic services and supporting the kingdoms infrastructure.

Lastly is the interior, where the higher skilled citizens , royals and nobles live. The importance of the citizens also went in that order so a person of lesser importance has no right over the person of higher importance. There was a clear heirachy to things and it had to be followed or there would be consequences.

All of that was none of my business though. I was even worse than a weakling . That hierarchy only applies to those with skills. Those without skills are nothing but trash. In this society, The weak have no right to stand against the strong . It was something I was use to which is why I was so easily accepting to being fired. Standing up to them for their biased behavior would do me no good. So once again I succumbed to my fate.

I leaned back on the bench, watching people walk by, living their powered-up lives while I sat there, unemployed again, wondering how the hell I was going to explain this one to my mom.

As I sat there waiting lost in my thought I heard some shuffling nearby. I turned to see a group of teenagers messing with some kid. I recognized a couple of them right away. They went to my school. Guys with Skills. Popular guys. They had him surrounded and were intimidating him. This was common. Bulllying was something that was inevitable in this kind of society so as usual I ignored it. At least I tried . But soon they started to beat on the kid . Kicking at him as he fell to the ground. It was hard to ignore so I turned to say something.

Then I saw him. My little brother,Jay

I was off the bench before I even realized it. My feet carried me toward them, but I was still too far away. One of the guys shoved Jay, hard. He hit the ground, barely catching himself with his hands. My heart pounded in my chest. I broke into a run as they beat on him, laughing.

Jay was curled up, trying to protect himself, but he didn’t stand a chance. He was in middle school, scrawny, with no Skill to defend himself and they were taking advantage of this , a bunch of cowards.

I hit the first guy with a sucker punch, catching him off guard. He stumbled back, clutching his face, but that was about as far as I got. The rest of them turned on me immediately, and I saw the look in their eyes. They were grinning now. I’d just made things worse.

“That’s the Skill-less kid’s brother, ain’t it?” one of them sneered.

Before I could even raise my arms to defend myself, a fist slammed into my gut, knocking the wind out of me. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground next to Jay, their feet raining down on me like a storm. I curled up, trying to shield my head, but it didn’t do much. Punches, kicks, and insults—it all blended together after a while.

I couldn’t fight back. Not like this.

They kept beating me for a while which sucked but at the very least I was glad they didn’t go back to my brother.

As I lay on the ground getting beat I saw the bus pass by. “Another inconvenience.” Is all I could think.

Eventually, they got bored. I felt the blows slow, then stop altogether. I could hear them laughing as they walked away, one of them muttering something about “wasting time on the Skill-less losers.”

I stayed down for a moment, catching my breath, my whole body throbbing.

“Jay, you alright?” I asked, pulling myself to my feet.

Jay groaned, slowly pushing himself up too. He wasn’t hurt too badly—nothing permanent, at least. “Yeah… I’m okay.”

His full name was James soloman. He was only 12 and in the 6th grade.I hated to see a bunch of teenagers jump him like that. He had some bruises but it looked like he protected his face well.

“You did good protecting your face like I taught you. What happened why did they jump you?”

He sniffled and wiped his bloody nose.

“They talked about mom so I punched him in the face.”

I sighed . Although I under stand him , he should know better then to hit first

“You know not to hit first.”

I said sternly

“I know but I couldn’t take it they always talk down on me I hate it.”

“Why are they picking on a 12 year old anyways they look like they are in my grade”

“They are . One day I was talking to one of their younger brothers and I and you were tougher then their older brother even without a skill.”

“Ah I see so they must have ran it back and the bothers didn’t like to hear that.”

“Yeah apparently he had 4 older brothers.”

I almost laughed at the statement, but my side hurt to much.

“Well thanks for sticking up for me lil bro .”

“I’m gonna be strong like you . Even if our family is cursed I’ll become someone.”

I sighed again.

“Come on,” I said, looking down the street. “Since We missed the bus. Let’s stop by Mom’s store on the way home. She’s probably wondering where we are.”

Jay nodded, still a little shaken, but he trusted me. We started walking together , trying to forget what just happened.

As we walked I thought in silence.

I hated that jay felt that way about our family. I’ve told him before we aren’t cursed. Just because everyone calls having a skill being blessed doesn’t mean we are cursed because we don’t have one. We were just unlucky.

Sadly my entire family doesn’t have skills. My little sister , nor my mother . My mom never knew her parents so she doesn’t know if it’s genetic and my father left her when we were young. Apparently he had a skill but my mother said he never used it or told her what it was. I don’t blame him for leaving. A family without skills. They were useless to everyone. But still, It’s weird , although I was 8 years old when he left I don’t remember a single thing about him not even his face. Jay was four and Jelissa had just been born so neither of them would remember either. Nor is there any photos with him in the house. I mean I’m 17 now, so not remembering him after 9 years was somewhat normal but I couldn’t recall a single detail. That just felt weird to me.

But I couldn’t let rival things like that bother me . I had to focus on making sure my family could get by

“Mom working late tonight again”

Jay said starting up a conversation

“Yea. She always does….” I replied with a sigh

“One day I’ll be able to get a job too and then she won’t have to work so hard.”

I hesitated to tell him it wouldn’t work out that way. If couldn’t hold a job , things would t be any better for him. Without a skill no one ever truly accepts you. But I didn’t want to tell him that now.

“Yeah that would help some more I’d appreciate that little bro . But for now focus on school that’s what’s important.”

I tried to stray away from the topic.

“Anyways,How was your day at school?”

That seemed to bring a smile to his face. He then proceeded to tell me about his exciting day .

“So you’re saying the class pet climbed up the teachers dress and she had to leave because she was embarsssed about it.”

“Yea basically , it was even funnier because my friend was the one who accidentally let it out.” He said bursting out into laughter

“Accidentally…. right”

I shook my head at him slightly disappointed but still they were kids what did I expect .

The air was getting cooler as the sun dipped lower in the sky. I glanced at Jay. He looked a little better now, his posture less tense. In glad I could help take his mind off everything. I’m also glad we get to see mom. She always worked late so we would be sleep by the time she got home. It would probably be a pleasant surprise for her too.Still we needed to stop and pick up Jelissa before heading home so we couldn’t stay to long.Just a quick check-in with Mom, and then we’d head out.

But then, as we turned the corner, a sharp, acrid smell hit me. Smoke. Burning wood.

“Do you smell that?” I asked, stopping dead in my tracks.

Jay’s eyes widened, and we both looked up at the same time. Ahead of us, smoke billowed into the sky, and through the haze, we could see the flicker of orange flames licking the air. My heart stopped for a second. Time seemed to slow down, and my eyes focused in on the building. I recognized that building. It was one I had been to plenty of times before.

It was Mom’s store.

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