An excerpt from Liam Valgt: The Calling

Chapter One 

With his heart pounding and panic paralyzing his mind, Liam pressed tightly against a display cabinet and froze.  

Who was in the building? And why were they here at midnight? Even with his highly fragmented logic, he knew that the answer to both of those questions was not good. As quietly as he could, he panted to catch his breath. It was pointless, though. They—however many "they" were—already knew he was there. They were already calculating their next move. 

From across the dimly lit room, Liam eyed the front door. Although it was the nearest avenue of escape, he knew that it would be locked. The few seconds that it would take him to unlock the door would be enough to give the unwelcome callers time to get to him before he could get out. 

But maybe they didn’t want to nab him? Why would they want to get their hands on him? Why are they waiting? Why aren’t they just running out the back door? So many questions flew through his mind that he didn’t have the time or mental capacity to process one before the next overtook it. The reality of the situation was that he was trapped inside the store; two or more prowlers were between him and the back door through which he had entered, and they were as still as he was. From the look on the one guy’s face, he clearly hadn’t expected any company tonight while they were doing whatever it was they were doing. 

Wait… his face. 

His face! 

“I saw his face!” Liam panicked at the thought. 

“That’s why they’re still here. He knows I saw his face.” 

In the back of the store that’s exactly what the three larcenists were pondering. Liam had seen one of them – practically face-to-face. Of course, it couldn’t have been one of the other two guys – the two that looked like a thousand other twenty-five-year-olds in the area. It had to be the one with the tattoo – the obvious tattoo – the obvious tattoo on his face – the obvious and easily identifiable tattoo on his face.  

The intruders had to make a couple quick and hard decisions. One of the trio, who was clearly not the leader, whispered to the one that was.  

“Whata we gonna do?”  

The face-tattooed boss of the band motioned to him to shut up and freeze. Then, he pointed to himself as if to say, “I’ll take care of this”. Reaching into the thigh pocket of his worn-out cargo pants, he pulled out a handle of some kind. Once he pressed the lever on the side, however, it became disturbingly obvious that it was a switchblade knife. The metallic sound of the blade shooting out of the handle echoed through the store. Both underlings swallowed hard when they realized the plan.

Liam also heard the click from his hiding place in the front of the store. He wasn’t a hunter or a weapons expert, but he knew the sound of a switchblade springing to attention.  

“This is bad… this is REALLY BAD!” he thought, squeezing his eyes shut so tight it was painful.  

“Help me, Jesus! Help me, Jesus!” 

Instinctively the words exploded from his mind.  

He heard movement – a faint shuffling, but he couldn’t determine exactly where it was coming from. Liam looked side-to-side – up and down to try to spy a route of escape. He turned his head to look behind him just in time to see the face-tattooed leader raising the switchblade. In one swift motion, he jammed the knife into Liam’s chest.

Without hesitation and with the swiftness of a seasoned ninja, Liam swatted the knife from the man’s hand. Before the blade even had time to hit the tile floor, Liam administered a gut punch that was so intense he literally heard the breath leave the assailant’s body. The intruder buckled and grasped his torso in a crouched fetal position. As if it was a finely choreographed set of moves, Liam’s right leg shot up and connected with the man’s chest. The side kick carried the velocity of a cannon and sent the guy flying across the room and into the far wall of the storefront. 

The two lackies, having seen their boss’ failure, simultaneously pounced on Liam. Liam did not budge. Instead, he grabbed both attackers – one in each hand – and hurled them through the air to the same wall where the leader of the group was now spitting blood and groping to get to his knees. They slammed against the wall and fell into a heap on top of the leader. One of them was in so much pain that he couldn’t move. The other staggered to his feet and headed back toward Liam. Liam readily dispatched a Bruce Lee-caliber roundhouse kick to the center of the man’s chest and immediately returned him to the wall from which he came.

Despite their current physical condition, Liam realized that he wasn’t finished with the trio yet. He sprang back into action. Vaulting over the counter, he whipped open a drawer on the other side. A roll of duct tape was all he saw, and it was all he needed. Grabbing it from the drawer, he hurdled back over the counter and grabbed whichever intruder was moving the most. Within seconds, Liam had completely incapacitated the man by cross wrapping his hands and ankles and then taping them all together behind his back. The intruder lay moaning and fighting to find his breath as Liam hog-tied the other two. Once they were all laying belly-down with the sides of their faces pressed against the cold tile, Liam finally assessed the scene. He was still panting and almost sick to his stomach. He grabbed the phone from the countertop and his shaking hand dialed 911.

Within minutes, the police were storming through the now-unlocked front door of the shop with handguns drawn. First, there were two. Then three more arrived to back them up. The officers identified themselves and quickly began to survey the scene, Liam put his hands above his head and avoided making any sudden movements.  

“I’m Liam Valgt. My dad owns this shop. I was helping him earlier today and I left my backpack here. I came back to get it, and these guys were in here”.  

He motioned with his head toward the posse of groaning captives on the floor. For about five seconds the room went completely quiet. Five police officers stood with their heads cocked and one kid stood with his hands still above his head. The officers were clearly trying to resolve how three intruders could be lying thwarted and immobile on the floor while a single high school-aged kid stood unharmed next to them.
-Continued...