“Antonio are you up yet?”  Mother  called.

“Yeah Mom I’ll be right there,” I called back.
If you haven't noticed yet my name is Antonio. Antonio Salvador to be exact. I am eligible to drive, and I have a normal typical family consisting of father, Jose, a cook; a mother, Maria, a teacher; a brother, Carlos; and a sister, Marina, both of which are still in second year of elementary school.
“What time are you going to receive patients?” Father asked.
“At twelve o’clock,” I replied.
I was born and raised in a country where many people wear sombreros and speak Spanish, in a city named Abasolo. I am homeschooled because of my time consuming “job”.Oh yeah I almost forgot, I have the ability to cure, paralyze, and kill any living human or animal by pressing their vital pressure points either softly to cure anything that is wrong in that area or roughly to kill that part of the body. I was born being able to see these pressure points and this gift has permanently made my eyes look as if I were blind. I have had three slash marks on my face ever since the day that I  killed the wolf that attempted kill my mother in a valley near my house. 
I have cured thousands of people and have been even called a god at times, but every time that I was called a god, I would tell them that there is only one God in this world and that one true God is in heaven. I would say that it takes me about three minutes to cure each person and I usually receive about a hundred people a day and usually finish at three p.m, if I started at noon. This little job of mine is supposed to be carried out without pay, but I have to make it up to my parents for having to use their house as a curing facility.  Also, I have to make it up to the town doctor because I steal most of his customers, so I give him thirty-percent of whatever I make, and the rest I give to my parents.
It is four o'clock now and it is time for my two hours of  “school.”
“Antonio turn to page twenty two in your math book,” said Mother.
“Yes Mother,” I replied.
“Today we will be covering geometry,” said Mother.
This went on for about an hour or so before Mother said it was okay to take a break. I went to Father who was in the kitchen preparing the food for tonight’s dinner, which was chicken, beans, and rice. Father gave me forty pesos and told me that we were out of milk and flour, which were the ingredients needed for tomorrow's breakfast, and that I needed to take my little brother and go to El Toro Negro, a public grocery store,  to go buy some. He also told me that if my brother and I received change, we could use it to buy ourselves something. I found my little brother, who was reading one of the books that I had when I was little, called The Little Sea Monster and His Human Friend, and told him that we have to go to El Toro Negro to buy milk and flour. He was relatively excited that he got to go to the grocery store even though I haven't told him that I was going to use the change we got to buy him something.
While walking to El Toro Negro, obviously seeing that I was thinking of something, my little brother called out to me,
“Antonio?”
“Yes Carlitos?” I asked.
“What are you thinking of?” he asked.
“Nothing. Just about what I am going to do tonight,” I replied.    
“Are you going to go to church again?” he asked.
My whole family knows that I am very religious and that I go to church every night to pray for forgiveness  for having to charge for healing the sick of my town.
“Yes, Carlitos why?” I asked.
“It is just because that I always see you deep in thought and looking a bit stressed,” he replied. 
Surprised by his academic vocabulary, I ask,
“Where did you learn that word?”
“What word?” he asked.
“Stressed,” I replied.
“I always hear mom saying that she is stressed and she always has that same face that you always have,” he said.
“Oh,” I said, surprised.
I was walking out with the groceries, while Carlitos was dragging behind licking the lollipop that I bought him, when I saw a man with a jacket that had a skull on the back  of it. This man was known as La Calavera, The Skull, a very popular drug lord in the city of Abasolo. He had no hair except for a bushy mustache and thick eyebrows, blue jeans with a very thin white shirt and a huge sombrero. He walked over to me and said,
“Ah, so you are the famous healer that everyone has told me so much about.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, trying to avoid having anything to do with him, “I am blind and can't even heal one of my own injuries.”
“Don’t play dumb Antonio. I know that it is you that everyone is calling the healer,” he said.
“What can I help you with?” I asked feeling like a coward.
“I want you to become my personal medic,” he replied bluntly, “I’ll pay you five thousand pesos a week.”
“As good of a deal as that may be I am afraid that I am going to have to pass,” I said.
“C’mon, don’t be a fool, I will pay you a lot of money and even a better home to live in,” he said sympathetically.
“I am sorry, but no means no,” I said, trying to hide the frustration in my voice.
“Okay you little brat,”  he said. “Just know that I tried to be nice.”
With that The Skull left in his black van riding to what seemed to be my house…
I began to realize what he meant, so I started to panic and began running at full sprint towards my house. Too slow. From outside my house I saw him smiling a smile that sent chills down my spine as he screamed over my mother’s, my father’s, and my little sister’s pleas for help,
“I tried to be nice!”
Full of anger I ran at him, aiming to hit the paralysis pressure point at the right of his forehead, but was horrified when I felt him press the pressure point of near death on my chest.
“I may not be able to heal people, but I too have the ability to see one’s lethal pressure points,” he said.
My body was beginning to feel cold, and I felt as if I was being sucked into the ground. All the while my ribs were caving into my lungs and heart, for this is what this pressure point does. It causes your ribs to cave in, almost like rubber, caving in on your lungs and heart, so with each movement you have the possibility to be punctured by your own ribs. The blurry image of The Skull leaving in his van faded in and out of focus as I still heard his words ringing in my ears.
I woke up in a room that I had seen before but couldn’t put my finger on where I actually was. In the middle of my chest I felt my ribs back in place.
“I hope that you found your ribs back in place Antonio,” said a voice I had heard many times as a child.
“Dr. Jose?” I asked looking around the room.
“Yes, my boy. I am here,” Dr. Jose said.
“How long have I been out Doctor?” I asked hurriedly.
“Oh, I’d say about two days. You were out cold when I arrived at your house, trying to find you after I had been called that you were in critical condition,” he replied.
“ Two days? I am sorry Doctor but I need to go thank…,” pain shot up my chest as I attempted to get up.
“Ahh!”
“I am afraid that your attacker has left quite a nasty indent in your lungs after your ribs caved in. Now let me tell you I doubt that I had ever needed to do fix a problem like that,” he explained, “ so I suggest that you take it easy for the next two weeks or so.”
“I am sorry doctor, but I need to go. My family was taken and I need to go get them. So if you excuse me I…,” I tried to say before the pain began to swell in my chest.
“Please try not to move Antonio. You are in a very serious condition,” he said sympathetically.
“Okay Doctor,”  I said defeated.
For the last three weeks I had to take it easy in my bed, and if I needed to get around I needed to be in a wheelchair; however, I had been asking everyone that passed by the hospital if they knew where The Skull’s hideout was. Everyone was clearly shocked that I wanted to actually face The Skull in my condition, and everyone I asked turned me down until that fateful Friday the following week.
Fully healed now and after a week of training on defeating The Skull by killing the bulls of farmers that no longer wanted them for overly aggressive behavior, I was eating my breakfast  when I saw a very familiar face coming towards me to my home. It was my very regular customer, Miguel, whom I healed nearly every day because he was very clumsy and worked in a meat factory cutting meats, so he got hurt nearly everyday.
He was wearing blue jeans and his red shirt as always and had a face that read, I hope I do not regret this later. He came up to me and said,
“I heard you wanted to know where The Skull’s hideout was.”
“I do. Why, Miguel?” I asked, beginning to get excited.
“I might know where he is, Antonio, if you promise that you won’t tell anyone I told you, and you better avoid every confrontation possible before reaching The Skull, and every time I come here for you to heal me it has to be free,” he said.
“Of course Miguel thank you!” I exclaimed.
Miguel had finished giving me the basic layout of the inside of The Skull’s hideout and I had found Carlitos a babysitter for when I was to be away. It surprised me when Miguel told me that he used to work for The Skull; however, I was very glad for this.
The outside of The Skull’s hideout was very well hidden in the alley of the two most dangerous houses, which were owned by two corrupt officers known for abducting and killing anyone who came near their houses. I almost did not recognize the entrance to The Skull’s hideout, even after Miguel had given me a very clear description. It was a steel door painted to blend in with the walls around it and had a peephole at the top and no outside handle. Miguel had told me that I had to knock five times slowly and whisper to the guard,
“All hail The Skull.”
Once the door opened I quickly paralyzed the guard, with one of the pressure points that I had learned when failing to quickly kill the farmers’ bulls. I took his silenced fully automatic sub machine gun in case I ran into a sticky situation. The interior was a huge marble series of chambers with barely any walls, making sneaking that much harder. I began to see more and more guards as well as unpopular drug lords, meaning I must have been closer to The Skull’s room, for they must stick to their leader unless they wanted to be cut off from The Skull’s business. When I was certain that I was outside of The Skull’s room, I entered through a very small door that seemed to be a doggy door and quickly shot the five guards guarding The Skull. I quickly locked the real entrance to the room and yelled to The Skull,
“Where is my family you f*$#%@g coward?!”
“Whoa, little troll, I have your parents in that huge cage over there, there is no need for profanity,” he replied.
Sure enough, I could make out a cage with my sister and Mother sobbing and calling out to me, while Father just stood there looking at me with pleading eyes.
“You know what I came for, and I know you know how I am going to get it don't you?” I ask the piece of s*#t accross from me.
“I do, so I know that talking is not going to solve anything,” he replied.
I attempted to shoot him from point blank, but of course my gun was out of ammunition. He did the same, but I quickly grabbed one of the dead guards and used him as a meat shield to block every bullet he shot at me until he ran out of bullets. I knew that he was the only person in that room with a gun besides me and the five dead guards whose guns were emptied when attempting to shoot me. This meant that we had to fight hand to hand.
I ran at him quickly, jabbing my forefinger into the five points of pain in his lower abdomen, yet saw that they did hardly anything. He then punched me square in the face and dazed me. I had failed to realize that he must have been doing this for years and had no problem killing me, while I had only become a killer once I entered this hideout. He attempted to press my pressure point of certain death but was too slow, and I again pressed his five points of pain, this time with more aggressivity, for the harder you press a pressure point the more likely it is to hurt more. After exchanging blows for what seemed forever, I finally asked The Skull,
“Don’t you think that we should end this already? I grow weary of this fight, don’t you?”
“Indeed I do, alright then, Antonio prepare yourself,” he replied.
He grabbed my arm and flipped me onto my back causing me to lose my breath, but my determination to save my family drove me forth and caused me to quickly get up and avoid his finishing blow. Tired, we both paused and stared at each other in the way that a male dog stares at another male dog just before they go for each others’ necks. We ran towards each other, aiming at each other's pressure point of certain death. Knowing that he had a far longer reach than me, I tilted my head, and with as much force in my body that I could bring forth I jabbed him on the forehead, perfectly hitting his pressure point of certain death. It seemed that he only hit my pressure point of temporary sleep.
We both collapsed; however, I could still hear myself breathing. I could hear voices above me and when I woke up I found myself on top of Mother’s lap. My whole family was beside me and they all sighed with relief when I awoke. I saw Dr. Jose and asked,
“How did you..?”
“I knew you would get hurt trying to defeat The Skull after finding out where he was, so I had asked Miguel, after I saw him leaving your house, where The Skull’s hideout was and followed you here. Of course I brought the police and had them dispose of the corrupt officers and everyone here. After I heard screaming in here, I got in through that doggy door, freed your family and treated you, using the same trick you use to heal your patients.”
“Doctor, I didn’t know you too had this power. How come you don't use it to heal your patients?” I asked surprised.
“It is more valuable using medicine, plus I only use it in a state of emergency,” he replied.
“Well, in any case, thank you very much Dr. Jose. I am forever in your debt,” I said.
“No need Antonio, the 30 percent of the income that you make healing your patients regularly has more than enough paid me for this favor.”
“What about The Skull?” I asked.
“It seems that you killed him, so we were very lucky that you were only knocked out after he aimed for your certain death pressure point,” he replied.
“Thank goodness for that,” I replied.
“Thank goodness indeed. Well, I guess I’ll get going now,” he said.
“Doctor!” my family and I called.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“Thank you,” my family and I replied in unison.
     Two Months Later
My family and I had become closer after the incident, and have even opened up a proper healing station for my patients in front of our house. I had been going back to my daily routine of going to church after healing my patients and receiving home schooling. All in all my family had been very calm after the day that I, Antonio Salvador, had killed The Skull. This in my opinion was a very good thing for I had rid this world of one more problem and I am living peacefully.
“Antonio it is time to get up!” Mother called.
“Coming!” I called back.
Looking outside of my window at the morning dew I whispered to myself,
“Very peaceful indeed.”