(no subject)
This is the first of (hopefully) a series of short stories set in the same group of kids and teenagers. Hope you enjoy.
“Dinner’s ready! Get your asses down here before it’s all gone!” Jesus yelled. His voice carried, and within moments the lobby was filled with kids and teenagers. Their loud laughter and chatter made it seem like there were more of them than there actually were. A few rickety tables and crates were scattered around the middle of the room, and Jesus had the big pots of food set up on the sturdiest looking one. Everyone had their own bowl, and they approached the table in a scraggly line, taking what he dished out and finding a place to sit. Those at the tail end of the line ended up cross-legged on the dusty tiled floor. One older girl, tall and striking with skin so dark it was almost black, closely cropped hair dyed silver, was at the back of the line, but when she had been served her food another kid left his seat to let her take his place. She gave him a smile and settled in, chowing down with the others.
As the kids who’d gotten their food first finished up with their meals, they began to stop by the dark girl on their way out. Each one slipped money into her hands as she smiled, exchanged a few words with them, and pocketed the cash. It was the rule - KZ trusted the kids to give her a cut of their earnings, and in return they trusted her to use them to buy things that they all needed - food, soap, supplies for the hunting team. KZ was the de facto leader of this ragtag group of teenagers with nowhere else to go, and they had created a pretty good place for themselves.
The abandoned five story building had once been a working hospital, but it had been at least a decade since anyone had been inside - the medical supplies and beds were long gone, and all that was left to remind the inhabitants of the building’s history was the layout - long hallways with rooms branching off on each side. The bottom floor was used as a common area, with the kitchen and dining areas more or less clearly defined. The upper floors were used as bedrooms - each kid picked an empty room and decorated and furnished it with whatever they could scrounge up or steal. Currently just the second and third floors were occupied, since no one really wanted to be alone or try and tackle the task of clearing out debris from the top two floors to make them livable. They had plenty of room.
“I’m not doing all the dishes myself; everyone needs to clean their own bowl!” Jesus yelled as he finally finished serving everyone and sat down to eat some dinner. His dark hair flopped over his eyes as he ate, pausing between bites to talk to a pig-tailed girl sitting across from him. It was dark out by now; the boarded over windows didn’t let in much light through the slats but a couple dozen candles were lit and set up around the room. Flickering shadows and half-illuminated faces would maybe create a spooky atmosphere, but for KZ and her family, they were homey and familiar. As the room began to slowly clear out, a tall buff Korean kid with bright blue hair and tattoos winding around his upper arms came to sit next to KZ.
“Hey, Blue. You eat already?” KZ asked him. He nodded.
“We’re ready, it’s dark. Finish your food so we can go.”
“You got Terry and Ray?”
“They’re getting their weapons. We’re waiting on you and Jesus,” Blue said.
“I’ll meet you by the back alley in five.” KZ replied. Blue headed off and KZ finished her meal, rinsing out her dish and patting Jesus’ shoulder on the way out.
“I know, I know, lemme just finish my noodles,” he said, words coming out garbled in his half-full mouth. KZ walked up the stairs to the second floor, passing open doors leading into messy bedrooms until she reached her own. She had a bed sheet hung in front of the small grimy window as a curtain, and old discarded Christmas lights strung around the walls to provide some light. Her bed was a mattress on the floor, and she’d stitched odds and ends of whatever fabric she could find to make a carpet or rug of sorts. A couple of wooden crates had clothing piled in, on top of, and around them, and other books, papers, personal items, and trinkets were lying around here and there. It was a colorful, cozy mess, and KZ was pretty happy with it. It had been a very long time since she had this many possessions, and she wanted to relish that fact. Right now, however, she had other things to think about. She rummaged around until she found her knife, slipping it into her boot. Then she pulled out her axe - it had been a gift from Blue, and she’d taken excellent care of it- running your finger gently across the blade would slice through your skin like paper - and headed back down to the lobby. Jesus was running across the hall towards her, carrying a sword bigger than his body.
“Hey! Stop running, you’re going to chop your own head off!” KZ warned. He skidded to a stop and made a face, but the excitement in his eyes did not dampen.
“Where’s everyone else?” he asked.
“Back alley. Come on,” she said, leading the way. They headed out the back entrance, which was a boarded up doorway hidden in an alleyway. A few of the boards were attached together and rested on disguised hinges to act as a sort of makeshift door that didn’t look like one from the outside. It was important that the kids maintained the look of the building - abandoned and left to go to ruin - even if it wasn’t quite true. Most of the local residents knew that they lived there, but outsiders didn’t, and that was what mattered. The locals wouldn’t cause any trouble for KZ or her family because they knew that without their protection, the neighborhood would be overrun.
“Took you long enough.” Ray said as KZ and Jesus joined the rest of the group, shutting the door carefully behind them. Ray was a little pudgy, with glasses and long dark hair. She was part Native American, and part African American. She wasn’t much of a fighter, but she had a sharp mind that was great for tactics and strategy, enhanced by the military history books she loved to read. Tyler, a sandy haired thirteen year old, was the fifth member of their hunting party. He was quiet and contemplative, always taking the time to think things over before making a decision to act. He was around the same age as Jesus, but the two were so different it was like night and day.
“Come on, let’s go kick some ass!” Jesus yelled, and Ray clamped a hand over his mouth.
“What are you, an idiot? You want to attract everything for miles to this alley?” she said.
“Well, yeah. How can we kill them unless we get them to come find us?”
“Wait until we’re farther away from home, snotbrain.”
“Quiet. This way,” Blue said, heading down into the dark streets. The others silently followed, weapons at the ready. The neighborhood was mostly empty; anyone with any measure of sanity at all wouldn’t be caught dead outside of their homes once dark fell. Still, the first few shadowy figures that the group saw turned out to be a homeless man and a prostitute.
“Come on, where are they?” Jesus complained. Blue shook his head at the younger boy, but KZ could see the tension in his shoulders and knew that he too was itching for a fight. Soon enough, they ran into one. Tyler heard it first; a low keening that was certainly not human. They tracked it to a car park, and as Ray settled in on the balcony where she could get a good shot, adjusting her crossbow. Blue, Jesus, KZ and Tyler followed it until they were sure they had it cornered, and then Blue nodded at Jesus, who grinned and started yelling as loud as he could, running at the dark shadow with his spear in front of him, all fierce and reckless abandon. Tyler hung back, calling out orders as he anticipated the thing’s next move, and Ray fired a few strategically aimed arrows, missing her target both times. KZ joined the fight, swinging her axe, but it was Blue who was in control of the fight from the very moment he stepped in. Armed with only two short knives, he was a force to be reckoned with, a blur of motion as he took down the thing barely breaking a sweat. When they were done, KZ pushed her sweaty hair back and stood for a minute, catching her breath. Jesus whooped a couple of times - for him this was like some kind of game, and he enjoyed the rush. Blue shared that feeling, KZ knew this. He’d confessed to her once that he enjoyed hurting things, killing things, destroying them completely - and he wondered if that made him a bad person.
“That was a pretty big one,” Tyler said calmly, staring down at the corpse before them. It smelled, and KZ wiped the tip of her boot against the concrete to get the blood off.
“Yeah, and we killed it! We all got off without a scratch, too, we’re badass!” Jesus exclaimed. Ray rolled her eyes and retrieved her arrows. Blue tucked his knives away and started walking out.
“The night’s still young,” he said, and KZ snorted, eliciting a small smile from her friend. She jogged a little to catch up with him, and put her arm around his waist, squeezing him in for a quick side-hug.
“Get a room!” Ray said, and Jesus cackled. KZ chose to ignore them, and Blue ruffled her hair. She made a face at him. They walked down back to the street, still a little amped up from the fight as they strolled through the empty neighborhood.
“Guys, move!” Jesus suddenly yelled. KZ whirled around. Jesus sounded scared, and he never sounded scared, not even when there was something that he should be afraid of. There wasn’t just one of the dark shadows approaching, there were at least three, and they were already on them when KZ finally reacted, bending down to grab her knife from her boot and hurl it at the closest thing. It howled and fell back - Blue and Tyler were already tackling the second, and Ray was jabbing arrows into the third, helped by Jesus’ wild moves. KZ was not aware of time passing - it seemed to slow down, and she was completely consumed in her fight for survival. It was just her and the thing; she couldn’t spare any attention to the others except to hope that they were doing okay as she focused on incapacitating the creature in some way. She ended up swinging her axe around at just the right angle to chop its head clear off, and when she collapsed to her knees to take a breath, Blue was there, his big hands gently resting on her shoulders.
“You okay?” he asked, and she nodded, getting back on her feet a little shakily.
“KZ? I think - I think Tyler’s injured.” Ray said. The second creature was dead, but the third was missing. Jesus joined KZ and Blue as they rushed to Tyler, who was lying on the ground in a growing pool of blood, his head propped up in Ray’s lap. His eyes were half-shut, but he was still breathing.
“Where’s he hurt?” Blue demanded. KZ took his hand, and squeezed. Tyler didn’t squeeze back.
“I think it’s his head, he was hit really hard, and he’s also bleeding from his leg. It got him bad; I think he needs a doctor.”
KZ met Blue’s eyes, and he shook his head.
“I can’t, you know I can’t, I haven’t spoken to any of them in years, I can’t just go back like nothing happened and start asking for favors…” he started.
“Blue, its Tyler. It’s one of us. We need to get him help, now.” KZ said, and Blue finally nodded. He picked up Tyler’s limp body and Jesus grabbed the extra weapons.
“Ray, Jesus, go back home. Don’t tell anyone what happened, we don’t need the kids worrying. We’ll be back in a few hours. If you don’t hear from either of us by morning, tell Zig he’s in charge.”
“Zig? Are you crazy?” Jesus exclaimed.
“Shut up, let’s go.” Ray said, taking his arm and pulling him away. Within moments the two of them had disappeared into the darkness. Blue and KZ headed off in the other direction, KZ looking around to make sure that nothing lurked in the shadows as Blue focused on getting Tyler to someone who could help him before he bled out. Blue was fast, but he was trying not to shake Tyler around too much, and KZ was just focused on keeping an eye out for things. Blue stopped at an apartment building at the very edge of the neighborhood, right where the buildings started to become a little less shabby and the streetlights actually worked more times than not.
“This is it?” KZ asked. He nodded, and hit the intercom, leaning on it so that it buzzed incessantly. Tyler was starting to look worse, and KZ tried very hard not to bounce impatiently on the balls of her feet.
“Who is it? I was sleeping!” a female voice came out of the little box, garbled but audible.
“It’s Jae! I need your help, my friend’s hurt really bad.”
“Who?”
“Please, just let us in!” KZ said, and a few moments later the door clicked open. She yanked it open to let Blue through, Trey’s limp legs jostling against the door frame.
“Which floor?”
“Follow me.”
They moved quickly up the flights of stairs until they reached the correct apartment, where the door was already open. A short, chubby young woman with glasses wearing a pink robe was looking out into the hallway, curious and annoyed expressions battling for dominance on her round face.
“Jae? What - who - ?”
“We need you, he’s hurt,” Blue said, and she moved aside as he set Tyler down on the carpet, grabbing a cushion off the sofa to rest his head on. KZ nodded at the woman and walked inside to join them.
“You look so different. Your hair - and you’re bigger - do your parents - “
“Please,” Blue said, and she nodded, tying her hair up in a messy bun and pushing her sleeves up. KZ went into the kitchen and got a big bowl full of water, clean cloths, and a knife. Blue sat down for a few moments and then stood back up, restless. KZ knelt down next to where Blue’s friend was working on Tyler and helped in any way she could. Time slowed down, or speeded up - the same way it did during a fight, and when the woman finally leaned back and said she was done, KZ’s knees ached from the strain as she stood up. She looked around. The place looked nice, clearly just this one woman lived here, as it was very small, but she seemed to have all of the amenities. She obviously wasn’t rich, but she wasn’t poor either; definitely better off than KZ’s uncle had been.
“Is he gonna be okay?” Blue asked.
“I think so. He lost a lot of blood, but the wound wasn’t that deep, I stitched him up. He just needs to drink a lot of fluid and rest. He should wake up shortly, as soon as he does someone needs to make sure that they don’t let him sleep too long - you need to wake him every few hours in case he has a concussion.”
“Thank you,” KZ said sincerely. The woman did not pay any attention to her at all.
“What the hell is going on, Blue? Last I heard you had a huge fight with your parents and you ran away, now you come back all - big, and tattooed, and blue-haired, with some girl and a bleeding kid. What kind of things are you into now?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Thanks for helping us. We should go.”
“You’re not moving him until he wakes up. So talk. You owe me that at least. Who are these people?”
“This is my … friend KZ, and this is Tyler. KZ, this is my cousin Jamie. She’s studying to be a surgeon.”
“Nice to meet you.” KZ said politely, sitting down on an ottoman. She figured this was something she should stay out of. Though she had known Blue for years, he never talked much about his family. None of the kids did. KZ thought this was Blue’s business, not hers, and she would have left him alone with his cousin if Tyler hadn’t been there, still sleeping on the now blood-stained carpet. Jamie’s pink robe was now covered with splotches of rust brown, but she wasn’t really paying attention to that.
“What happened, Jae? Your parents won’t talk about it with anyone, they - they pretend like you don’t exist.”
Blue didn’t say anything, but KZ saw a quick expression flash over his face and her stomach twisted a little in sympathy for his pain. She fidgeted with her boots, picking off bits of dirt and letting them fall to the floor.
“It doesn’t matter, okay? It doesn’t matter. They don’t want me around. I’m fine where I am. Tonight was an accident.”
“What were you doing? The injuries on this boy are - “
“You don’t know? You live here and you don’t know?” Blue interrupted.
“What?”
“Why don’t you go out after dark?”
“Because it’s not safe, there could be muggers or rapists or - “
“There’s nobody out after dark. Nobody. Just us. Keeping this neighborhood safe for people like you. There are things roaming the streets at night, things that don’t come out in the daylight. Things that should only live in nightmares. We kill them.”
As Jamie tried to process that information, Tyler stirred, opening his eyes. KZ knelt down next to him, jostling her axe with her foot by accident. It tumbled to the floor with a thud, and Jamie looked at it, eyes wide.
“What - what’s going on?” Tyler asked, his voice raspy and low.
“You got hurt, but we got you fixed up, don’t worry,” she replied. Blue knelt down and picked Tyler up, trying to be as gentle as he could.
“We should go, Blue.” KZ said. He nodded.
“Thank you, Jamie. If you see - if you see my family tell them I’m okay?” he asked. She nodded, and they left, shutting the door behind them. The two of them got Tyler home without incident, and neither of them spoke about where they had been. It was Blue’s story, if he chose to tell it, and if he didn’t, well, that was his business.
“Dinner’s ready! Get your asses down here before it’s all gone!” Jesus yelled. His voice carried, and within moments the lobby was filled with kids and teenagers. Their loud laughter and chatter made it seem like there were more of them than there actually were. A few rickety tables and crates were scattered around the middle of the room, and Jesus had the big pots of food set up on the sturdiest looking one. Everyone had their own bowl, and they approached the table in a scraggly line, taking what he dished out and finding a place to sit. Those at the tail end of the line ended up cross-legged on the dusty tiled floor. One older girl, tall and striking with skin so dark it was almost black, closely cropped hair dyed silver, was at the back of the line, but when she had been served her food another kid left his seat to let her take his place. She gave him a smile and settled in, chowing down with the others.
As the kids who’d gotten their food first finished up with their meals, they began to stop by the dark girl on their way out. Each one slipped money into her hands as she smiled, exchanged a few words with them, and pocketed the cash. It was the rule - KZ trusted the kids to give her a cut of their earnings, and in return they trusted her to use them to buy things that they all needed - food, soap, supplies for the hunting team. KZ was the de facto leader of this ragtag group of teenagers with nowhere else to go, and they had created a pretty good place for themselves.
The abandoned five story building had once been a working hospital, but it had been at least a decade since anyone had been inside - the medical supplies and beds were long gone, and all that was left to remind the inhabitants of the building’s history was the layout - long hallways with rooms branching off on each side. The bottom floor was used as a common area, with the kitchen and dining areas more or less clearly defined. The upper floors were used as bedrooms - each kid picked an empty room and decorated and furnished it with whatever they could scrounge up or steal. Currently just the second and third floors were occupied, since no one really wanted to be alone or try and tackle the task of clearing out debris from the top two floors to make them livable. They had plenty of room.
“I’m not doing all the dishes myself; everyone needs to clean their own bowl!” Jesus yelled as he finally finished serving everyone and sat down to eat some dinner. His dark hair flopped over his eyes as he ate, pausing between bites to talk to a pig-tailed girl sitting across from him. It was dark out by now; the boarded over windows didn’t let in much light through the slats but a couple dozen candles were lit and set up around the room. Flickering shadows and half-illuminated faces would maybe create a spooky atmosphere, but for KZ and her family, they were homey and familiar. As the room began to slowly clear out, a tall buff Korean kid with bright blue hair and tattoos winding around his upper arms came to sit next to KZ.
“Hey, Blue. You eat already?” KZ asked him. He nodded.
“We’re ready, it’s dark. Finish your food so we can go.”
“You got Terry and Ray?”
“They’re getting their weapons. We’re waiting on you and Jesus,” Blue said.
“I’ll meet you by the back alley in five.” KZ replied. Blue headed off and KZ finished her meal, rinsing out her dish and patting Jesus’ shoulder on the way out.
“I know, I know, lemme just finish my noodles,” he said, words coming out garbled in his half-full mouth. KZ walked up the stairs to the second floor, passing open doors leading into messy bedrooms until she reached her own. She had a bed sheet hung in front of the small grimy window as a curtain, and old discarded Christmas lights strung around the walls to provide some light. Her bed was a mattress on the floor, and she’d stitched odds and ends of whatever fabric she could find to make a carpet or rug of sorts. A couple of wooden crates had clothing piled in, on top of, and around them, and other books, papers, personal items, and trinkets were lying around here and there. It was a colorful, cozy mess, and KZ was pretty happy with it. It had been a very long time since she had this many possessions, and she wanted to relish that fact. Right now, however, she had other things to think about. She rummaged around until she found her knife, slipping it into her boot. Then she pulled out her axe - it had been a gift from Blue, and she’d taken excellent care of it- running your finger gently across the blade would slice through your skin like paper - and headed back down to the lobby. Jesus was running across the hall towards her, carrying a sword bigger than his body.
“Hey! Stop running, you’re going to chop your own head off!” KZ warned. He skidded to a stop and made a face, but the excitement in his eyes did not dampen.
“Where’s everyone else?” he asked.
“Back alley. Come on,” she said, leading the way. They headed out the back entrance, which was a boarded up doorway hidden in an alleyway. A few of the boards were attached together and rested on disguised hinges to act as a sort of makeshift door that didn’t look like one from the outside. It was important that the kids maintained the look of the building - abandoned and left to go to ruin - even if it wasn’t quite true. Most of the local residents knew that they lived there, but outsiders didn’t, and that was what mattered. The locals wouldn’t cause any trouble for KZ or her family because they knew that without their protection, the neighborhood would be overrun.
“Took you long enough.” Ray said as KZ and Jesus joined the rest of the group, shutting the door carefully behind them. Ray was a little pudgy, with glasses and long dark hair. She was part Native American, and part African American. She wasn’t much of a fighter, but she had a sharp mind that was great for tactics and strategy, enhanced by the military history books she loved to read. Tyler, a sandy haired thirteen year old, was the fifth member of their hunting party. He was quiet and contemplative, always taking the time to think things over before making a decision to act. He was around the same age as Jesus, but the two were so different it was like night and day.
“Come on, let’s go kick some ass!” Jesus yelled, and Ray clamped a hand over his mouth.
“What are you, an idiot? You want to attract everything for miles to this alley?” she said.
“Well, yeah. How can we kill them unless we get them to come find us?”
“Wait until we’re farther away from home, snotbrain.”
“Quiet. This way,” Blue said, heading down into the dark streets. The others silently followed, weapons at the ready. The neighborhood was mostly empty; anyone with any measure of sanity at all wouldn’t be caught dead outside of their homes once dark fell. Still, the first few shadowy figures that the group saw turned out to be a homeless man and a prostitute.
“Come on, where are they?” Jesus complained. Blue shook his head at the younger boy, but KZ could see the tension in his shoulders and knew that he too was itching for a fight. Soon enough, they ran into one. Tyler heard it first; a low keening that was certainly not human. They tracked it to a car park, and as Ray settled in on the balcony where she could get a good shot, adjusting her crossbow. Blue, Jesus, KZ and Tyler followed it until they were sure they had it cornered, and then Blue nodded at Jesus, who grinned and started yelling as loud as he could, running at the dark shadow with his spear in front of him, all fierce and reckless abandon. Tyler hung back, calling out orders as he anticipated the thing’s next move, and Ray fired a few strategically aimed arrows, missing her target both times. KZ joined the fight, swinging her axe, but it was Blue who was in control of the fight from the very moment he stepped in. Armed with only two short knives, he was a force to be reckoned with, a blur of motion as he took down the thing barely breaking a sweat. When they were done, KZ pushed her sweaty hair back and stood for a minute, catching her breath. Jesus whooped a couple of times - for him this was like some kind of game, and he enjoyed the rush. Blue shared that feeling, KZ knew this. He’d confessed to her once that he enjoyed hurting things, killing things, destroying them completely - and he wondered if that made him a bad person.
“That was a pretty big one,” Tyler said calmly, staring down at the corpse before them. It smelled, and KZ wiped the tip of her boot against the concrete to get the blood off.
“Yeah, and we killed it! We all got off without a scratch, too, we’re badass!” Jesus exclaimed. Ray rolled her eyes and retrieved her arrows. Blue tucked his knives away and started walking out.
“The night’s still young,” he said, and KZ snorted, eliciting a small smile from her friend. She jogged a little to catch up with him, and put her arm around his waist, squeezing him in for a quick side-hug.
“Get a room!” Ray said, and Jesus cackled. KZ chose to ignore them, and Blue ruffled her hair. She made a face at him. They walked down back to the street, still a little amped up from the fight as they strolled through the empty neighborhood.
“Guys, move!” Jesus suddenly yelled. KZ whirled around. Jesus sounded scared, and he never sounded scared, not even when there was something that he should be afraid of. There wasn’t just one of the dark shadows approaching, there were at least three, and they were already on them when KZ finally reacted, bending down to grab her knife from her boot and hurl it at the closest thing. It howled and fell back - Blue and Tyler were already tackling the second, and Ray was jabbing arrows into the third, helped by Jesus’ wild moves. KZ was not aware of time passing - it seemed to slow down, and she was completely consumed in her fight for survival. It was just her and the thing; she couldn’t spare any attention to the others except to hope that they were doing okay as she focused on incapacitating the creature in some way. She ended up swinging her axe around at just the right angle to chop its head clear off, and when she collapsed to her knees to take a breath, Blue was there, his big hands gently resting on her shoulders.
“You okay?” he asked, and she nodded, getting back on her feet a little shakily.
“KZ? I think - I think Tyler’s injured.” Ray said. The second creature was dead, but the third was missing. Jesus joined KZ and Blue as they rushed to Tyler, who was lying on the ground in a growing pool of blood, his head propped up in Ray’s lap. His eyes were half-shut, but he was still breathing.
“Where’s he hurt?” Blue demanded. KZ took his hand, and squeezed. Tyler didn’t squeeze back.
“I think it’s his head, he was hit really hard, and he’s also bleeding from his leg. It got him bad; I think he needs a doctor.”
KZ met Blue’s eyes, and he shook his head.
“I can’t, you know I can’t, I haven’t spoken to any of them in years, I can’t just go back like nothing happened and start asking for favors…” he started.
“Blue, its Tyler. It’s one of us. We need to get him help, now.” KZ said, and Blue finally nodded. He picked up Tyler’s limp body and Jesus grabbed the extra weapons.
“Ray, Jesus, go back home. Don’t tell anyone what happened, we don’t need the kids worrying. We’ll be back in a few hours. If you don’t hear from either of us by morning, tell Zig he’s in charge.”
“Zig? Are you crazy?” Jesus exclaimed.
“Shut up, let’s go.” Ray said, taking his arm and pulling him away. Within moments the two of them had disappeared into the darkness. Blue and KZ headed off in the other direction, KZ looking around to make sure that nothing lurked in the shadows as Blue focused on getting Tyler to someone who could help him before he bled out. Blue was fast, but he was trying not to shake Tyler around too much, and KZ was just focused on keeping an eye out for things. Blue stopped at an apartment building at the very edge of the neighborhood, right where the buildings started to become a little less shabby and the streetlights actually worked more times than not.
“This is it?” KZ asked. He nodded, and hit the intercom, leaning on it so that it buzzed incessantly. Tyler was starting to look worse, and KZ tried very hard not to bounce impatiently on the balls of her feet.
“Who is it? I was sleeping!” a female voice came out of the little box, garbled but audible.
“It’s Jae! I need your help, my friend’s hurt really bad.”
“Who?”
“Please, just let us in!” KZ said, and a few moments later the door clicked open. She yanked it open to let Blue through, Trey’s limp legs jostling against the door frame.
“Which floor?”
“Follow me.”
They moved quickly up the flights of stairs until they reached the correct apartment, where the door was already open. A short, chubby young woman with glasses wearing a pink robe was looking out into the hallway, curious and annoyed expressions battling for dominance on her round face.
“Jae? What - who - ?”
“We need you, he’s hurt,” Blue said, and she moved aside as he set Tyler down on the carpet, grabbing a cushion off the sofa to rest his head on. KZ nodded at the woman and walked inside to join them.
“You look so different. Your hair - and you’re bigger - do your parents - “
“Please,” Blue said, and she nodded, tying her hair up in a messy bun and pushing her sleeves up. KZ went into the kitchen and got a big bowl full of water, clean cloths, and a knife. Blue sat down for a few moments and then stood back up, restless. KZ knelt down next to where Blue’s friend was working on Tyler and helped in any way she could. Time slowed down, or speeded up - the same way it did during a fight, and when the woman finally leaned back and said she was done, KZ’s knees ached from the strain as she stood up. She looked around. The place looked nice, clearly just this one woman lived here, as it was very small, but she seemed to have all of the amenities. She obviously wasn’t rich, but she wasn’t poor either; definitely better off than KZ’s uncle had been.
“Is he gonna be okay?” Blue asked.
“I think so. He lost a lot of blood, but the wound wasn’t that deep, I stitched him up. He just needs to drink a lot of fluid and rest. He should wake up shortly, as soon as he does someone needs to make sure that they don’t let him sleep too long - you need to wake him every few hours in case he has a concussion.”
“Thank you,” KZ said sincerely. The woman did not pay any attention to her at all.
“What the hell is going on, Blue? Last I heard you had a huge fight with your parents and you ran away, now you come back all - big, and tattooed, and blue-haired, with some girl and a bleeding kid. What kind of things are you into now?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Thanks for helping us. We should go.”
“You’re not moving him until he wakes up. So talk. You owe me that at least. Who are these people?”
“This is my … friend KZ, and this is Tyler. KZ, this is my cousin Jamie. She’s studying to be a surgeon.”
“Nice to meet you.” KZ said politely, sitting down on an ottoman. She figured this was something she should stay out of. Though she had known Blue for years, he never talked much about his family. None of the kids did. KZ thought this was Blue’s business, not hers, and she would have left him alone with his cousin if Tyler hadn’t been there, still sleeping on the now blood-stained carpet. Jamie’s pink robe was now covered with splotches of rust brown, but she wasn’t really paying attention to that.
“What happened, Jae? Your parents won’t talk about it with anyone, they - they pretend like you don’t exist.”
Blue didn’t say anything, but KZ saw a quick expression flash over his face and her stomach twisted a little in sympathy for his pain. She fidgeted with her boots, picking off bits of dirt and letting them fall to the floor.
“It doesn’t matter, okay? It doesn’t matter. They don’t want me around. I’m fine where I am. Tonight was an accident.”
“What were you doing? The injuries on this boy are - “
“You don’t know? You live here and you don’t know?” Blue interrupted.
“What?”
“Why don’t you go out after dark?”
“Because it’s not safe, there could be muggers or rapists or - “
“There’s nobody out after dark. Nobody. Just us. Keeping this neighborhood safe for people like you. There are things roaming the streets at night, things that don’t come out in the daylight. Things that should only live in nightmares. We kill them.”
As Jamie tried to process that information, Tyler stirred, opening his eyes. KZ knelt down next to him, jostling her axe with her foot by accident. It tumbled to the floor with a thud, and Jamie looked at it, eyes wide.
“What - what’s going on?” Tyler asked, his voice raspy and low.
“You got hurt, but we got you fixed up, don’t worry,” she replied. Blue knelt down and picked Tyler up, trying to be as gentle as he could.
“We should go, Blue.” KZ said. He nodded.
“Thank you, Jamie. If you see - if you see my family tell them I’m okay?” he asked. She nodded, and they left, shutting the door behind them. The two of them got Tyler home without incident, and neither of them spoke about where they had been. It was Blue’s story, if he chose to tell it, and if he didn’t, well, that was his business.