"Hey," a gentle voice woke the boy.
"Mom?"
"Are you okay?" A girl with long brown hair and glistening blue eyes knelt by him. She smelled like the sun. "Sorry to wake you."
"Who?" The boy observed every twitch of her lips and every movement of her eyes, hyper-aware of how close she was getting, and he shifted away, clutching at his makeshift covers.
"Marcia!"
A pale teen boy stepped into the moonlight, his voice dripped with disdain as he looked the witch boy up and down. His pale skin and snow-white hair radiated a brightness that made the boy think he was seeing an angel. That is, until he noticed the teen's red-tinted eyes. From his pupils, they melded from a purplish blue to a light red circling the outer edge of his iris.
"That's a cool bruise you got there." The pale teen glanced down the alley while shifting from foot to foot. His eyebrows furrowed, and he rested his hand on a small Bowie knife strapped to his belt.
"Y-you shouldn't talk to me."
"Well, why shouldn't we?" The girl asked, firmly placing her hands on her hips, her smile never fading.
"They don't—"
"Marcia…" The pale teen pulled her into the shadows, disappearing like magic just as a light flashed down the alley.
"Oh!" A man said, "It's you! Be quiet, or better yet, go sleep somewhere else."
As quickly as he came, he left, and the two teens appeared out of the shadows.
"We should go," The pale teen said.
"So," Marcia said, ignoring her companion. "Why are you sleeping here? Where are your parents?"
The boy flinched, still not sure if he should be talking with the two. He examined the girl's face, filled with worry.
"Mom is gone." He said
The pale teen's eyes softened, and his shoulders slumped forward. "What about your old man?" he asked
The boy tilted his head, quizzically.
"You know… you're dad?"
Racking his brain, the boy searched his memory for the word, then remembered that the children sometimes called their second parent 'dad'. So he answered with, "I don't think I have one."
Marcia patted the small boy on the head and, with a smile, said, "Well then, you're just like us." She then turned to the pale teen. "Hey, Jonah, let's take him with us."
The pale teen… Jonah seemed to have a flame spark in his eye as he crouched down next to Marcia. A broad smile overtook his face, stretching from ear to ear. "Why not?" He said while picking the small boy off the ground. "What do you say? Want to come home with us?"
"N-no!" The boy pushed himself away from Jonah, but a strange feeling of warmth overwhelmed him for a second. Observing the teen, the boy found no fear or anger on the other person's face. Just a brightness, he wondered if all angels had red eyes. "They'll be mean to you." He mumbled.
"Who will?" Jonah tossed the boy in the air while saying, "No one is strong enough to bully me!"
The boy whimpered, and wind rushed past his face as he fell back into Jonah's arms. Quickly, he clutched onto the teen for dear life.
"Sorry…" Jonah clasped the back of the boy's head, pulling him in tightly. "I won't throw you again."
"Give him here," Marcia said, holding out her arms, and the boy threw himself towards her. "So what do you say? Jonah is strong enough that no one will be mean to him, and I'm pretty strong myself. Plus, we don't live in Soa Pel, so no one will be able to hurt you."
The boy shook his head side to side. "B-but Smith's here. Will he be okay without me? They'll be mean to him."
The two looked at each other with the small boy between them. He leaned onto Marcia's chest, basking in the warmth of another person as long as it lasted, and Marcia, in return, enveloped him in her arms.
"I'm sure it'll be fine if Smith visits us, as long as he wants to, that is," Marcia reassured the boy.
"But who is mean?" Jonah asked.
The question startled the boy, and the familiar feeling of something boiling in his stomach transformed his black eyes to red ones, causing Jonah to flinch.
"You're a creature?" The pale teen exclaimed.
Panicked, the boy pushed away from Marcia, trying to get down before they hate him. "No!" He covered his eyes, curling into a little ball in the girl's arms.
"It's okay, kid. We like creatures."
Marcia stroked his hair, and he tentatively raised his head. The moonlight made even the red in the pale teen's eyes seem pale somehow.
"I'm a creature…" The girl started, "Well, kind of. My mom was human, and I never met my dad, but apparently, he was a creature. Just like you."
"Like me?" the boy looked at Marcia. "The same?" He asked, then he turned to Jonah and tilted his head.
"Well, I'm not a creature, but many people think I am. So we are kind of the same, kid."
"That's sort of rude, calling him kid, don't you think, Jonah?"
"Oh, well… what's your name then, ki— What's your name?"
"N-name?"
The two looked at each other again, mouthing something only they understood. Then Marcia spoke, "Yeah, like what do people call you? For example, my name's Marcia, and that's Jonah.
"Well," the boy looked down, not really wanting them to call him what the villagers called him. "I'm—I'm, witch boy."
Marcia frowned. "That's not a name."
The boy bit his lower lip, then said, "Sorry."
"No need to be sorry," Marcia said.
Jonah began pacing back and forth while rubbing his chin. Then suddenly he shot his arm into the air and declared, "I got it. We'll call you Gruff because it sounds like tough."
The boy's heart drummed against his ribcage as he looked up at Jonah. He then puffed out his chest, like Smith did when he was scaring off the village kids, causing the teenagers to burst out laughing.
Wiping a tear from his face, Jonah said, "I like you, Gruff. I think we'll get along just fine. So what do you say? Now that you know we are strong, do you want to come with us?"
Something about the two made the boy feel as though it might be okay to hope for more. Maybe he could have a family again, and just maybe he could have a place to call home once more.
"I can go with you?"
"Of course," Marcia said.
The boy felt a pool of tears forming in his eyes, and he looked down as the world spun beneath him. He thought of the hut that he lived in with his mother and how he might never get to see it again. Then he thought of the villagers, and he reached to touch where the rock had hit him.
"So what do you say? Want to come with us?"
Looking at the pale teen, the boy nodded his head ever so slightly, and in an instant, Jonah's smile grew even bigger. He snatched the boy from Marcia and said, "I've always wanted a little brother."