"A life for a life, sounds fair, does it not?" He whacked the back of a gun on her jaw.
The force was strong enough to make her lose footing and topple onto the cold hard ground. Her right shoulder cracked and her head banged against the doorframe. A loud siren echoed through her ears as blood flooded past her eyes, nose and mouth.
In that moment, all she could think of was how it all started.
Step.
Step.
Step.
A little boy walked along the side of a road, wobbling ever so slightly in pursuit of placing his next step precisely in front of the previous. The afternoon sun gently caressed his curly raven head, lost in the melody of the cicadas chirping some summer song. The contents of his backpack shuffled along with his motions, contributing their weight to the wobble.
A sleek black car zoomed past the girl walking behind him and slowed down next to the boy. The rear door flung open and a hand swooped the backpack off the boy's shoulders.
"Hey, you! Give it back to me! Tsk!"
The boy shouted in protest and in an attempt to chase his bag, he found himself within easy range of the thieving hand and was grabbed by his collar.
"You boy, are coming with me!" A man growled from inside the car.
"Arrrgh!! No, you canno—" The boy began to shout but was instantly cut off by a distant ear piercing scream.
"AAAAAAAAAA KIDNAPPING!! THIS IS A KIDNAPPING!! COME QUICK!!"
Though, before the abductor and the abductee could attempt to locate the source of the voice, sharp stones were hurled in the direction of the car, leaking the location.
"—Ow!"
"—Ouch!"
"—Leave me be!"
"—No!!"
"—Ow, ah, ugh—!!"
The man in the car pulled the boy inside with one smooth swoop amidst the stone attack and then poked his head out to spot their assailant.
"You! Leave him, RIGHT NOW!"
A little girl demanded, stomping towards the car with a mad frown of her thin brows and a mean scowl of her pouty lips. She charged her lungs, gasping to breathe in for another powerful shout, when the man lunged forward and grabbed the girl by her waist, threw her small frame over his shoulder and pressed a hand over her mouth.
The little girl put up a proper fight with flailing limbs, hitting the man on his chest and back whilst simultaneously attempting to bite the hand off her mouth. But her ardent attempts met to a dark failure as she too was thrown inside the car.
THUMP.
The car door was pulled shut and the mean man plopped himself on the seat in front of the two children. They were inside a limousine and the man pressed a switch to light up the square interior. He exhaled a harsh breath, set his back straight and looked the kids in the eye.
The boy sat with his back resting against the seat and hands crossed over his chest. The subtle puff of his cheek indicated vibrant annoyance.
"Stop eyeing him!" The girl's words snapped the man's attention on to her, "I won't let you hurt him!" She said as she extended her hand to place it in front of the boy, as if protecting her favourite farm chicken from becoming dinner soup.
"Are you his friend?" The man asked with a curious brow raised as he eyed the two children, simultaneously.
"No, she—"
"Yes, I am!"
The boy began but the girl cut through his words with a sharp look directed at the boy. The boy raised his brows in question. The girl bunched her brows as if to signal him out of his denseness. The boy rolled his eyes in response. The girl pursed her lips and gave him a little pat on his chest.
"Have you decided?" The man intervened, eyes crinkling at their corners but face still as grim and bushy as the moment he attacked them.
"You should leave us, right now." The girl demanded again, strict with her words. Her big brown eyes stared directly into the big man's as she threatened, "Or I shall make a complaint to the Principal!"
The little boy let out a surprised scoff whilst the man dragged his lips into a lopsided frown, "Oh, will you now?" The man made a rhetoric remark.
"I shall," the girl nodded with her chin jutted out, "He holds me in very high regard."
She seemed so proud of herself in that moment that the big man had to slump his shoulders and ease his lips to let the smile out. "What is your name, girl?" He asked, though, before his eyes could fall on the plastic badge attached to her sweater vest, she pressed a hand over it.
"It's Na—tsume," she replied, upper lip pursed into her lower and brows strained ever so slightly to giveaway the her successful expression.
"Okay, NaTsUmE," the man enunciated oddly, "Have you no fear? You are trapped with strangers, moving in a car, are you not afraid?" He asked.
The girl scrunched her brows and tsk-ed, evidently looking down on the big man in front. "Ryker here," she patted her hand on his crossed arms, "is my classmate. So, it is you—"
"Am I?" Ryker interrupted, clearly surprised enough to physically lean into the conversation.
"Yes, you are. I am your Class Rep," the girl pushed him back into the seat and continued with a sharp look directed at the man, "So, YOU," she almost took off her hand from the badge but realised midway and used the other to point agressively, "Are trapped between two strangers and hence should feel afraid!!"
The man coughed out a laugh before placing a hand over his chest, "Oh I am proper terrified. How do you do it?" He he all but sang like some theater kid.
"I am always brave because I have father by my side," the girl stated, proudly.
"Oh, like...God?"
"Pffft, no, I mean my papa, the guardian angel," she whispered the latter half as if reciting a conspiracy.
"Well, your papa's testimony will be of no legal help to us," the young boy deadpanned.
"Ryker!" The big man snapped.
"What?" The boy shrugged his shoulders, "Someone's gotta tell her."
"Oh, it is alright, I know papa has other means to bring justice. Don't worry about it, Ryker," the girl brushed a hand in the boy's face, dismissing his statement. "And honestly, why are you even kidnapping him?" the girl asked as she stood up and slipped onto the seat beside the man, "He doesn't even look rich."
The duo leaned back and crossed their arms against their chests to judge the slouching boy in front. His shabby black hair, wrinkly untucked shirt and loosened neck tie grounded the girl's observations to fact.
"He doesn't," the man admitted.
"Not at all! I tell you, Ryker is just the commonest guy in our class. He always minds his own business," her tone switched to a whisper and she covered her mouth with her free hand as she continued, "because honestly, I think they don't talk to him because he's so dirty. You know, I am also the Discipline Incharge and he has been wearing the same stained shirt for like, three days now! Sometimes when he sleeps, he even drools all over the desk. Maybe that's why he has no deskmates, tsk tsk tsk."
The girl shook her head in disappointment and the man could only gape, bushy brows raised in genuine surprise.
"Oh please, what stain? I don't have a stain! And everyone drools, it is quite normal, so stop having these anime boy expectations—"
"Here!" The girl pointed a finger at the boy's collar, "It's a big yellow stain!"
"How did I miss it?" The man all but whispered as he tried to get a better look at the boy's collar, under the light. Though before he could get closer, the boy swatted his face away.
"No shame, of course, look," the girl jostled her left foot out of her shoe and brandished a torn sock with her toenail poking out, "We are both poor. So, all I am saying is that you let the poor boy and me go. You will have no use for us!"
"Certainly, what a poor boy indeed," the man drawled.
"And you Sir—" she looked at him, expectantly.
The sharp glint of her doe eyes under the fluorescent light somehow obliged the man to answer. "Antonio," he supplied, promptly.
"Yes, good sir Antonio, you look like a well dressed individual," she stated as her frame leaned back to scrutinize him from his slick back hair to the shine of his black shoes, "You should stop doing all this bad stuff and get a job instead."
"Yes Antonio, get a job," the boy scoffed with a dry laugh.
"Don't laugh at him, Ryker!" The girl chastised, "You know, Mister, Sir Antonio, there comes a day in everyone's life when they must con-confer-conf, face, they must face the harsh reality and pull up their socks and decide to be a big man and get a job! You would...do a great job at polishing shoes! You're a natural at it! I can see my face in its shine!"
The girl grinned at Antonio's shoes and spotted the reflection of her white teeth greeting back.
"I think that's a brilliant idea," Ryker agreed with a nod.
"So, leave us be and get a job."
Antonio sniffled over his thick moustache. His wide forehead shrank to a ghastly frown and the wrinkles around his mouth drooped as he said, "Thirty years out of school and I am still getting schooled, tsk. I will leave you kids alone, driver—"
"Good Sir! If you could leave us somewhere around Bruno Square, would that be okay?" The girl butted in, sheepishly.
Antonio's lips broke into a lopsided smile, "Is that where you live...?"
"What! No! No, right?" She looked at Ryker, "Not at all! That is just, uh, where our Principal lives! Around, there, I won't rat you out, of course, if you promise to be good. I just have to thank him for the wonderful speech this morning. It was really, really, really inspiring." She clapped her hands and pursed her lips in order to mark the end of her rant.
With her hand finally off her badge, the white plastic instantly caught the fluorescent light and attracted the onlookers' sight to her identity.
The name tag read, "Nadia Paisley," in bold letters.
"Okay then, Bruno Street it is, Natsume," Antonio nodded and patted a hand over her head, "But know that the streets are always littered with danger. I might have turned over a new leaf quite easily but others won't be like me. So, promise me to never throw stones at strange cars no matter how suspicious they look, okay? Just scream bloody murder and run for your life."
"But what if they're just a nice person waiting for a chance to be taught well? I cannot turn my back unless I have given them my best," Nadia replied.
"Oh I think I got chills, Oh heaven!" Ryker rubbed his palms over his arms and said through gritted teeth, "Oh that was so cringe, never do that again!!"
"That's called being nobel!" Nadia snapped, soft brows arching in exasperation.
"No, that's called being a fool!" Ryker flicked her forehead, "A nimble witted fool!"
"Ouch!" Nadia sniffled, eyes quivering with sheer will to not express the obvious pain. Her hands instantly flew to her forehead. "A thank you would have sufficed!" She snapped, again.
"If we started thanking all the fools then the generations wouldn't continue long enough to have you and me."
"You are ungrateful and mean!" Nadia shoved an accusatory finger in Ryker's face, "I just saved your life!"
"That's what YOU think," Ryker scoffed. His grey eyes rolled instinctively upon sighting her quivering lips.
"Well I am sorry I couldn't look away from a broad daylight kidnapping!" Nadia scoffed and turned her face away from his direction, hands folded against her chest.
"Bruno Square is here!" Antonio coughed to notify his presence.
"Second thoughts, Mister Sir Antonio, keep him, why don't you? I bet his organs are worth big bucks!" She scoffed in Ryker's face as Antonio opened the door and stepped outside. His hand hovered above Nadia's head as she jumped out of the car.
"Why, no, Antonio, I think a brave girl's liver would have way thicker blood than a measly poor boy like me," Ryker scoffed as he too jumped out of the car with Antonio's hand hovering above his head.
Though, something about Ryker's retort stilled Nadia on the cobbled foothpath she had jumped on. The afternoon sun was breathing its last firey hues as the blue of the sky charged to engulf it as a whole.
"What did you eat at lunch, Ryker? Did you have lunch? I don't think I have ever seen you have lunch. You always disappear around that time!" Nadia's eyes widened in horror as she grabbed the boy his arm and flailed it on a whim, "Oh you're as lanky as a stick! Come with me, I have some kebab rolls at home. You shouldn't starve yourself, Ryker— oh, bye bye Mister Sir Antonio! I hope you succeed! — and you come with me, eat rolls with me. All that talking has me starving!"
The exasperated boy let himself be led by his sleeve, the back of her swaying ponytail hypnotising him into silence. Her dark hair was frizzy and uncut; odd lengths of hair strands rested over her small shoulders. Her sweater vest remained untucked and covered more than half of the grey school skirt, avoiding any unsupervised movement. Her socks were pulled up to her knees and the shoes, though clean and tidy, were fraying from behind.
It was obvious enough as to why he had remained unaware of her existence. Nadia Paisley seemed bleak upon a glance, easily missed in the midst of the crowd, blending in with the orange bricked walls of Bruno Square.
"Oh wait!" She suddenly stopped and turned to face him. "I forgot to ask if you even like Kebabs!? Are you a vegetarian? Or those extremists...
Her face was small enough to be hidden in the rush of her hair, yet, her brown eyes caught the dying sun in reincarnated embers. When she talked, all of her face would move in order to support her words, expressions as animated as if lifted off some pixar movie.
"Are you even listening right now?!"
Another jolt on his sleeve reeled Ryker back into the bustling Bruno Square.
"I am, I do, I don't mind anything as long as it tastes edible, I guess." He shrugged, then, he couldn't help the next words escaping his lips, "But why are you being so kind? We're literally not friends."
"Oh then we shall be, only if you want to, of course, no forcing," Nadia pursed her lips, "I am just looking out for a classmate. I would do it for anyone, honestly," she confessed sheepishly.
Across the street, peddlers and the hawkers were making last of their deals as they argued with their respective customers over the quality of their goods and the prices they were being offered. The vegetable vendors, on the adjacent, seemed to have taken a lesson from the unsightly quarrel and decided to sell their produce at considerable discounts. Opposite to them, local kids hoarded Mr. Henry's street shop for ice cream bars and Pokemon cards, relishing the end of yet another school day. Near the electric pole, two men bickered over where to stick posters for the summer festival, one advising Mr. Henry's shop to be better and the other arguing that St. Bruno's statue to be more eye-catching.
Certainly, it would have been, for in the centre of the square was St. Bruno's gigantic statue. It doubled-up as a fountain which sprayed water from its open palms crossed above its head, catching the dusk in fluid sparkles of pink and orange. A sight rivalling any tourist spot in all of Alamia, if the people around it would decide to take it seriously.
Though, no one did, so St. Bruno continued to stand in concrete as a nonverbal, un-consenting observer to the shenanigans around him.
And even with so much going on in the small world around him, something about Nadia's words soiled Ryker's mood enough for him to pull his hand out of her pluck.
"You know what, I'll just eat at my home. We should head back before it is dark."
Nadia craned her head to look up at the afterglow of an afternoon well spent.
"Oh right! My mum must be waiting! Don't worry, I will bring the rolls for lunch, tomorrow. Will you be able to make it home all by yourself? You live around Chamberlain Society, right? It's downtown, do you need a bicycle? Oh don't be creeped out, I know because I fill out everyone's forms for the teacher."
"Mhm, bye. Don't do anything foolish."
He turned around, pocketed his hands inside his pant-pockets and proceeded to leave. His afternoon took so many drastic turns that he couldn't keep a tab on his emotions; which would explain why Ryker never understood the weight in his chest that made him slump his shoulders as he headed home.
St. Burno was not paid enough to witness any of it, at all.