Chapter 1: On the Run
"Get back here!" the little thief heard from close behind him, along with the heavy footsteps of leather boots hitting the puddles of who knows what on the crumbling street. He sprints down the trash filled street lined with broken buildings and clothing lines, bumping into people all around him, even knocking some down earning himself a few curses and threats.
"Watch it!" one said.
"Get the hell outta the way!" said another.
"You little shit!" another said.
When the child looked behind him his pursuer was so close he could practically smell his rotten breath. Thinking quickly, he reached behind him and pulled down a stack of barrels causing the angry man to have to slow down in order not to trip over the sudden obstacle.
"Damnit!" the man cursed while trying get around them.
Pumping his legs even harder, the boy tries to lose him in a crowd of people at the flea market. He weaves his small body through all the gross smelling bodies, desperately trying to find somewhere to hide. He spots a stand selling rotten, moldy apples and slides under it, unseen. He holds his breath as he spots the man's boots quickly pass the stand.
The boy relaxes slightly and leans back on his hands, gulping for air. His eyes widen feels something rough and moist under his fingers. When he looks down, he is met with the body of a decaying rat being devoured by ants.
The ants start crawling up and all over the boy's arm, causing a stingy and tingly feeling. In a frenzy to get the bugs off of him, he panics and jumps up while swatting at his arm, hitting his head on the bottom of the stand and knocking it over.
He rubs his head in pain and looks up to be met with the sneering face of the merchant.
"Tryin to steal mah apples aye, i oughta-" He reached for him, but before he could grab him, the boy slipped from under his grasp and started running away as fast as he could.
"There you are" he hears the old man's voice say from close by. He thought that he lost him. Pushing past the people, he runs back into the main road, dodging all the carts and wagons going by. The wind hitting him in the face from how fast he was going made his eyes water, causing his vision to become blurry. His chest starts to ache as his lungs struggle to keep up with his stressed breathing, and his throat burns from the intake of all the cold air, but he keeps running because he knows the consequences if he gets caught.
He looks behind him to see that the man was cut off by a wagon that stopped in front of him. The boy took that as his chance to duck into an alley and hide behind some old boxes. His breathing is heavy and noisy as he sits down with his back against the cold brick wall, resting while he can. He looks back in the direction of the street just in time to see the old man run past the alley.
He waits a few moments, resting his head against the wall, trying to slow his breathes. He runs a hand through his hair and wipe the tears from his eyes with the backs of his hands. His stomach starts growling, startling him because of the loud noise it made in the quiet alley. He gasps and clutches his stomach as it feels like it's eating itself. The boy hunches over in pain, waiting for the familiar hunger pang to subside.
When the pain in his stomach ceases, he hurriedly pulls out the piece of stale, half molded bread he snatched from the old man's cart. He sniffs the bread and drools as his nose takes in the moldy smell of his prize.
Just as he was about to take a bite, he was interrupted by a voice coming from deeper in the ally.
"Well, well, well, look what we got here,"the boy hears a child say, sneer evident in their voice.
He looked up to see where the voice was coming from and immediately shoved his bread back into its hiding place and got onto his feet upon seeing the source.
The child was a boy known around the Isle, Arnold, and his gang. His dad, Amos Slade, is a hunter and rival of Gaston, explaining his terrible and uncaring attitude. His gang go around terrorizing other kids on the Isle, there is a rumor going around that he even killed a kid once.
The boy knows if he runs that he won't be able to get away, and that he might run into that old man again.
"It looks like you're in our territory," he said with a smirk, while cracking his knuckles. To other children on the Isle, he was slightly intimidating. He had really short black hair, was really tall, and he had a scar going down the left side of his face. His goons looked scary too, one being really muscular for a child his age, but short and one being fat and tall.
The boy bared his teeth and let an animalistic growl rise from his chest as he glared at the three boys in front of him, shocking them. He worked too hard to get the bread to have it taken away from him by some punks.
Arnold and his gang still looked taken aback by the sound that came from the scrawny boy in front of them. They definitely weren't expecting something like, they were expecting more of a begging for mercy type situation. Arnold quickly snapped out of it and barked out a laugh.
"Who do ya think ya lookin at that like, punk?" he sneered while stalking closer to the boy, who emitted another growl and balled up his fist. Arnold looked down at the bread that was peaking out of his shorts and smirked.
"Get him."
With that they all jumped him. The boy punched the big guy right in the nose causing blood to gush out of it, earning himself a punch in the face by Arnold, that sent him to the ground. Arnold tried to pin him down but the boy kicked him in his jewels, making Arnold let out a girly squeal and role around on the ground in pain. The boy quickly got up and started running in the direction of the street, but was cut off by a force hitting him in his side, making it feel like everything on that side of his body was broken. Everything on his left side felt worse when he fell to the ground. He attempted to get up, but got shot down by quick punch to the jaw. Before he could react, two more blows were delivered to his cheek and eye.
The boy moans in pain, knowing that the muscular one punched him.
"You son of a bitch, how dare you lay a hand on me" he hears Arnold yell. "This'll teach you, Adam hold em" Arnold said with a smirk. The boy felt myself being handed off to someone and tried to get away but got punched again. His arms were put behind his back and held onto, leaving his frontside exposed. The muscled guy and Arnold got in front of his beaten form. The boy thrashed more, snapping his teeth kicking his legs. He knew what was about to come.
"Take whatever he has on em" Arnold said, and helped the guy look for anything valuable the boy might have. They take his bread and look upset when they don't find anything else.
"Ya know if you apologize and get on your knees and beg for mercy I'll go easy on you." Arnold mocks and starts laughing.
The boy gathered all his saliva into his mouth, along with some snot, spitting into Arnold's sneering face.
The boy woke up to see a dirty ceiling and not the dirty sky. He frantically tries to sit up and see where he is, but is met with a wave of pain causing him to gasp and moan. His head felt like it was being split open and it felt like every bone in his body was broken.
"I wouldn't move if I were you" he tenses up at the voice beside him and jumps up, forgetting the pain he was in. A guy with long hair was sitting in a chair beside him while playing with a lamp. He had a red hat on with a vest and a smug look on his face.
The boy backed further onto the couch he was sitting up on, in an attempt to get as far away from the older boy as possible. He glowered at him as he brought his knees to his chest, making the older boy chuckle.The older boy placed the lamp down on a desk and sat up in his chair.
"No need for all of that, I'm not gonna hurt you" he said as he reached for the boys shoulder, only to be met halfway with a bitten finger.
"Ow- what the hell?! Did you- did you bite me?" the teen exclaimed in shock and anger as he clutched his injured finger to his chest. At this the smaller boy flinched and attempted to get further away from the teenager, he was expecting the older boy to lunge at him at any moment.
"That isn't a nice way to say 'thank you'." he shook his hand with the hurt finger and wiped the blood that started oozing from it onto his vest.
. The boy tried his best to hide his nervousness by masking it with a glare. He couldn't let the older guy see he was scared.
The older boy, however, saw that he was trying to scare him away and be as intimidating as possible, but it wasn't working in his favour. The teen sighed and put his hand down, leaning back in his chair.
He took a good look at the kid in front of him. His face was all bruised up and bloody and his whole body was tensed up and was extremely skinny. The child's face was contorted into a mean look, but his eyes were scared and untrusting. This made the teen sigh again.
"Look kid, I can tell you've been through a lot, so I got a deal that you might want to hear me out on." The teenager spoke in a calmer tone, not making any sudden moves. He didn't want to get bitten again.
The boy still stayed in his spot, unmoving, scowl not leaving his features. The older boy saying this seemed to rile the kid up some more.
The teen sighed in frustration at the lack of response he got and sat up again, causing the other boy to flinch at the motion and growl. The older boy was baffled by the sound that came from the child. He sounded like an actual wild animal and it slightly unsettled the older of the two. He quickly shook it off and spoke again.
"Hey, hey, I'm not going to hurt you in any way ok?" he said
He received no response from the child.
The teen reached up a hand to stroke his chin, paying no mind to how hard the boy jumped when he did so. He had to figure out a way to get the kid to listen to him.
The sound of a stomach rumbling echoed throughout the room, followed by a whimper. The older boy looked over to find the kid clutching his stomach, squeezing his eyes shut in pain. The teen smirked.
'Bingo' he thought, and idea coming to him.
He waited for the child's pain to stop so he could have his full attention. When he saw him take his arms from around his stomach and put a mean look on his face, he took that as his opportunity.
"You look pretty hungry." he said in a mocking tone, making the child make a grunting noise and narrow his eyes at the teen, as if he were saying 'no shit'. The teen chuckled and reached into his vest pocket.
"Well if you hear me out I might have something to help with that problem." he pulled half an apple out of his pocket. He looked over to the child to find his eyes fixated on the apple.
'Now I have his attention.'
The teen proceeded to reach his occupied hand to the boy, as though he were giving him the apple. The child attempted to snatch it from the teen's hand, but only grabbed air when the teen snatched it back.
"Ah, ah, ah." he teased as he brought the apple back and stuck back into his pocket. "Before you get food, you need to listen-."
The teen was cut off by the child jumping on him, making them both fall onto the ground.
〰️〰️〰️
The first chapter is finally done *wipes sweat from brow*. I have rewritten this thing FOUR TIMES, and i'm still not proud of it lol. Anyway,
Who do you think this child is?
Who helped him?
Why is he so nervous and why in the HELL does he act like a wild animal?
Keep reading to find out.
OOF!