"Wake up, Tony. Hey! Tony!"
Frustrated, a seven year old Vinnie slapped his friend, Antonio, awake. With a start, Tony sat up from the ground.
"Wha..? Ouch! Damn it Vinnie," he said groggily. He turned to glare at his friend, but took in his frightened features.
Suddenly alert, he sprang up from the ground and almost tripped over a beer bottle.
"Whoa!" Steadying himself, he turned to Vinnie. The creaky building was damp and dark, making Vincent's features sharper and more somber. His dark hair almost covered his eyes.
Needs a trim, Tony thought.
Tears gathered in his friend's eyes and he spoke. "The bad man is plannin' to kill mommy, T," he croaked. He coughed loudly, his lungs rattling, and continued. "She won't listen to me, though...I don't know what to do!" His voice wobbled and he went silent.
Scratching his head of blonde hair, Tony thought.
"Ah...well, dontcha worry bro! I'll go see what I can do okay? Just don't cry no more. I hate seein' you like this."
Vinnie brightened and bobbed his head up and down. "Yeah! Thanks, T!"
"Good. Real men don't cry ya know. So wipe yur face real good. Look tough."
He looked around the ground littered with garbage, bottles, and syringes.
Ah. Here we go.
He picked up a rag and helped Vincent wipe his face. Vinnie blew his nose loudly into the cloth as well and laughed.
"Gross!" said Tony laughingly.
Vinnie put his hand out and Tony took it. Together they left the building. It was located in a remote location in Jersey. It was the place criminals came to hide in and not be found, where the soulless came to stay. A place where there was no such thing as hope. Even Stark Street paled in comparison, which was where they were headed.
Vinnie looked over at his friend Antonio as they walked. With his golden mane, slim figure, and elegant features, he didn't look like he belonged there. His dark eyebrows and lashes gave him a more striking appearance. He looked like a boy Prince from a faraway land. Not at all like he should be dressed in dirty rags with an unwashed body and hair, grime under his nails and crevices.
Actually, strangely enough, they could pass for doppelgangers if their coloring was the same. That's what had led them to gravitate towards one another in the first place.
He recalled a conversation they'd had before.
"You know what Tony? I think we should just leave our homes and run away together. Then we'll be brothers for real!"
Tony looked at him warily and said, "Vin...I can't leave this place. If I do, they'll find me. Mabye kill me when they do. I'm sorry."
Tony had been referring to the bad Man who...did things with his body, and the other people who paid him. He used needles and made T do things he didn't want to. Vincent hated him but T wouldn't budge.
"I know! Why don't I come live with you the-" he immediately closed his mouth when he saw the look on Tony 's face.
Tony clenched his fists.
"Don't ever think about that again."
"Okay," Vinnie said quietly.
And that had been that. Tonight that Man was away like he always was on Saturday nights, so they could go out together without him knowing.
As they turned the corner onto the street that held the rundown apartment building where Vin lived, they saw smoke. Alarmed, they quickened their pace and saw that Vinnies apartment was on fire.
There was a large crowd of people outside, talking in frightened voices. A siren sounded in the distance.
They both hit the pavement at a running pace.
"Mom! Mom?!" Vincent shouted.
An older man turned to him and spoke,"Young man? You are the child who lives in 108 with his mother and her lover?"
At Vincent's nod he continued.
"I don't think I've seen either of them. Mabye you should wait until the firefighters come."
A panic overtook the child. He felt wrong about this. It was made clear when a couple of the other residents mentioned the fire starting in his floor, right where he lived.
"Vin-?", Tony asked. Suddenly, Vincent ran towards the apartment.
"VINCENT!" he shouted and went in after him.
He coughed as he ran. The soot was beginning to burn his lungs.
It hurts.
Vinnie, where are you?
He saw his friend's bown hair turn the corner and followed, turning the corner himself after a few seconds.
Down the hall he saw Vincent open a door and shout.
"MOM! MOM! Are ya here?!" He shouted.
Vincent though He heard someone call to him from the master bedroom.
His mom was hunched on the ground in the corner, her long, curly, brown hair was limp and she looked pale.
"Momma!" He ran to her side and grabbed her hands.
"C'mon! We need to go!...Momma?" He looked into her face and took in her closed eyes and the limpness of her body.
No. NO.
He began to cry. He shook her and she fell to her side, and now he could see a gaping red hole there. He blacked out for a second and a wave of nausea hit him.
"I was too late," he whispered.
He turned as he heard a sound.
Antonio was at the doorway. He was entirely covered in black soot, his features now indistinguishable.
"Vinnie...," he looked at his friend's mom then back at him. His eyes were bloodshot, but he said gently, "We have to go now, Vin. We have ta leave now b'fore the place caves in over us. We won't be able to make it out if we say here any longer, let's go."
He held out his hand.
Vincent shook his head repeatedly.
Nonononononononono!
Tony looked up at the cieling. It was about to crash into them. They'd either be burnt alive or squished to death.
If we don't die of ash in our lungs first.
"C'MON! Now!" He shouted and went into a coughing fit.
"No! Not without my mom," Vinnie shouted back.
Suddenly the roof caved in and an explotion of fire propelled Antonio out of the doorway of the room.
Glass shattered and the world turned gray.
I can't see.
Vin?...Vin?
He tried to call out but he couldn't hear his own voice over the cloud of fog. It was terrifying. The heat licked at him and it seemed he was surrounded.
Struggling, he got up, and ran towards the room again, only to be stopped.
Heavy hands pulled and pushed him out of the room.
What?
He turned around to see a firefighter reach for him. He was lifted up and carried out.
"No. Wait. My friend...my friend is..." he said weakly. The man didn't seem like he'd heard anything.
And then everything went black.
We woke up and saw people around him, putting needles in him and shouting. He realized he was in an ambulance and looked outside. The building seemed to be caving into itself as seconds went by. More firefighters and policemen arrived at the scene. The ground was wet and people were whispering amongst each other. A few glanced at him.
He started to pull away, off the gurney, and the paramedics tried to stop him, but he quickly tore off the tape and needles and jumped off the vehicle.
"Hey! Stop! Kid! You're injured, we'll take you to the hospital-hey," shouted one of them. A couple of cops and bystanders echoed his words.
It didn't matter. He ran back to the building but was stopped by an officer.
"Hold on there kid. You can't go in there!" Antonio looked at him. His name tag stated Constanza.
"Ya don't understand, my friend is in th' building here!" He tried to run in again but was stopped by the officer again.
Officer Constanza grabbed his shoulders and knelt down to better look into his eyes.
His eyes tightened and looked sorrowful.
"Listen. The other two people who were in there were found right after we took you out."
His eyes widened, "Where-," he scanned the area, "Where are they?"
"Son."
Tony felt a stone grinding in his gut as he turned back to look at the man.
"They...," he couldn't look at the kid in the eyes anymore, "They couldn't make it, boy. We were too late. I'm so sorry." He glanced to his right, his voice strained.
He turned as well and saw two bodies being placed into black bags. Sealed up. His eyes burned. He started to shake, but he didn't notice it.
"Son?"
"Son, who are you? What is your name?"
The night air was cold. He was freezing. He couldn't say for sure when he'd started running but by the time he'd realized it, he was back 'home'. He'd left as soon as he saw...those things.
Vincent.
He vomited on the lot's ground. Acid burned his throat, aggravating it even more after inhaling all the ash earlier, and made his eyes tear up. Afterwards he got up and entered the building.
There was a crunch underneath his feet and he looked down. A glass bottle had shattered. He stepped away and tripped onto another bottle, shattering it as we'll. The pieces pierced his body, already riddled with splinters and glass from the blast earlier. He started to look down at himself but he heard familiar voices coming from the Man's office.
He left and got closer to the door. The Man was in there talking to someone.
Who...?
He listened to their conversation.
A loud guffaw sounded from the Man.
"So you're telling me you finally killed that bitch?"
A slimy voice replied, "Yeah, she started to listen to that brat of hers. She thought I was no good and wanted to break up! So I shot her. I even set fire to the building to cover my tracks. I'm smart that way." He snickered.
The Man chuckled and then paused.
"So...what will you do with the kid now?" Another pause and the man who Tony now realized was Vin's mom's lover answered.
"Not sure. I was planning on using him myself but I'll gift him to ya. I was planning on asking you for a taste of one of yours. That boy with the blond hair that's almost white. He's a beauty."
T stepped away from the door.
It's his fault. It's HIS FAULT. HE KILLED VINCENT AND HIS MOM. HE DID THIS.
He suddenly felt empty. His black eyes dimmed and he reached down. He turned back around, a large shard of glass clutched tightly in his hand. Blood dripped onto the floor, leaving a thin trail.
He opened the door and both men were startled. The Man was in his flashy, skintight red suit with heavy chains and rings adorning his fingers. The man sitting across from him in the card table was thin and greasy looking. His brown hair was limp and his face riddled with craters. His arms full of holes.
"Antonio? Is that you? Why are you all black? Anton..." his eyes widened as looked more closely at the approaching child.
He was like a moving mass of red and black. The only thing that was sharp and clean was the look in his eyes. Bottomless. An avenging angel. He tried to swallow but a lump formed in his throat.
"Hey..what's with the kid," his associate asked.
The glass now glinted in the dim light. It looked sharp. And deadly.
A thin smile stretched wider and wider across Tony 's face. A red slash against the black.
Now you're going to pay, he thought as he reached them.
Horrible screams erupted from the small concrete building, echoing loudly into the night. And as quickly as they came, everything was silent.
Afterwards he walked to the back of the building to wash himself off. He grabbed the hose and sprayed himself as well as he could, washing all the grime and other things off onto the dirt.
He dropped the hose to the ground afterwards and caught his reflection on a puddle he'd created.
The soot is still in my hair.
He looked at himself more closely.
I really do look like you now don't I Vin?
A sob escaped.
Real men don't cry, Tony.
He swiped at the puddle with anger and panted. His chest was tight and he couldn't breath.
He ran back into the building and left quickly to the convenience store around the corner. The owner looked at him sideways but he left quickly after making his purchase. He slammed down a couple bills he'd taken from the Man's wallet and left.
Back at the building he opened the box's contents and went to work.
Afterwards he looked into the puddle and his newly dyed brown hair.
Vinnie.
The tightness in his chest loosened a little.
Vinnie.
He laughed, but it sounded wrong. He continued laughing into the night until the exhaustion made him pass out.
Vin.
He opened his eyes. The room was bright and it hurt his eyes. The sound of beeps, clicks, and pumps woke him up quickly. He realized he was at the hospital. And that there were people in the room with him.
He recognized the officer who'd spoken to him before.
Officer Constanza realized the kid was awake and moved closer to speak.
"Boy, you gave me a scare after running off like that kid! I found you unconscious in a lot the next day, thankfully. You were in a very bad neighborhood," he gestured behind him.
"These are a couple people that have identified you as their family member. They've been waiting for you to wake up for about three days now!" He waved them forward.
An older woman rushed over and embraced him tightly.
Ow.
She smelled of stale cigarettes and powder. She pulled away, her happy expression a little less friendly now.
He looked over at the other adults. They smiled tightly at him. He knew the expressions they wore, he'd seen them often.
The Gee, you're so pathetic and that makes our hearts bleed for you, but we won't do anything to help in the end faces.
They must be the distant relatives that Vinnie had mentioned before. He recalled what he'd said.
"Yeah. I have more family than just my my momma, y'know. But we don't really talk to 'em. We're part of the 'rotting branch in the family tree', whatever that means."
He laughed cynically to himself.
"Well?"
He looked back at the woman.
"Do you not remember me at all Vincent?" she said impatiently. "I'm your Aunt Tootie!" she said, exasperated.
He looked at her without blinking for a few moments. His dark eyes were pits that swallowed her whole. She started to feel her pulse flutter.
Then, he smiled. A big, angelic smile.
"Aunt Tootie! Of course! Of course I remember you!" He giggled and embraced her.
"Great!" said Officer Constanza. "That means you remember who you are and who these people are correct? Because your aunt is now responsible for your custody. You will be living with her starting tomorrow when you're discharged."
Antonio nodded wordlessly.
The officer continued, "I'm very sorry to bring this up now, I actually have a son your age, Carl, and I'd want him to rest first before stressing him like this..but we've been investigating the deaths of the people who passed away inside the building. It seemed as though you knew at least one of them..?"
Tony 's throat tightened. He nodded and said, "Yes, I was looking for my friend..."
He'd told the officer vague things and outright lies. Did he know who had done this? Mabye. Did he know where they might be? No. It went on like that.
He was left alone after that. A nurse came in later and smiled at him.
"Hello, young man. Are you feeling better now?"
"Yes," he replied.
She looked over the chart and made some adjustments to the machine next to him. The sack of fluid next to him dripped faster and he started to feel groggy.
"What's your name handsome?"
Small talk. She already has an answer.
So he decided to reply with the correct one.
"Vincent," he said, "My name is Vincent Plum."
She smiled at him, "That's a nice name..." But he didn't hear her, he had already fallen asleep.
The Officer flipped to the next page in his notebook. "So, do you know what the name of the child was? Your...friend."
He looked at the ceiling for a long time before answering, "Antonio. That was his name. Tony."
Officer Constanza smiled sadly at him, "I'm sorry-"
"Well better him than Vincent, after all!" exclaimed another one of the people in the room. Then quickly backtracked as the policeman glared at her.
"Well...ah..."
He closed his eyes.
That's right. Antonio is dead, he thought.
"Vinnie survived."
The adults looked at him funny and left the room.
The machines clicked beeped, tubes swooshed. He put his hands over his eyes and laughed. He laughed and laughed, and gasped for air. He shook as he laughed.
He laughed until he couldn't anymore and his hands and pillows were soggy.
And then he didn't laugh anymore.
"Real men don't cry..."
Good thing I'm not real.