"Good people don't have to say they're good people, it just shows".
The sun was just beginning to set, the red light shining dimly on a small figure as he jumped from roof to roof, vaulting over chimneys and climbing up fire escape platforms to escape his pursuers. Two high schoolers were trying and failing to chase him down, their faces red from a mix of exhaustion and anger.
The figure they were chasing grabbed onto a balcony support post and quickly climbed it in the same manner a monkey might climb a tree. Once he reached the top of the balcony, the black-haired boy turned around to regard his pursuers. "Man, you guys are out of shape" he taunted while laughing to himself "maybe I should make you run more often".
Even though it seemed impossible, the students seemed to only get redder at the boys taunting "Give it back shithead!" one them practically growled.
The boy smiled, obviously enjoying their frustration "Give it back?" he asked, his voice laced with childhood innocence "Ooh you mean the book you stole" he adopted a thinking pose as if he was weighing his options. "Nah, I like this book." The boy didn't let his incompetent chasers say anything else as he turned and climbed onto the roof, disappearing from the high schoolers view with a "Ta-Ta".
The twelve-year-old boy continued to run along several rooftops, getting yelled at by the owners of said houses before his feet finally touched the ground again. Wiping his hands on his clothing which looked to be old, worn and slightly damaged. He looked around to get his bearings, his black colored eyes scanned the buildings, signs, and people before turning sharply and walking into one of the many hidden alleyways and leaning on a dirty, rusted dumpster.
Reaching to his shoulder the boy pulled a brown, worn sling bag around to his front. Unzipping one of the pockets he reached in and pulled out a notebook which looked newer than anything else he owned.
"Goddamn" he muttered to himself as he flipped through the pages of the book, regarding the hand-drawn pictures with both fascination and appreciation. "Wow James, when you said it was a drawing book, I wasn't expecting this level of skill". The pictures were drawn with a pencil and depicted various places and people, every photo was drawn with great care and attention to detail that reminded him of those art pictures he saw once when he snuck into the museum of art by hanging out in a group and acting like he had been there the whole time.
Enthralled by some of the best pictures he had ever seen the twelve-year-old jumped when he felt a bump against the side of his left knee. Jumping back in surprise the boy looked down to what had bumped up against him.
It was a dog, small and scruffy from living on the streets it had black fur and two beautiful red eyes, the dog looked to be something similar to a rottweiler and mastiff. 'perhaps a crossbred' the boy thought to himself only to be brought out of his thoughts when the dog made a whining noise. "Sorry bud" he apologized as he knelt down to the pup "do you have a name?" he asked as he felt around for a collar, after finding none he just started petting the dogs head. "How about" he paused, thinking. "Fang" the dog barked obviously liking his new name. "Well fang, my name is Alex" he introduced himself as he reached into his bag and pulled out a muesli bar. Undoing the wrapper and breaking it in half, he gave half of it to fang he smiled to the dog "Let's stick together" Alex said, getting a bark in return.
"Alright" Alex spoke out loud as if the dog could truly understand him, the dog certainly looked like it could. "let's find a place to sleep" he spoke mostly to himself, crunching on his half of the bar as he began walking through the alleyway and its connected areas having already placed the notebook back into his bag like it was his most precious item. The alleyway might have been dingy and dirty, smelling like old garbage and rotting food but it was still better than most of the places he had been forced to sleep in over the years.
The memory of sleeping in a dumpster filled with old food just to get out of the snow last year was fresh in his mind and even though he didn't want a repeat of that, but he knew that he would do it again if he had too.
Turning the corner, he came across a fire escape platform, one of the ones that resembled scaffolding, looking up towards the metal he saw that someone had placed a tarp over something which made it look like a tent of sorts. Smiling to himself he turned to the dog, deciding to test if it could truly understand him "come on boy" he said as he walked over to the platform and jumped, easily catching the ladder and dragging it down to the ground before quickly climbing it with ease. He didn't need to use the ladder of course but it was easier and less time-consuming.
Getting to the second platform he looked under the tarp to see a makeshift garden, looking into the window to make sure no one was there he pulled on one of the plants and dragged it out of the soil. The plant was cone-shaped and was pale white in color' A carrot' he thought to himself, joy bubbling up as he realized that he came across a stash of food from the vegetables and shelter from the tarp. Looking up to the sky to thank whoever was watching out for him he grabbed all of the carrots and stuffed them into his bag, careful to put them in a different pocket as to not get dirt on the notebook. Slinging the tarp over his shoulder and tying it together so it would stay in place, he slid back down the ladder much to the excitement of his new friend who jumped up into his chest for a chin scratch.
Taking the next few minutes to himself he took off all his clothing except for his underwear and t-shirt and wrapped the tarpaulin around himself before slipping his hoodie back on and pulling his pants back up, this gave him pretty good waterproof lining underneath his pants and hoodie. It wasn't much but to Alex being even slightly waterproof was one of the best things in the world.
Once night had descended Alex had found a small amount of shelter in the corner of a building thanks to the wall being uneven and creating a type of roof. Pulling out one of the carrots he snapped it in half before looking at fang with uncertainty "I don't know if dogs can have carrots but if it bad, I guess you can just throw it up right?" Alex was unsure but still handed the carrot piece to fang. The dog grabbed it with care much to Alex's surprise, having expected a stray dog to grab it with more ferocity, letting go of his end of the piece he let Fang eat it before gorging on his own piece, eating the entire thing, leaf and all because he knew not to waste anything, especially food.
He eventually managed to fall asleep, Fang lying on his legs curled up into a ball which gave Alex a natural source of heat in the cold New York night.
Alex was leaning up against a concrete fence, his black hoodie crumbling from the wind and making the tarp underneath crinkle while Fang was sitting proudly to his right having munched on one of his carrots. Ever since he had met fang, the dog didn't leave his side, not only was it nice to have company while living on the streets. The loyal dog was really warm and had no issue being used as a pillow or lying on top of Alex's legs as a type of blanket.
A sharp, high pitched ringing sound brought Alex's attention to the school whose fence he was leaning on. He only had to wait for a moment before the horde of kids to come sprinting out like zombies that just saw a human. "They're like a horde" Alex whispered to his companion who he could swear just smiled.
Alex scanned the crowd of chaos, looking for one person in particular and quickly found him walking out of the entrance. The person he saw was only about two years his junior and had brilliant blonde hair that was in deep contrast to his own opal black, once Alex found him, he began casually walking towards him with Fang following behind, his shoes clicking on the stone pathway.
Alex didn't even manage to take two steps before some idiot violently slammed into his shoulder. Whirling around he looked at the person only to stop and instantly calm himself down when he saw that the curly brown-haired kid who bumped into him was using crutches. "Sorry" Alex instantly apologized, understanding that the kid probably couldn't move quickly.
The kid wasn't regarding Alex at all, instead, he was staring wide-eyed at Fang, mouth trembling like he was about to cry. Not wanting a kid to cry and draw attention to himself, Alex moved quickly. Placing his hand on the back of Fang's neck, hoping to at least show the older brown-haired boy that he could hold Fang back and that there was nothing he had to worry about. This action made the other boy look at him and he looked even more nervous when he looked at Alex it was as if he had recognized someone. Taking the opportunity to repeat what he said he apologized once more hoping that could stop the kid from causing a scene.
The brown haired oy just nodded quickly before running off as fast as he could with his crutches. Alex was satisfied that at least his apology was accepted turned around, continuing his approach to his friend.
Walking up to the boy he tapped his shoulder twice, getting the boys attention. "Alex!" the kid said once he recognized who had tapped on his shoulder. "Didyougetitdidyougetit? You had to have got it right? You said you would." He was like a piston, firing off one question after the other until finally, Alex stopped him by revealing the notebook, he had taken from two high schoolers the day before.
"Of course, I would get it, I promised, didn't I?" Alex handed the notebook to his friend "Take better care of it next time James, I might not be around to help if it gets stolen again."
James eagerly took the small, leather-bound notebook filled with all his precious drawings, flipping through it to check for any damage and any changes made to any of his pictures. When James didn't find any, he sighed in relief before tenderly placing it into his bag. "thank you, Alex," James said now much calmer and centered than before.
Alex just responded by giving James a cheerful grin, seeing his friend happy made him feel much better, he always liked helping people, whether it was finding lost items or beating up bullies he would do it simply because James was his friend and didn't ignore him like most people did when they saw him, "no problem" he responded giving James a one-armed hug.
For the next half an hour, Alex sat with James and his other friends, hanging out together. Mostly insulting each other and telling jokes. It made him feel included even though everyone except James gave him a wide berth and were more curious than nervous. But, sadly like all good things it had to eventually end. Alex watched them all get picked up by their loving parents, smiles on their faces and love in their eyes, it made Alex jealous, but the soft nose of Fang easily made those feelings disappear. Eventually, they all said goodbye, leaving Alex alone on the stone steps of Yancy Academy. Thinking about his parents almost made him cry, he had never met them. 'who were they?' he would often ask but if there was an answer, he never heard one. It was one of the reasons why he tried to forget that he had parents, otherwise all those bottled up emotions would boil over.
Before Alex could continue thinking about his heritage, he was violently ripped from his thoughts at the sound of Fang growling. Alex was stunned, Fang had been a calm and happy dog, to see him snarling and getting ready to lunge was shocking to Alex.
Fang was crouched down, his body ready to lunge. The dogs red eyes burned with a primal fury which seemed to betray a sense of protectiveness towards him, it made the dog look like a feral monster from hell.
Alex could and would easily admit that the sound of Fang growling was one of, if not the most frightening thing he had ever heard in his life. Until he heard an even more ferocious growl.
Alex froze in place, his whole body turned to stone as his ears registered a snarl far more haunting than anything he had ever heard, even more so than Fangs growl. Slowly as if not wanting it to be real he looked towards the alarming noise.
It was a Chihuahua, Alex was stumped, his entire body relaxing as he looked at the size of the non-threatening animal. How was a Chihuahua scarier than his Rottweiler/Mastiff. But somewhere deep down he knew something was wrong, it was a gut feeling that made all his instincts scream at him to run as fast and as far away as he can. His legs were tense, his body was ready for anything, whether it was flight or fight.
The Chihuahua took a step, its paw only had to move an inch for Fang to act. Biting down hard on Alex's sleeve and roughly dragging him away from the threat and into the school.
'what's going on!' Alex thought, his large and very intimidating dog was running away from a Chihuahua. Turning around he saw the Chihuahua charging at him, the image almost made him laugh only for fang to growl, his mouth still wrapped tightly around Alex's Jacket. "Ow Hey!" the boy complained, giving his dog a scolding look.
Then suddenly a feeling of dread clouded him, and he froze, all the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he suddenly felt himself get thrown violently through the air and hitting the metal lockers with a resounding clang. The wind was knocked out of him as he tried his hardest to roll onto his side, eventually, though he managed to roll onto his left side, looking up he saw something that truly froze his blood.
The Chihuahua wasn't a Chihuahua anymore.