"Hey! Don't let go!" The sound of my giggling, girlish laughter chimed as I leaped and threw my arms around my brother's neck. The young man spun around and then tried to lift and hoist me onto his back to carry me through the empty dirt street. Though I was ten, he was tall and strong and could carry me as if I weighed nothing more than an empty crate over his shoulders.
"I don't know… I think you are slipping…" My brother made a face and began to lean back exaggeratingly in an attempt to cause me to slide off. "It's just too much, I can't go on," He staggered comically forward and began to walk in an uneven line through the alleyways.
I laughed but only gripped harder to keep myself in place. His wild, curly golden-brown hair tickled my nose as I kept my head down to prevent losing balance. In the cast of the sunlight, his hair always looked like shining strands of gold- something that I was always envious of. The curly hair trait ran through my family, but unlike his, my hair was a dark chocolate brown just like my father's. I brushed some of it away with my free hand before regaining my position once more.
"Yeah right! I know you lift heavier items into carts at the docks!" I peered over his shoulder and gave him a pointed look that he could see. Instead of commenting, however, he mimicked my look and then reached a hand back to roughly ruffle my hair. He knew I always hated it when he did that! I pulled back with a mock-scowl and then punched him on the arm playfully to show that he had not gotten the best of me. Not yet.
My brother then flashed me that all-famous bright grin; the smile that everyone seemed to love about him. It was always hard to stay mad at him when he gave you that grin, and it made it easy to forget why you were angry or down in the first place. I, however, knew that his smile came out the most for me when we were together.
"Well, speaking of docks," He began as we rounded towards the busier paths of town. The dirt roads would become cobblestone from here, and then up ahead the crowds would begin to gather the closer we drew to the marketplace and the waterway. "It will be kind of hard to work with you sitting on my shoulders."
"You have to work? Today?!" My heart sank as I came to this realization. When my brother worked to load and unload supplies at the docks, he worked all throughout the day until late at night. It would be well past the moonrise before I would get to see him again, and I knew what that meant; I would be forced to find something to do for the rest of the day until my father returned from his job and cooked dinner. I didn't like the idea of once again milling around the streets or lying bored around the house until it was time to prepare the meals. I usually found myself staring at the sky and wishing the sun would go down sooner so that I could see him return home again.
"Why do you have to work…?" I whined to him in that high-pitched voice I knew he always missed hearing. He had once told me that a dog could probably hear me from the other side of Shiganshina with that sort of pitch.
"Not the whine," My brother ran a hand through his mess of a hair and sighed in a tone of mock-defeat. "Because we need money for food, and clothes, and someone's cookies that I somehow can't ever seem to find in the box... I really must stop buying empty boxes, I mean you'd think we should tell someone-"
"I didn't eat them all!" I argued with a scowling frown, "If anything you had like ten! I see you eat them when you come home! It wasn't me!" I slid off his shoulders and onto my feet on the ground, only to plant my shoes and cross my arms in a pointed look of offense. How dare he accuse me of eating the cookies?
"Oh? It must be that cat that is always hanging around then- whatever it is that you called him?" My brother stopped and turned with his hands in his pockets. A grin appeared on his face at my protesting look as his brown eyes met my hardened blue. He really could be an ass sometimes.
"His name is Orangefluff, and he only eats mice!" I stated matter-of-factly with a glare, before letting my arms fall to their sides again. I was forced to scoot aside as a man pushed by with a creaking old cart in the direction of the market, interrupting our childish debate.
My face changed back to one of neutrality as I let the comment go, "But what am I supposed to do when you are gone again? It's no fun waiting for you and dad to come home."
My brother looked thoughtful and shrugged, "Well... you could always- I don't know, make friends? You know, friends who are your own age for once," He raised an eyebrow. I knew where this talk was going. My brother and I had a close bond; it had been just him and me before he acquired a job. Dad had always been busy trying to support us all on his own ever since our mom passed. I was too young to remember much about her, but my brother always told me that she had been too sickly most of the time. It must have taken a toll on them to see her that way, I would have thought, but to my viewpoint, neither seemed as distraught after so many years had passed. My dad had grown quieter and more solemn, but he was now eating once more and keeping busy with his job. He had a family to work for still, after all.
Now with both my brother and my father working, I suddenly had no one to really talk to. I guess that was my fault for choosing to avoid kids my age like the plague. The ones around our house never seemed to get too chummy with me, though to be fair, I never made it easy on them either. It was so much easier to trust my brother, who I had known my whole life. I didn't have to worry about being awkward around him, or of not fitting in and being made fun of.
"No! You've seen some of the kids my age! You know how horrible they can be!" I exclaimed with a sudden shake of my head. My anxiety level was rising just at the thought of approaching a strange crowd. Was he really going to pressure me into doing this?
"Oh, come on, Al," My brother teased, using the nickname he always called me since I was little. He sank down onto one knee to more of my level, as if addressing a child, and then gave me the saddest, most feigned puppy-dog pout look I had ever imagined him concocting. His warm, brown eyes were serious. "Do it for me? Your brother?"
"Argh, stop!" I shoved him on the shoulder in an attempt to break his expression. He was good, and merely turned his head to face me with the same look. It wouldn't go away. "Urgh, fine! I'll try!" I turned away in a look of disgust. How dare he pull the pout on me! That was just not fair, and he knew it too.
My brother straightened up with a returned grin, "Great! Have fun, and I'll see you when the moon is up," He waved his hand in a quick goodbye as he turned towards the direction of the docks. The crowd parted with his arrival, though most too preoccupied with carrying baskets or chatting with their neighbors to cast a glance at the strong, young man with the light curly hair.
"Bye Caden!" I waved back to him slowly as I watched him leave, and for extra measure to hopefully embarrass him, I shouted as loud as I could, "Bye big bro, hugs and kisses!" The nearby market-goers now turned their heads and glanced from me to my brother to see what the commotion was about, but I merely turned dismissively away to the path that led to our home. "That will show him for using his dirty tricks on me," I thought out loud with a slight chuckle.
I paused on my trek back to my home to kick a few pebbles across the path. The tiny stones stirred up the dust into clouds that would then be carried by the breeze. The paths back to our home were not paved and neat like the paths near the marketplace. Here, weeds sprung up around the edges of the houses and cracked the dry earth of the walkways. It was a familiar sight to me though since I had grown up and played in them. I still remember sitting in the path as a young girl and trying to write my name in the dirt with a flat stone.
Up ahead was our house. It was small, old and built right up against our neighbors. There was nothing very notable about its appearance since most of our community's houses were built in the same style, but to me it was different and held more uniqueness than all of them. There were so many memories in that house, some revolving around the smallest crack in the wall or a scribbled pen mark in the doorway. I could recount all of them upon passing and often found myself doing so when I was especially bored out of my mind. Today, however, the inside of that house didn't seem as welcoming as it should with the absence of my family. I wanted to get out and go explore. Surely there had to be something exciting going on somewhere?
I rounded the street past my house and continued to stroll down the dusty alleyways. There was quite a bit of clutter here that was dumped by the inhabitants; broken carts, old crates, crumbling bricks… I skirted around the mess to avoid tripping. I had just taken a step over what appeared to be the end of a broken shovel when a loud rattling noise caused me to jump and glance around wildly. Out of the stack of crates came a furry orange creature with a tangled pelt and thick, mangled tail. Orangefluff; that cat followed me everywhere. More than likely he had been searching for food.
"Mowwrl" The beat-up cat let out a throaty meow as it gleamed up at me with its yellow eyes and swished its ratty tail. He wasn't an attractive creature to look at and had probably seen one too many fights as well as disease, but he was better company than nothing. I clicked my tongue at him in response as I usually did when he was around. He stared at me as if in contemplation, but seeing that I didn't have any food for him, lost interest and turned to lumber off down the alleyway. Some company.
"Hey, get back here!" A boy's voice shouted from nearby in such a loud tone of anger that it caused me to stagger backwards. I spun around to pinpoint the voice, but the boy was not in the alleyway. The volume, however, told me that he must be close by, so I crept nervously to peer around the next intersection. There I could see three figures with their backs towards me: all boys that were taller and older than me. They started to run forward, chasing a smaller blonde-haired boy into the streets.
I shrunk back out of view, afraid. The boys I had heard of around here often meant trouble; they were rough and didn't mind picking a fight just for the fun of it. I had never actually come in contact with them, but nor did I want to. From the looks of it though they were already too preoccupied with their current target to turn around and find me in their wake. I felt immediately relieved at the idea, though that might have been a little cruel of me. A twinge of guilt pulled at my chest. Clearly that blonde boy had been in some trouble. Should I go after him? How was I supposed to fair against the three large boys?
I bit my lip and glanced around, wishing there was someone else who could go and help him. If my brother was here, he would have handled this situation easily and I wouldn't have had to worry about doing anything. I started inching out into the street as the weight of guilt started to get the best of me. At the very least, I could go get help, couldn't I? Making up my mind, I took a deep breath and sprinted after them. The group had a head start and I wasn't sure exactly where the boy had been running. One turn after another and I almost feared I had lost them down the winding streets and intersections, until I came to a quick halt by corner. Up ahead I could see that the boy had been cornered against the wall. The older boys were surrounding him.
"Hey, you-" I opened my mouth to shout out, but a sudden force cut me off. A strange hand flew in front of my face and forcefully pressed against my mouth. I panicked; someone had grabbed me from behind, I was being attacked! I instinctively flailed out, kicking my legs and sinking my teeth to bite the hand of my attacker. I heard a curse erupt from close behind my head and the attacker withdrew his hand, but then gripped my arm to yank me back as I began to charge off into the street.
"Look, do you want to be killed?! I'm only saving you the trouble! No one messes with those guys, and if you know what's good for you, you will go back the way you came from," The arm released its firm grip on me just as I whipped around to see who the hell it was that had grabbed me. I didn't know what I had expected; perhaps some creepy middle aged man with awful hygiene, but instead I found myself staring at a lanky, fiery-red haired boy that was around my own age and only a few inches taller. He stumbled back from me with his hands held up in a gesture of surrender. His brown eyes were wide, as if he had been alarmed by my sudden reaction.
"I'm just saying, the last person that got in their way was beat to a pulp!" The boy's voice was grimmer this time as he cast an uneasy glance behind me where the three boys would more than likely still be standing. The lack of approaching footsteps had meant that they clearly hadn't heard the beginnings of my outburst. "Yeah, I'd hate to be that guy, but he doesn't do much to help his case. It's almost like he wants to provoke them sometimes," The kid shook his head and shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Who are you?! And what makes you think you can just sneak up behind me and grab me like that, you creep…?" I gasped, glaring at the strange boy. The rapid beating in my chest was just now starting to slow from the shock. Calm down, clearly he was just being stupid! Who jumps out and grabs someone in an alleyway like that? I didn't want him to know that he had scared me though for my pride's sake, so I quickly followed it up with a sharp response; "Don't tell me what to do, either; I don't even know you! If you had seen the boy too, then why didn't you go get help or something?" I gestured at the blonde haired boy in the distance, who seemed to now be getting held up by one of the three older boys.
"Me? Psht, none of your business who I am! Geez, I try to save you from getting the daylights beaten out of you, and this is what I get?" He ran a hand through his red-hair and rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Get help? Yeah right. No one around here helps anyone but themselves. Have you even been paying attention; good people don't win, that's the hard truth! Get used to it."
I opened my mouth indignantly to respond, but the boy merely had snorted and run off in the opposite direction just as suddenly as he had appeared. Rude, I thought with narrowed eyes. I could have gone without having met that particular character.
The sound of a new set of clattering footsteps echoed through the alleys, and I turned my head to see two other kids spill out onto the street and race towards the blonde with a sense of urgency. I didn't get a close look at them, but one was a boy with brown hair, the other a dark-haired girl. Friends of his, I thought, and decided it would be best to leave them to fend for his safety. At least he won't have to be alone any longer, I convinced myself as I took one last glance and then slunk away. The strange red-haired boy's words were still running through my head. He had been wrong to think that no one would help, but did he really mean all of the other things he had said as well? If so, he must be living a miserable life indeed.
Forget about him, he's just some weirdo, I scolded myself as I decided on my next path to take. After the scare, I didn't feel safe wandering around the empty alleys any longer, and decided it would be best instead if I returned closer to home. The familiarity felt welcoming, especially as the corner of my house returned back into view. It amazed me how the earlier sight which had created boredom now caused me to feel so much safer and in control. This was my area, my home, and I knew it back and forth. I began to quicken my pace towards the door with an eager grin. So close to comfort. Just a few more feet
A piercing scream sounded in the distance. I froze in my tracks. The area had suddenly fallen into an eerie silence. A movement caught the corner of my eye. As my gaze drifted up, I expected to see the top of the wall, but what I saw instead stopped my heart in my chest and filled my limbs with heaviness. No... It couldn't be...
A massive, blood-red face was looming over the edge and staring down with a soulless, empty gaze.