There
was another crack of thunder. The storm had moved closer. I hurried down the
streets towards the park where my shelter was. My old house was on the way. It
was one of the biggest in New Orleans; my family's quite wealthy. I scowled as
I walked passed it, wondering if they new that their daughter was walking right
by going to her home… in the park. They
probably didn't know, and if they did I doubted that they cared. The only thing
that they cared about was the fact that I was a mutant, or a 'mutie' as they
had so kindly put it at our last meeting.
I forced my body through
the small crack in the bomb shelter door. See, that's what I could do. Force my
body through any opening no mater how tiny my body would force itself through.
I'd had it for about four years and had put it to some use. That's how I met
Remy. When my parents kicked me out he found me on the street and bought be to
the guild headquarters. I was eleven. Now I was fifteen. For three years I'd
stolen for a living. The fourth year he left, and I stopped; ran away from the
guild. That's how I ended up here, at the deserted bomb shelter.
The shelter had only a few
things in it. An old army cot, my old back pack, and a picture of Remy. I
collapsed on my bed, hungry. Tiered as I was, I didn't want to sleep. The same
dream would come to me; the one I didn't wan to dream. The night of the duel
between Remy and Michael Boudreaux. That duel was the reason he'd left. I'd
tried to talk him out of it, but he was too stubborn. Then during the duel his
powers had gotten out of control. The part of the street Michael was standing
on exploded. He was thrown backward, and almost killed him. Remy fled after
this to prevent war between guilds.
~
The morning air was damp,
but that was to be expected. I started out of the park at my usual hour of
eight. This time instead of ally ways I took to the street corners. It was
begging day. Today I chose the corner in front of the outdoor market. This was
a pretty good spot, because people were constantly going in and out. The nice
ones would give you money, and the nasty ones wouldn't.
Around twelve Carole came.
She's the maid at my family's house. She still cared about me and would always
either give me a basket of homemade bread or a twenty-dollar bill. Today she
smiled when she saw me, and hurried over.
"Hello Miss. Helen." She
called. "I bought you some food."
I blushed at being called
miss, but stood up quickly.
"I hope you don't mind
bread and fruit."
"No, no." I said. "Dat's
fine." I took the basket, and thanked her.
"You comin' home soon
petite?" she asked, as she asked every week. "I'm sure your parents…"
I shook my head. "I'm fine
on my own. I might even be leaving soon."
The words just slipped out
of my mouth. I'd stay in New Orleans until Remy came back.
Carole looked at me.
"You're still missin' your fellow, ain't ya?"
"He wasn't my fellow." I
insisted. "He was like an older brother. And yes I'm still missin' him, but
I'll live."
"Ya always was a strong
one." She ruffled my matted hair. "Now I'd better get to shoppin'. I'll see you
next week. Ya Keep well, ya hear me. Keep on the straight, no more stealing."
She turned and walked to
the market. I sat back on the street corner, pulling out a piece of bread, and
eating. It tasted great, I hadn't eaten properly in a few days. Next I pulled
out a pear, and bit into it. The juice dribbled down my chin and I smiled. Then
in the distance a gunshot rang out.
"Another guild fight." I
mumbled. It was at times like this that I was very happy that I'd left the
guild. But that didn't mean that I wasn't still quite curious. Grabbing the
basket of food and the tin with the money I made, I hurried down the street to
the source of the sound.
There was a large crowd
around one certain back street so I ran there. Two people were in a large
circle of people. One held a gun the other held a knife. I recognized the
person with the knife. It was a man named Jean from the thieves guild. The
other man was from the assassin's guild. I didn't know his name. They were
circling each other, each bearing their weapon. The gun shot again. people in
the crowd-including me- ducked. Jean threw the knife. It hit the other man in
the shoulder. He staggered and shot the gun again. The crowd ducked. I was now
beginning to be frightened, but I couldn't back away, because people were now
standing behind me. It was too crowded. To the right I noticed a small meat store.
To get out of the crowd I pushed my way through every one.
The door of the store was
locked, and it wouldn't open when I kicked it. Every one was watching the
fight, so I took a breath and went through the crack where the door didn't
quite touch the ground. My hands went through first then my chest and legs. On
the other side of the door I reformed back to my regular shape. The inside
smelled of raw meat. I wrinkled my nose but then thought that beggars couldn't
be choosers. The crowd out side was slowly
dispersing, and the gun kept going off. I saw Jean being shot in the leg. He
fell, and I backed farther into the shadows of the shop.
"Caught ya. Ya little rat!"
I jumped in surprise.
"What?"
"You've been stealing from
my shop, and I finally caught ya."
"I just came in to get away
from the crowd." I stammered.
"No it's you. You've been
stealing from me." The man came out of a corner. He was glaring. "I'm calling
the police."
"I've never been here
before in my life!" I headed towards the door. "I swear!"
"You stay right there." He
picked up a phone.
I tried the door, it was
locked from the inside also.
"And that." His eyes looked
at my right hand. "That's a Thieves Guild ring. Proves it."
"Please sir, I haven't been
stealing from ya." I banged the door again with my foot. It hit the crack at
the bottom of the door and slid through. The man looked at me for a second
before he decided what to do.
"Mutant." He growled. The
butchers knife had been laying on the counter was picked up and put into his
hand. I slid the rest of my leg through and then my chest, the man was coming.
He swung the knife. It missed my head by centimeters. On the other side of the
door I ran as quickly as I could. The man had opened up the door and was
yelling 'Mutant, there's a mutant on the loose.' This was sending the already
riled crowd into another state of panic. I ran past people trying to get back
onto the main street.
"There she is!" someone
yelled.
Some people chased me, some
people were too afraid. I ran through the open market knocking over some stands
as I went, the crowd followed. The park was only a street down. I made it. Then
I slid through the stone door of the bomb shelter, safe.
That night when I slept I knew the next morning I'd be
allover the local news, so I made a decision.
"Remy," I said softly. "I'm
leaving. Breaking the promise, but I'll find you, and everything will be fine
again."
~
New York City is awfully big. But it's nice. I'm living
better than I was in Louisiana. Central park is almost perfect. I sleep in one
of the old empty guardhouses by the zoo. I got in through the keyhole. Begging
makes me about fifteen dollars a day. I live on Starbucks and McDonalds. For
fun sometimes I watch TV at the television display in the Manhattan Mall. I try
not to become attached to any one, but I always hope that Remy might turn up
around any corner.
Part of what I do daily is buy a paper, just to see what's
happening. The front page of the daily news caught my attention today. There
was some news about a recent explosion up in North New York. I put the
thirty-five cents in the machine and pulled out the paper. The whole article
explained that there were no witnesses and no suspects. It had been a quick and
very clean operation. No one had been hurt thanks to a mysterious lady who'd
warned the four guards inside of the building. Lastly the writer mentioned that
building was that of a testing facility, but it didn't say for what.
Fortunately there were no test subjects in the building at the time. I gripped
the paper under my arm as I walked off towards the local Starbucks
I'm a regular at the Starbucks, and the guy behind the
counter knows me pretty well, only about the stuff I want him to know of
course. This morning he was waiting for me at the couch beside the door.
"Hey." He waved. "The
usual?"
I nodded and followed him
up to the counter. He talked as he made the coffee.
"Some one came by this
morning looking for you." He informed me.
"Who?" I immediately
thought about mutant hunters or some other type of threat.
"they didn't say their
names. The woman was tall, and African American. Brown hair. The man had sort
of spiked curvy brown hair and was wearing shades. He was wearing a leather
sort of trench coat.
"Excuse me?" I almost
choked on the last description. "Spiked hair, and a trench coat."
"Yeah." He handed me my
coffee. "Said they'd be back around twelve. If you want to stay, I can put you
to work in the back. How do you feel about lifting boxes and counting tips."
"You'll let me know when
dey come back? I'll take it. I owe ya a million Chris."
He smiled and opened
employees door so I could walk through to the back.
~
"They're back." Chris stuck
his head into the room where I sat counting tips.
"Thank ya." I jumped up and
bolted out of the room.
In the main area of the
shop it was crowded, because of the lunchtime rush. It took me awhile to find
him, but he was easily spotted sitting in the corner. He was wearing the same
long brown leather trench coat that I'd seen him in a year ago. The same woman
Chris had described earlier was sitting with him.
"Remy." I said softly. I
walked closer. "Remy."
He and the woman looked up.
"It's the petite." He
grinned.
I hugged him as hard as I
could, so as not to loose him again.
"Oh god." I said. "Ya left
and everything fell. The guild, my life, Jean was even shot in a duel."
He looked me up and down.
"Ya don't look like ya've got any problems petite."
"Don't call me petite." I
started to cry. "I'm staying with ya from now on."
"We should go outside."
Said the woman. "I don't mean to interrupt but we're attracting attention. To
much of it."
I grabbed my backpack, and
Remy's hand. As soon as we were out on the streets I started firing questions.
"Where did ya go? Why'd ya
leave me?"
"I noticed ya broke that
promise. Ya said ya'd stay in New Orleans." He said.
"Couldn't." I said simply.
"So where'd ya go? What did ya do? Who is she?" I pointed to the woman walking
with us.
"Ororo Munroe." He
indicated towards her.
"And…" I prompted.
"I did a bit of traveling
and came here. Ororo helped me get where I am now. Now what have ya been up to?
Ya're skin and bones. Got thinner since I last saw ya. I'll guess ya didn't go
home to ya're parents."
I shook my head. "Dey
didn't want me. I've been on my own. I lived in the bomb shelter at the park."
"Ya stopped stealing." It
seemed to be an accusation.
"I almost got caught, and
sent to an orphanage." I admitted.
"We have a school for
mutants in Westchester County." Ororo spoke for the first time.
I paused. "You've been
watchin' me haven't ya? I mean, how else would ya know that's where I'd be?"
"For a week." Said Remy.
"From the guards house to Starbucks, and back."
"So ya come to take me some
where?" I asked.
"Up to the school. Remy was
anxious to find you." Ororo turned into an ally way (I was getting really
tiered of Ally ways). Remy pushed the open the gate at the end of the ally. I
don't really know how to describe what was at the end of it, but I can try. For
one, there was a large black jet. Obviously the people in New York were totally
oblivious to this or they'd have seen it. There was sort of a silo erected into
the ground; that's what the plane was coming out of. It could have been any
person's one-way ticket out of the slums of New York. Luckily it was mine.
Ororo reached up to her
hair and pulled of the brown. She'd been wearing a wig. Underneath was the
whitest of white hair. Remy took of the sunglasses and I saw the deep red on
black eyes I was used to seeing.
Remy sat down at the
controls of the jet.
"Gambit's gonna need some
fog t' fly this t'ing." He indicated towards Ororo.
She nodded as the engines
fired up. her eyes turned milky white in her head and a dense fog (not the
usual smog) overcame the streets of New York.
The plane took off.
~
(It sucks, I know. but y'know
I just decided to try it, so please r/r and tell me what you think.)
