The girl sat up slowly and opened her eyes. They were a little too large for her face and one was green, the other a pale gray-blue. There was a small, thin scratch under one eye and she blinked a few times under the fluorescent lighting.
"Hey, kid, what were you doing under the bus?" asked Freddy. He looked a little amused and not the least bit concerned. It was obvious she'd been beaten.
She didn't answer, just looked around a little groggily. I wondered if she wasn't really drunk.
Blacky padded over, setting his walkman down on one of the seats. The girl saw him and her eyes widened. She looked a little freaked, then calmed a little when she saw…that maybe he wasn't who she thought he'd be. Like she woke up and thought he was someone or something else…
"Hey, kid what's your name?" he asked, his deep, throaty voice sounding more like a growl than anything.
"Ranekaera." She replied. She had a deep voice for a girl, husky and a little sexy.
"What were you doing under the bus?" repeated Freddy.
"I got away…My uncle was beating me again. I got cold and I guess I…fell asleep." She replied.
"Fell asleep? You were out cold!" I exclaimed. She looked over and up at me and raised an eyebrow.
"Where am I?" she asked.
I put a hand on her shoulder and swept the bus with one of my other hands.
"We're the Destroyers. And this is our tour bus. I found you outside, and I couldn't just leave you out there. Mike said you could come along." I informed her.
She put her face in her hands and tried to stand up. She fell back into the seat with a fwump, her tail between her legs. She had a pouch on her belly like a kangaroo, although she looked nothing like one. I could see more scars on her belly above the pouch line, and what looked suspiciously like a line of bright blue stitches.
"Hooooooolly shit…" I muttered. I reached into Freddy's ripped jean vest and pulled out his cell phone.
"Hey, kid, take it easy. Hang on a sec. You hungry?" asked Kou. Adrian for once didn't contradict him.
"Ranekaera, what's your uncle's number?" I asked. She pooched her lower lip out like a small child and shook her head stubbornly.
I sat down next to her, gently nudging her aside with my thighs.
"Hey, c'mon, I gotta talk to whoever did this to you, kid." I urged her.
"You don't understand. I've lived with my uncles for three years now. They always beat me. They're human and you can't have the number." She protested. She turned to look at me and I could see things in her eyes that she wanted to tell us all, things she didn't think we'd ever understand. I knew how she felt. I had a lot of hardship in my past, too, and I could never share that with the rest of the band.
Freddy kneeled down in front of her and the twins splotched down on the floor where they stood. Blacky returned to his seat and listened from over there. He had hearing to put the rest of us to shame.
"Start at the beginning." I said gently. She sighed and pulled her hair behind her neck, out of her face. Freddy whistled and I could see that even Blacky was a little daunted by her looks. I thought it should be illegal to be so beautiful.
"Okay. My name is Ranekaera Dunbar. I had four other siblings and my mother raised us all on her own. We lived all over Maine, but mostly in Waterboro in this shitty little blue trailer. My twin brother Kurtis and I raised hell wherever we went. We were anarchic.Wherever my brother was, I'd follow.
"When we were ten, we were camping out in our backyard, under this truck cap that was back there. There was this huge fire." She hesitated.
"Oh." I mumbled. Fire…
"Flounder!" Mommy screams. I can't see through all the smoke. "Daddy!" I shriek. Where was Mommy? Where was Sissy? I couldn't breath!
Flames leapt and danced, eating the curtains, the counters, my clothes and my hair. I coughed and wheezed.
"Flounder! Flounder, where are you? Flounder!" I can hear Daddy cry. He sounds far away.
"Daddy!"
I shake my head, ridding myself of the flashback when I was four. I never would forget the fire I'd accidentally set that killed my mother. I continued to listen to Ranekaera.
"My brother and I ran up to the house to see if we could get anyone out, but I was scared. Kurtis ran right inside, so I followed him. He shoved me back so hard that I fell through the porch railing. That's the only time I can ever remember him ever hurting me.
I screamed at him, told him he was being an idiot, but he didn't listen and didn't turn back. I never saw him again." She paused.
"Oh, man. That's so sad…" sniffed Kou. Adrian had his head bowed and I don't know what the others read on my face, but I was sure it was probably upset and sorrow.
"After the fire died out, my family was dead. The house was obliterated. I had nowhere else to go and the state picked me up and sent me to an orphanage."
At the word orphanage, Blacky perked right up, shifting uncomfortably.
"From there I was shipped from group home to group home until after three years of the torment, a few uncles from the UK finally laid claim. I was sent there, but they're no better. They beat me. And tonight I got away." She finished.
We were all silent a moment, when I finally said "I'm sorry, Ran. Really. I know what it's like to lose family to a fire."
"There's one other thing." She said quietly.
"Blacky, get'er a soda." Instructed Freddy distractedly. Blacky got up, lurched a little from the movement of the bus, and got into the cooler to do as he asked.
"What?" asked Blacky as he handed it to her. She popped it open and took a long swig.
"Thank you. My throat hurts from when I was screaming at them." She said hoarsely. She really did almost sound like a boy.
She reached into her pouch and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. She unfolded it and showed it to us all. It was a family tree, going back what looked like-
"-B.C.!" exclaimed Freddy, a look of genuine surprise on his youngish face.
"Before B.C. otherwise, it wouldn't all fit on this piece of paper. It goes onto the back, too." She explained.
"And that's a complete family tree?" asked Blacky. He flopped down onto the floor, his tails curled around him.
"My family also has a sort of a curse." She announced.