So you like Jim playing hero? Muahahah, than you'll love what I've got in store.
Let The Chaos Ensue...
Chapter 7: Andy
June 13th, 1:56 am, King City CA
Jim was running on the rooftops across the city, he had started writing the names of all the cities he stopped in down on his phone, just for fun.
It was a nice little town, much smaller than Arcadia.
It was a few days after he helped Amara and her family out, he told her he would track her down in Gasquet, but he wasn't sure if he should. The problem with that was he told her he would, and breaking a promise with a child is something you should never do. They'll hate you forever. And It's also something Jim would never do. And it's something trolls never do…
He shook his head and kept running, he was headed to the San Lorenzo Park campground. It was like the only place in the city with a high concentration of trees. There were some parks, but the trees were sparse and out in the open.
He'd jumped off the truck as soon as he saw the exit ramp. The sun would be up in a while, he hadn't had any close calls yet, and he didn't want one ever. He'd hid in a large tree next to the Denny's and used their internet to find a place to stay for the night.
Jim was making a B-line for the campground when his ears picked up a shallow scream.
He stopped on one of the roofs of the houses he was jumping on. Staring in the direction of the scream, then changing his direction.
Running as fast as he could he stopped on the roof of a 7 Eleven, he looked around and spotted a young boy in a 7 Eleven uniform, probably just getting off the worst shift of the day.
He was sitting on the ground, head in his hands. Jim glanced around, it was pitch black to humans. He jumped down and stalked forward.
"Hey kid, are you ok? I heard you screaming." he said.
"No! I'm not ok." He spat.
"Hey, don't get mad. I'm just trying to help."
"Sorry, I just got mugged. And you can't help, not unless you want to go find the guy and get my money back."
Jim shook his head, carefully walking forward. Only getting close enough to pick up the scent of the mugger.
"If I did would you wait here? So I could bring you your money?" He chuckled.
"Dude, I don't even know what he looks like. And he's long gone, but sure knock yourself out. I'll wait." He shrugged.
"Cool." Jim lifted his nose to the air, figuring out how to follow his scent. It smelled like sweat, dirt and alcohol. "I'll be back."
Jim picked it up and followed it down the road, he ran until the scent was really strong, he looked around. He spotted an empty parking lot, a motel, and a… Duh, the liquor store.
He walked forward and found the man banging on the locked door of the liquor store. Jim laughed and shook his head, -this guy's probably real messed up-.
"Hey!" Jim called out.
The man spun around and looked for Jim, the only light was from the dimly lit store signs.
Jim's eyes were glowing dimly, he found he could control how brightly they glowed. So that was cool.
"Hey." he called again, letting his eyes glow brighter. The man spotted him and pointed to himself quizzically. "Yeah you. You took that poor kid's money, that's not cool."
"Well I had ta, pan hanlin don't pay'as good is it used to." His words were slurred, and Jim could smell his bad breath from across the parking lot as he walked closer.
"Can I have it, so I can give it back?"
"No. Say, you look kina strange." he mumbled.
"Dude, just give me back the money and you won't get hurt."
The man pulled a knife out, and pointed it at Jim while stumbling forward.
"I think ur the one whos gonna get hurt."
Jim dropped his shoulders and growled. "Fine, if that's the way it is."
Jim vanished into the shadows.
"Where di you go?" He spun around.
Jim rushed the man and relieved him of the knife, throwing it aside. The man threw a pathetic punch, stumbling forward. Jim got in front of him and rammed his head with minimal force, knocking him out.
He found the kid's wallet and put it in his pocket, he stared at the smelly drunk on the ground. Thinking what to do with him.
Jim pulled out his phone and found the police station, -good, it's close-.
He grabbed the drunk and threw him over his shoulder, he has to consciously breathe differently so he doesn't have to smell him. Because he smelled, nasty! He dropped him on the front steps of the police department and ran and jumped into the tree in front.
He dialed the number, -man Google is great- and waited.
Once, twice, "Hello, this is the King City Police Department. How may I help you?" A tired male voice said. A long yawn was heard.
"Hey, I'm sorry to be calling at this hour, but I was… walking by, and I heard a scream. When I went to see if everything was ok I found a young man, he said he got mugged. I found the mugger and got the kid's money back. But I've left the man outside the front door."
There was a pause and some shuffling, "Uh…" Jim saw the man through the glass door, the light from the lamp post shining around the area. He came out and looked around, holding the cordless office phone to his ear. He looked back at the unconscious man. "What happened to him?"
"I knocked him out… he was really rude. Didn't want to give the money back, he pulled a knife on me. He's going to have a real headache when he wakes up though." Jim snorted.
"Ok," the man looked around again, his brows furrowed. "Where are you? I need to get your statement."
"Consider this my statement."
"Alright, can I get a name?" The man ran his fingers through his short brown hair.
"Hmmm. No."
The man dropped his arm, "Do you know how hard it is to do paperwork with no notes and an anonymous witness?" he sighed in exasperation.
Jim laughed, a bit louder then he wanted to. He clamped his hand over his mouth. The man looked into the tree, spotting some commotion he lowered the phone from his ear.
"Are you in the tree?" He yelled.
Jim growled quietly, frustrated. "Maybe."
The man walked forward, pulling the large black flashlight off his belt, he turned it on and pointed it toward the tree.
Quickly, Jim jumped out of the tree and onto the Mediterranean style roofing. "I'd prefer it if you didn't see me." He said, blending with the shadows.
The man ignored him and shined the light on the roof, "Why? Are you in some kind of trouble?"
"I would be if you saw me. You'd sooner arrest me then Mr. drunk and smelly down there." Jim joked, but remained serious. He dodged the light narrowly by jumping to the other side of the slanted roof.
"Are you a terrorist?" The man asked cautiously.
Jim snorted, "No. In fact I'm in the business of stopping terrorists… of a sort." He lay casually on his back, his horns barely poking above the peak of shingles.
"Then why won't you come down? Your already here, it would make my life a lot easier if you just came down and came inside so I could get your statement."
"As much as I would like to make your life easier, it would make my life a lot more difficult." The light was moved from the roof and replaced in the officer's belt. Jim crawled back on the other side of the roof, hiding in the shadow of the tree casted by the street lamp. The cop squinted trying to see him. Jim plopped down cross legged and stared at the man, relying on the light provided to see.
The man pulled his hand down his face, "Alright, fine. Can you at least come down? Do you need help getting down? Wait, if you were in the tree… how'd you get on the roof?"
"Maybe, no, I jumped." Jim ticked off on his fingers.
"Ohhh kaay…" the man said slowly, watching the shadows for Jim. "So are you going to come down?"
There was a rustling in the tree and a soft thud of the grass, still invisible in the darkness. "I'm down." Jim laughed.
The man slowly reached for the flashlight.
"Please. Don't do that."
The officer dropped his arm, "Okay, well right now I feel like I'm talking to a shadow with a voice that sounds like a teenager who gargled nails." He slumped.
"Oh com'on, my voice isn't that raspy."
"Yes, it is. And for all I know, I'm nuts. I could be hallucinating and this guy just happened to pass out on the doorstep."
"Fair enough, but you still don't get to see me. In fact, I'm waiting for you to go back inside so I can leave without your lawful eye watching me." A growl escaped his chest as he was getting more irritated.
The man stepped back in shock, "Wha… what was that?"
"That was me, now can you take the drunk inside so I can get going?" Jim continued to growl, it was slowly grew louder.
The man shrunk, "Yeah, I guess." he walked over to the man and hoisted him onto his shoulder. "Hey, wait here for a sec, I need to ask a quick favor. It doesn't involve you coming inside or anything like that, just wait a second." He dragged the man inside.
Jim contemplated leaving, but he guessed it would be fine. The sun wasn't up for another hour and the man had the graveyard shift, those always sucked for his mom. So he stayed. Thinking ahead though, he jumped onto the street lamp and barely unscrewed the lightbulb so it wasn't lit. Then he jumped onto one of the low branches and let one of his legs dangle over the side next to his tail that brushed the ground, even from the branch.
After a few minutes the officer came back out, he looked around in the dark before calling out. "Hey, you still here?"
Jim let his dim eyes wander around for a second before answering, "Yup, still here."
"Ok, that's good," he looked around, there was complete darkness. His hand reached for the torch again.
"I don't mind if you use that, but you better not be pointing it at me." Jim said idly.
"How did you…" the man said.
Jim rolled his eyes and let them glow brightly, "I stayed, what did you need?" he growled.
Under his breath the man whispered, "What the hell are you?"
"That's none of your business." Jim said calmly, "Now what did you need, I have places I need to be."
"How did you even hear…"
"Did you have a favor or not?"
"Oh, um… Right! The kid, you said you got his money back. Are you going to return it to him?"
"That's one place I need to be."
"Well, could you send him this way? Either now or in the morning?"
"That's reasonable enough. Sure. now if there isn't anything else, I'll be going."
Jim moved his position in the tree, about to leap.
"Wait!"
"What?" Jim snarled.
"People don't do good acts out of the kindness of their hearts anymore, so why did you?" He puzzled.
"Because I care about people. And you're right, people don't, but people means humans, I am not a human." Jim stated and leapt out of the tree, landing in the road. He took off at breathtaking speeds back toward the 7 Eleven.
Behind him he heard the officer, "Wait… what?" he said calmly before yelling down the road. "What the heck does that mean?"
Jim laughed to himself before reaching the 7 Eleven parking lot, he came to a slow and found the young man, still sitting on the ground. Without thinking much of it, Jim pulled out his own wallet, and moved one of his twenty dollar bills into the other's.
"Hey, I got your wallet back." Jim said, stalking forward on the balls of his feet, his tail swinging freely.
"What? No way." the boy said, getting to his feet. He walked in the direction of Jim's voice.
Jim tossed the wallet at him, he fumbled but caught it. A large grin spread across his face.
"How'd you get it back?"
"Oh, I just found the guy. Had to knock him out, but I took him to the police station so he's gonna be in trouble. Also, the officer there wanted you to stop by either tonight or in the morning." Jim pointed over his shoulder in the dark.
"Oh my gosh, thank you so much! Hold on for a sec…" the kid pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight, catching Jim off guard.
"Woah, don't do that!" Jim snarled. The light caught him for only a moment before he dashed behind a parked car.
"Dude, chill. I just wanted to be able to see." he said.
"Yeah, ok. That's fine, just don't point it over here."
"Alright man, but really. Thank you so much, you have no idea what this means to me."
"I'm glad I could help, and that you weren't hurt."
"Is there anything I can do for ya man? Anything at all?"
"Just… pass on the good deed." Jim smiled and ran into the darkness.
Jim ran back toward the campsite, jumping across the rooftops of the suburban areas. He passed a building that said, 'History of Irrigation' he snored to himself, it reminded him about Nomura. How she thought renaissance era pottery was super cool, it all just sounded boring to him.
He found a dense area of trees and set up his tarp in the branches above him. He pulled his cloak from the back insulated backpack and wrapped it around his shoulders, then jumped off of a lower branch performing a backflip and allowing his tail to grab the higher one.
He combined his backpacks earlier in the week, he found that having two was problematic when it came to carrying them. The insulated one was rather large so he fit all of his stuff in there easily. He had one package of venison left before he'd have to get more food. He shrugged it off and decided to deal with it in the night.
Unbenounced to Jim, the curious young man was able to get a blurry photo of him. It was of Jim running away, all that could be seen was a long tail that was in focus, and Jim's horns and backpack which were out of focus.
Unsure of what to do with the photo, the teen walked to his car and headed home for a nap.
Amara and her family were driven back to Bakersfield and taken to the hospital. The officer got all of their statements and they were somehow able to not reveal anything about Jim's appearance or his name. Except for Jack, who babbled things like, 'blue' and 'fuzzy tail', but of course he wasn't taken into account.
All the notes the officer got were, tall young man who pulled the family out of the vehicle before it exploded. He stayed with the family until the first responders arrived and flead the scene not wanting to receive any credit.
The officer didn't believe it for a second, he guessed the kid was on the lamb. Running from the law, or his home. The reporters on the other hand…
"Sir! Sir! Can you tell us about your rescuer?" One reporter shouted.
"Ma'm, did you get the name of the young man who pulled you from the car?"
"Was there any indication as to where he was going?"
"Did the boy ask for anything after saving you?"
The voices attacked the family as they left the hospital, they loaded into a squad car and were driven to a hotel. The kids sat squished in the back with Bryan, and Kristie sat in the front.
"Daddy, why did all those people want to know about Jim?" Amara said.
"Oh, well sweetheart. People don't see a lot of good acts anymore. So when one comes up they like to talk about it." he said, then hushed his voice. "But remember, he doesn't want people to know his name so we gotta be quiet about that."
The policeman escorting them was listening intently to the conversation in the back.
"Oh… Right." She steeled her face, "Do you really think he's going to come and visit?"
"Of course he is! He said he would." Ben shouted.
"Shhh…" Bryan hushed. "Look, I don't know if he's going to. But he's a good kid, and I think he'll keep his word."
The officer cleared his throat loudly, "Is there something you didn't tell Officer Brennen?"
"Uhhh…" they all said in unison.
"Like, that you did get his name, and that you'll be meeting up with him? And if you got that you probably know what he looks like too. So, why would you keep Jim's identity a secret?" He asked.
"I uh… well… you see…" Bryan struggled.
"Sir, I respect that you have a job to do and that you would like to find this boy and reward him for the good he did, as would I, but, Jim asked us not to mention him to anyone else and we do infact know what he looks like. However, that's not our secret to tell. And as you were so rudly evesdropping, that is privliged information and was not given to you through the propper channels, therefore invalid in any court of law. So, I expect that his identity will not be exposed by enyone other then himself. Is that understood?"
As Kristie spoke, the man sunk in the drivers seet. Trying to dissapear. Slowly, he nodded, "Yes, ma'am."
Amara giggled, "Bet you didn't know moma's a lawyer. Did you Mr. officer?"
The man shook his head, "No, cutie pie. I didn't."
"Hey, he called me cutie pie. Just like Jim did."
"That's right sweety, now stop saying his name when other people are around. M'kay?"
"Ok." She said happily.
Later: The family got a rental car and made their way back to Gasquet. Amara drew a rather tallented picture of Jim and placed it in her window so he would know that that was their house.
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