Chapter 02 - Friend?

I watched her die. I watched as her body was swallowed by shadow, by my shadow. No, that was not right. I killed her. I killed a human being. I could hear a small part of me trying to justify my actions, telling me it was in self-defense and I was within my right to defend my life even at the cost of another. But a greater part of me knew this wasn't true. I not only killed her; I did it in cold blood.

Sure she tried to kill me and was only inches away from succeeding until I saw something, I was sure of it, but the harder I tried to grasp the memory, the more it eluded me. The next moment I saw how Sophia, no Shadow Stalker was slumped over me, trying to get back her bearings.

I knew that I didn't stand a chance against her. I didn't while she was just the school track star and I certainly didn't against her the superhero. I hoped to get away, but she faster; she was always faster. She constantly caught me whenever I tried to run, to evade their torment. And now it seemed like she was about to catch me for the last time.

I wondered for a second if she somehow saw something too, and that was the reason she out of it until reality caught up, and I realized she was in the process of ending my life. That was when I wished for something, anything to make her stop. If I just had a weapon, I might even manage to do it myself. The next moment my desire was given form, in the shape of a dagger I was suddenly holding in my hand.

I instinctively knew, I somehow created it, this work of Art. I didn't have the time to admire its black shadowy, curved single-edged form without a crossguard, because Shadows Stalker's slack grip tightened once again on my scalp, and I just followed my instincts and rammed the blade in her gut up to the hilt. I expected there to be some kind of resistance, but there was nothing. The blade went in her as if she was made out of air. For a moment, I feared she somehow evaded the attack by becoming intangible.

Until I saw her stop frozen mid-motion, I was barely able to preempt her, the shrapnel in her hand only inches away from tearing into my throat. I could feel how my power was channeled through my dagger into Shadow Stalker. I could feel it restricting her not just her movement but her power as well. I could feel my power invading her, trying to consume, absorb her into myself.

I fought this instinctual behavior of my power displayed and slowed the process down. I needed time to think, to figure out what was going on and what I should do. My mind drifted back to who it was I had at my mercy. Sophia fucking Hess, Shadow Stalker the alleged Hero one of the Bitches three, the person who tried to kill me twice today.

I slightly loosened the grip I had on her, not enough for her to wiggle with her pinky or to use her power just enough to allow her to move her eyeballs. I wanted her to see what she forced me to do. I wanted her to feel what I felt, the fear, the helplessness. I wanted her to experience, how it was like to be at the mercy of somebody else; to be at the mercy of me.

Her eyes darted from my blade back to my face, and I could see that she felt all of this and more, the tears forming in her eyes were proof of this. Satisfied with this outcome, I no longer fought against my power, against the inevitable, and let her be consumed.

I could justify my actions in hundreds of different ways, could argue she deserved worse alone for stashing me in the locker, for ignoring a person in need. I could blame the fact that I witnessed Hookwolf torture three other parahumans to death right in front of me for my actions. The impotence I felt as I had to watch this, their life and death struggle, their pleading for help for, mercy both of which I wasn't able to provide, while I was fighting for my life.

Hold prisoner in a metal cage no six feet away, together with a countless number of bugs. They used the rips in the metal the confrontation inflicted upon my prison to flee towards freedom. All the while, I was forced to watch through the same slashes.

Oh my God, if I hadn't already emptied my stomach five times over, I would do it again at the memory of what he did. But nothing came out, not even bile.

I could justify this as a momentary lapse of judgment, craziness, there were so many ways to shift blame, but I didn't.

I knew exactly why I did it. There was no need to sugarcoat it, to lie to myself. It was pure unadulterated revenge, born out of the anger and hate I kept under control for a year and half that moments ago saw the daylight for the very first time.

I tried to better than them. I wanted to keep the moral high ground, let them come, I thought. They could shove me, they could belittle me, they could destroy my property, but they couldn't defeat or break me.

I was wrong because, in the end, they made me lash out, and as a result, I killed one of them. I hope you have ample time to enjoy your win. I said to myself, staring at the spot Sophia vanished.

Despite what I went through, nearly dying a dozen times over in the span of one morning, my would-be murderer would never hurt anybody ever again; I made sure of that.

Still, this, what some would deem a victory of sorts, felt more shallow than the worst defeat. Perhaps this had something to do with the poor state my body was in.

But this whole ordeal helped me realize something; you had to fight for yourself. You couldn't just hope to be saved by others. You had to do it yourself, and with this, I took my first step in that direction. No more being walked over by everyone.

I tried to stand up. It took me three tries to succeed. My legs are barely able to support my weight, my whole body hurt, even my hair.

I took a careful step forward towards the dead big African American guy still lying there. I managed one step before I stumbled. I didn't know if I slipped on something lying on the floor, or if my legs weren't as strong as I thought them to be. I fully expected to fall on my ass, when I felt strong arms wrap around my midsection and steadying me.

I had a thank you on my lips, which died in my throat the moment I saw the bare underarm of the person holding me around my waist. It was black, not the skin color black, no the absence of light black like the dagger I was somehow still holding in my hand.

I steadied myself and turned around, and nearly got a heart attack.

Standing right next to me was a nude darker than night exact copy of Sophia Hess. She was emitting subtle wisps of this black shadow and essentially stood at attention before me.

What the Hell. I backtracked the events. I remembered feeling a surge of energy as Shadow Stalker was swallowed by my shadows.

Was her somehow becoming part of me the source of this feeling, some kind of bodily reward like eating chocolate?

I shuddered at the thought of having a power that lets me feel elevated by - what exactly did it reward? Was it the killing, or was it absorbing people? - Despite this dampener to my powers, I had to find out what is going on.

I opened my mind to the constant tugging I noticed since I killed Sophia. Immediately, I was flooded with impressions of Shadow Stalker, or what once was her. I noticed that she was barely sentient, not dumb exactly, more like lacking an agency but dumber nonetheless, not that it was a big loss. Sophia never was what you would call smart, but now it was more akin to perhaps a smart dog, no more similar to a wolf, if it was to be believed, what I read about them.

There was more; mostly her feelings. She was made up of hate and anger, so much anger, what, on the other hand, surprised me was that the largest part was unwavering Loyalty towards me. Made sense, even though Shadow Stalker was the origin of this shadow, all things considered, she was a creature of my making.

I dived deeper, and without expending any effort, I was in full control, of her body and her senses; everything was mine to do with as I pleased. I retreat without a moment's notice and recognized regret at this action from her, my shadow, but it was just too disturbing to see myself covered from head to toe in blood grime, dead bugs, and remnants of female hygiene products sticking to parts of my clothes.

I handed my shadow dagger over to Shadow Sophia, which I started duping as Assassin in my head to prevent confusing myself, at least for the moment, this had to suffice. Until I came up with something better. Naming was never my strong suit, but given what I know of Shadow Stalker and Sophia. It was a far more apt description of her than the name she duped herself with ever could be.

There was something else I discovered while I opened myself to my power. I could sense various; I think light would be an apt description around me in varying sizes. The position of the largest three coincided with the location of the dead capes while the small ones were for the most part located inside my locker. Curious about this, I made the last step towards the corpse of the big guy I was unable to save. I knelt down next to him and looked one last time at him, repressing the memories of watching his insides being stuffed with metal Hookwolf excreted when he noticed he was unable to do any damage to him before I finally touched him.

I could feel my power establishing a connection to this light I sensed. My power slowly but steadily enveloped and absorbed it, and the next thing I knew. The light changed color from a yellow to the pitch-black of my shadow as it became a part of me, like Sophia before him. Meanwhile, my eyes saw the corpse being swallowed by shadow like it happened with Sophia.

I concentrated on this new part of me and, with a slight push, in front of me materialized a naked version of the corpse. No, the word materializing would do the process, I witnessed no justice. He alighted from the shadows on the floor as if his body was slowly formed out of it. He basically grew out of the shadow. I was so distracted by this sight, that I nearly missed the feeling of elevation I experienced, the moment the light became part of me.

I was given no time to admire the sight because the sounds of the fight outside started to ebb. Which meant my time was running out. I hurried over to what was left of the other two parahumans and repeated this process, this time, I didn't prolong this process in an attempt to gain a sliver of understanding. When I was done with them, I thought of my next course of action.

I didn't think being found out to be a cape in the first five minutes of becoming one, was a good idea. Not that I had the slightest clue on how to prevent it. After all, I was standing in a hallway together with four naked people made out of shadows.

I couldn't even finish that thought when suddenly all of them melted into shadows on the floor and made their way towards mine and hid in it. I examined my shadow very closely, but I couldn't see any difference. If I didn't know any better, I would never have guessed that they were there.

Good, that took care of one of my immediate problems, but I was still standing in this hallway. Clothed in blood and toxic waste, not exactly inconspicuous. Even if I could somehow prevent myself from being seen while leaving here, I would create an easy to follow trail. As a result, it would only be a matter of time for someone to find me and ask questions at best delay the inevitable; someone making a connection to 4 capes disappearing and myself.

Since I sure as hell didn't want to be part of an organization Sophia Hess was part of; For all, I knew they enabled her.

What brought me to my next point of concern, wouldn't they suspect the girl tortured by Sophia as the most likely culprit behind her disappearance? Shit.

I looked around, hoping to find something that could help me, and for once, it seemed luck was on my side, where I spotted a bandolier half full with cylindrical objects. I have watched enough movies to identify them as grenades. Perfect with the small fires spread around, it shouldn't be too suspicious if the grenades left behind by those parahumans were to explode.

And if they had to dig through tons of rubble to find anything, all the better. A plan was forming in my head; on how to place the grenades evenly spread throughout the corridor to maximize destruction. Before I could set my plan in motion, I heard footsteps from someone running, and they were getting closer. Damn.

I didn't have any time to curse my bad luck. The newcomer turning the corner didn't need to look for me, as I was standing in plain sight right in the middle of the hallway; It was impossible not to see me.

The girl I came face to face with, was of Asian descent around my age. She wore slim black jeans enunciating her legs and a black long-sleeved top. She had black straight shoulder-length loose hair, which was accentuated with silver streaks in it getting more numerous the further away they were from her head. It somehow looked like her hair was aging along its length, and gave her some kind of exotic vibe. I couldn't help but be reminded of a vampire when looking at her, her dark eyelashes pale skin and dark lipstick only reinforced this impression.

"Hi, you must be Taylor right," she said in a strangely melodic voice. Before she could continue her mind seemed to catch up with her mouth. "Oh my god, what happened to you?"

She didn't give me time to answer, and frankly, I was not sure my voice was in any condition to, having screamed myself hoarse the first few minutes in the locker. I doubted I would be able to get out

anything coherent. The pervasive taste of vomit in my mouth didn't exactly encourage me to even think about using my voice or mouth for anything, really. It was hard enough as it was to blank out those sensations.

"Not important," she changed the topic with some urgency. "We have to get out of here. Crusader is fighting directly outside of the building against the police. We need to move. Come on."

She grabbed my arm, clearly suppressing her discomfort at touching me, not something I could blame her for, given the state I was in. Honestly, I was more than a little surprised that this total stranger was willing to do that at all.

She dragged me away from the hallway, constantly looking over her shoulder to make sure she didn't go too fast, and I could keep up with her.

I sidelined the questions I had regarding the behavior and willingness of this girl to help me the Pariah of this school and dedicated my thoughts to my immediate problem; Erasing all traces of what happened in the hallway and my involvement in it.

I couldn't go back there without raising any suspicion with this girl, but I somehow had to. Otherwise, I would be found out. But did I have to? I now had powers. I could just send some of my shadows to do the deed.

I waited until this girl was dragging me around another corner and was facing forward when I sent Assassin as a shadow out of my shadow to trail back to where we came from.

I immersed myself in her senses and steered her back. It was quite interesting to get her sensory input while she was a two-dimensional construct. The way she perceived the world in that state was alien.

It took Assassin mere seconds to reach the Bandolier lying in the Hallway. I fully materialized her body had her grab those grenades. Under my instructions, she then proceeded to loosen them from the Bandolier and carefully placed them near those small fires throughout the hallway.

She used the paper from a notepad, she found in the midst of this destruction to make a makeshift slow match leading from the fire to the grenades.

Hopefully, this would be enough to get them to explode and do enough damage that my presence would be erased; or at least muddle the traces enough for them to not outright lead to me. At worst, I hoped that it would buy me time.

I was about to place the last grenade when Assassin saw a white flash, and I felt the whole building shake. The Grenades, some of them must have exploded prematurely. Creating a chain reaction in which all of them exploded, and Assassin was right next to it. Did I kill her? No, there was still something there. I could still feel the tether that connected me to her, but she was fragmented.

I tried to draw those fragments back to me and to put them back together. It seemed possible, but there was something else. The way those fragments were trying to get something from me. It was hard to describe, but I was reasonably sure they were somehow asking for permission. I was at a loss for what they were exactly asking for, but I saw no reason to deny their request.

In the next moment, I felt like somebody kicked me in my gut with all their strength. Suddenly I felt drained of a substantial part of my remaining energy. I was already weakened and had trouble just walking straight after my ordeal despite the good absorbing those capes did. But now I even lost that. I was completely sapped of my strength, barely able to even move let alone to walk.

I stumbled, lacking the strength to lift my foot off the ground, getting caught in my other foot. I nearly fell to my knees, only bracing myself against the wall prevented worse. Something that didn't go unnoticed. The girl dragging me along got a worrying look on her face.

"Is everything alright?" she asked concerned "Can you keep going we have to get as far away as possible from whatever this was?"

The glances she cast back at irregular intervals made it clear she was frightened. The explosion I caused only heightened her fears.

I nodded at her, which didn't stop her from examining me for a moment, and then added.

"Are you sure? We can take a break and hide here somewhere until you are feeling?"

I shook my head. She accepted my denial and lead me towards the gym. This time at a more sedate pace.

I didn't question her. I was too occupied with what I learned about my power. Apparently, I was able to regenerate my shadows to full health should they ever be destroyed, but it was something that weakened me considerably. Good to know. I ordered the two-dimensional form of Assassin to return to me. She dissolved under the debris that once was the Hallway, and spawned in my shadow.

This also cost me dearly, not nearly the same amount it took me to regenerate her.

But it added up, with the weakened state my body left in after I was finally able to free myself from the locker. I was on my very last leg. I had to be careful or I would pass out. The girl brought me to the gym and literally dragged me inside a shower stall.

"You don't happen to have a locker with some clothes and other stuff around here?"

I shook my head at her inquiry. Since my late mother's flute, one of the last mementos I possessed of her went missing from inside my locker. As a result, I no longer trusted school lockers with any of my stuff and avoided using them as much as possible. Since then I only ever stashed easy to replace things in them and then only for short periods of time. Funny how that turned out, instead of damaging the things I left in the locker, they... no, I was not going there.

"Okay, nothing we can't handle. You should get cleaned up. While you do that, I'll see what I can scavenge," she said. "I should have a fresh towel here somewhere, and I might be able to find something for you to wear."

She paused a moment looking me over.

"I hope you weren't too attached to those clothes because I don't think they will be good for anything else than fuel for a fire. Considering how abyssal they smell we really should burn them to prevent a disease outbreak. For the same reason, you should hurry to get out of those clothes and clean yourself as thoroughly as possible. Leave the rest to me. There has to at least be a tracksuit in your size around here somewhere since I sincerely doubt mine will fit you. We will leave that as a last resort."

With those words, she closed the stall doors behind me and left for her scavenger hunt.

For a moment, I pondered what to do and was wondering if this could be the next stage in Emma's prank. It would be easy to humiliate me further while being naked in the shower with no clothes left but discarded that thought near instantly. I didn't doubt that they were able to come up with something like this, but that they somehow found someone who would be willing to walk into or close to a cape fight to initiate this stage of their plan that I couldn't believe for a second. And so far, this girl whose name I still didn't know seemed trustworthy.

I decided to still keep my guard up around her, it wouldn't be the first time that someone approached me intending to befriend me only to stab me in the back in the cruelest way possible a few weeks later for shit's and giggles, all on the behalf of Emma.

Back then, I decided, to never let myself get deceived like that again, and I intended to uphold that silent vow I gave myself.

I started the shower and tried to get out of my clothes, an undertaking that was far more difficult than it sounded. With my vomit, grime, blood, and other fluids, I didn't want to even think about soaking my clothes, they stuck to my body as if glued to it. It took me considerable effort to get them off me. I even had to literally rip some parts of my skin.

When I finally got rid of them, I was so exhausted I barely could keep standing. I leaned against the stall and just enjoyed the warm water pouring over my body. I didn't know how long I stood there, eyes closed, allowing the water to wash away not only the dirt but also my worries. I was not only physically near the end of the rope but also mentally and emotionally drained. The day hadn't even really started yet, and I was ready to go to bed and sleep for a month straight. Thus I would just gonna stay put for a little while longer...

I didn't even notice that I was drifting into sleep until the voice speaking to me brought me back from twilight state.

"Here, a fresh towel, and I even found shower gel, don't hold back with it, use as much as you need to really get clean. So you can feel like a human once more."

She laid the towel on top of the stall and held the shower gel over it, waiting for me to take it. I pushed myself from the ground and had to fight off a dizzying spell to grab it and then followed her suggestions.

I scrubbed myself clean, like never before in my life, I was certain I lost the few layers of skin left by peeling the clothes from my skin in the process. The most time-intensive thing to get clean was my hair if you could still call it that after I was done with it because there were things entangled within it in ways that made it necessary to rip it out in no small amount.

This was probably the one thing that happened to me on this day that I regretted the most. I always loved my black curly beautiful hair, the one redeeming feature in my looks that saved me from being ugly. The one thing I cultivated in memory of dead mother, who wore her hair the same.

If I had any tears still left in me on this day, I would shed them until there were none left. But burned out as I was, I just took notice that I had to regrow them.

After what felt like an eternity being in the shower, I deemed myself cleaned and no longer felt the urge to start scrubbing myself over and over again. I took the towel and dried myself, and left my discarded clothes in the corner of the stall. I had to return for them at some point, but I didn't want to get near them or even touch them with my bare skin if I could help it.

I grabbed everything that wasn't a lost cause I had on consisting of my glasses, my wallet, and my keys, and stepped out into the changing room, with a towel coiled around my body, prepared for the worst-case scenario. Emma and friends being there waiting for me.

What I encountered instead was the girl. She had an assortment of clothes, a first aid kit, and a bottle of water, which she offered to me. I tried to thank her and suspected only a croak left my mouth. Instead of the thank you, I intended even I had trouble identifying it as such.

I took a sip of water and only realized how much I needed that as it ran down my throat. I nearly emptied the bottle without a break just to still my thirst.

The girl prompted me to sit down on one of the benches.

"We have to take care of your wounds, clean them to prevent an infection. We also have to make sure you aren't seriously hurt."

She opened the First aid kit, and after examing my wounds, consisting of a laundry list of things, lacerations, bug bites, bruises in different shades, she started to clean and disinfect them. I forgot how much it stung to get a wound disinfected. It didn't help that most cuts were on my hands, where the nerves were the most sensitive. After she finished bandaging me, I felt and looked like a mummy.

My hands and arms were wrapped up to my elbows. I had a bruise on the back-off my head from where Shadow Stalker threw me against a locker. There were a lot of other bruises, too. Mostly on my torso from when the locker was caught in the explosion, which gave the girl the excuse to wrap bandages around my midsection also. I was able to dissuade her from doing the same to my head.

When she was satisfied with playing doctor, she shifted her attention to the pile of clothes. At certain intervals, she held some piece of cloth in the air in front of me, to more often than not discard it with unintelligible mumbling. The more time elapsed, the smaller the pile in front of her got, until only a tracksuit boxershorts t-shirt, and a pair of socks were left.

"I'm really sorry, but it seems like you have to make do with this. As it seemed, I obviously only have the locker combination from girls a lot shorter than you."

Is she really telling me she got those clothes by stealing from lockers? I looked at her incredulously. She returned my look without a completely straight face that gave nothing away. She held my gaze for ten seconds until cracks appeared in her countenance, a twitch here and there till she broke down laughing.

It took her quite some time to get back her bearings, and while she was wiping away tears she said.

"You are hilarious, you know. You really thought I stole those clothes, did you? Don't worry those things belong to friends of mine. We shared our gym locker combinations with each other after one of us forgot to bring some essentials, and since we don't share P.E. with one another we thought it was a good idea, at least better than the alternative. They won't mind."

She then took the clothes and held them out to me. And in the most dramatic way possible she said.

"You, my friend get to choose, the towel of barely contained modesty or the tracksuit of bad fashion sense; the choice is yours."

Meanwhile, she did her best to suppress the grin, which was threatening to destroy the deadpan stare she sent my way. It was hard not to get infected by her antics, no matter how much I would have loved to join in, trust no longer came easy for me, and with everything else I had on my plate, I couldn't afford to let my guard down.

I took the clothes from her and motioned for her to turn around. What prompted her to pout, but still followed my request.

I dressed myself, and I had to concede she knew her way around clothes. They fit, barely, but I was not in a situation to be picky. I touched her shoulder to let her know that I finished.

She turned around with a smile on her face.

"And the curse was lifted from the mummy princess, and she became human once more."

Seriously, what is wrong with this girl. I took the towel and made my way back to the shower stall I was in before. I used the towel to grab my ruined clothes without making contact with them and wrapped it around them. I didn't fail to notice that the water must have washed most of the stink away because the desire to lose my non-existent stomach contents was absent. The girl seeing what I did provided me with a bag I stashed the towel with its contents into.

"So, since I doubt they are gonna carry on with school as usual. And in order to fulfill my responsibility as the hero toward the damsel in distress, may I take you home. "

I was not sure what part of her statement elicited the most distaste or what grimace my face turned into that made her clear up and reconsider her words.

"Sorry if that came out wrong, I just – you are still quite banged up, you stumbled more than walked your way here, and I was afraid of you losing consciousness on more than one occasion. I just don't think you should go home alone. So what do you say to reassure my fears, you allow me to bring you home. "

I couldn't make out any kind of deception in her statement, and it would save me a lot of trouble if she were to bring me home. So I decided to take her up on her offer and nodded. Which caused her to beam with a smile.

She took my free hand and dragged me along once more. While we made our way to one of the side entrances she made a call on her mobile phone. I didn't understand a word she said because she spoke in Japanese. I suspected it had something to do with her getting me home.

A suspicion, which was confirmed shortly after we left the building and a car stopped in front of us. The driver opened the door on the nearside.

"Jasmin, where did you run off to. We waited for you to go home together."

The now-named girl answered slightly embarrassed.

"Sorry Chuck, but I forgot something and went back inside when I ran into Taylor. And you know me, one thing leads to another"

"Oh no, not you, too. Seriously can you just not use that nickname."

the guy shot back nearly pleading.

"But it is funny."

Jasmin said, opened the backdoor for me prompted me to get in. While I did that I could hear his mumbled response.

"Yeah, yeah, funny my ass."

And I got my first good look at him. He has a slim and muscular with dark black wild hair, which I was sure hadn't made the acquaintance with a comb for quite some time.

Jasmin got in too and started to muss up the hair of Chuck.

"Is poor little Daisuke afraid that we are gonna forget his real name?"

He slapped her hand away.

"Stop that. You know exactly why I dislike it."

Or quietly thought to myself, it could be common practice to muck up his hairstyle. Grinning, Jasmin said.

"Yep, and that makes it even more fun to stick you with something like that."

He mumbled under his breath barely audible from where I sat.

"I really shouldn't have bragged and demonstrated my roundhouse kick."

"No, you really shouldn't have," she said and without warning started laughing like a maniac.

Recognizing when he lost an argument Daisuke or Chuck tried to switch the topic.

"So Taylor, right. How do you know this crazy one? I hope you weren't infected with her brand of crazy."

"Hey, I resent the implication." Jasmin defended herself with mock outrage.

I tried to answer his question using the hoarse sounds my vocal cords produced before I even brought out more than a word. Jasmin half-turned her head my way and interrupted me.

"You shouldn't talk just yet, Taylor. Your voice is still suffering from your cold. You shouldn't overwork it, otherwise it will take forever to get better. "

After she turned her head back towards the front she continued.

"Taylor and I are old friends. She needed a lift home, and in my boundless generosity I offered up your services, Chuck."

With a groan, Chuck started driving.

" Where to?" he wanted to know.

Jasmin took a pen and a post-it block and gave it to me. I wrote down my address and handed it back to her.

"Ahh, I know where this is." she happily proclaimed.

Jasmin then started to direct Chuck on how to get there. When we had to stop at a red light, Chuck handed something to Jasmin with the words.

"You know you shouldn't leave the house, without wearing this, it could get you in trouble."

She wordlessly took it from him, what turned out to be a bracelet, and put it on. What set me on alarm were the colors the bracelet sported. Red and Green. The colors of the Azn Bad Boys, one of the greatest gang in the Bay. Consisting exclusively of people of Asian descent.

My thought started raising a mile a minute. How could I have not seen that earlier? Jasmin was Asian, her friend, brother, or whatever Chuck was, was, too. In addition, he was wearing a green and red sweatshirt. How could I be so stupid and not notice this earlier? Was I too exhausted or was I deliberately lured into a false sense of security.

This was the only reason I could come up with why she didn't wear them. I wasn't that out of it when we met to disregard this survival instinct every resident of the bay has adapted to, when meeting new faces, check for gang affiliation. I remembered checking, because from what I understood, be it Empire 88, the gang of Nazi, the ABB, or the drug addicts of the Merchants gang colors were something to be proud of, something to be showcased. So why didn't she?

How could I have missed Chucks? Did I, despite my efforts to be careful around Jasmin, subconsciously label her safe and by association did the same with her friend. Could this be how kidnappers operated? I always thought you have to be stupid to get in such a situation, and now I was sitting in a car owned by a member of a gang, which had a reputation of forced prostitution, and I even got in willingly, stupid stupid stupid.

I kept myself calm, no need to tip my would-be kidnappers off. In this situation, I needed to keep a cool head and decide what the best course of action was. Damn, They now knew where I lived, I knew their faces and if the names I was given weren't fake I knew theirs too. They couldn't let me live even if I should manage to escape. What alternatives were there, should I kill them?

That was fast, how did I get from trying to flee to kill my would-be kidnappers shouldn't there be some other ideas in between to be discarded and discarded before arriving at cold-blooded murder.

Exhaustion alone shouldn't have such an effect on my judgment, my powers - I stopped my train of thought. That was ridiculous.

There had to be another explanation - if you have a hammer all problems started to like nails.

I mean, I got powers, which made it awfully easy to end a life, not even considering what my shades are capable of.

But wasn't I getting a little ahead of myself here; who said they are even attempting to kidnap me? Maybe, just maybe she genuinely cared about me and my wellbeing. Sure she might be a gang member but weren't most going to Winslow. There had to be a totally reasonable explanation why she, why they were members of the ABB.

Yeah, right who was I kidding. That would mean a day where Lady Luck for once wasn't shitting on me. I must have been a child molester or a nazi in my previous life to accumulate that much bad karma.

No matter, how much time I used to contemplate. I didn't come up with a reason why they would get close to me, for a moment I considered if this whole thing might be connected to my Dad, I mean he was the Head of Hiring for DWU and had a certain cloud with them, but I discarded this idea pretty fast. The DWU was a nonentity after pretty much all shipping stopped with the emergence of Leviathan, which meant the main reason for a drug peddling gang to approach someone from the Dockworkers didn't exist.

"And here we are," she said. I was ripped out from my thoughts.

I didn't even notice when we stopped at my front porch. Jasmin exited the car together with me and escorted me to the door. I stopped in front of it. And did my best to get out some words in a way that they were recognizable as such.

"I won't be joining the ABB," I managed to press out in a croaking whisper. Her response consisted of looking strangely at me.

"That's why you are here isn't it? To recruit me, guess the only Asian thing, isn't true. What other reason could there be for you to approach me?"

She looked at me bewildered, probably surprised that I figured out her plan.

"Taylor, what are you talking about?" she wondered nonplussed.

"You can drop your act. I don't buy it." I hissed at her and regretted it immediately as pain blossomed in my throat despite it, I pressed on, "tell me why me, was it the fact that I'm a pariah that I have no friends, an easy target, or was there something more to why I was deemed worthy of being recruited? Well, it doesn't really matter. I won't join your gang, not now, not ever, so stay away from me and tell your friends from the ABB to do the same."

She stood there unmoving for a few moments, probably still processing what happened until she said.

"Interesting way to say thank you. Goodbye, Taylor."

She turned around and left. For a moment, I thought to have seen her eyes moisten, but that couldn't be right must have been the light.

I opened the door and stepped inside, dropped my bag slipped out of my shoes. Without making a detour, I walked to my room and went to bed.

Authors Note: Well if I would consider actually continuing this story, I most likely would have given the last part another look. Taylor jumped to those conclusions a little bit fast, and I'm not sure her being dead tired and going through the events of the day would solely justify her lashing out in that way.

As you can probably guess, the idea would have been after Taylor had time to think this all over, to have her realize that she screwed. Apologize and, after a little back and forth enter a friendship with her. From there, she would slowly but surely come into contact with the Asian culture of the Bay... their living arrangements... their worries.

Allowing her to see another face of the people there. Coming to realize that for most joining the ABB was a matter of survival either because of the money it provided them with, protection... or in Jasmin's case not to end up in one of their farms.

Jasmin eventually would have gotten into hot water with one of the higher-ups of the ABB on behalf of Taylor and it would have spiraled out of control from there...