THE EASTERN SEABOARD, UNITED STATES
Continued
Ammon forced a smile when his front door opened and Sam stood in the doorway. Her face was as impassive as he'd ever seen it and he repressed a sigh. He was playing along for now, but he was losing patience.
"Good morning."
No answer.
Sam emptied her bag and stood waiting, tight-lipped and tense.
"How is everyone?" Ammon tried again, gritting his teeth when she refused to answer. "Okay," he muttered around clenched teeth and headed to his storage room, trying not to lose his cool. Sam was being ridiculous. He grabbed a few cans of soup and a Hershey's Kiss from his shelves and then shut the door behind him with a little more force than necessary. "Here you go."
Sam gathered the cans up without saying anything, but left the candy. When she turned to go, Ammon couldn't stop the words that blurted out of his mouth, "Have they asked about me?"
Sam paused on her way to the door, but didn't reply or turn around. When she was gone, Ammon slumped against the edge of the counter. His fingers pressed hard against his eyes as he groaned.
Meanwhile
Tonks reapplied her Disillusionment charm and edged around the corner of what used to be Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts. The once beautiful shopping district was unrecognisable.
She and Nikolai were here to report upon the situation and to find an appropriate avenue for a safehouse. Rumours of the gang activity stretching from New York City to Boston and Washington D.C. had reached the Order.
"Zis is exerrrcise in madness," Nikolai whispered from a few steps ahead.
"Shh," Tonks admonished, catching up and bumping into him in the process. "Oh! Sorry." Tonks brushed his shoulder off and looked around, watching the interaction on the street with contemplative eyes. Teenagers loitered around various burning trash barrels, laughing and rough-housing. The buildings that were still standing were clear-cut territories; the oldest kids were posted outside as some kind of sentinel, keeping anyone who didn't belong at a healthy distance. When lines were crossed, things got ugly.
Tonks flinched as one boy, maybe thirteen or so, was walking by a nearby house and made eye contact with the kid sitting on the porch steps. He must have taken the eye contact as a challenge; in the next second, the sentinel was on his feet, his face twisted with menace, and the boy almost fell backward, tripping in his haste to get away.
Trash lined the streets. Tonks was afraid to look at anything too close. The smell was overwhelming. Sour, like spoiled milk and rancid meat. She had seen a lot in the past few years, but this was more than she could bear. All these kids. She searched for and found Nikolai's hand and held on tight.
Everywhere she looked, it was the same. Undernourished teenagers, some with hard glints in their eyes and others with beaten expressions and distant gazes, as if they weren't active participants in their own lives.
It was too much.
She steeled her shoulders. If these kids could live it, she could bear to witness it.
She wanted to wrap her arms around them all and take them home.
When they came upon a large group of scantily-dressed girls, Tonks had to swallow back the rising bile in her throat. "I can't—" She gasped, choking on the putrid air. After a tense minute, she whispered, "This is so much worse than I expected it to be."
Nikolai squeezed her hand and led her towards what appeared, at first glance, to be a deserted alley, so they could Apparate away.
A distant voice. "Oooh, she thinks she's so tough." A low laugh.
"Holy hell on toast, the smell."
"Divers always smell rank, Toon. But doesn't matter, does it, sweetheart? Not for what I've got in mind."
Tonks, alarmed, pressed forward, towards the sound of confrontation. She couldn't let someone get hurt, not when she could do something to stop it.
Tonks and Nikolai both paused when they reached the deepest end of the alley and the sight that met them there.
A small girl, maybe seventeen, with short dark hair, was facing three lanky teen boys. But the girl, whoever she was, didn't look scared. Something in her eyes froze Tonks in her tracks.
The tallest boy, maybe the most self-assured, reached forward and tucked a strand of the girl's hair behind her ear.
She flinched back. "Don't touch me." She growled the words. When he only grinned and stepped closer, burying his hand in her hair with the obvious intent of going in for a forced kiss, there was a flurry of sudden movement—and then he dropped to the ground.
Tonks wasn't sure what had happened, not until the girl held a knife out and tilted her head at the other two, who were staring from her to their friend convulsing and then stilling, in shock.
One made to throw himself at her, but the other gripped him hard around the shoulders and pulled him back. He struggled, finally throwing him off, and barrelled towards the girl.
She sidestepped and he went careening towards the alley wall before he turned with a flushed and outraged expression on his face.
"Is that the best you can do?" the girl taunted, and he lunged towards her, but, anticipating his move, she averted his attack.
"I'm going to kill you, princess."
"You're going to have to catch me first, princess," she taunted. She took a few steps back, drawing him further from his friend, who was staring down at his fallen gang member, nudging his side with his bare toe as if he could wake him up.
Tonks stared, open-mouthed, as the scene played out before her. She didn't know what horrified her more: the depravity of the streets, the casual, thinly veiled threats of rape, or the dead look in so many of these kids' eyes.
The girl waited for him to make his next move and when he did, she took the blow, but delivered one of her own, kneeing him as hard as she could in the groin. She then kicked against his chest, sending him sprawling onto his back. Standing over him, her back to Tonks and Nikolai where they remained hidden, she looked down at the boy in contempt. "Do you like hitting girls, you pathetic coward?" Her voice dropped an octave, "Sometimes girls hit back." She kicked the ground next to him, scattering a few rocks, then turned away from him as he groaned. Raising her hood, she headed towards the street. She paused next to the other gang member, meeting his eyes with her dispassionate gaze. He looked away after a moment and she made a quick escape.
Tonks made to follow her, and Nikolai grabbed her hand, trying to restrain her, but Tonks was quick when she wanted to be and she freed herself, giving him a sharp jab with her elbow to his gut. As Nikolai grunted in frustration, Tonks skipped away after the girl who was turning the corner, soon to disappear from view.
"Impossible voman," Nikolai muttered under his breath.
A light chuckle drifted back to him from the mouth of the alley, causing him to smile, and he hastened to catch up.
Nothing, I regret nothing, Sam thought for the fifth time, but that did little to stop her hands from shaking or the image of the blank shock on his face from lingering in her vision. She flexed her fingers, trying to dispel the queasiness that was rearing its ugly head.
Underneath all of that, though, something else was bothering her.
She paused, listening, and cast her eyes around, but she didn't see anyone out of the ordinary. The closer she got to The Hole, however, the stronger the feeling she was being followed became. The instinct was physical, an itching between her shoulder blades, and the sense had never let her down before. Sam's steps slowed and she detoured into an empty side street; she didn't have the time or patience for games—enough was enough. She stopped in front of a garbage bin, concentrating on her hearing; steps a short distance away came to an abrupt, audible stop on the pea gravel scattered across the cracked pavement.
Caught you, she thought, with a mental smile.
Sam gripped one of the knives up the sleeve of her hoodie, pulling it out with great care, so as to not let whoever was trailing her realize what she was doing just yet. Her brows furrowed and she turned, exposing her knife in the process, taking in her surroundings with extra caution, warning and threat clear in her stance.
Tonks reapplied the Disillusionment Charm on herself, while Nikolai did the same and then cast another Silencio, soundlessly grumbling.
They returned their attention to the girl staring around with fierce suspicion.
Throwing caution to the wind (for a Hufflepuff, Tonks had a wild streak of Gryffindor in her when the mood struck), Tonks grinned in Nikolai's general direction. She couldn't see him and he couldn't see her, but his eyes widened in dawning realization (they had been working together for so long, he could sense these things) and he reached for her hand. She slipped through his fingers, already approaching the girl.
Tonks then released her Disillusionment Charm, raising her hands in a friendly surrender.
Tonks was curious, and her curiosity was irresistible.
