Renegade
Chapter 4: Miles
When I woke up in the morning, I got dressed and headed out my bedroom door. I saw Nick sleeping in the easy chair and almost gave out a yell, but then the memory of what had happened yesterday came back to me. I looked over at the couch to see how Miles was doing. He must have been feeling better, because he was gone. I was horrified. I ran all around the house searching for him. I finally gave up searching after half an hour, and instead tried to figure out how I was going to explain to Nick that Miles had disappeared. I was about to wake him when I heard the window behind me open. I pulled my .22 out of the drawer in the coffee table and turned around as fast as I could. Before I noticed that it was Miles who had just come in, he had taken my gun and was now aiming it at me. "Whoa! Miles it's you. Oh thank God. Where have you been?" He still had the gun trained on me. "And can you please give me the gun."
He spun the gun around and handed it back to me. "Sorry, just a little on edge."
"Me too." I decided it was a good time for me to introduce myself. "John Colman" I said, extending my hand.
"Miles Prower" he said, taking it. "Sorry Nick dragged you into my life."
"Actually, I dragged myself into it. Hey, would you like something to eat?"
"Not now, thank you, I'm not that hungry." I noticed that a sad smile was the only kind he could muster, and only for a second.
Nick, who had been stirring while we spoke, suddenly sat up. "No you don't Miles! You haven't eaten any real food in days." He looked up at me. "Give him something."
"What?" I had no idea what two tailed mutant foxes ate.
"Give him some cereal, he'll eat that," he said, then muttered, "usually."
I went to go get some cereal for Miles. When I came back, I decided to ask him some questions. "Miles, can I ask you a few questions?"
"You can ask. I may not answer."
"Fair enough. Where are you from? Like, are you a mutant fox from Earth, or are you an alien, or what?" Miles sighed. "I don't mean to be rude."
"It's okay. As far as I can tell, I'm from an alternate dimension."
"Really? Is there a time difference or anything like that?"
"No. Our years are different lengths, but time is the same."
"Speaking of years, how old are you, Miles?"
"Back home, I'm eight. Here, I'm almost fifteen." Fourteen? He looked like he could be twice that age. His voice, his unkempt fur, his eyes had apparently all aged prematurely.
"How long have you been here on Earth, Miles?"
"Two months" he said matter-of-factly. I gawked. How had nobody noticed him in two months! Then I remembered that he lived in the Ditch. Nobody had noticed him because nobody went in there to sightsee. And that's when it hit me.
I had gotten a lead on a story a month ago. It seemed that the crime rate on the outskirts of the Ditch was dropping, especially rapes. In my investigation, I discovered that someone had decided to fight back. No one could describe the vigilante to me. All they could say was that he moved fast and didn't seem to be entirely human. I looked across the table at Miles. "Miles, where were you this morning?" I asked, trying to hide my intentions.
"Richard Shnell was up to his old tricks again. He had to be stopped."
"Shnell, the guy who just got paroled?"
"Yeah. Better not happen again." A dark look came over Miles's eyes as he said that. I was worried. The vigilante-Miles- had killed three people over his career. I suddenly realized what that meant. I was harboring a murderer. Sure those guys deserved death. They were all murderers themselves. But didn't everyone deserve death? Miles knew what I was thinking. "One was an accident, the other two were self-defense."
I prayed silently, asking God what I should do. Help him. I realized that I still had no real idea of who I was dealing with, or how I could possibly help him. "Hey, Miles, I have and idea. You can stay in my house, but I have to hear your story."
"Why?"
"Because I feel that God's calling me to help you" I said, knowing full well how lame that sounded. "And I'm curious."
"You too? I honestly don't think there's anything you can do for me" he said quietly, eyes downcast.
"I have to try."
"Alright, deal." Suddenly his head snapped up and his muscles tensed. He sat there for two seconds, then rushed to the window. "I'll be back later!" he yelled, and as I looked on, he used his two tails as a rotor and lifted himself off the ground and out the window. He hadn't touched his cereal.
I watched him fly away. "Wow" I said to myself.
Nick laughed. "I gave up saying that last week." I looked over at him.
"Nick, what should I do?"
"About what?"
"About Miles. I mean, he's a mutant fox from another dimension. Not only that, he spends his days catching rapists."
"That only happens when he's not feeling too bad."
"And he's depressed!" I was exasperated. "Thank you for reminding me! Plus, he's killed three people." Nick looked at me gave me a look, as if he were trying to decide whether to tell me something or not. "Nick, it is three people, right?"
"Actually, it's five."
"What happened with the other two guys?" I asked, afraid to know the answer.
"Miles…he, uh,…he kinda lost control of himself. Let things get out of hand. He should probably be the one to tell you about it." Wonderful, a psycho mutant two tailed fox.