Spoiler
This is a long one, they all won't be as long as this :) Enjoy x
Chapter THREE: HEARTLESS
LOCATION: the Bridge
Ah, the boys.
As I strapped my cold dirty knife to my shin, I yawned and checked my watch. 11:30 Christ, mum would have definitely closed the door by now. All the kids from the private school lived in the rich side of Glasgow, where stupid Footballers and ugly movie stars owned houses. I had lived there at one point with my father, but now I lived in the most deprived part of Glasgow. Someone opening their door at 11 o’clock at night was like pressing the detonation button on an atom bomb. I made one friend when I was fourteen, but she got away, her father moved her somewhere.
I started to walk at a quick pace and when I reached the park gate I steadily wheeled around the corner. This happened to me occasionally, mum shutting the door on me. The first night it happened was about a year ago, it was frightening. I wasn’t prepared like I was nowadays. I had nothing on me and had wandered around the most deprived streets of Glasgow at night in tears, scared and alone. Then I found Salvation, a Bridge. It was quite deserted and a little more into the middle class are of town so it seemed safer. I had fallen down at the side of the bridge hyperventilating and panicking. The bridge was filthy, chewing gum and cigarette butts covered the floor and the smell of urine wouldn’t leave. I knew I would have to sleep rough, but I didn’t know how.
Then the boys turned up. They were all about the same age as me. They all looked at me with pity, but I had thought they were a gang, rightly so. I had screamed for about half an hour before I would let them talk to me. They explained to me, finally, that they were teenage runaways and they would never dream about hurting me. I believed them immediately, there was something about them you could trust. They had a leader; Jared. He had just sat there and held me the whole night saying anything. When I woke up I had a blanket over me and a £2 coin. I know that doesn’t seem like much to you maybe not even to me, but to them it was like giving away a million pounds. The bridge was theirs at night and they always welcomed me from there on out. Jared and his crew were the only people I could trust or dream of trusting.
As soon as I was a meter away from the bridge all the boy’s heads had snapped to look at me grinning. Jared was tall and muscled; his dark skin was indented with inked tattoos he had got when he was fifteen. He wasn’t smiling or frowning when he saw me; he looked haunted. He stepped forward and grabbed my face into one of his hands.
“Get off” I frowned at him, the edges of his mouth curled slightly as he examined my face.
“Well that’s good” His voice was husky and dark “she didnea hit you” He let go of my face and I scolded him while he laughed. “Just looking out for you”
“Hey look” It was Pierce he was the youngest out of them and the newest; he had joined about a month ago. He was only fourteen. He was a little punier compared to the older ones Tyrone and Sasha, who looked like they could knock you out with one touch. “White girls arrived”
I looked so out of place with them, they were all black, tall and muscled, and I was small, white and ginger and yet they looked after me like a family, something I hadn’t had in a long time.
“GINGER” Sasha called “We began to think that you weren’t comin’ back. Where’ve ya bin?”
“Would that be a bad thing?” It was Tyrone who asked. The most striking thing about Tyrone was the scar that was drawn halfway down his dark face and split through his full lips. His hair was as black as the night sky. His eyes were black too. He has had such a bad life though, way worse than mine. He never talked about it, he always kept it to himself. He had always been a suffer-in-silence type. All I knew about him was he had been in a behavior institute for problem boys in care when he was thirteen but don’t be too quick to judge. If you looked pass the scar, the institute and the bad attitude then he was incredibly handsome. You just had to look for the gentleman inside of him. I looked at him as he leaned against the furthest side of the bridge. He was frowning still. I gave him a slight smile and he growled.
Everyone was here; Jared, Tyrone, Brendan, Pierce, Leon, Davion, Sasha, but where was Nario?
“Heya everyone” I gave them all a little smile and turned to Jared “Where’s Nario?”
“He went out to town to get us some food, man!” exclaimed Davion who looked incredibly excited.
“Oh, you got some money?” I asked. Where from? Hum, that is what I want to know. “where did you get it?” I looked at Jared; I could see something he was trying so desperately to hide in those dark eyes.
“He should really be back by now I’m a little worried”
“You didn’t answer the question” I told him. Jared squared his shoulders; he wasn’t going to tell me. He was incredibly stubborn. I signed and flopped my bag to the floor lazily. I was so tired.
“Think fast” pierce said. I turned and a shadow was coming at me at a fast rate. I only barley caught it. The sleeping bag was surprisingly heavy. It was one of the more thermal ones with the extra paddings. Some of the sleeping bags the boys kept were just as good, if not better than the holey mattress at home. It was blue, my favourite colour.
“You look so tired” Jared took the sleeping bag out of my hands and was spreading it out for me.
“It’s only Monday you know” Leon laughed.
“Did something happen?” Pierce asked.
I told them everything about the new boy and the dream, but not the voice, because that was just complete and utter insanity. All of them, well most of them, actually seemed interested; this was the best part of them. They actually cared about me and what I thought. I had thought of running with them, but I had to keep the scholarship or I might as well throw everything back in my father’s cold dead face.
“Wait? What did he say when he woke you up?” Jared asked
“Something like, I better go before they get on my... trail” I never thought how weird that was. Trail... what trail? I turned to Jared and he was thinking about something carefully in his head, but he shook it off giving me a small smile.
“What a weird kid”
“Yeah your life is so hard with all their snarky comments and a new boy that doesn’t like you straight away, I bet you die every night in your sleep” Tyrone stammered, the hurt in his voice couldn’t be mistaken but he was doing his best to hide it. He suddenly stood up and was about to go and sulk.
“Aye and with a father that died in front of your eyes and an abusive mother that said she would be much happier without her and uses physical violence against her own daughter, yeah her life is a fairy tale” Jared had risen from his seat and had his hands grasped in fists.
“Hey come on guys stop it!” I said, Leon gave me a look that read ‘shut up’.
“You heard the lady” Jared snarled “Stop it” Tyrone turned and walked away. His long muscled legs defining with each step. His pace quick and determined to get as far away as possible from me, well he wasn’t getting away from me that easily.
“Tyrone wait” I called grabbing my spare clothes from the side. I’d have to change somewhere after I had talked to him. Jared grabbed my elbow.
“You’re not going anywhere”
“Let go of me Jared” I paused; he wasn’t going to let me go that easily. “I have a knife” I threatened.
“Aye, a knife you have no clue how to use” Davion and Sasha sniggered in the background.
“Let me go” I asked again. Jared was looking directly into my eyes, searching for something. He seemed to give up his brown eyes wondering to the floor. He let go of my arm and muttered something I didn’t hear and I headed for the way Tyrone had gone.
“Tyrone” I called heading away from the middle class suburbs and to the darkest part of town. I could see his shadow a couple of meters in front of me. I ran with all the energy I had left. Not much I realised.
I stood routed to the spot. It was so dark. To my left was a really scary looking ally, I took a breath and walked slowly towards the dark pit of nothingness. It took a minute for my eyes to get used to the lack of light, finally as my sight was clearing. I could see him.
“Oh Tyrone” I leant down to where he was. He wasn’t crying or showing any emotion even his eyes were cold, but his voice was screaming.
“Leave”
“No” I brought my hand out to reach his. His head moved away before I could reach it.
“Your life is so pathetic” He struggled getting the words out “and you know why? Because you never do anything! You let everyone just stand there and abuse you and you let them”
“Do you want to know why?” I asked him sliding down in front of him. His legs were brought up to his chest and I hopped my head on his knees and looked straight into his black gleaming eyes.
“No because it will be a valid reason and it will make you seem more amazing than you already are” There was a moment of silence where I took in everything he said... he called me amazing, no one had ever called me amazing before, not even my father.
“Oh don’t look so shocked, it’s why I pretend to hate you so much. You know how long it’s taken me just to admit that my whole family is gone? And for you just to come and waltz around knowing you have no one like me and be so frickin’ happy looking... I’ve known you for a year now and I liked you from the first moment I saw you round the bridge, but I shouldn’t like anybody Lily, it’s always been me on my own and you had to come and ruin it for me.” He growled the last sentence and turned his head to the floor. He sat like that for about five minutes... no way I was leaving now.
“How do you deal with everything” He whispered at last “I just shove it all down until my head explodes and I hurt something” I took a slow breath in before I answered.
“Someone somewhere has it far worse than you- sitting around feeling sorry for yourself is stupid. It won’t change anything. Just don’t pay attention to yourself keep your head down and you’ll be fine... for the time being anyway”
“I couldn’t do that I would have to prove to whoever it was that I was ten times better than them”
“At what... fighting? You wanna be a bigger man, ignore them and stay out of trouble” He laughed his dark eyes looked away from mine and a dark smile was plastered on his face. He looked a bit like a mad clown, I had always hated clowns.
“Aye, easy for you to say you go to a posh school, grew up in a good neighbourhood; you have no idea what it’s like growing up in the ghetto”
“No I don’t, but I know that if for one night you didn’t do anything illegal you could feel the difference” He looked at me with confused eyes. “Aye, that’s right. I know you steal and I know the only reason you have money is because you’ve been trading drugs”
“How’d you find out?”
“I saw a brownish powder that Jared was looking at when he was avoiding telling me where he got the money from” I frowned. “Just tell me you’re not taking it and what it is”
His eyes where always black, it was impossible to tell whether it had anything to do with drugs.
“It’s only Marijuana, we got it from some fifteen year old, we only sold it to one person but you know what Jared’s like, he’s going to bin it tomorrow and no I don’t do drugs” . I couldn’t be sure, they were all capable of lying. If they were found with it, a big prison sentence was awaiting them and I didn’t want to see any of them get hurt.
“Just promise me one thing” I asked.
“What?”
“You’ll stop trading drugs, if you’re caught you will be in prison for a very long time this time” He seemed to deliberate something in his head, but shook it off as he turned to me. His face flushed slightly... not sure what of, but of something.
I’ll do a trade, I will promise to not sell drugs if I get a kiss” My head snapped. “Will you stop looking so shocked”
“Well?” He asked.
“You’re obviously on drugs”
“Nope” Just than a lamppost I didn’t know existed flickered on shedding off yellow light on me, making my hair glow. Tyrone straightened up and straightened out his legs. He pulled me forward into his body.
“Bonnie lass” He held my face in his hands and with a sudden relief his lips hit mine. It was magic. He was being so gentle; he was never like this with anyone. His hands fell to my waist pulled me even more into him. I took my hands from by my side and lifted them up so I held his face. I found myself pushing myself into him. He chuckled slightly. Fighting back at me with his body, before I knew it we were kneeling and nowhere near stopping. ‘Need to sleep’ the thought came out of nowhere, but I didn’t want to stop. It was amazing. I reluctantly pulled away from him.
“Sleep” I murmured.
“Hush” he whispered, I looked up at him. His forehead was still touching mine his eyes still closed. I pulled out from his arms and stood up. My legs were like jelly. He was suddenly upright.
“Who’d think me with a white girl?” he grinned.
“Who said anything about being with each other?”
“I’m not letting you get away now... I waited a year for that” I felt all the blood rush to my face but thankfully the lamppost flickered off again to hide the embarrassment but then started sticking on and off again giving me a slight headache. Tyrone suddenly peered around my shoulder looking behind me. His eyes widened and he gasped.
I turned reluctantly, not wanting to know what it was. The wall opposite us was smeared with blood, blackening dirty dripping blood. The smell suddenly hit me, copper. I was going to be sick.
“What the” Tyrone was walking towards the wall.
“Tyrone don’t” I said “Let’s get out of here” Tyrone went on like I hadn’t said anything at all. As he reached the wall he bent down and was picking something up. “Urg Tyrone don’t please” He stood and turned towards me, in his hands were shredded bits of cloth, originally clothes.
“Oh god Tyrone you don’t think someone was you know”
“Raped? No, I don’t think so” I flinched he was talking about it so casually. I suppose he’s been surrounded with it for so long he doesn’t take much notice.
“Look” He said pointing towards more clothing and blood “It’s a trail” he started to walk following it.
“Tyrone don’t, come on, let’s go back to camp, they might be getting worried”
“You can if you can find your way back” He turned and gave me a dark grin. I frowned at him; he made a gesture at me with his hands to follow him. I did. I was finding it hard to walk, probably the fact I was trying not to look at the blood trail on the floor. I checked my watch. 1:30, you’re kidding. Once I was by his side he took my hand and squeezed it. I was worried about what we’d find at the end of the trail and I was right to be. Once we got closer and closer into the light of the nearest lamppost we saw it.
It was Nario naked and missing a heart, literally missing a heart. I screamed I couldn’t help looking at the gaping hole in his chest, blood was everywhere and it looked black... like it did on the wall. This thick black liquid flowed freely from my friend’s chest. A Tesco bag sprawled over the floor. Tyrone was just standing there looking down at him with wide eyes for once in his life he looked scared.
“Tyrone” I nearly screamed “I think... I think I’m going to be sick” I put my hand over my mouth; I could feel it coming up. “Gimme your phone” I said pulling my other hand out of his. I put my hand into his back pocket and pulled out his phone. A stolen Iphone no doubt. 999.
“Hello, emergency service operator, which service do you require fire, police or ambulance”
“An Ambulance quick please” my breathing was so quick and I could barley breath.
“Right miss try to calm down for me okay? Where are you calling from?” I could feel tears scorching my eyes as I looked away from the gaping hole in Nario’s chest.
“I don’t know it’s so dark”
“Could you try to find a street name?”
“Yes”
“Do you know where you are roughly?”
“Little Hattie, Glasgow”
“Okay” She sounded unsurprised.
I turned. “Eve’s road” He mouthed. I nodded.
“Eve’s road” I said
“What is the nature of your emergency?”
“Someone’s been killed”
“What is happening?”
“I don’t know, everything’s so quiet and dark”
“What is your name, address and your own phone number?”
“Anonymous, if that’s okay”
“Okay thank you miss, we’ll send someone as soon as possible” I put the phone down and turned towards Tyrone. He was facing me his black eyes scared and lonely.
“Lily I don’t know what to do” He was tortured, how was he supposed to tell his best friends? His brothers back at the camp? They were all going to be devastated. Poor Pierce... he was going to be destroyed he looked up to Nario like no one else.
“I’m going to get changed and then we are going back to camp to tell them what happened” I said my voice was surprisingly cold and steady. I needed to get out of here; the black blood was slowly trickling down the road towards my feet. He groaned, he didn’t want to be the one who told the boys about the death of their best friend, their brother. He was sick of giving bad news. A sound of distant sirens filled my ears and Tyrone’s flinched as he heard them. I had a gut feeling he was sick of flinching every time he heard sirens.
“Let’s go” He said taking my hand, we followed the blood and clothes trail until we got back to the ally we had kissed in.
“I’ll wait at the end I promise I won’t peek” He gave a twisted smile and walked forward. I changed into my jeans and a spare black t-shirt at the back of a huge bin. My school clothes looked disgusting. School... It seemed light years away. I wasn’t sure whether I would go tomorrow. Maybe just stay at the park or with the boys, they might need me. I walked as calmly as possible to Tyrone who was leaning on the wall at the end of the ally. He turned. I could hear the police from here their shock as they looked at Nario.
“Come here” Tyrone said grabbing my waist.
“Tyrone” I cried. I stood in his arms for what seemed like forever, crying. He was whispering things in my ear to try and comfort me. I knew he was trying, he wasn’t used to it, but he helped. He could and would, try to keep me safe.
“We need to go before the police find the trail” He took my hand, I nodded. We ran. I found I had a lot more energy than I had when I walked here. I checked my watch as we ran, 2:30 it had been a long night and was about to get worse. As we reached the camp everyone was staring with confused glares, but when they saw my tear stained face and Tyrone’s tortured eyes they all looked worried.
“Christ” said Pierce “What did you do to her” Jared was standing looking at Tyrone like Tyrone had destroyed some priceless family artefact.
“He didn’t do anything, Jared you need to listen” I pleaded.
“What?” He asked.
“Something’s happened to Nario” It was Tyrone who spoke.
“Yeah, we all know what’s happened to Nario” It was Leon. He was rolling his eyes at Sasha who laughed.
“Wait... what?” I asked looking at Sasha who gave a dark chuckle.
“He’s obviously run away with the doss” Brandon said “It’s not hard to guess”
“He would have never have done that you -” Tyrone was about to say something I knew he would regret in the morning.
“Sasha he’s right Nario would have never done that... We found Nario and-”
I couldn’t finish my sentence I broke down in tears Jared was suddenly beside me.
“Tyrone what happened to Nario” Jared pulled me into a big hug wrapping his safe arms around me. Like the mother did to her child in the park, a safe and relaxed feeling washed over me. Tiredness... and just like that I was gone.
