I Believe We're the Enemy

8. You've got a Hollow Point Smile

Frank's POV:

I was intrigued by him, and that was the problem. My curiosity had gotten the best of me and now I was stuck with him. I just needed to know why. Why did BL/ind do what they did? I needed to understand. It was like a thorn digging into my heel. I was also just intrigued by him on his own too. That was the worst part, I was starting to learn more about him and seeing how human he was and it only made me want to know more.

He was so used to hiding his thoughts and feelings with pills and propaganda. That didn't mean he didn't have them, and that night when we were sitting together at the fire, I realized that. I got to see him for who he was, and we talked without judgement or conflict. We were just two people having a human conversation. It reminded me of what things were like before The Fires. People could just talk and understand each other, they could just live their lives.

I wanted things to be like that, I wanted to sit by the fire with someone so completely opposite to me and talk like we had known each other for years. In fact, I needed it. It was necessary for people to do this, humans are social creatures who need these types of interactions. Even if I hated him and he hated me, for that moment we were at peace. We might not have been friends, one could barely even call us acquainted, but that didn't matter.

I went out after sending him to bed, walking along the streets of a town that was stuck in the past. It was like someone had taken a photograph and framed it before lighting it ablaze. It was such a perfect reminder of what things had been; what they could be. I got to the end of the road and sat on a boulder. The end of the line of houses was met with an endless desert, scorched by the evils of time and The Fires. I sat criss cross and pulled out a map. I'd been tracking our movement to keep us in the know; we needed to be able to travel from one place to another without running into dracs.

I traced my finger over the lines, letting it travel from here to there to where I wanted to go. I needed to go visit someone; an old friend. It meant I wouldn't be back for at least a day, but the boys could manage on their own. It was kind of ironic; I seemed to be the one in charge most of the time, yet I was the youngest. I wasn't the youngest by much, only a year at most. I guess I was just a very charismatic person. I stuffed the map back into my jeans and headed south.

It was at least an hour before I heard the buzz of electricity running through overturned wires and poles. I skipped along, teasing lizards and ground squirrels with my movement as I went along. I made it at last to his hideout, a decent sized shack with planks of wood stacked over the windows and walls. They were covered in graffiti that acted as little reminders of the past and present. Killjoys had littered the place with the art when they passed by his house. It was likely he wouldn't be awake this late, but if my luck was good, Show Pony would be.

I entered the hut, the distinct smell it had filling my nose.

"Hello?" Someone called from inside.

"It's me, Fun Ghoul," I called back, my luck had been good.

Show Pony emerged from the darkness, greeting me with a smile.

"I was starting to worry about you, how long since your last visit?" They asked, pulling two colas out of the fridge and setting them on the table. I sat down across from them, clinking the bottle open.

"One month and six days," I said before taking a sip.

"How's things?" I let out a chuckle, they were in for a story.

"That's actually why I'm here," I exhaled slowly.

"That bad?" I shook my head with another laugh.

"No, just... A lot has happened... mostly in the past couple days," I scratched my head, trying to figure out where to start.

"Well are you gonna tell me?"