Radioactive - Book 1: Birth 🪼

Five

One of the bad things about your parents being rich is that you have money with you. And sometimes people take advantage of that. That is why I am here now, lying face down in a puddle and my arm feeling like it's not in the right place or just bent the wrong way. The other thing is that they can tell I'm an Empty just as well as the people at school can. People think that being Empty is fair game on everything. It's like we don't have rights or something... So, I was beat up, almost killed, and then left for dead, just like this because it was convenient at the time, I guess.
If I remember correctly, I even remember that guy spray painting something on my back. No one will help me as I lay here on the side of the street and that's why I think that the perpetrator put something on my back so that no one will help me. I hate people... they're just horrible to those different than them...
"Oh my god, are okay?!" someone yells, falling beside me.
I can't lift my head or get up or anything. I feel hands turning me over and looking at me with concern in his strange violet eyes.
"Kiki! I need your help!" he yells, seeming to motion for someone.
I am in and out of consciousness... I wish they would stand still... They're spinning so much... I finally let my consciousness just waver into oblivion and go to sleep.

*******************

When I wake up, I am somewhere that I've never been. I'm in a lot of pain but I am warm and no longer in the street. I blink a little and look around slowly, trying not to give myself a bigger headache than I have. It looks like I'm in a hotel room or something.

"Oh, good, you're awake. Are you alright?" someone says beside me.
I want to turn my head but I have a feeling that it will only get worse if I do. I wait, hoping that the person will just come over to me. Luck is with me right now and they look at me from above. I blink a little, seeing that it's a young kid about Nalak's age with curly black hair and a tanned complexion.
"Hey, Kiki, he's awake; kind of." He calls, still looking down at me. "You're lucky we were out and about last night or you'd probably be dead or still laying there. Can you hear me? Blink twice for yes, do nothing for no." I blink twice. "Oh, good."
"Cash, leave him be." I hear a female voice say.
The boy, Cash, moves away and another face replaces my view but it's a lot cuter to look at. It's a girl with the same features as the boy.
"It looks like whoever robbed you gave you a nice whack in the head. Did you struggle with them? Blink two for yes, one for no." I blink twice. "I see. So that's why your shoulder was dislocated. If you want to know, you're in a cheap motel in the city. They were getting uppity at one of the nicer hotels about you being beat up and looking ragged out and so they wouldn't let us hold you there. Do you live near here?" I blink once. "Ah. Well, is there any way to get in contact with any guardians or something? I mean, you suffered a concussion."
"I told you, Kiki, we should have just taken him to the hospital. They would look him up and stuff."
"And I told you that they won't treat an Empty that way."
I sigh internally. So they could tell too? Maybe I should just put on weight so it looked like I had had at least one swell...
"Hey." I look at the girl, Kiki. "Can you feel the rest of your body? I mean, you're not paralyzed right?"
I furrow my eyebrows and begin a test of my own, wiggling my toes all the way up my body. I feel all of it, so I am grateful.
"Could you feel everything?" I blink twice. "Alright then... hey, can you talk?"
"Yes." I whisper.
"Oh... Then why didn't you say something?"
"It hurts to talk."
"Ah. Well, my name is Sakina Net and this is my little brother, Casshern. You can just call us Kiki and Cash."
"I'm Ramey, but people call me R." I say softly, a twinge of pain ringing in my head when I talk.
"Just take a rest, then. If you can give us your last name, I can find a number to call so someone can get you. That guy took your phone along with your wallet."
"Fountain."
"Thanks. Take a nap and I'll look up a name."
I close my eyes and drift back into my slumber.

****************

Dia walks up to me and puts her arms around my torso.

"I'm so glad that we found a way for you to be pregnant. You're so cute." She says, rubbing my belly.
I am four months along or so, and I look back at her and smile but am met with Nalak's face.
"Nalak!"
"Help me, R. Please." He says, turning me around. "Please help me!"
"I don't know how. What do you want me to do?"
"I need you to let me taste you. Please let me have a taste of your body."
He leans me backward and the scenery changes to a dungeon of sorts and I am tied to a chair and am being leaned back into the wall. Nalak licks his lips and sniffs my neck, licking up my face. I feel something wet under me and look down, finding my legs covered in blood. Nalak sniffs the air and gives me a pointy toothed grin, his eyes a blue I'd never knew existed and glowing in the light of a single dangling bulb.
"I must have you! You're too delectable to leave alone. Your blood sings to me, R." He leans into me and grins again. "I could just eat. You. Up."