Rain

Chapter One

My feet pound the pavement echoing into the night as I race towards Shonen Elementary school.

Steve, the sleazy owner of the club I work at, wouldn't let me leave because a last-minute VIP client showed up again.
I switched to working days to ensure I could be with my brother at night.

Now, I am running late again to pick him up from school, and knowing Ben, he would try to walk home rather than wait for me.

Fuck, I am such a screw-up.
Why didn't I just call Ms. Callington to pick him up again?

I round the corner, almost tripping over the pavement but righting myself and sprinting faster.

A cold wind whips across my face, and I shiver. These Chicago nights are becoming more numbing, but it doesn't bother me right now.

All I can think about is my brother walking alone in the dark.
I constantly tell him to wait for me, but he is eight years old and thinks he is all grown up.

I have lived on these streets long enough to know that he is not old enough to walk alone at night.

I race up the stairs to the school entrance and pull on the blue cracking double doors, but they don't budge.

Looking around the dark parking lot, I groaned and pulled at my hair.

I couldn't afford to buy Ben a phone, so I have no idea where he is and if he is in danger.

My anxiety rises, and I rub my hands over my freezing face.
Ok, think Rain. If I wasn't here to get him, he would walk home. He would be too nervous about taking the main streets and stick to alleys instead. He should know his way home, but he is eight, so he could get lost.

We usually take 18 and main to leave the school, so I sprint down the stairs in that direction but cut down the alley instead. A ball of fire is growing in my stomach, and it's taking everything I have not to break down in frustration.

Ben and I only have each other in this cold world, and what a cruel world it has been with a crack whore for a mother and a dead father. But I can't lose him.

I race forward, cutting around corners and through alleyways pining for a glimpse of my brown-haired brother to peek out from beneath his favorite puffy red jacket.

Rounding a corner behind a noodle restaurant, I skid to a stop as something catches my eye in the corner under a cardboard box.

I spot something red, and everything in me freezes. I think I stop breathing. I want to force myself to walk over, but my legs don't move.

It can't be him. He is still walking home, or made it home. I know it.
I force my shaky legs to wobble forward until I stand over the cardboard.

Slowly I reach down and grip the cardboard box pulling it backward.

What I see has me falling to my knees. Ben lying on the cold concrete pavement, his red jacket soaked in blood.

A hole has torn through the middle of his jacket, and I can see pieces of him that should be inside.

My vision turns blurry, and I scream, but nothing comes out.

No. No. No. No. No.