The Dead Don't Bleed

Remember

Word Count: 2,309

It happened so fast, Keith was sure it all could've been some mass hallucination if he didn't remember it so vividly.

He could remember the excitement at first.

Then the confusion.

Which quickly morphed into terror as he watched what was quickly taking place in Times Square just seconds before the massive ball would drop signifying the beginning of a new year.

He remembered recalling something he had seen a couple of weeks ago as he watched what had been happening just a few blocks away. Some lunatic had sworn on public television that the world was going to fall in chaos as the world celebrated the new year of 2020.

Keith, of course, hadn't paid it any attention. It wasn't the first time something like that had happened, some homeless person off the street screaming that the world was gonna end before the clock struck twelve. He remembered one year he and one of his former foster fathers had been walking down the crowded streets of New York. Some guy wearing nothing but his underwear in thirty-degree weather started chasing them down the sidewalk, shouting that Keith was some sort of alien who was going to destroy them all.

Of course, that wasn't true.

He also shouted that the aliens were going to take over the world someday.

That didn't happen either.

But Keith was sure in that moment that he would've taken aliens over zombies.

He was in an apartment several stories off the ground before New Years' Eve exploded into chaos. Shiro was in the kitchen pulling together some last-minute hot wings to celebrate. Keith was sitting on the worn couch in the living room watching TV, hugging a pillow to his chest, eyes wide in wonder as he watched the thousands of people in Times Square celebrating and dancing to the music. Some were tipping their head back in a toast as they drunk some form of alcohol or another without once thinking about how hung-over they were going to be the next day.

He had never seen anything like this in his life. All of the foster families he'd lived with before now usually grounded him from watching any television around the New Year, mostly for something he did during Christmas, or just because he was labeled as a bad kid with a juvie record and none of his foster parents wanted to deal with him during the holidays. So they locked him in his room to keep him from seeing anything.

But Keith swore that he was going be standing down there with all those people one day, so he could see that massive ball drop with his own eyes.

But for right now, snuggled up on the worn sofa in a warm apartment, watching it on TV was good enough for him.

"You enjoying yourself?" Shiro walked back into the room, one plate in each hand, both piled with chicken wings, chuckling as he caught sight of the fourteen-year-old huddled on the couch, eyes glued to the screen.

If Keith had to say it at all, Shiro was pretty decent looking, he was tall and muscular, better fit for his job on the local police force. His hair was a dark brown, just like his kind and equally brown eyes. Keith remembered his first few weeks of staying with him, he would jump at Shiro's voice, or try to make himself as small as possible whenever the man had been standing in front of him. At first glance, he had been the intimidator, and Keith didn't know how to handle someone who looked like he could beat you without batting an eye, and yet be the exact opposite in nature.

But now, Keith just nodded, the lightest touch of a smile on his face; he was sure in some other reality, he would still be jumping every time a voice met his ears, and he had done that for a while after Shiro adopted him and brought him home. It was leftover from his times in less.... inviting homes, Keith could still remember the punishments and those stern and cruel gazes. Some part of Keith doubted he would ever truly forget, but that was then, this is now, and now, Keith couldn't even describe the pure relief of not having to wake up to yet another foster family that didn't want anything to do with him.