[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Pirate Without An Eye Patch

Hendery woke up to pure darkness and the slight smell of something burning. With the feeling as if something was missing and pure panic, he threw himself out of bed and made his way to his parents room. Light coming from the bottom of the bathroom door caught his attention, and upon closer investigation, it was also where the smoke was coming from.

Without knocking, he threw the door open, pulling his t-shirt over his nose and mouth to keep from inhaling the smoke. His older brother smiled when he noticed his new company, completely unfazed by the polluted air.

"What are you doing?"

Hendery's question answered itself when he saw his beloved eye patch dangling over the bathtub, fire presumably from the lighter sitting on the tile floor consuming the fabric. He frantically reached up to feel for the strap he had gotten so used to always feeling, just to find it wasn't there.

He froze, wanting to cry as his brother laughed maniacally. If he screamed and lashed out, their parents would wake up and then he'd get in trouble. That's how it always worked. But if he cried, his brother would gain his satisfaction.

And if he did nothing, his brother would take it one step further just to get a reaction.

"Why?" He whispered, watching the eye patch fall into the tub of water when the fire got too close to his brother's fingers.

His brother just brushed his hands off, stood up from his knees, and left the bathroom with his satanic smile. Not before flicking Hendery right in his bad eye, though.

The younger recoiled in pain, letting his shirt slip down so he choked on the smoke too. Stumbling out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind him so the smoke wouldn't follow, he returned back to his room and searched in the dark for the box under his bed. It was the one thing of his his brother had never touched, and he thought he had an extra eye patch there.

Switching on a flashlight he managed to feel in the dark, he found the box and pulled it out from under the bed, frantically searching for his back up. The panic heightened when he couldn't find it, cursing out his brother in his mind with the worst words he could think of.

Both his eye patches were gone, leaving him with the cartoon band aid patch that was adhered over his bad eye. He just had the fabric pirate eye patch over top of that because it looked a lot cooler.

Looking over to the alarm clock that sat next to his bed, he sighed when he saw it was five in the morning. There was no way he was going to be able to go back to sleep now.

So he changed into what he was wearing to school, grabbed his bag, shoved some sneakers on his feet, and climbed out the window. The streets were practically empty aside from the few adults that were getting around, but he ignored them as he headed to where Lucas resided.

Climbing up the fire escape on the side of the building just as he was used to, he stopped at the window he knew to be his cousin's, tapping on it. Within a few seconds, Lucas's groggy face pushed aside the curtains, but he woke up a bit more when he saw Hendery.

"It's too early to go to school." He mumbled, sliding open the window so Hendery could climb in.

"He burnt my eye patch."

Lucas frowned, just now realizing what was missing. He shut the window behind his cousin, watching him set his bag on the floor and throw himself on the bed. Lucas did the same, the two side by side in the mess of sheets.

"What're you going to do?"

"Suffer. Accept that I'll never be a real pirate. Probably cry."

"What about your other one?"

"He burned that too."

"I think he needs help."

Hendery snickered, the only thing stopping him from crying. "Yeah."

"I bet Kun can make you another. I've seen him fix a hole in Lele's shirt once." Hendery sat up excitedly.

"You think?"

Lucas nodded, knowing he was going to need to get up now. He had a feeling Hendery would want to head over now.

"Let's go then!"

Hendery was only patient enough for Lucas to get himself dressed and ready for the day, but after that they were racing down the street to Kun's house. They were only hoping he would be awake when they knocked on the door, and Kun raised an eyebrow when he opened the door.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"His brother burned both his eye patches. We thought-" Kun held up a hand to silence Lucas, opening the door wider for the two to come in.

"Lele will be up soon. I just have to finish this first." 

The two watched as Kun worked on something they didn't quite understand, silent as they sat at the kitchen table. When he was done with that, though, he brought out his granny's sewing kit and a small swatch of fabric that was red instead of Hendery's old black.

So Kun hemmed the edges to the shape of a proper eye patch and attached an elastic band to fit around his head. They had assumed that was all he was going to do, but then Kun got out an iron and started to put one of the iron-on patches in the middle of it, not letting the younger ones see it.

When it was all done, Hendery couldn't stop smiling. The eye patch now had a skull in the middle of it, the kind your would see on pirate flags, but a fabulous mustache was added.

The younger launched himself at Kun for an extremely tight hug, unable to speak for a moment.

"Thank you."

"No problem."

There was no way his brother was ever touching this.