"You know better than that!" My ears perked up at the muffled voice belonging to a girl. I keep my eyes shut and listen to the conversation that seemed to be taking place in the kitchen.
My muscles harbored a sore ache deep inside the tissue as I made an effort to stretch out on the stiff mattress I found comfort in. My sore body attempting to release any built up stiffness that settled in my muscles over the course of my sleep.
"It's not a big deal if anything I'm doing the city a favor! One less Viagra popping bitch to worry about!" Harry says to the girl who I hear audibly sigh at his response. I can't partly imagine Harry's smug grin that etched over his face whenever he playfully dismissed serious situations.
"That's not the point and you and I both know it. You know how this city works!" The girl stresses to Harry as I lay with my eyes closed hoping that my acting is sufficient enough to hide the fact I was listening to every word being exchanged.
"I have boundaries-"
"Harry you murdered three people!" The girl raised her voice to get her point across. Before I hear a slap which I can only imagine the girl bringing her arms down by her sides.
"You're right, boundary machine broke." He again jokes trying to make light of the situation that was less than light. I had watched the men sink into their own pools of blood, the street light giving an eery atmosphere that unsettled me.
"Can you be serious for five seconds Harry? I don't want to lose you to this god forsaken place! Do you know how easy it is to kill again?" The girl argues with traces of genuine worry.
"I'm not going to be won over by temptations of a damn city. Trust me!" He tries to convince the still nameless girl that is worried for what I interpreted as his sanity.
There was talk of the city and its temptations but what did that really mean? What happened if the city "won" you over?
"Then why do you have a gun?"
"You know why Ash," Harry says in a more stressed tone as I move a little to ever so slightly peel open my eyes. Enough to see blurry shapes and a cropped view of the kitchen where two figures stood across from each other. I could see electric blue hair cascading down the girl's back known as Ash from what I gathered so far. Her arms a folded over her chest as she listens to Harry.
"It's still that bad?"
"He wants me dead, I don't think it gets anymore bad than that." Death seemed to be a common thread here in the Badlands. Others thrive on knowing they can take a life without any consequence, numbering the days of people around them.
I stir and see the figures of them turn their heads to look at me as I squeezed my eyes shut. I yawn out and hear them conclude the conversation before I feel a sudden dip in the mattress. I peel my eyes completely open to be met with a smirk from Harry who lays on his side with his hand supporting his head.
"Good morning my poisonous little plant, how did this cardboard pillow treat Ya?" He asks me as I rub my eyes of the sleep that crusted over my eyes.
"Slept like a baby!" I said through a raspy morning voice. I blink up to see the girl with blue hair greet me with a warm smile.
"Oh, by the way, this is Ashley, the girl you can blame for waking you up. She can get a little triggered by me sometimes," Harry jokes at Ashley who rolls her eyes playfully and greets me with a kind smile and a wave.
"You know I don't get it when people say they slept like a baby because babies don't sleep," Harry rambles thinking to a couple seconds back to when I answered him about how the hard bed wasn't as bad as I initially thought.
"Welcome to the shit hole!" Ashley said gesturing to the surroundings. "Harry told me your a newborn,"
"Yeah, the welcoming committee wasn't so welcoming, to say the least," I rasped out stretching out my stale bones that still ache with the fatigue from yesterday.
"I've been told, Harry said you had a rough introduction with the run in in the alley. Unfortunately, that's just a taste of the shit that goes on around here," Ashley states as I scratch the back of my neck and look down at my exposed torso. I hadn't changed from last night, still wearing my bra with no shirt while my jeans hugged my legs.
"Where are we? How do we get out?" I have a fire round of questioning when I stand up and cross my arms over my chest. I couldn't stay here, I needed to find a way out.
"That's the million dollar questions. No one really knows, all we know is that this desert wasteland keeps up captive here," Ashley said pushing her electric blue strands away from her face. The air conditioning is thin and has a hard time keeping up with the heating temperatures growing outside.
"There has to be a way out, I can't stay here. I have to go home, my dad... he needs me," I said looking out the cloudy motel window. The landscapes are bright and electric, every color neon as it glows.
"Sorry sweet cheeks what did I tell Ya?" I'm met again with Harry's smug smile that tugs on his lips.
"No, there has to be a way and I'm going to find it," I state going to the door knob as Harry arches a brow.
"I mean I love the ensemble my little poison plant but I don't think it's suitable for the rabid dogs we call men in this city," Harry tells me as I look down and am met with my exposed stomach. My laced bra keeping my boobs covered as I stall from opening the door.
"Tell you what, why don't we get you something to wear that won't make the dogs howl too loudly and then get something to eat. Then if you still want to go on your magic quest to finding an out to this place I'll let you go on your way," Harry said while I loosen my grip on the knob until my hand completely falls off of it. A little food couldn't hurt since it had been at least a day since I've given my stomach anything to digest. I could use some source of nutrition since I was lacking in that department at the moment and hey if Harry was paying who am I to pass up free food?
"Why does no one care that people are killed by the tens of hundreds a day?" I ask Harry as I sip on my coke. The atmosphere reminded me of the 50's with the white, black, and red color schemes. The booths glimmered with a dim red sparkle, seating others inside them while others sat at simple looking tables scattered throughout the establishment.
"All crime is legal here, you either do whatever you want with it or let it serve as a warning," Harry responds dipping a fry into his ketchup and biting it nonchalantly. I wonder if being here had desensitized Harry to the evils of this place that I was repulsed by. How could an entire society make all crime legal? How was there no consequences to any action here?
"So then how did you end up here?" I ask taking a fry from the basket we shared that sat in the center of the table. A waft of hot air brushing against my face every time the door swung open with a ring of the bell.
"The last thing I remember was racing down the freeway. I was swerving in and out of traffic and before I knew it I was laying down in the street of that weird ass ghost town Bed Stuy," Harry explains as my mind reels back to the name of the ghost town. It truly did feel like a ghost town since the residence resembled that of ghostly looking people. The eerie silence cuts you open like a knife causing your ears to rings and a nauseating stirring in your stomach.
"How long have you been here?" I asked curiously as to how long Harry had been inside the Badlands. How long had this place been around? Did anyone know?
"Four weeks as of tomorrow, not a dull moment has gone by I'll tell you that much," He chortles sipping on his cold glass bottle of coke. As I watch from behind a couple of thugs walk in.
My expression paling as one makes direct eye contact with me, his hand on his gun that sits against his waistband. A Rose tattooed hand hovering over the gun until his fingers wrap around it, my heart racing.
"Everyone get down on the ground!" The head man roars. His hair chestnut brown hair is gelled back opening up his facial features. Brown eyes and scruff that covered his chin as he now held the gun out.
I glance at Harry as he gives me a little smirk. Confused by his expression my breathing becomes rapid causing me to swear more from the nervousness that clawed at me. Everyone drops down, Harry looks over his shoulder to be met with the group of men threatening the lives of everyone in the restaurant.
"Harry, what are you doing?!" I whisper yell once the commotion in the restaurant dies down due to the robber's request. He looks around to be met with a stone cold stare from the man running the show.
"Ah well, would you look who it is! The boy who lives behind the bricks!" The man laughed with sinister undertones as Harry stood up causing me to worry for his safety. Harry was very bold from what I gathered in the short time I spent with him.
"I will say the nicknames are getting more creative these days. It really makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside when I see how much you really try," Harry put a hand over her chest where his heart would sit beating in his chest.
"Not sure warm and fuzzy is the right description for when he shoots a bullet through your skull," the man grits splitting from the cluster of thugs as he walks closer to Harry. His black boots cause the floor to quake with every heavy step he took.
My heart rate shoots through the roof as he approaches us getting closer and closer. I feel sweat form at my hairline as I keep my mouth shut, I didn't want to cause any trouble especially since this man breathed danger.
"Technically, he's gotta catch me first," Harry explains the logistics only causing me to become more stressed. I didn't understand why he was testing these people, he could get himself killed!
"What makes you think that you haven't been caught?" The man asks circling around Harry with the gun sitting limo in his hand now.
"Because I'm fast as fuck boy!" Harry says slapping the gun from the man's hand swiftly. In the same instant, he kicks the gun and pulls me up stringing me behind him as he pulled the trigger on the gun he had stashed away in the waistband of his jeans.
I would say it happened all in slow motion but in reality, it all happened too fast for me to even comprehend. The body's of the other two thugs drop like flies. Blood splatters from the freshly shot men, pools of crimson red spread over the restaurant tile.
Harry pulls me out the door as a bullet flies out way shattering the glass door. Our feet took us to any sort of safety, adrenaline pumping through my veins. The dry heat touches my skin as heat builds from the running against the hot sidewalk beneath our feet.
My lungs begin to dry up and beg for water after five straight minutes of running for our lives. I cough out and fall behind calling Harry's name until he slows down. We are engulfed inside the crowds of people that reside in the loud overbearing city once again.
"Come on my little plant! We could be murdered if we let him catch up to us!" He tells me grabbing my hand to pull me up taking any last ounce of strength from me as we run rapidly through the city.
N. I'm going to tell you all up front that there is going to be a lot of shit going down in each chapter! I honestly love writing this book even though it is only a short story! I have so much planned and I can't wait to show you all whats in store!