Epics of Noche 2, DeathTech

EON CH 47 - ACT 27, THE CROW

JUNE'S NESTLESS YEAR.

1773, Winter. 

June blew into her hands and rubbed them together as snow drifted onto the pavement below the dim light of the streetlamp. It was a cold night for a thirteen-year-old girl to be alone in the dark.

The event of Albert's murder replayed in her mind.

Their desperate trip to the hospital – the lie of getting injured in a gang war and how easily it was accepted by the staff. June looking over her shoulder every other moment, expecting someone to come arrest her... But no one ever did. No one cared. She got off scot-free.

"This really is a lawless place," she thought at the time.

Then came the panic of trying to find a new place to live. Her first thought was to move in with her friend Venny, who lived alone. Something about her parents not being Create users and having too many siblings for them to all move to the dangerous MoveCity.

They treated it like living abroad – payments for rent, food, and stuff being sent every week or so. Plus, her friend was fifteen, so she was practically an adult. It was the perfect situation. It would have been the perfect situation.

Venny was sick – really sick.

All June could do was stare at her friend and the new scorpion tailed the size of a leather belt. She had gotten the mutation. She had gone behind her mother's back and got the mutation. Now her body was rejecting it.

Venny's family was furious and terrified. They couldn't afford the medication and her friend was too sick to move. Her boyfriend, Rad Strider, was doing all her could to help, but it wasn't enough.

June couldn't risk making Venny sicker with her weakened immune system. Her friend was dying, and she needed a place to stay. She wanted to get a job, but no one wanted to hire a thirteen-year-old girl. Even if they did, it wouldn't pay enough.

Then a stranger offered to pay her to be company for the evening. She had found a solution to save her friend and afford an apartment.

It had almost been a year since then.

June shivered as she took out her phone; it was almost three am. A cloud escaped her sighing lips and she turned to leave – just as a car pulled up. One of her regulars. She got in and was brought to a familiar motel room. They finished as the sunrise filtered through the cracks in the blinds. June took her payment and left.

"Its all for Kat. I have to protect her," she muttered as she counted the credits. "She's the only family I have left. I have to protect her."

The girl walked up the steps to her apartment and paused at the top of them. She leaned over the balcony and stared at the bird's nest within the tree below. Two eggs laid nestle within, where it was empty a few days prior. Faint traces of a smile appeared and vanished; she put the key in her door and a man's cough caught her attention.

She turned to the greasy, little man. He had thin black hair that was balding on the top, a pencil mustache, and wore an outdated khaki suit.

"Ms. Sanctus. You're still a month late on the rent," he said.

With bags under her one eye, she locked gazes with him, sighed, and reached into her pocket. The credits were snatched from her hand the instant they left her pocket. He didn't notice her glare, his tunnel vision was on the money alone.