take on me, e.williams

ten

—loud
mouth—

———odessa had never been held at gunpoint. this was the first time. two dark skinned boys had snuck in, one was younger and held a gun above joel. the other was older and standing between odessa and ellie, occasionally switching who's head he pointed out.

"wake him up." the older boy talked down to odessa and ellie. "wake him up!" he said louder, odessa jumped and grabbed for ellie's hand that was raised in the air in surrender.

"joel!" odessa shouted, the man flinched awake to look up directly into the barrel of the small gun. the little boy looked down on him with red paint painted around his eyes.

"eyes on me. eyes on me." the older boy told joel. "you dont have to worry about what to say. we don't want to hurt you, we want to help you." he told joel.

"okay, so put down your gun." odessa scoffed looking backwards at him, he shoved the barrel into her head. not hard, but enough to hurt.

"dessa." joel hissed quickly. "okay..." he said back to the boy.

"okay, uh, so what do we do next with something like this? if i lower my gun, you can't hurt us." he explained to joel.

"if you don't know how to do the whole "hostage thing", why even bother?" odessa muttered, ellie squeezed odessa's hand as a sign to stop.

"do you ever stop talking?" the boy asked odessa, exasperated.

"no." odessa told him sharply.

"we didn't hurt you, so don't hurt us." he now spoke to joel, odessa opened her mouth to speak. "don't say another word." he stopped her, as if sensing that she was going to speak.

"that's right." joel told the boy in his monotone voice.

"that's a weird fuckin' tone, man." the boys voice shook.

"it's just the tone of his voice. he has an ass hole voice." odessa explained to the older boy.

"joel, tell him it's okay." ellie chimed in.

"everything's great" joel was deadpanned.

"dude." ellie sighed. the boy cursed under his breath.

"look, i'm gonna choose to trust you." he told them slowly, then he preformed what looked like sign language to the younger boy. odessa recognized back from her time in the fireflies. "but if any yall try anything—"

"you'll blow our brains out, or whatever." odessa sighed, the younger boy moved out of joel's way but didn't lower his gun.

"can i sit up?" joel asked the older boy.

"yes, slowly." he responded. joel sat up slowly with his hands in the air like ellie and odessa.

"who are you?" joel questioned.

"my name is henry." henry said. "that's my little brother sam." he pointed to the younger boy, he couldn't have been older than nine. "i'm the most wanted man in kansas city." henry dropped his gun, sam doing the same. "but right now, i'm assuming you're running a close second." henry told them, scoffing a little. soon, they were all sitting around a small lantern sharing ellie, joel, and odessa's food. "where'd you get this?" henry asked them.