ᥴ᥅ꪖᦓꫝꫀᦔ ꪻꪮᧁꫀꪻꫝꫀ᥅ (ON HOLD)

• F o u r •

???? October 1, 2019

I stare at the scarred-up girl sprawled across the blood-stained grass. Her one greenish-blueish eye is shaking in fear. The other eye–Should I even call it that? Okay, her eye socket is visible with a wide pinkish-red scar around it. Her green jacket is cut up on the sleeves and glass shards are deep into her skin. There's a swollen stitched-up scar circling her neck like a halo.

    My God, what happened?

    "Ma'am, are you okay?" I hesitantly ask.

    A raspy laugh comes out of her mouth. "I'm perfectly fine, thank you." She slowly moves her neck up to examine herself. There's no blood coming out of her, but she still frowns at the cuts and glass shards covering her bruised body.

    I kneel beside her, taking my phone out of my sweater. "I'm going to call 911, okay? Just keep breathing. In through your nose and out through your mo–"

"NO!" The girl yells, supporting her upper body with her elbows. "I-I mean," she looks wildly around her as if looking for help. "I don't need the police o-or any doctors. I'll be fine."

She slowly works her way into a sitting position, pain taking over her face. I shake my head. "Ma'am, you need medical help. Your arms and legs look butchered and your face–"

"If you're just gonna make fun of my body then just leave me the fuck alone."

"WAIT NO! That's not what I meant–"

"You know what? It doesn't matter. I'll just find my way home and..." She stops mid-sentence. Her one eye widens as her face drops. "Home..." she repeats. Her eye glistens in the moonlight. I can barely make out tears welling up in her eye. I wanna go home." The girl whispers, hardly audible.

I stuff my phone back in my pocket. "Okay, let's get you home, yeah? Do you know your address?" I reply, trying to sound reassuring. She shakes her head, a tear sliding down her cheek.

"I can't go b-back. I-I messed u-up. I-I don't deserve t-to-go b-back!" she cries.

I scrunch up my face, furrowing my eyebrows. "Ma'am, are you in any type of danger?"

I swear her face immediately becomes dark. Sinister. She wipes away her tears. "Danger? Please, everyone is always in danger," She slowly gets into a squatting position. Within a few seconds, we're standing face-to-face. It's as if the glass shards disappeared from her body. The corner of her mouth twitches and a quiet laugh escapes her mouth. "I've just been delaying a kind of danger that will corrupt everyone."

    My eyes widen. "Excuse me?"

    The girl looks away. "Sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out that way. Anyways, how did you find me?"

    "My house is close to here. I needed to clear my mind and decided to take a walk. Then I saw a body lying in the grass." I answer.

    "Clear your mind?" She echoes.

"That's not important," I begin. "Anyways, what do you mean 'A kind of danger that will corrupt everyone'?"

The girl crosses her arms across her chest and bites her lip, thinking. "You wouldn't believe me."

I scoff. "Try me. I've seen a lot in my 20 years of being on this miserable planet."

She looks at me with wide eyes for a second, then nods her head. "Okay...Okay I'll tell you. But we can't talk here."

My eyebrows shoot up. "Wh-What do you mean?"

She shakes her head wildly. "Do you want me to tell you or not?!" she yells.

I take a deep breath. "Fine. Follow me to my house. But don't you dare try something. I do not care that you're hurt."

A small smile takes over her face. "That's fair."

We—or I guess I—begin walking. The girl has her hand on my shoulder and limps behind me.

"So what's your name?" I ask her, attempting to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Aliyah," she answers with no hesitation. "What about you?"

I sigh, hoping that giving my name to a stranger won't bite me in the ass later on.

"Nathan," I answer. "Nathan Labowski."