The Start of Something New

Chapter 1

Teenagers are something else. Especially those left without any proper guidance. I wasn't too surprised when I woke up in a summoning circle, I was more irritated that I was being brought into the place that I sought to avoid. It turned out that all they wanted was to "handle" an individual that was causing problems with one of their friends. I did that with no questions asked. No one deserved to live in that hell.

As I started to assimilate with the rest of the world I was confused as to how much the world changed even though I was only gone for six months. Hell, it wasn't even an election year and everything went to shit. The only thing that remained the same was music. Music is eternal, neverending; a constant that's reliable. I found a decent job pretty quickly considering the fact that any documentation I had was rendered null. There were a couple shops in LA that needed somebody to handle business discreetly and there's nobody better than a chick that has nothing tied to her name. The first job I found was working as an artist for a tattoo shop, the other as a cashier for a record store. They paid decently and I was able to get necessary documentation without much of a hassle. The apartment was the hardest of all this. LA isn't cheap in the slightest, even the shadier parts of town were expecting higher prices than bumfuck nowhere Ohio. If it weren't for the risk of discovery I would've gone back already, but too many people knew me there. I wasn't the best at keeping my mouth shut back then. I'm better now. A wise man once said to bite your tongue and close your mind. It's my mantra now.

My apartment wasn't much, but it was enough to get me started with this new life. Just a small one bedroom with the living room flowing right into the kitchen. The hardwood flooring was the driving force for the amount of grippy socks I own. I get laughed at a lot, but my clumsiness knows no bounds.

Once I got home from work one night I noticed that the vacant apartment next to mine wasn't as vacant as before. I knew it was going to happen at some point, but I never thought it'd happen this quickly. As I unlocked my door I started running through the checklist I had set in place in case someone moved in. I moved my mask closer to the door and placed my military issued boots on the plate outside my door. My knife was moved right under my pillow. I did not need any surprises. That's the last thing I need.

I double checked that everything was in place before I put on my headphones and got to work with chores. I had been neglecting them for a while and they needed to be done desperately. Dishes were the easiest to knock out. There's something calming about the repetitiveness of scrubbing and drying them. Laundry came next. I was always the worst at this. I'd get them washed, but they were never folded and put away properly on the same day.

Dinner was no easy task for me. My neighbors decided to make their presence known and started blaring heavy metal music as I started to prepare my body for sleep. I really wanted to watch my cartoons in peace, but it's really hard to focus when the music they were playing gave me the urge to be highly productive. I decided that I was going to ignore them to the best of my ability, but then they played the one song that said I wasn't going to be able to sleep for the next six hours. I unfolded myself from when I sat on the floor and placed my bowl in the sink. I put my mask on before I gave whoever lived next to me a piece of my mind.

The mask wasn't anything too out of place. A simple nondescript layer of plastic skin to cover my scars and to make me almost unrecognizable to anybody I knew before. I checked my face in the mirror above the dresser to make sure that it was in place properly and that it would be hard to differentiate from my real skin. Once I was happy with how it laid, I walked to the door next to me.

I knocked loudly and stepped back. I didn't get an answer fast enough and went to knock again. Before my hand was even an inch above the wood it was thrown open by the man inside.

"What?" He growled.

I stood up straighter and looked him in the eye. If he's going to treat me with disrespect I was going to make sure that I wasn't somebody he could mess with. "I came over to ask that you'd turn down your music. I have work tomorrow and I would like to get some sleep at some point tonight."

He tilted his head mockingly. "And that's my problem, how? I seem to remember that you've had some noise complaints too. I don't see how that's any different than now."

I got close to him. I could feel the heat coming off of him in waves. "At least when I was told there was a problem with something I was doing I fixed the problem and it became no more. I am asking you as politely as I can, please turn down your music."

He smirked. "Nah. I don't think I will. I feel like I should share it with the world."

A man walked up from behind him drying off a dish. I took a couple steps back as they were damn near identical. The only difference I could tell was their height. The one that answered the door easily towered over me by half a foot and the man behind him was about mine.

The new person placed a hand on the man in front of him and pulled him back inside the door slightly. "Whose this Clay?"

Clay looked at him. "Nobody Niyol. She was just about to leave."

I looked at the smaller man. "I just came over to ask if you at least turn down the noise. I want to get some sleep tonight before my shift tomorrow."

He nodded. "I'll go turn it down. Thank you for letting me know it was a problem. Come on Clay. Back inside." He pulled the taller man inside and shut the door.

That night I slept with my hand wrapped tightly around my knife.