Singing Robin (Part 2)

Chapter Three Tethers

Dedicated to MajenBeos02, Babyalex34, Cvstina
________________________________________________________________________________Six years and five months ago, Itzal, Age 16, Hudson, Age 15

Oct 31, 2012, 9:20 pm, Hudson's POV

    'Bullying is a subjective thing. I always figured it would look like being pushed down in the hallways and going home with bruises. Figured anything short was teasing... maybe because I could deal with teasing. You can dumb down teasing, make it something funny. Make it out that people are laughing with you instead of at you. But this, this is beyond both. This is a shot at the underbelly cruel.' I run through in and out of alleyways, trying to disappear from sight. My heart thuds in my ear so loudly that I fear they can hear it.

    The racial slurs they are using are ones I have heard before, but not here. Here was supposed to be different, a chance to start over for Dad, for the both of us. Seeing the disease crawl through Mom's body, leaving her gaunt and always hanging on the edge of death, we could take it because she was with us. The house still had some light in it, but after my bad day at school and Dad's at work, and then finding out that she died alone in her favorite spot, snuggled in her chair... the house only held that chill. A chill that kept me up at night, same for Dad. So, finding a job this far west seemed like what we prayed for—a change. And in lots of ways, it was a change, but not one anyone would want.

    "Get back here!" One of the seniors yells, and their whoops and hollers of 'hunting a coon' make me feel like I'm running in circles. Their voices are everywhere. I need to get gone. They are not trying to catch me, not really. They are doing the city service. At least, that is what they said, and that is what the cops will believe. My word over six middle-class white boys?'

    I race to a gate and shake it, but it doesn't budge. But it clacks loud enough to give away my position. I see them turn into the alley, and I bolt into the darkness toward the sounds of a busy intersection. They run me down, having excess energy from me running on foot and them spending half of it in a car. I look at the swishing cars and back at the space they eat up and run into traffic. Cars slam on their brakes, honking, and I keep running and praying. I get to the other side and look back at the six boys staring at me as if shocked my life was worth that risk to me. I run further into the city until I can no longer breathe. I sag on a wall, cupping my freezing hands to breathe on them. 'I can't stay here.' I stand up shakily and walk along a street, looking for a street name to figure out how to return home. I see one and push my shoulders up to block out the chill.

    "Hey!" Someone calls, and I don't look. I don't think. I just bolt. The Upper Crest neighborhood passes my yells in a blur of tears, and I run so hard I don't notice the unlevel piece of sidewalk until I trip and faceplant on the ground with an audible thunk. I try to get up quickly, but my body isn't responding, and my fingers are too numb to feel the ground beneath me without the prickly ache. But I don't dare stop. I'm just too slow to move, allowing another voice to reach me.

    "Are you alright, Kid?" A different voice questions over the sounds of my heaving lungs, and I look up, feeling faint. I try to fix my mouth to answer, but it is all I remember as my head returns to the ground.

                                                                                                           ~

11:54 pm,

     "Careful, Son, you are okay." The Man says, and I open my eyes and freeze in place. 'This ain't no cop. I can't decide if that is good for me or really bad.' He is wearing black from head to toe, making his espresso-colored hair and ebony eyes much darker. He lacks jewelry except for one coiled snake ring on his left index finger. The snake is made of gray metal with sharp fangs guarding a bronze jewel against its belly. 'It is too intricate a ring to be a class ring. It has to be some gang or cult shit.'