The Sidekick

Chapter Six: A Mother's Love

By the way I'm making them fourteen not thirteen in this.

Bronx was on the bus headed to Dangerton when she realizes it might have been a stupid idea to leave Swellview, but she made her bed and goddammit she was going to lie in it. Once in Dangerton she got off in a sketchy looking bus station and hopped on a new bus to Familyville, from there she went to Big City and finally Dystopia. 

To say she was tired was an understatement, she'd been traveling for almost twelve hours and her phone had been blowing up so badly it died and only now that she was in Dystopia did she realize just how large it was. Dystopia didn't have much for public transit until you got to the general middle and she was on the outskirts twenty miles from the address her mother gave her with a dead phone, a couple changes of clothes, and fifteen bucks; so essentially she was screwed.

She starts walking and two miles into her hike Bronx sees a group of men sitting at the street corner, there's a smoke cloud around them and they look like trouble, she crosses the street before she gets too close only to find herself walking towards a nearly identical group, one of the men whistles as she walks past and another smacks her ass. She knows she could fight them and maybe even win but if they have a knife or a gun it might end in disaster so she ignores the men and luckily that doesn't seem to agitate them.

Bronx is a few more miles from subway station, out of breath and exhausted when a car pulls up next to her and out steps a man in a suit "Are you Bella?" He asks, his voice is low and gravelly like a smoker, his salt and pepper hair matches a goatee and Bronx clocks a handgun hidden in his pants.

She nods and before she can react he grabs her arm and pulls her into the car, it's nice and probably expensive, with all leather seats and a/c on full blast to help combat the smoggy heat of Dystopia. "Who are you?" Bronx asks the man, he says nothing and she subtly grabs her pocket knife and opens it intending to plunge it into his thigh if things start going anymore south than they already had.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He says turning his head towards her, "It won't do much and you'd be out a knife."

"Who are you?" Bronx asks again with conviction she didn't know she had.

"An associate of Magda's." That was her mom's name, though Bronx had been told she went by Maggie.

They drive for a while through the city, Bronx holds her knife the whole way but the man doesn't seem to mind, they go into the heart of the city and despite the fact that it's four in the morning the city's alive unlike Swellview, which despite it's vastness usually quiets down after ten or so. 

They eventually stop outside the apartment Bronx was given the address for, it's bigger than she thought and a lot less run down now that she'd seen the surrounding areas. They get out of the car and walk into the lobby, it's luxurious looking with a chandelier made out of diamonds, and plush carpets that make her dirty boots seem out of place all of a sudden. The woman behind the front counter hands the man a key without word and they walk down the hall and into an elevator.

The man hits a blue button and they start ascending higher and higher until Bronx is sure they have to be at the top but they keep going gaining speed as they do. After a few seconds of this Bronx sits on the ground, her head is rushing and her eyes feel like they might pop out but as soon as it seems like she might just die it stops. She takes a few seconds to get her bearings and stands, she almost topples but the man catches her by the arm and holds her there until she can stand fully, it makes her think of Henry.

She snaps out of it as the man starts walking, they reach the end of the hallway and he uses the key handed to him in the lobby to open a door. It opens to a vast room, a massive bed is poking out behind a half wall and Bronx can see a vanity across from it. "I'll leave you to get settled." The man says and leaves after tossing the key onto the bed.