Fracted (Book #2)

Chapter 47: Heat From Behind

4:40 am

Hunter and Jason found a place to dock at the nearby shore at Coney Island. The mist fogged up Robert's glasses, difficult for me to see where to settle my foot. The waves crashefd to the shoreline menacingly, stray little droplets hitting the side of my face.
"So we just leave the boat here?" Jason asked.
"Then what do you wanna do with it?" Hunter retorted.
"Just leave it there chained," Patrick suggested.
As we stroll around the closed amusement park, I appointed myself to be the one to ask why we're in Coney Island.
"Because Dad told me to look for someone," Hunter said.
"Who? Who are you looking for?"
"Some guy just like you people."
"Got a name?" Clare asked.
"Didn't tell me--only a few descriptions and some infos."
"Any chance we might know the guy?" I said.
"This isn't your business, it's my dad's."
Well he's my dad more than he was yours, street-kid.
"So if this is your dad's business, then how come we're with you on this?"
"I kind of need your guys' help," he admitted.
"Help with what?"
"Well I'm powerless and you guys are Innates, so I guess you can help me find him. I'm gonna need your extra-smart brains for this mission."
"Mission? He said the guy's a link to solving our problems--but I never understood the guy."
"When did he tell you this?"
"When we were being chased back at island."
He lead the way the entire time, I felt even more suspicious. But he can't be this clever to be able to lie this good, not unless he's among us. Nah, that would be bizarre, the kid's too ignorant.
Clasped between his thumb and index finger was a tiny piece of paper with few little scribbles inscripted on it.
"Let me see that." I take the paper from his hand. It read:

90th Bedford St. (@Grove St.), NY 10014, Apt. #10B

"What is this, like an apartment building or something?"
"Give me that!" He snatched it back. "It's none of your beeswax."
How whiny.
"Okay, whatever. Do what you want, just tell us how we'll get there."
"Oh I don't know, try to think like a normal person for a change," he scolded.
I felt my nostrils burning up in hot smoke. I am a bull coming after the red cape.
"You mean like, riding the cab?" I said. I've never been on a taxi cab before, what's it like?
"Or the bus?" Clare added.
"It's been a long time since I rode a bus," Jason commented.
"Guess we spent too much time in the academy that we forgot what it's like to live in the 18th century," said Patrick.
"What are you guys even talkin' about?" Hunter interrupted. "Are Innates like, aliens?"
We took the first right, towards the ferris wheel.
"Excuse me?" Clare raises an eyebrow, which was difficult to see from all the mist.
"You guys are like martians; not riding the cab or the bus."
"We can be wealthy kids for all you know," says Jason.
"I highly doubt it."
Beyond the misty fog, Patrick raised an arm and prepared to smack Hunter's head. I swooped his arm while in a zooming motion, a breeze went across Hunter's hair. I kicked the back of his thigh and he melted like a pad of butter. He falls to his knees.
"Not now," I whispered. "maybe next time. This doesn't feel like the last of the straws."
"Ow..." he muttered. "You kick too strong for a scrawny kid."
"Whatever, just man up and keep walking."
I pulled him up by his shirt and helped him up.
"I think we're close to the exit," Hunter stated.
"Thank goodness, I'm exhausted," Clare sighed.
"Does it look like I need to hear your whining?" Hunter scolded again.
Okay that's it, the kid is a tool. A gigantic, massive tool. So I guess this is the final straw.
I gave him a simple tap on the shoulder. As he turned, I nabbed the gun he was holding on to and stroke the center of his face with the butt of the gun. The sound of the metal making an impact to his cartilage was satisfying to my ears. The squishing sound of his skin squeezing against the bone of his nose.
Hunter backs away too much, thus causing him to land on the bricked wall next to the gate entrance with a heavy-flowing nose. He's hurt so badly, even stitches wouldn't help. He moans in pain.
"What was that, Jess?!" Patrick shouted. "I thought that wasn't the last straw!"
"Well now it is," I answered back.
"My goodness, Jess, where's your mercy?" Clare shouts as well. "I'm starting to think that you really did shoot me on purpose."
No, I'm losing all of it instantly! How do I stop myself? If only Eiffel can sting my neck one more time and it'll be okay already.
I'm not like the old Jess anymore. Who am I? Where's the mercy? Where's the peace and politeness and the patience?
"What the heck is wrong with you, dude?!" Hunter lunges towards me, only to be pinned back by Jason and Clare while Patrick held me back.
"You two have got to stop fighting," he said. "Or else, someone loses a finger."
"Yeah, Jess," said Clare. "this isn't the boy who wasn't capable of inflicting pain to others. You're not paying much attention."
Actually no, I need to pay less attention. I get so carried away easily that I start care to about things that are supposed to be ignored that I create my own problems.
What's happening? I cannot unclench my fists with all this fury. The center of my head is burning in flames, my forehead's all wrinkled because of too much frowning.
I...can't...stop
I free myself from Patrick's powerful grip and paced myself, panting.
You gotta wake yourself up, I thought.
The next thing I know, the gun I was holding was aimed straight to my right upper arm. My sweater finger hovers over the trigger and without looking, I pulled back fast.
The strange thing was, I didn't shout in pain. Just looked.
Patrick backed up further away from me, clutching his bloody hand. I didn't shoot me, it was Patrick. He was quick enough to stop me from hurting myself. Did I really want everyone to give up so I can hurt myself even more?
"You are extremely out of control!" Clare shouted. "Do you think anything you've done has made a point so far?"
Come back, me! Please come back!
It's like my prefrontal cortex has been corrupted by an evil spirit or something. What makes me human is turning me into a beast.
"The heck is wrong with you, man?!" Patrick smacks the back of my head, the pain crawled down to the middle of my spine in scorching heat.
I fell on my knees and grappled my chest, my heart was aching as well. My backbones were arched like a mutated lizard's. It took a while for them to help me up.
So now they hesitate on helping me.
Serious, heavy ringing flooded my eardrums, like transverse waves from last time. Why? Why am I such an infliction magnet?
"We gotta get him up, come on," Patrick volunteered to drag me up even after what I did.
My arms slung over Patrick's and Jason's shoulders, it's embarrassing how the two people I maimed are helping me. Not unless they're doing it to get me back to my old self. Gosh, I am so gonna feel guilty about all this.
Hunter had his hand on his overflowing nose while the other held the gun. Clare stayed behin, carrying the burlap bag and my backpack.
"Hang on, Jess, we'll make it--you'll make it."
"Wh-why are you...guys are still helping...me?" I ask between stifled breaths. The ringing burned my cochlea to ashes.
" 'Cause we know this thing isn't you. And we're willing to get it out as soon as possible."
"Thank...you."
A minute and a half passed, and the ringing stopped, but the inflicting pain hasn't. From the back of my head, to my spine, and to my ribs and sternum it's all the scorching heat. My lungs are piping hot due to my ribs surrounding it.
I wish I wasn't always this alert and descriptive. It's better to not be knowledgeable when you're in pain because it's not one of your priorities.
Finally, we reached the exit and the two stayed strong enough to carry me all the way to the New York streets. I detach myself from Patrick and Jason and leaned against a rusty fire hydrant. With this heat inside me and the frigid weather outside, I felt like I was having a flu. I didn't expect so much people still roaming the streets of Brooklyn. New York is the city if dreams, they say. No wonder there are too much people here.
I'm starting to despise normal people now. Look at them; all the riches and rewards, the love...the acceptance.
"You okay, bro?" Jason asked, concerning the pain I'm in.
"We've been walking for half an hour," Clare states the obvious. "we need some place to eat."
"Like someplace where our weapons are unseen?" Hunter hides the gun I used to shoot Patrick behind his thighs and leans against the bricked wall. "Because I don't wanna start another issue."
It truly is a pleasure for him to admit his faults.
"Maybe we can head straight to The Guy's apartment building," Hunter said eagerly.
Looks like we got another ally coming our way. Well actually, we're coming his way.