Children of the Slums

Who we Are

Who we Are

I exit the alley and walked up the main street. "Hey, John!" David shouted from behind as he jogged toward me. I looked back and kept moving. "Hey, John, wait!" He cut in front of me, grabbing my shoulder. "I said wait up."

"What is it, David," I said, not wanting to be talked to.

"Why are you in a bad mood?"

I gave him a look like he should know before I started walking while he followed. "Because everyone in this stupid place is a walking jerk-a-tron."

"You just realized that?"

"No, I just—!" We stop suddenly. "I don't really want to talk about it. You know the deal around here, David. They mock, we cry, it's the usual."

"Pfft, speak for yourself," he said as we resume walking. "I don't cry over things like that."

"You did once."

"Uh-huh, and I was like what, eight? Grow up, John. Stop letting these idiots get under your skin over every little thing." He jumped in front of me with his arms up, smiling. "One day we'll be the owners of this world, and one day they'll be begging for us to save them! That's what I look forward to."

I smirked. "At least you have a dream," I said before walking ahead.

"Don't you?" he said, quickly catching up.

"Yeah, I'm full of dreams, can't you see it?" I said sarcastically.

"No need to be that way man."

"Yeah, well—"

Not paying attention, I bumped into a teenage boy with his two friends. "Watch it, freak!" he shouted.

"Sorry, I didn't see you there."

"Really? The killer shrimp didn't see me there guys," he said to his friends, each wearing matching black bennies with baggy sweatpants and long-sleeved shirts twice their size. "Hey, can you see this?" he said with his hand out.

"See what?"

"Look closer." I lean in and he slaps his hand into my face. The three of them were laughing like there was nothing funnier.

"Hey, lay off him!" David demanded after pulling me behind him.

"Oh, and whatcha gonna do about it—freak!?" he said, shoving David into me.

David fully faced him, lightly smiling before tilting his head a little as the three young men laugh. David's eyes, excluding his pupils, become a toxic green with irregular shaped specs of black.

Suddenly, the young man who slapped me hunched over with his face reddening before violently vomiting. He vomited twice before falling to his knees with bulging eyes. He was first vomiting some kind of noodles before it became stomach acid and dry-heaves. People gathered as the young man began to convulse.

I slowly took my hand down from my face and looked to David. "David?" I said, realizing what was going on. "David, stop." He didn't listen to me and continued to harm the young man. "David, stop it!" I said before strongly shaking him.

The young man stopped vomiting as David blinked a few times, reverting his eyes as if to be coming out of a trance.

"Come on, let's go, now!" I said, pulling him along before running.

After fleeing a safe distance from the main street, we walked through a narrow alley. "Did you see that back there?" David excitedly said as we passed between tightly spaced houses. "He was kneeling so quickly. God that felt—!"