God's Rejects

part four: "dulled"

   [JASMINE]

   After a few months, Blake was sent out of the hospital.

   I got to meet him, and his two sisters.

   Blake had short blonde hair and light blue eyes, along with fair skin (like all his siblings). He was 18 years old.

  His younger sister, on the other hand, almost looked entirely different.

   Naomi had long brown hair and brown eyes. She was a short one, despite being about 16.

   The eldest was a girl name Klaire. She had dyed rouge hair and blue eyes like her brother. Though being the eldest at 21, she was shorter than Blake.

   Chorís knew them through their parents. Sadly, the Kanshin children's parents had passed away, and were being fostered by an old couple.

Though wild, they were nice people.

"So you're Chor's new friend," Klaire asked me. "Huh?"

I nodded.

"Be careful of him," Klaire said while tapping her fingers on the porch gate. "He's a strange one."

"I am too, so I think I can take it," I answered, lighting a cigar.

"Can I have one?" Klaire asked. I nodded and handed her the box of Marlboro.

"Need a lighter?" I asked. She shook her head.

So we sat in silence, smoke drifting up from the cigars.

"Chorís said you were a runaway." She mentioned, then blowing smoke out of her mouth.

I nodded.

"You didn't tell the whole story, so what is it?"

I tensed a bit, but I saw no reason to lie.

"My... father was involved in a lot of debt with a gang," I began.

"And he forgot to pay something. They had gotten into the house and..."

I took a deep inhale, trying not to tear up.

"They... burnt my mother alive."

"I was part of the payment, but my father had hesitated. The gang wouldn't wait anymore, so they decided to punish us by killing her."

Klaire kept silent a bit.

"So, you were scared, weren't you? To be burnt alive too?"

I thought about it. "It was half fear, and half wanting to make sure my father had a good reason not to pay."

Klaire nodded.

"That's why you seem so dulled..."

"You've lost your emotions, haven't you?"

I didn't answer.