Abnormal

Chapter 2

HE DODGED quickly through the alleyways of the slums occupied by the outcasts. He easily reached the gray battered house and threw the door open.

"Graeson," he yelled clutching his bleeding hips, a sharp glass protruding from the gash.

Graeson emerged from the kitchen, his eyes widening at my sight.

"What have you done now Vincent!" his godfather snapped angrily.

A second wave of dizziness washed over him. Before he knew what happened he dropped like a sack of potatoes on the ground.

***

HE WOKE to the bright sunlight prying his heavy eyes open. Graeson stood under the curtain he had just peeled open.

Sensing that he had awoken Graeson rushed to his side.

"You lost a lot of blood," he said worriedly, "I almost sent for the village doctor because you haven't awoken for nearly two days. I couldn't risk going outside our territory to the hospital without exactly knowing what you had gotten yourself into."

He stared into his eyes, "How much is it this time."

Vince avoided his eyes.

"One hundred thousand credits."

"ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND CREDIT," he roared out, his voice dropped an octave, "To get that kind of money you would have had to rob a-. Vince please don't tell me you robbed a-."

Gray stared at me in disbelief waiting for me to explain myself.

"I am so sorry, Graeson," Vince pleaded, "I just wanted to help with your debt. I overheard the landlord threatening to kick us out if you didn't pay within a week. The debt collectors were even harassing you with those phone calls. What the hell was I suppose to do! I kept telling you I wanted to help but you would never let me. I don't need you to protect me from everything!"

"You don't understand half of what you are saying Vince. What if you had exposed yourself? You would have a target on your back like an animal every second for the remaining of your life. You would have even less freedom than you do now. Why can't you understand that?"

"You were not born with a red, blue, white or black crest. You don't have a class. You are," Graeson paused, "different. And in this society that is a very dangerous thing."

"What am I then, huh?" I seethed, "I don't have a class, I don't have somewhere to call home nor do I have friends because we move every goddamn year. I don't have anything. The least you could do for me is to tell me what I am. I don't have the energy to decipher your cryptic language every time this conversation arises."

"You are not ready Vincent," he said sadly.

It looked like he wouldn't budge no matter which stance he took in this conversation. Why did he have to wait until his seventeenth birthday to know who he was. It was something he was entitled to know. He knew it was something important to make his godfather so stubborn. He always gave in to his demands. Whatever he did to make him understand were he was coming from blew back on his face.

"Graeson," I whispered remembering the Elites screams, "He called me an Abnormal. Is that what I am?"

Graeson looked as if he had seen a ghost, "who saw you?"

I looked away.

"Vincent Eugene Johnathan," he said coldly, "who saw you?"

"He had a red crest on his forehead so he must have been an elite. He used his pheromones on me but I ended up freeing myself somehow. He ended up freaking out and called me an Abnormal," I finished hesitantly looking at his face for reassurance.

The grey eyed man wore a red robe which signified his statue as an Elite. They were the most powerful class out of the Nobles, Bourgeois, and Outcast class. The Nobles and the Elite class possess pheromones that enable them to physically disable the other classes, hence how he was unable to move in his presence. So it should have been impossible for him to be able to twitch let alone stand up and run through a window.

He had tried to delay it as much as possible because he thought Gray would get angry. He couldn't discern exactly what he was thinking but he knew it was not good.

The second he had foretold what had happened Graeson had snapped a bag from underneath the bed and was throwing in clothes from their closet.

Vince for the first time realized he had done something wrong. Very, very wrong.