Sweet Serial Killer [ Riren ]

ONE HUNDRED FORTY FIVE

ONE HUNDRED FORTY FIVE
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When Levi turned fifteen, he had spent a long time with Isabel and Farlan.

Maybe not as long as he'd spent with his mother, or Kenny, but he definitely felt closer to them than he'd had with Kenny. Isabel was a fiery spirit, rivaling Farlan's calm one and Levi's deadly. She bounced into things headfirst, with them having to protect her afterwards. She tended to have a kind heart, and was a little overly brave and stubborn.

Levi still remembered helping her fix up the bird's wing.

"Aniki, you're supposed to wrap the wing the other way!" Isabel had exclaimed. Levi had snapped at her to stop calling him that. She'd pouted, stopped for about an hour or so, and then started again. Levi, honestly, thought she was doing it instinctively and on accident. She sometimes called Farlan aniki, too, but it was almost always Levi.

They had spent about a month tending to that bird. Isabel had even given it a name. She called him Eddie, and carried him around almost everywhere, either on her shoulder or her head. It was cute, in an adorable way, but Levi would never admit that. When the bird was fully healed, Isabel had cried for a while, but she had set it free.

They'd traveled towards the edges of the slums, towards where hints of forests and trees appeared. Isabel had taken the bird in her arms, reached her hands up, and let it fly. It had flapped its wings, turned its head, chirped once, and flew off. It was as if to say thank you before leaving. It was . . . Nice. Serene. To see the little bird they'd taken care of so tenderly flying, good as new, once more. It looked so happy, so joyful.

So free.

It was good to see Isabel so happy, too. Levi wouldn't admit it, but looking at her laughing and smiling with tears in her eyes really made Levi . . . Dare he say, happy, too. He wanted to keep making Isabel feel that way. He was protective over her, admittedly, and he wondered what he would do if anything happened to her.

He'd go crazy.

Looking at Farlan, who seemed calm and at ease in that moment, he knew he would go ballistic if anything happened to Farlan, either. The two were as thick as thieves. Where one went, the other followed. And Levi wasn't planning on having anything happen to his best friends. He'd let people get close. He had to keep them safe, now.

"Oi, aniki!" Isabel suddenly pounced onto Levi, disrupting him from his thoughts. He jumped, looking up at her and going to shove her off of him, but she clung on. "What you thinking about?" Isabel crooned, and Levi huffed, pushing her face away. "Nothing," he said. "Go away, Izzy." Isabel rolled over onto the side of him. "Never!"

"Levi, do you have a job for us to do? Isabel is too hyper, she's practically bouncing off the walls," Farlan said, taking a seat on one of the chairs. Levi glanced up and shrugged. "I can check," he said, reaching over and grabbing their shared phone from off the coffee table. It was to keep track of jobs, and they had to switch it out every so often so the authorities couldn't track them down. They'd had a few close calls before.

"Aniki, I wanna do the job where we go from the roofs!" Isabel said. She threw her hands out, a smile on her face. "I wanna feel like I'm flying." She hung off the edge of the couch, her head almost touching the floor. "I wanna be a bird!" She exclaimed, and Farlan reached over, nudging her and sending her toppling off the side of the couch.