The Altruistic Kind

Prologue

Wednesday March 21, 2018

The Scissor Sisters 'I'm so excited' echoes through the bookstore, The Wild Wood as Keva and I closed up for the day. Our store mainly stocked hardcover books, which inspired the name and I personally, have always loved hardcover novels much more, it somehow makes them feel more valuable and special. Mrs Anne Wilder, the owner, always left the store early to spend time with her husband, and luckily for Keva and I, we were her most trusted employees.

We started working here in eighth grade, after being assigned to read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee, by our English teacher. The Wild Wood is one of the only affordable bookstores in our neighbourhood and often caters to the students who attended the same school as us.

Keva and I began our friendship by quite literally fighting over the last copy of Harper Lee's classic, resulting in it being completely torn in two, which in Mrs Wilder's eyes, is a crime against literature. Mrs Wilder received payment for the damaged book by employing the two of us to work every afternoon after school for a few weeks. The job quickly turned into a joyous gathering after Keva and I got to know one another, and ever since then we've been attached by the hip.

The music came to an automatic stop suddenly, distracting me from my reverie.

"Why are you just standing there. Wilder doesn't pay you to stare at the shelves while I stack them." I looked over to Keva who was smirking back at me.

Silently I began working, trying to hide my amusement from her smug face.

***

Two hours had past, Keva and I finished packing our stuff and flipped the old royal blue sign on the door to CLOSED.

We silently walked through the streets, nothing to be heard but our steps echoing through the alleyways. I was oddly entertained by the rocks I was kicking along the pathway, lost in my own separate universe thinking about the most miniscule of issues, like the fact that my local supermarket didn't have any strawberry or spearmint gum when I went to buy a few packets this morning, which was odd as they are the most popular flavours, and always were the most stocked flavours.

I was distracted from my sulking when I heard scuffling coming from an alley just in front of us. As Keva and I walked past trash bins, slowly getting closer to the alley the noises got louder, probably some cat rummaging around.

The next moment we were directly in line with the alley, and Keva was pulled away from me by a man in a red hooded mask.

The pure look of terror on her face pulled me out of my shock, I went to pull her away from the man but a taller man wearing a black mask came out from the alley towards me and pulled both of my arms behind my back, and kicked the back of my knees so I would fall to the floor kneeling in front of Keva.

The man holding Keva threw her onto the floor and placed his hands on her shoulders, standing behind her.

"R-Riley are you okay?" Was she kidding?

"Keva I'm fine, are you okay?" The girl was assaulted and she's asking if I'm okay.

"Yeah I think so." She turned her eyes to the man holding my arms. "What do you guys want?"

"We want what Queen owes us, and you're going to deliver" said the man wearing the black mask behind me, I could see anything to help me describe their physical appearance, however this mans voice was kind of husky, and he had to be at least 6'4.

"You lost me there, I don't have any idea who, or what you're talking about," I said, mustering up all my courage to speak those words evenly.

The man that was standing behind Keva moved to kneel in front of her, and grabbed her trembling chin.