The Animal of The City

VI

“Sis?.. When I was out yesterday.. I came across Crowblood,” he muttered, as his sister only stared in shock.

“Y-you did?..”

    Were the words that slipped off her tongue, in just disbelief of what she heard. Her brother only nodded, looking down at the canvas.

  “Yeah.. Ptsd hit him hard, busted out a window in the Humvee for my squadron.. Helped him calm down, and drove the old rig back to him, didn’t recognize me.. I thanked god for that,”

     Aerith muttered, it was the first time in a long while he ever mentioned god. There was a good reason though, after everything that early morning long ago, how did anybody survive? They sat in silence for a few minutes, before he broke the silence with a sigh.

“I.. I don’t know how he made it, but.. Right now he’s not in a good state, not in his mind or physically..”

    Aerith said in a soft tone, as he scratched his eyes, in a rough way, It was almost animalistic at first. He turned toward and looked at his sister, just staring into the ground. She was lost in thought, lost amongst her surroundings. She looked up, and got up, walking over to her brother to hug him tightly.

“I.. I don’t want to lose my brother again, please don’t let this get to you.. I’m gonna go to the gym for a bit,”

    she replied to him, as he let her go. A smile crept across his lips as he nodded, his hands rubbing his eyes before letting her know she had nothing to fear. She walked out of the studio, looking back with a smile softly. He continued to work on his artwork. From time to time he stopped to draw or doodle, going back to paint. It was a city, night life of an alleyway.

Invana wore grey sweats and a grey hoodie, her phone was decently charging as she drove. Pink earbuds laid in her hoodie pocket, ready to be untangled to sing to her eardrums, her own playlist of music and songs. Her own car was a 1969 camaro, chrome black with dark grey stripes painting the hood and roof. The radio played a mix of shitty pop music, so she turned it off and listened to the quiet growl of the engine as she drove to the local gym. It was one the ways she got her mind clear, it was a relief. She turned into the parking lot, letting her car die quietly. She got out and walked, opening the door and walking in. Looking around she started towards the treadmill, her earbuds sitting in her ears as she began to jog. For a few minutes she zoned out, just daydreaming, she could see herself jogging with her sisters she knew in bootcamp. For once, sweet happiness, could felt from her. It was ruined by a tap on the treadmill, as a tall man looked at her.

“X’cuse me ma’am, mind if I take this treadmill beside ya?”

     The man said as he spoke, it sounded somewhat country, but she shook her head no, and continued jogging. He was tall, skinny. To her, he looked like a twig in her mind trying to grow out branches. She finished two miles in about 10 minutes, and went to the weights, going for fifty pound weights, doing some cross body hammer curls, bringing the fifty pounds weights to her neck, and alternating them. She did that for about a hour and a half, before walking over to the pull up bars. She used her strength to bring and hook her legs on the bar, doing upside crunches. Some of the other people in the gym, mostly males and some women watched in awe, but in want as well. Finally getting tired of about 100 upside down crunches she hopped down and walked over to the punching bag, taking some of the free hand wraps the gym offered, she readied herself to do some jabs and hooks, occasionally doing some roundhouse kicks to the bag. In her mind, she smiled at the sight of the local meatheads staring in awe of her overall abilities, but she also smiled as some of the females who were exercising almost fell or hurt themselves from watching her.

Taking a look at the time seeing it had about gone onto five o’ clock, she grabbed her bandanna and threw her hair into a ponytail, walking out of the gym and to her car.

She relaxed for a minute, and chose out a classic rock cd. It was a playlist of songs her brother made, something they shared while they were in the military. Turning the car on, and driving out into the city, she decided to drive to the coast, to watch the sunset slowly drop behind the cool blue pacific ocean. She let out a sigh, as she scrunched her face in realizing something. Her brother’s eyes were rather bloodshot, they looked...  too bloodshot to be normal. She waved the thought off, staring back out into the oceanic view. Yet, she never knew what would happen when she was away from her brother.