Teenage Bones

Ticking Time Bomb

I ordered duck sweet and sour with egg fried rice without hesitation and Tyler orders the same with a bottle of coke for us to share. We are handed fortune cookies and while waiting for our food, we crack them open.

Tyler's cookie crumpled in his hands, laying crumbs all over his lap. His frown makes me laugh and he fishes out the small paper. "'Your life will be an adventure without your choice.' That sounds... threatening"

Hope and I ate three boxes of fortune cookies when we were small so when it came to opening one, I was an expert. The small paper was written in red letters and said: "' Tonight's visitor will bring great opportunities.'"

"Weird," Tyler says, setting his down and brushed himself off, "they don't sound too good."

Our dinner is brought out soon after that as well as our drinks and placed in front of us. "Thank you!" I say but they looked at me like they were trained to ignore me. Okay then.

We begin munching, I'm sure the egg fried rice is the best I've ever tasted and I swear I nearly orgasm. Tyler looks to feel that way too.

"This is so good," he says, "I'm glad that I chose to try Chinese!" I nearly fall out of my seat.

"This is your first time trying Chinese food?!" I was sat opposite him, gaping. To keep your child away from Chinese food has to be child neglect.

"No," he laughs at me, "is it that bad?"

"Yes! That's like being in prison!" I exclaim, shoving another lot of Chinese in my mouth.

Just then, a teenager looking a couple of years older in a black and white suit, pulls up a chair. He has brown hair and eyes and is dressed immaculately, joining us at the table. He pulls up his slacks slightly before taking a seat, smiling toward us and adjusting his tie a little.

"Nice to finally meet you, Esmé Peters. I hope you enjoyed the fortune cookies, they are too sweet for my taste." He says, extending a hand to me. Tyler puts his fork down, looking panicked and I mirror him. I accept the handshake hesitantly.

"I'm sorry, sir," Tyler starts with a polite voice, "Esmé Peter died a couple of months back."

"My apologies, but here's what we aren't going to do, lie to each other." His eyes never leave me as he replies to Tyler. "I am not going to hurt you unless there is another lie spoken, do you understand?" I nod and Tyler looks fuming. The guy smiles. 

"Brilliant, now that's established, my name is Roman Wilde but everyone calls me Pete. I would like to know where Mr. Elijah Clarke is." He says, placing both hands on the table.

"I don't know," I answer.

"That's unfortunate," Roman leans down, takes something from his shoe that looks like a pen, and stabs just above my knee with it. I nearly scream but he covers a napkin to my mouth as I feel blood trickle down my leg. 

"Honey, there's no need to make a scene." He pushes the napkin, indicating I take it. I do. "I do not enjoy this, but I do need to know where he is."

"We don't know," Tyler says quickly, "he took off with a girl called Starr."

"Yes, Starr Gaizer, such an unusual name. Do you happen to know the whereabouts of her and her sister?" Roman askes, straightening the table cloth absentmindedly.

"We didn't know she had a sister!" I say, talking between rushed breathes.

"Lilly and Starr Gaizer were the ones to take Elijah Clarke yesterday. Lily was one of my friends in the experiments, truth be told." He looks bored. My hand is covered in warm sticky blood- still flowing.

"You were an experiment?" Tyler asks, shocked.

"Indeed. I am incapable of feeling emotion or pain." He smiles toward me in a friendly way.

"I'm sorry," I blurt.

"Don't be, if anything, it is a gift." He holds his hand out to Tyler, addressing him, "Nice to meet you..."

"Sam," Tyler says without shaking his hand and giving it a disregarded look. "Sam Johns."

Roman takes his hand anyway,  shaking it. "Pleasure." 

A Chinese woman runs from the counter, giving Roman two full, heavy white bags. "Your order, Mr. Wilde."

"Ah," he stands, taking the bags from the woman, "how lovely of you to carry it over to me." The bags are placed on the floor while he takes out his wallet, giving the lady a pink fifty-pound note. The waitress takes it, happy, and leaves. "I do apologize for interrupting your meal, it looked expensive. He picks up one bag, leaving the other. "I have ordered your exact meal in a takeaway option in case the meal is no longer as appetizing. Have a pleasant evening-uh, before I forget." Roman takes my napkin and leans down to pull the pen out of my thigh, cleaning all the blood off of it with the cloth napkin before putting it in his top pocket. My leg begins to heal but bleeding heavily first.

"Thank you for your assistance, it won't go unnoticed." And with that, Roman leaves the restaurant. 

"Are you okay?" He askes and I nod. Tyler peers into the bag and takes out a note on cartage paper and gold ink, written in perfect victorian cursive. It says: 'I thought we weren't going to lie to each other, Mr. Black?' As if we were in a movie, beeping started to come from the bag and inside was a bomb sitting on containers of Chinese food, counting down from eight. With a rushed wave of my hand, the bag is sent flying and Tyler grabs my arm, half carrying me out the restaurant and half running. We keep running until we are on the other side of the road and outside Boots. The explosion takes out the windows and sets fire to the whole of the restaurant, engulfing the building in flames as well as the buildings next to it, and cars in front of it. The cars explode too, sending Tyler and I flying back through the open doors of Boots and hitting rows of shelves. In the rubble of mascara, Tyler is the first to sit up.

"The whole restaurant is dead." Tyler's flat voice scares me a little bit and he simply looks out at me in relief, even with blood running down my leg.

_*_

We made it back to the car uneventfully, seven or eight police cars racing by to get to the deceased restaurant. Tyler dials Starr's number, handing the phone off to me so he can start the car and reverse.

After three rings, Starr picks up. "Tyler?"

"We were just attacked," Tyler says, spinning the car onto the road. I hurry to put on my seat belt around me and click it in.

"By know? Are you injured?" Starr askes quickly.

"No, we're fine. But this Roman guy has just blown up a restaurant and set fire to three buildings and four cars. He just left a bomb by our fucking table!" Tyler shouts, "He was looking for Elijah, you and your sister- Lilly?"

Starr sighs, "Roman Wilde. What did you tell him?"

"Are you fucking serious Starr?!" Tyler swerves around houses, taking neighborhood roads to the apartment. "You said we'd both be safe in the flat. What the hell was that!"

"You knew what you signed up for, Tyler. Roman is an experiment from the lab, he's extremely dangerous and you need to stay away from him. He is a controlled sociopath." She says.

"I know that! Why was he looking for Elijah? Or even your sister and you?" Tyler yells. The car is thrown into another direction.

"My sister and I are the one of the highest class experiments and very valuable. Elijah is valued because he can handle us and possibly take us back if he wanted to." Starr says. "Just get back. I have a lot of news and we need to talk about the possibility of moving you guys to the safe house."

"The apartment isn't a fucking safe house?!" Tyler booms as the phone clicks off. He hits the steering wheel, screaming and then calms down, breathing harshly. "When we get back, pack all of your stuff. We're leaving. Tonight."