Sing

Chapter 2: The Safe House

The door opened slowly, and I saw the nose of a blue gun poking through.

A guy walked cautiously inside, and the first thing I noticed was his hair. A mass of curls fell to his shoulders.

"Alright, come on," he said. A young girl that I immediately recognized as the Grace followed him timidly inside.

She always looked so brave and happy on the billboards they made of her.

Her 'wanted posters.'

It was wrong. It was crazy.

She was ten.

A yellow beam flew across the barn and hit the wall behind me. I swore and fired a green one back. It hit the door.

The guy with the hair shoved Grace behind him and fired in the direction where the redhead had shot from.

Why was he even shooting?! Grace and her protectors were always Killjoys! They have to be careful so she isn't given to BL/ind, for God's sake!

I scrambled over to the other side, where Redhead was. "What the hell are you doing?!" I hissed. "That's Grace!"

"Wait, really?" asked the redhead. "Fuck!"

"Stop shooting at her! Call him off!" I pointed up at Bandana.

Redhead gave me a dirty look, then stood up and gave Bandana some signal. If they were this untrustworthy of me and Grace, I wondered how they trusted each other.

I stood up beside him. He was considerably taller than me. I resented it.

But sometimes being short came in handy.

"That's Grace," I said to the guy. He nodded. "And don't think for a second I'm giving her up."

Bandana appeared next to me. "We didn't say that," he said. "We know you have to be working against BL/ind if you have her."

"Y-Yeah," said the guy. "And I won't hand her over to you sick bastards."

Bandana and Redhead looked at each other and laughed. "Us?" said the redhead. "Working for BL/ind? Think again." He held up his yellow gun, and Bandana held up his red one. I guessed I should follow them and held up my green one.

"What makes you think that's going to make me trust you?" asked the guy. "That," Bandana said, pointing at his blue pistol.

"Look," said Redhead. "You have to understand that we aren't gonna shoot you because we can't watch her." He pointed at Grace. "We aren't qualified. And it's too much work. We'd get ourselves killed like that."

I nodded, and Bandana jabbed me in the back.

"So... all three of you work together?" Hair-guy asked. Bandana and Redhead exchanged glances again.

"Uh, no," Redhead said. He shoved me forward. "Take him to play mother. We aren't your guys."

I rolled my eyes.

"So you two work together," Hair-guy said. "I guess you could say that," Bandana said. He and the redhead began snickering.

"What's so funny?" asked Hair-guy. "Nothing," said Bandana. "Absolutely nothing."

"Listen," Redhead said. "You guys gotta go. We have a system, and you would break it. So scram."

No one moved.

"Just let us stay here for the night," Hair-guy said. "It's too cold and too risky for her out there. I mean, isn't the whole reason we're doing this to keep people safe and take out BL/ind?"

We glanced around awkwardly. He was right.

"Alright, fine," said the redhead. "But we're sleeping up there. You three stay down here."

We nodded. That was understandable.

Bandana and Redhead climbed up to the top, and Hair-guy took Grace over to the wall of the barn. I figured I should take the other wall. I'd be out as soon as I woke up.

I went over to the far wall and laid down behind some hay.

I was used to sleeping on the ground by now, but I wasn't used to being in the same building as other people.

It kept me on edge, which kept me awake.

After a while, I heard some rustling. I crawled over to look out from behind the hay.

I saw Bandana walking over towards where Hair-guy and Grace were laying. He had taken off the bandana, allowing me to see his features. He was an attractive guy with a prominent jawline.

I watched as he looked at the both of them.

"What?" hissed Hair-guy suddenly. "Shh!" Bandana put a finger to his lips.

"Look, I just wanted to talk to you," he said. "I mean, you're the guy with Grace. I kind of want to know about him."

It was quiet for a second.

"Alright," Hair-guy said. "But she's asleep. Let's talk somewhere where she won't wake up."

Bandana nodded, and they started over towards me. I panicked for a half second, then decided to pretend I hadn't heard anything.

I sat back against the wall of the barn. I twirled the pistol around my finger, like Bandana had been earlier.

"Oh, you're awake?" Bandana asked. I looked up at him and nodded.

"Alright, that's cool," he said. "You can talk with us."

"How come you're so friendly all of a sudden?" I asked, picking up a piece of hay to mess with.

"I fake it when I'm with him," Bandana said, gesturing to the loft where Redhead was. "I'm not that mean. He isn't either, really. We both put it on to scare people." He grinned at me. "And it looked like it worked."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever," I said.

"What did you want to know about?" Hair-guy asked. Bandana shrugged. "Let's start with your name," he said.

"So I'm supposed to give my name to someone I just met?" Hair-guy asked. "Well, isn't that how that works?" Bandana asked, smiling. Hair-guy rolled his eyes. "Not anymore."

"Just tell me," Bandana prodded. "I'm not gonna turn you in or anything." Hair-guy sighed. "My name's Ray," he said. "But that's all you're getting out of me at the moment."

"At the moment?" I asked. Ray shrugged. "Who knows what's going to happen?"

He had a point. I didn't even know where my next meal was coming from.

Bandana smiled at him. "Okay, Ray," he said. "I'm Mikey. And that's Gerard up there. We... We're brothers."

Cue my jaw dropping. They looked nothing alike.

"I see it," Ray said. Mikey grinned. "Most people don't, honestly," he said.

"Like me," I said, tossing my hay on the ground. "Oh, yeah," Mikey said. "And... What's your name?"

"I'm Frank," I said.

I didn't expect the words to drop out of my mouth.

"Frank," Mikey said, nodded. "Frank, Ray, Gerard, Grace, and Mikey. I like it."

I did too.