Runaway Devil

“Wha-” Issac said. His voice was weak

“Fuck,” I grumbled. I would have preferred if they hadn't seen that. “Hey guys,” Ben grasped my arms and inspected me, leaving his smoothie all over the sidewalk.

“What the fuck was that?" His voice had adopted a panicked squeak that stabbed my eardrum.

“Okay, I’m going to need you to calm down,” I growled. "Where did you guys go get food?"

"Who were those guys? Why were they here? What did they want?" Jerry fired off questions faster than I could answer them. Looked like redirecting their attention wasn't going to work. I guess I had underestimated their focus. It had always worked on Sophie.

“Kara, get inside. Now." Bethany's voice was clipped, it was unlike her normal, laid back attitude. I sighed and walked in followed by three confused, worried boys.

Balan stood between me and everyone, constantly looking around and repositioning himself. I pet his head and he grumbled up at me. I reached out to him mentally and spoke through our link.

Don't be like that. When have I ever let you kill a person since we've been here? Never. And you know that.

He huffed anyway. I had a small smile on my face as I scratched behind his ears.

You did good, Balan. You kept a lot of them away from me, which is exactly what I needed.

“Stitch would like to have a word,” Bethany said. She took a step to the side and Stitch looked down at me. He was angry.

“Kara, you can't do that." He had a deep frown etched into his face. "That was an unnecessary risk, and it was dangerous." He took his time with his words, each of them daring someone to interrupt him. "We've already told Dante to stay away, it's best not to engage. You know what they could have done to you, Kara." Everyone remained silent, looking back and forth between me and him.

What they could have tried to do. I scoffed silently. I knew and Balan knew that they couldn't really do shit to me. They'd all be dead before they knew what hit them. "You may think you're tough shit, but fending for yourself on the street is not the same as confronting half a gang outside my shop." The more he spoke the more agitated he seemed to get. His mouth wrapped around each of his words and sharpened them to a point. I stood silently, waiting for him to be done. He paused and took a deep breath.

"You know that if I did nothing they would have smashed the shop windows in, right?" I could feel the room tense. I wasn't wrong. They would have targeted the shop, but instead, I made sure they targeted me. I knew I could handle them, they were light work. But the shop was barely scraping by as it was, I was not about to let them take on Dante. He was a handful and a half, the shop wouldn't be able to keep up.

His face blotched red and the vein in his forehead bulged. "That's-!" He stopped and stared at me, unable to form words. I don't think I had ever seen him that mad. Nick and Bethany looked at each other briefly before looking back at me, shaking their heads. Bad move. Stitch pinched the bridge of his nose and breathed deeply for a while. "You will take a few days off. Lay low." His shoulders slumped as he looked back at me. I kept quiet this time and just nodded. "I don't want to see you around here until next week, okay?" He reached forward and brought me in for a hug. I returned it and let out a breath.

"I took out his eye with my cigarette." I smiled next to his ear. I felt him fighting his smile as he shook his head over my shoulder.

“Come on, Kara, let me drive you home,” Ben looked at me pleadingly. I thought for a moment. It was quickly shifting from afternoon to evening. The breeze had picked up, which made it a bit chilly, and I held my arms around myself. I hated cold.

“Alright, fine.” I grumbled. Ben nodded with a smug look and opened the passenger side door for me. I got in, and called to Balan. ”Come,” He happily jumped into the back, while Issac and Jerry just stood awkwardly looking at each other. “He won’t bite, unless I tell him too.” They both nodded uneasily and got in. Ben started the car and pulled out of the small lot. “Take a right down Birch, and straight through to Maple.” I gave him the directions and just sat back with my eyes closed.

“Don’t fall asleep on me,” Ben mumbled softly and rested his hand on my knee.

“I wouldn’t dream of sleeping on you,” I said with a wry smile. He pretended to be hurt and made a hissing noise.

“You pain me, Kara. Such aggression,” He shook his head and smiled.

“It’ll be up here on the right,” I said sleepily.

“Oh...” I heard Jerry say quietly.

“Yep, I know,” I unbuckled my seat belt and opened the door. I just wanted to get inside as quickly as possible.

He rolled to a stop and I got out without a word. I snapped my fingers, and Balan jumped into the front, exiting the car through the passenger side door. “See you guys tomorrow,” I said and turned, walking inside. Ben hadn’t pulled away yet, and I was already at the door. “What?” I called back to them, asking why they hadn’t left yet.

None of them replied, they just kind of looked at each other. “Do you want to stay with one of us tonight?” Issac asked out the window. I cocked my head to the side, almost like a bird, in confusion.

“Why?”

“The fuck you mean ‘why’?” Jerry shouted.

“Hey, don’t start yelling at me, asshole!”

“Just get back over here,” Issac sighed. I rolled my eyes and trudged back over to the car. I leaned into the window, and waited impatiently.

“Make this quick. Cinnamon’s going to think I’m stealing her customers,” I grumbled. She was a prostitute that hung around the neighborhood. It wasn’t like there was a lot of them, so she was making bank.

“Cinnamon? You know what, never-mind. Do you want to stay at my place tonight?” Ben asked again. I was silent for a moment. It wouldn’t be hard for Dante to find my place. It wasn’t like I had maximum security. I knew that one of there houses would be the last place he would suspect. I weighed my options and decided it wouldn’t hurt.

“Yeah,” I finally said after a tense silence. “Just let me grab some stuff, I’ll be back in a minute.” They all nodded with hard expressions and sat back, seemingly letting out a collectively held breath. I jogged back to the front door and opened it quietly. I jogged upstairs, opened my door, and dropped my backpack down. “Duffel, duffel, duffel, duffel,” I murmured over and over again, looking for a duffel bag. I pulled one out from the back of my closet, grabbed a t-shirt, jeans, socks, and various other necessities. I grabbed a random pair of underwear and my deodorant. I took a deep breath and checked inventory. I was pretty sure I had everything needed, so I scooped up my backpack on the way out.

I heard my landlord yell after me as I made my way down the stairs, so I did what I thought was best. Pretended I couldn’t hear him and moved faster. I wrenched open the car door and chucked my bag in the back. Issac caught it with an oof. Balan happily got back in the car and I looked at Ben expectantly. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Who’s that?” He leaned forward, looking around me at my landlord. His balding head shown in the evening sun, and his mustache was looking as pedophilic as ever.

“Can we just go, please?” My voice was a bit more anxious sounding than necessary, but I really needed him to drive. He threw it into drive and we skidded into the street.

Once we were driving, and rested my head back and took a deep breath. “He’s my landlord,” I grumbled, answering his previous question. They all nodded and we drove in silence, the soft rocking of the car tempting me with sleep. Ben would occasionally rest his hand on my knee and shook it lightly, to keep me awake. I demanded he give me one good reason as to why he was keeping me from sleeping. He smirked and said he just liked touching my knee. I had rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, getting more comfortable. I was about to fall back asleep when we pulled up to a house.

All the shutters were pristine, none of them had a single spot. The people who did the landscaping for the house were probably paid handsomely. It looked as if the owner wanted a garden of Eden for a front yard. They had a double garage, which was connected to a house that looked like it belonged on a suburban reality show. “Home sweet home,” Ben muttered sarcastically. I nodded slowly, sizing the place up. “My brother is home from college, he may have a couple friends over, and I know they’re drinking all my parents booze, so be warned,” I continued to nod.

After the day I had, I could use a drink. Or five.