Surviving Zip City | Teen Ink

Surviving Zip City

January 28, 2014
By __Taylor__, Jackson Heights, New York
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__Taylor__, Jackson Heights, New York
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Author's note: Honestly, I was inspired by a couple novel's I have read. I had the idea for this story in my head for a while and now I finally wrote it.

Under the sweltering heat of the midsummer sun, a young boy ran with a loaf of steaming bread tucked underneath his arms. Behind him the sound of many sneakers on rough pavement could be heard.
"Get back here you bastard!"
"Yeah! You stole our bread!"
Saving his breath, the boy just ran faster. Zipping around the corner he came face to face with a young girl. His breath staggered and caught.
"Well well well. What do we have here? A little runt, stealing our bread? Ha! You must be an idiot."
"..."
"Why so quiet? Cat got your tongue?"
"... I need the bread..."
"What did you say? Speak up. I can’t hear ya."
"I said, I need the bread. I wasn't stealing for myself. I had a reason." His breathing was ragged, he was obviously tired out. Before he could say another word, a searing pain ripped through his chest.
"...W...What....."
The girl yanked the knife out of the smaller boy’s chest and watched him crumple to the ground.
She slowly bent to the ground and picked up the loaf of bread. The bread wasn't even warm anymore, just cold and dirty. Sighing, she walked back to her "home", her friends in tow behind her.

The sun shone through the closed blinds, lighting up the room. With a groan, Aiden sat up on his bed. The sun was blinding him as he looked around the room, like he always did when he woke up. He faltered and stopped, staring at the clock. It was way past the time he usually woke up. Where was his mom?
Pushing the question out of his head, he stood up, stretched and walked to his door. He paused when he head muffled voices speaking outside his room,
“...ask Aiden.”
Slightly opening the door, Aiden stepped out, “Ask me what?” He turned and looked at his father.
“Where your mother is, have you seen her?”
“No, I haven’t seen her since last night… Do you think something might have happened to her?”
“You will never know in this city…” His father muttered under his breath.
Aiden sighed, and decided to walk around the house and find his mother. He called his mother’s name, hoping to get a response.
“Whoa!” He yelped as he tripped over something that was sticking out of the doorframe, and landed on his bum. Gilbert ran out from behind him and jumped over whatever was on the floor.
“Hehe, watch out Aiden, you might trip!” Chuckling slightly, Aiden reached over, grabbed Gilbert’s ankle, and pulled him to the floor.
“Oops.”
“Meanie. Wait a sec, what did you trip on? I thought we just cleaned the whole house last night…”
“Hmm, I don’t know…” Curious, Aiden stood up and walked over to the door, cracking open the door slightly.
"Aiden, what's there?" Gilbert questioned.
No answer
Curiosity getting the best of him, Gilbert lightly pushed Aiden out of the way.
“You couldn't just-" Gilbert cut him off, staring at the floor. His eyes teared up a bit as he turned to Aiden to see him with wide eyes, staring intently at the floor.
“D-Daddy!” Gilbert turned and ran to the other room, where their father was just casually sitting on the couch, reading today's paper.
Their father immediately put down the paper when Gilbert entered. “What? What’s wrong?” He asked, standing up.
Gilbert didn't reply, but instead ran back to his older brother and clung to his shirt.
The older man simply followed along, hoping nothing bad had happened. But, his hopes had vanished when he saw splatters of blood on the floor. He slowly walked over, and saw her. She looked terrible. Her face was as pale as snow, and her eyes were devoid of life.
"Oh dear god..." Their father mumbled, as he took his wife's corpse in his arms.
"Daddy?" Gilbert's voice was weak as he tried to get his father’s attention.
Instead of replying, their father just silently stood up and walked over to his bedroom,
"Dad?" Aiden called his father, a little bit louder than his brother.
His father ignored him and just walked into his room, and reached under his bed, pulling out a small metal box.
"Dad? What's in that box?" Aiden was scared, he's never seen his dad act like this before and it made him nervous. What's he planning?
"She was a good woman; she didn't deserve to go like this..." Their father just mumbled as he held the box and walked over to his wife's corpse.
Aiden’s ashen eyes widened as he saw his father reach into the box and pull out a pistol.
His father turned to him and looked him dead in the eye, saying quietly, “Forgive me boys….” As he pointed the gun to his temple, and fired.
At that moment, Aiden’s world came crashing down.

It has nearly been a week since Aiden's mother had been killed and his father ended his own life. Gilbert constantly suffers from nightmares because of what their father did to himself and Aiden has to hold him until he falls back asleep. It was tough for Aiden, being the older brother and the only one for Gilbert to trust. If they had told anybody what had happened to their parents, they would be brought to the orphanage. And the orphanage would make their lives into a living hell.
One of Aiden’s old friends had to live in the orphanage after his mother was killed. Every day since then, he would come to school with bruises and the hope drained out of his eyes.
Aiden didn’t want anything like that to happen to him or his brother, so he kept living and acting as though he still had his parents. He went to school, he bought the groceries. What worried him though was the government.


Every year, the government would send out their best military men, and they would barge into every house in the city. No warnings. And, if they found anything out of place, or if something that should have been reported wasn’t, the family living there were to be killed. Aiden knew that if he didn’t tell somebody about his parents before the inspection, he and Gilbert would be killed.


With that thought repeating in his head, Aiden decided to run away with Gilbert after nightfall. He packed his and Gilbert’s things into two small bags and put them in his room.
“Why are you packing?” Gilbert asked him, his amethyst eyes staring at the small bags resting on his brother’s bed.
“Because, we need to leave,” Aiden stated simply, going into the bathroom to make sure he has all the needed necessities packed.
“What? Leave? I don’t want to leave… where will we go?” Gilbert asked, his voice sounding pained, he knew it was best to leave but he didn’t want to. The world outside their small home was very frightening. There was always crime on the streets; it wasn’t even safe enough for Aiden and Gilbert to walk home from school.
“Anywhere where the government won’t be able to find us,” Aiden responded, he found it ironic, that, he sounded like he knew what he was doing but in reality, he knew nothing. He had no idea where he and his brother should go, and he was scared.
“Like the slums?” Gilbert looked down at the cracked, wooden floor beneath him.


Aiden was about to respond when him and his brother both heard a loud thump on the door. Before Gilbert could even question who was at their door, Aiden ran over to him and put his hand over his brother’s mouth, shushing him quietly.
“Hello? Is anybody home?” It was a loud raspy voice, presumably belonging to an older man.
Aiden whispered to Gilbert, “Quick, grab your bag and head to the back door,” His brother nodded in reply, grabbing his bag and sprinting quietly over to the back door. Aiden grabbed his bag and headed to his parents room.
A few years ago his parents had told him that they kept their rainy day money in a safe hidden in their bedroom closet. Deciding he needed the money, Aiden quietly walked over to his parent’s closet and creaked it open. Sitting in the middle, under a pile of clothes, was the safe. Entering the combination and snatching the money, Aiden sped out of the room, not bothering to close the safe door. He reached the back door but stopped in his tracks when he saw a shadow looming through the window. He glanced around the room until he saw his brother trembling in a corner.
“Gil, follow me,” Not having any other options, Gilbert obliged and followed his brother down the dark hallway, up the hatch, and into their attic. Right after Aiden closed the small door leading up to the attic, he and his brother could hear the front door being smashed down, followed by many people running in. Aiden clamped his hand over his brother’s mouth to keep him quiet and held him close.
They both sat like that for the next hour while they heard the people below them destroying things, and yelling nonsense when they couldn't find anybody. After a while, the yelling had ceased, along with the footsteps. Gilbert had fallen asleep, so Aiden picked him up and carried him along with both of their bags, down the stairs, and to the door.


Aiden cracked the door open slowly, so it wouldn’t squeak. He peeked his head outside and looked both ways, twice, to make sure nobody was around. He gently placed his brother down and shook him slightly to wake him up.
“C’mon Gilbert, we have to leave now.”
Gilbert replied with a small nod and a yawn. Grabbing ahold of his brother’s hand, Aiden cautiously walked outside of their house.


It wasn’t completely dark outside, but it was dark enough to camouflage the brothers as they ran. Aiden knew to avoid traveling on the sidewalks, since they had streetlights, so he dragged his brother and himself down many different alleyways. They didn’t see that many people out, since it was past the city’s curfew. If anybody was caught being outside past curfew, they were most likely going to be arrested, if not killed.


As Aiden was nearing a corner, a flashlight shone down the alleyway, Aiden’s breath was caught in his throat as he gently, but firmly, pushed Gilbert down and ducked behind a dumpster. He watched as the light scanned the area several times, then left. After a few minutes of silence Gilbert timidly spoke up, “Where are we?” His voice was quivering and was as quiet as a mouse.
“I...I have no idea…” Aiden replied, and he wasn’t lying. He had never been in this part of the city before. It was even grimier than where he used to live. With a sigh, Aiden grabbed his brother’s hand and retreated from their hiding spot.
------
For the next hour or so that's all Aiden and his brother were doing, hiding from anybody who was out, and continuing their journey. Aiden was so tired out, and on the verge of giving up when he turned around a corner and saw a young girl, sitting on a dumpster.
“Sup.”
The girl’s amber eyes sparkled as she looked at Aiden with a huge grin on her face.
Aiden just stared at her, keeping Gilbert behind him. The girls clothes were clean, not a scratch on them. Her hair was a rich, chocolate color and was excessive in length. But he shouldn’t trust her, for all he knew, she might work for the government, or something similar.
“Who are you?" he asked her, his voice wavering.
She just smiled wider and jumped down to him, extending her hand, "My name's Imelda," As she said this she looked behind Aiden at Gilbert and back at Aiden “Who’re you guys?”
“My name’s Aiden and this is my younger brother, Gilbert,” Aiden cautiously shook her extended hand while observing her, she didn’t look like she’d been out on the streets, but him and Gilbert did. Their once neat clothes were now filthy and torn after hours of running around the streets.
“Nice to meet you. Where are you guys from?”
“W-We’re from… a different part of the city. It’s not very close to here. How about you though? You don’t look like you’re from around here either…”


She laughed and jumped back onto the dumpster she was sitting on before. “Of course I’m not from around here. I’m from a different city” She touched the lid of the dumpster and looked at her fingers in disgust, “A much cleaner city.”
Aiden pondered this for a moment; she’s not from the city?
“Why would you come to this city then? It’s terrible. There’s so much filth and bad things always happening…”


She pursed her lips and looked at him, “Isn’t it obvious? I came here to fix the city. My parents are here also, but they sent me to this area to ‘clean’ it up. I didn’t expect it to be this filthy though,” She took a whiff of the rancid odor emitting from the dumpster, “Ew, gross.”
Aiden glared at her before speaking, “Not the entire city is this dirty. The area where we used to live is actually pretty clean,” As he spoke, Imelda glanced at the dumpster and then back to him in disgust.


“Really? I assumed the whole city was this filthy…” She said, as she observed the area in more detail. Aiden could see her noticing the small things, such as all the cracks in the old buildings.


“Well… the whole city is kinda filthy…” Gilbert began, “But some parts are dirtier than others…”


“Hmph. I will not believe that until I see it for myself. Anywayyyyyyyyyyys…” She said, dragging out the last word, “Where are you guys headed?”
Aiden didn’t know how to answer her, since he didn’t exactly know where they were headed. He gave a slight laugh before responding, “I actually have no idea…”

“So you just decided to run away from home and you have no idea where the hell you’re going? HA. Man, I thought people from my city were stupid. You guys are nut jobs.” Imelda said with a small laugh.
“Nut jobs? Don’t they teach you any manners in your city? And what city are you from exactly?”
“It’s a city pretty far from here…”
“But like… what’s it called?”
The silence that followed felt like it lasted for an eternity. Aiden thought she would never answer until she spoke up quietly.
“I don’t know.”
“What?”
“I said, I don’t know. Out city doesn’t really have a name.”
“Oh” No name? What kind of city is she from? Certainly not a city near here. I know all the cities around here, and they all have names…
Gilbert, who has refrained from speaking this whole time, spoke up, “Is the city you’re from safe?”
Imelda just scowled at him. “Safe? Pft. Don’t make me laugh. No city's safe. It might be safer, but it’s not completely safe.”
Gilbert just pouted in response.
The silence was overwhelming.
It stayed silent for a minute or so until an intense beam of light shone on the trio.
Imelda looked up in the direction of the light and laughed. “Holy s***. What IS that thing?”
Aiden felt nausea creep up his to his throat. He nervously looked up and paled.
He didn't know what the heck that thing was, but he knew it was bad. Very bad. It looked as though it was a mutated helicopter, and that was not a pretty sight to see. The blades looked chopped and rugged, and it was painted black with splotches of red paint randomly splattered onto the sides. It also had what looked to be like machine guns implanted on both sides.
Gilbert whimpered and clung to Aiden's shirt, while Aiden was frozen in place. Staring at the machine in utter horror, Aiden couldn't move a muscle.
Suddenly, he felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned and saw it was Imelda.
"You guys are seriously stupid. C'mon we have to run, not stand and stare waiting for your death. Idiots," While saying this, Imelda grabbed both Aiden and Gilbert’s hands and pulled them out of the light and towards an alley.
“Tch. I don’t even know this damn city and I already have to save your asses. What a day.” She said, wearily.
“You don’t have to do anything,” Aiden exclaimed, pulling himself out of her grasp. “It was my idea to run away with Gilbert, and we don’t even know you. I can’t possibly trust you enough to lead us to safety.”
Imelda frowned slightly, only for a moment though, then she was all smiles and laughs.
“Haha, oh Aiden. What can I do for you to trust me? Hmm?” She questioned him, smiling widely.
"W-What? You can't just... Do something and expect me to trust you that quickly... I just met you. This is absurd."
"Pff you're acting so... Boring. C'mon I know a safe place," She immediately grabbed Aiden’s hand and practically dragged him after her.
Gilbert had remained silent throughout this whole thing; he was too busy staring at the giant helicopter above them. His eyes practically sparkling as he looked at the machine with awe.
Still not trusting Imelda, Aiden followed resentfully. "I still don't trust you..." He mumbled.
"OH WELL THEN. That doesn't matter. I'll fix that later," She said with a smirk, kicking open the door to a building. The door fell down easily and landed with a thud on the floor.


Aiden gaped at her with disbelief, as she just giggled and said “Oopsies.”
Imelda then proceeded to run up the stairs, leaving Aiden and Gilbert no choice but to follow her into the darkness.

----------


"Alright, this is my temporary home, and you guys are welcome to stay here until you come up with a plan because... You guys are idiots and just like, run away without any idea where to go."
Aiden had to admit, she did have a point there. I can’t stay here too long he thought, I don’t even know her.
“Um, I think me and my brother will do just fine on our own. I actually have a plan.”
“Oh really? What is it? To run around looking like lost puppies? Please, I could think of a better plan in my sleep,”
“Actually…” Aiden began, “I want to help you. Since I know you’re planning on changing this city, I want to help. I want this city to be safer, safe enough for kids like my brother and I to be able to go outside without worrying about getting stabbed or mugged...” Aiden trailed off.
“You want to help me? HA. Don’t even think about it. You wouldn’t last a day out on the street by yourselves.”
Silence filled the room. Aiden knew she was right; after all, he would have probably been killed earlier if Imelda hadn’t saved him and his brother. Breaking the silence, Gilbert spoke up.
“We won’t be alone,” He said with a smile, “We’ll have each other and you.”


Imelda glanced at Gilbert and thought about it for a moment, “Fine,” She said, “You both can help me, but don’t come crying to me if you need help.”
Even though Aiden didn’t fully trust her, Imelda didn’t seem like that bad of a person. He literally just met her and she saved him and his brother.

Maybe she can be trusted.

As soon as Imelda finished showing Aiden and Gilbert around, she immediately got to work. She put down various papers, maps and writing utensils on a small coffee table, and called Aiden and Gilbert over.
“Ok guys, you see this area?” as she spoke she circled a small area on one of the maps, “This is the area where we met. This area always has thug-lookin’ guys passing through it. I’ve been watching it the past few days.”


“Ok… so people pass through it, so what?”
“Soooooooooooo, when some big bad thug-lookin’ guys pass through, we stop ‘em and demand ‘em to stop bein’ so mean,” She had a big goofy grin on her face and her eyes were shining.
“We can’t do that! If we interrupt whatever they are doing, we’ll be killed!!”


“Oh. Do you have a better plan, genius??”
“Well…” Aiden thought for a moment, what would they be able to do? His parents had always warned him never to get involved with anybody he didn’t know…
"We might be able to… just ask them politely?”


“Ask ‘em politely? How old are you, five? You have to be joking. I think we should like… jump ‘em, or like tackle ‘em to the ground!”
“Tackle them??!?! Do you have a death wish?”
Imelda just slumped onto the floor and groaned. “Well… Not necessarily. But I don’t want to not get any info out of this," She let out a sigh, before continuing, "listen, we need to know all we can about these guys so we can tell whoever is in charge to fix this. So, I think we should just go up to 'em and make 'em tell us what we need to know, or we could tackle ‘em. ”
“ Ok then, how about this, instead of doing all this crazy s*** and fighting for hours about what to do, we could match right over to town call and persuade them to do something about all this."
Imelda arched her eyebrows and laughed, "Y'know, that's not actually that bad of an idea."
Aiden was astonished, that was a good idea? He thought.
Suddenly, Gilbert spoke up, “I think we should try to befriend some of them… so once we are all nice and friendly with each other, we can pry the information out of them.”
Imelda stared at Gilbert, her mouth dropped to the floor. “You. Are. A. GENIUS!” She exclaimed, as her lips formed a smile. “That’s brilliant! How the hell did you think of that?”


“Well…” Gilbert shyly looked downwards, “I watched a lot of television…” He sheepishly admitted.


Imelda simply stood up, grabbing everything off the small coffee table and shoving it all into her bag. “Well then, let’s stick with that plan and head out.” She zipped up her bag and proudly strode out of the room, Gilbert in tow behind her.


Aiden slowly stood up, his mind processing what had just happened. My younger brother, my 8 year old brother, thought up a better plan than I did… What the hell… He growled slightly in frustration, before following the two.


“In case anything should happen, and we get separated, I had some walkie-talkie’s we could use to keep in touch.” Imelda walked over to a dark brown dresser in the corner of the room. The scent of dust flooded Aiden’s nostrils, causing him to use his sleeve and cover his nose.
“Walkie-Talkies? AWESOME!” Gilbert exclaimed, running over to Imelda and grabbing the weird looking device out of Imelda’s extended hand.


“Dude, you need one also,” Imelda said, before tossing one of the walkie-talkies over to Aiden.


Aiden looked down at the device in confusion. He’s seen it used in television before but he’s never had one in real life. “How… do I use this?” He asked.


Imelda gaped at him, “What? You’ve never used a walkie-talkie before?” Pfft, that’s sad dude.”


Gilbert stifled his laughter as he played around with the various buttons and switches on the device. “Aiden, you use this button to turn it on,” He pointed to a large button with a strange symbol on the side of the device, “And this to control the volume,” He pointed to a switch-looking thing on the opposite side of the power button.
Aiden experimented with his own and saw a small light in the bottom left corner of the device suddenly turn green.


Satisfied, Imelda clipped her walkie-talkie on the side of her pants and slung her bag over her shoulder. “Alright, I say we head out now, and find somebody to talk to!” She turned around and dashed out of the room with Aiden and Gilbert on her heels.
------------------


Keeping up with Imelda was a challenge; she was quick on her feet and practically flew down the countless alleys they had passed through.


Suddenly, Imelda rounded one corner and the trio found themselves in the middle of the street. But something was strange, some streetlights were flickering but most of them were off, and the scent of death was lingering in the air, flooding Aiden’s nostrils, causing him to gag.


Gilbert immediately covered his nose and mouth with his sleeve as he looked over at his brother.


Aiden slowly looked around, mouth agape; where the hell…His thoughts were cut off when Imelda burst out laughing. Aiden was so confused; “Why the hell are you laughing?!?!” He practically screamed at her.


Her laughter faltered and faded away, leaving her with a solemn expression. “This place is like a fucking ghost town. I mean look at it…” She walked forward and held out her arms, as if motioning for Aiden and Gilbert to look, “There are like, practically no people, and all these buildings are old and crumbling… IT’S AMAZING.” She started laughing hysterically and spinning around in a circle.


Gilbert looked petrified as he slowly scooted closer to his brother.


“Are you… alright?” Aiden asked her.


She abruptly stopped laughing and snapped her head toward Aiden, “I’m perfectly fine, don’t ya think so?”


“No, I do not think so. You look insane right now. I agreed to work with you but if you are going to go crazy I don’t think it would be safe to hang around you any longer.” Aiden snapped at her.


Imelda just sighed and fell onto the ground; lying on her back she stared up at the dull gray sky, “Y’know Aiden…You shouldn’t trust strangers. Didn’t your mother teach you that? Or was she too busy being DEAD?” She practically screamed the last part of her sentence. Aiden felt tears threatening to spill, but he quickly blinked them away and stood his ground.


In a quiet voice, he asked, “Did you kill her?”


“Me? What could POSSIBLY make you think that? I haven’t even known you existed until earlier today, how would I benefit from killing your mother?” Suddenly, Imelda jumped up and started running into one of the many abandoned buildings that lined the street. She shouted from afar, “If you want to know the truth, come and find me.” Before she started laughing hysterically and disappeared from Aiden’s sight.


Aiden looked over at Gilbert to see tears streaming down his face, “Hey, Gil, I am going to follow her and find out what she is talking about. But I want you to stay right here, no matter what. Alright?”
Gilbert nodded in response before whispering, “Be careful.” Aiden nodded and ran after Imelda.

The floorboards creaked as Aiden stepped inside the building Imelda disappeared into. The scent of death was stronger in here than it was outside, and Aiden didn’t care. He reached out his hands to feel his way around, he couldn’t see his hand in front of his own face. He had always been afraid of the dark but now he was petrified. He heard Imelda’s laughter echoing around the room. She couldn’t have gone too far, it had barely been a minute.
“You’ve always been afraid of the dark, haven’t you Aiden? You’ll never find me. You will succumb to your fears before you even realize the situation you are in.” She was taunting him and he knew it. Something was very wrong here. Something was very wrong with this girl. What happened? She was so nice a few minutes ago, wasn’t she? Or was she just pretending?
Aiden remembered what Gilbert had said earlier, “I think we should try to befriend some of them… so once we are all nice and friendly with each other, we can pry the information out of them.” Is that what Imelda is trying to do? Befriend him and Gilbert to just get what she needs before disposing of them like trash?
No no no, I am just letting my thoughts run wild. It is times like these that I need to keep a level head. Aiden took a deep breath, before closing his eyes and feeling his way around this room.
He was getting tired and the darkness was driving him insane, until he felt a stairway railing. He cautiously climbed up the stairs, taking his time to make sure he doesn’t trip. Suddenly, his foot fell through a hole in the stairs. Aiden let out a small yelp as he tumbled down, landing awkwardly between some steps.
He winced as he tried to pry his ankle free, but only ended up getting splinters in his hands and spraining his ankle. Grunting in frustration, he yanked his ankle free and regained his footing. He threw himself up the stairs and ran around the room, not bothering to feel his way around.
He felt the cool metal of the railing of the next staircase and threw himself upstairs. One thought ringing throughout his head, I must find that girl. I must find that girl. I MUST FIND THAT GIRL.
He reached the top and slammed the door open. He felt cool air hit him right in the face. He opened his eyes and saw Imelda casually sitting in the middle of the rooftop.
He heard the sickening crunch as Imelda rotated her head 180 degrees to face him. Her smile was sickening, like something you would see out of a horror movie.
“Hm… I did not think you would make it up here. Oh well, now the real fun beings.”
Aiden was panting, only now he could feel the pain as he put pressure on his ankle.
“You look tired, perhaps you would like to rest?”
“W…What are you?” He asked her.
“Oh? You haven’t figured it out already?” She looked at him so innocently, before her amber eyes changed into a shade of crimson. “I am a demon.” She stated simply. “I was sent here because this city is absolute s*** and there is no point to it. So I was going to destroy it and make it a place where demons can live alongside humans.”
Aiden stared at her. “You’re lying.”
“I am not.”
He screamed at her, “You’re lying! You can’t be a demon! That’s preposterous!”
She laughed, and stood up, walking over to Aiden, “Y’know… most people say that… and I don’t like that. Can you guess what I decide to do?” Without waiting for Aiden to answer she continued. “I kill them. People like you, with false beliefs, don’t even deserve to live. I mean, seriously, did you really think I was going to HELP YOU? And that this city could change? This city is s***. It’ll never change. And in case you were wondering, yes, it was I who killed your mother.”
Aiden’s breath caught in his throat and he was unable to stop a tear from trickling down his cheek.
“She deserved to die. She was a whore anyway. Did you know that? Whenever she wasn’t home she was just getting it on with anybody she could seduce. But I didn’t know your father would die also. Two for one I guess.” She smirked moved closer to Aiden; their faces were only a few centimeters apart. Aiden could feel her breath on his face, it reeked of death. “I was going to kill you and your brother also, but you seemed… interesting. I have never seen a soul quite like yours before… You could say I was drawn towards it… I suppose.”
Imelda spun around and walked close to the edge before speaking, “Your brother though, he has an ordinary soul, like most humans do.” She then turned to face Aiden, “I should probably kill him now, no point in him living either right? If I don’t kill him now, he’ll probably just end up suffering in this f*ed up city.”
It took Aiden a moment to fully process what she had said, “NO! I will NOT let you kill my brother!”
“Oh? And what can YOU do to stop me?”
Aiden looked down for a moment, but then he got an idea. A crazy, f*ed-up idea, but it might work.
So without thinking anymore, Aiden ran towards Imelda as fast as his legs would carry him. He grabbed the collar of her shirt and threw himself off the roof of the building.
Imelda’s eyes widened in realization, and she said something Aiden couldn’t hear. He only had one thought on his mind, and that was his brother’s safety.
Then everything went black.

Gilbert watched as his brother threw himself off the roof, dragging Imelda with him. He heard the sickening crunch as two bodies met the pavement.


He silently watched as Imelda slowly stood up, her limbs were mangled and she hit her head on the pavement when she fell. But that was not enough to kill a demon. His brother though, did not know that.


Gilbert walked toward Imelda and helped her stand up; she smiled back at him. His face expressed no emotions as Imelda silently grabbed his hand, and the two walked down the street, disappearing into the darkness.



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