After a long walk it was already nighttime when the trio finally returned home. A raggedy old house, patched with cardboard, the sagging roof supported by a pipe stolen from who knows where. The house was built at the edge of a ruined city, devoid of any signs of life except for the occasional huts scattered here and there.
The trio entered inside where they were greeted by a damp floor, a single mattress on the floor and boxes filled with what appears to be clothes and random toys.
"Home sweet home!" John ran towards the bed, he gently let down the kitten before excitedly jumping in with him. "I'm going to sleep with Ash!"
"I wouldn't call this sweet." Alicia spoke with a heavy voice. "I think we should follow David's advice and start looking somewhere better."
"I won't leave this town. End of conversation." Lucan answered sharply. He started rummaging through the boxes and fished out a pair of worn out boxing gloves.
"Why do you want to stay in this place? John is just a kid, he deserves to live and experience a proper childhood. I'm only nine, and you're just ten. Are we really going to stay here for the rest of our lives?" Her voice filled with frustration.
Lucan stopped and stared at her. He opened his mouth but he swallowed the words that were supposed to come out. He turned around and walked towards the door. His voice reached them as he stepped out of their humble home.
"We'll leave once we have saved up enough money." He counted with his fingers before continuing. "We'll talk about this again when I come back."
Alicia just stared at his back until he was out of vision before nodding. She smiled before playing with John and Ash.
***
After some time, John's eyes became heavier and he fell asleep, hugging the cat on his chest. Alicia smiled caringly before nervously staring at the door. "It's so late, where is he?" She murmured under her breath.
She tried to sleep next to John but she just couldn't ease her mind. She stood up and opened the door and waited. Moments later, a shadow appeared over the yonder and slowly moved closer.
She stood cautiously, eyes fixed on the figure approaching. It wasn't Lucan, it was their neighbor, running towards them with a serious face. He shouted towards Alicia, "You need to help Lucan, he's being chased by the police and the mayor's people."
Alicia stared at him warily, her gaze sharp and unrelenting. "Why would he be chased by police?"
The teen, about the same as Lucan's age, was panting heavily, his ragtag clothes filled with sweat. "He, uh."
"You ran all this way and you won't talk?" She spoke, her voice tinged with suspicion.
The teen hesitated to answer, as the young girl stared at him. His nerves got the better of him and he shouted. "He punched the mayor's son!"
Alicia's eyes widened, she couldn't process what she just heard. "What? Are you being serious?"
"Lucan punched the mayor's son. The bastard deserved it, he was bleeding up and down."
"What!?! No, Lucan isn't the type of person to just hit someone."
"Because the fucker wouldn't shut up about you and John. He kept talking about what he'll do when he gets his hands on you and how he'll chop off John's arms and legs before feeding him to the dogs."
Alicia just stared at him blankly. They stood in silence for a moment before Alicia shook her head. "I don't believe you, Lucan never told me that he knew the mayor's son."
"They didn't before today, Lucan fought in the ring and won, causing the mayor's son to lose money. The guy wanted Lucan to fight for him and he declined, then that's when he spouted bullshit. Lucan then sucker punched him. They're chasing him right now, we have to go fast." The teen hastily explained and grabbed Alicia by the elbow, to which she shook him off immediately.
She peeked inside the house to see John sleeping peacefully, she went inside and grabbed an item wrapped in cloth before closing the door and following the teen. They ran down the street as fast as they could.
The two ran like the wind, with one behind the other. The cold wind and the night sky hit Alicia's face and woke her spirit up. The thought of something bad happening to her brother kept her from feeling the fatigue.
"Where… is… he?" She asked with difficulty as she was running.
The man slowed down and just pointed forward. Alicia stared forward and gripped the cloth in her arms as hard as she could.
A sticky, blobby sound rang out before Lucan's head popped out of the corner. "I'm here"
Alicia finally caught her breath and let out a sigh of relief. She went to hug Lucan before she suddenly received a punch to her stomach, knocking the air out of her lungs, dropping the item wrapped in cloth. She looked at him in disbelief before jumping backwards.
The teen suddenly wrapped behind her and grabbed her by the neck, to which she reactively kicked backwards before running away from the two of them.
Her exhaustion didn't allow her to run as far as she wanted, as the two followed her patiently, like hunters and their prey.
She kept shouting for help while running away to attract attention from whoever was nearby.
As she slowed down, a silhouette jumped out from the shadows and stood behind her. She turned around to see Lucan pointing the gun at the two chasing after her.
The teen stopped and raised his hand. "We can talk about this, no need to use that thing." He nervously spoke.
The man who looked like Lucan suddenly laughed and looked him straight in the eye. The skin on his face sagged like wax next to fire revealing the skull and even that too melted into a slimy substance.
The sibling's eyes both widened at what they saw. Alicia's face contorted out of disgust at seeing the slimy substance slowly form into the shape of a man.
A moment later, a completely different man stood there, a man that looked completely average, when seen on the street wouldn't leave any marks on your memories.
"You punched the mayor's son in the face and completely humiliated him in front of all the others. I would kill you right now but the benevolent young master has said to take you back alive. So I'll give you a chance, throw that gun and break the hand that touched the young master and I'll leave your family alive." The man smiled and spoke confidently.
"Lucan, no. He's lying, he'll kill us both. I know that look in his eyes." Alicia warned from behind him.
Lucan just glared at him and kept the gun trained at him. They slowly moved backwards, only they knew as to where they were going towards.
After some time of following them, he noticed them going towards a place with more people living. He grew increasingly more frustrated. "Stop moving, if you don't I'll kill your younger brother."
The two didn't react to what he said and instead started to move faster.
"Look, if you don't believe me, I have three men surrounding your house right now. I even know about your new cat." The man snarkily spoke.
Lucan and Alicia stopped moving and looked panicky. The man continued moving towards them. "Here's another proof." He melted again and turned into a small child, he turned into John. "This is what he's wearing right now. Put down your gun while I'm still being nice." He slowly moved towards them.
Lucan hesitated for a moment, but the memory of his younger brother smiling was enough to make him put down the gun and the child smiled. "Zach, tie him up." He ordered toward the teenager.
As the teen moved towards Lucan, Alicia snatched the gun from Lucan's hands and fired the gun, once into the child's abdomen, and then to Zach's right shoulder. She then grabbed Lucan and started to run towards their house leaving behind Zach who was still shouting and a bloody child who started melting.
***
It was quiet in the ragged house as the two children slept peacefully. Until John started to roll and shake, clearly uncomfortable.
"Mom! Dad!" He shouted, before his eyes slowly snapped open. He looked around at the dimly lit surrounding, there was nobody beside him. He always woke up being hugged by Alicia like a doll, or kicked by Lucan's smelly, rough feet.
"Alicia? Lucan?" He mumbled before he sat up. He started to tear up while mumbling, "Please don't leave me." After some time, he started crying out loud.
A nudge pressed against his thigh. A small cat headbutted him, demanding attention. He picked it up, sniffed, and wiped the tears from his face. "Heh, I'm sorry. Must've woken you up. I was just practicing my acting, was it good?"
The cat looked at him and just meowed, as if to say 'yeah, sure'. He held the cat by his chest and opened the door outside. As soon as he looked outside, he saw two people running towards him, their faces covered by shadows caused by the lamp behind them.
He held the cat tight and closed the door enough that made it so he could look out with just one eye. That was when he heard a familiar voice shouting his name.
He opened the door to see Alicia and Lucan running towards him. Once they both got inside, they hugged him tight, as if to tell themselves that he's all safe. "John, listen to me. We don't have that much time, pack up your stuff and get ready to leave." Lucan held him by the shoulder and spoke with a grave tone.
"Did I do something? I'm sorry if I woke up late. Please don't kick me out." John started tearing up.
Alicia picked him up and explained. "No, we're not kicking you out. We're all leaving. We're going to a pretty place with a lot of friends you can play with." She wiped the tears in his eyes that were starting to fall again.
John nodded and ran to find a bag, any bag that he can put his belongings in. He was excited, "We're gonna go explore the world!"
Alicia smiled wryly, not knowing what to tell him. She grabbed all the clothes and stored food that she had, while Lucan grabbed a can full of money, his clothes, before helping John pack up. Five minutes later, they left during the darkest hour of the night.