~A Little More Time~

[Kevin]

Leo Valence

It was a day like no other. At least it was to Leo, who was stoically wandering around with his gang of “friends.” His eyes were glazed over as he allowed his body to systematically follow the band of misfits around so that he could ponder about more important matters. The day would proceed like normal; they would find a victim, corner him or her, hold him or her down, and stick him or her with a hypodermic needle filled to the brim with a solution of water and crystal meth until they started to convulse and beg for mercy. And then other kinds of torture would pursue once the victim’s soul was crushed. Rape and near-fatalities were quite common. Of course, Leo had no real care for the sick bastards or the people they bullied. It was just a way to live life in an easier fashion for Leo. He would stand back, fit in with the group, insert the occasional snide remark about said victim, and walk away without any trouble from anyone else once the day was over.

It was hard to say whether Leo had any conscience of some kind, and Leo himself believed himself to have none. As a genius who kept his intelligence to himself, he viewed himself as a superior being, judging everyone through acute analysis. No room for feelings to taint his judgments. He would have none of it. He could have used his knowledge to help others, but to him, that was a pointless and mundane task. He only cared for himself, and nothing was going to change that.

As his mind returned back to the event on hand, he realized that the gang had already found the victim for the day. And with a quick glance at his watch, he was surprised to see that it had only been 20 minutes after school had ended. Leo eyed the poor victim –it happened to be a girl this time- without any sort of peculiar thought running through his mind. He only waited and waited for the gang to have their fill of fun torturing the girl to near-death.

Strangely, Leo took a longer glance at the victim as the group slowly cornered the girl against the wall of some large, grey building, which was probably a factory of some sorts. With a calculating stare, Leo found himself analyzing the girl with deeper depth than he usually went into for victims of the gang.

Warm, brunette hair with rather large blue eyes… The irises are almost shaking with fright. She’s kind of pretty in a sense. It’s a pity… I wonder what the gang will do to this one… She has a large scar running down her palm… Definitely the inquisitive type. And the way she’s shrinking back in such fear, it’s obvious that she’s the quiet girl in the classroom. Mm… now they’re trying to grab her and hold her down. Is she going to fight back? No… she isn’t. Looks like they have their work cut out for them this time. No fighting spirit in this one… The initial injection of Nitrogen-methyl alpha-methylphenethylamine will be enough to subdue any light in her eyes. Pity… Should I feel pity? She’s so petite… Maybe it truly is a pity. Pitiful enough that I should save her?

And it was in that instant that Leo locked eyes with the girl for the first time. He had seen various magnitudes of fright, but this was beyond what he expected any one person could radiate. Even he himself, the cold, stoic, calculating genius who had no feelings felt the fright squirm into his own mind.

Is she asking for help? Should I help her? What are the chances of surviving this?... Hmm… The gang would definitely hitlist me for a while… I would say… 35% of making it out with all limbs intact with the girl unscathed. Hmm. Is that worth it? Such low chances… I never take decisions that have lower than 90% possibility of me coming out on top…. Do I pity her that much? No… I just don’t want to see such a broken girl become anymore broken… Maybe I can even fix her. Yes, a challenge for me. Much more interesting than lumbering around with these lunatics. Pushing the head far enough back will cause the nerve communications to the brain to short-circuit for a bit. I should get two or three of them before I’m hit myself.

With a mental nod of assurance to himself, Leo slowly pushed himself closer to the inner semi-circle where he would be able to create enough of a disturbance for the girl to be free. The gangs’ laughter and sneers amplified as the girl was held against the wall with two of the bigger guys in the group. Leo casually glanced over at Malcom, the head of the group slowly approach the girl with the hypodermic needle. Malcom was definitely the smartest of the group… but of course, none of the other members knew about Leo’s intelligence. But to say Malcom was smart would have been laughable. He was smarter than the other dolts, but they had needed help to synthesize the desoxyephedrine without killing themselves. Leo had to use innocent, “accidental” mixtures to show them the correct way of reducing ephedrine without giving off the toxic phosphine gas. Now that he thought back on his actions of “fitting in” with the group, he regretted helping the gang torture hundreds of victims. But his non-existence of a conscience wouldn’t let him repent, nor let him actually believe it was his fault for the pain the gang caused.

As Malcom’s grin grew bigger and bigger as the girl’s whimpering got softer and softer, Leo slowly tensed himself so he would be able to snatch the needle away from Malcom’s hand when he tried to stick the small brunette girl. Leo hoped that the girl wouldn’t faint. If she fainted… he would have no way of helping her. And they things the gang would do to her if she couldn’t scream in pain for their amusement…

The time came as the sneering peaked. Malcom raised his hand to stick the needle into the girl’s chest, and before the needle could pierce the light-pink skin, Leo rushed forward and stuck his hand out to grab Malcom’s wrist. And before he saw what happened, a groan of pain escaped his mouth. The needle had pierced his skin and what he helped create had finally come to haunt him.

Ignoring the pain, Leo quickly gave a palm thrust to Malcom’s chin, knocking him unconscious as he had planned. Leo pulled out the needle and thrust it into one of the guys holding the girl down. With a bellow of pain, the guy let go of the girl to examine his wound, and before the other guy holding the girl could react, Leo gave a swift punch to his celiac plexus, stunning him temporarily. He gave the girl a push away from the crowd with an urgent “Run!”

And before he could follow the girl away from the gang, he felt his head knocked against the wall as one of the gang members tackled him. The gang converged on him as he tried to keep himself calm and collected.

Keep your mind open to the possibilities… Don’t panic… Ignore the pain… Find the opening…

Leo continued to exchange blows as he tried to find a way out of the brawl. Blood trickled from his mouth as his body continued to be pummeled mercilessly by the gang. With a shout of defiance, he caught his assailant in an arm lock and used him as a blunt object as he swung him against other gang members. With a gasp for air, Leo let go of the guy, and dove for a way out of the vicious circle. Stumbling, but finally making his way away from the wall, Leo exchanged a couple blows before making a complete run for it. Having memorized the entire area on a prior afternoon, Leo soon lost his pursuers through a mix of intricate alleyways and shortcuts while going towards the direction the girl had fled. It wasn’t long before he found her breathing heavily in a small alleyway not a half mile away from the location of the upheaval.
As his heavy yet still urgent breathing intermingled with the girl’s, he beckoned with his hand.

“Come with me. I know a place where we can hide from them for a bit.” And with that, Leo took off for his secret hiding place where he would have to concoct a counter-reactant for the desoxyephedrine that was in the needle.

[ᕙʕ•ᴥ•ʔᕗ]

“Hey, girlie. You’re looking real cute today. Why don’t you show us your ‘better’ side?”

They were too close to her. She only wanted to go home, but they were in her path. Too big, too strong to push against. Home was where she could be safe but to get there, she would need to find a way to escape. Why was it so difficult to escape? She was small; she usually found a way to slip through tiny spaces but the gang of the boys was so intimidating that Anni could not find that escape. She had heard about this group of boys; she had even done a very good job avoiding them all her years at school. But there was only so much that luck could take care of. Now, all she wanted was to be somewhere else. She had gone through her usual routine: pack everything up quickly and then swiftly move out of the school as soon as she could to avoid bullies like these guys. Somehow, they were faster than she was today, causing her to be in this sticky situation.

“We won’t bite. Well, maybe we will, but you’re not going to have a problem with it.”

Anni shrank back in fear, her whole body shaking. She knew what these boys could do. They had so many stories between them, a storyteller could have spent years going through the tragedies they had caused. But no one spoke about this group; they were invincible in that way. Rumours still found their way around and even Anni, the girl who never knew about anything, knew about them. First was always the cornering. Then came the needle filled with chemicals that no one really knew save them. And then came the more unimaginable. That part was never spoken of, never bragged about. But everyone’s imagination filled in the gap, it was always that way.

“Oh come on. You know you want this. Don’t try to fight.”

Her steps were small and careful as they followed each other backwards, backwards until she could feel the chill of the wall against her back. They were still moving closer and closer, and they were never going to stop, not until it was all over. She tried to melt into the wall, hoping that there was more that she could rely on as their faces started to press close to hers. Already her back was yelling at her to not flatten herself anymore, but she had to. She just had to. No reasoning went through her mind; no wonderful escape plan was possible then. Her eyes widened in fear and her eyebrows were scrunched as her mind started to think up what could happen to her and each situation’s consequence. She was starting to give up.

Strong arms were locked on hers, pinning her down. She could have fought against them but she didn’t. There was nothing more that she could really do besides let everything run its natural course. Her mind went through a panic mode, searching for every source of help possible, when she noticed that there was someone looking at her, examining her. He was with the other boys but he wasn’t trying to get his hands on her like the others were. Instead he was just looking at her, probably going through all different kinds of thoughts in his mind. She pegged him to be the mastermind of the plan; everyone else was just there for the brute force. No matter that he wasn’t directly taking a part in this torment; she hated him all the same. She tore her eyes away, the fright in her eyes remaining. She had accepted it. No one was going to help her. No one was around to make sure that she would survive this.

There was a slight shift in the group’s formation, but Anni was so terrified that her body still found a way to shake even though it was being held against the wall tightly. The sounds that came from her throat could only be whimpering as she realised what was going to happen. She might have been accepting of it, but it did not mean that the fear was diminished at all. She could see from the boys’ satisfied grins that she was giving them exactly what they wanted, but she couldn’t stop herself. All she knew was how to be afraid. Her eyes were trained on the needle, no longer searching for any help. The point of the needle came closer, closer, closer. First the tip would pierce the skin; then the rest of the needle would create the unmistakable circle that would be the gateway to some unknown substance Anni did not want to know.

Close…too close. Anni closed her eyes as the sneers grew louder and louder until they rang in her ear. Why her? Why did she have to be the one here? She was sure that she was not the first victim, but why did she have to be one? What did she do wrong? To them? Was it because she was weak? Was it because she was such an easy target that they chose her? She waited…waited for the pinch that would only mean that the needle had been stuck in her. Instead, she heard skin to skin contact. Before she could dare herself to open her eyes, she felt the force that had been placed on her escape. What…what’s happening? Finally her eyes opened, but the scene was so chaotic that nothing seemed to be sticking in her mind.

A sudden push and shout had the girl jolt back to her sense. The command was to run and as no one seemed to be noticing her, she did what she was told. She didn’t even know who it was, but she ran down the main road like there was a group of those guys after her. She managed to take a glance back to make sure no one was following her, but all she could see was some fight and no details so she kept on running until her lungs started to burn. When she thought she could no longer take it, she ducked into one of the alleyways she was rather familiar with and collapsed. Dragging herself to one side of the alleyway, she rested herself against the wall, her legs outstretched in front of her. Her head was pressed against the wall as she inhaled and exhaled quickly. The last time she had ran that fast was a long time ago and even then she had never pushed herself to move at that pace. When her breathing had slowed for a bit, she curled herself into a ball and tucked her head in.

Her breaths were still short and it was visible to see the rate at which her lungs were working, but she was already at the point of crying. Perhaps that was the reason why her breaths continued to sound ragged as she held herself tightly. How…I don’t…why did…I shouldn’t have. I knew better than to leave by myself. I should have had Jrick there or…or…anyone honestly. Why— Her thoughts were interrupted by what sounded like hurried footsteps. She didn’t want to know who it was, but she made herself look anyway, peeking her head out of her protective sphere.

It was him, the boy who had been looking at her while the others were holding her down. Contempt was on her face as Anni stared at him, wondering what he was going to do with her now. The fact that there was only him and that there was still an opening for her to go through kept her from shrinking deeper into the alley. He was breathing hard as well and he looked hurt, but why would Anni care if he was hurt or not? He tried to hurt her so it only seemed right that he was hurt as well. He raised his hand and Anni expected that he was going to strike her, but he only beckoned her.

“Come with me. I know a place where we can hide from them for a bit.” Why was she going to go with him? He had just tried to hurt her! And what if it was trap, a way for the group to get what they wanted? Anni could not trust him. In fact, she hated his guts. So why was she going to follow him? But he said something about hiding and at that moment, that was all Anni could worry about. She didn’t like the idea one bit, but he was already well on his way and the only logical thing Anni could do was follow. As she picked herself up and followed him from a distance, she couldn’t stop staring at the back of his head.

I hate him.