'Bzzzz… Bzzzz… Bzzzz…'
At first, he couldn't determine this buzzing sound as Kage's grogginess persisted him waking, but all too soon did he see the immense wings buzzing back and forth sprinkling tiny hairs onto the floor.
Now wide awake, Kage sat up only to feel the immense pain of forcing his stressed muscles to move after they had relaxed for so long. Almost grunting in response he held it in due to the creature that sat on the stool just in front of his metal framed bed. The thing with an insect's wings had two antennae protruding from the front of its forehead and with the way its head was turned Kage could just about see four of what he presumed to be the start of many black beady eyes. He felt the antiseptic like aura emanating from the person confirming his suspicion of it being an Evolved rather than another part of his dream.
The chair the thing sat on squealed as he swiveled toward Kage allowing a full inspection of his face. Shocked by the person's appearance, Kage could not move but instead shook from head to toe. The shadows seemingly blended around the thing emphasizing its many constantly bulging eyes. It felt to Kage like he was naked before this person. It could see all his sins. He knew not whether to run or stay and fight, producing the cold sweat that ran down his spine.
"Be it not for yah friend yah would be definite in death as of now. Should thank 'em when ya get the chance ta." A hand reached out from the man, "As for yah ta know, I was yur doctor durin the operation. Had ta suck out that poison with mah own tongue. Not a pleasant experience." A slip of a tubular tongue slickened the doctor's lips. The spongy organ was purple as globs of saliva nearly splattered onto Kage.
Kage took the hand, "T-t-thank you for your help, but where is my friend?" Not knowing whether to refer to the thing as man or woman he left out a formal pronoun to his sentence.
Removing his hand and returning to his station the person continued to fiddle away at some device that emitted a crackling sound. "Said he had ta do some stuff for both of ya. Seein how he always leaves early in the morning then return mid evening, I presume ya chicklings not even out of yur schooling yet, correct?" The thing moved its head back in search of an answer. However, Kage produced none other than a glare. He would be unrelenting in any information, the thing already knew too much. It had already seen his face.
'Is this it? Do I do it? I have to, right?'
The boy's left hand passed silently from his side pinching a needle from the cold concrete. Luckily for him, the doctor was a slob without much decency in his approach to surgery. Now all that came was a follow through on the belief. A belief seemingly crushed by the doctor himself.
"Well, whatever ya have going on, ain't mah problem. Plus, there be no point in giving ya up when I just saved ya, would there?"
The needle was placed cautiously back to the depths of winter. "You said that my friend had left… then returned multiple times… How long have I been out for?" Kage asked with his stare still unmoved.
The crackling had begun to leak out some audible words but still broke apart every now and again causing the thing to slap the back a few times. In his haste to repair the item was he unable to grasp the extent of violence emanating from the boy. "Yep, been out for quite some time. Don't remember the exact day ya came in. But if I were ta guesstimate… Have ta been no less than four or five days."
Stuffing his hands into his hair Kage began to scream internally. This was one of the worst of the possible outcomes. His absence from school would surely be felt later in his grades but that was not what worried him.
'If the people from before were to survive or even be awake at this point… then their gang may already know who I am.
What about Daniel as well?'
Then he remembered that the thing had told him Daniel was attending school. He most likely thought the exact thing as Kage beholden to the wisdom that at least one of them had to attend in order to stop suspicion from mounting on them.
He fell back onto the bed producing a hearty cry. Letting out a grand breath, Kage felt as if all his worries had disappeared at that moment. Daniel had proven to be rather clever. The blood from their wounds would have been covered by the snow and contaminated so no one could use that. All he had to make sure of was that Daniel and him never return to that alley and that their alibis were sealed tight.
Kage could rely on Lisa to lie for him just as she had done in the past, but Daniel needed something different. Racking his mind for a moment or two he couldn't decide on something that would prove Daniel unable to be there at the time. He didn't even know his hobbies or where he lived. How could he come up with an alibi for him?
A twinge of pain stung Kage in the side. Despite all the trouble and training they had gone through, he had never gone to his house. There was a gap in their relations. An enormous task was placed on the shoulders of that child yet Kage still clung to a sliver of camaraderie between them. It was something to consider the next time they met.
He stole a peek at what the person was doing only to see his back toward Kage while his foot wagged to a melody played over the object's speakers. "What is that thing?" Spoke Kage as he sat up from the bed.
The person's foot stopped wagging in clear embarrassment. "An old radio given ta me as paymen' for anotha operation."
"Radio? I've never seen one that old before. The metal is practically rusting." Kage stood over the person's shoulder observing the object. Several dings and knocks made the archaic device appear beaten. It was a bullied tool that now saw little purpose in a more modern era.
Without sparing a glance it spoke, "Was told it was from the 1900s. Don't know if that is so credible tho. Good thing I gotcha ta work, isn't that so?" The man had redirected his tone to a much higher pitch and patted the speaker as if it were a pet. Only then had Kage realized the abundance of scrap in the space.
Snapped bicycles, motors from lawnmowers, even a glass chandelier, and then the list would go on and on describing the number of collected parts. "I see you like to collect and create."
"That I do, boy. That I do." It stood up from his chair which rustled even more hairs to the floor. "I find each of these things have a purpose ta life. Whetha it ever be used or used all the time. It has ta contribute at least an amount ta something grander." Kage's attention fell upon a doll standing separate from the dirtied shelf. It was propped up by a wooden headrest fitted for its small stature. There was an unknown care granted to the children's toy.
The doctor swiftly went to the pedestal where it lay. Then, he held out the small toy of a china doll. "See this 'ere? Found it among the heap of bodies when I worked as a shoveler ta those furnaces. Was where I lost the use of mah right lung. There were so many items simply forgotten among the dead. Quite a sad sight. I hope ta whatever be ya never see such sights in yur life."
Remembrance stuck in the deep despair of the man's eyes. One such emotion that Kage implored knowledge further. "Why did you keep it? It's just a toy."
"THIS TOY was in the pocket of a lass. Her face still pale as I seen it. It's the only one I see when sleep takes. The doll was in that pocket and ya know what it says on it's boot?" He twisted the doll upside down so Kage could see. Written there were two words carved by a finger's nail "Remember Me" it read. "Give up yur shenanigans and work an honest life." He gracefully put the doll back to rest.
The doctor realigned his spine to gaze upon a boy's defeated sullen grimace but was greeted by a different beast. The very boy focused on the doll with his very being trembling with the revelation of a child's final words. Words that could never be realized. Words that stung the heart of a lone worker forced to pile bodies into a mass grave birthed in flame. A fire that shall rip the souls of those unable to be heard. They are the dying beliefs that cannot be imagined by those that rest in plotted graves.
"DOESN'T IT ANGER YOU!?" Cried Kage fists clenched. "Don't those dead anger your soul. The thought makes mine wail in fervor at such injustices."
Sitting down once more the thing observed Kage, "Then what have ya do? The dead are dead to the excess on this planet. They were destined ta die."
"But that's not it! This death… This burning… This smell… It's done to warn those willing to make change, willing to look for a dream. It's control and authority to lay waste to those without the chance to speak."
"That it could," He wheezed out with a cough, "But who would force them. They be ta reliant on their fortune and happiness than ta save the rest of the poor saps out there. Who's gonna force 'em?" The man raised an eyebrow mocking this defiant child-like behavior. "No one, that's who. We're left ta figure it out ourselves because otherwise we are caught in dreams. Dreams which terrorize our kind."
Scrunching his face, Kage spat out an answer, "THE HEROES!" The thing sat stunned, unable to speak for if he opened the gape of his mouth all that would come was a laugh. One full of vitriol that surely would send the boy deeper into rampage. "They will do it. That's what they are meant to do."
"Meant doesn't mean they will. The police are ta get the criminals but ya don't see much of that in these parts, do ya? Ya don't see that cops nor heroes going after them suits who kill and maim, do ya? Because they don't care."
"I CARE!" Spotting the doll, Kage held onto it in his right hand and lifted it high. "Those there now may be resolute in their selfishness and unable to see the greater problems. The inability to act on the villains that provoke such chaos. Restrictions put upon them to not go after those very politicians who stoked such behavior. Instead, they are instilled with a fear of combatting their master's orders. It could crush any person, but if they were to see an example of someone who would rise in their place. Surely they would follow after."
The thing only squinted further with all its mesmerizing eyes. Kage pointed at the person, "Just as you remember the girl because of her promise, I will remember her as well. I will become that beacon; others will rise after me. Then, will something occur."
Raising a hand, the person took the doll back from Kage. It surveyed the piece of china rubbing his fingertips along the carving to the boot. "Listen' kid, listen' well. I operated on a yung man much like yurself. Spry and upbeat ta his nature. Claimed he would help his elderly motha that suffered from cataracts. Said he would get treatment for her and become a hero ta inspire others and change the system...
One day he came back ta that operating table here. His motha carried him and I saw the emptiness in those eyes. Somewhere along the line he was condemned as a vigilante. Worse then, a murderous one. Bounties were placed on his head and men came to collect. That day the boy, now a man, missed an arm cleanly eaten off by some beast. Guts punctured with leaden weights. Ta survive he had taken control of some innocents then fled. Used 'em as meat shields he told me."
'Cried while he did so.'
"Ta get ta mah doorstep he had ta take his motha as well. All the while I took 'em under mah knife, he neva stop beggin' for forgiveness. It wasn't ta any god in specific but just ta everything. Begged for his stupidity, begged for his life, begged for his errors, begged for his dreams.
I neva seen a man weep and cry like he had. So... when he died in mah arms that day I wept some more for him. Even when passin' the tears poked through his lids. But, above all, his motha's sight had come back. The mind control did something ta change it, and she wept even more when seeing her son. That afternoon I went for some food tired from mah work the night before…" After so much sadness he felt the need to quench that thirst with delightful muck. It was so short that he now wished he never had the inkling to eat at all.
"I came back ta the silence of a similar kind. The kind motha who bore her child and lost it, could take no more." He let out a sigh, nearly choked on spit. "Buried 'em close in mah yard ta remember 'em as well. Kind folk they were." Nothing came as a response to the story. There were no simple words willing to be uttered.
"You are living in a childish fantasy. It will end in nothing but pain and guilt, boy. Yur beacon is nothing more than a glint on their radar. A glint so easily extinguished."
Kage snarled and sneered neither feeling a familiar anger nor a pitiful sadness for the story of the dead. The veins blistered out along his arms while the hair to his neck stood up straight.
What would, what could he do differently than that man? Could he do it? Would he be able to find the mental fortitude needed to respond in like manner or what if he found himself dead like a dog just as that man turned out?
A knock on the door interrupted his train of thought. The door opened and in popped Daniel bag in tow and a mask over his face. "I-I-I heard you were up. I b-brought some clothes to ch-change into other than those sheets you got on, heh." He took hold of Kage's arm, "Are you f-f-feeling better?"
Beyond the mask, Kage could see the dazzling color of his eyes. The soft texture to them as well as the way they would gleam when looking at him. This boy trusted Kage with more than he could ever ask of anyone. An immense ball was dropped onto Kage. A weight greater than any felt before. A life was granted for him to do what he wanted with. A life to be cared for and nurtured to exceed its limits.
The words from the person had stung but the presence of a friend left him reassured in his endeavor.
He turned back toward the person and smiled, "It may be childish; however, I won't give up because of the past. Because," Kage gripped tightly onto Daniel's arm tightening together, "When you stop moving forward is when you fail. So, I'll never stop until I reach my goal. Our goal."
Kage dressed then walked out the door after Daniel but was caught by a cough from the person who still sat in the torn chair. "Arthur."
"What?"
Hacking, he proceeded, "The name's Arthur… and if you ever find yurself in the need of a fix. Come back, but ya better be prepared ta pay." He stuck out a blade in a half-hearted threat.
Kage smiled to himself, "It was good to meet you, Arthur. If we were to meet again I will pay for this time as well."
"Bah!" He waved his hand dismissively. "It goes on credit."
He went out the door trodding alongside Daniel as he shared about Kage's time away.
Arthur stood by the door rolling the doll's head in his thumb. Her hair had been the color of the moon and shone just as brightly. Her laugh had been hearty and grand with a smile more jovial than that of the boy. An underlining grim visage may lapse that boy but nevertheless a confidence unlike any other persisted his foot falls.
'Perhaps there was credence in his words?'
Time was unkind to the man where he could no longer feel the need for change. Weathered by crime as well as the frailties brought about by age. The want for childlike glee; a habit to better the next generation no longer ached in his bones. Much similar to his neighbors, and many that lived on the same line of time, they grew up then adapted to this culture without a sound or expression harbored against it as the cool night came upon them.
"What do ya make of the kid, Madam Entoisse."
The elderly woman came from behind the man seemingly as an apparition conjured by the moving dust particles. With a cackle she drummed her fingers on the doorframe, "Not too sure 'bout that one. They surely still kids, but deary me do I wish to give a fortune to either."
The two of them watched as they kicked some snow from the ground, laughing about some joke on the difference in their teachers. Although they tried to be quiet, the two of their ears could hear for miles and their noses could smell a scent that had dissipated upwards of three days.
Madam Entoisse trotted forward then down the left side of the neighborhood onto a street headed toward the market district subsequently leaving Arthur to his thoughts.
The sun was poking out from the clouds warming his wings. They buzzed with a low drum. "Be a busy time coming soon." Arthur predicted.