The time was 8:42 p.m. The temperature outside was cool, and the sky was a soft 粉, 粉色 with small hints of blues and yellows and oranges cascading through every ounce of 太空 between. Cars no longer occupied the worn down roads in the area, and the children had gone inside their homes for the night. The neighborhood was quiet; peaceful, 你 could even say. In a brick house located at the end of the street, there was a rusty clank as the sill of a window was opened to let a flume of cigarette smoke out.
"You've cheated. I swear to God, you've cheated at some point, and, and, and, I just- didn't notice it, and that's why 你 keep winning." a deep voice mumbled sharply as the man returned to his seat. The voice was hollow in nature, but it was smooth and coated with a bit of a Germanic accent.
"Or y'know, 你 just suck at cards, Will. Ever think a' that?" another voice retorted arrogantly, supplying a short, whispy laugh afterward. This voice was undoubtedly higher than the 前一个 one, however, it was much raspier, which was agreeably typical of a diehard smoker, which he happened to be. On 最佳, 返回页首 of that, this man had a homegrown Brooklyn accent.
Inside the house's small, dimly lit 厨房 was a wooden, round 表 with four metal chairs surrounding it. At the 表 sat three young men, and one woman, and there was an acute sense of relaxation that seemed to 吞, 燕子 up the room, and no one was objecting to it. Cards were scattered across the table; in the center was an ash tray that was nearly full.
William looked at his deck of cards and then shifted his focus back to Derek. "Nah, still think 你 cheated somewhere." He slopped his deck down revealing his sorely 迷失 hand.
Derek saw this and smirked to himself as he pulled the deck in and began shuffling the cards. "Wanna do one 更多 round to make 你 feel better, boy-o?" He inquired.
William smirked slightly as he reached to his back pocket and pulled out another cigarette. Out of that same pocket followed a dark red, handheld lighter that barely had any gas left inside its container cavity. "Nah, I believe you've kicked my 屁股 quite enough tonight." He chuckled as he placed the cigarette in his mouth and lit it.
"What about you, James? 你 wanna play a couple rounds 或者 so?" Derek playfully asked, turning his attention away from William.
He saw James focusing on a small handheld radio that he had no problem with taking the backing out of. "Think I'll unfortunately have to decline as well, old friend. Trying to get this little piece of work its signal back."
James was a bit different than the other two men. He was youngest, yet he carried a shockingly strong voice that 你 would never imagine came from a man of his teenage-appearing stature.
"I just adore how 你 don't even ask me." Hannah teased, leaning in a bit. She was sitting with one foot on the floor, the other leg pulled up close to her chest in the seat. Her arm was folded around the back of the chair, and there, between her fingers, was also a cigarette, already about half way through. There was a slight line of smoke that later expanded once it floated high enough, and when it did, it joined the rest that collected at the ceiling of the room.
Derek smiled, setting the freshly shuffled card stack down and pushing them aside. He scooted his chair in a bit closer and folded his hands on the table, and his deep green eyes locked on her brown ones. "I think 你 have 更多 interesting business to do than play cards, Miss Hannah."
Hearing this and secretly knowing what he was referring to, she smiled, and shyly glanced at the messy table. She rose the smoking cigarette up to her mouth and took in a long, slow breath of smoke. After a couple seconds, she released, allowing the smoke to float up toward the hazy, yellow ceiling light. "And that business would be~?"
"Well," Derek started as he got 更多 comfortable in his chair, "Business like telling us why 你 just technically signed up to be a mother."
James' eyes widened as he set the radio down and turned to Hannah, almost angrily. William let out a slight chuckle of amazement. "A mother? Huh. I didn't know 你 were planning to adopt. What, did 你 and Keller not have any luck with doing the deed naturally?"
James rubbed his face frustratedly. "Who the hell cares about that, the real 问题 is why would you.. do such a silly thing?"
Hannah crossed her legs as she leaned back. "Her name's Zara Rivas, I believe. One night, I got a call around two in the morning, asking If I could come down to North End's police station. They introduced me to a girl, like 16 years old, who claimed she knew me from 'family connections,' but in reality, she just remembered me giving a presentation at her high school one time, and we apparently had a conversation afterward." She started, quickly getting another puff of her cigarette. All eyes were on her.
"But I obviously didn't tell them that, I bought into the almost-so-false-it-was-funny family narrative for the sake of this girl after hearing what had happened that night. I felt a bit of pity for her, and I knew sending her off would probably leave her even 更多 jaded than now. So I thought why the hell not. I've been looking for someone to train to become a lab assistant anyway, and with this one, I won't have to pay her because I'll be her guardian, not employer. She'll be doing free labor, and that's a plus in itself."
"Eugh. Shady situation you've thrown yourself into, but kudos for taking that leap of faith." Derek remarked.
"It's 更多 than shady. I thought 你 hated children?" James asked.
Hannah sighed as she crushed the butt of her cigarette in the ash tray. "I hate rowdy ones. I hate them when they're in a group and they think they can run all over the place like a bunch of damn heathens. But a ratio of one child to one adult, that's 更多 than doable. That's a total cakewalk." She said, boastingly.
"We'll see if it is." He retorted under his breath. He picked up the radio and began working on it again.
Hannah raised her eyebrow slightly at this. "Why are 你 being so hostile? You're 表演 like I'm ripping away your own kid and claiming it as my own."
"You're not even close."
There was a brief moment of silence before Hannah was about to speak again, but William decided to take the honor of jumping in in her place.
"What happened to this kid?"
"Ah, it was a pretty long story. When she was young, I believe they took her away from her parents because they were incapable of raising her. She was put into foster care, and they later assigned her to a man, who, long story short, basically had a 'friends with benefits' type thing going on with her. At first, it doesn't seem bad, because, 你 know, teenagers have sex, and she wasn't an exception, and bla bla bla, all that jazz. It was the fact that she was 14 at the time, and he was 37 that makes this case so much different. So, boom, the police arrest this guy for pedophilia, they rip her away from the guy she loved, and everyone lives unhappily ever after." Hannah then turned her sight on James who remained quiet. "Was that depressing enough for ya, grumpy pants?" She added sarcastically as she smiled.
James looked up at her and squinted his eyes as he set the radio back down, which made a mild thud on the table. His patience was being tested, and it shown. "Cute. 你 left out the part that she's an utter sociopath."
Hannah's smile faded as she gradually glanced down at the 表 and her eyebrows lowered. Up until this point, she fell for her own narrative. She convinced herself that she was some kind of secret hero coming to save a kid from a bad past, when in reality, there was much 更多 to the story than initially meets the eye. She was so blinded 由 the good she was doing that she nearly forgot about the bad, and it was then that she really realized how much harm she quite possibly might have wished upon herself 由 this agreement.
The two other men, who were just hearing all of this, glanced over at James, their eyes seemingly naively following the 下一个 storyteller.
"Zara Rivas, the whorechild of the brilliant chemist, Dr. David Luke. Guy was a fucking animal, and he damn well knew what he was doing. He saw a mentally broken girl, squeezed her until she was hopelessly dry, then tossed her away like trash. It was on the news for like, 7 seconds."
"Then why aren't 你 happy that I'm trying to help this child?"
"Because I don't think 你 can, Hannah."
Hannah scoffed as she reached for another cigarette. James scooted his chair in closer and set this elbows on the 表 with his fingers pointed anxiously. "We're all scientists here, but none of 你 are trained in Psychology. I am. And I'm telling you, Ms. Frëze, you're letting a breathing bomb walk into your house. She'll ruin your career, and once that happens, the feds are going to come after-"
"The fucking government is not going to come after me." She harshly blurted.
"You don't know that! 你 do not know that. When those men approached us--all four of us--they meant business. We can't let that business get ruined because 你 felt the need to grab onto some last 分钟 stroke of kindness. They'll come after you, and then us." He stated plainly.
"Would 你 keep your voice down, for fucks sake, what are 你 trying to do? LEAD those men into believing something's up? For all we know, our houses could be bugged." William replied. He then gradually leaned in closer, his voice getting quieter. "They might even.. be listening to us.. right this very.. second.."
Everyone was quiet for a second, which was then abruptly cut off 由 a loud scoff from Hannah. Her faced cringed as she rolled her eyes and rose from her seat. "Okay. 你 guys can continue to freak out over your illogical fear of dreaded 《金装律师》 and agonize over one of them holding up a memory zapper to your face without me, I'm calling it a night."
"Erasing our memory would be too easy. They'd put 更多 holes in us than swiss cheese." Derek scoffed as he grabbed the card deck and reached for their rightful box.
"Yeah, 或者 maybe they'd turn us into Scientisti A'la Mode." James added flatly.
"Or they might turn us into soup." William chuckled. Everyone stared at him strangely for a moment.
Hannah then scooted her chair into the 表 to break the awkwardness. "Anyway, nice night we had tonight, boys. I enjoyed it." She smiled as she grabbed her bag off the back of the chair and began making her way out of the kitchen. As she passed James, she teasingly added one 更多 thing purely for him.
"Well. Enjoyed most of it, rather."
"You'll see I'm not incorrect about her. And when 你 do, don't tell me I did not warn you. Whatever happens is on you." He stated coldly as he walked over to the fridge and grabbed a 啤酒 can from inside.
Hannah chuckled a bit as she continued for the door. The smile that she held on face when she got outside soon faded once her feet touched the dark sidewalk. She glanced up and took a slow look around her surroundings. After a brief moment, it was concluded that this particular 街, 街道 was much 更多 frightening once the beautiful 颜色 of the evening were gone. The sky was solidly dark and blank, and the homes cast disturbingly broken shadows onto the pavement in front of them. Above them were the culprits of the projections--dingy, 橙子, 橙色 streetlights that flickered every few 秒 或者 so. A sense of fear came over Hannah the longer she stood there, despite the fact she had walked it countless times before at even later times in the night. But this time was oddly different.
And she just wanted to get home.
"You've cheated. I swear to God, you've cheated at some point, and, and, and, I just- didn't notice it, and that's why 你 keep winning." a deep voice mumbled sharply as the man returned to his seat. The voice was hollow in nature, but it was smooth and coated with a bit of a Germanic accent.
"Or y'know, 你 just suck at cards, Will. Ever think a' that?" another voice retorted arrogantly, supplying a short, whispy laugh afterward. This voice was undoubtedly higher than the 前一个 one, however, it was much raspier, which was agreeably typical of a diehard smoker, which he happened to be. On 最佳, 返回页首 of that, this man had a homegrown Brooklyn accent.
Inside the house's small, dimly lit 厨房 was a wooden, round 表 with four metal chairs surrounding it. At the 表 sat three young men, and one woman, and there was an acute sense of relaxation that seemed to 吞, 燕子 up the room, and no one was objecting to it. Cards were scattered across the table; in the center was an ash tray that was nearly full.
William looked at his deck of cards and then shifted his focus back to Derek. "Nah, still think 你 cheated somewhere." He slopped his deck down revealing his sorely 迷失 hand.
Derek saw this and smirked to himself as he pulled the deck in and began shuffling the cards. "Wanna do one 更多 round to make 你 feel better, boy-o?" He inquired.
William smirked slightly as he reached to his back pocket and pulled out another cigarette. Out of that same pocket followed a dark red, handheld lighter that barely had any gas left inside its container cavity. "Nah, I believe you've kicked my 屁股 quite enough tonight." He chuckled as he placed the cigarette in his mouth and lit it.
"What about you, James? 你 wanna play a couple rounds 或者 so?" Derek playfully asked, turning his attention away from William.
He saw James focusing on a small handheld radio that he had no problem with taking the backing out of. "Think I'll unfortunately have to decline as well, old friend. Trying to get this little piece of work its signal back."
James was a bit different than the other two men. He was youngest, yet he carried a shockingly strong voice that 你 would never imagine came from a man of his teenage-appearing stature.
"I just adore how 你 don't even ask me." Hannah teased, leaning in a bit. She was sitting with one foot on the floor, the other leg pulled up close to her chest in the seat. Her arm was folded around the back of the chair, and there, between her fingers, was also a cigarette, already about half way through. There was a slight line of smoke that later expanded once it floated high enough, and when it did, it joined the rest that collected at the ceiling of the room.
Derek smiled, setting the freshly shuffled card stack down and pushing them aside. He scooted his chair in a bit closer and folded his hands on the table, and his deep green eyes locked on her brown ones. "I think 你 have 更多 interesting business to do than play cards, Miss Hannah."
Hearing this and secretly knowing what he was referring to, she smiled, and shyly glanced at the messy table. She rose the smoking cigarette up to her mouth and took in a long, slow breath of smoke. After a couple seconds, she released, allowing the smoke to float up toward the hazy, yellow ceiling light. "And that business would be~?"
"Well," Derek started as he got 更多 comfortable in his chair, "Business like telling us why 你 just technically signed up to be a mother."
James' eyes widened as he set the radio down and turned to Hannah, almost angrily. William let out a slight chuckle of amazement. "A mother? Huh. I didn't know 你 were planning to adopt. What, did 你 and Keller not have any luck with doing the deed naturally?"
James rubbed his face frustratedly. "Who the hell cares about that, the real 问题 is why would you.. do such a silly thing?"
Hannah crossed her legs as she leaned back. "Her name's Zara Rivas, I believe. One night, I got a call around two in the morning, asking If I could come down to North End's police station. They introduced me to a girl, like 16 years old, who claimed she knew me from 'family connections,' but in reality, she just remembered me giving a presentation at her high school one time, and we apparently had a conversation afterward." She started, quickly getting another puff of her cigarette. All eyes were on her.
"But I obviously didn't tell them that, I bought into the almost-so-false-it-was-funny family narrative for the sake of this girl after hearing what had happened that night. I felt a bit of pity for her, and I knew sending her off would probably leave her even 更多 jaded than now. So I thought why the hell not. I've been looking for someone to train to become a lab assistant anyway, and with this one, I won't have to pay her because I'll be her guardian, not employer. She'll be doing free labor, and that's a plus in itself."
"Eugh. Shady situation you've thrown yourself into, but kudos for taking that leap of faith." Derek remarked.
"It's 更多 than shady. I thought 你 hated children?" James asked.
Hannah sighed as she crushed the butt of her cigarette in the ash tray. "I hate rowdy ones. I hate them when they're in a group and they think they can run all over the place like a bunch of damn heathens. But a ratio of one child to one adult, that's 更多 than doable. That's a total cakewalk." She said, boastingly.
"We'll see if it is." He retorted under his breath. He picked up the radio and began working on it again.
Hannah raised her eyebrow slightly at this. "Why are 你 being so hostile? You're 表演 like I'm ripping away your own kid and claiming it as my own."
"You're not even close."
There was a brief moment of silence before Hannah was about to speak again, but William decided to take the honor of jumping in in her place.
"What happened to this kid?"
"Ah, it was a pretty long story. When she was young, I believe they took her away from her parents because they were incapable of raising her. She was put into foster care, and they later assigned her to a man, who, long story short, basically had a 'friends with benefits' type thing going on with her. At first, it doesn't seem bad, because, 你 know, teenagers have sex, and she wasn't an exception, and bla bla bla, all that jazz. It was the fact that she was 14 at the time, and he was 37 that makes this case so much different. So, boom, the police arrest this guy for pedophilia, they rip her away from the guy she loved, and everyone lives unhappily ever after." Hannah then turned her sight on James who remained quiet. "Was that depressing enough for ya, grumpy pants?" She added sarcastically as she smiled.
James looked up at her and squinted his eyes as he set the radio back down, which made a mild thud on the table. His patience was being tested, and it shown. "Cute. 你 left out the part that she's an utter sociopath."
Hannah's smile faded as she gradually glanced down at the 表 and her eyebrows lowered. Up until this point, she fell for her own narrative. She convinced herself that she was some kind of secret hero coming to save a kid from a bad past, when in reality, there was much 更多 to the story than initially meets the eye. She was so blinded 由 the good she was doing that she nearly forgot about the bad, and it was then that she really realized how much harm she quite possibly might have wished upon herself 由 this agreement.
The two other men, who were just hearing all of this, glanced over at James, their eyes seemingly naively following the 下一个 storyteller.
"Zara Rivas, the whorechild of the brilliant chemist, Dr. David Luke. Guy was a fucking animal, and he damn well knew what he was doing. He saw a mentally broken girl, squeezed her until she was hopelessly dry, then tossed her away like trash. It was on the news for like, 7 seconds."
"Then why aren't 你 happy that I'm trying to help this child?"
"Because I don't think 你 can, Hannah."
Hannah scoffed as she reached for another cigarette. James scooted his chair in closer and set this elbows on the 表 with his fingers pointed anxiously. "We're all scientists here, but none of 你 are trained in Psychology. I am. And I'm telling you, Ms. Frëze, you're letting a breathing bomb walk into your house. She'll ruin your career, and once that happens, the feds are going to come after-"
"The fucking government is not going to come after me." She harshly blurted.
"You don't know that! 你 do not know that. When those men approached us--all four of us--they meant business. We can't let that business get ruined because 你 felt the need to grab onto some last 分钟 stroke of kindness. They'll come after you, and then us." He stated plainly.
"Would 你 keep your voice down, for fucks sake, what are 你 trying to do? LEAD those men into believing something's up? For all we know, our houses could be bugged." William replied. He then gradually leaned in closer, his voice getting quieter. "They might even.. be listening to us.. right this very.. second.."
Everyone was quiet for a second, which was then abruptly cut off 由 a loud scoff from Hannah. Her faced cringed as she rolled her eyes and rose from her seat. "Okay. 你 guys can continue to freak out over your illogical fear of dreaded 《金装律师》 and agonize over one of them holding up a memory zapper to your face without me, I'm calling it a night."
"Erasing our memory would be too easy. They'd put 更多 holes in us than swiss cheese." Derek scoffed as he grabbed the card deck and reached for their rightful box.
"Yeah, 或者 maybe they'd turn us into Scientisti A'la Mode." James added flatly.
"Or they might turn us into soup." William chuckled. Everyone stared at him strangely for a moment.
Hannah then scooted her chair into the 表 to break the awkwardness. "Anyway, nice night we had tonight, boys. I enjoyed it." She smiled as she grabbed her bag off the back of the chair and began making her way out of the kitchen. As she passed James, she teasingly added one 更多 thing purely for him.
"Well. Enjoyed most of it, rather."
"You'll see I'm not incorrect about her. And when 你 do, don't tell me I did not warn you. Whatever happens is on you." He stated coldly as he walked over to the fridge and grabbed a 啤酒 can from inside.
Hannah chuckled a bit as she continued for the door. The smile that she held on face when she got outside soon faded once her feet touched the dark sidewalk. She glanced up and took a slow look around her surroundings. After a brief moment, it was concluded that this particular 街, 街道 was much 更多 frightening once the beautiful 颜色 of the evening were gone. The sky was solidly dark and blank, and the homes cast disturbingly broken shadows onto the pavement in front of them. Above them were the culprits of the projections--dingy, 橙子, 橙色 streetlights that flickered every few 秒 或者 so. A sense of fear came over Hannah the longer she stood there, despite the fact she had walked it countless times before at even later times in the night. But this time was oddly different.
And she just wanted to get home.