The class at Yurinami ended and I never wanted to die more in my life. It was such an uncomfortable experience that, just like yesterday, I immediately left and didn’t look back. My whole motivation to even talk to Slinca was lost and I just wanted to go back home and lay down. Just like yesterday again, Slinca called out for me before I entered the manhole. Or I thought it was, instead it was the person I suspected the least, Jesse.
“Lee!” Jesse frantically said, out of breath. “I need to talk to you!” Unlike yesterday, I didn’t listen to her and continued to open up the manhole cover and was ready to go down the ladder. “Goddammit listen to me!” I went down the ladder a little bit to make room to close the manhole cover. When I went to do it, Jesse grabbed my hand and yanked me up from the hole. “This is very important! If you’re not willing to talk to me here, then I will follow you home!”
“What the fuck do you want?” I snapped. “I told everyone there that I just want to be left alone!”
“Then why did you even come here!?”
I was about to say the reason why, but I stopped.
“I don’t know.”
“I think I know why. Despite that tough attitude you have back there, you’re still looking for someone to talk to. Aren’t I right?”
I pulled back my arm and went down the ladder, not even closing the manhole cover. Like I expected Jesse followed me down the ladder and into the sewer. She followed me through the route I took to get back to the homeless camp I was now a part of. When we both turned the corner to the homeless camp she didn’t immediately follow as I walked over to Nancy’s tent to check up on Alice.
I walked into the tent and looked inside to see a surprising sight. Alice was actually smiling and laughing. That was the most shocking thing to see today, my jaw basically dropped.
“Lee!” Alice left Nancy and directly ran over to me and hugged me.
“I told you he’ll be back.” Nancy rejoiced. “He’ll never leave you here.”
“I’m so glad you came back!”
It’s not like I was gonna leave you.” I smiled, for the first time in a while. I smiled.
“Who is that behind you?” Alice asked, pointing behind me. Jesse was standing directly behind me, and looking down at Alice.
“Hello there.” Jesse said in a high pitched tone.
“This is Jesse Daster. She’s a classmate of mine.” I said.
Alice was a little hesitant to greet Jesse, and even hid behind me a little bit.
“I’ve seen that you’ve gotten along with Nancy.” I butted in to break the uncomfortable silence.
“Yeah, we were having lots of fun. She’s so nice, did you know she had a daughter?”
“Really? That’s interesting.”
“It sure is!” Alice’s smile was overwhelming to me, and I didn’t want to ruin it.
“Me and Lee have something to discuss.” Jesse said. “And we would like to be alone please.”
“Sorry, we’ll leave.” Nancy said. “Come on Alice, let’s go meet Will.” Nancy took Alice’s hand and they both walked out of the tent, leaving Jesse and I alone.
“What is it that you’re so adamant about talking to me?” I asked, sitting down on the ground.
“First, I need to make sure no one else is around to hear us?” Jesse said, looking out of the tent. Once she felt comfortable she closed the tent up and sat on the ground in front of me. “You're most likely not gonna believe me, but you need to hear me out.”
“Just get on with it.”
“Ok.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Whatever she was about to tell me was about to be so big that she had to mentally prepare myself for what she was about to say. “God, I don’t think I can do this.”
“Why?”
“It’s just that-” She took a brief moment and paused. “I’ve never told anyone else about this before.”
“Is it really that huge?” Jesse stared at me after I said that. Now she’s got me more curious than ever, what the hell is so big that she can’t tell me?
“Once you know, I don’t know if you’ll ever look at me the same way again. There is a reason I made sure no one else can hear us. But, I’ve been holding this secret in for so long that I need to tell somebody, and you’re the person that I feel like I need to tell the most out of anybody else.”
I’ve heard that phrase many times before, but now it feels more real than ever. I can feel the emotion she is holding back when she speaks. Maybe this is the time to change my ways, and act like the person I was before. I grabbed her hands and looked her in the eyes.
“It’s ok. I won’t judge.” I comforted.
“I’m not sure you’ll stick to those words after I tell you.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll stick to them I promise.”
“Fine, as long as you promise. I believe you.” I still held onto Jesse’s hand as she closed her eyes and yet again, took a deep breath.
“I am Runasi Haruhiko’s daughter.”
Huh?
What?
There’s
No
Way
She has to be-
But that wouldn’t make sense why would she lie to me?
At the same time it’s fucking insane?
How does she even know?
Why is she here now?
None of it
Makes sense
My mind was racing to answers to the questions that kept popping up that I was taken back by the fact that she just said that to me. I let go of her hands and fell back on my back. My heart sank into my feet, and I was now fully laying down on the ground looking up at the roof of the tent. Jesse went to my side and lifted me up off the ground and shook me.
“Lee! You ok!?” Jesse asked in concern.
I didn’t respond and only thought more in my mind than at any time in my life. It just all doesn’t make sense, none of it did but it had to be true. Because there was no reason to lie about that, she’s not doing it to get attention. And, due to how she was talking before, it even seemed like it was impossible for her to lie to me.
“Tell me more. I need to know.” I said, getting up now being face to face with Jesse now.
“I knew you weren't gonna keep to your words, but it’s fine. It is a big revelation that is hard to handle. I’ll explain everything though, I promise.”
She slid back a little from me and got herself into a comfortable position, and so did I.
“I was born in 2111, I was the love child of Runasi Haruhiko and Kylie Haruhiko. Nobody knew that Runasi had a wife, because he kept it hidden from the public. Also, the relationship was a farce to begin with. After one year when I was born, my mother took her own life due to the abuse she faced from Runasi. Leaving me all alone with him. He had other caretakers from an orphanage take care of me while he was doing his arena bullshit.” Jesse fixed her posture to be sitting straight up, I did the same. “At the age of six, I barely saw him at all. But, one day, he gave me away to a mysterious man, and that man was affiliated with the government, and I had been given away for an experiment. That experiment was for a sterilization drug.”
Sterilization? The last time I heard that word was in school, back before the major increase in the population, there was no such thing as that. Nobody was really concerned with the population count back then and never really considered the effect it would have on. That's the only thing I know about sterilization, and before the year 2100.
“This drug was a complete failure on a massive scale. It’s scary how they fucked up real bad. I was in a little lab testing daycare place with four other girls and five boys. They injected us and made us stay in that room for ten days. But, day after day the situation got worse. All of the other kids started getting real violent. It got to the point where the other kids were killing each other with the toys they gave us. I saw a kid, stab another kid in the eye with a doll and claw out the other eye. After the sixth day, it was only me and one other boy. I couldn’t sleep that night because I was scared that the other boy was gonna attack me. My suspicions were correct when I woke up and he was on top of me, growling. I pushed him off of me and began screaming for help. Help did come, as the caretaker that was with us since day one rushed into the room and got mauled to death by the kid. One of the armed guards that surrounded the testing area came and shot the kid in the head. He lost it after that, going off on how it wasn’t his fault or what not. He then shot himself in the head, and after that. They ended the experiment.”
I was so shocked and taken aback. The way she said this with a straight face and showed no other emotion besides from the most sincere tone was baffling to me. It reminded me of the way I told my story to Nancy, completely emotionless. I didn’t want to interrupt her story to but in with the questions I had, because it didn’t matter. This feels like the time she’s fully putting her heart out and I just need to shut up and listen.
“After the experiment ended, they checked me fully, x-ray and everything, to check if the drug really worked. It did, as I had no more fertilized eggs in my uterus, which is the whole point of the drug. But, the overwhelming failure of everything else made the leader of the experiment shut it down entirely. No more follow up research, and no more testing of any kind. Ever since that day, they most likely never looked into the drug ever again. I was taken to an orphanage where I lived the rest of my life there until I graduated. I then found the Yurinami fight school and enrolled in it, and that’s how we end up here today.”
The silence after she finished telling her life story was astonishing, it was even more uncomfortable then the lesson I had at Yurinami fight school today. I didn’t know what to do, I’ve never been in this situation before. Maybe Slinca would know what to do, but I’m not her. The last time someone poured their heart out at me was Slinca, but I didn’t have time to console her. This time, I do and right now I’m doing nothing. I need to fix this now!
The only thing I knew what to do, was an absolute classic. I gave Jesse a big old hug, wrapped my arms around her real tight and pulled her close to my chest.
“Thanks for telling me this.” I consoled. “I’m glad you did.” I felt her arms wrap around my back and her head dig into my chest.
“Thanks for listening.” Jesse said, kinda choking up during that sentence. It was clear to me that she was holding back her tears.
The hug lasted a pretty long time, I'm pretty sure half an hour passed. The hug was interrupted when Nancy and Alice walked back into the tent.
“Oh,” Nancy said in shock. “Do you want us to come back at a different time?”
“No, it's fine.” Jesses said, letting go of the hug. “You can come in.”
Nancy came into the tent with Alice following behind her.
“So, what did you guys talk about?” Alice asked me, sitting right next to me.
“Well.” I said nervously, looking at Jesse directly. “It’s a secret.”
“Oh, come on, tell me!”
“I said it’s a secret.”
“Fine, I’ll let it go.” Alice said, giving me a little punch in my arm.
“I should get going.” Jesse said, standing up and patting herself off.
“Why?” Alice asked.
“Because, Lee and I are done having our talk. And I don’t want to intrude on your camp more than I need to.”
“You can stay as long as you like.” Nancy butted into the conversation.
“It’s fine guys, it really is.”
“Whatever you say.” Nancy sat down on the ground next to Alice. Jesse took a hardy look at all three of us sitting together and turned the other way quickly. It’s clear to me what she actually wants to do, but she’s too scared to say it.
“Bye guys.” Jesse said, waving back at us. Next thing you know she left the tent. I was a little hesitant to go after her, but my legs were already moving and I stood up very quickly and left the tent to chase after Jesse. She was just about to turn the corner.
“Jesse!” I shouted, which got everyone else in the camp's attention, especially Jesse’s. “Come stay with us!”
Jesse stood there in shock but she turned around and went around the corner. I quickly ran over around the corner to see that Jesse didn’t go far. In fact she was just around the corner, putting her head against the wall. She was crying.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. Though at the same time, it was a pretty stupid question to ask because I already knew what was wrong.
“When I saw you guys all sitting together like that.” Jesse cried. “I-I-I thought about how I wanted something like that.”
“You still can!” I hugged her from behind. “Are you living by yourself right now?”
She shook her head yes.
“Then you can stay with us. I’m pretty sure Nancy and Alice wouldn’t mind.”
Jesse stopped crying and made me let go of her, she turned around and looked at me with her back against the wall.
“I was gonna join you guys.” Jesse sniffled. “But, I was too afraid to ask you guys. You just looked so happy, and I thought by joining. I would ruin that.”
“No, there’s nothing you can do to ruin that. It would even be better if you joined us. It’s nice to be a part of a group like this.”
“I know, I know.” Jesse then hugged me back really tight that I thought she would break my back by how hard she was grabbing me. “Thank you!”
“No problem.” I responded, giving the hug back. Now I know what Slinca must’ve felt like when she helped me out, it’s honestly the best feeling in the world. Helping someone through a tough time and making their day better, might be the only thing that’s still alive in this world. I smiled and we let go of each other and walked back to the tent together. We opened the tent and I announced to both Alice and Nancy that Jesse would be staying with us.
Nancy was excited and happy that I convinced Jesse to stay, but Alice wasn’t really that happy. She still accepted her, but I feel like she was kinda faking it. I’ve known her for so long so I can tell what she actually is feeling, and the way she is acting right now isn’t genuine. Jesse said that she needs to get her stuff from her old place and bring it here. I offered to help but she declined, saying that she can get her stuff together on her own as she didn’t really have much. Also, if I went with her, we might be a target due to my social status now.
I waited in the tent with Alice and Nancy as Jesse went to go get her stuff, and I noticed Alice’s shift in her mood, she was no longer smiling. It made me kinda upset, as she was smiling an hour ago, it made me think that she forgot about our parents dying and started finally enjoying life. Most of the credit goes to Nancy, she was acting like a mother figure for Alice, while I wasted my time at the Yurinami fighting school.
138Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡESP45C9K8A
Jesse did come back and she brought her own sleeping bag, a bottle of water, and some food.
“Was that all you had?” I asked her, helping her set up the sleeping bag, putting it next to mine.
“Yep, this is pretty much it.” She responded with a little smile.
“Damn, what did you usually do to get this food?”
“The market.”
“Where did you even get the money for that?”
“I usually rob the dead bodies I see on the street. The people who kill them usually do in drive-by’s. Those people aren’t in it for the loot they get, but ranking up their kill numbers.”
“Welp, that’s not surprising.”
Once Jesse got fully settled down, and we got the sleeping situation arranged properly, it wasn’t nearly even time to go to bed. So, we decided to hang out around the campfire and talk.
“Where did you stay before?” Nancy asked Jesse.
“Just an old apartment building, sometimes raiders would come around and I’d hide from them.” Jesse responded, kicking her feet off the ground.
“We used to live in an apartment building.” Alice said, still with a straight face. “Until we weren’t.”
Everyone at the campfire gave Alice and I a weird look.
“Let’s not get into that right now.” I chimed in, trying to change the subject. “I heard you had a daughter Nancy?”
“Yeah I did.” Nancy said. “She’s not here anymore.” Knowing exactly what she meant, Jesse was quick to shut it down.
“Let’s just enjoy this campfire. Maybe talking is not the best thing to do right now.”
“Agreed.” Nancy said. Everyone else, including me, were all in agreement and enjoyed the nice cackling of the campfire. We sat there for a little while as Alice came up next to me and she laid down in my lap. I patted her head as she closed her eyes. She soon fell asleep in my lap.
William Vertan came out of nowhere and joined us around the campfire and sat right next to Nancy.
“So, um. Who’s the new face around here?” William asked.
“I’m Jesse Daster, nice to meet you.” Jesse responded, walking up to William and shaking his hand.
“Nice to see new people around here. Now tell me-” William then proceeded to talk to Jesse about how she got here in the first place. She obviously lied about most of it but that’s all I heard because I was more focused on taking care of Alice, who now fell asleep in my lap. I excused myself and carried Alice over to the tent, put her in the sleeping bag and left the tent to go back to the campfire.
When I got back, Jesse was now done with her conversation with William and he left for his tent. Jesse looked back at me as I sat down next to her around the campfire. Nancy left for her tent and presumably went to sleep. Leaving Jesse and I alone.
She leaned against my arm and rested there for a while. I looked directly into the flames and took a moment to reflect about my life so far. It’s insane to think about what happened yesterday and how I ended up here. My whole life changed on a whim and I’ve managed to bounce back and found out how to combat the trauma. It’s weird, ever since Eric and my parents died, I found a way to be happier than I was with them. It’s really scary.
But I should take this time to reconcile and relax to enjoy the moment. It doesn’t matter what happens tomorrow, a week, a month, or even a year. It’s just this moment right here, that I get to truly relax and crack a smile.
“Hey Lee.” Jesse said, getting up from my arm and looking directly at me.
“Yeah?” I responded, still looking into the fire.
“Back at the Yurinami school, earlier today. You seemed to change drastically, it seemed that you were not the same person as you were before. Now just an amalgamation of malice and anger. I wondered if there was any of the original Lee in there. The Lee that was kind enough to speak to me, and try to make me smile.”
I looked back at her, and our faces were closer than ever before.
“I’m glad that he came back and is better than ever.138Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdaFAGoDzbv
