First Blood

Chapter One – Eye’s

I can’t do this anymore…

The words had been circling in his head like the water in a bowel for the last few steps as a young man emerged from the darkness of the streets below and began an upward march/ jog that filled him with both shame and anticipation. All while fear swirled and nipped at his heels, hurrying him across the earth.

Derik Offshore slowly climbed the steps towards the small flat that swam in his vision far in the distance. The youth was not tall or broad of form, he was instead, slender and trim at his hips and back, almost unhealthily. And a shock of black curls atop his crown, did nothing to hide the rest of his visage, which was one full of hardships and pain.

Resigned eyes looked forwards ignoring the flickering street lamps above him or the solitary flash of headlights as cars slide past.

 His left eye was the color of black obsidian, while the right eye was the lightest shade of brown, and in the right light the brown pupil appeared white like the moon. So that the young man could have been mistaken for blind, but both of his eyes were fully functioning…and the left one was currently rimmed by puffy bloody bruised skin.

(Deric Offshore)

The streets had not been kind to the youth and at no point in the last five years had Deric managed to become street wise enough or grow big enough to truly withstand all of the misery that was destined to come to a homeless, penniless, seventeen year old boy.

Living on the streets was far from a personal choice of course, but it was a choice that Deric couldn’t bear to rectify….because for him to try to fix his squalled situation…would be for him to dash away the only thing he had left. His identity.

And that truly was all he had left. His parents had died six year ago in a plane crash, taking his unborn sister with them, and leaving Deric to the stale guardianship of his Aunt Myra. A woman that had tried to impose her will on his so heavily and remorselessly that Deric had had no choice but to run. Runaway and never look back. And yet…..if Deric did go back, all of his problems could be solved. And that galled the young man to no end.

She wants me to forfeit to her closed minded and cruel thinking. That’s what Myra wants. She wants to see me crawling back to her door, broken and desperate. Willing to undertake her special….”therapy”. Desperate to let her FIX me; her disgusting gay nephew…

Deric unconsciously clenched his jaw, then he hissed in pain, as blood burst across his tongue, and the giant gash on the inside of his top lip throbbed as if touched by a live wire. Deric unbound his mouth quickly, and suppressed a sigh.

And yet I am desperate aren’t I. isn’t that why I’m doing this? Isnt that why Im going to see her. Going to see ERICA.  And yet….is everything I’ve suffered these last few years really worth my dammed pride? Should I stop this. Shoud I go back to Myra then? Myra and her “Therapy”?

Deric took another step, but when a sever cramp raced across his temple, and his stomach flipped, his knees suddenly collapsed, and with far too much force Deric slammed into the earth. Pain registered as his palm cut into the concrete, halting his momentum, and leaving the boy panting on his hands and knees in the darkness.

And strangely the act of being brought low….pushed the boy to rebellion. Clenching his fists on the ground Deric dropped back on the ground, and shook his head.

No. I wont go back. I won’t. Damn Myra. And Damn my pride. I need to get off the streets and to do that I need money…..So I know what I have to do. I know….And its time I stopped fighting it. Or next time….I’m going to really die..

Deric stopped and gingery reached up to touch his puffy black eye. His movements were slow and wooden as if his entire body had been beaten. Which it had. The ring of sour blood in his mouth made him frown.

In fact I should have died tonight…those men were going to kill me.

Deric saw and felt the fists and feet falling on him from the darkness, as a mob of nameless men took him into the earth. The men had cornered Deric as he had mad e his way back home. They had screamed in his face, spit on him and called him angry cold words. They wanted nothing but to hurt him. To inflict maximum damage. Deric remember the fear and pain that had engulfed him as his face and body were melded into fist and concrete for long unbearable minutes. Until….something strange happened.

The beating stopped.

Deric, who had balled up over his ribs and vital organs in an attempt to survive the attack didn’t see or hear the men depart….but when he looked up his attackers had disappeared back into the darkness. Without a trace.

Why not just end me? They beat me senseless after all and I couldn’t stop them. I wonder why they just….disappeared?

Suddenly a sharp cold chill ran down Deric’s spine and he closed his eyes and tried to stay calm.

Someone is watching me again….

He thought. Deric had always had the oddest sense of when others were watching him analyzing him. Hunting him? As a small child he always knew when his teacher was watching him, or his parents….or if his Aunt Myra was glaring at him from behind whenever he made the mistake of embarrassing her.

God….

Deric complained to himself, rubbing at his achy and shivering shoulders. And shaking off the sharp cold on his back that often accompanied his strange sense.

Someone’s there. It’s been constant lately. All during the last two months, I can feel someone’s eyes on me at night. Following me. Watching me sleep. A shadow…..

Deric shuddered, and slowly/ painfully pulled himself up from the ground and rubbed at his bloody hand and shook his head as he felt the eyes on his suddenly disappear.

Surprisingly where Deric had always been able to sense eyes on him, he had also been able to sense what the wielder of the eyes was feeling. Did they hate him? Did they despise him? Were they jealous? Or angry with him? Perhaps disgusted?

But what was most unnerving about the eyes Deric felt on him in the darkness the last few weeks wasn’t that they were looking at him. But what Deric sensed they felt for him. It was a strange mixture of emotion heavy with something akin to fascination….and longing. Nothing dangerous....and yet Deric still wanted to run and hide from it.

Ignoring the shooting ache in his life side where multiple boots had slammed into his lungs, Deric pressed himself to start walking towards the apartment buildings in the distance. And as he walked he ignored the blood welling from his puffy eyes and he focused on his steps and his resolve.

No. I can’t go back to Aunt Myra.

Deric told himself once more, glancing around the dark streets and imagining a mysterious figure watching him. Standing in the shadows.

But I can’t remain on these streets any longer. I’m just not built for this kind of life. I have to get money in my hands fast. No matter what. And that means that I’ve got to go back to her. My only option is to go back to Erica.

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