Falling Up

It’s been almost three months since my mom kicked me out, and just like I predicted, everything went downhill from there.

After she had left me, I had dumped my messanger bag of all of my school stuff and packed it with jeans, long-sleeved shirts, hoodies, anything that covered my skin, along with extra undergarments. If it had been summertime, I would have been screwed, but it was early September when I had left, when it was starting to cool down, so at least I didn’t have to worry about dying from heatstroke. Once the bag was filled to capacity, I had gone to the kitchen to get the money my mom had stashed in a “secret” compartment in one of the drawers. If she had known that I had knew about it, she probably wouldn’t have left me alone in the apartment. I took almost $600, and surprisingly didn’t feel guilty like I thought I would. Probably because I knew she would take all of the money out of my bank account and put it to “good” use- like buying a new apartment . After that I snuck on a train and left for the infamous New York City, where it was a bit easier to live on the streets with cheap motels and soup kitchens.

Now it was late November, the day after Thanksgiving, and I had just been kicked out of another sleazy motel. The owner had been reasonably nice, allowing me to stay as long as I could pay for my cheap room, but he had been forced to kick me out when some of the other tenants threatened to tell some anti-gang that he was helping me, a mutant out. Nice to see how understanding some people are, huh? I guess I would have done the same thing as him if my life was on the line, but I was still pretty pissed, especially since it was freezing outside with snow everywhere. Yeah, that’s right- snow, and it’s not even a little dusting, either; it’s knee-deep, thick, freezing snow. Just my luck, right?

As I shuffled through the snow with my head bent down to shadow my face with my hood, I wondered what I should do next. I should try to find a place to stay for the night, since it was pretty late, but my stomach seemed to be roaring in protest, since I hadn’t eaten yet today. I guess I could find a convenience store before I looked for a mote, since most of the soup kitchens closed at eleven.

After walking for a couple of minutes, I finally spotted a convenience store. It looked like it was falling apart, which was good for me, since poor businesses would usually take any money they could get, regardless of who the customer was. As I crossed the street, I tugged on my black beanie and hood, making sure that I was as covered as I could be without looking like I was about to rob the place. I also quickly touched the back of my neck with my fingertips (which were the only other parts of me besides my face that were exposed, since I was wearing fingerless gloves) to check if any of my hair was peaking out of my hat. I thought that if people thought that I was a guy, they might leave me alone, since guys are usually tougher and more violent than girls. I was good to go.

A small bell rings as I open the door. Just like I thought, this place was down in the dumps, dirty and dusty. The old man behind the counter seemed to fit right in, with his hair and skin looking just as oily as the hot dogs in the vendor in the back. He stared at me as I walked past him, but I ignored him, hoping that he would get the idea to just leave me alone. As I grabbed a couple of things, I could see the old man dialing someone on the phone out of the corner of my eye. Maybe I was just paranoid, but I couldn’t help but feel that this wouldn’t be good for me. I readjusted my hood, and then walked up to the front to pay for my things, and then get the hell away from here. Placing my items on the counter, I fished my my wallet out of one of the many pockets in my black cargo jeans.

“That will be $22.00.” What? There was no way that that could be the price, I had made sure that everything I bought would be under $10.

“I’m sorry, sir, but that has to be a mistake- there’s no way that the total is $22.00, it should be $8.54.” I spoke with the same un-emotional, business-like voice I had used on my mother, but I was boiling inside. We both knew that the price was wrong-because I was a mutant, he was giving me the “mutant tax”, which was usually just an extra couple of dollars more then the total. I had dealt with it before, but this was just ridiculous.

“You should be grateful that I’m letting you buy anything at all, you freak.” He gave me a sick smile, showing off his chipped, yellow teeth, knowing that he was right.

Pissed off and annoyed, I grabbed a $20 out of my worn out wallet and slammed it on the counter. “Here, you cheap bastard. You’re lucky I’m tired, or else there would have been hell to pay.” I honestly wouldn’t have done anything to him, since I didn’t want to be like the mutants everyone was scared of, but seeing the small flicker of fear in his eyes gave me a little satisfaction, and made me feel better. I grabbed my things off the counter, and was about to walk away when the man grabbed me by the wrist, hard. I winced, and knew that I was going to have a bruise there tomorrow. “Let me go, sir. I don’t want any trouble.”

“I don’t really care what you want, you freak. You should have thought of that before you walked through my door.” His sick smile seemed to become malicious, and I became nervous as his small, beady eyes flickered back and forth between me and the front window. I looked over to the front window as well, and my eyes widened as I saw several tough-looking guys piling out of a green Hummer and heading towards the front door. “Not good, not good, not good!” I screamed in my head. Dropping the food, I was now frantically thrashing away from the man’s iron grip, desperate to get away.

“Please let me go, I promise I won’t come back here, please!” I knew that fear was now evident in my voice, but I didn’t care. As soon as he let’s go, I’ll be able to get out of here, just-

The bell from the door rang out like a death sentence, and I thrashed harder still.

“This freak just threatened me, boys. I’ll trust you take care of it.”

Strong hands gripped my shoulders from behind, and I froze in fear as the grip tightened.

“Don’t worry,” I heard a deep voice say from behind me, “we’ll take care of this… problem.”

“Thank you, boys,” the man smirked as he released my wrist. No, no, no, this couldn’t be happeneing! I couldn’t get away if this asshole was holding me!

“No, thank you,” some other guy behind me said, “we were getting bored.”

I started to thrash around wildly again as the man pushed me outside and led me towards the alley next to the store. Before I could scream for help, a dirty, calloused hand smothered my mouth and nose. Were they trying to suffocate me to death?! I couldn’t breathe! My hands pulled and scratched at the man’s hands as my eyesight began to get blurry. I could hear him laughing, and it sent shivers down my spine. Enough was enough; if I didn’t do anything soon, I was going to die. With as much fore as I could muster, I bit down on his hand, and almost instantly tasted a metallic, sharp taste in my mouth. The man shouted in pain and surprise, loosening his grip on me, but still not letting me go. I bit down harder, even though it felt like my teeth were about to crack, hoping that he’d let me go to stop his pain.

Instead, I felt my head snap forward after someone had punched me in the back of the head. The man dropped me, letting me hit the snow. It was exactly what I wanted; no one was touching me, I could escape! But as soon as I moved my head, my world spinned before me, and the lights seemed to have dimmed. That blow to the head was harder than I thought, as I could feel something warm slowly sliding down my neck.

Above me, the man who had been bitten was cursing and shouting angrily, and I knew that if I didn’t get out of there soon, then this would not end well for me. Ignoring my topsy-turvy eyesight, I crawled forward on my hands and knees towards the light that I was pretty sure was the streetlamp outside of the alley. If I could get into the public eye, surely these men wouldn’t kill me… right? Come on, Evie, just a little-

A sharp pain radiated from my ribs as a different man gave me a swift, strong kick, effectively flipping me onto my back.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going, you little son of a bitch?!” The man who was yelling at me picked me up by the front of my hoodie, and stood me up in front of me. I swayed slightly as I backed away and hugged one of my arms to my ribcage, trying to protect it from further damage. As my eyesight began to right itself, I saw a fist flying towards my face, and then everything began to spin once again as my body slammed into the brick wall behind me. My head and torso were throbbing, and I knew that if I made it out of this alive, tomorrow would be one hell of a wakeup call.

I was about to fall to my knees when two more guys grabbed me and held me up by my arms, making sure that I couldn’t squirm away. I coiuld see that somewhere in front of me, the guy who had kicked and punched me was now cracking his knuckles and rollin’ his shoulders, prepping himself for a great one-sided brawl. I tensed my muscles, because I had heard once that it hurt less when your muscles were tense… I think. Or did it make it hurt more?

The man’s fists flew, and I closed my eyes and groaned as my body kept jerkin g backwards with the force of the blows. The only thing that was going through my head (besides “ow”) was “Thankfully it’s cold out; At least I’m becoming numb.”

I didn’t know how long I had been playing the part of human punching bag, but I could tell that I was slowly slipping away from reality and into unconsciousness. When I had dared to open my eyes before, the world no longer spun, but it had become dramatically dimmer, the lights form the streetlamp s seemed to be dying like a flashlight. When he sometimes went for my face instead of my stomach, their shouts of hatred and anger slowly turned into a steady hum with each hit, and now even the hum was fading away. My breathing was ragged, probably from broken ribs, but I felt no pain now. I wasn’t gonna make it, this was it. Tears slowly trailed down my face, mingling with my blood, and I waited for the next punch to come.

But nothing came. Instead, I was released from the thugs’ grip on me, and I fell down to the snowy ground. I couldn’t bring myself to move from where I laid on my back, I was too tired. All I could manage to do was open my eyes tot try to see what they were doing.

I couldn’t see anyone, I could only stare up the starless night sky. Everything was silent, not even the humming remained. Maybe… it was over. I couldn’t feel anything, could not hear, could not see anyone. Was this what it was like to be dead? Was I dead?

Slowly, my heavy eyelids began to close, and I could feel myself letting everything go. I might have been delusional, but I thought I could see an angel flying overhead as my eyes closed, swooping down towards me. I gave a small smile, and then I fell into darkness.