Chapter Text
“Andrew is not coming back!”
The fifteen years-old boy stared up at the woman uttering those words with something akin to shock. The duffel bag he had in his hands slipped from his fingers, falling with barely a sound, or at least, the boy was too far away to really register it.
“What?” the boy’s voice was hoarse, like he had a sudden cold.
“He was caught by the system. Apparently, he has a family, a mother and a twin brother.” The woman’s voice was sharp, but not unkind. It was like she was talking about the weather.
“How do you know?”
“I asked one of my contacts. I put ourselves in danger doing that! Now we can do nothing for him and we have to leave today. It’s too risky! If they somehow find something about him…” the woman was already grabbing her own bag, making sure everything was inside.
“Mom…” the boy didn’t move to grab his bag. He was still staring at the woman, clearly hoping against hope that she would retract her words and everything would be alright again.
“Move! Quick!” his mom ordered, pulling him, but the boy was still frozen. “What the hell are you doing? We have to go now! Forget about Andrew! He was a liability anyway! I already paid my debt to him! I gave him a safe place to stay and made sure that guy was killed!” the woman grabbed the boy’s bag and pushed it into his chest.
The boy followed his mom with mechanical movements.
Breathe…
Walk…
Pretend everything is normal…
Don’t think about him…
Andrew…
Andrew…
Andrew…
The boy could remember perfectly how Andrew had left five days ago with his mother to get something for them to eat. His mom had come back alone, saying they were followed and had to split. And then, they waited for Andrew to come back. And waited… and waited… and waited…
But Andrew was not coming back.
He left him alone… He had his family now…
No, no, no!
Andrew wouldn’t do that to him!
He promised!
And Andrew never broke a promise!
He would come back!
If only they waited a bit more, he would be able to escape the system!
Slap!
The boy felt the slap with surprise. In a moment, his mom was walking in front of him and in the next second, she had turned around and slapped his cheek with cold detachment.
“Stop thinking about him! Andrew is a weakness we can’t have!”
The boy blinked, saw his mother rise her hand again and flinched away. She stopped before her hand touched his face again. Her glare and the promise of more was enough to make him start moving towards the exit. She turned around and walked in front of him, her hand inside her pocket, where he knew she kept her gun.
The boy tried to be as quiet as possible while putting his hand inside his pocket and letting a small origami fall to the floor. It was their thing, Andrew's and his, something they learned together and used to write messages to each other, but he was not sure if it was enough. He hoped his mother didn't see him letting the message fall, but she was unpredictable in such a way, that he felt equal parts safe and terrified. He had to let Andrew know that he was not abandoning him, that he wanted to stay, that he wanted to wait...
If only he could wait a little bit more…
But he couldn’t…
The sharp taste of blood in his tongue and the reckoning force in front of him made him sure of that…