Chapter 02: The Hauntings of the Past

"Hey, are you asleep?"

The girl opened her eyes after she heard his voice and found herself comforted by Kenny. She blushed and bolted up in a blink. Her eyes went downcast and her face turned all red.

"Are you alright?" Kenny asked after he too stood up and wiped the dirt off his clothes.

She was unable to collect everything for a moment. She first assumed she was a goner, but somehow she remembered the gust of wind carrying her away when that truck had almost hit her. She realized it was Kenny who had carried her away and saved her life. 

"You saved me," she said. "Thank you."

"No need to thank me. I thought I would not make it in time…" Kenny eyed the other side of the street, where he had dropped his polythene bag. It was roughly a distance of twenty-five meters. He wondered if it was possible to cover such a distance in a blink.

The girl noticed him lost somewhere. "What happened?"

Kenny snapped out of his thoughts. "Ah, nothing. I am glad that you are okay," he responded. "You are not hurt somewhere, are you?"

"No, I am fine. Thank you." She smiled. Suddenly, she remembered her father was bady injured. Her smile faded and her eyes enlarged as she muttered, "Oh, no, father…"

She turned and rushed to cross the street. Kenny followed her calmly.

"Father, are you alright? Please, open your eyes!" She shook her father from his shoulders after the other old men had made him sit on a bench nearby. They made him gulp some water from a bottle.

"Daughter…" the old man spoke in an unsteady tone. He could see her face through his blurred vision.

"Those skultars sure are vicious," the first old man mentioned when Kenny arrived.

"Do not let anyone hear you. They are not tolerant of all. They would not hesitate to put you in a dungeon for your lifetime, or even execute you," the third old man said. 

"Damn it. They rule our world. We are nowhere near their might," the first old man stated with a dirty face as he looked at the second old man struggle to stand. "This is too much now." He clenched his fist. "But no one knows where we would have been if they had not showed up. We would not have been alive today."

"Do you still believe that?" Kenny interrupted as he listened to the conversation.

"Oh, Kenny!" the first old man jumped when he looked at Kenny's face. "I am so glad that you are here. Hey, how did you manage to do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"What you did earlier was surely not human," the third old man pointed out and gave Kenny a suspicious look. "How did you do it?"

"I do not know myself." Kenny once again turned his head and confirmed the distance he had covered in a blink.

"Anyway, did you bring bread for us today?" the first old man asked after he noticed Kenny's empty hands.

"Ah, the food." Kenny remembered he had dropped the leftovers when he made a dash. He ran back and picked up the bag, but noticed something odd.

The dog laid flat on the ground with its tongue sticking out of the mouth. It was almost as if it had passed out suddenly. "What happened to the animal?"

He did not pay much attention to it and ran back with the food and handed it over to the elderly men.

"You are such a good lad, Kenny," the first old man said while his drool slid down the corner of his lips when his eyes looked at the food inside. "Your parents must be proud of you."

After hearing what the old man said, Kenny got reminded of his past, which he had buried inside his heart for a long time. He could hear the voices of people he had tried to forget about.

"You are nothing more than a lowlife peep who popped up out of nowhere and became a member of our family."

"You are just a devil who wants to take over our household. It was your fault my mother died."

The old man expected Kenny to feel cheerful, but he noticed him a little traumatized after what he said about his parents. His pupils got dilated and his lips quivered. Both the old man recorded his expressions and glanced at each other.

"Anyway, thank you for helping, young Kenny," the third old man said. "If you had not been here, Lord only knows what tragedy might have befallen."

After a while, both the old men picked up their fellow injured boot polisher and wrapped his arms around their shoulders.

"We will bring him to your house," the first old man told the girl.

"Thank you very much." The girl bowed her head.

"Alright, young Kenny. We will see you tomorrow. Stay safe," the first old man said before he carried away his fellow boot polisher.

Kenny pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and held it between his teeth. "What a day it has been." He sat leaning back on the bench where the second old man was seated earlier.

He reminisced about his past. "Tch." He clicked his tongue in anger and gritted his teeth when the faces of his past demons hovered around his face. At that very minute, he heard a voice. A girl's voice.

"Are you not feeling well?"

He opened his eyes and discovered that the old man's daughter stood in front of him. He looked at her curiously. "Did not you just take your father home?"

"He is okay. Uncle Cosine and Uncle Tangent are taking him home," she said with an exceptionally chirping face. Her smile reaching her cheeks. 

"Did you forget something?"

"Ah, no." She scratched her cheek awkwardly and her eyes rolled away. "It's just…" She hesitated to express her thoughts.

"I am listening."

"It's just… are you free tomorrow morning?"

Kenny remained silent and just stared at her.

"Ah, do not take it the wrong way," she said clumsily. "I just want to thank you for saving my life."

"There is no need, Marya."

"But I would feel terrible if I do not do something for you. Do not refuse it, please."

Kenny could notice her anxious body language. He took a puff, and answered after pondering for a moment, "Alright, I would not deny it. Yes, I am available tomorrow."

At this moment, Marya's face shone brighter than the moon. "Then I will wait for you outside the flower store on 22nd Street at sharp seven in the morning. Do not be late."

She turned to leave, but paused midway to speak again.

"And by the way, you should not smoke. It is unhealthy for your lungs." She walked away, chirping like a bird.

Kenny stared at the night sky with the cigarette in his mouth, as it was dark now. They turned on the streetlight. The illumination told him he was alone there.

"Smoking is awful for your lungs. If you do not quit, I will stop seeing you."

He remembered another voice of a girl who had said the same thing to him.

He smoked out with a depressed face. "Ah, Ken, too bad. Someone fell for you again…"

At a distance, on the rooftop of a nearby building, someone in a black hoodie covering him from head to toe kept watch over Kenny.

He took out his cell phone and dialed a number. "I have found someone interesting. You should at least look at him. I am afraid we might have found the one we needed all along."

He cut the call and went away.