Sneaking Out

Every step the two children took made the stairs creak and squeak, yet Dereck's grandmother never reacted, not even tilting her head toward the noise. Her wrinkled hands didn't stop, and she continued to quietly knit, glancing at the television from time to time. The volume on the television was turned up high, covering the noise the children made.

Silently, the two boys observed the old lady through the staircase railing, waiting for the right moment with a pounding heart. They knew what they had to do, but the first step was always the most difficult. They only had one chance, and they were afraid to mess it up.

To leave the house, they had two options.

The first one was to use the front door directly, but they would have to pass through the living room to reach it, which meant that Lucette, Dereck's grandmother, would inevitably see them.

The second option was to use the backdoor in the kitchen. However, the living room was an open area. Therefore, Lucette only had to turn her head slightly to see what was happening in the kitchen. Even if some furniture could hide them while they moved around the room, the kitchen was mostly empty. So, it wasn't the best place to play hide-and-seek.

In this house, sneaking out was quite tricky, and that wasn't only because of where the doors were located. The house's foundation was slightly elevated, meaning that the first-floor windows were higher than usual. Considering their small bodies, jumping out of said windows would surely result in an injury. Although Misha was reckless, he still knew when to court death and when not to.

Also, he had eaten enough hospital food in the past few days to last a lifetime, if not several. So he certainly didn't want to be hospitalized again because of a stupid injury. Better be safe than sorry.

Discarding the previous idea, they then thought of climbing out of the basement windows instead. But they had to walk through the living room to reach the stairs that led to Lucette's apartment, which wasn't any better than walking directly to the front door.

They were in a deadlock, and Dereck proposed telling his grandmother that they would play outside for a while. Then, they could use this excuse to leave and buy whatever Misha wanted to buy. However, this plan also had a big loophole. A bay window overlooked the backyard, and he knew his grandmother would sit beside it to watch over them as they played in the yard. They couldn't leave under her watchful eyes. She was half-deaf but not blind.

Therefore, the only choice left was the backdoor in the kitchen.

The two boys looked at each other, and Misha nodded, signaling that it was time to move out. They couldn't exactly stay in the staircase forever.

Just now, Lucette glanced at the television before turning her attention back to the slippers she was knitting. Relying on his previous observation, Misha predicted that she wouldn't lift her head for a moment. Thus, it was the best time to sneak out.

After taking a deep breath, the two children silently made their way toward the door, half-crouching. For once, Misha felt somehow happy to be so small. Being short and thin made it easier to hide behind the furniture and move about unnoticed.

Even if the old lady's hearing wasn't good and the television volume was turned high, Misha didn't want to try his luck, so he was careful not to make noise.

They quickly reached the door, and Misha slowly opened it, letting Dereck step out first before following him out. Then, he gently closed the door, and both of them fled, restraining their nervous laughter with an awkward smile.

Once they reached the sidewalk, they stopped dead in their tracks. On the one hand, Dereck was not in shape, and it didn't take much for him to be out of breath. On the other hand, Misha's current constitution was also not too good, almost as bad as his friend's. He couldn't sprint for long. Otherwise, it'd feel like his lungs had been set on fire.

The two boys stood side by side on the sidewalk, panting slightly. One was chubby, while the other looked like a life-sized doll. They inevitably drew the attention, but Misha didn't care and blatantly ignored the passersby's curious gazes. Alright. He still wanted to tell them to piss off, but luckily for them, he was over the moon and didn't feel like bothering, or else they would have gotten a taste of his wicked tongue.

Misha had never liked it when people stared at him; it made him want to bark and bite. He wasn't a circus freak!

Anyway, it didn't matter! He was about to take the first step in getting rid of Gabriel, and it made him feel ecstatic! While Misha was bedridden, he dreamt about it every single day. So now that he could work on his plan, it was no wonder he was in an excellent mood, almost floating on cloud nine.

Misha looked at his friend with a bright smile and said, his tone childish and mischievous, "Our first stop is the drugstore!"

A bit puzzled, Dereck asked, "Why?"

"You'll know soon enough," Misha laughed before taking the lead. However, he stopped after only a few steps and turned around. "Do you know where the drugstore is?"

"No…?"

The two boys looked at each other in dismay. Misha hadn't come to this neighborhood for a long time, and he didn't remember where the shops were, while Dereck was a kid who rarely went out except for visiting his friend's house. Neither of them was familiar with the neighborhood, and, of course, they didn't know the way to the drugstore.

Dereck scratched his cheek, unsure of what to do now. As for Misha, he had the reflex to search for his cell phone in his pocket only to be reminded that he didn't own one at this age. That made him tsk. Honestly, the future was so much more convenient!

Since he couldn't look up where the nearest drugstore was on the internet, he didn't have a choice but to use the old-fashioned way.

After scanning the area, Misha walked toward two young women who were chatting while jogging. With a polite but firm tone, he called them out.

"Excuse me! Can you tell me where the drugstore is?"

After a round of questions that included "where are your parents" and "why do you want to go to the drugstore", the women escorted the two children to the shop. Once they reached it, they asked for the umpteenth time if the boys were sure they didn't need them to show them the way back.

"Don't worry, I memorized the road," Misha insisted, and they ultimately left, albeit a tad reluctantly. He sent them off with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

'Goodness, being a child is so troublesome!' Misha inwardly cried as he swiftly disappeared into the alleys. 'It's not like I'm a helpless baby, so why do people treat me like a toddler that doesn't even know how to walk?! This is getting so infuriating!'

Putting aside his brooding thoughts, Misha veered to his left and entered a particular alley. Because he often visited the drugstore in his past life, thanks to his reckless behavior and eventful life, he was quite familiar with its usual layout and quickly found what he was searching for.

With a grin, the boy took a bottle of laxative under the curious gaze of Dereck. Misha thought for a second before taking another one. Finally satisfied, he went to the cashier's counter, almost skipping as he did so.

However, Misha was doomed to leave the shop empty-handed. The cashier refused to sell a bottle of laxative to such a young child. What if the boy drank all of it and emptied himself to death? This drug was too dangerous in the hands of a little kid. Without the presence of an adult, there was no way the cashier would sell it to him, no matter what the child said. Acting cute or glaring at him didn't change his mind, either.

Realizing that he wouldn't win, Misha thought of stealing the medicine with a belly full of resentment, but the cashier was now paying attention to his every move, restraining his freedom of action. Moreover, he and Dereck had nothing to hide the bottles in. Neither of them thought of bringing a backpack, and their pockets were too small to hold the bottles. So stealing the laxative in this situation was nothing but a pipe dream.

In the end, the boys could only leave the drugstore empty-handed.

Outside, Misha glared at the store for a long time. But, eventually, he turned on his heel with a snort and left with a straight back. Anyway, the laxative was only one item on the list Misha had made.

When he was in the hospital, he had too much free time on his hands, and all he could do was scheme pranks. He also took the opportunity to ask his roommates for some ideas, and his noisy roommate had quite a lot to say. Surprisingly, the bookworm didn't want to be left out and chimed in, proposing some interesting things. That guy didn't seem like it, but he sure had a nasty personality.

Well, whatever. Their shopping spree had just begun!

_________

Mini theater

ML: What were you planning to do with that laxative?

MC: Feed it to you, of course!

ML: You know, it doesn't taste really good. I'll probably notice there's something off with the taste if you add it to my food.

MC: So what? If I take the time to cook you something and put the laxative in, even if it tastes awful, you're still gonna eat it all, no?

ML: …

MC: I ate all of your unappetizing meals in the past, so eat what I'm telling you to eat! My poor stomach had it really hard back then. Ugh, I didn't even need to take a laxative to be stuck in the toilet!

ML: Fine, fine… (╥﹏╥)

Chapter revised on 2022-05-03

Edited by Clozed! ♥

Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/rs_vaesen

Discord: https://discord.gg/ZsEYr5eh6h