May Prompts - Fault
Hey so you know that mafia thing I was talking about yesterday1? Yeah. I got a little excited and it's four pages long.
“Ok, so, technically speaking, I am not at fault here.” Delta argued.
“If you,” they pointed a finger at the man standing across them. “Hadn’t brought me along,” now the finger was gestured towards Delta. “You’d probably be in less trouble than before!”
What had led to this situation, you might ask? Well, it all started a few months beforehand when Delta was walking home from school. They were just your average 11 year old who had been trusted by their dad to go straight home. However, Delta had a habit of wandering around when left to their own devices and had stopped near an alley to look at a large snail with a blue shell. Obviously, Delta picked it up and named it Blink like any 11 year old would do.
Except then there were the sounds of banging and people shouting coming from the alley. And Delta couldn’t help themself from looking, still holding the snail.
There was only one person standing when Delta looked in. He had pink hair and was holding a baseball bat, but that was the only thing they could make out as his back was turned towards them. Delta could also spot a pair of feet lying on the ground, poking out from the other side of a conveniently placed dumpster and a box for a lamp. The man with pink hair was saying something, but it was a lot of words Delta didn’t understand. Then there was also a red substance on the bat he was holding that they didn’t recognize from the distance. Maybe it was time for new glasses.
Delta tried to lean a little more to get a closer look at the person on the floor, only to lean too much and fall over on their side to the cement. They didn’t make a sound once they hit the floor, but the sound from the impact alerted the man with pink hair and he immediately turned towards Delta. They noticed that the man also gripped the bat tighter as he did so. Now that they could get a proper look at him, Delta realized that they were squinting a little much at him to be normal. It was definitely time for new glasses.
“Oh, it's just a kid.” The man muttered. Someone, possibly the person laying on the other side of the dumpster, responded but Delta couldn’t make it out. They only tensed as he walked over with the baseball bat still in hand.
Once he had reached Delta, who was having trouble trying to get up one handed as they were still holding the snail, the man held out a hand. “Here, let me help you up.”
Delta took it, which was probably their first mistake. “Never trust strangers,” their dad once told them. But here they were, trusting a stranger with a baseball bat that had a suspicious red color on it. But he helped them stand back up, so he couldn’t have been that bad.
“What are you doing here, kid?” The man asked. Delta could see his face clearly now. He had small, silver eyes that were squinting slightly and a smile that looked a little less than friendly to Delta.
“I found a cool snail.” They responded, holding out their new blue-shelled friend. “And then I heard shouting. Is everything okay?” Everything they said was barely above a whisper and they weren’t making eye contact.
“Oh, um, we were just–” The man looked back to the dumpster, where another man was standing now. It wasn’t the person on the floor, Delta could still see their feet there. The other man was staring directly at Delta with a gaze that unnerved them. “We were just playing a game of baseball with one of our friends and got into an argument, and then next thing you know old Tommy here is taking the ball to his head.” He pointed the bat over at the person lying on the floor.
“Right, Pail?” The other man nodded. Delta saw that he had silverish hair that matched the man with pink hair’s eyes. “See, nothing t’worry about.”
Now he was looking back at Delta. “Okay, um, is-is he going to be alright?” Delta fidgeted with their hands now that the snail had decided to move up onto their shoulder. Something about this situation seemed off. Delta was getting nervous.
“Ehhh, he’ll be fine. In fact, Pail here is gonna make sure of it. Right?” Pail nodded in response. “Now, why don’t you, uh, go home?”
“But-” Delta had tried to ask how he knew, or what was on his baseball bat, but the man had tossed it to the side and pushed Delta along the sidewalk by their shoulder.
“In fact, I’ll even walk you there. Just to make sure you get home safe.” Delta glanced up at him. He seemed nice enough, so Delta let him walk them home and had almost forgotten about what took place in the alley as they ended up telling him all about Blink. It became a regular occurrence to see the man on their way home from school, leaning next to the alley where they first met and smoking a cigarette. He always put it out when he saw Delta. They even learned his name, Pilot.
But back to the present day. Turns out, Pilot was a part of a crime syndicate, and all those times when Delta had run into him was him making sure that they didn’t go into the alley to see the bloodstains that had never gotten cleaned up where he and Pail had killed a person. Delta could hear their dad telling them off now.
Pilot had killed a person. Multiple too, probably. And now he had dragged Delta into whatever was going on while trying to cover up the most recent death. At least Delta had Blink with them, it at least could do no wrong since it was a snail. That barely made it better considering that Delta was now on the other side of town without a way to contact their dad.
“Listen,” Pilot pinched his nose. “There were people following us! They weren’t friendly, I did you a favor!”
“A favor?! Pilot, I should’ve been home hours ago! And they probably wouldn’t have been following us if you didn’t take that detour in the first place!” Delta threw their hands into their pockets. Blink was on Delta’s head and staring down Pilot. Pilot was clearly upset, but was holding himself back. “Look, you’re like what, 12?”
“I’m 11, actually.”
“Oh, well.” Pilot held up his hands. “Like that makes it better.”
“You asked!”
“Not the point.” Pilot walked closer to Delta, who took a step back. “Look, I’m trying to leave, and if you’re with me then they’re more likely to leave me alone. They have a whole ‘no killing kids rule,’ you’ll be fine.” His hand was waving in the air.
Delta was appalled. “Your plan is to kidnap me?!” Their voice squeaked on the word kidnap. Is he insane? Delta apparently said that thought aloud, because Pilot then responded with, “No, I’m not insane. This is well thought out, you’ll be fine. Just consider me your new dad or something.”
Delta took another step back. “I’m not doing that.” It was starting to get hard to breathe. There was a wall behind them and the only way out of the alley they were in was behind Pilot.
“Kid–” Delta bolted before he could finish, only for him to grab them by their torso.
“Let me go!” Delta shouted as Pilot picked them up. They kicked their legs in the air and tried pushing themself away from him, however he had a strong grip around them.
“Delta listen-”
“No!” They punched him in the stomach to the best of their ability.
“Shut up! You’re gonna attract someone down here!” Pilot said through gritted teeth, trying to cover their mouth. “You’ll be better off this way!”
“I’m not going with you!” Now they tried kneeing him in the stomach; anything to get away from him. “You can figure this out by yourself!”
Pilot huffed, leaning over and clasping a hand over Delta’s mouth. “Yeah, I did. And you’re coming with me now whether you like it or not. They’ve seen you with me now, might as well keep up appearances.”
Delta tried pushing his hand off except Pilot grabbed both of their wrists with his other hand. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
Delta shook their head, jerking it back and forth, trying to get him away from them. When that didn’t work, Delta stomped their feet against the cement to show their anger.
“Oh come on now, you’re throwing a tantrum. You’re supposed to be a big kid now, you were going off about that the other day, weren’t you?” Delta could hear him roll his eyes. Tears were starting to form in their eyes.
“Look, I’ll admit, it’s my fault you’re a part of this now, but you can blame me later all you want.” Pilot breathed out sharply. “Let’s just get back on course now, shall we? I’ll even letcha bring Blink along.”
Delta shook their head, full on crying now. They really wanted to go home. Pilot said he was taking them home. So why couldn’t they just go home and he leave? Pilot uncovered their mouth and was brushing their tears away, shushing them. He was still restraining their arms.
“It’ll be alright, okay? But we need to get going now.”
“I don’t want to.” Delta sniffled. I want Dad. I want to go home. I don’t want to leave with you.
“Well, you don’t really have a choice in this anymore.” Pilot picked them back up and started walking out of the alley. “Think of it this way, we’ll be like a little family.”
Delta wanted to go back to their real family, but it seemed none of what they would say would persuade Pilot to leave them alone. When they asked him to put them down, he said “No can do, you might try running off, and then where will we be?”
Blink was still on Delta’s head. How it managed to stay on was a mystery, but that was the least of Delta’s worries at the moment. Maybe this is my fault, they thought, resting their head against Pilot’s shoulder as he walked. Maybe if I hadn’t talked to him that one time.
Their dad was going to be very upset when they didn’t come home.