I got a little ahead of myself, just like Pilot! It's a sequel from yesterday's prompt.
Pilot needed to stop making decisions. First, he joined a crime syndicate of all things and dropped out of college for it. Then, he killed some people. It was only like, five. Not even that many. And then he picked up smoking, which was pretty tame compared to everything else. He was trying to quit too!
But his worst decision so far was how he decided to leave the syndicate, and it might just be his final one if he’s not careful.
Pilot had had it with the killing, a few months beforehand he killed the fourth person with his old roommate. Which of course, the deed was almost immediately caught by some middle schooler who just happened to be outside the alley they were in over some snail. Things spiraled from there.
He took the kid home while his roommate cleaned up the mess. Pail hadn’t cleared up the bloodstains however, so Pilot took it upon himself to keep the kid— who he figured was too curious for their own good—out and away from the alley. It worked, and it became a habit to wait outside it for them to make sure they got home. They talked a lot, mostly about the snail that they then named Blink. He’d even met their dad, who was thankful that someone else was looking after them too.
Eventually, people noticed his absences around the same time each day and started asking questions. Around the same time, Pilot decided to up and quit finally. Only most people didn’t take it well and he ended up having to run. And then he ran right into Delta, the middle schooler who he walked home each day. He didn’t want them to think anything was wrong, so he walked them home like usual, even taking them to the park for a short while. Pilot pushed them on a swing for a bit and then they sat in the grass to watch Blink the snail move around.
That was a mistake too.
Pilot’s old coworkers, in a sense, saw him at the park. He saw them as well and immediately decided to leave town. He hadn’t really meant to take Delta with him, the note he left Mallard, Delta’s father, before he ran into Delta was just in case he did! The extra blankets and kids' clothing in his car were just a precaution too, along with the makeshift terrarium. That’s what Pilot kept telling himself.
Delta was being very uncooperative with the whole situation, fully blaming Pilot and trying to run home. He’d admit, it was his fault, but he was trying to protect them! And it wouldn’t be all bad, he was going to allow them to be in contact with their dad– as long as he promised not to give away the two’s location to anyone. Besides, they’d be like a little family! They even already had a pet.
His newly acquired kid was still upset as they drove. They were almost out of town and onto the interstate. Delta spent it pouting, head in their knees with their arms crossed around their legs and Blink resting on their shoulder. Pilot made sure that they were still buckled up. He wasn’t an irresponsible person entirely.
Every so often, Pilot could hear them sniffle and he’d glance back, but they’d still be in the same position; maybe even with their head turned to look out the window. It was an improvement from when he stopped at a CEFCO for some overnight snacks. He had left Delta in the locked car with the AC on, but when he came back they immediately tried to bolt once the car was unlocked. Pilot managed to stop them, but Delta cried a little more afterwards. Pilot didn’t understand what the problem was, he’d even got them an orange juice! They loved orange juice, once while Pilot was walking them home Delta went on a whole speech about how much they loved it.
But Delta hadn’t even opened it.
About a couple hours later, it had gotten dark and it was starting to rain hard. Pilot pulled over into a rest stop to wait out the storm. The temperature had dropped as the rain came down, and it soon went from just a rainstorm to full on pouring and thundering outside the car. He had turned the radio on to some folk music. Pilot tried to start a conversation with Delta while he knew they were still awake, but they only gave short responses and he gave up after a bit. They wouldn’t even talk about snails or fish or whatever it was they were into at the moment.
The rain was lasting longer than he expected and didn’t show signs of stopping. Pilot could hear Delta shivering in the back. He had blankets from them to use back there as well, but he didn’t actually tell them that they could use the blankets. Then again, Delta probably wouldn’t have used them anyways. Still, it couldn’t hurt to mention.
“Hey, y’know you can use the blankets back there, right?” Pilot turned to face them. The rain poured harder. Delta curled up more and Blink had moved onto the window, which was fogging up. “Delta? C’mon, I need an answer.”
The kid shook their head. “I don’t want them.”
“Kid, I can hear you shivering back there.”
“I said I don’t want the blanket!”
This was going nowhere. Here he was, trying to take care of his kid, and they wanted nothing to do with him. This wouldn’t do.
“Delta, just take the blanket.” Pilot sighed. “The last thing I need is you getting sick from being cold.”
“You can’t get sick from being cold.” Delta peeked up. Pilot noted that their glasses were stained with tears.
“Yes you can. It’s called hypothermia. Now use the darn blanket.” Pilot said. “I will come back there myself and wrap you up in it if I have to.”
They had a staring contest. Delta glared at Pilot. Pilot tried his best to keep a stern face and he almost failed if it wasn’t for the loud clap of thunder that sounded. Delta gasped and almost screamed before curling up more into themself, effectively losing the contest. Almost instantly, Pilot unbuckled himself and crawled over to the backseat, sitting next to Delta. He grabbed one of the blankets and wrapped it around Delta before they could protest again. Not like they could, Delta was crying again.
“Heyhey, shhh.” Pilot said, hugging them. They tried to squirm away, but it was a little hard as they were still buckled in. “You’re fine, kid.”
Delta grabbed the blanket and tugged it tighter around them. They were full-on sobbing now, and Pilot was trying his best to calm them down. Delta was saying something, but it was muffled by the blanket and the rain outside. They might have been telling him to go away. Pilot fumbled for a minute, trying to find the buckle of the seatbelt to undo it and pull Delta into his lap. Eventually, he succeeded, and by then Delta had given up on getting away.
“Breath, Delta.” Pilot quietly said as he rubbed circles on their back. “You’ll make yourself sick.”
“You can’t get sick from crying!” Delta’s voice came through the blanket. “Stop sounding like my-”
Another clap of thunder came booming through, and this time Delta did scream and started clinging to Pilot. They cried into his jacket and Pilot could feel their tears soaking through. This was not what he intended to happen, but it wasn’t like he was complaining. They sat like this in the parking lot of the rest stop for about an hour until the rain let up and Delta had fallen asleep, clinging onto Pilot. Once he was sure they wouldn’t wake up, he buckled Delta back in with the blanket still around them and climbed back into the driver’s seat.
As Pilot got ready to start the car and drive away, his phone started buzzing. It had been the whole trip, but Pilot refused to look at it while driving. He already had one bad habit; he didn’t need to create a new one with a child in the car. But, Delta was asleep, so it couldn’t hurt to look.
It was Mallard calling him. Of course it was, he loved his kid so much that only he would still be trying to call Pilot at 9:30 at night. Pilot answered, obviously.
“Hello?”
“Where the hell are you?” Mallard’s voice hissed through the speaker. “You took my kid and then just left? I should’ve called the cops by now if it wasn’t for the fact–”
“Ok, firstly, calm down.” Pilot sighed. “Our kid’s fine, they’re asleep in the backseat.”
“Our?!” Mallard said loud enough that Pilot had to pull the phone away from his ear. “Delta’s not our kid, they’re mine. You don’t even get to call them that after this stunt you’re pulling!” Mallard huffed. Pilot was starting to see where Delta got their fight from.
“Look, I got into some trouble, and Delta just happened to be there too! Technically, I’m doing you guys a favor.” Pilot explained. Mallard stayed silent for a moment.
“In trouble with what.” It was less of a question and more of a demand in Pilot’s opinion. He sighed before answering.
“Oh you know, the Torchsparks.”
Mallard screeched loud enough that he could have broken the car’s windows if he were there. “Excuse me?”
“Ok, I know that’s like, bad, but–”
“Bad? Pilot, that’s the worst gang in the city!”
“Hey now, we prefer the term ‘crime syndicate.’ It flows on the tongue better.” Pilot rolled his eyes before realizing his mistake. Out of all things to mention–
“WE?! You’re with them?” Mallard yelled, causing Pilot to move his phone away again. It was a really good thing he hadn’t started driving yet, Pilot would’ve probably swerved and crashed by now.
“Not anymore, and that’s kind of the issue!” Pilot said louder than intended. Delta stirred a little before falling back asleep. “I tried to leave, they got mad, I took Delta to the park after school like usual, and then things kinda fell apart! So we just left town!”
“So when did you leave the note, Pilot?” Mallard breathed out. “Cause from the sounds of things, you were planning on this happening.”
Pilot paused. “Well, not entirely!” God, this kid’s more trouble than their worth. “It was a precaution!”
“Why on god’s green earth would you have prepared for that!” Mallard shouted again. Pilot was going to answer, but it must have been a rhetorical question considering Mallard spoke again before Pilot could.
“I don’t care what problem you’ve gotten yourself into, but leave my kid out of this. You turn yourself around right now and bring them home.”
“No can do, sir.” Pilot responded almost lazily. He really couldn’t care what Mallard wanted, not when he didn’t know the full extent of the situation. “They’ve seen Delta with me, so might as well keep up appearances!”
He hung up before Mallard could respond. That was going to be the final time he talked to Mallard, at least until he calmed down. But now, Mallard was definitely going to call and report this to the police, so they had to leave and fast. Thank goodness Pilot’s family left him a small cabin up in the Appalachian Mountains near Pennsylvania. It was pretty off the grid, so it was likely no one would find them there. But it was still a couple days away from where they were.
Pilot glanced back at Delta. Their orange hair had fallen into their face and their little braids were starting to become undone. Blink had climbed back onto Delta’s shoulder. He reached back to push their hair out of their face. “Guess I’ll have to relearn to do those.” He whispered. Pilot turned back to finally drive out of the rest stop. The sooner they were farther away, the better.
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.
