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Part 10
Page 1
In the streets, under the fading lamplight, a little
boy huddled on his knees and cried.
He couldn't stop. He didn't know what was happening
to him. Things had gone dark and blacked out and the next thing he knew
Shujuan was shoving him and pushing him away and there was a pain in the
pit of his stomach he didn't understand. But it was his throat that hurt
the worst, as the tears started.
What was happening to all of them? What was
it about Shujuan that did this?
He pushed a cold palm against his forehead. It felt
like his skull was about to split in two, something inside pounding desperately
to get out. Some other him.
What was his name?
How old was he?
Where was he?
Hadn't he died back there in the gutter?
Hadn't he died years and years ago?
Beyond him, outside the circle of light, he caught
sight of a lighter flare, click and hiss. Thick cigar smoke.
There was a man standing there, barely outlined
by the predawn blue. Pale hair in strange curls, red full moon glasses
dipped low on his nose while he tapped ashes to the ground.
"Nowhere to go, huh, kid?" the man said.
Guonan hadn't realized he was still crying, until
he heard the cottoned gaps in his words where there shouldn't be. He sniffled
and wiped at his eyes, more clawed with the edges of fingers. "Go away."
"Come on. You don't have to be embarrassed." Chuckle.
"Let me guess-- woman trouble?"
The boy found he was nodding, choking noisily.
"The first is always the hardest," the man said
sagely. He stepped from the shadows, shining black shoes clicking on the
pavement as he approached. "Doesn't matter what you can do, some chicks
will just fight you down to the last. Want my advice, kid? Girls like that
ain't worth your trouble."
Guonan mumbled something behind his hands.
"What's that?"
He said it again.
The Triad laughed. "'Love'? You forget where you
are, kid."
Guonan stopped mid-cry against his will. Feeling
the press of a cold metal barrel against the side of his head.
"Shhh," soothed the man in the red glasses.
He let his cigar drop half-smoked to the ground.
Flecks of orange ash sprayed across the brick.
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