Page 6 of Loreblood

I backed up a step.

“Well, what do we have here?” said the head boy, two lengths taller than me. “Cute little zealot with her brown rags. Wonder what’s under—”

Baylen flew at the boy from behind, launching from his hands and knees with a high-pitched yell. “Don’t touch her!”

He tried to tackle the taller boy.

Given their size difference, the older boy hardly moved. He turned and flung Baylen off.

The three bullies started wailing on him, kicking him and kicking up dirt.

I screamed. My hands balled into fists. I wanted to fight them but couldn’t. I wasn’t strong enough. “Please stop!” I cried out, tears streaming down my face. I quickly crawled across the alley, picking up the copper coins, holding them out like an offering. “Take our money, just please stop hurting him!”

They didn’t. The boys didn’t even hear me. The thuds of their kicks rang out, making me jolt with every strike that forced air out of Baylen’s little lungs.

“R-Run, Seph!” he croaked in a garbled voice.

So I did.

Weak, frail, scared beyond measure. I fled the alleyway with my tears drying from the rushing wind.

I told myself I would get stronger and never let that happen again.

I was fooling myself, because I still had a long way to go before I ever got what I wanted.

My feet didn’t take me far—only far enough to hide, to muffle the sounds of their brutality. One of the kids yelled, “Come on,let’s get out of here. Pick up those coins and scatter before a patrol comes.”

“Patrol?” another boy scoffed. “The Bronze never come ‘round here. You know that well as I do, Jeffrith.”

The trio leisurely walked off, in no hurry.

Jeffrith, I thought.I’ll remember that name.

I inched over from behind a barrel a few minutes later. Baylen’s broken form on the ground gripped my heart with fear. He looked unmoving. Dead.

“B-Baylen?” I squeaked as I drew closer.

He groaned and my breath left my body in a great heave. I put my wrists together in the form of shackles and looked up to the sky. “Thank the True.”

My friend spit up blood and slowly sat up.

I helped him, hand to his arm. His face was bruised. One eye was closed shut. For some reason, when I found a bloody tooth lying on the ground next to him, I handed it to him as if he’d want it.

“I’m so glad you’re all right,” I breathed.

He winced and slapped my hand away, eyes lighting up with young rage. “I’m not all right, dammit.”

I bowed my head in shame.

“Last time I let s-something like that happen,” he added.

My brow furrowed. I thought he was going to say it was the last time we took a shortcut to get home. “What do you mean?”

He snarled at me, standing on wobbly legs without my assistance. “Don’t you see, Seph?”

I shook my head.

“They picked the right mark.”