Chapter 2: Two’s Company (July 11th, 2447)

  "Who the fuck are you? How did you get here?"

  I ask the girl, approaching with my fist raised. Her eyes dart around the room, and I manage to take a good look at her as she panics. She's not very tall, only standing at about 5'2; and she doesn't look physically strong, quite the opposite in fact, but that barely ever matters if you can use magic. Her short hair and scared eyes are of a washed out, bright purple. Not a Void purple, more so like a shitty dye job of it. Her outfit looks pretty normal to me too, an oversized hoodie and jeans; until I realize she's wearing some old clothing of mine. Just how fucking long has this kid been roaming around my house?

  The kid steps back, in a poor attempt to hide the storybook behind her, but soon hits the wall and is left with nowhere to go.

  "I- I am..."

  She's either looking for an excuse not to say her name, or I really scared the shit out of her. I'm going with the latter, it makes more sense.

  "I don't give a shit, actually. Just get the hell out of here, kid".

  I lower my fist and stare at the girl as she tries to calm down and starts speaking:

  "But this is the only house with running electrical power I could find..."

  She says, looking away in shame. Thanks to an old wind powered battery thing, my house is one of the few around that can just be recharged with magic, doesn’t really work normally since the weather is awful nowadays, but I don't have a clue how it should work, and I don't care to check, everything that beeps is a fridge to me anyway.

  "So you thought that made it okay to barge in and steal my shit? News flash, it's my fucking house. Get your own".

  I'm losing my patience with this kid. Now that the mild surprise that was finding a third person around here dried off, I can't wait for her to leave me alone. She hesitates a bit.

  "You looked... dead. The entire house smells like a rotting corpse, your eyes were glassy, and your blazer and that sword are stained with blood."

  I bite the inside of my lower lip, looking annoyed as can be.

  "Right, you got all that and you didn't even think of checking if I was breathing. Now put my book back, and tell me where you hid my katana. Before you can even think of lying to me, I don't need it to smash your head in."

  The girl visibly examines her options, and slowly starts handing the book back, only to suddenly raise it up and hit me hard in the chin with it. Great. After that attempt at stunning me, she tries to make a run for it, but her escape attempt doesn't last very long, as I quickly turn around and grab her by the arm, roughly pulling her back to me. She makes a pained expression, and looks at me with pleading eyes.

  "I was scared to approach, and your smell is horrific! Please, r-release me. Your sword, it is in the kitchen, I was not hiding it, but trying to wash the blood off..."

  The girl speaks very quickly, weakly tugging at my grip on her arm, it really doesn't look like she's a threat. At all. I just grunt in affirmation and start dragging her to the kitchen, much to her pained noises. I'm not gripping her that hard, maybe she got hurt outside... no, she's definitely trying to trick me into letting her go, I'm not that much of an idiot.

  We arrive at the dirty kitchen, avoiding all the cans and bottles on the floor, and I see the sword is where she said it'd be, in the sink, being cleaned off by the running water. Before that, I need a drink. I go up to the fridge, still dragging the kid behind me, and open it. The light doesn't turn on, and the beer I grab isn't exactly cold.

  "Shit. The battery".

  I place the bottle on the counter with a groan, pick up my katana and sheathe it.

  "Listen kid, I'm a very busy person, with a lot of stuff to do, and you've wasted enough of my day. I'm going to lock you in my room, you're going to put everything you stole back and when I open the door again, you're going to get the fuck out of my life and never come back".

  I started dragging her back to the room as she tried to protest against it.

  "I-if you let me stay here, I could make your life more comfortable! I will clean for you, fix your appliances. With electrical energy, I can do anything you want! Just please, do not throw me away... I can be of use".

  The girl's eyes fill with tears, but I don't budge. My life is comfortable enough as is, with a total of zero children around.

  "No".

  We reach the room, I shove her in and lock the door. She'd have to break the window glass to get out, and I'm close enough to catch her if she tries anything, and if I don't, something else will get to her. She looked too scared of the outside to just run off, but then again she tried to escape earlier... whatever, I'm fast enough.

  I climb up to the rooftop to get the battery charged, only to find that one of the fan blades powering the whole thing is broken. Great. I'd been holding that one with tape, I guess it's fucked again. I can't even be lazy about fixing it, it barely charges up with two blades. As soon as I pick up the fallen blade chunk, a loud squawk resonates in the sky, and a very large shadow covers almost my entire roof. I turn around just in time to see an M. Hawk descending over me. This is why I don't go out during the day, stupid kid. I quickly step out of the way as the gigantic animal swoops down to grab me. M. Hawks are pretty big and strong, but not smart enough to stop themselves in their tracks, or resilient enough to beat someone as agile as I am. I slowly step towards the edge of the rooftop, waiting for the thing to try to get me again. I hear another squawk and its wings beating as it flies upwards and turns around, ready for another go, but looking over I see it flying to me right behind the blinding sun. A piercing headache overpowers me as my drug induced eyes are exposed to the bright daylight, and I take a step back, closing my eyes instantly. I blindly jump away, but the hawk manages to scrape me with its claws, leaving a nasty cut on my left shoulder.

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  I let out a pained hiss, then whip my hurt arm backwards as the bird flies by, grabbing onto its leg. I'm going to enjoy this one. It tries to carry me off, but I plant my feet on the roof walls and drag it close enough to unsheathe my katana and slice off its right wing. The hawk squawks in agony and fear, and starts falling over its back. I let go of its leg, only to leap out of the rooftop and grab it by the head, jamming my fingers in its eyes and crushing its skull under my palms. I scream in rage at the mutant beast, it just had to be the shit cherry on top of this terrible fucking day.

  We land on the pavement, one of us dead and the other with minor injuries and a really bad hangover. The former probably has it better at this point. I stand up, and a familiar voice behind me says:

  "Do you need assistance with that?"

  Upon turning around, I see the kid again, now wearing what I assume are her own clothes: a weirdly formal but dirty, short sleeved black dress with a neck bow and big pockets sewn in, and scratched up flat dress shoes. My eyes then go directly to her arms, they're all bruised up and scarred, I guess I was wrong earlier.

  "How the fuck did you get out".

  The girl shows some kind of rectangular device in her hand, with some gears moving around inside and metal sticks pointing out

  "It is an automatic lockpick, I made it myself. It is how I entered your house as well".

  She walks up to me, letting me have a closer look at the thingamajig I can barely understand.

  "I also noticed your turbine is broken, I could fix that for you! And take care of your wound. I really truly need a place to stay, i-it is only fair, is it not? You could use my skills and I could use... somewhere safe."

  I sigh, this kid is really getting on my nerves. But, she might have a point. If she could get in that easily while I was on my trip... but nothing else has so far at least. So far. I walk past the girl and back into the house.

  "Fix the fan and we'll see".

  Through the corner of my eye I see her face burst into a smile, she fist pumps and whispers a 'yes!' before running past me and heading straight for the rooftop. I'm gonna go get that drink.

  A few hours later, I'm grabbing the usual canned food for dinner and I see the kid pop up at the door. Right, I need to feed her.

  "Catch".

  I throw the can at her and she manages to grab it, then I head back to the fridge to get another one. The girl silently grabs a dirty plate and utensils, washes them and takes a seat at the table. No one's done that around here in a while, but... something pulls me to join her. As she struggles to open it, I take a closer look at her face. She reminds me of someone, but I don't exactly care to figure out who or what "Hand it over." I take the can from her and open it with my hands, then slide it back and crack mine open. She pours the beans over her plate and starts trying to pick each individual bean up with her fork.

  "Did you fix it?"

  I ask, and she snaps her head over to me.

  "Yes! I used the little power that was left in the battery to solder the broken fan blade back together. It is not the best solution, but it should work better than simple tape."

  I see her eyes practically light up when she mentions all that tech stuff.

  “I-I also cleaned the turbine and its battery, it should be more efficient. It was awfully filthy".

  After abruptly ending her sentence, her expression turns into concern again, as she slowly pokes at the beans, glancing at them and back at me every few seconds.

  It's not long before I get sick of the awkward silence.

  "You can stay, then, just don't get in my way. And eat as much as you want, I can always get more".

  The girl nods happily, her expression once again completely changing for a moment, before she notices me staring and goes back to her moody face.

  "Thank you, truly".

  She carefully picks up the beans and cautiously eats a few, then lets out an audible gasp.

  "These are... amazing!".

  After proclaiming her opinion on the food, she devours the rest of the plate in a matter of seconds, her smile growing with each bite. I... can't help but hold back one myself. Ugh.

  "By the way kid, you're taking the couch tonight, and for the foreseeable future".

  Some part of me wishes to upset her with that, bring her down to my level, she'll probably be too loud if she's overly excited.

  "The couch? But what about the other room? It is vacant, is it not...?".

  She asks, probably out of curiosity, but that was the excuse I needed. She broke into her room. Of course she did. I stand up and lean over the table.

  "You went into the other room. I almost forgot that you broke into my house! You invaded my privacy, and you're fucking lucky that I'm letting you stay. Listen well, the first rule of living here is that you never. Ever! Go into that room".

  I yell at her with barely any hesitation, and she just lowers her head and nods slowly. I plop back on my chair with a sigh. It's happening again, I feel... bad for this kid, as much as I hate doing so.

  "Goodnight, miss."

  She quickly gets up from the table, cleans her dishes and speeds off to the couch.

  "It's Jane. And if you want sheets, you're gonna have to fix the washing machine. Goodnight".

  I finally chug my can of beans. Somehow, it tastes even worse tonight.