•••

Angelina's

Sebastian kept a close eye on me, afraid I wouldn't keep up again but I obviously was better than him when the matter was snowing. My shoes weren't properly made for it, but nothing like a good Room 9 training to turn things more approachable - I had to help him instead, showing how to take better steps and stabilizing our weight with the slimed ground. We lost track of the car we had stolen, it was somewhere behind, yet even if we could find it would be useless. But one useful thing from the house were the sunglasses, so my retina was protected. The outside was very bright. Sebastian didn't need one as his body was anti-bruises naturally. I was cold even with the double layer of clothing and the sheets which I have stolen and wrapped around my shoulders before going out.

Sometimes we would turn around to see the path of our shoes laid out on the brilliant snow, and for a reason I don't think they would be wiped out. The sky turned back to blue and the only thing missing were the birds, vanished. We were in the middle of California, being slowly frozen under a sun of snow.

My belly was roaring like crazy. I asked Sebastian if he had any food left, but we were done. For a while the subject was suppressed, and little by little the wetness under our feet became puddles and the faint green of the weeds spread here and there smiled shyly to the passersby. Ronc!

"I am so hungry!"

"But what can I do? While we walk I search for whatever to eat but unless you want to eat ice I see no other solution."

"There must be something, why don't you use your power on me? Finish my hunger, please!"

"There are things about my powers that are not pretty, I don't want to use it on you unless it is really necessary. Right now your body is roaring painfully because you're not used to being unfed. Trust me, it will go away soon if we don't find anything on the way."

"You are stressing me, you know that? How can you talk like this if we don't even know where we are going. The great Sebastian Castle is a decade older but still thinks he knows shit."

"I know shit more than you, that's for sure."

"Oh yeah? And how can you be sure?" I glared angrily at the pathetic figure that was Sebastian pretending to be calm like he was doing, with the eyes which said I know what am doing, I can write a book with my own life experiences.

He stared at me for more seconds until we were both tired of each other's faces, then, confidently, he pointed at a concrete structure at our right. It was a squared entry with public stairs leading downstairs, to underground. "Your memory may be quite weak; see this? This is the entrance to a subway station. It is the same subway station that lead us to the Rebel Village we have been a decade ago."

Even though Sebastian basically had thrown a hot potato on my face the information raised my hopes and even lowered my hunger. It was as if he'd said "good news! We are going somewhere!"

"Why haven't you told before?" I asked, this time trying to sound rude but actually holding great relief beneath my scarfs.

Sebastian giggled lightly, squeezed his eyes in a big smile which crossed my own heart. "Because I like when you start giving arguments against me and then realize you were wrong. It makes me feel awesome." - Laughter replaced the giggling as I went forward to punch him like a child.

"Ouch! You're strong!"

"Son of a dog, you are, I hate you! And I can punch whenever I want because you fucking deserve it..." - I stopped suddenly, looking at him with wide eyes. I had said a bad swearword in high perfect volume and Oliver wasn't there to criticize. It was so strange I out of a sudden asked if Sebastian minded my swearing. By the way he looked confused, he probably thought I was out of my mind. Then he said of course not, swear words are only bad when you truly mean to hurt someone.

"Do you want to learn some new exotic swearwords?" - he said, starting forward towards the subway entrance. While we heavily pushed the door which was surrounded by snow, Sebastian dived into the deep sea that was his childhood, and began talking about the origin and formation of his vocabulary, always referring to homeless men and stinky sailors that crossed him to the other side of the ocean.

His stories could amaze even the thickest of heads, even though nobody could confirm they were even true. And at the moment those tales made me forget about being mad and restless. Sebastian could be many things, but he knew how to trap me into something.

•••

The town had no streets, but dirty narrow roads where people stepped more than cars. He didn't know which part of Europe he was, but most people spoke a strange language instead of English. He remembered a lot of brown, from the color of the roads to people's faces and trousers. Towns like this seems to be stuck in time, and he calls it as a culture that never rottens. Passersby and inhabitants walked through the small valleys between houses like a bread dough being soaked, and the hands pulling and pushing the corpses back and forth was the sea harbor edging the town with its travelers boats, police sirens and the commercial bulks that needed to be loaded.

7 years old Sebastian trotted after his saviors while holding the folds of their shirts from behind, it was important to keep hold of them or anybody could take him away in sacks smelling like spoiled lemon. They were called "shanghaiers" and kidnapped kids to force their work into another ship, so the saviors would say "be a good boy or the shanghaiers will come after you."

The calm of their dormitory under the deck was relieving compared to the chaos on the ground, but Sebastian kind of liked the chaos when there was something important to do before a long trip. The saviors introduced their new home-ship for the month, She had a big name painted on the hull but Sebastian was too little to read in fancy letters anyways. Her sails and masts were so high he was sure the men who'd dared to go up would touch the clouds and come down wet, and with so many ropes surrounding the masts the sky looked like a nest of spiders. They'd say it was "copper bottomed guaranteed" it would make to the other side of the sea safely. It could be a dream, for any boy his age, to live a real adventure with sailors at the sea. In fact he assured that being kept prisoner of a boat for days made people smell very quickly and he wouldn't wish this to anyone, even if the ship was copper bottomed guaranteed.

The basement where they slept had a ceiling of long wood logs and the adults had to arch their backs to walk inside. He'd supposed to go downstairs only when the saviors said so or he'd be locked outside and had to sleep on the windy pathway. During the day, while the dormitory was prohibited, Sebastian helped the men with the passengers' luggage. The best passengers were the ones with money because they would pay them tips. The ladies were even better because they would say "oh goodness buy this boy some food!" - and there came more money. The worse passengers were the ones who'd become sick on the first day of voyage because of the movement of the sea. They would turn into living green slimes with a great potential for vomiting. Sebastian would go to the board of the boat to dump containers with the passengers' puke. They were called "land lubbers", people who were happier on shore instead of the sea.

Nights inside the dormitory were lonely and hot. The other workers sweat a lot, sometimes speaking up senseless dialogues such as:

"My wife broke her nose and it is crooked."

"Hee you better batten down the hatches! Bony thing was your wife."

"How she'd done it?"

"Don know. She's a loose cannon, better to fix it soon."

"Left high and dry on this one."

"And she's pregnant?"

"Aye."

"So the lass might have the ladie be born with a crooked nose, heh!"

How could Sebastian remember all of this, having merely 7 years old? He didn't know either, maybe if was something he had with being an Arian. Very few people of his childhood knew what he could do because no one would pay much attention to a homeless little boy. Until he was adopted by a couple of pharmaticians and Bridgette Clay's grandmother lived next doors.