°°°BLACK°°°

The ghetto was a maze of hidden atrocities, and I had no plan for how I was going to escape my treacherous brother. But one thing I knew was how to improvise, Dan was not going to have his way.

Despite the wild night we shared, my client seemed genuinely concerned about my well-being and insisted on returning the favor by ensuring I got home safely. My initial hesitation to accept her offer was met with a warm smile and assurances that she was perfectly capable of driving.

As she drove, I provided her with directions to my neighborhood, which ended in the ghetto side of town. Her stunned reaction was evident, and I braced myself for any judgement or discomfort she might display. But instead of criticism or fear, her expression held a mixture of surprise and curiosity.

"You live here?", she asked, her eyes scanning the area as if trying to comprehend the environment she found herself in.

"Yeah, this is home for me". I replied, trying not to sound defensive.

She remained quiet for a moment, processing the information. It was clear she had not expected this part of town to be my destination. Yet, surprisingly, she didn't utter any words of judgement or condescension. Instead, she kept her gaze forward, focusing on driving.

The street roads were obviously bad, and for some weird reason I was beginning to feel embarassed, so I urged her to stop the vehicle, ready to step out of the car, say goodbye and disappear, but she gently placed warm hands on mine, urging me to wait.

Looking out, I could see we were already gathering some kind of attention. She was driving a Porsche, and this kind of car, in this kind of environment was definitely something, so people would obviously look. It wasn't like you got to see these kind of cars pass every time. We would soon gather attention and I didn't want that.

"Hey, um... Ms. Um.....", I tried to escape still, realizing that I hadn't even gotten to know her name in the process, but it didn't matter at the moment because I was definitely not going to see her again.

"Zara. My name is Zara. Don't go just yet, Black."

She said and giggled, not minding the fact that once again, she caught me off guard.

"What?"

"T'm sorry but I couldn't hold it in anymore." She reached up to touch my face, feeling the skin and squeezing my cheeks in the process, moving down to my neck, then my arms, and I had to stop her there.

"You're just so soft, and so beautiful, Black."

I had to shake my head to confirm if I was
hearing right. What was this girl blabbing
about?

"Zara, you're probably still a little hungover, so..."

My statement was cut short by frantic knocking on the body of the car. Little did we know, we were being shadowed, and the shadows had names-Dan, Marvin, Kudjo, Sena and some boys I wasn't yet too familiar with.

Dan, fueled by his reckless aggression as usual, stormed towards us with Sena trailing behind, a picture of reluctant compliance.

Sena had no choice but to reveal my whereabouts to my menacing brother, and now he sought to extract his perceived dues from me.

Flashbacks of what happened two nights ago
played in my mind, and anger began to flood
my veins as my so called brother confronted us, demanding repayment for some elusive debt Isupposedly owed him.

He was still not over the loss of his phone and Sena, a pitiful pawn in my brother's dangerous game, looked on helplessly.

I had an inkling he'd come looking for me at his place, but I should have known Dan would go as far as cornering Sena and bullying the truth of my whereabout from him.

Sure, Sena had some explaining to do to me, butat the moment I was scared for him. My brotherwas a maniac whenever he was angry, and Iwondered what my friend had to deal with.

'You think you can just disappear, Black?" Dan'svoice seethed with anger. "You owe me, and you're gonna pay up - one way or another."

Zara, sensing the impending danger,
moved closer to me, her eyes wide with fear
I couldn't let her get caught in the crossfire of
my tumultuous past.

A fight seemed inevitable,but I had no intention of allowing Dan's rage consume everything around us.

I stepped out of the car.

I had turned to sternly warn Zara to drive right back immediately I stepped out, but before I realizedshe was also out of the vehicle, her eyes widewith fear, both arms raised in surrender.

One thing I wasn't going to let happen was allow her get in the crossfire of my past, because it was Dan, and a fight seemed inevitable.

His rage was capable of consuming everything around us, and I was getting fed up fast.

Who was he to think he could ambush me with the bunch of hoodlums he called friends?

"I can go whenever I want to, big brother, and I don't remember owing you anything", I shot back calmly."

Like I expected, he lunged at me, fists clenched, and I met his aggression with calculated defense. It was a dance of survival and for the first time in years, I was going to fight back. Each blow and block was a testament to a past Ithought  I had left behind.

In an angry bid to ward him off, along with
his boys, i hadn't realized when his attention
had shifted to Zara , until i caught sight of hissinister grin admist blows.

"Pay me back, or she pays the price," he snarled,seizing her arm. Marvin took the chance to circle me from behind, closing in on my arms.

"Get off her, you bastard! " I struggled against
Marvin's hold.

Like I expected, he lunged at me, fists clenched. I gritted my teeth in pain.

It seemed my client wasn't just fiery when se
was drunk, because out of nowhere she had pulled out a taser from the inside of her jacket.The crackling sound of electricity filled the air.

In a minute my brother had been brought to his knees. As the others watched it unfold, I seized the opportunity and got out of Marvin'sgrip, grabbing Zara's hand and pulling her away from the fray.

I dashed in a direction I knew best, meandering the corners with her right behind me. I never let go off her hand, and we breezed through the narrows of the neighborhood corners until I was
sure the rest of the gang was no longer on our tail.

°°°°°

I sighed, plopping on the already damaged, only piece of furniture in our house, trying to catch my breath for a minute. When I had gotten it together, I turned to notice her, standing at the door, the almost detached, half-rotten wood, swaying right behind her tiny frame.

She looked around our disheveled structure, a foreign expression sitting on her sweaty face. Suddenly, I became very self conscious. I began to feel embarrassed, and I sat there, dumbly.

Zara was new to this. She wasn't used to this kind of environment, and I shouldn't have brought her here. I swear, I shouldn't.

A minute ago, she had been attacked because of me, and I wondered that, maybe if I'd just found my way around by myself, or if I had called Sena to come pick up, or-

"Since you won't ask me in, I'll let myself in", her dainty voice broke through my bubble and I shot up, gulping dry air.

The building we lived in, slowing being eaten up, coupled with the insane amount of trapped heat had left a particularly stale smell in the room, and I went to wondering if she could smell it. She could. Anyone could.

I cleared my throat, suddenly breaking into a little laughter as I recalled seeing Kudjo limp on the floor just when we were escaping. I was now on the floor, and Zara had occupied my previous position on the rickety sofa.

"A tazer, really?", I asked incredulously.

She stared back at me, eyebrows furrowed.

"What? I hold it in case of incidences... like these." She gestured, referring to what had happened with Dan and his gang a short while ago.

"You're...... quite a different breed, honestly." I admitted, getting comfortable on the floor where I sat.

"People are moving crazy, a girl has to protect herself to-"

She stopped abruptly, jumping out of the chair and taking a few steps back. There was the sound of a cough coming out from behind the partition and I sped back up, suddenly remembering the reason I had come back here.

I had come to see Ma.

It was probably a stupid decision to have come back to the house, seeing it was easily the first place Dan could come back to, but I needed to see my mother badly. I missed her so much.

In no time I was right beside her, pressing a cup of water to her lips and urging her to drink. She pried the object out of my hand and struggled a bit, inching closer to me. I engulfed her in a soft hug.

There was no time for endless talks. I wanted out of this place and I wanted to take her with me. It wasn't like I had somewhere to go, but I was leaving and I was taking Ma along with me.

Zara crouched beside me with narrowed eyes, staring between the both of us.

"Hello ma. Good afternoon, but you don't seem too well." She turned to me, "Whats going on, Black?"

I nodded. She's been quite unwell for a while now. It gets slightly better, then goes back to getting worse. Her temperature is rising as we speak." I confessed.

The worst thing Zara could ever probably find out about me and my despicable life was the fact that I came from the ghetto, and there was no need to hide from her. She was seeing bits of my reality with her own eyes, I just had to suck it up.

Looking around the house one more time with that unreadable expression on her face, she got up. "Hospital."

"What?" I asked.

"We're taking her to the hospital. Like now."

"Actually, I don't have the money -" I tried to explain the entire situation of why we had her at home, but she just cut me off with an irritated chuckle and shoved me aside, making to help Ma up.

"Get out and scan the area for those crazy hooligans we met earlier. Because if they try to stop me again I swear, somebody is going to die. This is your neighborhood. Lead us out of here."

All the while, Ma didn't say a word, but kept her gaze on the side of Zara's face as she spoke to me. She definitely trusted whoever she saw me with, but at the moment, I had to cooperate with my supposed client who was giving orders.

I stepped out to scan the area, but there was no sign of Dan and his boys.

We were good to go.