Avalanche shrugged.
“I knew he was there; he just doesn’t pose any threat. Didn’t seem worth mentioning.”
The guy’s beady eyes jumped between the two of us.
“Wallets! Now!”
I held up my hand—universal sign for wait your turn—and focused on Avalanche.
“Are you going to do something?”
“Naw, you got this.”
“Un-fucking-believable. What was the point of walking me home if you’re just going stand there and be useless?”
“Ouch.” He held a hand over his heart. “I’m here as back up, but I have the utmost faith that you can handle this guy. You don’t need me to save you, you got this.”
Okay, I was in love. Hemlock who?
“Are you fucking deaf? Give me your wallet, bitch.”
“Watch your fucking mouth.” Avalanche’s tone turned deadly.
Fuck me. I was going need an ice bath to cool down after that.
Crackhead McGee decided he was done waiting and took a swing at me. I ducked, then grabbed his hand at the end of his swing so he didn’t hit Avalanche—who didn’t even flinch. I brought my left elbow down on the tendon between his bicep and triceps then dropped my hand on the same spot while I swept his legs out from under him, putting him face-first on the sidewalk. He cried out, letting the knife fall when I kneeled on his shoulder.
“See, told you.”
I looked up to find Avalanche grinning at me.
“Whatever. So you going to hang out while I call the cops or you want to take off first?”
The guy started crying, begging me not to call. Most of what he said was incoherent, but from the bits and pieces I picked up, he sounded terrified.
“Please, please no police. I’m sorry. So sorry. It’s been hard. They… Bad there. Please. I can’t go back. Drugs— Make it stop. Only thing—please.”
“Whoa, whoa. Hey, okay, no cops. Take a breath.”
I released the pressure on his shoulder. He was hyperventilating, trying to gulp down air while tears streamed down his face.
“Don’t send me back. I can’t go back. Please.”
“No one is sending you anywhere. Take a deep breath. In through your nose, out through your mouth, just like me.” I did it with him, kneeling beside him so he could sit up. We sat there, breathing for a minute until he calmed down. “There you go. You got it, just like that.”
He thanked me about a hundred times before he apologized. “I’m sorry I called you a bitch and that I tried to steal your wallet. You… You’re kind. I shouldn’t have done that. But I need to get out. Out of this place. It’s evil. They’re all evil.”
“It’s okay buddy. We’re all having a rough go.”
“No, you don’t understand! They do things to people like me. They take us and they experiment. It wasn’t an accident; nothing was an accident. They meant to do it. Theymeantit.” He was making absolutely no sense and getting agitated again.
“A train ticket to Thunder Bay is about fifty bucks right?” I grabbed my wallet from the inside pocket of my jacket and pulled out seventy. “Here’s a little extra. Head to the train station, get something to eat and something to drink. Sober up a bit, okay?”
He burst into tears. “Thank you. Thank you,” he sobbed.
“Don’t mention it.”
“You are a beautiful person. You should run, too. This place… It’s not safe. You should run and never look back.”
