CHAPTER TWO

May browses the convenience store shelves with a childlike ease, slim little finger tracing thoughtfully over the brightly packaged treats full of cavity-inducing goodness. She then slides over to the drink fridges and gets a Red Bull.

“Those are bad for you,” Daniel mutters over by the magazines.

“So is killing people,” May smiles back, and brings her stocked basket to the confused cashier.

--

They sit on a blanket under a tree. The grass and air are cool and clear at night, the wind is just a soft breeze.

“You used to be afraid of the dark,” Daniel observes, sitting snugly against the rough trunk and looking out at the deserted park. May rolls onto her stomach and works away at a banana.

“Mmhmm,” she agrees, mouth full of mush. She swallows with some difficulty. “Not now! You’re the bogeyman, I’m not scared of you.”

“No?” Daniel asks, raising his eyebrow.

“Well, the one time,” May admits humbly.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I don’t suppose you didn’t mean to whale on that guy six ways to Sunday either?”

Daniel shrugs.

--

His eyes are bloodshot. Sweat slithers down his back, tickling his skin. His front is layered with the filthy remains of his victim’s face, first pounded by fists then blown out with a gun.

“Shit!” May breathes, plastered to the brick wall. Daniel grabs her and runs, runs until May wails in protest for her weak legs, until he’s dragged her so far that she collapses, until they have to huddle in another alley far away before either can catch their breath and Daniel can find the nearest safe haven, the back of a bar.

May cries herself to sleep in a corner, shocked. Daniel keeps his head in the sink until he falls to the floor, spluttering.

--

It’s all awkward fumbles- wet gasps, blind gropes in the dark, up against a bathroom wall or on a floor, rough and tumble and quick, lithe sweaty limbs all tangled up with one another. May is embarrassed but giggling, affectionate in her innocence. Daniel feels like a lecher every time but doesn’t stop.

--

Bemused eyebrows greet Daniel when he finally emerges for a drink.

“Whoa there, Dan, didn’t know you liked ‘em so young,” a man snickers into his whiskey. Daniel ignores him, too tired.

May slips awkwardly up to the counter with him, worried about being underage but then finally figuring that she has killed a man, afterall- she can get a lemonade at least, if she wishes.

Daniel orders it for her, knowingly, and May blushes.

--

Frost decorates the decrepit, ugly buildings, masking their graffiti and age. A bluster picks up on the cracked sidewalk, chilling May’s legs through her wool tights.

“Where are we going?” she asks in a subdued voice, depressed by all-too-familiar surroundings.

“I know a guy,” Daniel offers mysteriously. May clings to him, shivering, as they walk down the street. Daniel acknowledges a pair of shady eyes lurking in a corner. Shit.

--

May bounces around in her borrowed coat as Daniel uses a payphone.

“You need a job?” the voice grumbles.

“Up north.”

“Way up north?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, you overdue for a visit with your sis?”

Daniel sighs. It’s annoying how much these guys know.

“And who’s that pretty little thing you’re dragging around with you-”

“D’you have anything for me or not?” Daniel growls.

The voice laughs. May frowns mournfully.

--

“Who’s following us?” May whispers on the subway.

“I don’t know,” Daniel mutters.

“Would somebody come to knock you off?”

“Probably. It’s happened before.”

“Would they come for me too?”

“To keep you quiet, sure.”

May squirms.

--

May is very uncomfortable.

People stare at her. Innocent or grouchy glance alike peel at her skin. She thinks they all know, they all see her for a slut, every gaze is admonishing her for fooling around with Daniel- she doesn’t know when that even started. Eleven years now, she’s known him, actually been in his company, always grasping for his reserved affections and never knowing that her immature, innocent ways would seem strange and increasingly inappropriate. She doesn’t know better, never had- she is always comfortable around him, trusts him completely- and that’s wrong, everybody knows it and sees it.

May bows her head against Daniel’s strong arm, embarrassed.

Daniel looks at her, perplexed- shit. He has taken it too far. Couldn’t he content himself with a whore instead of messing with this little girl?

Too late. Oh well.

--

“Huh, I’d be in science right now,” May yawns, looking at a watch tossed on the floor. She has an extraordinary ability to completely wreck a room and then clear it again in the blink of an eye- right now, her meagre possessions are strewn everywhere.

Daniel leans against the wall of the spare room in an associate’s apartment that they are commandeering for the day.

“You should be in school,” he admits heavily.

“I could just drop out,” May says wistfully. “I wasn’t any good. I only have a year left anyway…”

“Exactly why you should go back.”

“Why’d you bring me along if you just wanna send me back now?” May sits up.

“I don’t know, but I shouldn’t have started this,” Daniel says gruffly. May looks horrified.

“Danny, what the hell? You can’t- no, don’t send me back! I-I’m with you now, you can’t-”

Gangly and childlike, she darts haphazardly over to his side of the room and begs him, holds his unshaven face in her small hands, terrified that she’ll be abandoned.

Daniel’s mind flies. Finally he takes her hands and sets them down.

“Fine, call your school. We’re going to see my sister.”