Two: Blonds, Burdens, and Distress

The journey begins.....

Waiting for the blond idiot was like waiting for death...slow and exceptionally torturous. Lilith could count on all ten fingers and toes the amount of times she'd almost, almost plucked every hair on her head. She'd paced the room, tried to get out(to which she noted very quickly that the door was locked from the outside), and almost punched a hole in the wall to keep herself from descending into early insanity. She had taken the money pouch and emptied it on the small table, plopped down on her bed and placed the pouch over her head. She was just getting ready to pull the strings tight around her neck when heavy footsteps reached her ears.

That made her just pull them faster.

 

She heard the door swing open, and the next thing she knew the pouch was being ripped away from her, and a very angry Dee stood not two feet away. His cheeks were red and she swore she saw steam shoot out his ears.

 

"What. Are. You. Doing?" he hissed.

She tried to give him the most innocent look she could muster, the one she usually used with her mother when she knew she was in trouble. She looked at the pouch longingly before smiling sweetly at him. "Amusing myself."

 

He exhaled slowly, perhaps debating whether or not to cart her off outside. "May I ask why? You couldn't find something else to do, but this?" He raised the pouch and shook it like a ragged doll to emphasize his words.

 

Lilith stuck out her bottom lip and folded her legs. "I did! I tried everything! But nothing worked, and incase you didn't know, I'm thirteen! I'm a kid Dee, I need constant amusement! You're not allowed to leave me un supervised." she told him.

 

He smacked his lips and threw the pouch back on the table, rolling his eyes when he next looked at her. "I ain't no damn babysitter, so if that's what you want, get the hell out. Other than that, we're leaving."

 

"But--"

"No buts princess, get the marks and let's go. The faster I get rid of v.o.i.c.e. the faster I get rid of you." he sounded irritated.

 

"Glad to know I'm loved." she muttered under her breath, but did as she was told.

She stomped to the table and wrenched open the small bag, drowning out the noisy clink the marks made as they fell into place inside. She pulled the strings shut when she was finished, and looked to Dee, waiting for some type of signal from him. He walked out the door and motioned for her to follow him as well.

 

The narrow hallway was dimly lit with two, very small fire lamps perched on either side of the wall, and at once she wanted to ask Dee why he didn't have regular lights instead. Was he that cheap? Or just tight on money? Regardless of what the reason, she kept her mouth shut. The last thing she really wanted to do right now, was invoke that psychotic anger of his...again.

 

They climbed a flight of steps, weaved through another hallway, went through an archway, only to end up in the room she had stormed out of days prior. It still looked the same as it did then, nothing had changed, not even the positioning of the table. Dee stopped for a moment to survey the room, then continued on his way as if nothing was out of the ordinary. They both walked out, Dee shutting the door once she was out his dingy house. He then bent and grabbed hold of something, turning and holding out his hand. "Here."

 

A large, dark bag stuffed all the way to the top to the point where it looked like small boxes were protruding from inside was jabbed in front of her face.

"Huh...what am I supposed to do with this?" she asked.

 

"Wear it. What else?" he looked at her as if she'd gone crazy, and stepped closer towards the teen, making her take a few steps back in retaliation.

 

"It's hideous." Lilith said.

He rolled his eyes. "It ain't no fashion statement princess, it's what you'll be doing from now on. Carrying all my stuff, cooking my meals, looking after me, getting all my errands done. You're my assistant, and that's what you'll be doing." he explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 

Lilith blinked at him and felt quite stupid doing so, and made it a point to glare at the bag, then at the man himself.

He cracked a grin at her response.

 

"Oh yes, you will carry the bag. If you don't..." he left the words unsaid, and she swallowed thickly, all sorts of scenarios about the thousand and one ways in which he could kill and hide her body coming to mind. Hesitantly, she reached out her bony arms and grabbed hold of the bag's straps, grunting in more than just pain when the thing slipped out of her grasp and landed on the ground with a heavy thud, taking her with it. The smack of lips brought her back to reality, and she jumped off the the ground and pointed to the bag, looking at Dee in horror. "Just what the hell's in there?"

 

He shrugged. "Junk we'll need on the way. That is of course, unless you wanna starve?"

She was quiet for a moment. He did have a point. Part of her relented, the man did seem to be thinking far, far ahead of her, so she guessed she had to give him credit where it was due.

 

Lilith reached out and curled her fingers around the straps once more, pulling at it with great difficulty.

Dee rolled his eyes again, and hoisted the infernal thing with just one hand, holding out the straps so that she could push her arms through. As soon as he let go of the bag, however...

 

She went sailing to the ground again.

"Just...just what do you have in here again?" there was a clear pain in her voice that Dee, apparently, seemed to like. Because as soon as the words were out of her mouth, he smirked in pure satisfaction. He didn't answer her right away, and instead moved back a few paces to admire his handy work.

 

This man is such a psychopath.

 

It felt like there was nothing but iron and ore stashed in every nook and cranny of the bag, and there was the sensation of being poked by something sharp and smooth against the small of her back, making her rethink just about everything she'd learned about Dee up until that point.

 

Her shoulders were already tired, and their journey had not yet begun, and she couldn't even move to get up to wipe that stupid look off Dee's face.

How she hated him that very moment.

 

His smirk, if possible, widened exponentially to the point where she thought the sun would peek out from behind his lips and blind her into oblivion.

"My weapons."

At her silent stare, he continued. "Ya know, guns, bullets, knives, grenades. The works. Don't wanna get killed, do ya?" He explained and walked off.

 

Lilith didn't immediately follow. The realization of exactly what that man had her carrying was slowly sinking into the recesses of her brain, and she really couldn't move after she'd comprehended it all. A shiver raced down her spine, and prickled uncomfortably as it reached the bottom. It reminded her of a dog nipping in displeasure at the actions of it's owner--it was on one of those strange slides her mother called "Earth's lost History" that she made her watch once when she was nine years old, and the feeling of displeasure spiked the longer she kept thinking about it. Didn't that man know that she could...that she could die carrying all this stuff? He was really either too stupid to allow a child to carry all his most precious junk--his weaponry--or a really sadistic man at heart. Three guesses for which category Lilith knew he fell under...

 

Her steps were slow and full of nothing but pain, and with each and every step she took, new curse words she didn't know existed before today flew out her mouth, all directed at the blond sadist that was now, in her employment and her in his, so to speak.

 

"Hurry up kid! We don't have all day!" his voice boomed from beyond. She gritted her teeth and tried to speed up, but eventually gave up and resumed her normal pace. That idiot would just have to get used to it.

 

The inherent darkness now settling upon the town of Mar Pol was...to say the least, very unnerving. Her ears twitched with every stray noise, whether it was the rustling of leaves, or the wet slop of mud beneath her feet. It didn't help matters too, that Dee was so far ahead of her, and was not looking behind him to ensure that she was still alive. She betted that she could drop from exhaustion that exact moment, and he would never know.

 

"Dee." she whined.

He didn't pay her any attention. His hands were practically glued to his pockets, and he was whistling some tune that was quickly grating on her nerves.

 

"Dee!." Lilith called more firmly.

He still didn't look back. She stopped, and stomped her foot, opening her mouth in a yell.

 

"Hey! blond troll in front of me!" Satisfaction reigned supreme for all but two seconds, then Dee was in front of her, his ice cold eyes blazing like a bonfire on a cold winters night. He wrapped one hand around her arm, and plastered the other over her mouth.

 

"Shut up." his voice was a mere whisper, but deadly, and had her biting her tongue to keep from talking. He took his eyes off Lilith and glanced around the dreary clearing, narrowing them in contemplation. He then turned and started power walking, the hand that was on her arm dragging her along with him. His strides were fast and long, and she was struggling vehemently to keep up with him.

 

"Will..will you slow down? You're hurting me." She tried to wrench her arm out of his hold, but he tightened his grip and walked faster. Her feet buckled under her and she was sinking to the ground fast, but a pair of warm arms snaked around her midsection, and pulled her upwards before she could kiss the earth. No words escaped his lips even as he kept walking with her dangling from his arm like stray piece of string. With the heavy pack still on her back and her in his arms, how was he still able to keep going?

 

"Dee?" Lilith asked in a whisper.

 

He didn't look at her, but she could tell that he was listening when he tightened his grip on her torso. "What kind of drugs do you take? Because you're really strong."

 

The corner of his lips twitched ever so slightly and those icy orbs glanced down at her quickly before fixating on the road again. "It's not drugs pinky. Just really good DNA."

"Huh?" Just what did he mean by that? Lilith tried to prod him again to get some kind of answer, the man stopped suddenly and started ignoring her.

 

No longer were they on the road, apparently while she was talking and generally not paying any attention to the scenery that passed them by, Dee had made a beeline towards some sort of building.

 

A grime covered, vine littered brick wall stared right back at her, and as she switched her gaze to Dee, she found him looking at the wall as if it was a rare piece of meat. He raked his hand across the surface, and she cringed. All that mucky muck was coming right off the wall, but was now glued to Dee's hand like a second skin. He brought that same towards her and she tried to fly out his arms, but his hold was too tight.

 

"Get that stinky hand away from me!"

He chuckled deeply as if it was the funniest thing on Neo , then wiped his hand on his pant pocket, and gave her a sly grin. "Least you're paying attention kiddie." he stopped teasing her and gazed back at the wall that, now had some sort of strangely engraved symbol etched onto the brick.

 

"What is that?" she asked softly.

He took his hand off the symbol and adjusted her in his arms before taking off again, stalking around to the side of the building.

 

"Hey, answer me."

"It's our ticket out of this dump." was his reply.

"What do you mean? How's that thing gonna help us?"

 

Lilith heard him sigh loudly before walking to the front of the building. The vines still covered the expanse of the tall brick structure, overlapping in countless circles and branching out in several different directions to make up for the lack of decor.Even though she was in his arms, she couldn't help but to inch just that bit much closer to him and swallow the small lump that gathered in her throat. She couldn't help it, this place...it was giving her the creeps. There was something inside this building, something that didn't feel all that good, and it was scaring her.

 

Of course, the darkness usually scared her as well, but she'll never let Dee know that...

"Beauty ain't she?" Dee remarked and took small, almost tentative steps towards the creep-house.

 

"Beauty? It's hideous!" she licked her lips. "Dee, why are we here?" She asked him, gripping the arm around her like it was her last lifeline. Dee didn't spare her any glances and instead nudged the hole covered doors open with his foot, the heavy doors creaking unattractively against the floor before they fell off the hinges and crashed to the ground.

 

Dee and Lilith both cringed.

"Well, I'm sure all of Neo now knows where we are." he said dryly, and she couldn't help but to agree. He let her down as soon as they stepped over the entrance doors, and steadied her as she almost went sailing to the ground. For an instant there she'd forgotten how heavy a burden this bag onher shoulders was, at least until he put her back on my feet. The full weight of the bundle came baring down on her shoulders, and she bit down on her bottom lip and sent a pleading look to Dee to relieve her of her burden.

 

He rolled his eyes and took off, leaving Lilith standing in the doorway.

"C'mon little princess, stay close to me. Wouldn't want any accidents now would we"

She gritted her teeth and curled her fingers tightly around the shoulder straps. "There wouldn't be any accidents if you'd answer me every once in a while." She glared at his back, trying desperately to keep with his long strides.

 

He stopped suddenly and turned to her, one eyebrow raised. "Are all kids like this?"

"Like what?"

"Talkative. That's all you've been doing since I've met you. Talk, talk, talk. It's like you ate a full grown parrot for breakfast!"

 

Lilith stared at him wide eyed, the urge to knock his brains into next week tightening within the pits of her stomach. The man had some nerve!

 

"I hate you so much right now!" she whispered, though her voice was laced with plenty heat. She wanted nothing more than to hit the older man and put him in his place, but she knew better. She was a child, and he was an adult. He would murder her without a second thought.

 

He snorted at her words and turned from her, "Loads of people do, princess. Join the club." He said evenly, glancing around the decrepid place. She felt guilty for about a split second, saying such a thing to a man that was going to help her bring down her mother's killers, but then put it out her mind and concentrated on the building and the heightened level of creepy-ness that chilled like an icicle in her stomach.

 

What few windows the building had was now barred with layers and layers of wood, and the only light that filtered into the room were a few stray rays of the setting sun. Dee pushed further in, passing under an archway that was decorated by long, thick spider webs and heaps of dead bugs that met their sticky end in the beautifully crafted silk.

 

She trained her eyes on the web as he passed and gulped soundly as eight long, hairy legs creeped out from behind the archway to perch itself just above the web.

 

"D...Dee?"

 

No answer. Lilith took her eyes off the small monster to find him gone. Panic welled inside her. She took a step forward, but sudden movement from the spider stopped her from going any further. She backed away slowly, not even daring to blink incase the spider made another sudden move. It was roughly the size of her hand, and though she couldn't see it's eyes, she knew that all eight of those beady orbs were watching her form like a hawk. Her eyes darted from the archway to the spider, and she made a sudden run to get to the other side. The spider jumped as she moved, and instead of running through a hollow hallway like she was expecting, her face met with with a pair of enlarge pinscers that clapped together menacingly, and a low, dangerous hiss with emitted from a now gigantic, hairy, spider.

 

Eight large crimson eyes glowed bright and feasted upon her small form like she was the biggest fly to enter into the domain(which she was sure she was) and eight largened, clawed legs twitched simultaneously as she continued to take in the shere size of the monster.

 

Lilith turned and ran as fast as she could with the iron infested bag on her back and sank to the ground immediately after. The wind was knocked right out her stomach as the gigantic bag sandwiched her between the floor, and she opened her mouth in a silent scream as something infinitely heavier than the very bag Dee stuck her with pressed down on her shoulder. She heard her bones crunch and turn as they were cracked and compressed far more into her body than they were supposed to go.

 

Bang! Bang! Bang!

 

Three shots rang out in the air, then the weight was lifted off her shoulders. She rasped for breath as dirt and debris forced it's way into her lungs, and the rimy ground was ice cold against her pale face.

 

"Hey kid, you alright?" She'd never been more relieved in all her thirteen years of living to hear that deep, cocky voice and know precisely who it belonged to.

 

Lilith coughed and tried to move. Her hands were shaky and weak as she pushed up on her elbows.

 

"D...do I l...look okay to you?" the words that came out were broken and stuttered and her voice was hoarse, as if she'd been screaming all night long. Her legs refused to work and the bag on her back was certainly not making things any better.

 

Heavy footsteps creaked on the floor and she looked up, catching a glimpse of bright blond hair. A squeal of surprise left her lips as she was hoisted, suddenly off the ground and into a warm pair of sturdy hands, and as she glared at the blue eyed devil she'd already come to despise so much, he grinned, showing all thirty-two of his pearly whites.

 

"Need a lift, sweetheart?"

The dark-haired child smiled sweetly. "No, I don't. I can walk just find on my own. It's not like there's anything wrong with me, or my legs, just that I have to wear a mountain for a bag and a giant arachnid just tried to send me to an early grave." tried as she might, she couldn't leave the sarcasm out of her voice. Dee's grin widened and he blinked innocently at her.

 

"Okay." he said, retreating the arms that was holding Lilith abover her doom.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry!" she said quickly and latched unto his shirt as if it was her last lifeline. She felt his strong arms tighten back around her and breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he didn't drop her after all. She didn't think she would be able to move if he did. And there was simply no telling how much more of those....monstrous spiders there was lurking around this place.

 

"Good. Don't complain next time."

"I wouldn't be complaining if you'd just came when I called you." her fingers gripped his marron trench coat tighter, and he stopped suddenly.

"Why didn't you come?" she asked softly.

 

"I tried." he said, barely glancing at the teen before he trained his eyes on the desolate town in front of them. Lilith looked around, noting that they were in the middle of a series of abandoned buildings at the time of night where pretty much anything could happen. The moon was now inching prominently in the dark sky, only disapearing behind a curtain of clouds when it was necessary. A gentle wind blew aroudn them, raising dust particles to clamber in the air.

 

"What do you mena you tried?" she asked carefully.

 

Dee's expression remained unchanged, but he did spare her a short glance. His blue eyes examined her for quite sometime befoer he replied. "Just that. I tried. There was...an interference that kept my attention."

 

"Interference?"

"Yeah." he replied. He looked away quickly and set her on the ground in front of him, then reached behind his back and slowly pulled a gun.

"Stay behind me." It wasn't a request, it was a command.

 

She did as he told her, her hands tightening around the bag strags as her knees bobbed together in grim anticipation of what Dee was about to do.

...of which she had no idea.

 

She couldn't see his gace to gauge his emotions, not that she thought she could read them all too clearly in what little light there was, but his back was straight and his shoulders looked at a bit tense. He tightened his grip on the gun and pointed in frontn of him quicker than she could blink.

 

There was a buzzing that vibrated from the building they just came out of, and it traveled to their location like a swarm of angry bees. The buzz kept growing in sheer volume, and Dee's hand tightened even more around the gun.

"Whatever you do pinky," he warned, "stay close to me."

 

Lilith nodded her head even though she knew he couldn't see it, and clasped her hands in front of her to stop them from trembling out of control. She swallowed thickly and bit her tongue in order not to qustion Dee as to what he thought was coming. From the harsh grip on the gun and the stiffness in his shoulders, she could only concludethat whatever was heading their way, was anything but good.

 

Suddenly the buzzing stopped, and, she peered around Dee's back, momentarily disregarding his plea for her to stay beind him, to stare in the same direction as he. She squinted her eyes in the stray light, and saw nothing. Nothing at all.

 

"I don't see anything."

 

Dee turned quickly. "I told you to--" he started to say angrily, but stopped in mid sentence, his eyes widening slowly as he stared at her. "Don't move." he said slowly.

 

Lilith immediately stiffened as the blond man spoke, and a bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face to soak down into the collar of her shirt. Her palms felt like heavy raindrops against a window pane as they suddenly slide down her sides in an effort for her to clear her sweaty meats of their nervousness. The hairs on the back of her neck slowly rose to attention, and a prickly feeling traveled up her spine. She saw, from the corner of her eye, something gray and hairy as it pined up her shoulder to settle gently next to the collar of her shirt. She took long, deep, harsh breaths as she tried to desperately to keep from descending into early heart failure, and slowly Dee turned his gun on the teen.

 

"What...what are you doing?" she asked quickly with a hitch in her voice. Her eyes darted from the spider perched merrily on her shoulder, to the metallic object she knew would bring about her demise, to the blond Bounty Hunter.

 

"Whaddya want me to do? Leave it there?"

"Flick it off!"

"I can't." he said, "If that thing touches even one of us, we're doomed."

In spite of having an eight legged monster resting on her shoulder, she blinked at him and swallowed her fear. "I don't understand." she stated softly and furrowed her brows. "It's just a spider."

"Then why are you so scared?" he questioned.

"Because it's on me!" she exclaimed loudly, and promptly closed her mouth when there was a sliver of moment from the hairy beast.

 

Dee rolled his eyes and gazed at the spider as if trying to gauge whether or not it will move any further, and he continued as it settled down. "I ain't touching it, pinky, cause it ain't no normal spider. It's a classifed beast, it's eyes are red." he explained, then looked at her. "Did you forget so quickly bout the one that attacked you in the building?"

 

Lilith shook her head from side to side.

"Good. Because this one's no different. It's a B.A.--Beastial Arachnid."

 

The thirteen year old blinked at him several times before she opened her mouth. "Should I know what that means?"

 

The gun slackened in his hand as he looked at her, and a look of disbelief stretched across his features. "Your..mother, did she ever, teach you about," he smiles sadistically, "the dangers of our world?"

 

"No." she licked her lips. "This--this is my first itme outside. Ever."

"Great," he muttered, "Just great. I get stuck with the one kid that don't know crap about Neo."

 

She bit her lip and clenched her fists at her side, feeling quite insulted. It wasn't her fault that Sofiya Karter didn't want her roaming outside, nor is it her fault that she had no knowledge about what lied out there. Her mother always said that she wanted to keep her pure and untainted from the dangers of Neo, and up until she died, Lilith thought she did just that.

 

"I'm sorry I--ow!" her rant was cut short when she felt a sting at her ankle. She looked down quickly and shook her leg, the fear hidden at the pits of her stomach flocking back to life when a spider, almost identical to the one sitting atop her shoulder, jumped off her leg and began to circle around her. Soon the beast at her collar leaped off as well and joined the other in it's circular trek, all sixteen of their legs moving at a furious pace.

 

She grimaced at the pain and shoot a quick glance to Dee. He tucked the gun behind him and reached out to grab Lilith, but the ground beneath her quakes and suddenly she was crumbling down into the dirt.