The Devil Is Right
General Summary
Come on, shoot me!Sweat oozed down my forehead as my vision faded in and out. I stared down at my legs, still furiously trembling after the mile-long sprint from the mercenary camp. I thought to myself, “Is any of this worth it?” as I stood bent over in that dark alley. No, that’s not right. There was one light shining in that alley; I looked up to see the sun beaming down through the cracks in the buildings, gently resting on Arnold’s smiling face. And concealed in the shadows in front of him, pointed at that goofy smile, lie the barrel of the gun. SMACK “AAAooouch!! Why’d ya do thaaaat?” Arnold recoiled from the rap of the gun on his scalp as the wielder masterfully twirled the weapon and holstered it on his side. The man stepped out of the shadows and replied with a smirk. “You think I’m gonna shoot a kid? Pfft, I ain’t that cruel yet.” “But that’s how Cops and Robbers work!” Arnold whined. “We stole some stuff and you’re supposed to shoot us!” “Listen, kid. Cops are heroes, and I ain’t no hero. But this is the third time this month I’ve caught you two raiding our food supply. Gotta knock some sense into ya.” Arnold pouted his cheeks as he massaged his shining head. The man stared at Arnold for a moment before placing his hand on his head and letting out a deep sigh. “Why do you wanna be a robber anyway? I heard you talked to the captain about joining us mercs again. You got guts.” A glint of hope shined in Arnold’s eyes as he stared in awe at the heroic figure in front of him. The man continued. “Having said that, you’re only, what, 13? Ya, still too young to go on missions with us. Like I said, we’re not heroes. But we protect our own no matter what” Finally, the man turned his gaze toward the pathetic, heaving wretch watching everything unfold. “And it looks like you still have some learning to do, kid.”
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Ho ho, we're almost at the good part!
Just stop already. You were never like this before.
What do you mean, Pete? I’ve always tried to help you. We just need to dig a liiiitle deeper into your memo-
And how the fuck is that going to help me!? I don’t need to relive that day again.
Ah ah, temper Pete. I told you what would happen if you denied yourself of the source. Don’t blame the voices in your head, am I right? But think about it, now you’ve got ME to confess to. Now it’s MY turn to help you see the pathetic wretch you truly are.
The others wouldn’t believe me if I said it was talking to me in my sleep Oh here we go, another monologue. A devilish being with curved lips, fiery eyes, a crooked nose, daggered teeth: a stark contrast to it's previous form of pure angelic majesty. At some point, their voice had intertwined with mine in harmony. But I had no choice but to leave the source. And now its morphed into this shrill creature, lingering as a separate entity in my mind, toying with my emotions and prodding at my past mistakes.
Oh no, no, no. What happened to Sam was no mistake. YOU killed her, remember? YOU allowed half of your people to die on this foolish journey. You desperately preach about helping those you love, but you end up hurting them. Again. And Again. And soon, we'll see you abandon the only "friend" you ever had. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. Confess your sins...”
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A cool breeze whisked away our exhaustion as Arnold and I left the alley and sat by a trash can on the sidewalk to survey our surroundings. A typical day in The Roc’s Meat Market greeted us as mercenaries and merchants hustled past each other. Small dens in front of us filled with high-grade weapons and ammo were being appraised by a crowd of scrupulous soldiers for their killing potential. Faint smoke filled our sinuses as a local gunsmith sounded off his newest rifle. Soon, my nose turned elsewhere to the scent of freshly baked buns coming from a stall on our left. My stomach purred as I watch the mercenary from the alley buying an entire bag and slinging it over his shoulder. Likewise, my shoulder felt heavier as well.
“Hey, at least he left us with the food we borrowed,” Arnold said with his hand on my shoulder. In the other, he held out an onion.
“You mean stole?” I replied as I grabbed the offering.
“Ya whatever. Let’s eat!”
It wasn’t the best food, but the mercenaries certainly had plenty of it to go around. When Arnold convinced me to start “borrowing” some of it, I was pretty scared. Mercs aren’t the forgive and forget type of people. We were just lucky to have only been caught once, and by one of the nicer ones no less.
Still, I’m glad we were able to survive that long because of it. There used to be more orphans like us in the Meat Market: Sally, Fish, Klip, Meek. We banded together to do odd jobs around the city, scrounging for whatever cash we could make or find to get food for the day. It was never easy living there, especially when no one cared about you unless you had family or you were in the military. And that’s exactly what happened. Everyone eventually came of age to serve and they took the bait. Everyone except Arnold and me.
I should’ve been out there too, fighting some crazed freaks or guerillas from the east side of town. But I couldn’t do that. I lied about my age for over a year at that point so I could stay with Arnold and protect him from that fate. One more year and he’d be digging his own grave, just like Klip and Meek.
“I’m sorry about earlier, Pete. I should have slowed down for you.”
I looked to see Arnold’s goofy smile from a moment ago swapped with a frown.
“That’s OK, Arny. You don't have to worry about me. Just keep those skinny legs movin!”
I bumped his knee with mine. His smile was contagious. We couldn't help but laugh, sharing one last moment of happiness together.
“Arny, you know you don’t have to join the mercs.”
Arnold cocked his head to the side.
“W-what do you mean? Of course I gotta join them! How else are we gonna get food?”
Arnold’s resistance was expected. I played out that conversation a thousand times over and was ready for every response he could throw at me.
“I mean ya, but what about the others? They all joined up and we haven’t seen them since.”
“Well, they’re probably busy on missions and stuff.”
“But that stuff they do is scary. Even dangerous. They’re fighting wars out there we couldn’t even imagine. For all we know they could be d-“
I stopped myself, but the damage was done. Arnold retreated into a ball with his arms and legs as he wimpered.
“But what else can we do?”
No turning back now.
“We run away.”
Silence. Nothing but dead air permeated the sidewalk around us. I never planned for him to say nothing.
“C-C’mon, Arny. It won’t be so bad! We’ll do like we always do and pick up jobs here and there for food and we can probably find someone who’s willing to take us in for like a day or two and then we-“
“I can’t leave.”
Can’t. Not a no, but not an answer I could accept either.
“Do you even realize what you're saying? News flash: mercs aren't heroes, and they're not invincible. We’d be so much better off out there then training to die in here.”
Arnold broke free from his self-induced prison. He rose like a giant in front of me and spoke as if he had finally grown a pair.
“No, we’re not ‘training to die', we’re training to protect people."
"That's a load of crap and you know it."
"I’m training to protect YOU!”
“AND I’M TRYING TO SAVE YOU!!”
Maybe it was just me, but the Meat Market stood still for a moment. Two boys fighting a shouting match neither of them could win. Two kindred spirits entrenched in their own convictions. A small spark that ignited, then died down, extinguishing a friendship.
We both ended up running away that day. The problem was he knew where to stop, and I didn’t. Miles and miles of bombed out roads and grasping mud and creepy travelers and aching knees and endless thinking. Thinking maybe we could be friends again if I went back and apologized. Thinking maybe I should drag him out of that damned city even if he clawed and begged. Thinking that, once again
I was alone
And it's better off that way.
I like the imagery used in the sentence, “And concealed in the shadows in front of him, pointed at that goofy smile, lie the barrel of the gun.” It’s a good way to introduce a new character and to have it start off from the intro paragraph into the story. I find it interesting how Arnold wants to be included into the danger starting off with, “You’re supposed to shoot us!” There is a well set up interaction between Pete and Arnold that they are protecting each other and how both of their actions affect each other. Pete could be off somewhere but instead lied about his age so he could stay with Arnold so he wouldn’t get himself killed. This hints at the reason why they are together. There is conflict between both of them that arises again at, “I’m training to protect YOU!, AND IM TRYING TO SAVE YOU.” This tied with the next sentence, “A small spark that ignited, then died down, extinguishing a friendship,” contains beautiful imagery that adds to this conflict in a cascading format in order to come to an end. After reading this, I get the tone of how human interaction has changed in the past 50 years in the sense of the apocalypse. In a short period of time, these two boys were close acquaintances to one fleeing further than the other.