A Cold Night [Closed]

It was night time now, Yuri had glanced at the sky a couple times through the bandages he wore over his eyes, he didn't really mind doing this. These were a reason to keep them closed, he didn't look at the fabric directly. His eyes lit people on fire, it was so scary when it happened. He sat on the side of the road, watching people go by. He was at a corner, his top was torn up and you could see the bones of his rib cage. He'd not eaten in a couple days. He could hear the moaning and complaining of his stomach, his hair was a mess. He looked terrible, but besides this. He was able to move very quickly for someone in this shape, surprised most people. Yuri was scared of them, shaking and trembling as each person went by. He seemed to flinch in fear, some fellows had already beat him up. They'd put the boots to him and they hurt alot, something about money they wanted. Yuri was broke and well this was just his lot in life. He wondered about if it would always be this way, homeless and alone.

Keianna was one of those people that seemed to never get frightened of anything. She never showed herself getting excited, hyper, scared, or anything along those lines. This did not mean she was emotionless, or didn't show any actual emotion. She just didn't get like a lot of the other girls did. As a small example of this, if she had a crush on someone, when they came around, she wouldn't get shy or giddy, she'd treat them like they were friends, nothing more. Now, she was walking down a darkened street as the sun went down, taking the light away from the city. Many girls would have been frightened to be alone while walking through the city, but Keianna was not. She merely continued on her way, carrying a single bag of groceries in her left hand. She was about five minutes away from home now, but as she was walking, she noticed something strange. It looked to be a small child, sitting on the street next to the corner of a building. He was dirty, his clothes were torn, and even from this distance, she was able to tell he was not eating right, if at all. She continues forward, walking up toward the child and stopped about five feet behind him.

"What are you doing out here alone?" she asked him in a calm sounding voice, but with a slight sense of authority, "Where are your parents? You shouldn't be out here like this." She stared down at this child, examining him from head to toe. It was obvious that he was alone and didn't have any good clothes, nor was he eating. Yes, the fact that he wasn't eating angered her, although she did not show it. She kept a calm face, looking down towards the boy. She didn't seem emotionless or cold, literally only calm.

He jumped out of his skin almost at the voice, it was so close. He ran forward a bit but was too weak and fell, he attempted to crawl, but he was just to weak at this point. Staying here wasn't any good, he couldn't do it. She was to close, his body was trembling. Parents, he'd never really understood. The ground was cold, some small streams were coming down his eyes. He said only one thing, slightly stuttering do to the massive amount of fear, he was feeling. He turned around, he was shaking like a leaf and seemed absolutely scared out of his mind. His body showed severe bruises at this distance, the boots had left marks along his chest and legs. The female would see them along with the burn marks on his hands tops, like someone had jammed the lighter or bud of something hot into the hands.

"..Sorry, please....Don't hurt me..I am sorry...I didn't know this was someone's home..I'll..I " he was absolutely scared and that sign was clear and easy to see for anyone who looked.

"I think I scared him..." Keianna thought as she watched this frightened child jump out of his skin and attempt to run from her. Seeing the bruises and burns, for a single moment there was anger lit in her eyes like a raging fire, but that calmed down a second later. Back to normal, she stepped towards the extremely weak child and reached out, grabbing onto his already torn shirt. She did not let him go and kept a firm grip. "You're dirty and you need food. You're weak and lacking muscle. Child... where is your family?" Keianna did not know that he was unable to understand the truth concept of family. She had been born and raised into a loving home that took well care of her. Seeing him like this was shocking, although she didn't show it. Still not letting him go, she picked him up by his shirt and set him down on his feet. "You, little one... Need to come with me. We'll get you some food and something decent to wear... After that, I will take you back to your home, okay?" she told him. Her voice was still calm, but there was still a sense of authority and command in it. She wasn't asking him. She was telling him that was going to happen. She didn't want to sound or seem mean. It was truly just who she was. Whether it was shown, seeing a child like this did break her heart.

He didn't move any more, but he flinched as though she'd been the scariest person alive, she may of hit him almost. He was shaking terribly as though he was scared, the words about food never brought his fear down. He watched the female take hold of his clothing, she offered to take him home. So she was gonna bring him back here, he looked down somewhat at the question of a family. Yuri didn't ever really have one, he didn't even know if his parents named him before they put him in the box to pay off a drug deal. The drug dealer never told him much, just that he was a tool and nothing else. Yuri's body was sore and too weak for these things, as it stood this girl could easily pick him up and carry him around as though an infant. He couldn't believe that this scary lady was going to do all this. Why make sure he was fed and clothed just to come back here, she opened his mouth closing it a couple times. Gulping though frightened at whatever outcome would come from it.

"I...ah...I live here...I..have no family..My family..is dead.." Yuri was right on their, as far as he was concerned they were. He was too young and didn't want anything to do with child services ever again.

Keianna loosened her grip slightly when she finally realized that he was shaking. She stared at him, confused about his reactions, but brushed the confusion of. "Hey..." she said as she knelt down next to him, so she was now at eye level, "You need to calm down. I'm not going to hurt you, okay?" she told him, but then he began to speak. As he spoke, she looked him up and down, noticing that he really was bony. There was absolutely no muscle on him. At first it was just a statement, but now she realized she and understated his being weak. She looked back up to him. "You're telling me that you live right here? On this corner? Your family is dead, and some how you are not in an orphanage? What did you do? Did you run away?" She still did not let go of him. She figured that the moment she let go, he was going to try and run away from her. His fear and the fact that he had already tried made her think that way. "Look. I'm taking you with me whether you like it or not. Come on." she said and practically swooped the dirty child up in her arms. It's not like he would be able to fight her in his weakened state anyway, so she was going to force him to come along with her. She began walking away from the area, her house being only a few streets down from there.

It was only a five minute walk and they arrived at her home. The entire thing looked like an old style Japanese home with a wall around it. The gate into the property was huge (about ten feet high) and very heavy, but with all the training this woman went through, she was used to it. She merely kicked her foot forward and pushed the door open about three feet so she could walk in. She walked through a beautifully taken care of courtyard and then up some stone steps. After that, she walked through an outside hallway until she came to a traditional style, Japanese sliding door. She opened it up and stepped inside where she was immediately greeted by two people. The first was her mother, a beautiful woman that she looked a lot alike. The second was the head of the family, not her father. He was a large and muscular man that had a deep voice. Keianna merely bowed to them both and explained to them that the boy in her arms was going to be sleeping there for the night and will be joining her for dinner. Since it was already late, she knew the two of them had already eaten and bowed a polite goodnight. With that, she turned away and walked through another door and into a kitchen. She set him down on a chair and ruffled his hair a bit. "Sit right here and I'll make us something to eat... And do not try to run away again. It's not like you can. You're way too weak and the entire property is surrounded by a ten foot high wall. The gate is locked and if it wasn't, it's over three hundred pounds... You couldn't move it. Just sit.. and I'll take good care of you." With that said, she turned away and began cooking.

Yuri was scared of both the new people, he was trying to say sorry over and over again. But just couldn't make a sound, he was just unable to do it His fear was just to thick for him to do anything, if this had been a situation where someone planned to kill him, he didn't even have time to argue with her. But let's face a 17 year old would easily beat an 8 year old in a fight, he knew it right away. He scared and her telling him to relax made it seem like she didn't understand. He would explain it to her at least the orphanage part. He wouldn't speak another word till they arrived at where ever she was taking him, it didn't matter because again the boy couldn't do anything about it. He was lucky she wasn't like the drug dealer or any of them, he pry smelled a bit. But living on the side of a road and just laying there didn't offer much in bathing rights. Dirty and scummy was the exact description of how he looked. Nothing would change that at all, he looked like scum to some. But to others he was just an innocent child.

"I...I..don't want to be in the orphanage..they..all hated me...and..most of the adults...even then didn't feed...me...so why..should....I..I...I go back to those..people...I..am...bb-better off on my own. " Scared is scared and the boy showed despite explaining why he didn't want to be in such a place, she'd nailed it with the whole he ran away bit perfectly.

He couldn't believe the size of this girls house, why was this rich girl helping him. He didn't know but he was nervous and extremely scared. He spoke stuttering almost in total fear inside that house, he needed to relax a bit. Reaching in his hands shaky, he pulled down the bandages a bit to look at the images on the papers he was holding. It was a note book. The first page was a beautifully drawn picture of the sunset. The child's talent at drawing was evident, it had his name on it and everything. The book that is, the picture almost was alive. One could say that the picture was alive and could very easily come to life just looking at it. The colors used for it were absolutely perfect, the next page was nice as well. A moonlight night above a lack, with several couples and families walking around. He listened carefully for the girl, making sure she didn't get in range of those eyes of his.

The next image on the third page was perhaps one of the more amazing ones that showed the boys gift, he'd drawn what appeared to be a Dragon, the picture wasn't quite done yet though. Some parts were left unfinished.

While listening to this boy stutter horribly about how he was treated, she got a large pot of water ready and began to allow it to boil. After that, she pulled out multiple vegetables, including carrots and celery, and then began chopping them up. She stopped chopping the vegetables and thought to herself about the boys situation. "This kid's been through hell..." she thought, keeping the same calm face that she always has, "I can't let him go back to those people... Especially if they didn't feed him." She set down the knife and leaned her waist on the counter, looking towards the boy with her arms crossed along her chest. She stared at him in silence for a while, which might make him feel a bit awkward and maybe even more scared, but she wasn't going to do anything. While staring at him, something else caught her eye. "Kid... Why do you wear that stuff around your head... It makes you look horrible." she said as she stepped over to him and reached up towards the stuff he had wrapped around his head, "Did you get hurt or something? Let me see. Take it off." she told him as she went to pull the stuff off of him. It was true that he wasn't the cleanest and it was causing a slight smell, but she ignored it. She was likely going to give him one hell of a bath a little later, so it didn't matter.

His hands shot up like lighting bolts grabbing hers, he let go of the book and let it fall open on the table."Don't...please....People get hurt...because..of my eyes.." He said almost yelling it out, but he was too scared to make alot of noise, he wasn't really able to stop her if she did press on, he was trying to keep her hands off his bandages. They were loosened right now, he'd closed his eyes now. Trying to make absolutely sure nothing happened to her, he wasn't sure why this woman wanted to change this much. He was just a child hobo on the street, what was special about that. Why was she so fiercely set on this whole thing. He kept trying to keep her from those bandages, squeezing his eyes tightly. He was scared she would end up burnt and hurt like so many others who dared to look at the boys eyes. They were dangerous and deserved to be covered up forever. Never to be seen again, he did his best to keep it that way. But what would happen now depended on the female, he wasn't willing to hurt her. Some tears fell down his cheeks at the memory of people he'd hurt.

Keianna's hands immediately stopped when he raised his to grab her. She kept them there for a moment and stared at him, noticing that he really was serious about it. "You say your eyes hurt people? What exactly does that mean?" she asked him in a soft voice as she wrapped her fingers gently around his hands and set them down in his lap. This was her way of showing him that she understood and that she would leave him alone. She stepped away from him, awaiting his answer, and moved over to the sink. She washed her hands, knowing that he wasn't exactly the cleanest child right now, so cooking after her had touched her was not the best of ideas. So, after he explained to her what exactly he meant, she had an idea. "Hey Mom!" she called out and stepped towards the door. "Yes, dear?" she heard her mother call out. "Do you think you can do me a favor and finish the food while I give the boy a bath? He's been on the streets for a while, so I don't want him staying dirty and in those clothes!" she asked. It was silent for a moment and she knew that her Mother was talking to the Head of the Family. After a moment, her mother came into the kitchen and answered, "Sure hun. We've got a few t-shirts that the boy can wear in the hall closet. They're in a bin at the bottom. Make sure to give him some clean clothes. Go clean him up and dinner will be ready when you return." Keianna smiled and nodded, giving her Mom a gentle hug as a thank you. Keianna was the one out so late, so for her Mom to cook an extra dinner was definitely more than she usually asked.

With that said, Keianna picked up the boy and walked him out of the kitchen down the hall and into another room. This room was the bathroom. "All right..." she said as she sat him down on the counter. She gently helped him take off his clothes, although if he decided to fight she was going to force him to. Once his clothes were off, she turned to the bath, plugged up the drain, and turned the water to warm. "Stay here. I don't want you bumping into anything in the house because you keep those things over your eyes... You'll end up getting hurt. I'm going to go get those clothes for you..." with that, she turned away and walked out, taking his old clothes with her, and leaving the boy there as the water was filling up for his bath.