Helios Beginnings (The Helios Chronicles #0.5) (6 page)

“What kind of pictures do you like?” Andrew asked.

The boy was quiet. He looked to his mother for guidance. She glanced at Andrew, assessing his level of dangerousness. He still looked like a boy to her, a boy with sad eyes. She wondered how long he had been on the streets. She smiled at her son who was watching her expectantly.

“Go ahead, Miquel. You can tell the man.”

“I like Spiderman,” he said turning to Andrew. “Do you know who that is?”

Andrew smiled slightly and nodded. He remembered that in one of his placements his roommate used to read the comic books all the time. Andrew had teased him about it but in truth he had read them late at night when he couldn’t sleep.

“Do you have any pictures of him?” The boy asked.

“No, I don’t.”

“Oh, what do you have?”

Andrew shook his head. “Nothing, I haven’t drawn anything yet.”

“Miquel, that’s enough. Stop bothering him.”

Miquel nodded at his mother and turned to face her. They talked softly to one another while Andrew watched, envious of their interaction. He turned back to his sketchpad and started drawing. It wasn’t long before the lights were turned off indicating it was time to sleep. Andrew lay awake for some time, listening to the rain fall outside, until it’s gentle cadence finally lulled him to sleep.

“It’s okay, little man. Hang in there, help’s on the way.”

Andrew woke up abruptly. His hand flew to his chest where he felt the bump on his skin and underneath that, the rapid beat of heart. His shirt was soaked in sweat, which indicated he had been having a nightmare. He reached for his bag under his pillow and pulled out a dry shirt. He listened closely to see if it was still raining outside; he didn’t hear anything. That was good because he needed to get out of there. He took his wet shirt off, not wanting to go outside in the cold with it on. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Miquel’s mother watching him.

“Be safe,” was all she said before she laid her hand over her son and went back to sleep.

He nodded slightly and shoved his wet shirt in the front pocket and then pulled his sketchpad out. He opened it and tore off a sheet of paper. He placed the drawing he had worked on all night underneath Miquel’s hand before he threw his backpack on. He quietly strode through the sleeping area until he got to the door.

“Once you leave you can’t come back inside,” the night personnel informed.

“I know. I’m not coming back,” Andrew replied, his hand wrapped tightly around his arm.

Many hours later, Miquel stirred in his sleep and felt something unusual under his hand. He opened his eyes and found that there was a piece of paper there. He smiled widely when he saw what appeared to be a drawn comic book strip that filled the page. It told the story of a mother and boy who were rescued by the famous web-slinger and then showed them eating dinner in a big house with the word ‘Home’ scrawled above the outside door. At the bottom corner of the page it had the initials AH.

“Mama, look,” he said nudging her awake.

Helios, Age 22

Andrew had given up on finding work or a permanent place to stay. He would often crash at a few places here and there, and had utilized the shelter on various occasions. Unfortunately though, the last time he had gone to the shelter, one of its staff members had offered him ‘help’, which he promptly rejected. As a result, he hadn’t been back since. His last ‘encounter’ a few months ago had produced a lot of cash for him as the woman had just been to the bank and had some nice jewelry that he was able to pawn. It had proven to be an effective haul for him and as such, he didn’t have to worry too much because that particular score had set him up for a while. In fact, he still had some cash left but not a lot so he knew he would need to get his act in gear.

The sleazy motel that Andrew was currently in was not the least bit sanitary. Andrew walked inside the room, glancing at the crumpled, worn out comforter on the bed. He started to set his bag on the floor until he spotted the rat droppings near the crack running along the front wall. He closed his eyes tightly, fighting the urge to turn around and leave. Instead he shut the door and flipped the latch to lock it. He’d used this motel once before and under normal circumstances would not be here again, however, he was in desperate need of a shower and shave, and this was the cheapest place around. After all, he would not be able to coax sex out of someone with money looking the way he did at the moment. His whole body cringed at the thought of what he would need to do. He despised himself every time he pulled one of the scams, every time he used sex to get money. But there wasn’t any legitimate work out there for someone like Andrew, so he did what he had to do to survive.

With a heavy sigh, he placed his backpack on the table and dug out some semi clean clothes to change in to. He then grabbed the Thrifty bag and headed into the bathroom, which if at all possible was more disgusting than the main room. He tried not to look at the stains around the sink or the ring, of what he presumed was mildew, around the shower-head. He pulled out the scissors and razor from the bag along with the little tube of toothpaste and its accompanying toothbrush. He took a deep breath and stared at himself in the mirror.

“You’re fucking pathetic!” his reflection said with loathing.

Andrew frowned at himself, not recognizing the man looking back at him. The haze, caused by his frequent drug use, dimmed his normal, mesmerizing green eyes. His hand touched his hollowed out cheeks under all the hair on his face. He looked like he should be on some mountain far away from civilization. His eyes shifted to his hair. He hadn’t been able to wash it in a very long time, so it was somewhat knotted. He roughly ran his fingers through it, trying to break up the knots as a few tears slowly rolled down his cheek.

“Why the fuck am I even alive anymore?” he mumbled to himself.

“Just do it! No one will miss a loser like you,” his reflection replied, egging him on.

Andrew’s eyes immediately focused on the razor on the counter, briefly wondering why he shouldn’t end it all right now. He shook his head slightly, trying to rid himself of that thought. He carefully wiped his tears away and picked up the scissors. He started cutting away at his beard knowing he wouldn’t be able to shave with the amount of growth he had. Once he was done with that he picked up the little bar of motel soap and started lathering his face up, bringing the razor to his jaw. His reflection was eyeing him warily. Andrew took another deep breath and started to shave. When he was done, he brought the scissors to his hair and started to trim the excess length so that it would be more manageable.

“Go ahead, Andrew. What are you waiting for?” his reflection mocked again, eyeing the razor on the counter.

Andrew glanced down and picked it up, smashing it against the sink and pulling out the blade. His hand trembled and the tears started to flow again. He swiped them away angrily before bringing his shaking hand to his wrist. The tip of the blade touched his skin and a small drop of blood bloomed underneath it.

“DO IT! COWARD!” his reflection screamed.

“Shut the fuck up!” Andrew yelled as the blade dropped from his hand.

Andrew drew his fist back and in a fit of rage he punched the mirror. Glass scattered in the sink and just as he was about to punch it again, he saw something that was impossible. It was a shadow, a figure of someone behind him and that slight hesitation slowed the impact of his second punch. He turned quickly, thinking someone was in the room with him, but there was no one there. Andrew looked at his hand and saw that there was blood dripping from his knuckles. He groaned in frustration as he wrapped it in one of the dirty motel hand towels before stepping out of the bathroom and walking to the bed. The mattress creaked under his weight and he could feel one of the springs poking at him from under the thin material.

“Great! Now I have to wait until the blood coagulates before I can take a shower. That was a smart move, Harrison, real smart!”

He looked over at his backpack knowing his kit was in there. He was itching to go get it but decided it was way too early, besides he would be going over to Riley’s later. Sighing, he glanced around the dirty room and settle on his backpack again. He strode over there and started digging through it for his sketch pad. He dug further and pulled his pencils out as well. He took it to the bed and sat with his back against the headboard. He flipped to a clean page, holding the pencil above the page. He hadn’t sketched in a long time, but he had a strong desire to do so right now. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to bring the figure to the forefront of his mind. He had the distinct feeling the figure was a girl. It started to take shape. He saw long wavy dark hair and deep brown eyes. Her full lips were shimmering as they parted to form words.

“Andrew,” she whispered.

His eyes shot open. He wasn’t sure what he had just seen, but he needed to sketch the girl before she was completely gone from his mind. There was something about her and the way she looked at him. He stared down at the blank page and carefully brought his pencil to it. Before he knew it, the pencil started moving effortlessly as if it were always meant to draw what was on his mind. Perhaps it was.

~*~

“Harrison, man, you look better. Come on in,” Riley said, opening the door wide.

Andrew stepped inside the house and looked around to see who was there. There were actually a lot of people already lingering about. Every so often Riley would throw a big party, basically offering free drugs to people. Andrew had asked him once why he did that. Riley simply laughed and said it was good for business. As Andrew looked around he realized that was probably true. After all, he’d given Andrew his first sample of Heroin two years ago and he’d been getting it from him ever since. Riley was the only person he trusted to buy from.

“Hey, Ty, this is Harrison... Harrison, this is Ty,” Riley said, introducing Andrew to a tall, skinny white guy with sandy blond hair.

Andrew shook his hand and Ty laughed. Why, Andrew didn’t know. Maybe he was already high and everything seemed funny to him. Andrew ignored him and let his eyes scan his environment, trying to find an isolated spot. He hated being around so many people but the thought of free samples was too good to pass up. He turned back to Riley who was, tilting his head just slightly and giving him a curious look.

“You still good?” Riley asked.

“Yeah, I still have some but I think I will need to get some money again,” Andrew replied looking around the room again.

Riley started to laugh and nod, “Ah, is that why you cleaned up?”

Andrew shrugged as Riley turned to Tyler. “This man right here,” he said, grabbing Andrew’s shoulder, “has the best fucking hustle in town.”

“Really? What is it?” Tyler asked looking generally curious.

“I mean look at him,” Riley said, grabbing Andrew’s face. “He’s got the kind of face that girls rip their panties off for.”

Andrew immediately jerked back out of Riley’s grip. He frowned which made Riley smile. Riley didn’t understand why Andrew didn’t embrace his looks and what they could get him. He had often told him he should go full out, highest bidder kind of thing. Riley knew he could make some money off of him but Andrew always rejected his ideas on it.

“So what, lots of guys prostitute themselves for drugs,” Tyler replied, not seeing what the big deal was.

“I'm not a fucking prostitute,” Andrew shouted, even though at this point he wasn’t so sure he believed that anymore.

“Calm down, Harrison,” Riley said tapping his shoulder. He looked over at Tyler, “No, he just picks up women and then after he fucks them he steals their money and any jewelry they might have on them which he pawns off. The best thing about it is they can’t report it because if they did then they would have to tell their husbands that they got screwed, literally!” He finished, laughing harder than Andrew felt was necessary.

Tyler looked at Andrew with a slight smile on his face. That was a pretty good scam, not that he could get away with something like that himself because he didn’t look as good as this Andrew fella did. His mind immediately started to turn, calculating and coming up with the idea that Andrew just might be someone worth hanging out with.

Andrew glared at Riley’s smiling face. He hated when he told people about his life. It made him feel lower than the bugs crawling around in the motel he just left. Why was his life so amusing to him? If he wasn’t so distrusting of people he would likely have gone to another dealer but he was afraid of what he would get from them. At least with Riley, Andrew knew that he was getting untainted drugs.

“So you see, Ty,” Riley continued, in spite of the look of disdain on Andrew’s face, “He doesn’t actually take money for sex but fuck me, if I looked as good as he does, I’d be the highest paid whore in Hollywood,” he said slapping Andrew’s shoulder.

“Can we not talk about this shit?” Andrew stated angrily, “So, what the fuck, Riley, do you have anything new or what?”

Riley laughed again. He was in an extremely good mood. He had a houseful of people, all clamoring to get what he had. As a bonus he had connected Tyler to Andrew. This would be good for him. Tyler on occasion sold for him and picked things up as well. Riley wanted Andrew to be a part of it too. He needed him to see that they could really help one another. He smiled and nodded his head slightly. The night was already turning out better than he had hoped for.