“He’s your cousin?” the girl says.
“Yeah,” Brian says.
“Get him a chair Jaxs,” the girl says as the waiter pulls a chair over to their booth, “Have a seat,” she says.
Brian gets up and sits down with them and taking his lemonade.
“Kevin Richardson is your cousin?” the boy asks.
“Yes…oh I’m Brian.”
“Pilar,” the girls says, “that’s Eli,” she says pointing to the boy with the green eyes, “and this is my boyfriend Jackson. You can call him Jaxs though,” she says motioning to the young waiter.
“Nice to meet you all,” Brian smiles.
“Well then are you coming tonight?” Eli asks Brian.
“Tonight?”
“The party,” Eli says as Pilar elbows him.
“You know the rules,” she says to him.
“But he’s his family.”
“He’s a human.”
“Well you told Jackson.”
“That’s different.”
“Here we go,” Eli say rolling his eyes, “Tell him.”
“Ok ok,” she says, “Kevin is known throughout the city by the Halflings. He’s seen as the leader basically. He’s probably the only thing we have saving us now if anything happens. He’s also known for his parties and he’s having one tonight for all the Halflings. I guess you can come if you want, but don’t tell anyone. You seem safe enough,” she says writing something down on a napkin and handing it to him, “Be there tonight.”
“Ok,” Brian nods.
“You might wanna wear sunglasses,” Jackson says.
Pilar nods, “A lot of us have had bad encounters with humans and it’s a safety precaution for you in there.”
Brian nods, “I haven’t seen Kevin in at least a year.”
“He’s good,” Pilar says, “I can get him to meet with you if you want.”
“Yeah,” Brian says, “If you can.”
“No problem,” she says.
“This is a nice place,” Brian says.
“Thanks,” Jackson says, “Took me two years to save up enough money to get it.”
“It’s yours?” Brian says shocked.
“Yeah, oh you’re food,” he says getting up and walking off into the kitchen.
“What’s Kevin bee up to lately?” Brian asks Eli and Pilar who remain in their seats.
“Errr,” Eli says looking at Pilar cautiously.
“He’s just being Kevin,” Pilar says simply.
“Kevin is never not up to something,” Brian says stirring his drink with his straw, “Has he been in the city long?”
“Got here about a week ago,” Eli says, “The Rook clan is looking after him.”
“He has people watching over him?” Brian says.
“Do you have any idea who your cousin is?” Pilar says, “He needs all the security he can get.”
“I don’t understand,” Brian says.
“Brian…” Pilar starts, “Your cousin is basically the only leader us Halflings have. He’s the revolutionist.”
AJ pulls his jacket collar up around his neck and slouches as he walks against the wind. The only lights on the street were from the few street lamps that were glowing faintly along the edges of the sidewalks. Why the hell anyone would plan a party tonight was beyond even his imagination. He turns the corner at the end of the street and comes face to face with a large looming building that must have once been a warehouse.
“Building 374,” AJ says to himself looking up at it and then looking down at the card in his hand lowering his sunglasses slightly to see the red words appear again, “here goes nothing,” he says and knocks on the large steel doors in front of him.
A small slot on the door opens revealing a pair of bright green florescent colored eyes staring at him, “AJ?”
AJ stares at the eyes and smiles as he finally makes the connection with the eyes and the voice, “Jordan?”
“Now this is a surprise,” the voice says closing the slot and AJ hears the familiar clings of locks turning out of place before the door is opened for him to walk in, “Never thought I would see you at one of these,” a young guy no older then 21 smiles at AJ. He was tall around six feet with blond hair that stood spiked on its end on his head. He was lanky, but still somehow was able to have a muscular build to his body.
“What are you doing here?” AJ asks Jordan as Jordan shuts the door again.
“Door watching,” Jordan sighs, “I always get the shitty jobs. It really sucks to be the youngest.”
“Door watching? Who the hell could need you guys to door watch?”
“A very important person,” Jordan says.
“The Rook clan is all here?”
“Yup, all six of us.”
AJ shakes his head. Maybe he shouldn’t have come here after all.
“Down the hall to your left. You can’t miss it,” Jordan says to him as another knock at the door is heard.
“I’ll see you later then Jor,” AJ says to him as he walks down the hallway in front of him.
AJ continues to walk down the hall his eyes shifting from wall to wall on either side of him. Who the hell would need the Rook clan looking after them? The Rooks were a well-known group of brothers in the Halflings’ world. Six brothers all with green eyes and blond hair who seemed to make it their job to prowl the streets night after night trying to help the other Halflings. They had helped AJ on more then one occasion too. They never used to be that way though. Once they were just an ordinary family. AJ knew their brother Adam very well in the past. He was the same age as AJ when he was killed, about two years ago. He was beaten to death by a group of human boys one night while walking home from his job. After that the world had never looked the same to AJ. He had never really taken his mothers warnings seriously before, but after that there wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t think about them.
Well the room that was housing all of the other guests was hard to miss even for AJ. There was a large doorway on the left hand side at the end of the hall and inside crammed together had to be at least one hundred plus people. They were all moving as one to the beat of the music coming from the speakers in the front of the room. There were lights hanging from the ceiling that rained streams of color down onto the crowd as they danced.
AJ pulls off his sunglasses and stuffs them into his pocket as he sees a sea of green, red, blue, yellow, purple, orange and every other color eyes look at him briefly. There was a DJ booth a little bit above the crowd perched on some kind of balcony and standing there beside the DJ was a tall man with jet-black hair wearing black pants with a black t-shirt on. For some reason AJ just got a vibe that he was very important. He almost seemed to be a figure that could blend into the darkness…well if his bright purple eyes were shut at least.
Brian follows closely behind Pilar and Eli as they make their way through the crowd toward a set of steps leading up to a small balcony. If it wasn’t for Jackson walking behind him watching his back Brian would have thought he was a moving target for some of the people in the room. They made their way up the stairs to the balcony where a large DJ booth stood with three men standing behind it.
“Trace,” Pilar says as one of the three men turn around to look at her. He had bright blue eyes, dirty blond colored hair that was spiked up, a slight tan to his skin, and like the other two he was dressed completely in black.
“Pilar,” he smiles at her, “How are you?” he says as his cheekbones show clearly as he smiles. He had one of those chiseled faces that some people dream about having, but never get.
“Good,” Pilar says, “Can we talk to Kevin?”
Trace shrugs, “I dunno depends,” he smiles and then looks behind her at Jackson looming in the distance, “Jacks,” he nods at him.
Jackson nods back faintly before walking closer to them all.
“Kevin they wanna talk to you,” Trace says looking over his shoulder.
“Alright,” a voice says as a taller man makes his way towards them, “What can I help you with?” he says walking up before making eye contact with Brian, “Brian?” he says as his purple eyes lock with Brian’s pale blue ones.
“Hey Kev,” Brian says.
“God what are you doing here?” Kevin smiles before walking up to him and hugging Brian quickly.
“Just checking out your party,” he smiles.
Kevin smiles brightly, “How have you been? How’s my family?”
“I’m going good. They’re doing good too since the last time I talked to my mom.”
“Good. Good. You guys can go down and join the party if you want,” Kevin says to Eli, Pilar and Jackson, “Brian can stay with me. We need to catch up on some things anyway.”
“Ok,” Pilar nods at him, “Bye Brian,” she smiles at him before walking away with Eli and Jackson.
“Quite a gathering you have here cous,” Brian says looking down at the crowd.
Kevin shrugs, “It’s gotten bigger since I was last here.”
“What are you doing here anyway?” Brian asks.
Kevin sighs slightly before answering, “Trying to get my message out.”
“And that would be?”
“We aren’t going to take this anymore. We as in Halflings.”
“Is that why you have all this security? You’re trying to be some kind of leader now?”
“I am a leader,” Kevin says seriously looking down at the crowd.
“The government is hunting you down aren’t they?”
“Not so much them as just plain humans with hate in their hearts.”
Brian nods.
“Enjoy the party Brian. I will explain everything to you later.”
Brian looks at him and smiles faintly.
Leave it to Kevin to try and start a revolution.
Nick scans the large crowd before him as a few pairs of florescent eyes stare at him. Yeah he had picked the perfect party to follow Brian to. Now he was like a fish in a barrel waiting to be shot. He looks around quickly as a hush falls over the crowd and the music stops along with everything else. He turns to face the way the crowd in looking and sees a tall, dark man with bright purple eyes standing on a balcony holding a microphone in his hands.
“Hello everyone,” he says into the microphone as his voice is amplified and echoed through the building, “I hope you’re all enjoying yourselves. As you all probably know my name is Kevin Richardson. I’m here trying to get you all to notice that there many out there lick yourself…like me. For years upon years we have lived in this world ruled over by people who see us as threats to society. We know better then anyone that that is not the case. And since that is true why are we the ones being band from places. Being band from our freedom. You would think after years of other forms of discrimination that people would stop…but they only wait for another society to point the finger at when times are hard. My mother is human. My father wasn’t. He was killed during the Titan trials like many of your family as well I guess. Seen as a threat he was killed and now here we are the second generation still paying for crimes never committed. Tell me then when will it end? When will mothers stop leaving their children on the streets and at orphanages because of their eye color and blood type? When will beatings stop and we be free to roam this land as we please? When…will we be seen as human too?”
Nick stares up at him and his eyes widen as he sees Brian standing next to him. Oh God he had to warn him. He pushes his way through the crowd and gets closer to the stairs leading towards the balcony. He is stopped at the base of the steps though by a man his height with bright blue eyes dressed in all black with dirty blond hair and tan skin. The man only stood there, arms crossed over his chest as Nick tried to get by.
“I am asking you all here to help us. Help us fight back for once. Make the people see that we as Halflings are not threats. That we are people and with that deserve all the rights of normal people and above all else the right to freedo…”
And that was all Kevin got out before the roars of numerous small engines echoed through the house and panic ensued. Nick looks at the man in front of him as he bolts up the steps towards the balcony. Nick follows close behind as people start rushing by him toward any exit from the building possible. On the floor about seven motorcycles go weaving through the crowd being ridden by men with dark helmets over their heads. Guns were being fired up toward the balcony as all the people standing up there hit the ground and begin to crawl towards the stairs. Nick stares at the people as they reach the stairs and then run into him trying to come down.
“Get him out of here!” a voice yells and Nick sees the tall blued eyed man waving his hands franticly as a motorcycle pulls up out of the darkness and stops at the foot of the steps.
“Get on,” a voice from behind the helmet says and portions of it begin to fold upwards to reveal a set of bright green eyes, “I’ll get him out of here,” he says as the helmet folds back into place over his eyes.
“Go,” the blued eyed man yells at him as the tall dark man gets on the back of the bike putting the helmet phones on his head and a helmet begins to fold out of them encircling his head quickly.
“Get Brian out of here,” the man says before the motorcycle takes off flying over the floor towards the exit.
Nick turns back around as another motorcycle speeds by quickly sweeping up Brian and then taking off after the motorcycle that had already left. Oh shit now he was screwed. Nick looks around franticly as the other motorcycles begin to encircle some of the crowd. Panic was spreading all over the floor and he had to get out of there before he got himself hurt.
He sees a door towards his right on the other side of the room and makes a break for it pushing past people. Three more cycles zoomed into the room then. These ones were lined with bright green though around their hover pads with the emblem of the Rook clan on it. Rooks on some of the motorcycles and humans on the other and he knew it. The Rooks were greatly our numbered though.
He could see the doorknob on the door now he was so close. He hears a sharp scream over his shoulder and turns around quickly as a small green-eyed girl is dragged by her arms across the floor by one of the men on the cycles. A tall lanky boy runs over to try and pull her away to no avail as he is kicked away by other rider to the floor. Oh God all hell was breaking loose now. He looks at the door and then back into the crowd as the girl is thrown into a wall only to be retrieved by the same motorcycle rider again.
“Ah shit,” Nick says out loud before racing back into the madness.
AJ stares at the scene unfolding before him before making a run for the main door along with about half of the other crowd. He makes his way out of the building and onto the street running down the road. He hears a roar of an engine behind him and he looks over his shoulder quickly as a cycle flies down the road towards him. It flies past him as the driver tosses out a rope encircling his neck. He grabs at the rope fiercely before he losses his balance and is pulled behind the cycle feet dragging on the ground.
Oh God, he was going to die. He was going to die just like Adam did. He begins to pull forcefully at the rope around his neck trying to get any room between the rope and his neck. He could feel his own fingernails cutting his neck as he begins gasping for breath. Oh God, he was going to die. Die. Die. Die.
He looks over to his right still clawing at the rope as another cycle appears next to him catching up to the driver of the other one. AJ could see the driver of the second motorcycle look over at him quickly before pulling out a gun and taking aim.
He couldn’t even get out a scream though.
