Chapter 1. 

A drop of blood falls down my finger, neon lights distorting the deep red colour. 

I watch it drop onto the floor, Carter grabs my wrist and pulls it towards him, covering it with a handful of tissues.

“Dude, watch it. You got it on the floor. That is so not sanitary, I better not get fired from that.” I look up at him and the echoes of laughing and yelling children tunes back in. I visibly cringe as the sharp trills rise. 

Carter rolls his eyes and lifts me up onto the counter. I wasn’t tiny, but he was still twice my size. He then pulls out a Toy Story band aid and wraps my bloody finger with it. 

“How did you even manage to do this. It’s a playground made for kids.” He scolds, trying to clean the blood that had seeped into my fingerprints. 

“I have to look out for you more than the kids.” He laughs, only half joking. I give a half-hearted laugh and he stops to look at me with concern. 

“Seriously Damian, you good?”

“Yeah, ‘course.” I had nicked my finger on a sharp metal part of the bench sticking out awkwardly. 

“Should I... stop coming? Does it bother you?” He stands up straight, towering over me and giving me a look.

“No, we can’t find time to hang out anymore and this is fun. I’m still doing my job, you’re not a total distraction. But I will need you to clean that blood stain you made.” He produces a bucket and shoves it in my lap, I set it aside and hop down. 

“It’s one drop man!” I throw my arms up.

“Go on, peasant.” He makes a shooing motion with his hand. I sigh and grab a cloth from the bucket when a kid speeds past me. I stumble back into the counter, watching a blur of ponytails run around the corner. 

Carter comes back around the counter I’m leaning against and folds his arms on top of it.

“How was Cinderella duty? That floor better be spotless.”

 I throw the cloth at his face, and he reels back and swipes it off, with an offended facial expression 

“Dude! What the hell!?” 

“No blood.” I retort, holding back laughter. 

“Gross. Your finger good?” I nod and he smiles.

“Lunch break then.” My face lights up, now I can spend ‘off-duty’ time with my best friend. Carter laughs at my happy face, ruffling my hair. 

Carter leads us both to the food court and we enter a heated debate over whether we should have pizza or burgers and fries. 

“C’mon do something different from what you eat like, every day-” I bump into something, something human. A drink falls and I reach out instinctively, catching it before it spilled and hit the ground. The worker looks down at me, startled.

“I’m so sorry.” I apologise hastily, handing him his drink back, who looks at it incredulously. 

“All good.” He says, still staring at the cup. He walks off and Carter ushers me to an empty table. I sit down casually but he slams his hands down and braces himself on his arms, staring at me intently.

“Damien. That was my boss. Not just my boss but everyone here’s boss.” Oh. 

“Oh.” 

“I’ve never talked to him, but everyone says that he hates everyone and is a total asshole.” He seemed nice enough to me, nothing asshole-ish about him. Just a normal guy. 

Carter stood behind the prize counter of the arcade, occasionally  handing plastic shit to little bumbling kids and the odd familiar teenager. I sat behind him, on an old stool, sometimes waving to people I knew, lollipop casually hanging out of my mouth. Carter turned to face me, the coloured luminescent lights giving his body a halo. 

“I don’t understand how this is fun for you. You can leave if you want.” I shrug and take the candy out of my mouth.

“I barely get to spend time with you so I’m gonna take as much as I can get.” I accentuate my sentence by reaching up and tapping him on the tip of his nose. Carter finished school a few weeks ago, leaving me to graduate by myself. Curse age gaps. He works his job at the mall constantly, doing odd jobs in every part of the place. 

I see a dark figure moving through the arcade machines like a shadow, but I blink, and it disappears. Was it just my mind playing tricks on me? Was there actually someone there that I thought looked odd that wasn’t? I sit up and scour the dark place for the same person but see nothing. 

“Um, I think I’m gonna go say hi to Rose.” Carter looks at me from where he’s handing a kid an ugly stuffed pig. 

“Uh, okay, sure.” He responds, not really paying attention. I duck out of the counter and look around. I don’t want to be seeing things so I’m hoping to find a normal person just wearing all black or something. I wander around the machines and people, noting how different the lighting makes everything seem. If there were just normal lights, it would be off-putting. I turn a corner to come into eye contact with someone for a split second before they walk off. Dressed in all dark colours.  

I whip around to see them but all I see when I turn is Rose’s smiling face.

“Hi.” Needless to say, it scares the shit out of me. I recover quickly and say hey back. 

“What are you up to?” She asks, all too interested. 

“I’m here with Carter, he’s working.” I gesture to the prize counter, she giggles. 

“Aww. It’s cute you’re still hanging out. I’m just here with some friends.” She makes a gesture to push them away and they scurry off whispering in excited voices. I laugh nervously, slowly backing away but she steps forward and touches my arm. I flinch. 

“Why don’t we hang out a bit? Carter is working after all, wouldn’t want to distract him.” I almost throw her arm off me. 

“Actually, I should get back.” Her face falls. And as soon as I’m released, I dash to hide behind Carter, literally. 

“How was Rose?” he asks, seeming to be genuinely curious.

“Uh, good I guess.” 

“Are you gonna ask her out?” my head snaps to him.

“What?!” my wide eyes stare at Carter in disbelief. 

“She’s clearly into you man, and” he looks me up and down and continues. 

“Understandable. Are you gonna go for it?” 

“No, I’m not interested.” I look away. Carter nods slowly in understanding and goes back to counting tickets. 

I lean against the wall, waiting for Carter to get his stuff collected when I notice someone walk up to us. It’s Carters boss, the man I bumped into earlier. I freeze, Carter had told me how scary he could be. I look into his dark eyes, and he just stares at me before softly smiling. He looks too young to be as high up in his ranks as he is. 

Carter finally sees him and panics before frantically captain saluting him.

“Boss.” He laughs in a weird way, showing how fearful he actually is. Big boss man just laughs, one that seemed more warm than cold like I expected. He leans his arms on the counter and looks between us. 

“Do you by chance want a job here? You can have shifts together.” What? Why on earth was I just offered a job here? I voice my concern.

“With all due respect, um sir. I haven’t done anything for you to offer me a job, hell I’ve only done the exact opposite!” He chuckles silently. 

“I’ve heard that you’re pretty useful actually, helping out when not asked to. Plus, you could use that face of yours to attract customers.” Ok I know I’m hot but damn, I’m getting all the compliments today.

“So, what do you say? It’ll just be like today, follow Carter around and do what he does, with odd jobs all over the mall and get paid for it.”

I look to Carter, who looks like an excited puppy, quietly begging me to say yes. The man waits patiently, gaze unwavering. 

“Sure, yeah.” I accept. Carter’s face lights up more, if that was possible, smiling wide as he could. His boss- I guess my boss now, is smiling too, it’s a nice smile. I guess this company does actually have a thing about attractive employees.

“Great, I’ll see you tomorrow then.” With that he walks off, out of the arcade and into the lighter atrium of the mall. 

Carter basically runs at me, grabbing my arms and almost knocking me over with the force.

“Damian!”

“Carter.” Not going to lie I was pretty excited too. He wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me into his side and we start walking, planning to go back to my house now that he’s finished his shift.

The walk to the bus stop was peaceful, the summer sun beaming down at us, creating an inviting golden glow and the small breeze tousling my hair slightly. I listened to the mixed sound of the music of the earphones I was sharing with Carter and his constant ranting, I chime in when there’s a pause. I can’t wipe the genuine smile off my face even if I tried. Things couldn’t be more perfect. 

The sun was setting by the time we get on the bus and sit down. It was empty save for us and the driver. I slide into the aisle seat next to Carter and slump my head on his shoulder.

He looks out the window, watching the suburban houses go past while I skip through songs trying to find ‘the right vibe’. Carter’s hand snatches mine in a death grip, stopping me from skipping another song. I laugh at the face he makes, telling me wordlessly that the constant cutting of music is ruining the bus ride. I settle down again and close my eyes, still able to see the sun burning in our direction from the light coming through my eyelids.  I feel like I’m about to fall asleep.

Neon lights from the club sign blur in my hazy vision, I can’t tell what it says. 

Another dull blow to the face.

My head hits the concrete. 

Breathing hurts.

I jolt upright, springing off Carter’s shoulder. I move so violently that he startles too. I take a deep, cautious breath. No pain, I’m fine. 

“Flashback again?” he asks, rubbing my knee comfortingly. I nod my head frantically and blink slowly a few times, trying to calm down. I hear my heart slamming against my ribcage like it’s desperately trying to escape. I stare across at the window, recalling that night once again.