cillian_murphy_fangirl
I Like My Coffee Black Just Like My Metal
“Mommy, where’re you going?” He asked; his voice small and he appeared pitiful with his face red and a mess of tears.
His mother didn’t glance back, she was leaving him with his drunken father, and looking back at her son would only make this harder. So she just shook her head as if that was an answer to the simple question, and then continued walking. Her child collapsed to his knees, only five years old, and sobbed. His mother didn’t love him that was the only thing he could think of for her leaving. Now he’d be alone with his father, who in reality, terrified him. Though he didn’t look back at his father, he’d already had enough of the man. “Please don’t go…”
His mother kept walking, and closed the door behind her.
And that was the last he ever saw of her.
Drops of blood stained the snow; more of the crimson liquid ran down his arm slowly, before sinking into the beautiful white powder. He knew the bleeding had to be put to a stop, losing too much blood wouldn’t be good, especially since he was in the forest. Groaning, he climbed to his feet, his eyes rose to the face of his attacker. Kale smirked, catching the man who had been attacking him off-guard.
Suddenly Kale’s finger twitched, causing the blood that had been running down his index finger to plop down into the snow and slowly sink in, causing the snow’s lovely white color to turn slightly red. The police officer stared at Kale, eyes filled with interest. What did this insane man plan to do exactly? Alone in the forest, surrounded by trees, about to bleed to death; it was obvious who’d won this pointless battle.
Suddenly the young man jerked his hand towards his pocket, more blood splattered on the snow. He pulled a gun out of his pocket and jerked it in the direction of the officer. The officer who had planned to beat him to death was now acting as if he was just doing his job and was being attacked by an insane criminal. When in reality Kale was the one who had been framed for murdering his father and the officer was simply going to kill him. Closing his eyes he pressed the barrel of the gun to the officer’s forehead. He knew he’d have to wrestle with his conscience for quite a while after this. Finally, he forced himself to pull the trigger. Muttering a silent apology to the now-fallen officer he opened his eyes.
Sirens sounded, echoing throughout the forest, bouncing off trees and heading in his direction. The police had found out about his escape.
“Shoot…” He muttered, he would have slammed his fist down using his free hand, but that would only make the pain in his arm much worse.
It didn’t seem fair. Kale’d only been free for less than half an hour and the police were already searching for him. The twenty-four year old wasn’t going to kill anyone else, not if he could help it, so his only other option was to run. Forcing himself to his feet with a quiet grunt of pain, he slipped his gun back into his pocket and stumbled through the forest, away from the sirens. His limp arm was moving around with his movements, slapping against his side and the too-close-for-comfort trees, every slight motion made him wince in pain. He hoped his arm would go numb soon, he knew it was bound to happen sooner or later.
“What the..?” Muttered Kale, he cut himself off, his face filled with disbelief at the odd sight he was witnessing.
In front of him was the brown and moist dirt showing, snow having been scraped away. This however wasn’t what surprised him; in fact he probably wouldn’t have noticed it. What did shock the young man however was what was lying in the small area of moist dirt. A small boy lay there, no older than five, which was obviously much too young to be out in the cold. The boy was in a deep sleep, he wore a large winter coat; the hood of the coat was rolled up and served as the boy’s pillow. He had short and curly light blonde, almost white, hair. Small clumps of dirt were mixed into his hair, and dirt stuck to the side of his face. His eyes were closed tightly, as if he was having a horrible dream. Suddenly his eyelids parted, revealing curious brown eyes.
As soon as he saw Kale he yelped and scooted back, until he was pressed firmly against a tree. Though he said nothing his eyes seemed to be filled with many questions, some of them Kale would most likely choose not to answer.
But the boy’s lips parted, and he did in fact, speak. “Who’re you?” He asked, his small voice trembling a bit.
“I could be asking you the same thing.” Said Kale; crouching down so he was at the same height as the boy. “What’s a kid your age doing out here? Shouldn’t you be at home with your mom and dad?”
The boy shook his head quickly. “I can’t.” He said; his voice sharp and no longer nervous.
Kale tilted his head to the side curiously. “Where are your parents, kid?”
The boy looked down at the snow; a few noticeable tears slipped from his eyes and dripped down, sinking into the snow. “Dead,” He mumbled, lips barely parting with each quiet and quivering word, his eyes rose to Kale’s face. “I have to hide from some bad people here.”
Kale knew there was something about this kid from the start; normal kids didn’t sit around in forests when it was freezing cold, especially on Christmas day. Now he couldn’t help but feel a little bit sympathetic for the boy, having to be separated from his parents at such a young age. He sighed, something in the back of his mind told him he should help the boy and not let him die out here. It was Christmas, after all.
“Fine kid, I’ll help you out.” Kale said, standing up, he reached a hand out to the boy. “So, what’s your name?”
The boy smiled, he took hold of Kale’s hand and stood up also. “Ryan.”
“Alright then Ryan, are you ready for some food?” Asked Kale, his voice was now gentle as he spoke to the frightened child. “I know a really good place for pancakes and-.”
“Are you a bad guy?” Ryan asked, interrupting Kale’s question.
Kale looked at Ryan, he grew silent; how was he supposed to answer that question? Kale wasn’t exactly a murderer, well, he did kill someone. Now he’d also killed an officer too, so that’d be two people. But, he just knew something was up. He’d gone to prison for a wrong reason, and he regretted his mistake, but he didn’t know what to do. The officers had given him the death sentence, they wouldn’t listen to reason. Also the one officer that’d attacked him, planned to beat him to death. In other words, Kale had no choice.
“No.”
“Then why were the police looking for you?” Ryan tilted his head to the side; he wasn’t going to go following some strange man who was running from the cops.
“It’s a long story kid, erm, Ryan. I’ll tell it to you later…” Kale said, he began walking in the direction of the small town.
“Like a bedtime story?”
Kale smirked; his story was anything but a bedtime story. “Yeah, sure kid.’
Finally Ryan agreed to following Kale, he’d been hungry for quite some time and it’d be nice to eat some real food for a change. So they trudged through the deep snow, heading away from the direction of the sirens and shouts of the officers. Soon the bright lights of a city came into view; Ryan was obviously happy; judging by the grin on his tired looking face. Walking through the city Kale caught a glimpse of some shady looking men talking, a few pointed to Ryan followed by more whispering and hushed conversations. Giving them a dirty look, he directed Ryan to go to the left, wanting to get away from the group of men. There was something about this place he didn’t like. The looks he was getting from people had nothing to do with what he was wearing, when he escaped he’d managed to find some clothes which consisted of a blue t-shirt and some plain jeans, and some shoes that were a bit small for him.
“Is that it?” Ryan asked, pointing in the direction of a large diner, it was surprisingly crowded; the strong aroma of pancakes and maple syrup wafted out of the open doors.
Kale nodded enthusiastically, it’d been forever since he’d gone to this diner and he missed it terribly. Now someone had strung Christmas lights around the outside of the diner, indoors Kale could already hear some cheerful Christmas music playing softly. Walking in through the doors he stopped short when he saw the same men from earlier, sitting next to the only free booth. Ryan’s hand slipped out of Kale’s and he walked to the booth, scooting into the seat until he was next to the window. Kale sighed, deciding he didn’t have much of a choice, he sat in the booth; sitting across from Ryan. Tapping his fingers on the table irritably, Kale looked around, waiting for a waitress to show up. Then a word, no, a phrase, that one of the men at the booth next to them said caught his attention. ‘Just grab the kid when you get the chance’. Kale’s gaze moved to Ryan, who was looking out the window watching cars drive by. No, there couldn’t be some sort of conspiracy to kidnap this child; he was just an ordinary boy. At least Kale hoped he was, he already had enough to worry about and he couldn’t protect the kid from some sort of giant group of thugs. But right now Kale couldn’t think of anything these people would want from Ryan, maybe his imagination was just going wild.
“Sir,” A waitress snapped, the pencil in her hand pressed against the pad of paper in her other hand. “I said, 'is there anything you’d like to drink?'”
Kale’s face turned a bit red, but the redness faded away when he looked at the waitress; trying not to laugh at the ridiculous beehive hair-cut she had.
“Just a glass of water,” Kale said, trying to remember what he liked to drink at Ryan’s age. “And a small chocolate milk.”
The waitress nodded, she scribbled down what Kale said and walked away. Kale’s gaze moved back to the men, who’d now gone silent. One of the men, a large dark skinned muscular man, was watching Kale with interest. Feeling overpowered by the man’s gaze Kale looked away; he needed to get Ryan and him out of this place soon. Ryan looked up at Kale.
“Um…Mister-,” Ryan asked, looked at Kale.
“Kale.” He corrected.
“Kale,” Ryan said, nodding, his tone hushed. “How’re you going to pay for this?”
“I have money.” Kale said with a nod, and it was true, luckily the pockets of the jeans he wore had some money inside; hopefully enough to pay for their meal.
Finally the large man whispered to another one of the men, the man he whispered to nodded several times while muttering something in reply. They all stood up at once; then headed for Kale and Ryan’s booth. The large man smirked, cracking his knuckles. Each of the loud cracking noise of the knuckles caused Kale to flinch, which seemed to amuse the large man. One of the men cleared his throat, as if wanting to get their attention. Ryan looked at the men, interested. Kale shot Ryan a look, wishing there was a way to tell him to run.
“Sorry to interrupt your meal, but-.” The man who’d cleared his throat began.
“We have to leave.” Kale interrupted, standing up, gesturing for Ryan to follow.
The large man immediately placed a meaty hand on Kale’s shoulder, his grip tightening. Now Kale could feel the eyes of others in the diner on him and the group of men.
“We don’t want to create a scene.” The man said calmly, Kale sat back down, watching the man reach into his pocket and pull out an ID. “FBI agent, Jason Wood, we need to have a word with you.”
Kale eyed Jason, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t see what some FBI agents would want with us.”
Jason smiled, his smile crooked. “Not with both of you, just the boy.”
“Well we need to head home now.”
“Your meal hasn’t even shown up.”
“Yes, but it’s an emergency.”
“Sorry, but you can’t leave.”
“Sorry, but we must.”
Finally the muscular man banged his fist on the table, growling with frustration.
Jason shot the muscular man a dirty look. “Calm down Ray.”
Ray groaned, pulling up a chair, he sat down and crossed his arms.
“Now then, we need to speak with the child.” Jason said, his voice dangerously calm, and filled with venom.
Ryan looked at Kale, hoping Kale would refuse. “Sorry, we’re having a family day, and we don’t have much more time left in our evening before we go home to open presents.”
Jason smirked. “I know he’s not your son.”
Kale stiffened up, what the heck was going on? “I don’t care what you want with him, he’s an innocent kid, and he’s not going with you.”
“I was hoping we’d be able to do this the easy way.” Jason said frowning.
Ray obviously took this as some sort of a signal; he grabbed Kale by the collar of his shirt and jerked him forwards. Jason showed the people in the diner his ID, so they wouldn’t end up calling the police. Ray dragged Kale out of the stall, and out onto the street, ignoring his struggling. Kale’s eyes drifted to the window, he saw Ryan looking longingly at him. Kale flailed his legs, hoping to trip Ray. Finally Ray dragged him into an alley way, and grabbing Kale by the collar of his shirt he pushed him roughly against the wall.
“What the heck do you want with Ryan?” Kale asked, voice quivering from the cold.
Ray chuckled loudly. “That’s none of your business.”
Before Kale could ask another question Ray slammed Kale’s head back, forcing it against the brick wall. Kale winced in pain, only to be punched in the stomach, the wind being knocked out of him. Suddenly an elbow was brought to his jaw, breaking it; the sickening crack rang through his ears. An odd sound escaped Kale’s throat, he could hardly make a sound. Ray brought his leg up, kicking Kale sharply in the kneecap and most likely breaking it.
“Idiot,” Spat Ray, shoving Kale to the hard cement ground.
After that it was a blur, all he could see was Ray’s large figure slowly moving away from him. After that it was just his head spinning furiously, he felt he might vomit at any minute, closing his eyes tightly he struggled to stay awake. More pain shot throughout his body, groaning he forced his eyes open, not wanting to give in. He dragged himself, injured leg limp behind him, only using the hand that wasn’t injured from when he was beaten by the officer earlier. Finally he gave up, his head dropped to the ground, hitting the hard cement. A last breath escaped his pale, chapped, lips, and it all went black.
His mother didn’t glance back, she was leaving him with his drunken father, and looking back at her son would only make this harder. So she just shook her head as if that was an answer to the simple question, and then continued walking. Her child collapsed to his knees, only five years old, and sobbed. His mother didn’t love him that was the only thing he could think of for her leaving. Now he’d be alone with his father, who in reality, terrified him. Though he didn’t look back at his father, he’d already had enough of the man. “Please don’t go…”
His mother kept walking, and closed the door behind her.
And that was the last he ever saw of her.
Drops of blood stained the snow; more of the crimson liquid ran down his arm slowly, before sinking into the beautiful white powder. He knew the bleeding had to be put to a stop, losing too much blood wouldn’t be good, especially since he was in the forest. Groaning, he climbed to his feet, his eyes rose to the face of his attacker. Kale smirked, catching the man who had been attacking him off-guard.
Suddenly Kale’s finger twitched, causing the blood that had been running down his index finger to plop down into the snow and slowly sink in, causing the snow’s lovely white color to turn slightly red. The police officer stared at Kale, eyes filled with interest. What did this insane man plan to do exactly? Alone in the forest, surrounded by trees, about to bleed to death; it was obvious who’d won this pointless battle.
Suddenly the young man jerked his hand towards his pocket, more blood splattered on the snow. He pulled a gun out of his pocket and jerked it in the direction of the officer. The officer who had planned to beat him to death was now acting as if he was just doing his job and was being attacked by an insane criminal. When in reality Kale was the one who had been framed for murdering his father and the officer was simply going to kill him. Closing his eyes he pressed the barrel of the gun to the officer’s forehead. He knew he’d have to wrestle with his conscience for quite a while after this. Finally, he forced himself to pull the trigger. Muttering a silent apology to the now-fallen officer he opened his eyes.
Sirens sounded, echoing throughout the forest, bouncing off trees and heading in his direction. The police had found out about his escape.
“Shoot…” He muttered, he would have slammed his fist down using his free hand, but that would only make the pain in his arm much worse.
It didn’t seem fair. Kale’d only been free for less than half an hour and the police were already searching for him. The twenty-four year old wasn’t going to kill anyone else, not if he could help it, so his only other option was to run. Forcing himself to his feet with a quiet grunt of pain, he slipped his gun back into his pocket and stumbled through the forest, away from the sirens. His limp arm was moving around with his movements, slapping against his side and the too-close-for-comfort trees, every slight motion made him wince in pain. He hoped his arm would go numb soon, he knew it was bound to happen sooner or later.
“What the..?” Muttered Kale, he cut himself off, his face filled with disbelief at the odd sight he was witnessing.
In front of him was the brown and moist dirt showing, snow having been scraped away. This however wasn’t what surprised him; in fact he probably wouldn’t have noticed it. What did shock the young man however was what was lying in the small area of moist dirt. A small boy lay there, no older than five, which was obviously much too young to be out in the cold. The boy was in a deep sleep, he wore a large winter coat; the hood of the coat was rolled up and served as the boy’s pillow. He had short and curly light blonde, almost white, hair. Small clumps of dirt were mixed into his hair, and dirt stuck to the side of his face. His eyes were closed tightly, as if he was having a horrible dream. Suddenly his eyelids parted, revealing curious brown eyes.
As soon as he saw Kale he yelped and scooted back, until he was pressed firmly against a tree. Though he said nothing his eyes seemed to be filled with many questions, some of them Kale would most likely choose not to answer.
But the boy’s lips parted, and he did in fact, speak. “Who’re you?” He asked, his small voice trembling a bit.
“I could be asking you the same thing.” Said Kale; crouching down so he was at the same height as the boy. “What’s a kid your age doing out here? Shouldn’t you be at home with your mom and dad?”
The boy shook his head quickly. “I can’t.” He said; his voice sharp and no longer nervous.
Kale tilted his head to the side curiously. “Where are your parents, kid?”
The boy looked down at the snow; a few noticeable tears slipped from his eyes and dripped down, sinking into the snow. “Dead,” He mumbled, lips barely parting with each quiet and quivering word, his eyes rose to Kale’s face. “I have to hide from some bad people here.”
Kale knew there was something about this kid from the start; normal kids didn’t sit around in forests when it was freezing cold, especially on Christmas day. Now he couldn’t help but feel a little bit sympathetic for the boy, having to be separated from his parents at such a young age. He sighed, something in the back of his mind told him he should help the boy and not let him die out here. It was Christmas, after all.
“Fine kid, I’ll help you out.” Kale said, standing up, he reached a hand out to the boy. “So, what’s your name?”
The boy smiled, he took hold of Kale’s hand and stood up also. “Ryan.”
“Alright then Ryan, are you ready for some food?” Asked Kale, his voice was now gentle as he spoke to the frightened child. “I know a really good place for pancakes and-.”
“Are you a bad guy?” Ryan asked, interrupting Kale’s question.
Kale looked at Ryan, he grew silent; how was he supposed to answer that question? Kale wasn’t exactly a murderer, well, he did kill someone. Now he’d also killed an officer too, so that’d be two people. But, he just knew something was up. He’d gone to prison for a wrong reason, and he regretted his mistake, but he didn’t know what to do. The officers had given him the death sentence, they wouldn’t listen to reason. Also the one officer that’d attacked him, planned to beat him to death. In other words, Kale had no choice.
“No.”
“Then why were the police looking for you?” Ryan tilted his head to the side; he wasn’t going to go following some strange man who was running from the cops.
“It’s a long story kid, erm, Ryan. I’ll tell it to you later…” Kale said, he began walking in the direction of the small town.
“Like a bedtime story?”
Kale smirked; his story was anything but a bedtime story. “Yeah, sure kid.’
Finally Ryan agreed to following Kale, he’d been hungry for quite some time and it’d be nice to eat some real food for a change. So they trudged through the deep snow, heading away from the direction of the sirens and shouts of the officers. Soon the bright lights of a city came into view; Ryan was obviously happy; judging by the grin on his tired looking face. Walking through the city Kale caught a glimpse of some shady looking men talking, a few pointed to Ryan followed by more whispering and hushed conversations. Giving them a dirty look, he directed Ryan to go to the left, wanting to get away from the group of men. There was something about this place he didn’t like. The looks he was getting from people had nothing to do with what he was wearing, when he escaped he’d managed to find some clothes which consisted of a blue t-shirt and some plain jeans, and some shoes that were a bit small for him.
“Is that it?” Ryan asked, pointing in the direction of a large diner, it was surprisingly crowded; the strong aroma of pancakes and maple syrup wafted out of the open doors.
Kale nodded enthusiastically, it’d been forever since he’d gone to this diner and he missed it terribly. Now someone had strung Christmas lights around the outside of the diner, indoors Kale could already hear some cheerful Christmas music playing softly. Walking in through the doors he stopped short when he saw the same men from earlier, sitting next to the only free booth. Ryan’s hand slipped out of Kale’s and he walked to the booth, scooting into the seat until he was next to the window. Kale sighed, deciding he didn’t have much of a choice, he sat in the booth; sitting across from Ryan. Tapping his fingers on the table irritably, Kale looked around, waiting for a waitress to show up. Then a word, no, a phrase, that one of the men at the booth next to them said caught his attention. ‘Just grab the kid when you get the chance’. Kale’s gaze moved to Ryan, who was looking out the window watching cars drive by. No, there couldn’t be some sort of conspiracy to kidnap this child; he was just an ordinary boy. At least Kale hoped he was, he already had enough to worry about and he couldn’t protect the kid from some sort of giant group of thugs. But right now Kale couldn’t think of anything these people would want from Ryan, maybe his imagination was just going wild.
“Sir,” A waitress snapped, the pencil in her hand pressed against the pad of paper in her other hand. “I said, 'is there anything you’d like to drink?'”
Kale’s face turned a bit red, but the redness faded away when he looked at the waitress; trying not to laugh at the ridiculous beehive hair-cut she had.
“Just a glass of water,” Kale said, trying to remember what he liked to drink at Ryan’s age. “And a small chocolate milk.”
The waitress nodded, she scribbled down what Kale said and walked away. Kale’s gaze moved back to the men, who’d now gone silent. One of the men, a large dark skinned muscular man, was watching Kale with interest. Feeling overpowered by the man’s gaze Kale looked away; he needed to get Ryan and him out of this place soon. Ryan looked up at Kale.
“Um…Mister-,” Ryan asked, looked at Kale.
“Kale.” He corrected.
“Kale,” Ryan said, nodding, his tone hushed. “How’re you going to pay for this?”
“I have money.” Kale said with a nod, and it was true, luckily the pockets of the jeans he wore had some money inside; hopefully enough to pay for their meal.
Finally the large man whispered to another one of the men, the man he whispered to nodded several times while muttering something in reply. They all stood up at once; then headed for Kale and Ryan’s booth. The large man smirked, cracking his knuckles. Each of the loud cracking noise of the knuckles caused Kale to flinch, which seemed to amuse the large man. One of the men cleared his throat, as if wanting to get their attention. Ryan looked at the men, interested. Kale shot Ryan a look, wishing there was a way to tell him to run.
“Sorry to interrupt your meal, but-.” The man who’d cleared his throat began.
“We have to leave.” Kale interrupted, standing up, gesturing for Ryan to follow.
The large man immediately placed a meaty hand on Kale’s shoulder, his grip tightening. Now Kale could feel the eyes of others in the diner on him and the group of men.
“We don’t want to create a scene.” The man said calmly, Kale sat back down, watching the man reach into his pocket and pull out an ID. “FBI agent, Jason Wood, we need to have a word with you.”
Kale eyed Jason, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t see what some FBI agents would want with us.”
Jason smiled, his smile crooked. “Not with both of you, just the boy.”
“Well we need to head home now.”
“Your meal hasn’t even shown up.”
“Yes, but it’s an emergency.”
“Sorry, but you can’t leave.”
“Sorry, but we must.”
Finally the muscular man banged his fist on the table, growling with frustration.
Jason shot the muscular man a dirty look. “Calm down Ray.”
Ray groaned, pulling up a chair, he sat down and crossed his arms.
“Now then, we need to speak with the child.” Jason said, his voice dangerously calm, and filled with venom.
Ryan looked at Kale, hoping Kale would refuse. “Sorry, we’re having a family day, and we don’t have much more time left in our evening before we go home to open presents.”
Jason smirked. “I know he’s not your son.”
Kale stiffened up, what the heck was going on? “I don’t care what you want with him, he’s an innocent kid, and he’s not going with you.”
“I was hoping we’d be able to do this the easy way.” Jason said frowning.
Ray obviously took this as some sort of a signal; he grabbed Kale by the collar of his shirt and jerked him forwards. Jason showed the people in the diner his ID, so they wouldn’t end up calling the police. Ray dragged Kale out of the stall, and out onto the street, ignoring his struggling. Kale’s eyes drifted to the window, he saw Ryan looking longingly at him. Kale flailed his legs, hoping to trip Ray. Finally Ray dragged him into an alley way, and grabbing Kale by the collar of his shirt he pushed him roughly against the wall.
“What the heck do you want with Ryan?” Kale asked, voice quivering from the cold.
Ray chuckled loudly. “That’s none of your business.”
Before Kale could ask another question Ray slammed Kale’s head back, forcing it against the brick wall. Kale winced in pain, only to be punched in the stomach, the wind being knocked out of him. Suddenly an elbow was brought to his jaw, breaking it; the sickening crack rang through his ears. An odd sound escaped Kale’s throat, he could hardly make a sound. Ray brought his leg up, kicking Kale sharply in the kneecap and most likely breaking it.
“Idiot,” Spat Ray, shoving Kale to the hard cement ground.
After that it was a blur, all he could see was Ray’s large figure slowly moving away from him. After that it was just his head spinning furiously, he felt he might vomit at any minute, closing his eyes tightly he struggled to stay awake. More pain shot throughout his body, groaning he forced his eyes open, not wanting to give in. He dragged himself, injured leg limp behind him, only using the hand that wasn’t injured from when he was beaten by the officer earlier. Finally he gave up, his head dropped to the ground, hitting the hard cement. A last breath escaped his pale, chapped, lips, and it all went black.
