Talon: Chapter Two

Tuesday

August 7th, 2021

10:48 PM

Dear Notebook,

Yesterday Mommy and Daddy adopted a nice lady.
She is sixteen and they adopted her so that they wouldn't have to watch me all the time.
They told her that she was basically a permanent babysitter.
She is nice though.
She bought me this notebook, so that I could write down my feelings and stuff.
Her name is Talon.
She is pretty.
She wears a lot of black though.
Black pants, black boots, black hair, and black stripes on her shirts.
She has shirts in four different colors.
She has two black and dark blue striped shirts, two black and dark red striped shirts, two black and dark green striped shirts, and two black and dark gray striped shirts.
She has a big scar on her face.
I haven't asked her about it because I don't want her to get sad and not like me.
She has really pale skin.
Like the scary neighbor man.
I hope she doesn't meet him.
He might kill her.
Like he killed that man behind the mall...

LINE BREAK

Tuesday

August 7th, 2021

4:33 AM

LINE BREAK

I woke up scared, as usual. I always woke up scared, and when I did, I would usually go down the hall to my parents' room.
Once there I would ask if I could cuddle with them because I was scared. They would say no and would go back to my room and sit in my bed. Kept awake by fear, I would usually sit there until it was morning.

But not today.

Today I got out of my bed and walked to the room across from mine. The door was open, just like she promised it always would be, except for when she was getting dressed. I walked in and over to the bed. She was laying under the covers, her back towards me. I was briefly worried that she was dead, but then I heard the faint sound of her breathing.

"Miss Talon?" I asked politely in my usual quiet voice. I knew that my new sister was nice, but I didn't know if she would still be nice after being woken up at four o'clock in the morning.
She rolled over so that she was facing me and propped herself up on her elbow. I saw that she was wearing a day shirt, one of her dark blue and black striped ones. The sleeves of the shirt came down the the start of her thin pale hands and hung loosely off of her thin arms. Her strange red eyes met my blue ones; the moonlight that came from the curtain-less window lit the room enough for me to tell that she had been up for a while.

"Yes? What is it Todd?" She asked, seeming worried. I wasn't used to having people concerned about me. It was a nice change.

"Nothing. I just had a bad dream. I was wondering if I could sleep in your bed? Just for tonight?" I asked politely. I held onto my stuffed bear, Shmee, tightly. I was ready to be turned down and have to go back to bed, alone and afraid.
Talon seemed to be having some sort of internal struggle with my request. After a moment she answered with a nod of her head.

"Sure. You can sleep here tonight." She then pulled the covers back and made room for me. I was most definitely surprised; I always got turned down, but now, now somebody actually cared enough about me to comfort me. I squeaked happily before climbing into the bed with her. I snuggled close to her, making her tense up. I knew that I should back off, but I was scared of the monsters and aliens that lingered. I knew that the closer I was to my big sister, the safer I would be. She relaxed after a moment and I leaned my head against her chest, listening for the rhythmic beating.
I used to listen to Mommy's heartbeat. Before she had to start taking pills, back when she actually remembered who I was...
Unlike Mommy's chest though, Talon's didn't have those weird bumps that muffled the sound. I could hear her heart beating clearly, and I could feel the gentle pulsing under my head as I snuggled closer and wrapped my arms around her thin body. She was so thin that I could link my hands together behind her back! I closed my eyes and breathed evenly, listening to the sound of Talon's heart and slowly drifting off into the best sleep that I have had in a long time.

LINE BREAK

I woke up a few hours later in an empty bed. Had I dreamed the whole thing?

No.

I was in Talon's room.
I could smell something yummy and I could hear a sizzling sound from downstairs. What the heck was that?

I climbed out of the bed and walked out of the room. Still in the clothes I had slept in, I walked down the hall and went downstairs. Entering the kitchen, I found Talon, fully dressed in her usual black jeans, black boots and the dark blue striped shirt from before. Her boots look like Scary Neighbor Man's, but instead of the toe part being split in two, it was just one plate. Plus there was another one attached to the heel of the boot.
Talon was standing in front of the stove that hadn't been used in a while, holding onto the handle of a frying pan. The sizzling sound was coming from the pan.

"Talon?" I asked quietly, hugging my stuffed bear close. She turned her head and looked at me, then gestured towards the table with her head as she spoke.

"Go sit at the table, breakfast will be ready soon." My eyes widened in surprise, breakfast? I hadn't ever had a warm breakfast before. It was always something that was either cold or room temperature, like ice or a single animal cracker.

Talon had spoken the truth, in about two minutes she set a plate and fork down in front of me. On the plate was a small pile of scrambled eggs and cheese, and four pieces of bacon.
My eyes widened once more before I grabbed the fork and ate the food greedily.

I was hungry, okay?

I hadn't had anything to eat for a few days, and I had never had eggs and bacon before.

It was delicious.

Talon grabbed the backpack that she had gotten herself along with the rest of her school supplies, and opened the door. Before she walked out she turned and explained to me.

"I have to go to school now, I will be back at three thirty, okay?" I nodded and she continued. "I have left a small lunch in the fridge that should hold you over until dinner. Would you like anything special tonight?" I thought about this for a moment. I had heard my friend, Azley, talk about how her mom made wonderful meatloaf, so I decided that I wanted to find out what this was.

"Would it be okay if we had meatloaf?" I asked timidly, not wanting to ask too much of my new sister.

"Sure thing, Todd. It will take me a bit longer to get home because I will have to pick up some stuff, but I should be home around four. Is that okay? Will you be alright until then?" I nodded once more and waved as she left, closing the front door behind her. I heard the sound of her motorcycle revving and then she sped off. I finished my breakfast and sat on the living room couch, I didn't have school today for some reason, so I was just going to watch TV. Turning the television on and flipping to the discovery channel, I watched Meerkat Manor until Mommy and Daddy came downstairs.

"Sweetheart," Mommy started, turning to face Daddy. "There is a strange child in our living room." She told him, pointing at me as she did so.

"That would, unfortunately, be our son, Dearest." Daddy growled. Mommy looked as if she had just had an epiphany.

"Oh, that's right! We have a son!" She smiled drunkly at me then continued. "Okay, get up, we have to go to the mall for some things." She grabbed my forearm and pulled me out the door. She tossed me in the back seat of the car and slammed the door shut. Daddy was already in the drivers' seat and the car was already started. Mommy got in the passenger seat and Daddy sped off in the direction of the mall.

Once there, they led me inside and abruptly lost me.

"Mommy? MOMMY!" I screamed, hoping that she would hear and come find me. "Mommy." I whispered, clinging to Shmee. All the people around me were starting to make me nervous. They were all carrying bags. Some big, some small, but all bags that you couldn't see through. For all I knew, they could be carrying torture devices around in those bags.
A large man walked over to me, probably to investigate what I was screaming about. He was wearing glasses and a blue 'Scumby' shirt.

"Hello, little boy. You look lost. Are you lost?" He asked in a friendly tone. I got a feeling that I shouldn't trust him, but he was being so nice to me. He couldn't possibly want to hurt me, if someone wanted to hurt you, they were mean.

Right?

So I told him what the problem was in my usual panicked tone.

"Um... my mom- I can't find my mom, and this place is scary! Everyone has bags! What's in all those bags?!!" I made my signature 'Squee' noise. That noise is what got me my nickname. Azley had heard me make that noise and she had given me the nickname 'Squee'.
The man knelt down and looked me in the eye, smiling nicely as he did so.

"Whoa, calm down kid. I'll help you- I know where your mom is. Yeah, I know where she is." I wasn't so sure about this, I had heard Azley's mom tell her not to talk to strangers whenever she left the house. I thought that I should probably stick to the same rule.

"Umm... I don't... I'm not supposed to talk to strangers... or-" I was cut off as the man grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the fire exit.

"Oh, sure you can, kid! Not everyone's a bad person, come on, I'll take you to your mom." We reached the exit and he pushed the doors open. "I think she's back here. Yeah, she's back here." He stepped out and set me down, looking around thoughtfully. "Hmmm... she'll be along in a little while. She told me she'd be here. Yeah, we'll just wait." I was starting to doubt the fact that the man knew my mom. He turned around and picked me up, setting me on the dumpster and leaning down so that we were at eye level. "Mmm... Well, since I helped you... don't you want to do something nice for me?? Huh, kid? Something while we wait for your mom?" I didn't respond so he continued. "Just close your eyes, and stay quiet, okay? Okay, little boy?" I was tired of him calling me 'little boy' or 'kid', so I decided to tell him my name.

"Todd." I told him, making him completely flip out.

"WHAT?! I DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW YOUR NAME. WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TELL ME YOUR NAME?!!" he screamed, picking me up and shaking me.
Out of no where, an iron pipe slammed into the side of the man's face. A spray of blood spattered me with the crimson droplets. I looked up to face the attacker, and found none other than my scary neighbor, holding an iron pipe behind his back.

He raised an eyebrow and smirked down at me.

"Todd? I like 'Squee' better." He informed me. Using the name that I had told him when we had first met. When he had broken into the house in need of some Bactine.
My scary neighbor  began to use the pipe as a thing to lean on and he tried to make conversation with me.

"Ahh, aren't malls revolting places? I came here to do some 'expressing' on that point when I saw you and your mom. You know, Squee, not to offend, but it seems your parents aren't exactly adept at the whole 'caring' thing." He dropped his pipe and walked over to a black bag labeled as 'A Black Bag'. "And it's your parents who should be teaching you these things, but... well, I just don't want you to think that this piece of shit is anything other than a pathetic, human defect. Nothing more." He unzipped the black bag and began to search through it. "Not a monster, not a bogeyman. Nothing but another reason to feel better about yourself. Understand that it's just a person-not worth devoting any nightmares to." He found what he was looking for and pulled it out. It was a knife with a smiley face on the handle. He turned to me and spoke with a psychotic gleam in his dark blue eyes. A small wind blew through the alleyway and ruffled his short black hair. I could see the print on his black long-sleeved shirt now, it was a copyright symbol with the word 'LOGO' printed underneath.  "Observe, and I'll prove it." He told me, turning to the creepy man, who was slowly beginning to regain consciousness. He grabbed the mans left wrist and spoke to him.

"You flaw. At least I'm under the delusion of doing something productive." My scary neighbor used the knife to cut off the man's hand. Cutting through flesh, muscle and bone with ease. He threw the severed limb at me, it landed at my feet with a -SPLAT-. I probably jumped two feet in the air. The creepy man was screaming and Scary Neighbor Man tried to turn this into a lesson.

"SEE!! Bones and tissue, tubes and fat!! All sustained by blood. Nothing more than a poorly tended machine. AND LOOK!!" He circled around the man and pulled out two odd devices. They were black half-circles, like the handle on a shovel. Attached to these handles were two very sharp looking hooks. Scary Neighbor Man continued to 'teach'. "It has a brain!!" He declared as he used his new devise to pull the man's head open, revealing a brain. "Fueled by the blood that races heavily in times of grotesquely heightened desires and vices!! You can see the matter and feel the substance, but eyes and hands are useless for sensing the rot and filth of ideas that drip from these things!!" I was freaking out. I had blood spattered all over my face and clothes and I had just learned what a brain looked like. My scary neighbor either didn't notice that I am eight, and don't want to know whatever it was that he was teaching, or he didn't care.

"Two species under one name -Human- separated only by the workings of their minds." He continued, the creepy man was, sadly, still alive. "This one is human only in appearance!! A clever disguise for a simple animal. The real humans are harder to find. Sometimes, it's easy to feel like you're suffocating in a world where the rotten ones are all you'll know, but don't ever lose your clarity!!" The creepy man's brain was almost fully revealed by now as Scary Neighbor Man continued. "Never forget that these things exist in all forms, in all places, in all colors!" He dropped the hooked handles and grabbed the creepy man's brain on either side of it, talking through this all. "Recognize this and know that you are better!! There is nothing wrong with feeling above these sacks which are so obviously fucked up!!!" He pulled the creepy man's brain out, killing him once and for all. He lifted the brain above his head in triumph, yelling out crazily. "REVEL IN THE SUPERIORITY OF YOUR PERCEPTION!!" He then threw the brain at the alley wall, spattering me with even more blood, plus adding on some brain tissue. My neighbor looked thoughtful for a moment, whereas I had finally stopped screaming, as I was paralyzed in shock.

"Hmm... of course, these are just my opinions- likely to be just as flawed as anyone else's. Um, really, I guess you should assume everyone's speaking out of some external influence. Believe in whatever makes sense to you." Realization dawned on Scary Neighbor Man at that moment. "Whoa... I guess all this excess was sort of pointless, then, wasn't it? Um, well, you better get going, it's Tuesday, and you know what that means- UFOs!" He then ran down the alley, screaming like the maniac he was.

I stood where I was for a moment, before having a mental freak-out and running out of the alley. I needed to get somewhere safe, and the first place that I thought of was the High School, where Talon was.
Once I was at the school, I ran into the office and up to the big desk where an old lady sat, going over papers.

"Excuse me, ma'am? I need to find Talon Casil?" I told her, being polite even though I was having a mental break-down. The lady looked at me, then filled out a green call slip and handed it to her Student Assistant. The student walked down the hallway and entered a classroom towards the end. The old lady  told me to sit down on one of the seats and wait for Talon to get here. The Student Assistant came back a few moments later, and Talon quickly followed. She took one look at me and her eyes got wide.

"Todd, what happened? Are you okay?" She asked, concern clear in her voice. She picked me up and carried me down the hall and into the girls' bathroom. She set me down on the sink and grabbed some of the paper towels out of the dispenser. She got them wet with water from the sink and began to wipe the blood off of my face and clothes. As she cleaned me up I tried to tell her what happened.

"Th-the mall, and cr-creepy man, pipe! Blood! BRAINS!" I broke down, tears ran down my face as she stopped cleaning me up. She dropped the bloody paper towels into the sink and hugged me close. I buried my head in her shoulder and cried for a while. She rubbed my back soothingly and I eventually stopped crying. We stayed like that for a few minutes before she leaned back and grabbed some more paper towels.

"Do not worry. You can tell me all about it when you are ready." She told me calmly as she got the next bunch of paper towels wet. She finished cleaning my face off, and she had gotten all of the brain matter off of me, but there were still blood stains on my black and white striped shirt.

"Take your shirt off and put this on." She instructed me, taking off her black trench coat and handing it to me. I did as she instructed, and she folded up my ruined shirt, setting it on the corner of the sink I was sitting on. Her coat was huge, but it covered me, and it was warm.
Talon picked me up and held me with one arm, my bloody shirt in the other. She walked back down to the office and asked the lady there for a hall pass. The lady gave her one and Talon carried me back to the classroom.

As we walked into the class room a lot of people looked at Talon funny. It was probably because she was carrying me. The kids all looked normal, except for three of them. One had green skin, which was a bit odd, one of them had really pale skin, and his hair spiked up in the front, bending somewhat to look like a scythe. And the other one had red eyes like Talon. His hair was also gelled up to look like horns, like Pepito. It was very odd.

Talon handed the scary looking teacher (That, for some odd reason, looked EXACTLY like mine) her hall pass and sat down behind the kid with the scythe hair. I sat on her lap and leaned back against her, trying to relax a bit. The kid with the scythe hair turned around in his seat and whispered to Talon.

"You have a kid???" He asked quietly, clearly shocked with the assumed fact. Talon's eyes got wide and she whispered back defensively.

"NO! He is my brother." The scythe hair kid nodded and turned back around so that he was facing the teacher. After a moment he turned around and faced us again.

"My name is Dib. What's your's?" He whispered to my older sister, sticking out his hand. She politely shook his hand quickly with her own gloved one, and then, letting go, she responded.

"My name is Talon, and this is my younger brother, Todd." She told him, gesturing to me. I quietly asked the newly dubbed 'Dib'.

"Didn't the teacher tell you what her name was at the beginning of class?" Because Talon was new, I assumed that the teacher would have told the class who the new student was. Dib smirked and whispered back.

"Probably, but I wasn't paying attention." He then looked back up at Talon. "Do you wanna sit with Zim and I at lunch?" He asked, attempting to make a friend.

"Sure, I have to run home first and grab Todd's lunch, but I would love to sit with you guys when I get back." She agreed. Dib seemed satisfied with her answer, and he turned around, paying attention to a lesson about how 'squirrels were evil and how they would doom us all eventually' for the rest of the period.

The bell for lunch rang and all of the students except for Dib, Talon, and the kid with the green skin ran out like their lives depended on it. After the crowd had passed, the green kid walked over to where Dib, Talon, and I were standing.

"Talon, this is Zim. Zim, this is Talon. She's gonna sit with us at lunch." Dib introduced. Zim nodded at Talon and turned, walking out the door after saying a polite "Nice to meet you."

Dib walked out the door next, and Talon and I followed. Dib and Zim walked towards the lunch room, whereas Talon carried me in the opposite direction, towards the front doors. She walked out and walked into the parking lot, heading towards a black, blue and red motorcycle. She got on the motorcycle and set me in front of her, bending over to put the keys in the ignition. The motorcycle started and made a loud roaring sound that startled me. Before Talon started driving, she placed a helmet on my head and buckled the strap under my chin, and then she carefully pulled out of the parking lot and headed towards home. Once there, she stopped the bike and put the kickstand down, pulling the key out of the ignition as well. She dismounted and helped me get off the seat. I kept the helmet on, because we would just be at the house for a little bit. We walked to the front of the house and Talon opened the door. We walked in and I stood by the door while she went to the kitchen. She opened the fridge and pulled out a small brown paper bag with the word 'Todd' written on one side. She closed the fridge and walked back over to me.

"Do you want to change into a new shirt?" She asked me in a nice tone. She didn't talk down to me like other people, she treated me like I was a big-kid and could make my own decisions if necessary. It was nice to be treated as an equal.

"No, I don't have any other shirts." I told her, I was fine with staying in her coat, it was warm.

She nodded and picked me up and headed outside, closing the door behind her and walking back to her motorcycle. She got on and bent down, picking me up and setting me in front of her once more. She then carefully drove off in the direction of the school. Once there, we entered the lunchroom and both scanned the room for any sign of Dib or Zim. I spotted Dib's scythe hair and pointed it out to Talon. She carried me over to the table and sat down next to Dib, across from Zim.

"Hello." They greeted us, Talon and I said 'hello' back and she handed me the lunch bag. I opened it to find a turkey sandwich sealed in a plastic zip-lock bag, some carrots in a similar bag, a Tupperware container with a bit of ranch, a small travel cup with milk, and a zip-lock bag with a brownie. Dib raised an eyebrow at the sight of my yummy lunch.

"Sheesh." He told me. "I wish I had your mom. That lunch looks great." I giggled at his misunderstanding, then told him in a serious tone.

"You can have her, just don't take my big sister away!" Dib gave me a confused look, so I explained. "Talon made my lunch. Mommy just loses me at the mall." I took the sandwich out of its bag and took a bite. It was delicious. I decided that I liked turkey sandwiches.

Dib and Zim poked at their school lunches, which didn't look very edible, before turning to look at Talon.

"Can you make us lunches?" Dib asked jokingly. Apparently Talon didn't know about humor, however.

"Sure." She replied in all seriousness. "Do you have any preferences?" Dib looked at my sister like she had three heads.

"Are you serious? You'll make us lunches?" He asked, clearly shocked. I had finished my sandwich and was now moving on to my carrots.

"Yes. Are there any food allergies or limitations that I should know of?" She tried again to get some sort of clue as to what she could feed them.

"Uh..." Dib was still getting over the shock of this new discovery, but he soon snapped out of it and replied. "Yeah, Zim doesn't eat meat. And, this is gonna sound really weird, but he can't have anything that contains water. I can eat anything." Talon didn't even bat an eyelash at the water thing, instead, she just wrote it down on a piece of scratch paper and put it in her pants pocket. I, however, looked up at 'Zim' and stared as I realized what he was. Green skin? Purple eyes? No ears or nose? HE IS AN ALIEN!!!!!
I gulped and looked away, finishing my carrots and ranch and beginning to eat my brownie. It was soft and moist. The chocolate chips had melted in the exposure to the heat in the lunchroom. It was really good.

After I was done eating I put the plastic containers in the bag and curled up on Talon's lap, ignoring the alien across from me, and closing my eyes and taking a small nap.

LINE BREAK

I woke up to the sound of a bell and looked around. I was in a classroom. The same one as before, actually. I felt myself being lifted and I looked up to see Talon. She held on tight so that I didn't slip, but not tight enough to hurt me, as she bent down and picked up her backpack. She slung one strap over her shoulder and stood up. Walking out of the classroom and down the hall, she exited the school.

We rode to the grocery store, which only took a few minutes because we were driving instead of walking. Once we were there and about to walk in the store, I tugged on her shirt to get her attention.

"Can I hold your hand please? I don't wanna get lost." I asked her in a small voice. Talon just nodded knowingly and held her hand out to me. I grabbed her hand and we walked in. Everything was going fine, until a few of the girls from Talon's school saw her holding my hand and walked up to her. These girls were all in their cheer leader uniforms, the leader had two weird straps showing above her skirt. I would have to ask Talon about that later. The leader sneered at Talon and spoke in a high-pitched and whiny-sounding voice.

"Hey, you, freak." Talon looked at her with a bored look on her face, as if she were used to being called a freak and it had gotten boring. "Yeah, I'm talkin' to you. You must be a real slut if you have a kid. Your what? Sixteen? And how old is the kid? He looks about nine. Sheesh. You must be a real slutty bitch. I wonder who the dad is." I looked up at Talon when her grip got tighter on my hand. She looked angry, the area around her eyes had gotten dark. It was scary. "I mean, I feel sorry for the kid, he's even uglier than you." Talon let got of my hand, then clenched it in a fist. She brought that hand up and punched the whiny-sounding girl in the nose. Blood spurted out of the girl's nose and she screamed. Her friends rushed towards her to help and Talon grabbed my hand, pulling me over to the meat isle. She grabbed some hamburger meat and some other stuff to make the meatloaf with. After that we headed over to the kids' clothing department, where she told me to pick out ten pairs of pajamas and eleven outfits, along with underwear and socks.

After I picked them out we walked over to the craft isle and Talon grabbed a few journals. She told me that I could pick out a few if I wanted, and then I could write down my feelings, or how my day was and stuff like that.

After I grabbed three journals, my sister payed for our stuff and we headed out of the store. Talon put the grocery bags in the two blue leather bags that were attached to the back sides of her motorcycle. We headed home and once we were inside, Talon handed me the grocery bags with my clothes in them and told me to please put them away. I came downstairs just as she was starting to make the meatloaf, so I sat on the couch and watched the discovery channel until dinner was ready.
I ate dinner while Talon cleaned the kitchen and put the leftovers away in the fridge. After I was done, she started a bath so that I could clean all of the blood residue off. After the bath I grabbed my new pajamas and I put them on.

They were cozy footsie pajamas that had Winnie the Pooh on them.

I climbed into my bed and began writing in one of my new journals.

Tuesday

August 7th, 2021

10:48 PM

Dear Notebook,

Yesterday Mommy and Daddy adopted a nice lady.
She is sixteen and they adopted her so that they wouldn't have to watch me all the time.
They told her that she was basically a permanent babysitter.
She is nice though.
She bought me this notebook, so that I could write down my feelings and stuff.
Her name is Talon.
She is pretty.
She wears a lot of black though.
Black pants, black boots, black hair, and black stripes on her shirts.
She has shirts in four different colors.
She has two black and dark blue striped shirts, two black and dark red striped shirts, two black and dark green striped shirts, and two black and dark gray striped shirts.
She has a big scar on her face.
I haven't asked her about it because I don't want her to get sad and not like me.
She has really pale skin.
Like the scary neighbor man.
I hope she doesn't meet him.
He might kill her.
Like he killed that man behind the mall...
That was scary.
I don't wanna have nightmares.
I think I'm going to go sleep in Talon's bed again.
She is the best sister ever.

From,
--Todd