Chapter in 'Can You Smile'

A strange presence was in the air without a doubt. It came down the path from the forest massive, trough the half open gate of the abandoned property and slowly made its way up. The movement was slow, accompanied by heavy and labored breathing echoing through the empty rooms as that something, that presence slowly dragged its feet up. The presence belonged to a man.

It was not a child, the movement was not as careful as that of a wandering kid. It was not a woman; the fear of an unknown place was not in the air. It was not an old person, despite the slow movements that lacked vitality and energy. The presence had a mixture of youth and such lack of strength it was contradicting itself.

Jiu rose from the gravel covered rooftop, where he had been laying in the sun next to the camp-fire he kept alit at all times, listening to the slow footsteps echoing around the property he had claimed his own for a while, and headed to his room. Someone was there – someone who had been walking for a while and probably had faced some obstacles, as the scent of sweat, dirt and blood was strong in the air. He slowly went to the corner of the hallway, watching a frame moving around his living space.

It was young male, probably not much older than Jiu himself. A main of long, probably chestnut-brown hair, reaching his shoulders, covered his face when he moved and Jiu couldn’t see his face. He was tall and so thin his clothes looked like tacky fabric bags pulled on him. His bony hands were going through Jiu’s cabinet, looking at the only 5 books Jiu owned. He looked at them and then put them back where they were and then continued looking around the room. His eyes stopped at the box in the far corner of the room and as soon as he opened it, his thin face lit in smile that even the mess that was his hair couldn’t hide and he screamed out gratitude to God, took a pack of noodles and pressed it against his still somehow chubby cheek, which contrasted with the rest of his skinny frame.

Jiu watched in incomprehension how the male sat on the floor and in complete awe chewed on dry noodles, gulping down water in one go. He probably hadn’t had any food for days and proper meal for at least a month. The way he looked made it clear he lived on the street. Attempts of looking semi decent were noticeable – probably using any public water holders as places were to wash and somehow not become a walking pile of filth. Jiu knew that feeling and knew how hard it was to live with that feeling.

Streets of Beijing were one of the filthiest he had ever seen, yet experienced. The filth had grown in layers trough the two years he had been stealing, robbing, breaking in houses, he was carrying all the Beijing filth on him. He knew how disgusting it was and how any chance of cleaning up had to be used.

Jiu observed the scene before his eyes for a moment and then stepped in the light, looking at how the male looked at the items in the box, before simply taking a bottle of water, probably to go. The longing in his eyes to such simple things was yet another thing Jiu could relate to.

“Who are you?” Jiu asked, definitely startling the male on the floor. The later looked at him, his eyes big in surprise and overflowing with so many feelings and emotions it was hard to read them all.  Fear was probably the strongest, but it was layered with insecurity, loneliness, feeling of being abandoned, despair – all sunk in his big, shiny eyes. On top of those a strange admiration, a sudden feeling of mysterious salvation were present and that was odd. Even more, despite the fear the male continued to stare at Jiu with the last two breaking trough fear.

Jiu tilted his head to the side and took a step closer, making the male to move back. The fear now grew stronger than any other emotion and that was fascinating. Jiu knew the feeling of fear; he knew how it looked on others and his own eyes. He had seen it in the reflections of all stores in downtown-Beijing -  a seven-year-old freak, with hair hundred times lighter than any of the people walking around him and ignoring the alone child with dirty clothes standing in the rain and looking at his own reflection. He had seen how the fear from his eyes turned in to anger and hatred to human kind, but the fear from the eyes he was looking at now, turned in to a plead and he had never seen that before.

 “W…Wait!” the male on the floor finally stammered out. Jiu’s eyes focused on the creature that in a way was a reflection in a distorting mirror of his own past, yet a movement in the window behind him made just one muscle in Jiu’s lower arm to tense for his loyal blade – the tool of his survival he had held since age of nine, to slip out of his sleeve and right in his hand.

The man on the floor started to stammer out gibberish of why he was here, but Jiu now set his focus on the window. The movements on the windowsill were first subtle but when his eyes met his prey’s, they sped up and as if driven by madness, the bird Jiu was watching launched forward and met Jiu’s blade mid-air, collapsing on the floor – few feathers floating in the air and slowly landing on the concrete floor.

The male on the floor yelped, looking at the dead bird until Jiu picked it up. It was a small one, so another one was probably needed. “You can stay, if you’re still hungry.” Jiu said and headed out of the room to the rooftop.

He knew the fear he saw and he knew how much someone to morph that fear in something else was needed. Maybe he could be the one to help the skinny male in his room, to let the fear that had already spread its poisonous roots in his soul, to disappear or atleast bloom in to something great, as Jiu's fear did bloom in hatred and desire for revenge.