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"In the Shadows"
By: Jade Lightning, a.k.a. Inuyashas-hanyougirl

The Story of Halo, Zenith, and Nadir

Part One: Facing Struggle

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   A middle-aged man walked down the sidewalk of a big city.  It was early evening, and he was eager to get home and watch his favorite prime time television shows.  It was raining outside, and he grumbled to himself for forgetting his umbrella that morning, despite hearing predictions for the storm on the morning news.  He picked up his pace.  His apartment building was just two blocks away.

   A roll of thunder crashed above him, the precursor, the opening act, to the following events of that night.

   The man passed an alleyway, and was violently attacked from behind by a shadow in the darkness.  A gloved hand came down hard on his right shoulder, right beneath his neck on his upper back.  A foot wearing a red shoe with spikes on the toe thrust out in front of him, causing him to trip and fall.  He fell to the ground, using his hands and arms to brace his fall, keeping him from cracking his skull on the pavement.

   The attacker, confined to the shadows thanks to the angle of the streetlight above them, stepped forward, slamming the side of their hand into his neck, hitting a pressure point and causing him to pass out.  Though he was only hit by the person twice, three times counting him being tripped by their foot, he was out cold.

   It was another textbook attack.  The man wasn’t bleeding.  He’d recover, but when he woke up he would be quite sore, and about fifty bucks poorer.  He’d also be without his Rolex watch, and his ring with a Tiger’s eye stone that belonged to his now dead grandfather.

   All thanks to this mugger in the night.

   The creature finally stepped into the light, bending over and quickly searching for his wallet, tucked in the folds of his windbreaker jacket.  She thumbed through it, pulling out all of the cash, granting him mercy by leaving his credit cards where they were, before returning it to the pocket from whence it came.  She carefully pulled the Tiger’s eye ring off of the index finger of his right hand, sticking it in her pants pocket.  Spotting the watch on his wrist, she removed it as well, putting it and the money in her other pocket.

   She let out a falsehearted giggle, before sprinting off back into the shadow of the alley.  Her magenta hair, highlighted with purple stripes and tipped in green, flew behind her, the majority of it pulled into a ponytail from behind her right ear.  On her ears were three different earrings, two silver studs, and a golden hoop at the top of each ear.  The silver stud on the outside of her ear had a blue gem dangling from it on both ears.  She wore a spiked hairpiece that looked like a black crown around her ponytail.

   Her bangs were long and flowing, colored just like the rest of her hair.  She wore green eye shadow to match the tips of them, and her green gloves were also the same shade.  Her shirt was orange with golden bands on the sleeves.  Her pants were red and black, frayed on the left leg.  She wore a dagger from her belt, one that belonged to her grandfather.  A plastic red heart hung upside-down from a chain latched to her belt loops.  Her shoes, red with a white stripe and a patch of orange at the tongues, had silver spikes on the toes.

   She raced through the maze of alleyways, a realm that only she and other thieves, homeless, and ne’er-do-well citizens of this city, Starshine Town, knew how to navigate.  She kept laughing to herself in this sadistic tone, pleased with the results of this latest robbery, happy that each time she managed to get what she wanted without badly hurting her victims, and without leaving evidence of her deeds.

   Sure, she was wrong to steal from them, but she didn’t care, even though at the same time she had no desire to hurt people…physically.

   She didn’t care about causing mental or emotional scars.  If she could live with them, so could everyone else.

   After a good run through the rain and darkness, she finished her journey.  An abandoned warehouse stood in Starshine Town’s historical downtown district, and she had made it her home.  Nobody else knew about it seemed, for she had the place to herself.  It was relatively comfortable.  The roof didn’t leak, and over time she had made it more like home.  She even got her hands on a television set that some people she accused of being wasteful were simply throwing away, even though it still worked, so they could replace it with a new plasma television set.

   Once she learned how to steal cable from the apartment building next door, she was able to find something to do to occupy her time.  It was better than sitting around and moping all day because of the kind of life she was given.

   She loved her home.

   As she entered the door, she shook the loose raindrops free from her hair.  Her white tipped tail drooped as she shivered.  Rubbing her arms to warm and dry them, she walked up to a mirror that hung from the wall.  She looked into it, her brown eyes gazing back at her.  She was a cat, and her name was Halo.

   Smiling, she giggled again and said, “That was another perfect day at the office Halo.  That man should be grateful.  I could have been much crueler to him than I was.  I could have beaten him within an inch of his life.  I could have stolen his wallet and sold his ID and Social Security Number to crooks for a lot of money.  I could have done the same with his credit cards.”

   Reaching into her pockets, she pulled out the money, the ring, and the watch.  Thumbing through the bills, she set them out on her dresser, letting them dry, as she returned her attention to the ring and watch.  Turning them over in her hands, she continued, “I am such a good person.  I’m born, only live long enough to remember my poor grandfather before he dies, and I’m left to the harsh streets and my own devices in an attempt to save myself from a life of fake love and broken promises.  Look at the graces I give other people.  I’m so good and kind it’s enough to overwhelm me.”

   The sadistic giggle faded.  Letting the ring and watch fall from her hands, landing next to the money, she sighed.  Halo pulled off her shoes and her gloves, before walking over to her bed and sitting down.  She had built the bed out of a broken bed frame she found in a dump.  The mattress was made of jackets, blankets, and clothes she had stolen from clotheslines.  Even her outfit was acquired in this manner.  She stole everything she had, but what choice did she have?  She was given nothing else, so she had to work for what she wanted.  Those that she stole from had the resources to replace what they lost, and besides, why should she care if they had to go without a little when she had to go without everything?

   Turning the television on, she sat with her knees bent, her head resting on them and her arms wrapped around them.  She let out another sigh and said, “To anyone who complains about having to go without something trivial, you all deserve to be stolen from more than anything.  Look what me and others have to live with on a daily basis.  All of you are such selfish, greedy, and filthy pigs.  You vulgar beasts won’t have earned the right to complain until you’ve had everything stripped from you and you’ve had to live like this from your childhood years.

   Halo leaned against the wall behind her, which acted as a headboard.  She was only fifteen years old, and already had lived ten years of her life on the streets.  Two-thirds of her life were lived in poverty, and she grew to hate those that looked down on the homeless.

   She sneered, watching some upper-crust citizen of the town complain about robberies and the so-called filth of beggars and homeless people crawling the streets of her perfect city.  Halo growled and shouted, “You filthy whore!  You’re the kind of trash that makes this city and all of mankind so dirty!  How are we supposed to live if we stop begging and stealing?  Maybe if you people who have more than you deserved tried to help us instead of putting us in prisons and making us even more bitter, we’d have no need to cause you trouble!  All of you need to go to hell, you stupid bitch.”

   At that moment, the door opened.  Halo looked to it as a roll of thunder and a flash of lightning entered before the creatures that opened it could.  In stepped a foot wearing a red shoe with a grey stripe down the middle, two black bands crossed in an X shape over the top of it.  As he stepped into the door, his dark grey pants, wrapped with black cords around the legs, the hems at the bottom striped in blue and green, he began to shake the water off of them.  He wore a red T-shirt with a black collar and black cuffs, the word “Down” written on it in black letters.  His hands, covered by white gloves with red cuffs, reached up to wring the water out of his hair, blue with brown tips.  His ears were also tipped in brown, and the bangs that swept between his ears, ending right above his eyes, were brown as well.  His eyes were purple, and he had brown, triangle-shaped marks above his eyes.  Though he had hedgehog ears, his face was quite unique.  It was shaped like the muzzle of a wolf, but was furless, and though it was a clue to his hybrid blood, it was a confusing one, as it was a feature that few recognized these days.  His tail, bent and tipped in brown, was also unrecognizable.

   He shared these features with the second creature to enter the room.  He wore black and red boots with large spikes emerging from the soles, much like soccer cleats, and silver blades on the backs of them.  He wore khaki pants, and had a whip hanging from his belt loops.  His T-shirt was dark green, and he wore a red and black handkerchief around his neck to conceal the collar.  As you looked to his face, you could begin to tell that these two were not just related, but were identical twins, although they had done as much as they could to differentiate themselves from each other.  Their hair was the main way they did this.

   While they both had purple eyes, the brown triangles above their eyes, the brown tipped ears, the same strange facial structure and tails, this twin had pierced his left ear, and wore a silver hoop at the tip.  His right ear was torn in the same place.  Where his brother had bangs between his eyes, this twin had a spiky Mohawk, still brown but tipped in red.  His hair hung to his shoulders and curled in, and was also tipped in brown.  He had layered his hair, letting the locks lower down on his head grow out very long, down to his waist, before dying them brown and tipping them in red.

   He ensured he wouldn’t be mistaken for his brother, but at the same time, you could tell they were twins.

   They were Halo’s two best friends…her only friends.

   “Who’s a stupid bitch?  Can we meet her?” the one with the Mohawk asked.

   The look of disgust on Halo’s face melted into a genuine smile, for it was in these two alone that Halo found any true care, acceptance, and friendship, and from one of them, something a bit more.  “Hey Zenith, Hey Nadir.  Sorry Nadir, but the bitch just left.  You wouldn’t have liked her anyway.  She thinks supposed “filth” like the three of us should be exterminated because we make the city trashy.”

   “Ouch, now that’s ice cold,” Nadir said, cringing and rolling his eyes, “A bitch like that needs to be in a cage with the rest of the dogs.”

   Zenith let out a laugh, walking over to the bed as he said, “So true.  I hope you don’t mind us dropping by Halo.  You did say we could come by whenever we wanted and it’s raining like mad out there.”

   Laughing, Nadir followed his brother and added, “Yeah, we really need to get a tent for our alley.  At least you’ve got a roof over your head.”

   As Zenith sat down on the bed beside Halo, she smirked and said, “There’s no need to be sarcastic Nadir.  I’ve told you two time and time again that you can stay here with me permanently if you like.  You two always try to act like men and say that you’re fine living a rugged life.  What you call rugged I call living in even deeper poverty than I do.  Why don’t you both stop being so egotistical and proud and stay here with me?”

   “Wow…that’s even colder,” Nadir answered, grinning as he sat in a chair beside Halo’s bed.

   Slapping Nadir on the shoulder, Halo replied, “Oh grow up Nadir.  I’m more convinced than ever that you’re the younger twin.”

   Leaning back in his seat and folding his arms behind his head, Nadir answered, “I can live with that.”

   “Oh you idiot,” Halo muttered.

   “Give it up, you know you love me,” Nadir said, grinning again.

   Putting his arm around Halo, Zenith said, “Alright, enough of that Nadir.  If she does love you it’s because no one else does and she feels sorry for you.”

   Kicking Zenith’s leg, Nadir replied, “Whatever Zenith.  If that’s the case, then that goes for you too.”

   Zenith rolled his eyes, grinning as he leaned back against the wall with Halo, still with an arm around her shoulders.  Finally he said, “We know you did Halo.  I guess we don’t have a good reason for not sticking around.  Honestly, I don’t think you want to have to deal with Nadir on a daily basis.”

   Nadir stuck his tongue out at Zenith, not saying a word.

   Zenith returned the action.  Halo let out a soft laugh as she placed her hand on Zenith’s chest, rubbing it gently.  “I’d deal with him if it meant I could spend more time with you.”

   He looked down at her, placing his other hand on her shoulder, holding her in his arms.  He smiled, gently rubbing her shoulder and replying, “Aww, I wouldn’t want to spoil your nights having to bring him along.”

   “Why don’t you just get a collar and leash for me so you can tie me up to a tree for God’s sake,” Nadir groaned, throwing his hands in the air as he sat up in his seat.

   Halo laughed and Zenith looked up at his twin.  A gleam twinkled in his purple eyes as he replied, “Hey, that’s not such a bad idea.  I could leave you tied up outside with bowls of food and water and Halo and I could actually enjoy ourselves.”

   “Go to hell Zenith,” Nadir scowled.

   “I will once my ticket gets here!” Zenith replied.

   “Alright, alright, that’s enough,” Halo cried, calming down from a hearty laugh as the twins teased each other.  They both looked to her, and after she calmed down, she added, “Seriously guys.  At least stay here tonight.  You’ll just get sick staying in the alleys.”

   Nadir stood up, walking over to a cooler where Halo kept her drinks and cold food and said, “Thanks Halo.  Maybe we should stick Zenith out there since he’s so badass.  He’ll survive unscathed and you and I can enjoy a quiet evening.”

   Sighing, Zenith replied, “Dammit Nadir, shut the hell up and get me a bottle of water while you’re over there.”

   “Could you get me a bottle of water too please Nadir?” Halo asked.

   Bending over to get two water bottles and a soft drink from the ice, Nadir muttered something to himself softly.  He closed the lid on the cooler, stood up, and as he walked back to them he replied, “Fine, fine with me, I’ll be your punching bag and your waiter.  Just make sure to leave a tip before you leave.”  He handed the water bottles to Zenith and Halo before sitting back down in his chair.  He opened his canned beverage, took a long swallow from it and said, “Those stupid city commissioners and all those fancy pants people want to get rid of us.  Putting us in prison ain’t gonna cut it.”

   Before Halo could let out a reply, Zenith jerked forward beside her, pulling the arm around her shoulders back so he could cover his mouth as he pulled the bottle of water away from his lips.  He coughed rather violently a couple of times, followed by a few more smaller coughs to get his breath back.

   “Zenith!  Are you alright?” Halo asked, rubbing his back as he leaned forward.

   After taking another swallow of his drink, Nadir replied, “Eh, Zenith’s been coughing like that since yesterday.  He’s just got a frog in his throat.”

   Halo turned to give Nadir a glare.  Nadir took notice of this and shrugged, but before he could defend himself Zenith took a sip of water and said, “It’s okay Halo, I’m fine.  I’ve just had a scratchy throat the past couple of days…it’s nothing.”

   Looking back to Zenith Halo replied, “Don’t you tell me it’s nothing.  You and Nadir sleep in that alley every night.  You stay out in the rain, it’s a wonder you two aren’t dead.”

   Zenith opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a terrible sneeze and another cough as he bent over, holding his arm tightly against his body and resting his forehead on the fist of his other hand.  He slowly eased down so he was lying down on Halo’s bed, pulling up his legs and tucking them under his arm at the knees.  He didn’t offer a reply to Halo after this.

   Nadir and Halo looked at each other, realizing that Zenith was stricken with more than just a scratchy throat.  Nadir got up from his chair and ran around to the other side of the bed, while Halo crawled across it to Zenith’s side.  “I told you something was wrong with him,” she said to Nadir as he knelt down beside the bed.

   Scowling briefly, Nadir shook Zenith gently and asked, “Yo Zenith, are you okay?  What’s wrong?”

   Zenith didn’t reply.  A soft moan escaped him as he tucked up into a tighter ball.  Halo put her right arm around and underneath of him and gently pulled him into her arms.  He had started to tremble ever so slightly, and Halo could feel this as she held him.  Looking to Nadir she said, “This is bad.”

   The remaining twin gazed at his brother, almost in shock of how suddenly Zenith went from being okay, to being so sick he was shaking and couldn’t speak.  Halo looked back to Zenith, and took the glove off of her right hand.  She held it up to Zenith’s forehead, her eyes widening the moment she touched it.

   “He’s burning up,” Halo said, her voice soft.  She, Nadir, and Zenith too, rarely showed such emotions, such as sadness and concern, but Zenith was sick, and meant a great deal to them both.  Something like this would be one of the few things that gave them reason to feel such worry.  Halo especially felt her heart struggle to beat against pressure weighing down on it, for she had given her heart to Zenith, and though she didn’t know if he felt the same, she loved him anyway.  Any concern she would give to Nadir’s welfare would be doubled if Zenith was the one in trouble.  Though she loved both of them, Nadir was more of a friend and brother.  Zenith was her true love.

   Putting such concerns aside in favor of looking after him, she said, “Nadir, go get a wet cloth for his head.  We’ve got to bring his fever down.”

   Nadir nodded, getting up to get a washrag and dip it in the melted water of the cooler.  Halo pulled herself and Zenith up to the head of the bed, as gently as she could so she wouldn’t cause him discomfort.  “It’s okay Zenith.  Nadir and I will look after you.”

   Though she didn’t see this, Zenith opened his eyes for a moment to look up at her.  Zenith had also opened his heart to Halo.  He was unsure of how she really felt, and to some extent he felt inferior compared to her.  Having grown up alone with Nadir and no father or mother to guide him, he had to work out these feelings for himself.  Two years had passed since he had first seen her, and he felt closer to her each day.  He was starting to see that she cared for him, but his mind was left to guess just how much that was.

   Still, for now this sickness that came over him took over his body.  By the time Halo had gotten to the head of the bed and returned her attention to him, he had closed his eyes again.  Halo gazed at him sadly as Nadir returned with the wet rag.  As he sat down beside her, he helped her place it on Zenith’s forehead.  He asked, “Why do we want to bring his fever down?  I thought a fever was what helped his body fight the illness.  Won’t bringing it down make it worse?”

   “Nadir you idiot, yes the fever fights the illness, but if it gets too high he could…well,” Halo fell silent before she finished that thought.  She and Nadir made eye contact, and Halo finally said, “It could be dangerous.  We don’t know what he’s sick with.  Should we assume it’s a cold and leave it at that?”

   Nadir gazed at his brother, filled with concern for his health.  Showing the more gentle side of his heart, Nadir reached up and brushed the bangs clear from Zenith’s closed eyes as he sighed.  “What else can we do Halo?  We can look after him now, but…if he gets much worse…”

   His eyes drifted to the television set.  The television special about the desire to clean up Starshine Town was winding down.  The mayor of the city closed it out with these final words.  “I can assure you my dear citizens of Starshine Town that every effort will be made to rid our beautiful city of dangerous criminals, thugs, and common filth that cause mayhem on our streets.  We’ll do everything we can to make Starshine Town the city where nobody settles for less, and everyone is treated with fairness and respect!  If we pull together, we can do it!”

   A fire erupted in Nadir’s purple eyes.  A low growl could be heard as he looked again to his ailing brother, and Halo, who held him with worried eyes as she gazed at him, not paying attention to the television.  Looking back to see the show ending, the low growl turned into a vicious scream.  Nadir rose up from his seat, screaming and yelling incoherently for a moment before grabbing the nearest object he could find, one of Halo’s shoes, and throwing it at the television set.

   “Damn you, you freaking piece of trash!” Nadir shouted, “Like hell you’ll make this city a place where everyone gets fairness and respect!  You call poor people like me who have nothing, NOTHING, trash, and then say you’ll respect everyone?  To hell with you!  Go to hell you sorry bastard!  You’d let us die on these streets and call it a tragedy, but arrest us and call us nothing more than a sin!  Go to fucking hell you bastard!”

   During all this, Zenith continued to shiver in Halo’s arms.  She held him closer to herself,  holding on to him, slightly shaken by Nadir’s violent shouting.  She looked up, only to see Nadir kneeling by the side of the bed, his face buried in his arms, and what sounded like weeping coming from his direction.

   He looked up, the anger given way to sadness.  He didn’t look directly at Halo, but she could see tears in his eyes.  “The sorry bastards…we’re born and abandoned by our parents, or whoever could take care of us.  We’re left all alone to fend for ourselves, and they call us garbage…something they’re ashamed of.  How were we any different from other people when we first started out?  How is treating us like nothing because of circumstances beyond our control considered fair?”

   Turning to look at Halo, he tried to wipe the tears from his eyes as he whispered, “What if Zenith doesn’t get better?  We can’t take him to get help.  What if…we lose him because of this?  Is it fair?  Or is it all part of their plan to make this city a better place to live?  Are we doing them a favor to just give up?   Is it fair that we have to suffer for their sake?”

   Halo couldn’t answer him.  A tear was threatening to spill over her eyes as well.  Not getting an answer, Nadir stood up slowly, sniffing the way the rest of his tears.  He muttered, “Well, I don’t know about you, but I hate them all.  I don’t care if they suffer when I steal from them.  They stole my happiness somehow, and they should be grateful I don’t take everything away from them in retaliation.  I wanna burn this city to the ground.  I want to slash and beat up whoever thinks I’m trash.  I’ll do whatever I can to hurt them, and at the same time prove to them that the true garbage in this city is a product of their selfish hearts.  Halo, if you ever once felt bad for hurting someone, don’t you ever feel that way again.  Those bastards deserve to hurt a little.”

   There were times when Halo felt bad for hurting people, but as tears fell from her eyes and landed on Zenith’s face, she begin to feel anger burn in her heart as well.  However, before she could dwell on it, her awareness was drawn to Zenith’s chest.  She noticed that he took much deeper, staggered breaths, as if he was having trouble breathing.  The fur on his forehead was soaked with perspiration; the shaking was getting worse.  The damp cloth had fallen away from him, and he was only getting warmer.

   “Nadir!” Halo cried.  It was all she could manage to say.

   Nadir ran to Zenith’s side, seeing the same worrying symptoms as Halo did.

   “Zenith!  Please, open your eyes!” Nadir cried, pleading with his twin.

   Halo closed her eyes, remembering her earlier anger.  She was filled with rage at the fact that the people of the city thought of her as nothing but garbage.  She felt no concern for any of them anymore.  They could all rot and suffer under her hand.  That man from earlier would be the last person she took it easy on.  The only people she cared about were herself, Nadir, and Zenith, and she was gonna do whatever she could to take care of them.

   Zenith was only getting worse.  Halo wasn’t going to let him die, no matter what it took to save him.

   Determination allowed her to fight off her tears.  “Nadir, we’re going to take Zenith to the hospital.”  She got up to put her shoes and raincoat on.

   “But Halo, the bill will be ridiculously high.  We couldn’t rob enough people in a month to pay it,” Nadir said.

   Halo glared at him and said, “Forget those stupid assholes!  Zenith is sick!  He could be dying!  What are they gonna do?  Let him die just because they don’t think we can pay them?  We’ll give them a fake address, fake names, everything, and when Zenith is better, we’ll run away from here!  I’d much rather live in a forest than live another minute in this stupid city!  We’ll mug some people while Zenith is getting better for cash, then we’ll bust out of the hospital during the night and just run away!  I will not let Zenith die!  I refuse!  Now pick him up and let’s go!”

   Nadir nodded, taking his brother in his arms and walking towards the door.  Halo stuffed all of her cash and jewelry into her pockets.  She grabbed the single blanket on the bed and tucked it around and over Zenith, trying to protect him from the rain.  As they headed for the door, Halo glanced back at the television.  The mayor was promoting all that he had just said in an ad that would now run on all local stations, advertising the campaign to make Starshine Town free of filth and fair to everyone.

   Filled with disgust, Halo charged at the television, ramming it off of its stand and into the wall.  The screen cracked as it fell to the floor, the back of it coming apart at the seams as it came to rest.  Smoke began to rise, and a fire broke out on the floor.

   She stared at the forming fire, a gleam forming in her eyes as a sadistic smile crept to her face again.  Nadir now stood beside her, staring at it too.  Neither of them felt any cause for alarm, even though they knew an apartment building with families in it stood right next door.

   “Let them burn…,” Halo murmured.  She grabbed her grandfather’s knife and fitted the sheath of it firmly on her belt.  She grabbed an umbrella, and as she opened it she looked to Nadir and said, “To hell with all of them.  At least the rain that made Zenith so sick might offer them a chance at life.  The assholes.”

   Nadir let out a laugh, finding the same pleasure from it all that Halo did.  The fire began to spread rapidly, the electricity from the wall feeding it.  The two ran for the door, only pausing long enough for Halo to grab the one lamp in the room and throw it to the floor, starting another fire to add to the first.

   “Let’s hurry Nadir!  Zenith needs help!” Halo said.

   They left the room behind them, dark, the only light coming from the billowing flames.  The rain poured harder and colder, and with Halo holding her umbrella over all three of them, they ran as fast as they could to get Zenith to the hospital, not caring who they had to hurt, threaten, and possibly kill in order to save his life.  They were all each other had, and they were not going to lose Zenith, no matter what the cost.

   Anger burned in their hearts, driving their urge to save him.  Nadir was desperate to save the life of his twin brother; Halo was fighting for the life of the one she loved.  Two different reasons drove them, but it was enough to drive them to serious lengths.

   By the time they arrived at the hospital, Zenith’s breathing was more labored than before, his fever getting higher by the minute.  They burst into the hospital through the front doors, almost too impatient to wait for the automatic doors to slide open.  They rushed past personnel telling them to stop, not caring who they defied.  They pushed past people in wheelchairs, patients on gurneys, and medical equipment, ramming themselves into whatever stood in their way.

   They followed the signs that pointed to the Emergency Room, deaf to people shouting at them for them to stop.  By the time they arrived at the emergency room, they were almost out of the breath.

   All eyes were on them, and Nadir shouted, “My brother can barely breathe!  Somebody needs to help him now!”

   As those chasing them caught up to them, Nadir glanced back at them, pulling his whip from its holder and cracking it once.  “Back off you idiots!”

   They stopped, frozen in fear.  A doctor approached Halo, looking carefully at Zenith, able to see how dire the situation had become.  He made eye contact with Halo, who growled at him softly.  “He’s my fiancé, and this is his twin brother.  He’s having trouble breathing, his fever is getting worse, he’s covered in a cold sweat, and trembling so hard you’d think he was freezing!  Now if you wanna fill out paperwork that’s fine with me, but I refuse to let him die while you sit here and try to figure out whether he’s worth saving or not.  If this town is as wonderful as our mayor says it is, you’ll treat Zenith now and ask questions later!”

   Gasps and murmurs filled the room.  Apparently many of them were more than aware of the mayor’s new campaign for grooming up the city, and if they had any doubts about treating Zenith or any concerns at Nadir and Halo’s behavior, they were able to put them off for now.  A nurse wheeled up a gurney and said, “Here, lay him down on this.”

   Nadir glared at the woman.  For many years Zenith was all Nadir had.  Zenith was his brother, his twin brother, his identical twin brother, and even though their mother was gone and they had no idea if she cared, the way they were born and how they had grown meant they were closer than any two people on the planet could ever hope to be.  Nadir was almost unwilling to leave his precious brother in her care.  A soft growl could be heard as he gently laid Zenith down on the stretcher, realizing he had no other choice if he wanted to save his brother’s life.

   He rubbed Zenith’s head and whispered, “You better save him.  If you hurt him in any way, shape, or form, I won’t let you live it down.”

   The nurse’s eyes widened.  She tried to smile as she said, “I promise we won’t hurt your brother, we’ll do everything we can.”

   In a flash, they began to wheel Zenith down the hallway.  Nadir gazed at them as they disappeared from his sight, feeling tears enter his eyes again.  Halo stood beside him and did the same.  The doctor from before came to them and said, “I won’t ask any questions about what you did.  It’s clear to me that you love him and are worried for his life.   Please, be patient with us.  The nurse here will help you fill out the paperwork and we’ll do everything we can for your brother.”

   Halo and Nadir looked up at the doctor and simply nodded.  After this, he walked off down the hallway to assist the fight to save Zenith.  The nurse behind them walked up to them with a clipboard and said, “I’ll fill everything out, you just need to answer a few questions for me.  I know you sir are his twin brother, and you ma’am are his fiancée.  Can you give me your address?”

   Nadir and Halo looked at each other, remembering they said they would lie about everything.  A sadistic smile came to Halo’s lips only briefly, giving way to one feigning sincerity as she replied, “We live in that apartment building that stands next door to the abandoned warehouse a few blocks away on Cayman Street.”

   The nurse wrote down Halo’s reply before asking, “Apartment number?”

   “507,” Nadir answered.

   The nurse wrote down Nadir’s answer before saying, “This might take a few minutes.  Come over here with me to the waiting room.”

   Nadir and Halo nodded.  As they followed the nurse, they looked to each other, wanting to enjoy lying to these people but finding they couldn’t do so.  Their hearts were drowned in fear for Zenith’s life, and now the only thing that lying was, was a means to both theirs and Zenith’s survival.

Description
"In the Shadows"
By: Jade Lightning, a.k.a. Inuyashas-hanyougirl

The Story of Halo, Zenith, and Nadir

Part One: Facing Struggle

-----

   A middle-aged man walked down the sidewalk of a big city.  It was early evening, and he was eager to get home and watch his favorite prime time television shows.  It was raining outside, and he grumbled to himself for forgetting his umbrella that morning, despite hearing predictions for the storm on the morning news.  He picked up his pace.  His apartment building was just two blocks away.

   A roll of thunder crashed above him, the precursor, the opening act, to the following events of that night.

   The man passed an alleyway, and was violently attacked from behind by a shadow in the darkness.  A gloved hand came down hard on his right shoulder, right beneath his neck on his upper back.  A foot wearing a red shoe with spikes on the toe thrust out in front of him, causing him to trip and fall.  He fell to the ground, using his hands and arms to brace his fall, keeping him from cracking his skull on the pavement.

   The attacker, confined to the shadows thanks to the angle of the streetlight above them, stepped forward, slamming the side of their hand into his neck, hitting a pressure point and causing him to pass out.  Though he was only hit by the person twice, three times counting him being tripped by their foot, he was out cold.

   It was another textbook attack.  The man wasn’t bleeding.  He’d recover, but when he woke up he would be quite sore, and about fifty bucks poorer.  He’d also be without his Rolex watch, and his ring with a Tiger’s eye stone that belonged to his now dead grandfather.

   All thanks to this mugger in the night.

   The creature finally stepped into the light, bending over and quickly searching for his wallet, tucked in the folds of his windbreaker jacket.  She thumbed through it, pulling out all of the cash, granting him mercy by leaving his credit cards where they were, before returning it to the pocket from whence it came.  She carefully pulled the Tiger’s eye ring off of the index finger of his right hand, sticking it in her pants pocket.  Spotting the watch on his wrist, she removed it as well, putting it and the money in her other pocket.

   She let out a falsehearted giggle, before sprinting off back into the shadow of the alley.  Her magenta hair, highlighted with purple stripes and tipped in green, flew behind her, the majority of it pulled into a ponytail from behind her right ear.  On her ears were three different earrings, two silver studs, and a golden hoop at the top of each ear.  The silver stud on the outside of her ear had a blue gem dangling from it on both ears.  She wore a spiked hairpiece that looked like a black crown around her ponytail.

   Her bangs were long and flowing, colored just like the rest of her hair.  She wore green eye shadow to match the tips of them, and her green gloves were also the same shade.  Her shirt was orange with golden bands on the sleeves.  Her pants were red and black, frayed on the left leg.  She wore a dagger from her belt, one that belonged to her grandfather.  A plastic red heart hung upside-down from a chain latched to her belt loops.  Her shoes, red with a white stripe and a patch of orange at the tongues, had silver spikes on the toes.

   She raced through the maze of alleyways, a realm that only she and other thieves, homeless, and ne’er-do-well citizens of this city, Starshine Town, knew how to navigate.  She kept laughing to herself in this sadistic tone, pleased with the results of this latest robbery, happy that each time she managed to get what she wanted without badly hurting her victims, and without leaving evidence of her deeds.

   Sure, she was wrong to steal from them, but she didn’t care, even though at the same time she had no desire to hurt people…physically.

   She didn’t care about causing mental or emotional scars.  If she could live with them, so could everyone else.

   After a good run through the rain and darkness, she finished her journey.  An abandoned warehouse stood in Starshine Town’s historical downtown district, and she had made it her home.  Nobody else knew about it seemed, for she had the place to herself.  It was relatively comfortable.  The roof didn’t leak, and over time she had made it more like home.  She even got her hands on a television set that some people she accused of being wasteful were simply throwing away, even though it still worked, so they could replace it with a new plasma television set.

   Once she learned how to steal cable from the apartment building next door, she was able to find something to do to occupy her time.  It was better than sitting around and moping all day because of the kind of life she was given.

   She loved her home.

   As she entered the door, she shook the loose raindrops free from her hair.  Her white tipped tail drooped as she shivered.  Rubbing her arms to warm and dry them, she walked up to a mirror that hung from the wall.  She looked into it, her brown eyes gazing back at her.  She was a cat, and her name was Halo.

   Smiling, she giggled again and said, “That was another perfect day at the office Halo.  That man should be grateful.  I could have been much crueler to him than I was.  I could have beaten him within an inch of his life.  I could have stolen his wallet and sold his ID and Social Security Number to crooks for a lot of money.  I could have done the same with his credit cards.”

   Reaching into her pockets, she pulled out the money, the ring, and the watch.  Thumbing through the bills, she set them out on her dresser, letting them dry, as she returned her attention to the ring and watch.  Turning them over in her hands, she continued, “I am such a good person.  I’m born, only live long enough to remember my poor grandfather before he dies, and I’m left to the harsh streets and my own devices in an attempt to save myself from a life of fake love and broken promises.  Look at the graces I give other people.  I’m so good and kind it’s enough to overwhelm me.”

   The sadistic giggle faded.  Letting the ring and watch fall from her hands, landing next to the money, she sighed.  Halo pulled off her shoes and her gloves, before walking over to her bed and sitting down.  She had built the bed out of a broken bed frame she found in a dump.  The mattress was made of jackets, blankets, and clothes she had stolen from clotheslines.  Even her outfit was acquired in this manner.  She stole everything she had, but what choice did she have?  She was given nothing else, so she had to work for what she wanted.  Those that she stole from had the resources to replace what they lost, and besides, why should she care if they had to go without a little when she had to go without everything?

   Turning the television on, she sat with her knees bent, her head resting on them and her arms wrapped around them.  She let out another sigh and said, “To anyone who complains about having to go without something trivial, you all deserve to be stolen from more than anything.  Look what me and others have to live with on a daily basis.  All of you are such selfish, greedy, and filthy pigs.  You vulgar beasts won’t have earned the right to complain until you’ve had everything stripped from you and you’ve had to live like this from your childhood years.

   Halo leaned against the wall behind her, which acted as a headboard.  She was only fifteen years old, and already had lived ten years of her life on the streets.  Two-thirds of her life were lived in poverty, and she grew to hate those that looked down on the homeless.

   She sneered, watching some upper-crust citizen of the town complain about robberies and the so-called filth of beggars and homeless people crawling the streets of her perfect city.  Halo growled and shouted, “You filthy whore!  You’re the kind of trash that makes this city and all of mankind so dirty!  How are we supposed to live if we stop begging and stealing?  Maybe if you people who have more than you deserved tried to help us instead of putting us in prisons and making us even more bitter, we’d have no need to cause you trouble!  All of you need to go to hell, you stupid bitch.”

   At that moment, the door opened.  Halo looked to it as a roll of thunder and a flash of lightning entered before the creatures that opened it could.  In stepped a foot wearing a red shoe with a grey stripe down the middle, two black bands crossed in an X shape over the top of it.  As he stepped into the door, his dark grey pants, wrapped with black cords around the legs, the hems at the bottom striped in blue and green, he began to shake the water off of them.  He wore a red T-shirt with a black collar and black cuffs, the word “Down” written on it in black letters.  His hands, covered by white gloves with red cuffs, reached up to wring the water out of his hair, blue with brown tips.  His ears were also tipped in brown, and the bangs that swept between his ears, ending right above his eyes, were brown as well.  His eyes were purple, and he had brown, triangle-shaped marks above his eyes.  Though he had hedgehog ears, his face was quite unique.  It was shaped like the muzzle of a wolf, but was furless, and though it was a clue to his hybrid blood, it was a confusing one, as it was a feature that few recognized these days.  His tail, bent and tipped in brown, was also unrecognizable.

   He shared these features with the second creature to enter the room.  He wore black and red boots with large spikes emerging from the soles, much like soccer cleats, and silver blades on the backs of them.  He wore khaki pants, and had a whip hanging from his belt loops.  His T-shirt was dark green, and he wore a red and black handkerchief around his neck to conceal the collar.  As you looked to his face, you could begin to tell that these two were not just related, but were identical twins, although they had done as much as they could to differentiate themselves from each other.  Their hair was the main way they did this.

   While they both had purple eyes, the brown triangles above their eyes, the brown tipped ears, the same strange facial structure and tails, this twin had pierced his left ear, and wore a silver hoop at the tip.  His right ear was torn in the same place.  Where his brother had bangs between his eyes, this twin had a spiky Mohawk, still brown but tipped in red.  His hair hung to his shoulders and curled in, and was also tipped in brown.  He had layered his hair, letting the locks lower down on his head grow out very long, down to his waist, before dying them brown and tipping them in red.

   He ensured he wouldn’t be mistaken for his brother, but at the same time, you could tell they were twins.

   They were Halo’s two best friends…her only friends.

   “Who’s a stupid bitch?  Can we meet her?” the one with the Mohawk asked.

   The look of disgust on Halo’s face melted into a genuine smile, for it was in these two alone that Halo found any true care, acceptance, and friendship, and from one of them, something a bit more.  “Hey Zenith, Hey Nadir.  Sorry Nadir, but the bitch just left.  You wouldn’t have liked her anyway.  She thinks supposed “filth” like the three of us should be exterminated because we make the city trashy.”

   “Ouch, now that’s ice cold,” Nadir said, cringing and rolling his eyes, “A bitch like that needs to be in a cage with the rest of the dogs.”

   Zenith let out a laugh, walking over to the bed as he said, “So true.  I hope you don’t mind us dropping by Halo.  You did say we could come by whenever we wanted and it’s raining like mad out there.”

   Laughing, Nadir followed his brother and added, “Yeah, we really need to get a tent for our alley.  At least you’ve got a roof over your head.”

   As Zenith sat down on the bed beside Halo, she smirked and said, “There’s no need to be sarcastic Nadir.  I’ve told you two time and time again that you can stay here with me permanently if you like.  You two always try to act like men and say that you’re fine living a rugged life.  What you call rugged I call living in even deeper poverty than I do.  Why don’t you both stop being so egotistical and proud and stay here with me?”

   “Wow…that’s even colder,” Nadir answered, grinning as he sat in a chair beside Halo’s bed.

   Slapping Nadir on the shoulder, Halo replied, “Oh grow up Nadir.  I’m more convinced than ever that you’re the younger twin.”

   Leaning back in his seat and folding his arms behind his head, Nadir answered, “I can live with that.”

   “Oh you idiot,” Halo muttered.

   “Give it up, you know you love me,” Nadir said, grinning again.

   Putting his arm around Halo, Zenith said, “Alright, enough of that Nadir.  If she does love you it’s because no one else does and she feels sorry for you.”

   Kicking Zenith’s leg, Nadir replied, “Whatever Zenith.  If that’s the case, then that goes for you too.”

   Zenith rolled his eyes, grinning as he leaned back against the wall with Halo, still with an arm around her shoulders.  Finally he said, “We know you did Halo.  I guess we don’t have a good reason for not sticking around.  Honestly, I don’t think you want to have to deal with Nadir on a daily basis.”

   Nadir stuck his tongue out at Zenith, not saying a word.

   Zenith returned the action.  Halo let out a soft laugh as she placed her hand on Zenith’s chest, rubbing it gently.  “I’d deal with him if it meant I could spend more time with you.”

   He looked down at her, placing his other hand on her shoulder, holding her in his arms.  He smiled, gently rubbing her shoulder and replying, “Aww, I wouldn’t want to spoil your nights having to bring him along.”

   “Why don’t you just get a collar and leash for me so you can tie me up to a tree for God’s sake,” Nadir groaned, throwing his hands in the air as he sat up in his seat.

   Halo laughed and Zenith looked up at his twin.  A gleam twinkled in his purple eyes as he replied, “Hey, that’s not such a bad idea.  I could leave you tied up outside with bowls of food and water and Halo and I could actually enjoy ourselves.”

   “Go to hell Zenith,” Nadir scowled.

   “I will once my ticket gets here!” Zenith replied.

   “Alright, alright, that’s enough,” Halo cried, calming down from a hearty laugh as the twins teased each other.  They both looked to her, and after she calmed down, she added, “Seriously guys.  At least stay here tonight.  You’ll just get sick staying in the alleys.”

   Nadir stood up, walking over to a cooler where Halo kept her drinks and cold food and said, “Thanks Halo.  Maybe we should stick Zenith out there since he’s so badass.  He’ll survive unscathed and you and I can enjoy a quiet evening.”

   Sighing, Zenith replied, “Dammit Nadir, shut the hell up and get me a bottle of water while you’re over there.”

   “Could you get me a bottle of water too please Nadir?” Halo asked.

   Bending over to get two water bottles and a soft drink from the ice, Nadir muttered something to himself softly.  He closed the lid on the cooler, stood up, and as he walked back to them he replied, “Fine, fine with me, I’ll be your punching bag and your waiter.  Just make sure to leave a tip before you leave.”  He handed the water bottles to Zenith and Halo before sitting back down in his chair.  He opened his canned beverage, took a long swallow from it and said, “Those stupid city commissioners and all those fancy pants people want to get rid of us.  Putting us in prison ain’t gonna cut it.”

   Before Halo could let out a reply, Zenith jerked forward beside her, pulling the arm around her shoulders back so he could cover his mouth as he pulled the bottle of water away from his lips.  He coughed rather violently a couple of times, followed by a few more smaller coughs to get his breath back.

   “Zenith!  Are you alright?” Halo asked, rubbing his back as he leaned forward.

   After taking another swallow of his drink, Nadir replied, “Eh, Zenith’s been coughing like that since yesterday.  He’s just got a frog in his throat.”

   Halo turned to give Nadir a glare.  Nadir took notice of this and shrugged, but before he could defend himself Zenith took a sip of water and said, “It’s okay Halo, I’m fine.  I’ve just had a scratchy throat the past couple of days…it’s nothing.”

   Looking back to Zenith Halo replied, “Don’t you tell me it’s nothing.  You and Nadir sleep in that alley every night.  You stay out in the rain, it’s a wonder you two aren’t dead.”

   Zenith opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a terrible sneeze and another cough as he bent over, holding his arm tightly against his body and resting his forehead on the fist of his other hand.  He slowly eased down so he was lying down on Halo’s bed, pulling up his legs and tucking them under his arm at the knees.  He didn’t offer a reply to Halo after this.

   Nadir and Halo looked at each other, realizing that Zenith was stricken with more than just a scratchy throat.  Nadir got up from his chair and ran around to the other side of the bed, while Halo crawled across it to Zenith’s side.  “I told you something was wrong with him,” she said to Nadir as he knelt down beside the bed.

   Scowling briefly, Nadir shook Zenith gently and asked, “Yo Zenith, are you okay?  What’s wrong?”

   Zenith didn’t reply.  A soft moan escaped him as he tucked up into a tighter ball.  Halo put her right arm around and underneath of him and gently pulled him into her arms.  He had started to tremble ever so slightly, and Halo could feel this as she held him.  Looking to Nadir she said, “This is bad.”

   The remaining twin gazed at his brother, almost in shock of how suddenly Zenith went from being okay, to being so sick he was shaking and couldn’t speak.  Halo looked back to Zenith, and took the glove off of her right hand.  She held it up to Zenith’s forehead, her eyes widening the moment she touched it.

   “He’s burning up,” Halo said, her voice soft.  She, Nadir, and Zenith too, rarely showed such emotions, such as sadness and concern, but Zenith was sick, and meant a great deal to them both.  Something like this would be one of the few things that gave them reason to feel such worry.  Halo especially felt her heart struggle to beat against pressure weighing down on it, for she had given her heart to Zenith, and though she didn’t know if he felt the same, she loved him anyway.  Any concern she would give to Nadir’s welfare would be doubled if Zenith was the one in trouble.  Though she loved both of them, Nadir was more of a friend and brother.  Zenith was her true love.

   Putting such concerns aside in favor of looking after him, she said, “Nadir, go get a wet cloth for his head.  We’ve got to bring his fever down.”

   Nadir nodded, getting up to get a washrag and dip it in the melted water of the cooler.  Halo pulled herself and Zenith up to the head of the bed, as gently as she could so she wouldn’t cause him discomfort.  “It’s okay Zenith.  Nadir and I will look after you.”

   Though she didn’t see this, Zenith opened his eyes for a moment to look up at her.  Zenith had also opened his heart to Halo.  He was unsure of how she really felt, and to some extent he felt inferior compared to her.  Having grown up alone with Nadir and no father or mother to guide him, he had to work out these feelings for himself.  Two years had passed since he had first seen her, and he felt closer to her each day.  He was starting to see that she cared for him, but his mind was left to guess just how much that was.

   Still, for now this sickness that came over him took over his body.  By the time Halo had gotten to the head of the bed and returned her attention to him, he had closed his eyes again.  Halo gazed at him sadly as Nadir returned with the wet rag.  As he sat down beside her, he helped her place it on Zenith’s forehead.  He asked, “Why do we want to bring his fever down?  I thought a fever was what helped his body fight the illness.  Won’t bringing it down make it worse?”

   “Nadir you idiot, yes the fever fights the illness, but if it gets too high he could…well,” Halo fell silent before she finished that thought.  She and Nadir made eye contact, and Halo finally said, “It could be dangerous.  We don’t know what he’s sick with.  Should we assume it’s a cold and leave it at that?”

   Nadir gazed at his brother, filled with concern for his health.  Showing the more gentle side of his heart, Nadir reached up and brushed the bangs clear from Zenith’s closed eyes as he sighed.  “What else can we do Halo?  We can look after him now, but…if he gets much worse…”

   His eyes drifted to the television set.  The television special about the desire to clean up Starshine Town was winding down.  The mayor of the city closed it out with these final words.  “I can assure you my dear citizens of Starshine Town that every effort will be made to rid our beautiful city of dangerous criminals, thugs, and common filth that cause mayhem on our streets.  We’ll do everything we can to make Starshine Town the city where nobody settles for less, and everyone is treated with fairness and respect!  If we pull together, we can do it!”

   A fire erupted in Nadir’s purple eyes.  A low growl could be heard as he looked again to his ailing brother, and Halo, who held him with worried eyes as she gazed at him, not paying attention to the television.  Looking back to see the show ending, the low growl turned into a vicious scream.  Nadir rose up from his seat, screaming and yelling incoherently for a moment before grabbing the nearest object he could find, one of Halo’s shoes, and throwing it at the television set.

   “Damn you, you freaking piece of trash!” Nadir shouted, “Like hell you’ll make this city a place where everyone gets fairness and respect!  You call poor people like me who have nothing, NOTHING, trash, and then say you’ll respect everyone?  To hell with you!  Go to hell you sorry bastard!  You’d let us die on these streets and call it a tragedy, but arrest us and call us nothing more than a sin!  Go to fucking hell you bastard!”

   During all this, Zenith continued to shiver in Halo’s arms.  She held him closer to herself,  holding on to him, slightly shaken by Nadir’s violent shouting.  She looked up, only to see Nadir kneeling by the side of the bed, his face buried in his arms, and what sounded like weeping coming from his direction.

   He looked up, the anger given way to sadness.  He didn’t look directly at Halo, but she could see tears in his eyes.  “The sorry bastards…we’re born and abandoned by our parents, or whoever could take care of us.  We’re left all alone to fend for ourselves, and they call us garbage…something they’re ashamed of.  How were we any different from other people when we first started out?  How is treating us like nothing because of circumstances beyond our control considered fair?”

   Turning to look at Halo, he tried to wipe the tears from his eyes as he whispered, “What if Zenith doesn’t get better?  We can’t take him to get help.  What if…we lose him because of this?  Is it fair?  Or is it all part of their plan to make this city a better place to live?  Are we doing them a favor to just give up?   Is it fair that we have to suffer for their sake?”

   Halo couldn’t answer him.  A tear was threatening to spill over her eyes as well.  Not getting an answer, Nadir stood up slowly, sniffing the way the rest of his tears.  He muttered, “Well, I don’t know about you, but I hate them all.  I don’t care if they suffer when I steal from them.  They stole my happiness somehow, and they should be grateful I don’t take everything away from them in retaliation.  I wanna burn this city to the ground.  I want to slash and beat up whoever thinks I’m trash.  I’ll do whatever I can to hurt them, and at the same time prove to them that the true garbage in this city is a product of their selfish hearts.  Halo, if you ever once felt bad for hurting someone, don’t you ever feel that way again.  Those bastards deserve to hurt a little.”

   There were times when Halo felt bad for hurting people, but as tears fell from her eyes and landed on Zenith’s face, she begin to feel anger burn in her heart as well.  However, before she could dwell on it, her awareness was drawn to Zenith’s chest.  She noticed that he took much deeper, staggered breaths, as if he was having trouble breathing.  The fur on his forehead was soaked with perspiration; the shaking was getting worse.  The damp cloth had fallen away from him, and he was only getting warmer.

   “Nadir!” Halo cried.  It was all she could manage to say.

   Nadir ran to Zenith’s side, seeing the same worrying symptoms as Halo did.

   “Zenith!  Please, open your eyes!” Nadir cried, pleading with his twin.

   Halo closed her eyes, remembering her earlier anger.  She was filled with rage at the fact that the people of the city thought of her as nothing but garbage.  She felt no concern for any of them anymore.  They could all rot and suffer under her hand.  That man from earlier would be the last person she took it easy on.  The only people she cared about were herself, Nadir, and Zenith, and she was gonna do whatever she could to take care of them.

   Zenith was only getting worse.  Halo wasn’t going to let him die, no matter what it took to save him.

   Determination allowed her to fight off her tears.  “Nadir, we’re going to take Zenith to the hospital.”  She got up to put her shoes and raincoat on.

   “But Halo, the bill will be ridiculously high.  We couldn’t rob enough people in a month to pay it,” Nadir said.

   Halo glared at him and said, “Forget those stupid assholes!  Zenith is sick!  He could be dying!  What are they gonna do?  Let him die just because they don’t think we can pay them?  We’ll give them a fake address, fake names, everything, and when Zenith is better, we’ll run away from here!  I’d much rather live in a forest than live another minute in this stupid city!  We’ll mug some people while Zenith is getting better for cash, then we’ll bust out of the hospital during the night and just run away!  I will not let Zenith die!  I refuse!  Now pick him up and let’s go!”

   Nadir nodded, taking his brother in his arms and walking towards the door.  Halo stuffed all of her cash and jewelry into her pockets.  She grabbed the single blanket on the bed and tucked it around and over Zenith, trying to protect him from the rain.  As they headed for the door, Halo glanced back at the television.  The mayor was promoting all that he had just said in an ad that would now run on all local stations, advertising the campaign to make Starshine Town free of filth and fair to everyone.

   Filled with disgust, Halo charged at the television, ramming it off of its stand and into the wall.  The screen cracked as it fell to the floor, the back of it coming apart at the seams as it came to rest.  Smoke began to rise, and a fire broke out on the floor.

   She stared at the forming fire, a gleam forming in her eyes as a sadistic smile crept to her face again.  Nadir now stood beside her, staring at it too.  Neither of them felt any cause for alarm, even though they knew an apartment building with families in it stood right next door.

   “Let them burn…,” Halo murmured.  She grabbed her grandfather’s knife and fitted the sheath of it firmly on her belt.  She grabbed an umbrella, and as she opened it she looked to Nadir and said, “To hell with all of them.  At least the rain that made Zenith so sick might offer them a chance at life.  The assholes.”

   Nadir let out a laugh, finding the same pleasure from it all that Halo did.  The fire began to spread rapidly, the electricity from the wall feeding it.  The two ran for the door, only pausing long enough for Halo to grab the one lamp in the room and throw it to the floor, starting another fire to add to the first.

   “Let’s hurry Nadir!  Zenith needs help!” Halo said.

   They left the room behind them, dark, the only light coming from the billowing flames.  The rain poured harder and colder, and with Halo holding her umbrella over all three of them, they ran as fast as they could to get Zenith to the hospital, not caring who they had to hurt, threaten, and possibly kill in order to save his life.  They were all each other had, and they were not going to lose Zenith, no matter what the cost.

   Anger burned in their hearts, driving their urge to save him.  Nadir was desperate to save the life of his twin brother; Halo was fighting for the life of the one she loved.  Two different reasons drove them, but it was enough to drive them to serious lengths.

   By the time they arrived at the hospital, Zenith’s breathing was more labored than before, his fever getting higher by the minute.  They burst into the hospital through the front doors, almost too impatient to wait for the automatic doors to slide open.  They rushed past personnel telling them to stop, not caring who they defied.  They pushed past people in wheelchairs, patients on gurneys, and medical equipment, ramming themselves into whatever stood in their way.

   They followed the signs that pointed to the Emergency Room, deaf to people shouting at them for them to stop.  By the time they arrived at the emergency room, they were almost out of the breath.

   All eyes were on them, and Nadir shouted, “My brother can barely breathe!  Somebody needs to help him now!”

   As those chasing them caught up to them, Nadir glanced back at them, pulling his whip from its holder and cracking it once.  “Back off you idiots!”

   They stopped, frozen in fear.  A doctor approached Halo, looking carefully at Zenith, able to see how dire the situation had become.  He made eye contact with Halo, who growled at him softly.  “He’s my fiancé, and this is his twin brother.  He’s having trouble breathing, his fever is getting worse, he’s covered in a cold sweat, and trembling so hard you’d think he was freezing!  Now if you wanna fill out paperwork that’s fine with me, but I refuse to let him die while you sit here and try to figure out whether he’s worth saving or not.  If this town is as wonderful as our mayor says it is, you’ll treat Zenith now and ask questions later!”

   Gasps and murmurs filled the room.  Apparently many of them were more than aware of the mayor’s new campaign for grooming up the city, and if they had any doubts about treating Zenith or any concerns at Nadir and Halo’s behavior, they were able to put them off for now.  A nurse wheeled up a gurney and said, “Here, lay him down on this.”

   Nadir glared at the woman.  For many years Zenith was all Nadir had.  Zenith was his brother, his twin brother, his identical twin brother, and even though their mother was gone and they had no idea if she cared, the way they were born and how they had grown meant they were closer than any two people on the planet could ever hope to be.  Nadir was almost unwilling to leave his precious brother in her care.  A soft growl could be heard as he gently laid Zenith down on the stretcher, realizing he had no other choice if he wanted to save his brother’s life.

   He rubbed Zenith’s head and whispered, “You better save him.  If you hurt him in any way, shape, or form, I won’t let you live it down.”

   The nurse’s eyes widened.  She tried to smile as she said, “I promise we won’t hurt your brother, we’ll do everything we can.”

   In a flash, they began to wheel Zenith down the hallway.  Nadir gazed at them as they disappeared from his sight, feeling tears enter his eyes again.  Halo stood beside him and did the same.  The doctor from before came to them and said, “I won’t ask any questions about what you did.  It’s clear to me that you love him and are worried for his life.   Please, be patient with us.  The nurse here will help you fill out the paperwork and we’ll do everything we can for your brother.”

   Halo and Nadir looked up at the doctor and simply nodded.  After this, he walked off down the hallway to assist the fight to save Zenith.  The nurse behind them walked up to them with a clipboard and said, “I’ll fill everything out, you just need to answer a few questions for me.  I know you sir are his twin brother, and you ma’am are his fiancée.  Can you give me your address?”

   Nadir and Halo looked at each other, remembering they said they would lie about everything.  A sadistic smile came to Halo’s lips only briefly, giving way to one feigning sincerity as she replied, “We live in that apartment building that stands next door to the abandoned warehouse a few blocks away on Cayman Street.”

   The nurse wrote down Halo’s reply before asking, “Apartment number?”

   “507,” Nadir answered.

   The nurse wrote down Nadir’s answer before saying, “This might take a few minutes.  Come over here with me to the waiting room.”

   Nadir and Halo nodded.  As they followed the nurse, they looked to each other, wanting to enjoy lying to these people but finding they couldn’t do so.  Their hearts were drowned in fear for Zenith’s life, and now the only thing that lying was, was a means to both theirs and Zenith’s survival.