A.R: 7

In the time it took them to reach their destination, the taxi driver, Leonard, had conversed about his family, child labour, cannibalism, and the corruptness of New York. Not one of the topics was related to anything V had brought up, who had been determined to change the subject after cannibalism had surfaced.

When they stopped in front of a shipping harbour, Leonard turned gave an off-putting grin,

‘Thirty dollars, mate.’ He paused to look at V, ‘Twenty if I can get a kiss from the lady.’

‘We’re good.’ Rae stated, giving a wide and completely fake smile to which the man only rolled his eyes to.

‘I drove you ‘round for twenty minutes, man. Could’ve had a good nap in that time. Pay up.’ Leonard growled, an unfriendly smile appearing on his wrinkly face. Rae began to walk away, V following in pursuit. Leonard yelled profanities as they walked off. Many of the things got onto Rae’s nerves causing him to, unfortunately (fortunately), lash out.

They got to the building, Inchape Shipping Services, with the receptionist, a curly-haired man with muscles the size of melons, quietly reading his newspaper.

‘When’s the next boat?’ Rae asked hurriedly, looking up at the heavily tattooed man who only blew a puff of smoke into his face.

‘Inna few minutes.’ The man replied, his voice raspy and guttural. At least he wasn’t much of a speaker like the last guy.

‘Do we need to pay?’ V butted in. As if he only noticed V, the man’s half-shaven eyebrows raised and suddenly, his whole focus was on the freckled redhead.

‘Name’s James.’ James introduced as he held out a tattooed hand, ‘Don’t meet much redheads ‘round here. Natural?’

The two continued the impromptu conversation, with V denying her hair colour and James eventually bringing her hand to his lips. Rae had chosen to ignore what he had witnessed to save himself multiple sleepless nights.

A boisterous horn blared flamboyantly, regifting Rae’s forgotten motivation. He pulled V away and ran outside, James calling after them. More specifically, after V. An enormous ship entered the dock closest to the building, a few crew members hopping down from the ship.

He smiled as the sailors went by, nodding his head respectfully, but as soon as they were out of sight, he sprinted. It was a miracle how no one had noticed who he was: people in that area mustn’t listen to news, seeing as his face was basically everywhere.

‘I feel bad for leaving James like that. He was friendly.’ V whined as she sat on a box, her duffel bag hitting the box quite heavily. Rae raised an eyebrow at her, signalling for her to elaborate. But she didn’t. She glared at his expectant face and crossed her arms,

‘You hate every person we meet.’ V responded, catching Rae off guard as he had not even spoke a word.

‘I don’t hate James: don’t even know the guy.’

‘You hated Leonard.’ V stated matter-of-factly.

‘For a very valid reason.’

‘He said one thing to you and the next thing you do is put a bullet in his head!’

‘He was irritating!’ Rae defended, standing up to tower over V. He didn’t like being criticized, especially by someone he was so used to criticizing, not the other way around.

‘Can we not have this conversation now?’ Rae sighed, rubbing his nose between his fingers, ‘If you haven’t realized, a whole country wants us behind bars.’

‘Correction. They want you behind bars. I could leave right now. Then I wouldn’t have to put up with you.’

‘You’re as much as a criminal as I am.’

‘But no one knows who I am.’ V glowered, narrowing her once-wide eyes, ‘It’s not my face on national TV after all.’

Rae seethed, his eye twitching. Why did she have to be so difficult? Any other time would’ve been ideal for the argument, but she just had to choose the moment where they were trying to cross borders.

‘You’re a pest, you know? Can’t you just-’ Rae started but was cut off,

‘Me? A pest?’ V laughed obnoxiously, clearly finding the accusation amusing, ‘I’m so done with this.’ She stated, standing up and shoving her duffel bag away from her like it was a disease.

‘Where are you going?’

‘Anywhere you aren’t.’ V scoffed as she pushed past with full intentions to walk right out of the ship.

Why was she so stubborn? Why couldn’t she understand that they had better things to worry about than the people that took a fancy to her? Had she not learnt to not trust people so easily? People were schemers: if it benefitted them, they would quickly turn on you with no hesitation. What about that didn’t she get?

Rae watched in rage as V faced the dock. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t call out her name. They would go their separate ways and V would realize how hopeless and miserable life would be without him. She would come back crying and in pain, regretting ever turning her back on Rae.

With that sentiment in mind, he watched patiently, waiting to see how long it would take before the girl would push down her pride and realize she was in the wrong.

As V prepared to leave, a flicker of a shadow to the right of the boat appeared and vanished. It took Rae a second to understand what he had seen.

Someone was waiting.