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Chapter four: The end of an era, and the beginning of something bigger

Well there I was, alone. Snow was who knows were and I wasn't sure what to do. I could go back to our house in the school, but there wasn't much to do there. Most of my energy had left me and above all I was scared. Me and Snow hadn't left each others sides for years, and now he had been taken. I couldn't blame James, he didn't know there was a meeting today.

I wandered off, not knowing were I was going. I didn't know what they planned to do with Snow but I was sure I wouldn't be seeing him for a long while. If they gave him a phone call he would most likely call me, we had acquired fairly nice phones recently and we both memorized each others numbers. We used the info to get a yearly plan with unlimited local and long distance for a very good deal, we even got a texting plan even though we never really used it. Both of us never attended school, I was suppose to but I never did. Big wast of time, nothing I would have learned there would help me on the street, and I could care less for proper grammar.

I made sure my phone was on and wandered the city. I didn't feel like eating and I wasn't short on cash so I didn't pickpocket anyone and I didn't feel like pulling a scam. I ended up near a large building. It looked like a science lab, workers were carrying equipment inside and a short man with brown hair and a beard wearing glasses was overseeing things.

"If you drop that you will be sorry." He told a worker that seemed to be carrying a glass box full of testing tubes full of strange liquids. The worker looked terrified. I thought about making him trip just to see what would happen, but decided not to. I may have been a thief and a street rat, but I wasn't one to purposely cause harm. Well, unless they deserved it.

I jumped out of the way as a man almost ran over me carrying a large box.

"Get out of here you little brat, your just in the way!" He yelled at me. I made a rude gesture at him and walked through the mess of people carrying boxes. I looked over at an ally and saw a shape dart out of view. I thought it was a boy, but it looked like he had a tail. I shook my head, deciding it was likely a stray dog or something of the like.

The man with the brown hair walked over to me.

"Who might you be young ma'am?"

I starred at him. Most people wouldn't even talk to me because of my appearance, they just associated my look with trouble. I couldn't blame them, my cloths were old and ragged and my hair was generally a mess of black.

"Never call me ma'am ever again." I said, almost insulted. That's what you call the old proper people who think their perfect and better than everyone else. The fact that he even thought about saying it to me was just rude.

"Fine then, whats your name?" He asked again.

"I go by Cinder, who are you?"

"The names Simon." He said cheerfully. "I'm I scientist looking for a cure for cancer."

He winced as he heard a crash. He turned and saw a box laying on its side, its content spilling over the ground. He cursed and yelled at the worker he quickly picked up the box and ran inside. I chuckled and Simon glared at me.

"That box had over seven thousand dollars of equipment in it, and think it all breaking is funny?"

I stopped laughing and starred back at him. We got into a starring contest. It went on for a few minutes then a tossed a small pebble I had in my hand at his leg. He blinked in surprise.

"Good fight."

"Good fight yourself, you cheated so I win by default."

"What is cheating but a smarter way to play a game?"

Simon started laughing at this.

"Well Cinder, what brings you here?"

I didn't particularly like him prying into be business but I answered anyway.

"I was just walking by and I wondered what was going on."

"Well it's just a bunch of workers helping me set up."

I nod at him and start walking away.

"Hey wait!" He yelled after me. I did not like the fact that he seemed to have taken an interest in me, that simply couldn't end well. It had happened once of twice over the years, some kindhearted woman saw me out on the streets and decided to try to take me in and 'help' me. I went along with it, she took me to her home and gave me some food and a place to sleep. Snow went along with it, keeping out of sight but watching me to see what happened. The next day I woke up and looked out her window to see Snow signaling that trouble was coming. I looked down and at the bottom the the apartment building child services had just pulled up. The woman had come in smiling and told me that the nice men were going to take me to a new home. I then preceded to jump out her window, climb down the fire escape, and jump off onto the child services truck leaving a nice big dent in the hood. The woman was horrified and started screaming at me from her window.

"Its a nice offer, but I just ditched one of those god forsaken orphanages!" I yelled up at her as me and Snow ran off together.

Well, anyway, Simon ran after me. And I slowed and let him catch up.

"Are you living on the streets?" He huffed.

"Yes I am, and if you call child services on me I swear I'll kill you."

He chuckled.

"Just wondering." He walked off back towards his building.

I walked off, putting what had just happened out of my mind. I was walking past the ally that I was the shape in and a small rock flew out of nowhere and hit me. Winced and looked over at the ally but there was no one there. I looked down and saw a note tied to the stone. I picked it up and read it. It said "I don't know you, and you don't know me. But just know there's more going on in that lab than Simon would like you to think." That was it. Well that as very helpful. Naturally it made me want to find out more. I decided that tonight, when things settle down there, I'd sneak in and see if I could find anything. God damn curiosity.

It was getting late so I went back to my home in the old school. Things looked like they always did, a pile of old sheets and mattresses was in one corner, in front of a working heater. A small cooler lay by it. It was strange to be here without Snow, we had found this place together and I don't think I had ever been here without him. It was getting cold so I switched on the heater and curled up on the makeshift bed I had been using for the last few years. And I eventually fell into a light dreamless sleep.

I awoke what must have been a few hours latter by the noise of another human nearby. I pulled a hunting knife from under the heater and stood slowly. Whoever it was had a small flashlight. He turned and shone it right on me.

"Oh, sorry Cinder, didn't mean to blind you."

It was Snow. I sighed with relief and ran over to him, giving him a big hug before looking up at him.

"What happened? The last time I saw you you were getting dragged away by police." I started, he shushed me.

"They let me go."

I was shocked. "Just like that? They didn't even make you stay overnight?"

"Not exactly Cinder, we better sit down."

I could tell by his tone something bad was coming.

"What happened? What's going on?"

"I have to leave Cinder."

His words stunned me. I couldn't imagine living without him.

"What do you mean you have to leave!" I started angrily.

"They wanted to put me away for three years, then they found out I lived on the street. They probably thought they were doing me a favor or something. They made me promise to make an honest living, they assigned a officer to watch me and make sure I don't ditch. I'll be leaving tomorrow, I don't know were yet."

I was almost in tears when he finished.

"You cant go, we work together, and you cant leave me!"

"Its not that I want to, I don't have a choice. Cinder, we have been living on the streets for almost five years now, we cant go on like this. This was only the first time one of us was arrested, what if it happened again?"

My sadness turned to anger, though I wasn't sure why.

"Fine, just go. If you don't want to live here anymore, I'm not stopping you."

"Cinder don't be like that! That's not what I meant. I just think maybe its time for us to start working for a living, instead of stealing and scamming."

"Go, just go. Have fun with your new life."

I walked out then, without another word. Snow chased after me yelling but I ignored him. I pushed open a wall panel and climbed out onto the roof of the school. I could hear Snow following so I went to the edge and jumped. This was a trick I learned a long time before, if I turned in the air and grabbed a window ledge, so I could swing to a maintenance ladder.

I climbed down and ran off. I couldn't believe Snow had said that, and I didn't want to even think about him. My phone rang and I threw it in front of a truck as it sped by. There was a crack and peaces flew everywhere.

That was the last time I saw Snow, for a few years anyway. The police took him away to who knows where.

I was alone again, and this time I decided to stay like that.

I didn't know what I was going to do. I could survive on the streets well enough, but would life be worth living without Snow? It was hard enough to get over the death of Brome, and I only got over that because I had to and with the help of Snow.

"Well this is a fine mess I've gotten myself into this time, its just my luck to. First Brome and now Snow. Its like I'm just bad luck to everyone I meet." I said irritably to myself. It was a habit I took up ages ago. When I was alone I tend to talk to myself.

"Well I guess I could go see what Simon is up to like that note said... But on the other hand I have no idea who its from." I pondered it for a bit. I now literally had nothing to lose so I decided to do it. Its a good thing I did, if I didn't I would most likely be dead... Nah, I wouldn't have died, but you get the point. My life would be very different, maybe even the world would be different if I didn't go snooping that night. You know, thinking about it, everything that has happened could theoretically be traced back to me. But who has that much free time? And the few people that do wouldn't have the knowledge to, so I was fairly safe of that happening.

Anyway, I was feeling alone and like I had nothing to lose. So I went snooping.

When I got to his lab, everything was dark. There was a car parked out front to I assumed that Simon was still there. The nearest windows were about two stories up but they were easy enough to climb to. The windows were made of a nice wood, not the cheap plastic frames you get nowadays. I looked in and saw the windows were blacked out. That was why I couldn't see any light.

"He probably thinks he's so clever." I muttered to myself.

I pulled the knife from my back pocket and slid it under the window. To my surprise the window was unlocked. You would think anyone going through the trouble to black out a window to keep people from looking in would at least lock the windows.

I slid it open and looked inside. It was bloody bright. The entire place was lit with a bright blinding light.

"So that's why he blacked out the windows, he didn't want the people next door complaining about him leaving the lights on all night." I murmured distastfully.

I looked around, the place was littered with lab equipment. Vials of liquids were scattered around many nice looking metal tables, and small shelves filled with boxes sat on one of them. The most prominent thing in the large room was the TV. Simon was sitting there in front of a huge TV, playing on an Xbox 360. It looked like he was playing something or other, it looked interesting and much more fancy than I had thought games would get. I had no idea what he was playing, but but he didn't seem to be very good at it. A teenage boy that looked to be about sixteen was watching him from a corner, the only place in the room that seemed to be flooded in shadows. I looked closer at the boy, then just started starring when I saw that he seemed to have a tail. Not just that, he had white cat ears sticking out from the top of his hair. His eyes seemed to glow yellow as he watched Simon, grinning as Simon failed a jump and died. Simon threw up his hands.

"Fine, you're better at this than me. Happy?"

"Yes, I am rather happy, actually." The boy said taking the controller form Simon.

The boys tail was white like his ears, he was tall with medium length gray hair. He was wearing a plane black shirt with old looking jeans with a hole cut in the back for his tail.

"Well, the note guy didn't disappoint when he said something was happening.." I mutter to myself, wincing as the boy seemed to hear and looked around.

Feeling like I had to know more, I climbed through the window. Quietly as I could I made my way down to the ground and hid behind some boxes that had yet to be unpacked. Simon was busy unpacking a box of junk and the boy was playing his game. Not knowing what else to do I crept towards Simon. He seemed to know someone was watching him because he turned his head and looked around. Not seeing anything he went back to work. I was right behind him now. Deciding to take a risk I said "So, cancer research, ehh?"

Simon jumped and whirled around to look at me.

"How in the world did you get in here!" He yelled. The boy was at his side in an instant, he showed his teen in a snarl. And they happened to be pointed like a cats.

"Its you! The girl I met earlier today, how did you get in here and what do you think your doing sneaking up on me like that! I could have had a heart attack and died, right then."

"Well first of all, I'll not say how it got in. And I think what I'm doing here is starring at a boy that looks like he is half cat, care to explain that?"

Simone's shoulders sagged but the boy looked poised and ready to strike.

"Calm down Ryu, she already saw you so there not much we can do now. Well not without killing her."

The boy, who must have been Ryu, ignored Simon.

"Who do you think you are, breaking in here? I've half a mind to tear your eyes out."

"That's enough out of you Ryu. Cinder is now my guest, as and such you will not harm her." Simon said calmly. Much too calmly, I thought, considering there was talk of killing me.

Ryu fumed and stormed away.

"You must forgive Ryu, he really is a good sort at heart. Now, what are you doing here?"

I didn't think I should mention the note that had been thrown at me telling me to come snooping, so I made something up.

"I just wanted to see the cure for cancer was coming along, looks like it coming alone just fine." I winced as a heard how stupid it sounded.

"Well Cinder, you have two choices. By now you have seen to much, so you can ether agree to join us here, or you can go spend some quality time with Ryu, it's your choice. Though realistically, ether way means you'll be seeing Ryu quite a lot. But one will be much more pleasant than the other." I knew by his tone that he meant the part about Ryu to be a threat.

"What is it you do here?"

Simon looked at me, seeming rather bemused by the whole thing. Which didn't much seem like how he should be feeling after a kid just broke into his lab and saw something that'd freak out basically anyone in the world.

"Well as you may have noticed, I am not working on a cure for cancer. Well, not directly, anyway. I was before, but now it's just what I tell people to get them to donate millions of dollars in cash to me. Cash that I use for much more.. Interesting, research."

"More interesting meaning learning how to give people tails and cat ears?"

Simon waved his hand dismissively.

"There both just a side affect."

"A side affect to what?"

"The serum I'm working on."

"...Can you please just give me a straight bloody answer? I'm tired of this conversation."

"Well there's no need to shout." Simon said rubbing his ear. The way he was treating this was just making me more and more irritated. "The serum is suppose to give humans the senses of animals. The hearing of a cat, or the eyes of a hawk. You get the idea." He said, waving his hand dismissively. "I've gotten very close, but as you can see by Ryu, there are a few minor side affects."

"If you call a tail minor!" Ryu yelled for the direction of the TV.

"Yes, only minor problems. And by joining us here, you would also be subjugating yourself to be a test subject of sorts."

I stared at Simon for a long while. I loved the idea of heightened senses and the scam he was pulling was genius. The government was just apparently handing him millions, and because most people didn't even believe there was going to be a cure for cancer, he could always just say he was still working on it. The thought of living with that Ryu, however, I don't think I could live with that.

"So what do ya say, Miss Cinder, will you join us?"