100823
Birthdays are always great—that’s what Nero had always bickered about.
Well, whatever he had argued didn’t matter at that current moment, he was running out of breath, his legs were on the verge of collapsing, and the bag on his back was weighing him down. He had been walking to a whole different state on the side of a damned road that could possibly make him travel for thirty-six hours straight.
Hope was clearly not on his side.
He had spent the entire evening of his, supposedly special, day with an idea.
Was it the best idea he’s ever had? Nope, but it wasn’t like he had any other choice. It was either this, or to join an orphanage with other kids he wasn’t fond of.
And, well, he had hoped his seventeenth birthday would end in a good way.
His father was missing, his mother was deceased, his step-father had died from alcohol just two hours ago. Nero Carvalho-Aerts could never think of having another guardian for the fourth time in his life, he expected it to end badly as well, he was hoping some old rich guy could’ve picked him up right then and there—maybe like Bruce Wayne or Professor X—but that wasn’t possible.
Also, he had been trying to investigate his father’s disappearance for years now. His own mother had told him to ignore the whole situation, but who the hell wouldn’t be curious about their parents’ lack of presence in their life?
Nero started picking up his pace, he started from running to jogging, then to walking. No one planned to take a scrawny, auburn-headed kid with blue-tinted glasses who looked like they’ve been in two wars. If he had payed attention and counted how many vehicles had gone past him throughout the last hour, he could’ve concluded about thirty or thirty-one.
But, that wasn’t point the point, he had awfully planned to run away from Wilmington, Delaware to Newark, New Jersey and he completely forgot about how long it could take for a human to walk that many miles.
He stopped a couple times to rest, then continued on and on, grumbling and mumbling to himself about how stupid he was.
“Are you in need of help?” a feminine voice stirs him from his thoughts, looking at where he heard that certain voice, he saw a lady peeping her head out of a car window.
Nero stuttered, “Well, I, uh, got lost?—Sorry. I just need to get somewhere.”
“Where to?”
“Newark, New Jersey.”
She raised an eyebrow “And you’re planning to walk all the way there?”
Sheepishly, Nero nodded. The woman nodded back to him as an understanding and gestured to the passenger seat of her car, “Would you want to take a ride with me? I’m heading to my bakery in Newark.”
Nero’s expression gleamed and he smiled, delighted. He went onto the other side of the vehicle and stepped in, he was a bit wary of getting in strangers’ cars, but this was the fastest way of getting into the state. She started driving again, the window stayed open, it made her hijab flow through the wind as well. “Aaima.”
“Nero.”
The two stayed quiet for another twenty minutes until Aaima spoke up, “Where were you planning to go before Newark?”
“Baltimore.”
She took a small glance at the boy, “Too much going on there?”
Nero warily looked at her direction, “The police can never expect an orphan to run away to NJ, I’m guessing.” the woman just smiled and looked back onto the road, continuing the drive.
“What’s with the blue glasses? Hiding your identity?”
He stayed quiet but Aaima understood him under a second.
The rest of the ride was silent, but it wasn’t awkward at all—it was rather calming. The two had reached Newark in no time, though it was almost pitch black outside, the only light source they had were from light posts, lamps that were seen through apartment windows, and bright neon signs that lit up for clubs. People were going in or out bars and walking into diners, the road was packed with vehicles but the traffic wasn’t too bad.
Once Aaima had parked her car into a small alley, she got boxes out of the vehicle’s trunk and Nero helped as well, he wanted to help her since she did help him get into another state. He followed with whatever Aaima told him to do while she made a meal for him.
“You’re planning to run away after this?” Aaima asked, watching the boy eat his sandwich.
Nero looked at her, then looked back to the sandwich he was holding. “Do I have a choice?”
“If you want to, go for it. I’m not forcing you to stay here.”
He was a bit overwhelmed, but he continued eating anyways. The next few minutes was rather nice, Aaima ate her own dinner then cleaned up the shop while Nero looked out the giant glass window of the shop. “Any chances I’m going to get snatched off the streets?”
“Fifty-fifty.”
Nero looks at her a bit shocked, he sees her grinning while sweeping the floor, realizing that she meant that with sarcasm.
“Thanks. I—uh. Would it be fine to go right now?”
Aaima glances up at him, “Sure. Just don’t get killed, kid. Are you sure you don’t want to stay?”
He shook his head in a wary manner, slowly but surely later on. “I’m not planning to disturb anyone, aren’t you opening tomorrow?”
The woman’s eyes sobered, “I really don’t think you’d be disturbing me or anyone in that matter if you stayed. But your choice is your choice, Nero.”
Nero felt bad for her, he wasn’t sure why, but he was. It hadn’t even been more than four hours since he had stayed with Aaima, though he felt like he was leaving a home he belonged in somewhere in the future.
“I’ll visit you and come back soon—if you’re fine with that, of course.”
Aaima nodded and gave him a gentle smile, “I packed a meal and a drink, just in case. Stay safe, would you?” she handed him a plastic food container and a mint-green colored water bottle,
Nero accepted the items without any objections, he looked back at her before he left the store officially, waving his farewell once the glass door had closed behind him.
***
Nero had been jogging for a long time, quite a long time. He was probably just a couple blocks away from where Aaima’s shop was, but his energy ran out quick.
He was panting for his life, hiding behind a pub filled with customers, the place he had stopped in was full of bars, clubs, and wherever adults go to have fun.
Once Nero had calmed himself down, he looked around him: on his left was the road crowded with drunkards, while his right led to an alley.
Of course, he walked to where it seemed the safest—the dark alleyway that could possibly be a secret spot for kidnappers to get children. No, but really, why would anyone want to abduct a gawky teenager like him? The only people who had wanted him was the police and the people working in local orphanages at Wilmington.
The alley had him walking in a maze, the narrow path had led him to an area filled with drunkards, some of the homeless, drunkards, dubious-people-who-seemed-like-gangsters, and even more drunkards. Hidden bars were everywhere from left to right, people were even gambling on the streets, giving out money like it wasn’t the last bill in their wallets.
Nero had been trying to walk cautiously around crowded circles, he looked onto the ground to avoid eye contact but he still felt the confused gazes from old guys playing poker.
After almost an eternity, he had finally reached a dead end. No one was in sight, there was a possibility he was going to stay there for the night, the light from the apartment building near the alley lit up the small area.
He released his breath and dropped his bag onto the concrete floor, but right before he slouched his body onto a brick wall beside him, he heard someone cough above him.
Aloft was a girl, dangling her legs on the wall she sat on—she was wearing a dark green jersey, her hair, and iris’ were a similar color: hazelnut, and her dark skin was shining with the moonlight. Though, the weirdest thing about her was that she had blood on her hands.
“Goddammit!” Nero cried out exasperated,
The girl gave him an amused look, “You were just in an alleyway of crowded dipsomaniacs and you expected to be all alone at the end of it?”
“There’s really nowhere to be alone in Newark, huh?” she nodded at his question, much to his disappointment.
She jumped down the brick wall and cleaned her blood-stained palms on her white shorts, as well as wiping the blood that had gotten on her face with her wrist, “Name?”
Nero hesitated for a bit, “Nero. Yours…?”
“Ryelle, Rye. Whatever you like.” she saluted at him with a sarcastic tone in her voice.
The boy held out his hand, waiting for a handshake, but it never came. Rye ignored him and started heading towards to another passageway.
“Whoa—wait—you’re leaving just like that?”
She glanced at him, “I have places to be at, why would I need to stay here?”
Nero blinked two times before he realized what he was doing, “Right—yeah, sorry,” he stepped back from her and walked to where he had placed his bag.
Rye tilted her head at him, concluding and thinking why someone like him would be in this kind of alley, “You need a place to sleep at, don’t you?”
He was a bit surprised at what she had thought of, well, she wasn’t wrong. He did need a place to stay at, and the dead end of an alley wasn’t the best for sleeping. “I do, actually… Well, it doesn’t matter too much, sorry for bothering! Do your—uh—go wherever you need to be!”
He saluted at her, similar to the way she saluted to him, he sat on the cold floor below him next to his bag. Although, Rye was starting to feel a bit bad for him.
“Y’know, why don’t ya come with me? My roommates wouldn’t mind.”
Nero looked up at her in surprise, “You’re being serious?”
Rye shrugged, “Why wouldn’t I be? You look depressing, kid.” she helped him stand up from the ground,
He was a bit offended at that, “Kid? I assumed we were the same age?”
She cheekily smiled at him and he huffed, putting his bag onto his shoulder, following her to wherever she was going.
“I’m seventeen.” Rye started,
“Well, I just turned seventeen, today. We’re basically the same age, you can’t call me ‘kid’.”
“Unhappy birthday to you.” she sang with a melody,
“Thanks.” Nero bluntly responded.
***
The two reached a safe house far from where they had met, the building wasn’t that huge. It was a simple, rather old, style of architecture. The outside was painted plain gray, like a really really plain and basic gray. It looked miserable.
“Nice place.”
“I wasn’t the one who decided with the colors, just to let you know.”
Nero looked at her, then looked back at the house. Yeah, she definitely would’ve chosen green.
Rye walked slowly to the front door and knocked, the door opened after a few minutes, revealing one of her roommates, rubbing his eyes with a robot-like prosthetic arm looking tired.
“Rye? You really need to stop coming back late—did you bring in a new stray?” Rye’s blonde roommate questions,
“He’s staying temporarily. He looked like he was going to get punched by a blow of wind.”
Unnamed-blonde-guy sighs and moves out of the way, making space for Rye and Nero to walk in.
Rye gets closer to Nero and whispers, “His name’s Ethan, he’s usually not this talkative.” she expressed her words with a straight face.
Nero nods at her words, in a very slow manner.
“Follow me, I’ll lead ya into a guest room.”
He walks with Rye into a hallway, leaving Ethan slouching on the couch dozing off.
The girl opens a door, showing Nero a room with a mattress, a desk, and a chair, “You have a bag right? Decorate the room with your stuff, don’t leave it as depressing as you look.”
Rye swiftly tries runs away from him, but she had stopped so suddenly just to say what he needed to hear, “There’s three other people here, you’ll see them in the morning,” then finally goes into another room just a few doors away from the guest room, Nero shakes his head at her behavior and walks into the room in front of him.
He drops his bag on the desk and he makes himself fall onto the mattress. Much to his surprise, it wasn’t rock hard. He actually liked the comfort of it, unlike the bed he had back in Wilmington. It had made him have back pain every morning.
Nero closes his eyes, sighing at his own thoughts, eventually closing his eyes, finally falling asleep after a few seconds.
***
Nero woke up feeling sluggish. His body felt like it needed more sleep, but due to the sun shining upon him through the single window, he could guess that he had slept more than he had expected.
He took off the jacket he wore the other day and tied it on his waist, but right when he’s rummaging through his bag, he hears commotion outside, he assumed it was Rye’s other mysterious roommates.
Nero was, of course, curious. He stopped with what he was doing and went to open his door, walking cautiously to where the noises of people were talking.
“—was expecting her to bring in more people but not this early.” A girl with a dark purple undercut states, a black haired guy with a white streak in his hair nods at her.
“And, he’s here!” Nero finally realizes that the people in the room had noticed his presence.
He felt someone loom behind him, but once he had looked behind, it had been Rye all along. She pats him on the back harshly, “His name’s Nero,”
Confused, the said male just nodded at her statement while her roommates looked amused.
“She’s Vinh”, Rye pointed to the girl with an undercut, “kid with white hair is named Cain, and the girl with braids is Danielle, or Dan, whatever you like.”
Both Cain and Dan waved at Nero, and he responded with a rather awkward wave.
Nero goes to the couch they were sitting on, while Rye joins Ethan in the kitchen. Was the silence uncomfortable? Yes, absolutely. But it wasn’t their fault, Nero was the one who had gone into their home like a stray cat staying inside a human’s garage.
After another couple minutes of silence, Cain made gestures with his hands—sign language, ASL. And Nero was glad that he had learned it in middle school.
‘Orphan, too?’ that’s what Cain had signed, and Nero nodded as an answer.
“Was running away to avoid orphanages, didn’t want to find another parental figure dead.” Nero explained while trying to sign some certain words for Cain.
‘Don’t worry—I lip-read.’ the said person signed as a reply,
“Did Rye find you or did you find Rye?” Dan asked, she sounded genuinely curious as well, like they had all expected something like this to happen.
“A mixture of both?—We met in an alleyway.”
“Filled with drunkards?” Vinh queried,
“Filled with drunkards.”
The four of them started a long conversation throughout an hour, with three of them asking Nero why he had gone to Newark, and with Nero asking them how they—including Rye and Ethan—had gone here. All of their answers seemed intriguing with him, and he was quite concerned on how they were all somehow similar to one another: Vinh’s family had come to America from Vietnam as immigrants but they had soon forgotten about her and left her all alone as a kid, Cain’s family had not supported him throughout his childhood and neglected him which made him leave, Dan’s parents had died when she was younger, and that had made her move with her uncle who had physically abused her. While Ethan’s home was destroyed in a fire due to his own father being on drugs and lighting up the house, causing him to get severe injuries. And finally, Rye actually had a nice childhood, until her parents got taken away due to a misunderstanding, leading them to jail, and then death in jail.
Well, everyone can’t be perfect. But for the all of them, they were in desperation of help. They were all homeless orphans who had gotten into an abandoned safe house to live in since their own families had disappeared. They needed one another to become each other’s pillars. They wanted a family to understand them, and to love them the way they are.
Nero felt like this was where he had belonged all along, he couldn’t believe that he could find people resonating with what he was feeling.
***
Nero had spent the past week staying with them, he loved it here. He never wanted to leave. He had gotten to know everyone—well, except for Ethan, the guy always tried to avoid him for some reason—but he finally had people that cared for him, and he had people he had to care for as well. The entire this was like him fitting perfectly right into a puzzle piece.
He was pleased with everything going on, though sometimes they did have to use the money they saved up to buy more food, which was one problem. They were quite low on money, and the only who was working was Vinh, she worked as a Bartender just a few blocks away, since she is eighteen and was responsible for herself.
But, another thing was that Nero had not gotten to explore the house too much, he had been too distracted with talking with everyone.
So, he came up with another idea. A crazy one? Not as much as running away into another state. Although, it may change his relationship with whoever would catch him in the act: he had planned to explore the second floor of the home at midnight.
He had picked a night where the others were going to be home or asleep early, which makes it easier for him to sneak around—unless one of them were light sleepers.
Nero had stolen a flashlight he had found under the bed in the guest room, which surprisingly could still turn on.
He quietly sneaked onto the stairs, the wooden planks weren’t helping at all. They were creaking under him, but he did try his best to stay quiet.
One of his main objectives was to go to the room at the end of the hallway. Nero had never explored the second floor too much since he had spent the entire week on the first floor, either in the guest room or the living room talking with others.
He swiftly tiptoed his way to the door he had thought of, and, much to his surprise, it wasn’t locked.
Nero closed the door shut when he was finally inside the room, he turned the lights on, just to find a room filled with cabinets.
“What the…?” he muttered to himself,
He looked to his left, and had found a pin board littered with pictures of people, the desk below it was messed up with papers and documents of old middle-aged guys, as well as male teenagers.
Nero searched through the stacks of paper, names and portraits were everywhere. But, one person had caught his eye: Valentin Aerts. That was the name of his father—the person who had disappeared from his life on his fourth birthday. But the thing is, the file was blank. The only words that had been written was his name and an arrow draw on the bottom right corner.
He flipped the file just to see an entire paragraph on the back: Valentin Aerts had committed fifteen crimes, ten during the year of 2007, one during the year of 2020, and four in the past year, 2023.
Nero continued reading the words written down, three out of fifteen of the victims names had been listed as well. Will Turbin, Selina, and Mikhail Constantin.
Mikhail Constantin, that name seemed familiar to him.
Other than that, Nero was gaping at the information he had found, his own father was murderer. He had killed people just a year after Nero was born. What the hell was wrong with him?
Though, his file didn’t say anything about him being dead nor alive.
Nero rapidly swept through more files and papers on the wooden desk but stopped once he saw a familiar name, his own name. Nero Carvalho-Aerts was written in bold, and a picture of him walking to a convenience store was next to it. The paper contained information about him, there was even a sticky-note attached onto it that had the names Valentin and Ida written on it.
At this point, he was confused, so damn confused. Why were they investigating about him anyway? It wasn’t like he had murdered more than ten people, unlike someone.
He went to the other side of the room just to fine a file with the name Mikhail Constantin typed onto it, but before he could continue reading, he heard rustling outside the room.
Nero quickly went behind one of the desks near the corner, and placed cardboard boxes in front of him to cover his shoes that stood out.
The door opened and he could briefly see Ethan walking into the room while Dan stands outside, “—lights are on. Did Cain forget to turn them off?”
He could see Dan shrug and utter something to Ethan, and the blonde male started strutting around the room.
Nero was scared for his life—what would happened if he got caught? Would they kick him out of the safe house and leave him back in the drunkard-alleyway?
The area where he had hid in had suddenly went dark, Nero looked up—terrifyingly, Ethan was looking down on him. Nero was fearing for his life, his limbs were cowering and his eyes were basically pleading Ethan to keep quiet about what he had seen.
“Find anything?” Dan asks, confused,
Ethan hesitates for a while, “No—Nothing. Thought I heard something, it was probably just a rat.”
Nero took a breath of relief. The blonde male looks back at him before leaving the room with Dan.
Just a couple minutes after the situation had happened, Nero had finally gotten out of his hiding hole, he was making sure no one else was going in the room.
But right after Nero had calmed himself down, dusting off the dirt he had sat on, someone had opened the door again—it was Ethan. The both of them stared at one another awkwardly.
“Follow me.” Ethan stated, and he probably wouldn’t take no as an answer.
Nero followed him down onto the first floor, “The hell is that room?” he asked eagerly,
“We’re detectives.”
“Unlicensed?”
“Exactly, detective vigilantes.”
“Like Batman?”
Ethan just shrugged at him.
The two walked in front of Rye’s room, but right before Ethan could knock, the said girl opened the door, she showed up yawning with messed up hair,
She squinted at the both of them, “Why are you two—?”
“Nero found out about the room, we need to talk.”
Rye sighed at the explanation, “Let’s go to the docks, we don’t need the others up this early.”
***
The three of them had reached the secluded area in no time, though walking there silently after finding out your new friends had been investigating a case about you is quite awkward. Once they had settled onto an area, quite far from the city’s road.
“So—”
“Right, uh.”
Both Rye and Ethan looked at each other, trying to let one another start the whole discussion.
Nero raised an eyebrow at the two of them,
“Any reason why there’s files of me in your not-so-secret-room?”
“Well, the thing is, your father is a serial killer. You saw the files, right? Recently, there’s been rapid murders in Newark, and your dad might be the one who’s all behind it. That makes you either a target or an ally of him, or our helpful guidance to solving the case. And, your father wouldn’t kill without a purpose, so you’re basically shark bait for now.”
“Whoa—and what happened to our kind of new friendship going on?”
“You’re still in it. Once the case is over, you’ll be a permanent member of our dysfunctional family.”
Nero hesitated, “Right…”
Ethan just sighed at his response, “Don’t take it too seriously—the shark bait part—we do need someone to help with the case, and, you are still part of the group.”
Rye gave a thumbs up to his explanation, silently saying that whatever he said was better than whatever she said herself.
“No, no—I understand what you’re talking about, I was just shocked about the current killings happening in Newark part.”
Ethan scratched the back of his head, “Someone, that we suspect is your father, has killed four people the past few weeks and the crime scenes usually have something indicating that he’s—they’re trying to get attention of a certain someone.”
Nero quickly acknowledged the situation, “Well—”
Right before Nero could start his sentence, a flash of light shone over them, “You three lost?”
A guy with a police uniform walked around the corner, he had rather dark hair, but his face was quite unrecognizable due to there being a numerous lack of light around them.
The three of them were covering their eyes since the flashlight the guy had been pointing at them were blinding their faces, “Whoops, sorry,” he turned it off.
He then continued, “Anyway, this area is restricted, quite dangerous actually.”
Rye looked up at down at the cop, “Yup, we’re lost,” she made up an excuse, “any reason why this place is dangerous?”
The guy, apparently named Nico from the name tag on his uniform, raised both of his eyebrows at her, “Haven’t you kids seen the news? Random is serial killer on the loose and he keeps their dead bodies in the giant containers at this dock.”
Rye and Ethan nodded at him, even though they both new about the situation, “Thanks, we’ll get going then—”
“Whoa, whoa, wait. Tell me your names and you three can go.”
“What for?”
“Accessing restricted areas,”
“Aren’t we a bit too young to get arrested,”
“Just tell me your names and you can go wherever you need to be.”
Rye sighed at the situation and gave up with trying to run away, “Ryelle Gray, Ethan Mladenorvić, Nero Carvalho-Aerts.”
Nico smiled, “Thank you, you’re free to—wait, Nero? Carvalho-Aerts?”
The said male was confused, “Yes…?”
The cop was astonished and took a step back, “You’re related to Valentin Aerts, aren’t you? You’re his kid?”
Rye and Ethan knew where the situation was going but the both of them didn’t know what to do.
“Yeah… Uh, do you have problems with him?”
Rye gave Nero an upset look,
Nico furrowed his eyebrows, “Kid, your father killed mine.”
“Huh?”
“Ever heard about the detective killed at the docks in 2007? Mikhail Constantin? That was him—your damn father killed mine, kid.”
