The Poison in Our Veins

“Some people have poison in their veins. It flows through them boiling their blood, trying to escape the confines of their flesh.”

That’s what Echo’s grandmother always said at the end of lecturing her mother about her life choices.

“The poison attracts the bad, it is the bad, and it ends with people dying.”

Echo remembered her grandma being calm, she had done the same thing so many times that she wasn’t bothered anymore. She sat in her rocking chair on the porch and told Echo about the poison, the poison that would kill her mother and eventually Echo herself.

“You need to know this before it starts to boil you alive.”

She would say. Echo’s mother would yell at her Grandmother later, saying she was too young to be hearing things like this. But Echo heard worse at home.

“It runs in the family. Your grandfather is who my poison attracted. He’s been gone so long now. But the poison isn’t done, it’ll come back for me eventually.”

And it did. She was murdered one night when a burglar broke in. Echo knew the poison caused it. Some people called it karma. Echo’s grandmother wasn’t always the nicest. But it was the poison, no one chose the poison.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” The cop asked. Joe was crying in the ambulance. Echo had learned to always say yes. She nodded, not meeting the cop’s eyes. Joe wouldn’t come back from this. “Are you sure you’re okay?” She finally looked up at him.

“Someone has to be.” She looked back to Joe. The cop sighed and patted her head.

The same cop came for Joe. “You’ve been through a lot.” He sat her in the ambulance, she shrugged off the shock blanket. “Someone’s coming to take you to a new home. Everything will be fine. You’re going to wait at the hospital for them.” She nodded, she hadn’t talked much since her mom. “I’m sorry it took so long to get here.” She nodded again. “Can you tell us what happened?”

“The poison killed him.” The cop looked at her confused, but that’s the only answer she had. She didn’t have religion, or family, nothing she could blame for this. Nothing but the poison.

“Your new name is Echo, you now have a bed in the Warehouse. Welcome to the family.” Mike handed her a bag with some bedding. It had been years since the flashback wasn’t just a memory, the social worker didn’t show and Echo got bored of waiting. She went on her own, and somehow, ended up at the Warehouse. Mike was the oldest, 22, and an expert hacker.

“Glad to have a place to sleep.” Mike flashed a smile that Echo didn’t match.

“Let me show you to your room. You bunk with Romeo and Oscar. Oscar’s a thief and no one is sure how Romeo earns his rent.”

“I can deal with thieves.” Mike chuckled.

“You’ll fit in here.” She smiled. “Rents 300 a month. Any extra you can keep. You can buy and cook your food but if you can’t afford it we have family dinner every night. It’s your rooms night to set and clean the table.”

“Great, haven’t had a real meal in a while.”

Mike turned down a hallway and walked into one of the bunk rooms. It was small, it had 3 beds each with a trunk at the foot. There was a door leading to a grungy bathroom and a mirror on the back of the bathroom door. There were two boys in the room, one with dark greasy hair and dark eyes; He had on a red sweatshirt and black jeans. The other boy had blond hair and green eyes; Wearing a black tee-shirt and sweat pants.

“Romeo, Oscar.” Mike motioned the dark-haired boy and then the light-haired boy.

“Hey, I’m Echo.”

“Hey.” Oscar smiled, Romeo just grumbled something sounding like a greeting. “He’s not much of a people person.” I nodded. Mike turned and left the room.

“What do you do?” Romeo said as he sat at the desk in the room and started prying gems out of rings.

“Anything really; If it involves sneaking around I’m good at it.” He nodded.

“What’s with the coat?”

“What do you mean?” I pulled off my leather jacket and folded it before putting it in the trunk under my bed.

“It’s like 3 sizes too big.”

“So?” He shook his head.

“Nevermind.”

“Where are you from.” Oscar sat on his bed as I walked over to the mirror and rebraided my hair for the first time in a while.

“A small town a couple hundred miles from here.”

“Why’d you leave?”

“I had nothing keeping me there. It was a long time ago.” Oscar nodded. “What about you, how’d you end up here?”

“My mom kicked me out.”

“Why?”

“She met my boyfriend.” I had met more than a few kids on the street who had been kicked out like that.

“That sucks.” He nodded and looked down.

“Time to set the table,” Romeo said standing up and throwing a small gem at me.

“What’s this for?”

“A welcome gift, to help cover your first rent next week.” I didn’t want to accept it, but after years on the streets, I knew not to turn down free cash. I threw the gem in my trunk before closing and locking it, following after Romeo and Oscar.

“We have a new member, Echo.” Mike sat at the head of the table.

“Been waiting for a new E.” one of the others said.

“What?”

“All the names, they come from the NATO alphabet. R is Romeo, M: Mike, O: Oscar, and E: Echo. I’m November, N.” The girl nodded before downing the rest of her bowl of stew.

“The last E got caught. She was an assassin, an 18-year-old assassin. She’s not coming back for her bed, so you replaced her.” One of the others said. “I’m Tango by the way.” He flashed a smile.

There were 26 people in total, every letter of the alphabet. Dinner was chaotic, everyone introducing themselves. I finished cleaning the last plates off the table and went to walk back to our room when Romeo came strolling out.

“Come on.” He threw my jacket at me.

“You broke into my trunk!?”

“It’s what I do. Come on.”

“How dare you!? That was my personal stuff!”

“Invest in a better lock next time, although that probably won’t stop me.” He smiled before starting to walk out. I didn’t want to follow him.

“Where are you going!?”

“Why don’t you come and see?” My curiosity got the better of me and I jogged to catch up with him before we left the Wearhouse and started the treck to town.