Keep a knife in your pocket

“Has anyone seen Tyler yet?” I asked while peeking out the faded, torn curtains of the dilapidated house we were currently occupying.

“Huh?” moaned Reese, untangling himself from a girl I didn’t know. They were lying on an old stained mattress on the floor.

I liked it here. This abandoned house was much better than other places we had stayed. It was safe, private, and slightly warmer than outside. When it was cold, we would risk a small fire in the fireplace using some of the floorboards from upstairs that were rotten and burned quickly.

“He needs to hurry up,” I said over my shoulder to Reese.

“You can wait a bit longer we only just had a hit,” he said, snuggling back up to the young woman beside him.

“It’s not that. I have a bad feeling,” I whispered more to myself than Reese.

“You always have a bad feeling, Jo.”

I left the window and grabbed a few things from my bundle, shoving them into oversized pockets of the men’s overcoat I always wore. A knife and a burner phone.

“I’m going out,” I yelled as I walked out the door.

“Hmm,” Reese moaned sleepily.

I purposely slammed the door as I left and walked down the long muddy driveway to the street.

The sun was setting, and the streetlights were coming on. Walking up the street towards the busier part of town, I checked the car doors inconspicuously. Quickly grabbing change from cup holders and ashtrays out of the couple that were unlocked.

As I arrived in the tourist area of the centre of town dusk was putting on a show in the sky with the air pollution, producing oranges, pinks and purples as the sun dipped behind the buildings.

I nipped a wallet out of the pocket of a grey-haired tourist’s pocket. Palming the cash, I dropped the wallet next to his foot and disappeared into the crowd.

I walked down the street and to the burger shop.

“Hey Jim,” I said walking behind the counter towards the back door.

“Usual, Jo?” He asked.

“Yep! Thanks!” I ducked through the door and down the steps.

“Jo! You’re here!” Jackson said as I walked in. He was tall and thin and around five years older than me.

“Yeah of course but Tyler hasn’t shown at the house.” I sat on the broken lounge.

“I was about to message you ‘cause he hasn’t turned up here either,” he said.

“He was meant to do the runs tonight!” I was getting angry now. I would have to pick up his side of the deliveries.

As small-time dealers we got a small cut for our deliveries, but it was dangerous, and I hated having to do more than my share.

“Jo! Jackson!” We heard Jim yell from upstairs.

We headed up and walked straight into three guns pointed at us and Jim.

“What is going on here?” I said in my toughest voice, not actually feeling tough at all.

“Just dropping off your deliveries for today little Jo,” the goon on the left said.

“Why the guns then?” I asked, slowly edging my hand closer to my right pocket where my knife was stashed.

“Your boy Tyler has been sniffing off the top, girl,” he replied. “You need to cover the losses we’ve incurred.”

He threw a box at my feet. Jim handed him the bag of money for the last lot of deliveries.

“You’ve got four hours to get this done or you’re next,” the other goon said.

“Next for what, big guy?”

“Look in the bag.”

They turned and left, looking completely normal when back on the main street.

I bent down and opened the back inside was little zip lock bags with sticky notes attached with an address and a time. There was also a brown paper box tied with string. The kind you would expect to get cookies from your grandmother in.

I picked up the box and put it on the counter. It wasn’t heavy but I felt that there was something rolling around inside.

“What is it?” Jackson asked.

The three of us leaned over and I pulled the string. As the string came loose the lid lifted slightly and I pulled it open completely.

Eyes looked out at me. Two perfectly round eyes with flesh attached to the back. I recognised them immediately. They were Tyler’s eyes. He had beautiful green eyes.