9. Gray Stewart

After dropping Zia Scott off her apartment and sending her to the door, Gray Stewart went back to her car parked right in front. However, as soon as she grabbed the door's handle, her gut grumbled. "I'm hungry." She looked around with her hand on her stomach. Walking a few steps on the right, she found a convenience store.

She entered the store and grabbed a bottle of water and a tuna-flavored sandwich. As she made her way to the counter, a five feet blonde woman in a red fitting dress cut past her in a hurry. The woman placed her hand cart on the counter. Inside it were a few boxes of band-aids, elastic bandages, adhesive tapes, gauze pads and rubbing alcohol. When the woman handed her card for payment, the cashier swiped the card on the payment terminal; however, the machine made a beeping sound.

"I'm sorry ma'am, your card was declined," the cashier said to her.

"W-what? Why?" Contrary to the woman's bold clothing, her voice was surprisingly soft and a little bit high-pitched.

"I think you've reached the limit, Ma'am," the cashier explained.

"Oh, uhmm." She groped her body as if searching for another card or cash when obviously her dress didn't have any pockets.

Meanwhile, Gray was just patiently waiting behind her; however, quite a few had queued behind her and some of them were complaining about the long wait in whispers.

As her gut grumbled again, she stepped up the counter. "I'll pay for her," she said as she slid from behind her and thrusted out her card. "And this too." She handed her items over to the cashier.

The cashier, who was also worried about the long queue that formed behind them, accepted her card and swiped it on the payment terminal right away. When Gray glanced down at the blonde woman, the woman's golden eyes were staring at hers with her jaw dropped in a daze.

"You're holding the line," Gray said and gestured her eyes behind them.

The woman glanced behind then turned back to her. "S-sorry." She lowered her head looking embarrassed. As the cashier handed the woman's plastic bag, she looked at Gray and curved up a smile. "Thank you." Then she walked away.

Gray just followed her with her eyes until she walked out the glass door and disappeared into the crowd.

"Here's your card, sir." The cashier brought back her attention, putting down her card on the counter. 

"Sir?" Her brows furrowed. "I'm a woman." She picked up her card and put it back in her black leather jacket's inner pocket.

"S-sorry, ma'am," the cashier stuttered in embarrassment. "Your voice was low so I thought--"

"It's fine, I'm not bothered. "Gray grabbed her plastic bag and walked out the store.

As she went back in front of Zia's apartment, her jaw dropped when she saw that the side of the road where she parked her car was now empty. She stood right where she parked her car and looked around but to no avail, the familiar black sedan car was nowhere in sight. Glancing around, she noticed teenage girls loitering by the entrance of the apartment. She approached them.

"Hi, have you noticed a black sedan car there?" She pointed her finger to where she had parked the car.

"Oh, I think I saw it," one girl replied. "There were these big dudes just a few secs ago in a truck and some kinda hook lifted the car into the truck then they drove off."

"Thank you," Gray shortly replied then walked away. She stood by the side of the road then stared at the vehicles passing on the road with dead fish eyes. "Ah," she sighed. "My car got towed." She turned the water bottle's cap open and gulped all the water down hastily, and threw the empty bottle on a trash bin a meter away from her. Then, she started walking on the sidewalk.

As she passed by a narrow alleyway, her peripheral view took a glimpse at two street children caved in in the dark. After walking a few steps away, she went back to the alleyway and crouched down to place the sandwich in front of the two kids then she sprung up and swiftly left before they could react or even look up to her face.

Pacing her way home, she passed by the school where Edward worked at which was just half a mile away from Zia's apartment. Students could be seen playing outside the building since it was already lunch hours.

"Ugh, kids." She frowned and immediately looked away. As she walked past the campus, a group of students were loitering on a small corner right beside it. She just minded her own business and walked past them in silence.

"Come on, give me your money, punk!"

She looked back and saw that one boy in glasses was pushed to the wall with blood on the corner of his mouth and three boys who were twice his size were surrounding him. 

"Damn it," she sighed. She tied up her nordic white hair in a ponytail with a tie from her black pant's back pocket then approached the boys. "I see, so they're the kids you're referring to, young master," she uttered in a deep tone and stood behind the big kids with her arms crossed.

The boys looked back and were flustered at the six footer behind them. "W-who are you? Mind your own business, stupid adult!" one boy shouted.

"You look like a pig, yes, you're about seventy pounds, hmm, delicious, if it's four dollars per pound then I'll get two hundred eighty dollars out of you. There are three of you, so that'll be eight hundred forty dollars. Yes, seems profitable," she mumbled to herself as she cackled maniacally.

"W-what nonsense are you talking about?! Get lost!" the boy shouted with trembling hands.

She slightly bent over to level his eyes and looked at him with a menacing glare. "We're gonna sell you off to the slaughterhouse," she whispered to his face then projected a wide disturbing grin.

"Y-you lunatic!" The boy stumbled down on the ground, then he abruptly crawled to the wall and helped himself up. "You're not supposed to bring an adult!" he shouted as he sprinted away, and the two boys with him also ran away in a hurry.

She stared at the little boy in glasses. The boy's legs were violently shaking with his hands clasped together. "Hey," she called out to him.

The boy eventually dropped to the ground with his legs giving in. "Y-yes," he stuttered with his quivering eyes on her black monk shoes.

Gray reached for her back pocket and pulled out a box of band-aids. She threw it on the ground, right beneath the boy. "You can put it, yourself, right?" she said in her normal low-pitched voice.

The boy reached his pale hand for the box and looked up to her. "Y-yes..."

"If they come at you again just start mumbling the word 'pigs' and just say some random numbers as if you're calculating," she said as she stared down at him. "The strong prey on the weak, but using your brain will elude a few." Then she went on her way, leaving the boy on the ground.

"T-thank you!" She could hear the boy's voice from a distance.

"Didn't expect I'd use that box so soon," she thought to herself. "The cashier must have put it in the wrong bag."

Walking down the road at a gradual pace, she eventually passed by Edward's apartment which was two kilometers away from Zia's. A few blocks away from Edward's apartment, she passed by a park with a small playground. It was almost empty with only two little kids playing by the swing; a little boy was pushing the little girl on the swing. They're about the same age as Zia's current body.

"Tsk," she clicked her tongue at the sight of them. "Little kids and their carefree attitude." She walked past them.

As she was already a few steps away, a bawling could be heard behind her and when she looked back, one little girl was lying on the ground just underneath the swing while the little boy was also crying beside her.

She rushed towards them as she dialed 911 on her phone. When she arrived before the kids, the other line also picked up.

"Yes, hello, I'm at the park near the ***** apartment. One girl, about five years old, fell down the swing on her back."

The little boy beside her tugged on her jacket as he sobbed. "M-my...s-sister..."

She gently rubbed the little boy's back to comfort him as she listened to the dispatcher on the other line. "No, I didn't touch her… Yes, I called right away… No, she's not bleeding but she seems to be in pain."

The little girl lying on the ground grimaced as she continued to wail in pain while the little boy beside her continued to sob in silence.

"It's fine, an ambulance will come any second." Gray reassured the little boy beside her as she hung up the call.

A few seconds later, an ambulance screeched to a halt near the park and paramedics came to their aid. The children's parents were also contacted and went to the hospital with them in the ambulance.

Gray sat on the swing as she was left alone in the park after the commotion ended. She stared unfocused on the ground with her phone in her hand. And her momentary time of solitude was disrupted as her gut protested once again.

"I'm hungry..."