Chapter 6- Elio’s POV

And what the fuck had that all been about, arguing with a random madman on the goddamn streets!

I sighed at myself as I sat down, trying to get comfortable in the seat that was almost too small for me. I put my hands in between my legs, clasped, and waited.

How long would this take, I wondered. And how had that random man off the streets gotten on my nerves like that?

The ticking clock was loud in the quiet space but I didn’t glance at it from under my lashes every other second because of that. I had spent so long not knowing the time, sometimes spending months in solitary confinement where I was treated like a beast, that I often felt untethered to the world

2:18.

Straight from the clock my attention was drawn to the door as it opened again, just a few minutes after I’d come in, and the man I walked in.

Was the asshole serious? Was he following me?

I couldn’t take my eyes off him because I had the renewed urge to fucking strangle him. He just made me so angry I could just—

How dare he call me that?

I took in a big, big breath. For the last couple years, I had become more physical with that emotion, but I’d told myself I wouldn’t leave prison with it. That was his fucking saving grace.

As he glanced around the room and his eyes also found mine, we watched each other as he walked off the opposite point in the room off to my left and sat down.

There was nowhere far enough in this city my option. Fucking asshole.

My phone buzzed in my pocket silently. I didn’t reach for it, I knew who it would be. He’d been texting me since last week, and while I couldn’t blame him I didn’t have his fucking money.

It didn’t take long for Echo to come out of a small hallway with a young blonde woman behind him. She left without looking at any of us, and he turned to us.

“You,” he said, pointing to the maniac, “come on.”

My jaw clenched. Maybe it was a little thing I could have let go off on a normal day, but I really didn’t like Echo calling him in before me as I was here first. I knew he probably didn’t know that, but it fucking rubbed me the wrong way regardless.

Echo was tall, maybe almost as tall as I used to be when I had that growth spurt at fifteen, topped off with bright blonde hair. He was so thin I could see bones poking out of him at all angles as he stood and led the way for that dick to follow. It didn’t seem like it was from hunger or sickness, especially because of his normal-looking face.

I watched him go, pointedly keeping my eyes off the lunatic that had wandered in here after me.

The other people in here were content to ignore me as I was to ignore them. They seemed ordinary enough with varying features, but I felt uneasy around them as I knew what they probably were. I was uneasy here, in this part of town, in general.

The man came back outside and sat on his seat. And I had to wait through two more people before Echo called on me.

“You, hulk, come on.”

I unfolded myself, happy to be out of that chair. I didn’t look at him when I walked past. The hallway was so tiny it would be hard for two people to walk side by side and it smelled damp, like water was leaking into the roof maybe.

We didn’t walk for long, maybe about a singular minute before Echo opened a door and walked into an office.

This room was larger than the shoe box Echo had parked us in. It was warm too, as opposed to the heat outside, but quite bare. There was nothing on the walls and the table and accompanying chairs —one for him, two for his guests of the other side— were really the only things in the room.

The chair he sank into was plush with an armrest and the one he directed me into wasn’t, the hard wood flat to sit on. Would it kill this man to invest in comfortable chairs for his, uh, customers?

“Hello, please put any and all metal on the table, which should include your phone and any weapons.”

I complied, bringing out my phone and the singular thin knife I now didn’t go anywhere without. I showed them to him and placed them on the table softly.

“If you could please stand up for a moment.”

He swiped me down with a metal detector wand pulled from a drawer and when it beeped green he nodded. Didn’t blame the man, there have been a few stabbings and/or shootings working with criminals.

“Okay sit. What can I do for you?

“I want to go after the Tibe and—”

“The fuck?”

I could understand the reaction. Even around these parts, not many people might want to go up against him, but—

“Please go outside.”