Page 124 of Drift

West looked at Gray. “Same old same old. Fire and ice. My mother tried to burn out traces of the girl and then stuck her outside like a snowman to learn to coat the burns with ice.”

Light looked at her, then dropped his head.

“A stone came my way.” West’s look was too lost, and a soft smile crept in. “Missed my feet by inches, but it got me looking up. The whistle from the kid up there, his nod back to my bedroom window showed that it was open.” A snort. “Damn weird considering it had a lock on the inside to keep me out or in, depending on the mood, and now it was, well… open.”

She glanced Drift’s way, then her smile fell. “I was too cold to move. So damn cold, and a coat landed at my feet a moment later, despite a boy trying not to look like he was left shivering like a drown rat in a frozen pond. And after that?” She shrugged, and that smile crept back in Gray’s way. “I found the windowopen most times I got put out. Then a pretty coat. Socks. A pair of girl’s trainers to keep my feet warm until I learned to climb when I was cold.”

She offered Drift such a ghost of a look. “Been following me around ever since like a little fucking Chihuahua guard dog, he has. Clothes still end up on my bed too.”

A blush touched her nose, but she avoided the look that Drift gave her. “Grant and Ava always followed him of those times to see what was making him late back of a night, and after that?” She shrugged. “I ran with them to keep warm.”

Drift added nothing, and the reason he ran to the streets stayed lost in the quiet of the lounge. Gray filed that away, but also something else that crept in. “How did you get to hear about the Night-walkers?”

She stayed quiet for a moment. “They seemed nothing more than a nightmare,” she said eventually. “One Grant used to keep us both awake to of a night, listening for. But he’d get… he’d get so damn angry at us for running after ten at night. I think it’s what really got him coming after Drift when I delayed him at mine. And I didn’t understand his madness, not for a long time. I thought he was really mad, you know,my Pidgeon’s a parrotmad? He warned us these Night-walkers were more focused to main towns, and Grant always kept us based on the outskirts of London, only coming in here alone. But he’d still shout us down for breaking curfew even if we stayed outskirting.”

Gray stroked at his bottom lip. “But they looked your way eventually. The Night-walkers?”

West sent Drift a quick look, but let it fall, and after a moment, Drift gave a rough sigh and sat back, arms folded—looking every bit Jack in that moment with being forced todo something he really didn’t want to do, but knew it needed to be done anyway. He’d come here to talk Night-walkers, not personal details, and this shifted into Night-walker talk now.

“I was ten when a kid came to see Grant after curfew,” he said flatly. “I’d not seen him before, and it set warning bells off with Jackson that he was on the outskirts, after curfew. Jackson was new to the scene, just coming in every weekend or so for us to go feeding with him, learn what would later be his patch on the streets. But this kid, he had Jackson so damn quiet. And?” Drift frowned. “The kid’s whole body language was off.” He wiped across his nose. “We were looked after, but this kid came with suit trousers and shirt, tramlines through his hair, no sign of drug use, and money. This kid in the suit had lots of money.”

He looked at Gray. “He offered it Grant. But Grant wouldn’t take it.”

West took hold of Drift’s hand and pulled it into her lap, forcing Drift away from the wall he put up around himself.

“I was so pissed off, so fucking pissed off,” he said eventually. “Grant never took above what was needed, and we still shifted from crew to crew, with West sometimes staying with Jackson when we did because Grant wanted her looked after. Ava? She’s older than me by two years.” He frowned. “She loved the run of the streets as much as me, so we worked them together. But that winter was an utter bastard, and the money that kid offered, it could have helped Jackson settle with West permanently. It could have helped us all.

So I argued it out with Grant. Fucking ten years old and as mouthy as shit.” He frowned. “He’d never hit out, but he snapped so quickly that night.” Drift gave a rough sigh. “It hurt. All the slips and broken bones with learning parkour, the cold, how it makes it hurt more, but being hit by him? I ran. Mostlyblind, mostly to piss him off, mostly to get back at him for playing like a safe house-warmer and not running with the risks in order to look after his crew.”

Drift frowned. “I thought I was pretty much untouchable on the rooftops by then. Even Ava and Grant couldn’t catch up with me. But this kid? I got blocked in on a rooftop, and as I tried to run my way free, something stung my cheek. I…” Drift shrugged. “I don’t remember much after that. Just a lot of screaming, heat… vomiting, falling too. Maybe off the rooftop, only it seemed to never stop, day after day….”

Light snapped a look Gray’s way.

“How long were you sick for?” said Gray flatly.

Drift shrugged. “I don’t know. I woke in a warehouse next to Ava, feeling so groggy. She must have come after me and been taken as well. A lot of shouting came from the main floor.” His face creased like it still hurt his head. “Grant… he lay close by, bits of shattered skull mixing with hair and grey matter. Blood… lots of fucking blood. And Jackson?” Drift paled. “He hung from a noose, legs kicking, surrounded by kids who just stood there laughing, some no older than me, the oldest being the kid in the suit. He kept hitting Jackson with a baseball bat like he was a fucking pinata….” He narrowed his eyes. “Me and Ava bolted over, trying to grab at Jackson’s legs, give him something to stand on, stop the pressure…. And they let us both. One of the hardest lessons… knowing just how fucking shit you are as a ten-year-old trying to play games with the big kids.”

He looked West’s way, then pulled her hold of his hand into his lap, where he twisted one of her rings in his fingers. “Jackson hadn’t rushed in when Grant had. He’d come with friends, some from his own crew, but most others? Most others came from the crews Grant had drifted between.” Drift shook his head.“Fucking brutal what they did in there to all those kids around Jackson. They came in with Molotov Cocktails and set them on fire, and they didn’t stop until the screams did. There… there was this fear in their eyes, a wildness, like they knew if they let any kid out alive, they’d be marked.”

He looked Gray’s way. “Jackson dragged the kid in the suit outside and beat him to death despite the kid burning. He was mad, so fucking mad. Then he was on me, dragging me out as Ava was pulled free as well. Other kids had been taken with us, but that hadn’t registered back then. Jackson had to make the choice to leave Grant behind.”

“There’s no record of any of this,” Simon said gently, and it was probably the first time he’d offered gentleness Drift’s way.

“Of course there isn’t,” Drift said flatly. “But Jackson tried.”

Simon frowned.

“Jackson didn’t speak to anyone on the way back, not a word,” said Drift, looking at him, then he glanced briefly at Light. “But I think he knew something worse was going to come, like he’d only touched a few fleas off the bitch’s back. Jackson called enough and for the first time, he went to the police.”

Light held his look.

“Two plain clothed officers took us into a room, Jackson, me, and Ava. Then despite the rope burns around his neck, the broken ribs from the baseball bats, losing Grant…. one of them raped him for opening his mouth.”

Light eased back in his chair, hands running through his hair.

“They touch you?” That came so flatly off Martin.

Drift shook his head. “They went for the main threat. They showed two kids that their main threat was easy pickings if and when they called it. All because I was fucking cold and wanted more out of life.”

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