The beach had barely a noise that day, except for the whispery whistle of the wind, and a few whiffs of smoke from the tall looming city in the back. Rather different from the usual calls of the ambulance and the groans of the people, which could pierce even the drowsiest of men, and leave them writhing on the ground. Everyone, even the smallest of children, knew what went on behind their gazes. After all, who wouldn’t know about how their food source is slaughtered? The only true escape from being killed for food would be to lock yourself in a room, with a pistol in hand. Even then, you would still need a way to get nutrition, one of them being protein. Beans were a luxury in most places, and even more were meats like beef and pork. Humans, in the end, were the most convenient choice for protein because of overpopulation. All this killing often led to lovers being separated, killed by each other for money, or even somehow pushed closer together. One of the few lovers who had been pushed together even closer were on that very beach, escaping from all the chaos of the world. The couple had been sitting on a rock near the briny sea water, dipping their feet into it. The girl of the couple, a petite and droopy-eyed teen, leaned on the boy of the pair, a lanky late teens with dyed hair. If you had spotted them on the street, you would’ve wondered why these two oddballs were dating, but the world must certainly didn’t allow it if you wanted to survive. Why would you judge someone when you needed to worry about your fate? In fact, that’s likely why these two unlikely people decided start and keep their relationship.

The girl leaned on the boy even more, as if she were a boulder trying to crush a hiker. She closed her eyes and sighed, her overgrown bowl haircut shifting in the wind, she wished that they weren’t in this situation, she wanted the exact opposite. Looking up toward the boy’s face, she dreamily murmured, “I wish I could be here together with you, Albany. Maybe in heaven, maybe in a different world, I don’t care. I just want this to last forever.” She very well knew what she had just said sounded like it had been ripped from a corny love song, but why would she care? She had him, and that’s all that mattered. Finally, the boy replied to what she said.

“I feel the same way. No matter what happens, I’ll protect you.” he simply said with sincerity. Albany’s voice sounded rather deep for someone his age, and slightly unsettling, but not because of how deep it sounded. Either way, his voice and looks matched up in a way that it seemed like the perfect match to him.

The girl sweetly landed a peck on Albany’s cheek, and smiled a rather dopey smile. She was finally accepted in this world, in this world where was known as a “dog” in school, in this world where her brother would often times beat her not with fists, but with his words. She has been called so many things in her life, she didn’t know what to do. Her spark of light came when she met Albany though, she could finally turn to someone, and they didn’t lash out back at her with harsh letters. She turned away for a moment before looking back at Albany. “You know, Alban--”

She felt a dull thump against her face, and she stared in horror at Albany. He wielded a glistening metal bat, with a corner dripping some of her blood. The girl quickly felt her face for anything broken, before getting up and sprinting as fast as she could. No matter how much she loved Albany, no matter how much she wanted her life to change, she didn’t want to die. She wanted to live and feel things. Not become someone’s meal for a day. Bubbly tears flew back from her eyes, the sand beneath her sandals sinking. She paused for a breath, and looked back toward the rock, only to see no one there. Not caring anymore, she only strolled along until she reached home, with only a bloody face and, thankfully, only major flowering bruises to show for the event that had happened, along with two black eyes like olives. She ambled along until she reached her room, which had a tacky sticker saying “Parry’s Room - Don’t Come In!” Parry had slapped that sticker on the door when she was about five, so the sticker was rather low put. She slammed the door as she semi-crawled in, and soon collapsed right in her bed, dreaming of what might’ve happened if she hadn’t run. She dreamt of herself being stuffed in a crate, and being shipped to a sausage factory, to join other people. After that, she didn’t remember much of what she dreamt.


Albany didn’t mean to hit the girl’s face. He really didn’t. After all, he didn’t like a bloody face staring back at him. Albany had hidden behind the large slab of smoothed out stone they had been sitting on minutes before when he saw the girl slow down, he knew she was doing to turn around to see if he was there. When he had gotten out from the shelter of the rock again, she was gone, with only memories to show she was there in the first place. A bit like the name he was given when he was younger, before he had moved out with his mother, to escape from something only his mother knew. All he remembered of Albany was, well, that it was in New York. Maybe even tasting a slice of pizza his mother had bought for him, and the kind smile of a teacher when he was in elementary school. But that didn’t matter anymore, all he needed right now was money to care for his mother.

Albany brushed off his pants to get off as much sand as he could and headed back home, to the cramped little apartment where his mother spent most her time at. The only way he could even afford this life would be to “euthanize” humans for the meat industry. Yet, his employer didn’t even offer any sort of silent poisons, or even some sort of knock out gas. “Be creative,” they had said, “Have some fun!”

Fun? How out of touch are they? Albany couldn’t help wondering what had twisted them to believe killing a fully breathing human being just so then a few people could have a Sunday roast was fun. In the end though, as long as he got payed, it wasn’t his business to wonder. Albany started to amble back home, with no money in hand.



Years glided by after that incident, with the blood on Albany’s glistening weapon of choice thickening and splattering more and more. He hadn’t thought much of the scared face of the girl he had tried to kill before, Albany didn’t want to. He had much more important things to worry about at that time, like staying in college while trying to keep his finances afloat. His dyed blue-purple hair had started to fade, and yet still kept a bit of the brilliance of before. Albany desperately wanted to re-dye it back to its former glory, maybe even add in specks of white at the ends. What he didn’t realize, though, was that he looked perfectly fine without dyed hair. In fact, he had grown into a rather attractive person, but he still lacked muscle and looked an inch too tall. Albany hummed to himself, trapped in his thoughts on the sidewalk. But! In his thoughts, he had dozed off, and he had bumped into a large pole on the cracked sidewalk. His forehead slammed against the solid surface, immediately allowing a small bruise to bloom. Rubbing his forehead and cursing under his breath, he backed up and continued his way to the community college he attended for education. Strange, how fate has some of the most unlucky ways to intertwine two people’s fate together, for he bumped into another thing, though much more minute than the pole. Looking down, Albany’s gaze met with the eye’s of the other, which were magnetized plenty of times by round glasses . They had been wearing what looked like a over-sized sweater with leggings and boots, and a few too many multi-colored clips jammed into their coffee colored hair. Upon observation of their eyes though, they appeared as… droopy and sleepy. Immediately Albany backed away, horrible memories of the bloodied-faced girl gnashing their way into his mind. Parry (Was that her name? Albany had forgotten) simply stared blanked faced, not recognizing the very person had tried to murder her before. She blinked once, before asking in a confused tone, “Um, may I help you?”

Albany let out a shaky breath, thanking god that she didn’t recognize him. He shook his head, his hair becoming a whirl of cottoncandy colors. Silently, he simply went back to walking to college, with Parry watching as he went. It worked better that way, for the both of them.



After that incident, Albany couldn’t push out the memory of Parry. He couldn’t even try to forget anything about her, which ended in him failing one of his courses in college. At the same time, the re-appearance of her into his life made him truly realize, all the people he had killed before had a life. They had been alive, had connections, had been successful (or not) in their lives, and he had simply ended them all by the hit of his bat. His bat stood in his bedroom back at his apartment, often times his mother clucking her tongue in disapproval at how dirty it looked. Before, he had considered the bat a lifeline, a bit like on those TV shows; if he couldn’t get an odd job, he could simply use that to rack in a few hundred dollars. Now, the very thought of it caused him to grit this teeth. He had brought the end of so many life stories, with that common $50 second hand bat.
After the blur of the college day ended, he hurried home, back to his bedroom. He grasped the handle, which he had wrapped with cheap duct tape, and threw it under his bed. Albany never wanted to see it again, even if he had to starve himself. Silently he hoped that there were plenty of people who wanted their dishe washed, or their car cleaned. Sulking, Albany headed out the door to find if his hope rang true. Heading out, though, would cause his life to collide into Parry’s again, literally. Albany crashed into Parry for the second time that day, knocking Parry’s glasses off and onto the road. He quickly got up, apologizing as much as he could. “Now really, were you raised to flirt by becoming a go cart?” Parry stated irritatedly, huffing and crossing her arms, before looking up.
The moment came much too soon, and occurred too quickly. Realizing after a long stare, Parry raced back as quick as she could, whipping out a pocket knife from her purse. She pointing toward Albany, put kept it near her body, stabbing the shaft into her stomach. Albany silently thought to himself of how easily it would be to simply crush the knife into her and make her collapse, but thought better of it. He placed his hands behind his head as if Parry lead the police force, and tried to show he wasn’t hostile. It failed, and simply ended with Parry almost crushing her glasses as she continued to back away. Bending down quickly to put them back on, Parry turned back to Albany with the expression of a cornered cat. Reason completely out of her eyes, there would be no way to get to her. Albany knew this look, he had seen it so many times with the people who had also tried to kill him. Nevertheless, he wanted to show he wasn’t there to kill her. “Listen, Parry! I’m sorry I tried to get you before, I stopped killing!” he desperately called to her, trying to grasp at the invisible string of faith Parry may had still had in him. Albany slowly inched toward her, his vans barely ever leaving the ground beneath. He cracked a weak smile, as if to show that he wasn’t joking. Parry mistook it for the very opposite.
“Stay back, you animal!” she shrieked, her eyes flitting from side to side to see if there were any witnesses to help her. Yet, at the same time, she somehow believed him, even if the evidence that he wanted to kill her overwhelmed her. Hands quivering, she closed the pocket knife and placed it back in her purse, cutting one of her pinkies in the process. Sweating and with eyes as big as a deer in a headlight, she stood as still as a rock right on her spot. Albany sighed in relief, she had believed him, so he started to casually walk toward her. Well, not exactly casually, plenty of fake optimism had woven its way in. But a step counted as a step, and that was all that was needed. Their fates had intertwined a bit like two cat’s tails, but unbreakable.