Chapter 1 – Set for Life at a Cost
Growing up is a process that could take one’s entire life. There’s a certain fear of it especially when it comes to financial concerns. It’s one of the main reasons why people get jobs after all. There is probably not one person in the world who hasn’t wished for a solution to all of their problems to appear to them in a single day. Jorge is a boy who is lucky enough to have a one-million-dollar bill fly straight to him. He then sees another and catches it. Then another then another and another until he has ten million dollars in his hands. Jorge is old enough to know what he can do with all of this money and that he is set for life with it. He runs to find the source of the money and comes across a band of thieves in a gunfight with the cops.
Gunfights in the streets of Hillside City are common since the city is one of the craziest in the world. The cops are trained to know when to shoot first and ask questions later and this is one of those situations. The reason why money is flying through the air appears to be because the case of money the thieves were stealing was shot open by the cops. The thieves are struggling to pick up what they can while retreating. One of them notices Jorge holding some of the money and runs after him.
Jorge runs into the nearby alleyways, which he and his friends repurposed into an obstacle course. It was dangerous work that they could’ve gotten into trouble for, but what kind of adventure doesn’t involve danger. Jorge leaps and crawls through the obstacle course while the thief struggles to keep up with him since the obstacle course was made for kids. The thief then gets caught in the obstacle course and gives up on chasing Jorge this way. Jorge takes the opportunity to quickly head home. Along the way, he periodically looks behind him as he’s anxious. He has the key to an easy life in his hands. He won’t need to worry anymore about going to school, college, or having enough money to survive once he gets this money back home.
Looking back behind him, he can see shadows quickly darting back into the shadows. People who aren’t looking at him appear to grow another face on their face that stares at Jorge when he looks at them. He knows this is more than his imagination. It’s Speculum Humanae or Human mirror, a condition that people have that’s reported to appear in them once they reach a certain point in their lives when everything changes. Jorge doesn’t want to believe he has this, but all the research papers and news reports he’s read point him towards this conclusion. Monsters and other supernatural happenings reflective of your personality are reported to haunt you until you get past this important moment in your life. Jorge hopes that him heading home will “cure” him of this condition before something dangerous happens to him.
Before he knows it, he’s back home and catches his parents leaving for work. He’s relieved to see them, but they’re less so.
“Jorge, what are you doing here?” his father yells.
Before he has the chance to say anything or pull out the money, his mother says, “It’s his lunch time. You know how these kids like heading home to get away from school. We used to go to a cool breakfast place around here, remember?”
“Oh, that’s right. I’m sorry Jorge.”
His mother goes up to him and hands him a twenty for lunch before kissing him on the head and going into their car. His parents then waved goodbye and tell him that they love him as they drive off to work. Jorge waves the money to them, but they’re too far to see it so they just wave back. Even though Jorge has a copy of the key to get inside the house, he left it inside the house because he usually heads home when his parents get back.
Now that his parents have left, Jorge feels unsafe. He can feel people staring at him from all around him. The only thing he can do is head back to school where he can possibly be protected. Since he’s out on the streets, Jorge goes through a series of alleyways to get to school. He feels that the walls around him might offer him protection. It’s then a strange sensation in the back of his head. It feels as if there’s a mouth in the back of his head. Jorge looks into a nearby broken mirror and sure enough, there is.
It speaks to him, “Hello there Jorge.”
Jorge screams as he fiddles with his head to try to get the mouth off.
“I know it’s weird to see a mouth on the back of your head but look at it this way. Would you rather be me, a mouth without a body, or you a boy with a full body?”
Jorge stays quiet and thinks the answer to himself.
“Exactly. Now the reason why I’m here, is because I’m going to help you as you go through this phase in your life. I’ll be telling you what you’re thinking and what we could possibly do, but you’re the one who has to decide. Got it?”
Jorge nods his head.
“Good! You and I are going to have so many adventures together, I can’t wait.”
The mouth then recedes back into Jorge’s head. Jorge thinks things have gotten worse for him. He quickens his pace until he’s back at school just in time as lunchtime has stopped. He quickly heads back to class and sits down in his seat. Class begins again, but Jorge wants to tell his friends what he got. The two of them sit ahead of Jorge and the people ahead of Jorge aren’t exactly friends with him so it’s not like they’ll do him a favor by passing his message to them, so he waits until school ends for the day.
Once the school day ends Jorge takes his stuff and goes to his talk to his friends, he almost catches up to him until the mouth on his head comes back.
“Watch it, kid, we got trouble,” it says as Jorge’s eyes catch the four of the thieves from before heading this way.
They point towards the school as they talk to each other. It seems that the one who was following Jorge managed to follow him to the school. The thought then comes to Jorge’s mind that the one thief also now knows where he lives. This terrifies him beyond belief. The cops, thankfully, find the thieves again and re-engage them in a gunfight. The children of the school scatter to the cars of their parents while others run back home. Jorge runs with his friends back to their house. The thieves catch sight of Jorge running away and send two of their members to get him. They chase after Jorge and his friends as they run through the city streets and into the alleyways that they’ve claimed for themselves. Again, because of their design, Jorge is able to get away from the robbers through the alleyways, however, Jorge’s friends are caught at the end of one alleyway causing him to take another exit.
“That wasn’t nice of you,” the mouth on his head says, “Leaving your friends to criminals like them?”
Jorge shakes off the guilt in his mind. It’s not like his friends won’t tell the thieves what they don’t already know, but then again, you never know what these criminals might do to his friends. Hillside City is home to some of the most dangerous and crazy people. The alleyways that Jorge once knew by heart have now turned into a maze. Arms, eyes, and mouths pop out from the sides. Some of them push him forward while others push him back while telling him to take either action.
“What are you going to choose, Jorge? Hmmm?”
When Jorge looks back, he can see two thieves chasing me, but they’re different. Their mouths are swollen and monstrous and their arms look like they could rip Jorge in two.
“Get me out of here!” Jorge screams.
“It shall be done.”
At the blink of an eye, Jorge remerges from an alleyway on the opposite side of the city. It’s way later in the day now and it’s almost nighttime. Jorge sighs in relief as he makes his way back home. Along the way, he hears two people talking.
“Did you hear about those thieves that stole a briefcase of money from a rich guy in the city? The cops shot the briefcase so the thieves’ priorities would be spilt, and all that money flew into the wind.”
“Really? I wish I was there to catch some.”
“I heard that some people did catch some of it, but as you can expect, they ran off with it before being asked to give it back.”
“What happened to the thieves?”
“Executed. Hillside City style.”
“That’s what you get when you have a mayor that was previously both a police chief and a crime boss.”
“Hey, he had a good reason for being a “criminal”. It’s not like he hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it.”
“Right. It’s just another day in the city then.”
“Yeah, but I heard at least four or more people died because they might’ve had the money that flew away.”
“Really? Who?”
“A bunch of middle-aged people and more importantly, kids.”
“You know what? I take back what I said. Let the major make the police do what he wants. Crime has gone down because of it and those dead criminals don’t breathe the same air as us anymore.”
Jorge’s heart sinks as he pulls out his phone to see the news report. Among the names of the victims, he finds the names of his friends and his parents. It is reported they died after being questioned by the thieves.
The mouth in the back of Jorge’s head says, “Welcome to your new life kid. Hey, don’t be sad. At least you have enough money to survive until you die, right?”
Jorge walks into the alleyway and quietly sobs as the long night begins.
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