Fan Fiction |
by Jenny Tran
Ahron’s eyes remained closed as he lied quietly in the pool of blue light. His thoughts traveled to Zoey, he wondered what would become of her? How would they explain his sudden disappearance? Serefina’s echoed voice broke into his thoughts and eased his worries “Do not worry for the mortals that have crossed your path. Within weeks, they will have forgotten the entire ordeal.”
“How was Barak able to enter the mortal world?” he asked the pondering question he had thinking of since he realized his feelings were being controlled.
“That is beyond your control, Ahron. You have past the test of lust.”
“What is next?” he asked.
Serefina’s signature laugh only reminded how much he missed the heavens “That, you will have to see for yourself. Now, move on.” He felt a strong wind that blew him into a distance. His eyes remained closed.
“Hung! Hey, wake up! They’re gone!” Ahron’s brows wrinkled but his lids remained heavy. The voice, it was a girl’s voice. It was too familiar “Give me that cup!” the girl demanded as she threw the ice cold water over his face causing him to be startled awake.
Ahron rubbed his eyes and moved the water away from his face with the palm of his hand “What…what happened?”
“What happened? You fainted. Shit, I’ve never met such a chicken shit before in my life. But then again, I can’t expect a scholar to fend himself from a bunch of gangsters with knives pointed at him.” She squatted in a seated position as she tapped him with the back of her hand “Hey, you ready?”
“For what?” he asked as he turned to her. His face froze in place “Zoey?” he looked around, the setting was in modern day Hong Kong. They looked to be standing in the middle of little diner with a group of men surrounding him. Her makeup was dark and her hair died jet black. It was chopped in layers and ran down her back, she wore a jean skirt and knee high boots. Her black top looked like it was deliberately cut at the neck so that it would lean to one side, the waist was cut to show off her belly button.
“Zoey? No…” she titled her head strangely “Did you hit your head somewhere?” she pulled his head under her chin while examining any damage “No, it’s not bruised. I’m JOEY.” She pronounced clearly for him.
He nodded as he pushed himself up, Joey continued to stare at him “What?” he asked strangely, wondering who the girl was to him.
She was getting frustrated “You begged and begged for me to take you to see my brother and now you’re asking me what? I swear, something is wrong with you.” She sighed, “So are we going or what?”
It was an annoyed tone that he quickly caught on. Maybe it was his destiny to meet the guy? Ahron hastily nodded “Okay. Let’s go.”
Joey turned to the boys and snapped her finger “Come on.” They walked down the streets as if they owned it, glaring down at people who were watching with fear. She rested a lazy arm around Ahron’s neck “Hey, you gonna wear that to see my brother?”
Ahron hadn’t noticed his clothes until she pointed it out. He looked down at his old rundown khakis and a picture printed shirt of Yu-Gi-Oh. Who had dressed him? Joey tightened her arm around his neck as she stopped in front of a clothing store, nodding to the store with her eyes “I don’t have any money.” He answered without thinking. She laughed as he wrinkled his brows, why did he say that?
“I know, you’re a poor scholar. I’ll buy it for you. Come on.” She practically pushed him into the store as they chose out a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt that was more fitting “We might have time to fix your hair though…oh hell! Forget it.” She waved a hand while leading the way.
“How did we meet?” Ahron asked curiously as they turned a corner and continued on. He wasn’t sure where they were headed but the city was getting dirtier and crowded with loitered people scrutinizing them “Sorry, I have short term memory.” He added when she rolled her eyes.
“I was in Beijing for some…eh…business. And suddenly, this huge group of mother fuckers-” she covered her mouth with a laugh “Oops…sorry, excuse my French. Anyways…they started attacking me and my boys. I had the package so I had to run the hell away. I didn’t notice my leg was cut until you saw me sitting in an alley groaning in pain. At first, I thought you were one of them, but when I saw your clothes, I knew you were an innocent. You helped me get away and I said I owed you a favor. Then before I left, you requested to see my brother and the rest as you nerds would say is history.” She concluded with a warning finger “Don’t ask anymore questions, I hate it.”
When she spoke, it brought back memories in his mind. Indeed he did know her, Joey was no more than an acquaintance to him. He lived in a poor house, big enough for one person but there were three others living in the same cottage. His mother, a younger brother and a sister that was dying of leukemia. He was the only one that finished school but could not find a job, they were desperate for money “Jo Jei.” The bouncer greeted her with a nod. Ahron looked up and found a large built guy standing guard at what looked like an underground club.
“Hey.” Joey flicked her head at him “He’s with me.” She pointed to Ahron “Is Gor here?”
“Yeah. He’s inside.” He looked down at Ahron and eventually opened the door for them.
Ahron stepped inside, not knowing what to expect. The scene was clouded by cigarette fumes and guys drinking into a frenzy. Girls wearing short skirts and slits that ran up to their thighs. The men looked dangerous and fearless as they glared at the new guy. Joey quickly spotted ‘Fingers’. It was a nickname her brother gave him because he was quick with the hands. One of the most dependable and trustworthy guys in the eyes of Lung Gor, head of Hung Hing Gang “He’s inside with the bosses.” He informed Joey and quickly pointed to Ahron “Who’s the wannabe?”
Joey took into offense “Be nice, he saved me.”
“He’s the guy that saved you?” Fingers looked shocked.
“Yeah. You got a problem?” Joey pointed her chin in the air.
He laughed while stepping closer to Joey until they were centimeters apart “Hell, I’ve got a problem since the day I met you. You are so fine!" he shook his head sadly "Damn, why do you have to be a les?”
Joey grin exploded as she threw her head back with a laugh “Are all guys like that? They want girls that they can never have?” she grazed her lips to the side of his neck “You’ll never have me.” She stepped back and patted Ahron on the arm “Come on. Let’s crash it.”
Ahron followed her but he turned back to the guy called Fingers, he was fuming with anger “Who is that guy?”
“Fingers. Stay away from that bitch, he’ll just bring you more drugs until you drown in your own vomit. I don’t know what my brother sees in him. He’s always trying to feel me up and crap like that.” Joey turned to Ahron curiously “What’s the matter? Scared?”
He shook his head “No, just curious…what did he call you earlier…a les?”
“Yeah, like lesbo…lesbian…homosexual? Is that term better?” she mocked teasingly.
Ahron’s eyes nearly popped out of its socket “You’re…gay?” he didn’t know if she would be offended.
Instead she laughed it off “I forgot to mention that to you. Hey, don’t tell me you’re in love with me and shit. Damn, the last guy that told me that, I had to get Ah Gor to rid him of his misery.”
“You got him killed?!” Ahron asked in shock.
“No, stupid! We just made him move to another city and if he returned, we’d chop off his dick…ooop! I mean penis.” Joey covered a laugh when he continued to look stunned “Stop it with the small talk, come on.” She thrust the door open without any disregard to her brother’s meeting. But she already knew there was no meeting, he had wanted privacy with his girl, Dee.
Lung Gor was hovering over Dee on a couch built for courting “Jesus! Joey, why can’t you knock?” Dee cried as she covered her top that was slipping off.
“Meeting huh?” she snickered at her brother.
He turned and slowly crawled away from Dee. He sat coolly on the couch, his legs crossed casually “So, you caught me. What do you want? I don’t like to be disturbed.”
“The hell you do! I’m your sister. We’re from the same blood, the same mother that carried us for a whole nine months. I’m the sister that stole—”
“Okay, I get it. Fuck, girl…do you have to bring that same speech up every time?” Lung Gor shook his head disapprovingly at her “Who’s the mute?” he nodded to Ahron.
Joey smiled victoriously “This is Ah Hung. He saved me back in Beijing, I told you about that remember?” Lung Gor nodded as he waved for Dee to come closer so he could wrap an arm around her.
“Yeah…so?” Lung Gor asked uninterestingly.
“Nothing, he said he wanted to meet you, that’s all.” Joey patted Ahron on the arm “Come on.”
“No, I wanted to ask him something.” Ahron stopped Joey.
Lung Gor seemed amused as he clapped his hands “So you can talk.” Dee cracked up as if it was the funniest thing in the world “What is it? I’ll do anything, you saved my sister’s life.”
“I need money.” He said bluntly.
Dee snorted, “Boy, you have guts. How dare you demand money from Lung Gor. Even I don’t—”
Lung Gor raised a hand to silence his girl “It’s okay. My sister’s life is worth a few thousand dollars, I guess.”
“Actually, I need a million…” Ahron began “You see, my family is really poor. My mother is always sick and my sister has leukemia, plus my brother can’t afford to go to college…” he faded when Joey began tapping him impatiently on the arm. A clear sign for him to stop talking.
“One million…” Lung Gor narrowed his eyes at the greedy guy “You want a million dollars?” he got up and snapped a finger at Dee to follow. She did “Sorry, you came to the wrong person.”
“Gor!” Joey stomped her foot in a tantrum “You just said my life was worth something.”
“Yeah, a few grand, not a million!! Anyways, I don’t have that much, even if I do, it should go to the boys.” He reasoned “Every gang has rules, I can’t just take it out of the trust for some guy we don’t even know if we can trust.”
“He’s not with Fu Ting.” Joey said flatly “What if he becomes one of the boys? Will you give him money like you do to the others? Give him my share too.”
Lung Gor turned to Dee “Can you wait outside, babe?” she nodded respectfully and retrieved to close the door behind them “Ah Mui, you don’t normally give up your chunk of money for someone…especially for a man.” He didn’t like the idea that she was gay, but had long ago accepted it. That way, he wouldn’t have to worry about one of her boys making her pregnant. She was promiscuous.
“He saved my life.” She repeated, “You’ve always taught me to repay a favor that was given. Even when I told him who I was, he wasn’t scared. He insisted that I stay at his home until the scene died down.”
“Look, I don’t want to cause siblings to fight.” Ahron raised a hand “I guess it was greedy of me to ask. I can work for it…could you get me a job? I just need to make something to send money up to my family.”
“He can be my bodyguard!” Joey suggested with wide eyes.
Lung Gor laughed, “Don’t you mean you’re HIS bodyguard?” he shook his head when she gave him pleading puppy eyes “Okay.” He smoothed her hair adoringly “Just because it’s for you. You have a job. If she loses a strand of hair, it’s your dick I want.”
Joey punched him on the shoulder roughly “Don’t scare him!”
He looked down at where she punched him and back at Joey “Did you just fuckin punch me?”
Her eyes widened “Uh…no…no, I didn’t. Did I?” She turned quickly to Ahron for help.
“Uh…no. I didn’t see it.” Ahron caught on.
Lung Gor shrugged “Okay. Come on, let’s go eat. I’m starved.” He wrapped an arm around her neck “I could eat a cow.”
“Yeah, I get tired after my girl bones me too.” Joey’s comment made him grimace with disgust. He pushed her away and nodded to Dee and Fingers. Ahron smiled at the different way Joey was with her brother. He could never see himself with his sister or brother acting that way “Works every time.” She leaned and whispered to Ahron.
“What?” he asked blankly.
“I love making him disgusted.” She giggled.
Ahron found her attitude amusing and endearing for some strange reason. She was crude and her manners were beyond low class. She was different from Zoey and Chou Yee, but yet they looked exactly the same. He began to wonder if the Fortune Teller theory were true. He learned it long ago from Jeroham but had never witnessed it with his own eyes until that very minute. Were they all the same people? If so, why doesn’t she remember him? Or is it that she can’t?
“Hey, earth to Hung!” Joey waved a hand in front of his face “Come on, they’re way ahead of us.”
“Oh, sorry.” He said hastily and quickened his pace to catch up with the rest.