“You’re cursed, am I right?” said the girl I met in the dark alley.

“How do you know that, were you spying on me?” I asked the girl with glass-smooth dirt-brown skin and long black hair. She had white eyes, a round face, and a tank top with ripped jeans.

“No, but you’re pretty famous for a loner.” What she said puzzled me. How am I famous?” I asked as a million other questions circled my head.

“I was honestly wondering myself,” she said with a smile. “Also, someone survived one of your attempts to make a graveyard.” I was startled by how friendly she was toward a murderer like me. I honestly thought that if they had heard of me, they would run for the hills.

“So, what’s your name,?” Alba asked. “My name is Baladan Escobar, and you should leave before it is too late.”

“Why should I leave? I want to get to know you. See who you are, you know?!” She looked into my eyes, and I saw that she was afraid of one of us leaving yet as I looked into her eyes, I realized I had more than just bewilderment for her. I realized I felt closer to admiration than I should for a girl I had just met. She started walking back to a bike I saw.

“Would you like to go on a date with me or something?” I asked nervously before she left my sight. She walked toward me and looked into my eyes. When I looked into her eyes, I pictured angel wings. “Where and when?” she asked with a smile. “Right now, and wherever you want,” I said with sudden pain in my face. Alba grabbed my arm and put it around her arm, and she rested her head next to my shoulder. She looked up and asked, “Are you smiling? “. I looked at her and I saw her blush. I noticed she started to dig in her bag and grabbed two pairs of contact lenses.

“You want one?” Alba asked handing me a pair of the sunken white circles and I put them in. I didn’t even notice they were in without thinking about it.

“Do you want to go to the skating rink on Eldest and Jackson?” Alba asked, which turned my attention back to her. I nodded but as soon as I wondered where it was a map showed up in my vision (not a physical one) and it showed the fastest route to a skating rink called “Rolling Ross’ Rink”.

“What the fuck is this shit? And how did it just read my mind?” I asked in astonishment and a bit of anger.

“They’re just some high-tech contact lenses that I stole from a guy who tried to marry me and when that didn’t work, he tried to rape me. So, as I escaped, I grabbed this junk and left.” She said that like that was a typical day in New York City. Alba released my arm, and I went to grab my bike, she followed suit.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

We biked out of the dark, musty, and shady alley I learned to call home. It felt kind of depressing and I felt like maybe I should go back. Would the world accept what I am, or will they run, this thought was running through my mind as we passed the Empire State Building and got onto Jackson Blvd. Another thought passed my mind, why did she come to find me, and a better question why doesn’t she take the money? After a while of seeing the gloomy grey sky, I saw it—the skating rink. Yes, I thought, now to escape outside after what I thought was a half hour. We were at the front, but we went to an alley, and I gripped my bike lock hard. We stopped in a dark musty alley that looked similar to the one on Score Avenue. We locked our bikes (I once killed a rich guy that is how I could afford a bike lock, on accident) and I saw a broken shard of glass on the floor. I picked it up and dusted it off.

I looked into my reflection, and I saw a blue-eyed blonde-haired boy with pale skin and black clothes I noticed it was me except for the fact the outer part, the sclera, wasn’t black anymore, and looking into a mirror didn’t drain me of my strength. I jumped when I felt a foreign touch.

“Are you okay? You seemed like you were in a trance and the look on your face told me something was wrong.” Alba said while she looked at me with a worried expression. I thought it was time to speak my mind and I did.

“Why do you care? I mean I don’t even know you and you don’t know me. We literally met an hour or so ago! Why do you like me and why were you searching for me? You could have fame, fortune, and endless food yet you choose the guy who is followed by death and despair! Why?” I asked and when I think about it now, I was a little harsh (okay a lot).

“Why I searched for you is because I wanted to die, and I physically can’t do that. Whoever looks into my eyes will be healed of any disease or injury. I wished for the power to heal my uncle and I was so desperate. I summoned a demon, and it gave me these powers. In exchange, I gave it my eye color so that’s why my eyes are white. I didn’t even think about the consequences,” Alba said with a depressing tone and face.

She continued talking about the fact that a street gang attacked her house and killed her uncle with a bullet to the head, how she got kidnapped by the gang and was forced to treat them(my face went into a face of pure rage and she told me they didn’t do anything sexual with her), how she got kidnapped again by a gang run by a rich boy who tried to make her marry the leader(which is where she got the lenses from), and how she got to my alley by escaping him. After hearing that whole story, I didn’t blame her for wanting to commit suicide.

“I am sorry for the way I reacted. I am just not familiar with people like you,” I said after I had time to think.

“It’s okay I understand your suspicion I would be too,” Alba said which reassured me that I didn’t lose the friendship of the only girl in history who can survive my eyes as far as I know. I held my arm out and she clasped her arm around mine. We walked into the red and pink skating rink; I thought my life was about to get better. I was right and I was wrong.