Chapter Text
one - the odd encounter
Mallory Rockwell's life was never particularly easy. Her parents were divorced, her brothers were incredibly annoying, and she lived in the worst place imaginable. And that's all a very simplified version of her life. But if you were to ask her at that moment what the worst part of her life was, she would name the audacity of her teacher who felt she had to assign a multi-page essay to the sophomores. On the first day of school. Deadline at the end of the week. As if she had nothing better to do than write a stupid essay.
And so it was that on Thursday afternoon, she found herself at the Crow’s Nest with a sheet of paper in front of her. The Crow’s Nest was a bar and restaurant in Mallory's hometown of Neverfalls. The official name was The Beak, but all the locals just called it Crow’s Nest. The reason was that it was the headquarters of one of Neverfalls' gangs. The Night Crows.
The fifteen-year-old had been working at the Crow’s Nest for two years, but always stayed far away from gang activity. Working there offered many dangers, but also security. As long as she wasn't snooping around, she was relatively safe. At the moment, the rivalry between the gangs wasn't too bad anyway. She just washed dishes and served food and drinks, anyway.
She was lucky that not many people came here to eat or drink at this time. This allowed her to write her essay in peace at one of the tables. The only customers were three men who had sat down in a corner and were drinking beer. Every now and then they would ask for their beers to be refilled, however, that was the only interruption in her writing. As far as Mallory knew, they were gang members who had nothing better to do than spend all day in the Crow’s Nest.
Over time, the blonde had learned quite a bit about the people who frequented the establishment. The three guys, for example, were named Leonardo Bender, Scottie Walton and Marc Brooks. All three had been members of the gang for decades and had gone to school together. Walton and Brooks both tried to start families but failed. Neither managed to have and keep even one wife. Not for a lack of trying on Walton’s side. He’d had a total of six divorces in his life. Bender, on the other hand, had found a wife who was also a gang member herself and together they had three children, but they were all grown up and had moved out a long time ago.
If anyone asked who these guys were, she would simply answer with a shrug. That was true for everything she witnessed at work. Violence was a common occurrence in Neverfalls, and gang headquarters were no exception. However, Mallory's job also gave her a certain kind of security. She wasn't a member, but she still enjoyed a certain degree of protection. That probably came more from the good relationship between her father and the gang leader, Cameron Schaefer, than anything else.
But Mallory preferred not to think about that. Shaking her head, she returned to her homework. She still had to write two pages before she was finally finished.
◊ ◊ ◊
Friday was a blessing for everyone. No matter if you were a student or not. Well, unless you had to work on the weekend. But the teenager only had to go to Crow’s Nest on Sunday morning, and there are hardly any customers at that time of day. They hardly had any homework either, after all it was only the first week of school. The only teacher who didn't seem to understand this was Ms. Foley, the English teacher, who always gave her students lots of assignments and then actually checked them. Most teachers had given up on it long ago and thought all students were incompetent anyway (and told them so often enough).
Ms. Foley, for some reason, believed her subject was the most important of all. Mallory had some talent for languages, but she absolutely loathed this teacher's teaching.
Fortunately, she had spared her poor students over the weekend, which meant the blonde could get into mischief with her best friend, Julia Novak.
Only five more minutes until the weekend. Mallory twirled her pen between her fingers and kept looking at the clock. Her Russian class consisted of just nine people. Only seven of them were present. By the end of the year, there would probably only be eight of them left. After all, they had all been here since fifth grade and the level of difficulty got higher and higher. Many students also had other responsibilities and couldn’t keep up or would drop out anyway.
"Well, that's it for today. Have a nice weekend," said their teacher, Ms Rybakova. Like the other students, Mallory had already packed up her things and disappeared from the classroom within seconds.
Julia was already waiting outside the room for her best friend.
"Do you have to go to your locker, or can we go?" the brunette asked. Her long, thick hair loose as always and Mallory could have sworn, she could still see bits of paint in it. A very clear sign that she had just come from art class.
"Nah, I got everything."
◊ ◊ ◊
The Novak’s lived in a small apartment in a large apartment block just 20 minutes from the school. Like many other families, they couldn’t afford more. The apartment consisted of only one bathroom, two bedrooms, and a living room with a kitchenette. This also meant that the three children had to share a room.
The apartment was small, but it was a home away from home.
Even though the apartment was so small, she spent a lot of time with the Novak’s and was practically an unofficial member of the family. Only for dinner she often went home. The teenager always felt like she was eating everything away from them. They already had so little, she didn’t want to take away from that. However, it also had happened before that Mallory had ordered food for all six of them and had paid for everything. But that was an exception, considering she also didn’t have a lot of money.
Julia unlocked the door and threw her keys into the bowl on the dresser in the hallway. Her hearing aids met the same fate, only a little more gently. Both teens' shoes landed in a pile next to the dresser.
The two sat down on the couch in the living room, where they had their peace and quiet, and their backpacks found their way to the floor with a thud. Julia's brothers sat at the kitchen table playing a card game. The lucky ones were out early on Fridays.
"Have you seen Nicholson's new post yet?" signed Julia.
"No, I didn't even know he posted anything. What's it about?"
"Apparently Caldwell Corp. defrauded dozens of employees by not paying them the insurance they were promised. Then there was an accident last Thursday and there were 53 people injured and now they're refusing to pay," she explained, her hands moved faster and faster as she talked, and her movements became choppier.
"Jules, I understand that this makes you angry, but there's nothing we can do about it, no matter how much we'd like to."
Before Julia could respond, a paper ball hit Mallory in the head. They both looked in the direction it had come from. Philip and Daniel were still sitting at the table playing card games.
"Do you two gossips want to play too?" signed Philip, the older of the brothers, holding up the box so they could see what he meant.
The blonde looked at Julia and shrugged. Why not?
◊ ◊ ◊
Sunday morning was an annoying time to work. She could have slept in, but no, she had to work. At least there weren't many people in the Crow’s Nest at this hour. But there still had to be people out front at all times, at least, so no one unauthorized could get into the back rooms. That's why she practically never worked alone. She wasn't small and fragile, but she still wouldn't stand a chance against armed men. Of course, she still knew about the gun under the bar, just as a precaution. Most of the time she worked with Jay Tucker, a tall, dark man with a thick beard and lots of tattoos and muscles. He looked mean but was actually not that bad. It was just necessary to have someone like him to scare people off or throw the drunks out.
Today, however, seemed to be an exception in terms of busyness. The massive wooden door opened already at 8 o'clock and in came a group of men. All of the ten or so people, completely ignored her and Jay and headed for the door that led to the back rooms.
Mallory looked at Jay, but he ignored the visitors as much as they ignored him. Judging by his reaction, they were expected guests. Of course, she was curious, but curiosity was a feeling she learned to suppress long ago. Curiosity killed the cat, and the teenager would gladly live a few years longer. So, she never asked.
Around noon, more and more people started trickling in, wanting a hot meal. The cook, Frank, was working at full speed. Mallory had to go from table to table and take orders, then tell Frank, get them from him, and bring them back. In between, it was cleaning tables and getting ready for the next guests. Of course, she didn't have to work alone at this hour. Two other young women shared the work with her. Nevertheless, it was a very stressful job.
She was all the happier when she could finally leave the building. Glancing at her cell phone, she realized that it was already 3 p.m. Her black backpack, with all her things, was on her back. Since The Beak was still relatively full, she had used the employee exit at the back of the building. You always had to be careful, because the exit was in an alley, and you never knew what was lurking in dark alleys like these.
What she definitely didn't expect was the man who jumped out from behind the dumpsters as soon as she left the building. He was dressed well enough that he probably wasn't going to rob her. However, the crazed look in his eyes made her take a step back. He was completely sweaty, as if he had just sprinted a marathon, his dark hair sticking to his forehead. The key to the door was in her backpack and he was blocking her way out of the alley. But in those few seconds, he had already started talking.
"Agent! Finally, I've been waiting for ages," He talked fast and stumbled a little over his words, "Here it is. You need to get it to the lab as soon as possible. But be careful!"
The man licked his lips and looked both ways, the crazy look still in his eyes. He didn't seem dangerous, though, just completely drugged up. Mallory's muscles were tense nonetheless, even more so when he pulled an object out of his pocket.
It was a small, inconspicuous ...stone? It shone far too metallic for a rock, but it was definitely shaped like a stone and the size of a tennis ball. The guy probably just had painted the stone.
"Take it."
He looked desperate as he held the stone out to her. Mallory knew that addicts could be unpredictable, especially when something didn't go their way. So, she accepted the stone.
The man looked around again and licked his lips.
"You know how important this is, Agent."
He gave her a curt nod and ran out of the alley. She shook her head as soon as he was out of sight. This city was absolutely strange. Mallory looked at the stone in her hand. It was nothing special. She stowed the stone in the side pocket of her backpack and headed home.
Maybe she would go boxing later. The teenager hated having nothing to do. She always had to be on her feet; boredom was her greatest enemy.
She would completely forget about the strange encounter a few days from now. Such things happened often enough in this town that it was nothing special anymore. Only a few months later it would come back to her. But by then it would be too late.