Tyrone didn’t think much about what to do after seeing Spryta, the girl from his hallucination, being beaten to possibly death by two drug dealers.

How could he tell the men were drug dealers? Well, not a lot had changed on the streets when it came to drug dealers…

At this point in history, Tyrone was sure that the only difference between drug dealers now and in the future was the color of their skin.

White people used to sell the poison to blacks, and in the future, blacks would be selling the poison to their own people.

“Fucking Ironic…” Tyrone whispered, slightly distracted but still managing to dodge left when Tod, the second drug dealer, swung a blow for his head.

“Do you know who you’re fucking with?” Jace yelled from the ground, overtaken by anger at the thought that Spryta had found a helper.

Though he didn’t admit it, Jace charged Spryta more for her drugs in the hopes that she couldn’t pay and he would force her to make up for that fault with ‘specific favors’.

Actually, he wasn’t even supposed to be here tonight but his possessiveness over Spryta had become extremely violent at this point.

“The bitch belongs to me!” Jace shouted, his voice echoing across the encampment but nobody even peaked from their tents.

Witnessing a crime was the same as talking to the police around here…

However, something about what Jace shouted just sent Tyrone into a maddening rage.

Tyrone’s mind filled with unreleased anger ‘She can’t even choose for herself? Why can’t she be allowed to grow and live her life? What is wrong with this fucking world!’

Tyrone had been stranded in an unfamiliar time period, basically adopted by a strange woman, taken to showcase in front of white people, involved in an assassination attempt, and survived an explosion he was sure he would be blamed for.

It was obvious that Tyrone was one feather tickle away from losing his shit completely… and Jace just happened to have that feather in his possession.

“What’dya say you little bitch?”

Tyrone’s eyes turned bloodshot as he directed a World-Cup-Level kick at the head of Jace…

Tyrone’s kick cut through the wind with a promise that his kick would not only dislodge Jace’s head but also curve it towards an imaginary goal somewhere.

Sadly, he was tackled to the ground by the recovered Tod before his kick could connect.

Tyrone spun his body, similar to what the assassin had done, and tossed Tod over his shoulder, slamming the guy into the ground with a bang.

While he didn’t like the memory of getting his ass whooped by the assassins, Tyrone was thankful that they had demonstrated such a useful technique.

Feeling a chill at the back of his neck, Tyrone ducked, barely dodging the swing of a fist, but Jace wasn’t so easily denied.

Unlike Tod, Jace had been in a couple of the gang’s fights before, so he knew a killer move or two…

Without a chance to react, Tyrone felt his world shift as something tripped his feet from under him, sending him rolling onto the ground.

Before he could hop to his feet, Tyrone found his neck gripped in a strong chokehold.

“Uggghhh!” Tyrone groaned, smashing his head back a couple of times, impacting the nose of Jace behind, forcing him to loosen his grip around Tyrone’s neck.

Still, Jace didn’t release Tyrone fully, clinging to Tyrone with all his strength…

“You little negro shit!” Jace yelled, pulling an injection from his pocket “Fucking overdose for your daddy! Learn the consequences of messing with my woman…”

Tyrone felt a prick in his neck and something hot entering his bloodstream, but thankfully, it wasn’t much since Spryta jumped into action at that moment.

--BANG--

With Tod still sprawled on the ground, Spryta picked a bottle from near her tent, sprang into motion, and with a precise aim, she broke the bottle on the side of Jace’s face.

Jace released Tyrone to clutch his bleeding head, not forgetting to slap Spryta across the face like an annoying fly, sending her tumbling to the ground.

Though she was probably sixteen, Spryta had a petite body that didn’t match her age so it was like a kid fighting the battle of adults.

Tyrone dropped to his knees upon release, barely managing to suck enough oxygen into his lungs to stave away unconsciousness.

Tyrone’s shoulder ached from a previous wound, and his strength weakened as the drug in his bloodstream started to take effect but still, he stood tall on two feet and dashed for Jace.

Jace was prepared, clutching a sharp piece of bottle shard in his hands, ready to impale Tyrone and dump the body in the nearby river.

It would take days before anything was discovered, and by then, he would already be transferred to another turf of the gang, making him untouchable.

Yet, not everything went according to plan…

“Behind you!” Spryta yelled, struggling to her feet.

Moments before colliding with Jace, Tyrone ducked and rolled, tripping Jace in the process while successfully dodging a killer blow from the dagger in Tod’s hands, who was stalking him from behind.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Jace tripped while in thrusting motion, embedding his bottle shard into Tod’s eyes, while Tod similarly thrust his dagger into Jace’s hard as an instinctive defense reaction.

--PUCHI-- --PUCHI--

Tyrone rose to his feet and froze at the unexpected sight of partners killing each other, but panic set in soon after.

Spryta stumbled over, equally as panicked as Tyrone “We didn’t kill them… they killed themselves!”

Tyrone was internally terrified but he glanced at Spryta and made a decision “This is your fault… you have nothing to do with me…”

“Fuck you…” Spryta replied, trembling with anger “Sure, I would be violated but you were the one that wanted to play hero!”

Tyrone glared at the small girl in anger “You ungrateful little wen-”

“Don’t fuck with me kid!” Spryta shouted with a glare that could kill directed up at Tyrone.

“How old are you, like five?”

“Seventeen…”

Tyrone fell silent since he was technically younger than Spryta, but looking at the issue from another perspective, he was from the future and could be someone’s descendant.

Tyrone glanced at the bodies and then at the closed tents and decided “We need to get rid of the bodies…”

Spryta was already searching the bodies for drugs, but she still gave a reply “I know a good place to dump them…”

“Just like that?” Tyrone asked surprised.

Spryta shrugged, recovering a couple dime bags from the corpses “Just like that…” she replied lazily “What? Don’t tell me you haven’t seen worse… you’re black and I live on the streets…”

Tyrone sighed and gathered the bodies…. Spryta dipped inside her tent to stash the drugs and recover some rope…

-----------------

An hour later, Tyrone and Spryta stood on a desolate dock with two bodies wrapped in sheets and ropes, tied to rocks that would sink the bodies into the dark waters below.

“Want to do the honors?” Tyrone asked half-heartedly, not liking the fact that he would constantly find himself in situations that went against his morals.

Spryta didn’t waste a moment, rolling the bodies off the dock as she watched them sink into the darkness “Good fucking riddance assholes…” she yelled but Tyrone could tell her trauma from her trembling.

Obviously, those two guys from earlier had done things to Spryta that he didn’t dare to think about.

Spryta spat in the water and shouted profanities like the child she looked…

Suddenly, Tyrone fell to his knees and coughed up a couple mouthfuls of black blood…

Spryta glanced down and Tyrone and didn’t move to help him immediately… for a couple of seconds, she considered sending Tyrone to his death with Jace and Tod, but ultimately decided against it…

‘I need someone to blame if the bodies are found…’ She thought, walking over to Tyrone, raising his head and staring into his eyes.

“They gave you the shitty kind of drugs…” Spryta stated after her examination “We need to get some balance into your system…”

Spryta placed Tyrone’s hands over her shoulder and they walked back to the encampment slowly…

------------------

A couple of minutes later, Spryta and Tyrone staggered into her tent.

They were both shaking for different reasons…

Tyrone was poisoned, the drug in his system having an adverse reaction with his unique blood…

Spryta, on the other hand, was experiencing withdrawal symptoms; though, she noted it was much less intense compared to all the other times…

For the first time in six years, Spryta had the impression that she could stop using drugs permanently, though she wasn’t just quite there yet.

Spryta placed Tyrone on a piece of sponge she salvaged at some point in time, and dipped into her stash for an injection…

She carefully chose from her drug collection until she finally found something that could counter the chest pains Tyrone would soon experience…

Spryta grabbed a belt, tied it around Tyrone’s arm, and injected the solution into his body…

After she was finished, Spryta refilled the same needle with a different type of solution and injected it into her own bloodstream following the earlier procedures.

Tyrone’s heavy breathing instantly evened out upon receiving the injection, and his weakened body regained some strength…

Spryta blew out the candle, turned on her battery-powered night lights, tuned her radio to the first music station she could find, then sat next to Tyrone to enjoy her well-earned high.

“What the fuck did you give me?” Tyrone asked giggling, the bright light flashing in his eyes providing him with long-lost happiness.

Spryta giggled as well “I don’t know the sciency stuff since I didn’t go to school… but I am pretty sure it goes something like ‘base and alkaline… something neutralization and enjoy the high’…”

Tyrone burst into a fit of laughter “Yeah, I think I heard that one in science class also… that lesson was fucking boring… all I did was stare at a girl I liked…”

“Was she pretty?”

“The prettiest… I loved her horse teeth and all…”

“hahaha…” Spryta burst into laughter, winking at Tyrone as she calmed down “You know, there is this new fetish going around called ‘beastry’ or something…”

“You mean bestiality?” Tyrone’s mouth gaped “I thought it was invented in 2020 but I guess people were depraved a long time ago…”

Spryta and Tyrone continued to joke, high out of their minds as they listened to music and leaned into each other for support.

Suddenly, Tyrone’s laughter became tears as he sobbed painfully “You know… I had everything at first… and I lost it due to injustice and a foolish crush…”

Spryta also burst into tears “I never had anything to treasure… I was shot up with drugs and every day was spent just trying to stay alive… if you didn’t come, I doubt I would prefer living anymore…”

Tyrone wiped his tears and showed a brave face while patting Spryta’s shoulder “Don’t worry yourself, flat-chested kid… I will protect you…”

“It’s a condition okay… I age slow but when I start to mature… I will be the most stunning beauty on the block…”

Tyrone thought about the block and took note of all the women he noticed “I think you’re already the most stunning beauty on the block… everyone else is missing teeth, at least you have all of yours…”

The colors in Tyrone’s eyes blurred a bit and when he regained focus and looked at Spryta, she was floating in the air like a fairy.

She appeared fairly younger like she was during his hallucination…

“You’re a fairy?” Tyrone asked stupidly, his mouth hanging wide open.

Spryta rolled her eyes, checking her feet to make sure she wasn’t floating “I think you probably took some other drug before you came here…”

In Tyrone’s eyes, Spryta went from a fairy to Peter Pan, and then into a goddess… illusions of Spryta in many forms flashed past Tyrone’s eyes…

“You’re really cool Spryta…” Tyrone mumbled, feeling his grip on reality become more certain.

“I am too good for this world…” Spryta replied, giggling like the mischievous young girl she is.

Tyrone’s thoughts were jumbled, with some of his deeper thought fighting to make themselves known “Maybe…” he took a deep breath “Maybe… this world doesn’t deserve us anymore…”

Spyrta shrugged happily “I know this great place for suicides… no chance of survival… we should check it out…”

Tyrone was high out of his mind, watching Spryta’s likeness change between various fantasy figures, so he just nodded thoughtlessly.

Spryta could guess what Tyrone was experiencing since she felt like she, herself, became an illusion every time she took drugs.

“Wanna see something cool?”

Tyrone nodded, finally feeling a bit calmer, though the pain of drugs in his system was starting to rear its ugly head.

“Then look at me carefully…” Spryta whispered, her voice drifting into Tyrone’s ears, wrapping his mind in a state of comfort that rivaled the pillows of the gods.

Spryta’s body disappeared from Tyrone’s vision, and Jessica appeared in her stead, looking at Tyrone with loving eyes that only she could.

Tyrone forgot to breathe for a moment, reaching out and brushing his fingers through her familiar hair “How… I couldn’t protect you… I am the reason you died…”

Jessica sighed, kissing Tyrone’s fingers sadly with tears in her eyes “Everyone has a time to go…”

Tyrone leaned forward clasping Jessica’s face between his hands, and they shared a kiss…

The moment he kissed her, Tyrone broke free of the illusion…

He knew he was actually kissing Spryta and she tried to pull away but he just needed the imagination for a bit longer…

Tyrone eventually pulled away, revealing that he was indeed kissing Spryta…

“You knew I wasn’t her right?” Spryta asked for confirmation, her cheeks reddened.

Tyrone nodded “I know… Jessica’s mouth didn’t stink…”

Spryta would have normally lashed out at Tyrone’s joke but she knew he was feeling pain inside “That kiss was… amazing… I could taste your pain on your tongue… and it made me feel complete for a while…”

Spyrta quirked her brow mischievously as she had an idea “You know if you want something more… all you have to do is ask me…”

Tyrone rolled his eyes dismissively “More like what? More STDs or something?”

Spyrta rolled her eyes… or at least that was what Tyrone thought he saw… she just as well could have had a spasm of some kind…

“So what was that earlier…” Tyrone inquired now that the drugs were wearing off.

“I am not sure…” Spryta replied shrugging “I can just make people see me as someone else when they’re high on drugs, emotions, or mentally ill…”

“Which am I?” Tyrone asked seriously “Because I don’t feel high anymore and I still see a halo of golden light surrounding your body…”

“I can see darkness surrounding yours…” Spyrta whispered, reaching for the darkness that cloaked Tyrone.

Tyrone and Spyrta felt a pang of pleasure as their light and darkness mixed…

“That was-”

“Amazing?” Spryta finished Tyrone’s sentence…

Tyrone was about to put a stop to Spyrta’s wishful thinking but paused as he grew dizzy…

Spyrta was in a similar situation… both their minds sunk into a deep sleep without warning…