Curiosity Killed the Kid

   Leo pulled his ragged hoodie over his head as he walked through the rainy streets of San Francisco to his… apartment. Sure, it was not his apartment, but the owner, Blaze Nyx, was never there. He was always traveling and would come home for a night at most. But Leo only used the place for shelter because… well, he had no home.

Growing up an orphan was tough, he had been living in this man’s house for almost a decade now. His parents had died in an accident when he was seven and Leo, being a seven year old, was scared and he had no idea what the next step was, so he just started living on the streets.

Whenever he visited Blaze’s apartment, he never stole or touched anything. Well except for the toilet… and the food… and the shower. Still, he was so careful about leaving the place clean that he would sleep on the dirty floor instead of the bed with the most marshmallow-like mattress you could imagine. Of course it was always incredibly tempting not to rummage through that old wooden chest he had in his closet, but he never did. Leo never wandered far from the apartment, just so he would be able to tell when Blaze was there or not.

When he got into the building he took off his sodden jacket and slung it over his shoulder. There was no elevator so he had to walk all the way up 15 flights of stairs just to get there every time.

Once he got to the front door, he pulled out the shiny silver paperclip he used to get into the house. Once he got in, he took a nice, long, relaxing shower. The shampoo and conditioner both smelled like tropical coconuts as he lathered his shaggy dark brown hair. Ever since he was a child, Leo loved looking down at the sudsy white bubbles that were pushed down into the drain by the warm water. He turned off the water, stepped out, and got a fluffy, dark blue towel. Putting on his filthy, torn clothes, he walked out of the bathroom feeling refreshed.

He went into the kitchen and got a slice of bread from the bread box and a few granola bars from the pantry and stuffed them into the plastic bag he always carried around.

Every once in a while, if there was any, he would take a bit of cash with him just in case. It was never anything more than twenty dollars though. He looked through a few drawers and found two five dollar bills, seven quarters, and two pennies.

He locked the front door and left without a trace. Then, he sat on the corner diagonal from the apartment by the laundromat and opened for a granola bar to nibble on. After a surprisingly relaxing day, he laid down and waited for sleep to consume him.

The next morning he awoke being not as hungry as usual. He realized the food he “borrowed” was spilling out of the trash bag he had packed in it the night before and scrambled to hide it in there. After several minutes of going through all the junk in his pockets, he looked up to see Blaze Nix himself leaving the house. Blaze was dressed in a black tuxedo and had a pretty thick briefcase with him. He wore dark sunglasses and a gold earring. It looked like he was on a call with someone and was constantly looking to the left and right as if someone was watching him. He must have come when I was asleep! Leo thought. I’m glad I chose to spend the night out here. Blaze hopped into the backseat of a sleek black car and drove off. Blaze had been gone for only a day or two before, so this trip was bound to be pretty long.

Several hours later, Leo entered the apartment for some true relaxation after a long week of living on the grimy streets.

Today, He decided, is the day. I’m finally going to do it. I’m finally looking through that chest of his. His curiosity had gotten the best of him now. He just had to do it. Seeing that thing for practically a decade now made his curiosity intensify each and every day since the moment he laid eyes on it.

Entering the house, he was so excited, he didn’t even close the door and ran straight for the closet. He pulled his shabby jacket sleeve over his hand so that his fingers would not make any fingerprints on the glass mirror closet and opened it up.

There it was, the old wooden chest chained up with a metal lock. It took Leo a while to open it with his puny paperclip, but he was able to do it. This is it, I’m finally going to see whats in here! What could it be? Jewels? Gold? Money? Leo held his breath as he opened the chest. Inside was not what he expected. Stacked to the very brim of the chest were top secret files. Leo opened up a file. It had a picture of a woman with an overwhelming amount of makeup and curly, blonde hair. she wore silver glasses and a hot pink blouse. A single paper was attached to the picture with a paperclip. At the bottom of the paper was the word “TERMINATED” stamped in red ink. Leo opened another. Same thing. “What?” he whispered. He opened another and another and another. each said the same thing with a different person each time. Children, teens, adults, elderly it did not matter who it was or what their age was. It was all the same. Every single file he looked through had the same stamp on it. An entire chest filled with files of people Blaze had killed. Leo stepped back shaking his head wanting to cry. All these years, he had been living in the house of a ruthless assassin.

He suddenly bumped into something. Whipping his head around he gasped and dropped the current file he was holding. He found himself standing before Blaze Nyx. Seeing him up close, Leo never realized how tall Blaze actually was. He had to be at least six foot, if not taller. With his back to the dim light of the sunset, he looked more intimidating than ever before

Leo wanted to scream, he wanted to run, he wanted to cry. He was frozen like a deer in headlights. He stumbled backward as Blaze effortlessly pushed him to the ground and cornered him against the wall.

“I was only at a meeting, punk.” He stepped closer, “I know your dirty little secrets. Like how you’ve been staying in my house for the past… oh, how long has it been? A decade or so now? I’ve been waiting for something like this to happen. I may even get a little cash from the boss for my troubles.”

“But… how?” Leo managed to choke out.

Conveniently, Blaze pulled out a remote from a drawer and it instantly turned on a TV playing footage of him roaming around his home. Leo questioned himself how he could have been so blatantly dumb all these years. None of it mattered now, because he was going to pay for his stupidity. As if reading his mind, Blaze pulled out a dagger from inside his suit jacket and smirked. “Looks like I’ll have to get another file”