Concealed no More

Silva had rarely felt that being unnoticeable was a problem. On the contrary, she found it to be very comfortable. Slipping through the crowds, listening to the conversations and watching people go about their lives.

It was relaxing. Freeing in a way.

To keep this feeling of freedom, Silva kept everything about herself as muted as possible. With no make-up, plain clothes and a quiet demeanour, she led a peaceful life.

Silva’s average height, light brown hair and dusky blue eyes helped her to not stand out from the crowd. She was normal and blended in any crowd easily.

Indeed, Silva had gotten really good at it. So good, in fact, that she had started to encounter various inconveniences.

For example, a couple of years back, Silva had to convince her teachers that she had not regularly ditched their lessons. When the school trips were planned, she was always forgotten. If a class event happened, no one remembered to invite her.

It had gotten so bad Silva became a legend of sorts. Some people even thought she was a ghost haunting the class.

It was just too easy to fade out of everyone's consciousness! Silva didn’t even have to try.

While sometimes tiring, Silva didn’t bother explaining herself to her peers. She didn’t care what they thought, and their ignorance of her existence didn’t impact her life.

All Silva had to do was to make sure the teaching staff knew she was attending classes and doing homework. She was then set to enjoy her sometimes lonely peace.

It had been strange at first - to not have to interact with her classmates, but Silva quickly grew accustomed to it. All the problems that arose from it had become amusing memories.

Besides, Silva had always been more comfortable on the sidelines, away from the spotlight and glamour that surrounded it. She had always tried to avoid grabbing attention.

This way, Silva could go where she wanted, when she wanted. She could wander around late while her father was out working. And she could take a peek at her classmate's secrets. Silva knew who snuck out for a smoke or the source of the newest gossip. Or she could take a peek when others were changing for the gym...

Silva did feel bad about doing it... And also about the following times she repeated the deed. After the fact, anyway.

So, Silva felt her life was overall good. She lacked many things, but no one bothered her, letting her live as she wished.

Except…

Silva moved out of the way of the incoming crowd, stepping around a rather plump, middle-aged gentleman. She quickly found her targets and tried to get closer.

At the moment, Silva was trailing a couple she had found a few months ago. While she liked to move through more scenic, quiet routes herself, those two did not share the sentiment with her. 

It made Silva’s trailing more complicated than it had to be. She had some experience following others, but not nearly enough - at least now for such a busy traffic. Even if the said traffic was just people rushing about their lives.

Dodging yet another person, Silva squinted, cursing the afternoon sun for its brightness, and looked over where Mika and Steven were walking. To her relief, they were taking a turn to a quieter path.

Now that human-shaped obstacles were becoming scarcer, she finally could follow them at a comfortable distance. Quickly, Silva closed in on them until she could hear some spare words exchanged between them.

At the moment, they were arguing about some show whose main character had done one thing or another.

This wasn't quite what Silva wanted to hear. Then again, it was too hopeful for them to be discussing their secret openly in public.

Silva did not think of herself as a noisy person. At the very least, she very rarely tailed someone with the sole purpose of finding out their secrets. 

But sometimes, Silva did stumble upon something worth investigating. As it had happened in this case.

And these two shared a great secret between them, and that, in turn, made Silva very interested in them. She considered how to approach and speak with them, but the thought alone made her stomach churn, so she kept delaying it. Her overall social interaction skills were very rusty, to put it mildly.

Silva thought she could act the role of a member of society well enough. For example, when speaking with teachers or buying groceries. It just involved a good amount of mental preparation beforehand.

Frankly, she would rather not have to talk with strangers at all if possible. But such was the curse of living in a society - she had to bear the burden of social interactions. 

Luckily, those kinds of interactions were never lengthy. Silva’s perfect record of mediocrity safeguarded her from reprimands or lectures at school. While cashiers didn’t care to start proper conversations.

But today, that would not work, as today was the day Silva would do something she had not done in a long time. Try and make new friends.

Silva regarded her targets with another scrutinising look and recalled the information she had gathered.

Steven Bran was nineteen and short-cut, had blonde hair, was tall, had clear blue eyes and was fit in general. 

According to the girls from Steven's school, he was quite the heartthrob, and Silva had to agree with their assessment. He had a charm and looks. It made it hard for anyone to dislike him.

And the more Silva learned about Steven, the more she realised he was the complete opposite of her. He was active in his school life, well-liked, open and all-around a swell guy.

Silva could not imagine herself being in his place. The thought alone made her feel sick in her stomach. 

At least he had a weakness - Steven sucked at studying. Silva found it just that he had been held back a year. And even that experience had not changed the guy. From what she had heard, he still was one of the worst in his year when it came to the grades. It was nice to know he wasn’t some kind of a perfect being sent to earth to mock Silva.

Still, Steven had managed to reach the final school year, just like Mika - her other target. In fact, they were classmates.

It seemed like he also had siblings, but Silva was not clear about it. He never talked about them those few times she was around. She had only gotten some snippets of information about their existence from Mika's passing remarks.

And speaking of Mika, she was a year younger than Steven, which made her eighteen. She was a little bit taller than Silva was.

… And also rounder than her in all the right places. Mika’s dark brown hair surrounded her pretty face. She had deep green eyes and one of the softest voices Silva had ever heard.

As opposed to Steven, Mika did not have a lot of friends. From what Silva understood, Mika was not popular among other girls because of how close to Steven she was.

Silva had once witnessed a confrontation between Mika and some other girls from her school. From the heated voices, she had learned that she was constantly under pressure to leave Steven alone.

Much to Silva's surprise, however, Mika had not been afraid and even challenged them. In the end, nothing had happened. Steven had managed to return right before the fight started.

This incident had earned Mika respect from Silva, who could not even imagine herself in the girl’s place. She would have folded immediately.

Silva sighed, contemplating her interaction history from the past few years. Some passing greetings with classmates, a rare task by a teacher or her father.

 "Now that I think about it… The only person I talk to regularly is my dad." Silva scoured her memory. "Not that he is home all that much! And even then… When he is, we only really speak during meals."

Thinking about her family situation always made Silva's mood turn sour.

Silva's mother, Anna, had left her and her father – Jonathan, four years ago - when Silva had been only thirteen years old. 

To this day, Silva had no idea why she had left. It had been too sudden! When Silva returned home from school one day, she discovered her mother's belongings gone. 

No letters, no calls. There were no signs of Silva’s mother to this day.

Maybe her father knew something more, but he had never revealed anything. Not even when he was at his lowest, and she had begged.

Silva knew that her dad kept contact with her mother's relatives, but from his words, they, too, were puzzled and shocked. The communications between them had mostly dried up at this point. They were strangers to her now.

Anna's disappearance had left Jonathan devastated. He had sunk into a depression, and for almost a year, he was barely a functioning human - not a person who could take care of a 13-year-old daughter. 

It had been the toughest time of Silva's life. Her father was all that she had left. She had tried to take care of him, but all of her efforts had failed. Until…

One evening, when Jonathan had drunk too much, he found Silva in her room and started to rant. He had talked about how he missed Anna and how similar Silva was to her.

How he had wanted them to be happy. He had cried. He had pleaded. He got angry. He cursed about the unfairness of life and then left her room to find more alcohol.

Silva was 14 at the time. She had taken care of the remains of their family for a year already. But she had been still just a child. 

This was the worst her father had been. Silva had been terrified of him. She was scared of her own father.

The possibility of his return and the continuation of the tirade had been too much for her. She had tugged herself deeper into her blanket and waited as there was nowhere else to go. All she wished for was to disappear from this place and to be left alone.

But Silva’s wish was not granted. Her father soon returned with a bottle in his hand. He barged into her room, but instead of speaking, he just stood there silently.

It had scared Silva even more. Her father looked to his right, then left, then at her. Until, after an excruciating moment of silence, he simply left the room.

Watching her father leave her room, Silva could not believe what had happened. It was too bizarre.

After another moment, she heard him looking for her - calling for her before soon returning to her room. Silva could have sworn that he was once again looking at her, but then... nothing. 

Jonathan silently left again. 

Not believing it was this simple, Silva had kept sitting frozen in her bed in the blanket's comforting embrace. She did not remember for how long she sat still. Her body had refused to move. Not until a loud noise had startled her awake.

There had been only silence in the apartment at that point. Silva had mustered all of her courage and got down from her bed. Worry of her dad had forced her to move.

Still draped in her blanket, Silva had slowly left her room. She had to see the source of the noise and see if her father was alright.

Carefully, Silva had sneaked through the apartment. Until she found her father lying on the floor. 

In a moment of panic, she feared the worst, but a mumble from the man showed that he was only asleep. After a careful check, Silva left him on the floor and returned to her room.

Back in her bed, Silva had tried to fall asleep to no avail. She had sat in her bed for a long time, fearing every little noise.

The next morning, her father had woken Silva. She had fallen asleep at some point. And when they both sat at the table eating, her father apologised. He had promised not to get drunk ever again.

They had not spoken about that night ever again. Her dad had pulled himself together. He had found a new job, never again got drunk, and tried to teach and listen to her. He tried to be a good father.

Silva appreciated him trying so hard. She truly did, but despite his best efforts, it was awkward. He was a middle-aged man, while she was a teenage girl.

There was much Silva could not bring herself to talk about with him. 

At some point, he even had an idea to have a father-daughter talk once a week, and it was excruciating every time. 

When her father started to talk about boy-girl relationships and sex, she even stormed out of the room.

Now Silva was 17. Her father’s efforts had been fruitful, even if she refused to talk about many issues with him.

The school's nurse was one of the other people she could remember herself talking with regularly at some point - though she had not gone to the nurse's office for a long time.

Silva was pulled out of her reminiscence when she noticed she had company. She was not the only one following the duo of friends.

Four men had joined her in her endeavour, and all four were rough-looking thugs in their twenties. They were dressed in simple streetwear but still stuck out painfully to everyone.

Silva had tried to simply pass them - just as she had done with every other pedestrian before. But as she was doing it, she discovered that these men were heading in the same direction and doing so at almost the same speed as she was.

Their hushed voices did not escape Silva's attention, and the more she heard, the surer she was that they were after Steven and Mika.

SIlva’s imagination immediately ran wild. There was nothing good to come from four thugs trailing teenagers. 

When Silva took a closer look, she noticed their freshly bruised fists. Upon further study, she found some scarring traces on their skin elsewhere. Some of them were just as fresh as on the men's hands.

They certainly looked like they dished out more abuse than they received. Mugging was not common around here but not unheard.

For Silva, those two did not strike as worthwhile targets. They were just teens, just like she was. What could they have?

Then again, Silva was not sure. Maybe Steven or Mika had something valuable on them. After all, her newfound comrades in stalking recognised them both and could have information she didn’t.

Phrases like "Is that them?" and "Be careful, they will probably turn to a quieter place soon" could be heard as they kept trailing.

As to why they thought Steven and Mika were even going to a 'quieter place" was beyond Silva. There was no reason for them to go to a place with no people around in the middle of the city. 

Well, maybe Silva could think of some reasons. After all, they were at the age where hormones were high and patience low. She had seen plenty of peers snuck to empty spots for a quick make-out session.

Not that Silva had any reason to think they were in a relationship, but you could never know. It was not like she could always follow the duo around. She still had her duties at home and school.

And Silva had to admit that there were more than a few of her classmates changing their partners regularly - something Silva felt was completely unacceptable. Not that she had any experience in the matter herself.

It was possible Steven and Mika were dating now, even if they hadn’t before.

Silva sighed to herself. “Truly, the new generation is rotten trough and trough.” The irony is that she was only seventeen, and part of this 'rotten generation' was completely lost on her.

As for what to do next? Silva had yet to figure it out. She had decided to talk with the duo and just didn’t know how to begin.

Warning them about the ruffians could be a good start, but she could not help but think that these men would not let her go if she did something that would compromise them.

Maybe all that stopped these thugs from doing whatever cruelty they had in mind immediately was the illusion they were unnoticed. These men would surely feel no scruples about roughing up some kids for being too disrespectful or some such garbage.

While Silva was pondering her next action, she saw Steven and Mika turn into an alleyway, as predicted by the other pursuers before. The thugs followed after them right after.

Cursing her hesitation, Silva quickly followed them. When she rounded the corner, she found the thugs were now confronting their victims.

Steven was standing in front of Mika, both of their backs facing a wall. Unfortunately for both of them, this alleyway was a dead end.

"What do you want?" Steven was standoffish and demanded an answer.

Silva did not know where his confidence came from, but he looked at the four men unflinchingly and in a way that she could only take as challenging.

It seemed like Steven had noticed these men beforehand and had intentionally led them here. Silva did not know what he had planned, but she couldn't help but feel like he was being reckless, especially when he had Mika hiding behind him.

The men looked a little lost for a moment. They were surprised by the blatant disregard for the danger they possessed. Three of them looked at the man who had led them here. 

The leader was the one who was most inconspicuous of them all, with nothing pointing out that he would be harassing teenagers in his free time. He looked like someone with at least a portion of his brain not beaten out of the head in a drunken brawl. His comrades, on the other hand, all had their distinctive characteristics. 

One of them had a face tattoo near his ear that depicted flames. One of them had several piercings, and the last one was one of the ugliest people Silva had ever seen - which probably counted as a characteristic. Probably.

While Silva was weighing her options, the leader spoke.

“I had something to discuss with you. Regarding your father.” The leader's face twisted in what seemed like a smile - an ugly thing with a sinister vibe to it.

Steven's face immediately darkened. He clenched his fists as he raised them. The leader's face was now turning into a scowl.

"Hey, hey, we want no trouble, right guys?" He asked his friends, who gave an affirmative grunt back. "So, why don't..."

But before the leader could finish, Steven was already pouncing forward, aiming for the man, who looked a little taken aback by Steven's aggressiveness. His friends, however, did not hesitate, as ‘Piercing’ with ‘Tattoo’ in tow rushed forward to meet Steven's advance.

Silva helplessly watched as Steven was about to collide with the larger and older men, but what came next surprised her.

Steven’s flashing right straight almost connected with ‘Piercing's’ jaw. The thug barely managed to dodge by swaying his body backwards. Still, he lost his balance, and Steven used the moment to evade a hit from Tattoo, who had put too much force in his swing and had lost his footing, staggering him.

Steven grabbed Tattoo's still-extended hand and yanked it hard, making him fall. But before he could do more damage, Steven retreated.

This time, it was ‘Piercing’ who had gone for an attack. But the man had just as much success as before, and for his effort, he suffered a quick blow to his torso, which made him visibly wince.

Steven was about to fall back but was tripped by Tattoo, who was now flailing wildly on the ground. Steven fell and, with a loud thud, hit his head against the garbage bin behind his back.

Before Silva could exclaim, he was already back on his feet, looking none the worse for wear. Then Steven did something Silva had seen only on film as his leg rose high, aiming at ‘Piercing’s’ head.

Steven's kick found its target, despite ‘Piercing's’ attempt at blocking. The kick reached the thug’s temple, knocking him down seemingly for good.

Silva was surprised by how well Steven was fighting. He fought ferociously and purposefully. He was clearly not afraid to trade blows and was merciless.

It was a captivating sight. Silva was only startled out of her stupor when the Leader called out to Ugly, whose name turned out to be Bob and started moving to help his comrades.

Silva felt helpless. She wanted to help, but involving herself in the fight seemed like a suicide to her. It would take just one stray hit to be knocked out by the muscle-heads. While Steven made it look easy, she was clear that every swing of their fists was enough to hospitalise her.

 

But there was another person here - seemingly forgotten by the rest of the brawlers. 

Glancing around, Silva found Mika standing a bit further back, just out of range of action. She did not find any signs of panic or helplessness in Mika’s face. 

Instead, there was determination, and Silva noticed that she was now holding something in her hand.

The next moment, Mika lunged forward, closing in on ‘Tattoo’, who was now getting up.

It was now to Silva what the girl was holding.

An unsightly grunt came out of ‘Tattoo's’ mouth as he was hit by a spry of something nasty smelling. With his last strength, ‘Tattoo’ roughly pushed Mika back, making her lose her canister as it slid under the garbage bin.

But that was it for him as he collapsed back on the ground, trying to clear his eyes. Another of the assailants was out of the picture, and now only Leader and Ugly were left.

Steven did not even glance back to see what the screaming was about. He continued forward to receive the incoming attack from the Leader. 

Dodging under the punch, he dove into the Leader's embrace only to have the leader tackle him. As they both fell, to Silva's shock, she noticed that the Ugly was closing in with a baton in his hand.

Panicking, Silva tried to find any solutions. While frantically looking around, she noticed that Mika was looking at the Ugly with widened eyes. 

Mika's look strengthened Silva's resolution. There was no time to plan anything. The best she could do was to use the fact that no one knew she was here.

Silva grabbed the closest thing to her that looked like it would hurt, which happened to be a steel rod, and swung it with all her strength. 

With some part of her perception, she still paid attention to both Steven and Leader struggling on the ground. But more importantly, she looked at Mika, whose eyes went even wider as if she had seen a ghost.

A sonorous thud resounded through an alley as the steel rod made contact with the thug's skull. Silva numbly noted the way his head flung backwards and how his body collapsed on the ground as if its strings were cut. Thug's face now was made even uglier by a new scar on his forehead.

Silva continued to watch the man until she was roused from her dumbfounded state by a gentle touch on her shoulder.

"Are you alright?" Mika had arrived at Silva’s side.

Silva shuddered and turned her head to meet Mika’s gentle gaze and see the results of the short brawl.

Steven was leaning over the Leader's body. It seemed like he was checking for something, and Silva found her gaze wandering back to Mika’s before returning to the incapacitated man she had knocked out herself.

Silva felt all of the tension leave her body. A moment later, Mika retracted her hand, almost making her fall.

In Silva's head, several questions popped in one after another. Was the man alright? What if she injured him heavily. What if she had crippled him? Will he die? Would police look for her? She did not know.

Mika crouched down to Silva's victim and seemed to check for something. Silva absent-mindedly looked over to ‘Tattoo’, who was still writhing on the ground sobbing, then back at Mika, who had now Steven standing next to her.

"He is going to be alright," Steven explained to Silva. He was looking down at the body. "It is only a scratch. His skull is too thick. Apart from a bad headache, there won't be any other complications." He assured Silva with conviction in his voice. "I am Steven. Thank you for your help," he smiled. "And she is Mika.” Came the introduction.

Silva looked at the girl Steven introduced and received an overly friendly wave from her.

"Are you alright?" continued Steven, concern showing in his voice.

"Ah, I am, that is, my name... Silva, my name is Silva. Ah, yes, alright, I am alright." Silva wanted to crawl beneath the bin the pepper spray had rolled under.

This was far too awkward! But now, there was no escape. Silva braced herself for the conversation.