104

--The Enclave--

By the time she was conscious again, dusk had fallen. Through the leaves, light flashed in patterns of red and green. Sat up against a pillar, her eyes drifted slowly across her body, taking note of any blood or injuries, but there was next to nothing. Her ears hurt, and she’d discovered a mild sore spot on her head that she was sure would turn into a more painful bump as time went on, but she was alive. On her left wrist was a thick, glowing yellow bracelet.

The police found her not moments later. They helped walk her into the main area where she was checked by a mobile hospital they’d set up. The medical staff asked her a few questions, gave her a check up, then sent her to an area where they were keeping people — all with yellow bracelets like she had.

Taking a seat on the edge of the fountain she been in front of with Stella earlier, Dassah watched. The jikak was sitting on the bench opposite of her now, shaking as he hugged his instrument. A couple of the other students she’d seen earlier were huddled near him. Given that the criminals had had guns, it was remarkable that it seemed like most had managed to walk away from the incident. Save for bumps and scrapes similar to her own, there were shockingly few casualties.

A man from the medical staff, accompanied by a pair of officers, started handing out thick orange blankets as the night grew colder. Another set of staff was helping the vendors open and pass out food and warm drinks. They must have shut the hex down, Dassah realized. No one but officials would be coming in, and no one would be going out. Not until the guilty were in custody, or proved absent from among the victims.

A light breeze ran across her skin, sending a chill through her. She took an orange blanket when it was offered, and wrapped it around her shoulders. Watching as people stumbled around, crying into one another, she could only wonder: Why?

And Dassah felt nothing.

Her mind. Her heart. Nothing. Nothing but the chill of the night, and the warmth of the blanket — but even that was shallow. It was as if all of the information going through her eyes and her brain were just that: packets information being moved from one place to another.

“Oi,” an officer paroling near by paused next to her and tried to get her attention by waving a hand in her face. “You alright, there? Have they talked to you yet?”

Tilting her head up at him, she asked, “Did anyone die?”

Frowning, he took a last drag on his cigarette before flicking it to the ground. As he scruffed it on the ground with his boot, he said, “That’s a bit morbid ain’t it? Nah. Don’t think so, least not so that they’ve told me.”

“That good,” Dassah said, staring at the dull glow of the remains of the cigarette. “Where I come from, guns usually mean that people die.”

“This kind of stuff ain’t supposed to happen on The Enclave,” he scoffed. “There ain’t supposed to be no guns here. No one’s supposed to die, here.”

“Everybody dies,” Dassah murmured.

“Cheery one, ain’t you?”

“Aren’t you,” Grim’s voice noted. Lifting her eyes, Dassah watched as the earar man came up to them. He wasn’t in his uniform. In fact, he looked alarmingly unkept, for him. The thick scruff around his head was floofed out like a lion’s mane — and messy; knotted up like a rats nest.

“I don’t need fixing, fangs,” Reik told him with a frown. “Where you been anyway? Queen Landau’s been lookin’ for you.”

“I worked 3rd shift and she knows that,” Grim growled. “Also, you aren’t supposed to be smoking at a crime scene.”

“What I’m supposed to be is off-duty, sir, if you don’t mind.”

“I do,” leveling his eyes with the officer, Grim’s face twitched a bit. Paying him little mind, Reik shrugged and walked off. “Morons.”

Taking a seat next to her, Grim fiddled with his watch. “I’m sorry,” he told her in a soft voice. “I didn’t get your messages till late.”

“Stella?”

“Both your coworkers are fine,” he said. “Stella sprained her wrist after tripping over something, but nothing serious.”

“Both?”

“You didn’t know Bahena was here?” Grim asked, then nodded. “I guess that’s normal. She was with her brother, afterall. Everyone was just getting ready to head home or to where ever. This is… a bit much.”

So, Sav was here too, Dassah thought, looking at the ground. Stella. Bahena. Sav. Any and all of them could have easily lost their lives. Why? “This is my fault, isn’t it?” she asked him. “The signs were all there. I just didn’t take it seriously. Everyone was put in danger.”

Grim grunted. “Even if it did have something to do with you — and I want to know everything, by the way — it still wouldn’t be your fault,” he said. “But… this is altogether unusual. I can’t even say it’s connected to the same people. The MO is totally different. There’s never been a public case like this before…”

“That’s what Jackal said this morning,” Dassah said. He looked at her in alarm. “That I’m ‘different’. Maybe this is what he meant.”

“Y-You saw him?”

“In game. And out of it.”

He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean, ‘out of it’? Are you saying that he was here?” Dassah gave a short nod. “Tell me.”

It had become a well rehearsed story, for her. She’d gotten a little better at telling it, though, and unlike Stella, she let Grim have the details she could remember. By the time she finished, the earar man’s face was set into a deep look of anger and helplessness. Dassah didn’t really know why. Even if she had told him, she wasn’t sure there was anything he could have done to make it happen any differently. Not that she told him that. It was all very logical, and he was very emotional — for him.

When he’d finished listening to the story, he was quiet, for a time. Some other officers called over to him, and told them he’d be over in a bit. She respected the fact he offered no reasons or excuses for his absence, but she could tell he had regrets surrounding the situation.

“Go,” Dassah said. “I’m fine.” Grim looked her over dubiously. “Even if I’m not fine there are hundreds of people here who I can run to. Look at them all. Scurrying around like ants.”

“I’ll… send the others over to you when the police are done talking to them. I know Sav had already gone in, and Stella was still with the hospital staff,” said Grim, standing up and dusting himself off. “Is there… anyone else that I should call for you?” Dassah shook her head. “You sure?” he went, then seemed to make some kind of executive decision as he took his phone out. “Hey, are you done? I expect they would hold you long…”

The longer she listened, the more fear started creeping over her. “Who did you just call?” Dassah demanded to know, gripping the stones that lined the fountain.

Grim was a little confused, but relieved at the same time. “I don’t want you here alone, and frankly I’d rather you be with someone I know I can trust,” he said. “Reik is not that guy.”

“Your partner?”

“As if,” snorted Grim. “He’s even worse than Reik. I told you I’d send the others along when they were done. I’ve just sped that process up.”

“You called Sathuren,” she guessed, accurately, by his curt nodding.

“Sav works for the EPD as a civilian consultant for the garuli. They wouldn’t hold him long for something like this unless they had something on him. He and Bahena were actually a good ways away from the epicenter, anyways,” Grim explained.

Dassah ground her teeth before saying, “I don’t want to see him.”

His ears twitched. “I figured you knew him through Bahena, but what’s up with that?”

“I don’t want to see either of them,” she told him.

“Something else I need to know about?”

“It’s not,” Sav said wearily, stepping in next to Grim. “It’s just a petty territorial dispute that everyone is tired of. Especially me.”

“Go. Away!” Dassah shouted. Even Reik, who was talking to the jikak across the way, turned around in shock. Dassah’s body started shutter and convulse as she tried to think of any reason or way to leave. Unable to come up with a logical answer, she instead said: “Just leave me alone. All of you.”

“Dassah,” Sav started, but she didn’t want to hear it.

“I’ve told you,” Dassah said, standing up — too fast, she realized. The blood that rushed from her head made her vision blur and caused her to be unsteady. “I don’t want anything to with —”

“Oh, isn’t that enough?” Sathuren bit, his eyes narrowing. He put out a hand to support her arm as she swayed dangerously to one side. “Haven’t you had enough of your own bullshit?” He licked his lips and said, “Sit down.”

Grim’s eyes flickered between them as Dassah sat back down, grateful for the stability as the world around her continued to spin.

“Don’t worry about about,” Sav told him. “Just fill me in on what I should know about all of this and go do what you need to do. Mari is showing up in an hour.”