2

I duck through the door of the second largest techno club in the entire city, slipping past the guard and using the shadows as a cloak. Suddenly, I’m surrounded by a sea of half drunk, dancing people of all ages. I start gliding through the crowd, using my small size to my advantage. Techno music with indecipherable lyrics blares in my ears, and neon green and purple lights are swinging across the ceiling like search beams.

A girl falls into my arms, making me halt in my progress. She’s semi-pretty but wearing too much makeup. Her red dress spaghetti straps are falling off her shoulders as she wraps her arms around my neck. She looks up at me with big hazel eyes and a faint smile and starts saying something. I can’t hear a word.

“Sorry, I’ve got other commitments,” I tell her, letting her fall out of my arms and onto the floor. I only take a step before another girl has twirled into me, putting my hand on her waist and the other on her shoulder in a slow dance position. I dance with her for a moment, before twirling away from her, deporting her to another man. I then shoulder my way through the crowd until I get to the DJ’s booth.

“Hey!” I call, waving both hands in the air.

“Yo! Whadup ma man?” he responds, still jabbing his right arm into the air to the beat.

“Tauren Ksura, is she performing?”

“Sorry dude. You missed her. But she might still be backstage if you can sneak in,” he responds, returning his attention to his stand.

“Damnit,” I mutter, diving shoulder first back into the crowd. I cut across the party, moving countless sex workers and horny queers from my path until I reach the backstage door. Why it’s so far from the actual stage, I have no idea.

Two burly security guards stand in the way.

“Hey, I gotta see Tauren.”

One of them shakes his head. “No can do. She said not to let anybody in.”

“Just tell her it’s Kallix. She’ll want to see me.”

“Sorry twerp. She’s changing. I peak and I’m fired. And get those dumb sunglasses off your face you perv.” He reaches over to snatch them, but I just lean out of his grasp. No point in trying to fight them.

“You look like a troll took a crap, and that crap had sex with the troll’s mom, then birthed out an incest deformed crap troll!” I holler over the music as I disappear into the crowd. I’ll just need to get in another way. The Kallix Rane way.

I dart out of the club, making the bouncer’s leap within their skin, and move faster than a cat around the side, becoming one with the shadows as I dive between the club and the laundromat to my left. Odd combination.

I make no noise as I do a vertical jump and wrap my finger’s around the gutter’s pipe that shoots downwards into the ground. I pull my legs up like as if I’m doing horizontal squats and spring diagonally upwards to the laundromat wall, where I manage to get a grip on its flat roof. I haul myself up and turn to the club. The changing room’s opaque window is open a crack, letting out a sliver of soft yellow light onto the grimy alley way. I leap towards it, not using all my force so I fall with my hands to the windowsill. I make contact, using my pulled-up legs with my feet to the wall to avoid breaking a rib. I pull the window open a little bit more and slide inside.

Tauren stands with her back to me, her phone pressed between her ear and her shoulder as she steps into a skirt. She’s shirtless and wearing black panties.

“No, I’m delaying it,” she says loudly into the phone. “I’ve got another gig on Friday. I can’t make it. I mean you can go without me if you want to, but Zakary might not want to go.”

I ease down from the window, enjoying the sight of her matured sculpted hips as she wiggles the skirt up. Land on the floor and lean against a dresser with my hands folded across my still shirtless chest.

“Yeah don’t worry about it. It’s fine! Really, I don’t mind. Just-” she stopped abruptly, as she turned around, seeing me lurking in the corner. She shrieked, letting the phone fall from her shoulder and clatter to the ground.

“Hey,” I say, giving a little two finger wave.

“Oh my god, Kallix,” she hisses, letting the e-cig in her mouth drop to the floor, swiftly picking up a shirt and covering up before I can get a good look. She’s tall, with flowing red hair that falls to her lower back and always makes her easy to identify in a crowd. She’s got green eyes and a small nose, with a little scar on her lower lip. “What’s wrong with you?” She asks.

“What? I just wanted to say hi. Sorry I missed your gig by the way.”

“Oh yeah? You just wanted to say high?” she asks, the corner of her lips turning up. “Why didn’t you use the damn front door?”

“Do you know who I am? When have I ever used the front door? Plus, those damn gorillas outside wouldn’t let me in.”

“Did you come for some consolation sex?” she asks, bending down and picking up her cigarette.

“Nah. I’m limp as a snail from last night. Worst part is I don’t even remember it. But if you’re up for it, I wouldn’t turn you down,” I offer, standing up and stepping close to her.

“Oh yeah?” she asks, taking the cig from her mouth in one hand and bringing her mouth a hair width away from mine. She lets the shirt she was holding fall to the ground, and I bring my hand up to cup one of them. It’s so heavenly soft.

I’m about to move in to kiss her, when she gently pushes me away.

“What? Did I say something?” I ask.

“Kallix I can’t,” she picks the shirt up again.

“The hell? Why not?”

“Kallix don’t you know? I’m getting married.”

“Married! That’s amazing!” I cry, swinging myself up to perch atop her dresser.

“Yeah. I guess it is. In three days actually. Never thought I’d be so young,” she turns so her back is to him again, picks up a bra. “Look away,” she instructs.

“Tauren. How many time’s have I seen you naked?”

“Look away,” she demands

“Ugh. Fine,” I recline back, staring up at the ceiling as she dresses. “So who is it? I bet my left ass it’s Jaffalee.”

Tauren let out a snort of a giggle. “No, idiot. Wesslin Vokohagan.”

“Never heard of him. Sounds like a prick.”

“Shut up. He’s a real nice guy. He knows me.”

“I know you.”

“He knows me personally. Not vaginally. He likes me for who I am.”

“Not your feather soft bosom?”

Tauren chucks a shoe at me, forcing me to duck and nearly fall off the dresser. “That too,” she adds.

“When is the wedding? Am I invited?”

“Of course. If you can get something nice to wear. Preferably with a shirt on.”

“Me? Wear a shirt? You crazy?”

“C’mon. Can’t embarrass me. I might be able to hook you up with something.”

“Since when are you so loaded with cash?”

“Wesslin’s rich!” she grins. “Well, at least rich compared to us.”

I raise an eyebrow. “I’m rich in the heart.”

“You’re more broke in the heart than in real life. C’mon, let’s go,” she beckons him, putting the finishing touches on her eyeliner.

“I thought you finished the gig,” I ask, sliding down from the dresser and wondering where this is headed.

“Yeah. And I made a shit tone of money. Let’s party!” she tosses her hands in the air and hollers, slamming open the door and prances into the chaos in high heels.

I gingerly catch up to her. “You know I don’t like dancing. Or techno,” I tell her.

“You don’t have to be here,” she says, hands swinging to the ceiling. The crowd are nails and she’s a magnet. I’m a twig, stuck between them. She lets out a high pitch holler. “That was an amazing gig! I love you guys!”

“This is dumb,” I grumble, shoving away a lanky, dark skinned guy.

She forces on hand down her shirt and pulls out a crumpled wad of cash. “Have it. Go get yourself loose.”

“You know I don’t do that kind of shit,” I reply, snatching the cash away from her and pocketing it. This is stupid. How do people have fun like this?

Before I know it, Tauren is whisked away by her cultist moth-seeking-light crowd, and I’m back in the sea of beating fists and stomping heels. I slither through the crowd, until I reach the bar. I plop down on one of the stools, an oversized man with a giant ginger beard next to me, sits reclined against the bar, eying a small, clear, ovular pill.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it,” he mutters, lost in the way the flashing neon lights refract within it. It’s almost like an impossibly polished quartz. “This little thing… changed the world so much.” He pops it into his mouth, and downs it with a shot of something cough syrup red.

I scoff.

“What?” he asks. “You want one, kid?” he turns, and opens a huge hand. Within it, are a dozen more, gleaming with sweat.

I shake my head and wave over the bartender. “D’you have anything that isn’t synthetic? Any classics?”

Without looking at me, the handlebar mustached bar tender slides me a glass, filled with ice and a dark brown liquid. The smell hits me before I catch the glass. Whiskey.

The bartender then replaces the bottle and leans over to me. “How old are you?” he asks.

I had silently been wishing that my stubble would’ve gotten a bit more prominent. Guess I overestimated myself.

“Eighteen,” I respond. “Turning nineteen in two months.”

“Bull shit,” he spits.

I hand him the cash for the drink in response.

He takes it and shoves it into his pocket. “Give me one good reason why a shouldn’t report you,” he threatens, extending closer to me.

I hand him another bill.

“Nobody uses this old school shit anymore, twerp,” he growls, but pockets it anyway.

I’m about to respond, when the club door is flung open, and a man in uniform storms in with a rifle held high. “Everybody stop where you are! We have reason to believe Bansilin is in use and have been authorized to use lethal force if necessary!”

I’ve disappeared from the bar in an instant, sifting through the startled crowd members. It could be my brother at the door. He must’ve one the shootout in the South East and gotten info about here. He’s definitely brought a dozen men or more, which means I’ve got under a minute before this entire bar is surrounded. I’m not scared of being trialed for any opioid use, but I have other, jail worthy crimes on my record right now. I need to get out.

“I’ve got men at every possible exit. If you try and escape, we will not hesitate to shoot you!” the man shouts. As I duck, I realize that it isn’t my brother, but his deputy, Sqaverr. That means Kaloaan is lurking somewhere else.

The thoughts and estimations racing through my brain are interrupted, as a clammy hand wraps around my wrist with an iron grip.

“Shit Kallix, we need to run!” Tauren hisses.

I nod, grabbing the back of her head and forcing her down. The crowd stand motionless with their hands in the air, letting gout small peeps of alarm as we half crawl through them. A couple other people get the same idea as us and try to run. That’s when the firing starts, making most freeze in their tracks.

We reach the backstage door and hustle inside, the sound of bullets keeping me low. I ram the dresser on its side, giving Tauren a steppingstone to get out. She takes off her heels and makes her way out the window as fast as she can… which is painstakingly slow in comparison to me, gripping the upper wood and practically swinging out. As we land, she chucks her heels away and takes off. Her long legs carry her much faster than most, faster than me, but her speed makes her veer as we around a corner. The sound of an officer’s boots splashing through puddles rings out through the silent night. I’m taking into account all of my options, when the officer barrels around the corner as well, gun in hand. Tauren’s already careened into an alleyway. I think about following her, but the policeman will already have caught up to me by then. I’d be able to escape in a chase, but he’d probably shoot me down. Tauren led him on to me. Smart bitch.

I’m running directly towards a dead end. A four story, flat brick wall ahead of me. Great. In a second, I map out tiny ledge of a window that I can leap on to, the curved street lamp I can use to swing on, the balcony banister I can grab, then perch on, and the lowered section of the roof I can launch himself to. I leap into the edge and practically ricochet to the streetlamp, grabbing the curved part with both my hands, ready to swing upwards, when I hear.

“Kallix stop!”

The recognition of the voice makes me skip a beat. Now a gun is trained at my chest.

“Kallix get down from there,” my brother orders. He’s alone, with a handgun pointed directly at me.

“Why? So, you can lock me up in some sickly sanitized apartment,” I ask, still hanging.

“Kallix this is serious. Did you do any of it?”

“What? No!” I yell, dropping down to a crouch. “You know I’d never do that kind of shit.” I walk towards him. No running away now.

My brother is a good four inches taller than me, with broad, police academy chiseled shoulders, a small waist, and a neatly trimmed goatee that makes me gag. He holsters his gun.

“Ok. I believe you. But nobody else will,” he tells me. “You need to come with me so I can vouch for you.”

“Why don’t you just let me slip away. Nobody will find me. Nobody ever does,” I tell him.

“Why do you want to live like this?” he asks, reaching a hand to my shoulder. “Running, hiding, scrounging, stealing. You could have a life with me. I’ve got more than enough room. You could go to school. Have actual friends. Have a future.”

“I’m not a damned house pet. Stop trying to tame me,” I snarl. I’m a street dog, backed into a corner, my muscles coiled and ready to move.

He sighs. “We haven’t got much time before the others come. If you come with me, you won’t need to go through all that court stuff. I’ll push you through that. You can live how you want to live, but I’m always here for you. My arms are always open.”

“Like a twenty-four-hour strip club,” I spit.

“Kallix this isn’t why I’m calling you right now,” he tells me, ignoring the comment as urgency builds up in his eyes.

“Bull shit.”

“It’s… it’s dad.”

“What? You found out?”

“Huh?”

“Never mind.”

“Dad’s missing. He just disappeared. Mom has no idea what’s happened, and she’s becoming a completely different person because of it.”

I’m shocked for a moment. My dad’s missing? Why the hell would anybody want to steal or murder that bore? Then I almost laugh. My idiot brother thinks that mom’s acting different because dads disappeared, not because she’s jacked up on the very drug Kaloaan swore to eradicate. Ironic.

“Yeah? And why the hell would you need me?” I snide.

Then recoil back with instinct as a gunshot pierces through the wet air. Kaloaan doubles over, then drops to the ground. I’ve shrunk behind a destroyed electrical transformer, sinking into the shadows.

I hear somebody step over my brother, who’s lying motionless on the ground. The sound of a gun reloading.

“Kallix get out. I know you’re here.”

I weigh my options. My brother may be dead. Probably dead. I could jump him, try and disarm him and take off, but I’d probably be shot. I could try and stall until the other police members get here. I could through mud in his face and sprint like hell.

“I’m not here to kill you Kallix. Quite the contrary.”

I stand. I’m going to stall him. “And who might you b-” the bud of his gun smashes into my forehead, and I crumple backwards in a blacked out heap.