5

Tauren left me at the club. When the cops were chasing us. So it’s ok that I left her here? She probably made it anyway. She’s smart. So did Malyk. Malyk must’ve made it. He’s tall so he… was probably shot first. Plus he went to the front of the group. Dead. Yeah. Probably dead. Salif is a piece of… he’s my friend. Stoner or not he’s been my friend for years. It hurts. I already took my damn meds. Why the hell does it still hurt? Tauren left me it. It wasn’t my wrongdoing. She chose that weasel over me. The good weasel. The one who would’ve treated her better than I would’ve. Stupid piece of shit. You just want her damn tits and long legs. You’re a real dick brained piece of shit you know that?

“Are you ok?” a scantily dressed woman asks. She leans over me, lying in the street drainage, hands behind my head like as if I’m on a beach bed. She’s wearing a skirt that barely covers her thighs and a tank top. She’s old, with her skin surgically pulled back, and her pink lips look inflated. Despite her hefty assets, jiggling above me, I feel like throwing up. Too much plastic. Too damn fake.

“Screw off, shit fly,” I tell her.

“You sure?” she asks, letting one of her shirt sleeves fall off her shoulder. Damn hooker.

“You want to suck me off for free?”

“I am dirt cheap.”

“I haven’t got shit. Get out of my view, grandma,” I hiss.

“Fine. Your loss,” she says. “But if you change your mind, 124th Alden block,” she whispers.

I show her my middle finger. After I’m sure her, middle-aged surgically held together face is gone for good, I heave myself from the trench and beat my fist into the left side of my neck. When did I take my meds last? When did I get laid last? Oh right, I don’t remember.

Tauren probably does. Salif probably does. Because they’re your friends and they know you. No, they don’t. Salif’s a damn piece of shit, just like me. But he didn’t leave Tauren to be shot on her wedding day. Screw it.

I amble onto the road, a drenched rat crawling out of the sewer. A victorious warrior returning from battle. I’m glad I still have my Ray Bands so the sun doesn’t aggravate my ache. I’m not hungover. I had nothing to drink. I bounce on the balls of my feet, my legs yearning to run like a wolf in captivity. My mind is a spiderweb after a downpour. Sodden and heavy.

Malyk probably went to help. He probably died too. Good thing I’m alive at least. Maybe if I’d gone back, they wouldn’t be dead. Maybe I’d be dead as well. Maybe that would be better. Maybe I would be dead and they wouldn’t be. No. Better I live than them. Right? Wrong.

I need to calm down. I need to breath. My pills clatter within their container, snuggled in my pocket as I walk. Another one would definitely get rid of the tension. I’d be able to think without the constant throbbing down my left side.

I dig my thumb into my neck, pressing the knuckle in deep. You killed Tauren. You killed Salif. You killed Malyk. I tilt my head back. I don’t want them to come. I don’t want my eyes to run wet with misery. I push the shades higher up the bridge of my nose. Interesting fact about the human body: you can’t cry when jacked up on adrenaline.

I spring upwards, wrapping my right arm around a low hanging bar. I use my core to swing my legs up onto the canvas cover of a closed open-air restaurant. I scramble up, feeling the canvas dip under my weight, and look up. A wave of excitement passes over me as I see the seemingly daunting skyscraper before me, narrowing towards the top. I start.

Leap. Gasp. Haul. Grunt. Scrabble. Pull.

Leap. Gasp. Haul. Grunt. Scrabble. Pull.

Leap. Gasp. Haul. Grunt. Scrabble. Pull.

My muscles burn, my hands callous, but my mind clears. The higher it gets, the harder it becomes.

I’m standing with half of one shoe on the tiny end of a metal rod, peeping out of the building. The wall in front of me is curved and slanted, like a sleek cone. I lean heavily against it, spreading my arms as far as they can go to give me some form of miniscule stability, while my other leg wavers in the air, no foothold to rest on. It’s like trying to huge a massive cylindrical water tank.

The drop beneath me is over three hundred feet and there’s a mere, three-inch piece of metal between me and it. My hands move up and down like as if I’m making a snow angel, searching for anything to grab. There’s nothing but smooth, cold, curved metal. The wind is starting to pick up, and no matter how much I squeeze, I’ve got little to nothing stopping me from plummeting to the ground. I tilt my head upwards, so my chin rests on the metal surface. There’s a protruding ring of metal, circling the narrower section above me.

I lower myself in a one-legged squat, my other leg stretching far to the right like I’m some sort of a ballet dancer. I clench the burning thigh muscles in my left leg, and steady myself with my spread-out arms as the strong winds try to sway me. The slightest loss of balance, and I’m a big bird shit.

A moment of stillness, and I seize the chance, snapping my leg straight and jumping up, a quick upwards slide on the smooth metal. My outstretched hand grabs the metal bar with part of two fingers. Quickly, my other hand flies to it, gripping it with all my strength, and allowing my first hand to get a better hold. I hang there, the recognition of monkey bars flashing through my mind like a child, flipping through the channels of a nostalgia TV. Except I’m not nostalgic. I don’t miss my time as a caged zoo animal, living a life of forced conformity.

I do a pull up, and see that there is a level section, like somebody has sliced the top off the cone. I scrabble up and lie, legs dangling over the edge, starring at the grey sky. A storm held at bay like a boy holding back his tears. My heart races. A drum in my ears. My forehead drips sweat. My left calf twitches with overstrain. I feel alive. I feel free.

I roll onto my stomach, and stand up, seeing an enclosed, tower, with a ladder going straight up. I start. Rung after rung I climb, until I emerge through onto a stark floor. I get up, and I’m in a small dusty, cobwebbed room, with no furniture, and floor to ceiling windows. I gawk at the view before me. This is the tallest building for miles. The city sprawls before me like grey LEGOs. It pains me how mundane it is. How rectangular. Who said buildings need to be rectangular? Why the hell can’t a house be shaped like a pear? Or a bear? Or my dick? If I build a house, it’ll be shaped like my dick.

I open the latch on one of the windows, and let it swing open, then stick my head out, enjoying the wind blasting in my face. I turn and grip the top of the room. A little, flat roof and pull myself up. It’s a small, space, the same as the room, with a tall copper lightning rod standing stoic against the wind. Leaning against it, back to me, if the unmistakable figure of a feminine Homo Sapien.

She looks over her shoulder, then jolts when she sees me. “What the hell!” she cries in alarm. A cat being spooked.

I nod at her quizzically. “What the hell yourself.”

She’s got tan skin, with defined cheekbones, dark brown hair tucked into her hood and brilliant blue eyes. I grab the lightning rod, so I’m not blown off by the wind. She’s probably a year or two older than me. She has almond like eyes, telling me that she’s got of mixed descent, and the epitome of kiss able lips. She wears dirty, grey hoodie and dark grey sweatpants, with black sneakers.

“W… what are you…” she stutters. “How the hell did you get up here.”

“I climbed,” I tell her slowly.

She nods, wearily. Then, she scoots up, and pats the space next to her. I take a seat next to her, folding my arms over my bare chest. “You cold?” she asks.

“Freezing,” I reply.

She unzips her sweater, revealing a burgundy T Shirt that says: Screw you I’m cool. Something I would wear. She slips the hoodie off and hands it to me. I consider refusing the offer, but the sweat freezing on my skin makes me accept it.

“D’you have a name?”

I nod. “Kallix. Kallix Rane.”

She looks taken aback.

“What?” I ask with a lopsided smile. “Heard of me?”

She nods, slowly. “You don’t live up to the legends.”

“Legends?”

“People talk.”

“And you are?”

“Rieka.”

“Why are you up here?” I ask her, genuinely interested but staring off into the distance as if I’m not.

“I come up here a lot. Usually to clear my head. Never seen anybody else up here before, but I’m not surprised. You are Kallix Rane, after all.”

“Yeah… that’s actually why I came up here right now.”

She laughs. A cute laugh. “What does Kallix Rane have to clear his mind about?”

I sigh. “A lot of messed up shit.”

She raises an eyebrow and turns to me. “Wanna talk about it?”

She’s got smaller tits than Tauren, but so do ninety percent of girls. She’s thin framed, but not frail. Her hips are cute. Pound-able. Her legs aren’t as long as Tauren’s…. stop. Stop freaking comparing her to the girl you left for dead. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up shut up shutup shutup shutup shutupshutupshutupshutup!

“Hello?” she asks. She folds her arms over her chest uncomfortably.

“Sorry. Um…”

“What happened?” she asks, leaning towards me a laying a hand on my shoulder.

Her eyes are hypnotic. Bluer than the sky. Bluer than the ocean. “I… left a friend.” I don’t know why, but I tell her.

She shifts she she’s sitting with one leg folded in front of her, facing me. “Why?”

“I don’t… I… to save my own skin.” I struggle to speak.

Her hand slides down, off the open hoodie and onto my bare chest. It passes over my nipple and gives me chills. “Did your friend die?”

“I don’t know,” I sigh. I can’t pull myself away from her beautiful blue eyes. I want so desperately to open her legs and thrust into her. Have her suck me off while I stare into her oceans. The whirlpool of emotions inside me intensifies, making my right hand twitch.

“Do you want me to help you feel better about it?” she asks, reaching over to take off my sunglasses.

I push her hand away, and force the sunglasses back on, scrambling away from her. I lean against the lightning rod, my breaths coming in rasps. She presses herself behind me, her soft lips pressing against my neck.

I give in as she turns me around. I wrap my arms around her and pull her close, kissing her with everything inside me. The wind picks up around us. I kiss her with ferocity. I kiss her with hunger. I let my lust free as my hands slide over her body. I grab her thigh and lift her leg up my side.

Interesting fact about the human body: You can’t cry when aroused.

She breaks from my lips and moves down my neck. She kisses each nipple, then moves down my stomach, my belly button, then unzips my fly. My head lolls back as she takes me in. Her slow, rhythmic movement makes me want to explode. I stare up at the stormy sky, as a light drizzle falls over us, but she only goes harder, stronger, faster, deeper.

I moan, one hand on the lightning rod to steady myself, the other on her head, tangled in her hair. My breaths become shorter as she speeds up, and the world drains away around me. The wind on my chest. My eyes locked with her ravenously hypnotic ones. Her mouth and tongue rasping over me perfectly. It’s too much. I can’t contain myself. Rarely am I ever the first to finish, but I can’t stop myself as I explode and a faint noise escapes me. All my turmoil. All my emotions shoot out of me. Rieka liberates me from the thick, blinding fog that had clung to me. I’m free.

I gasp, slumping down against the lightning rod as aftershocks and relaxation overflow me. Rieka smiles, and sits down next to me. She intertwines her hand with mine.

“Pretty good, right?”

All I can do is nod.

She laughs. “I can’t wait to tell my friends that I sucked off the famous Kallix Rane.”

I smile. Butterflies flutter in my stomach. “How… how did you do that?” I gasp.

“Little secret I learnt on the road. Want to learn how so you can impress somebody later?”

I grunt.

She laughs, then sighs, placing her head on my shoulder.

“We should… do that more often,” I tell her.

“Sure. Wait, are you asking my to be your girlfriend?”

“I don’t do that whole… girlfriend thing.”

“Why not? It’ll be fun!”

I shake my head. “Commitment is stressful. But we should definitely do that again.”

“You should come stay with me,” she offers.

I don’t respond.

“C’mon. You’re good at parkour. I’m sure you’d be given a position.”

“What? Wait. You don’t…”

She looks at me confused.

“Do you work for Zorikan?” I ask her.

“Um. Yeah. How the hell did you know that?”

“Get away from me,” I rasp, scrambling out of her grasp.

“What? What did I do?”

“Don’t freaking talk to me. Don’t contact me. Don’t come and find me,” I tell her, swinging down into the little room. Fluidly, she comes down after me.

“What’s wrong Kallix? What do you have against Zorikan.”

I stop, spin, grab her wrists and pin them to the wall.

Her eyes to wide with fear.

“Don’t… talk… to… me,” I tell her.

She kicks off the wall, sweeps my legs from beneath me, making me flop to the ground. Her knees pin my wrists as she sits on my midsection. Ordinarily, I would be harder than the metal beneath me, but my mind is clear and my adrenaline is surging. “Hey. What’s your problem?” she asks. “You’re good. We could use you on the team.”

“Get off me,” I tell her through gritted teeth.

“Why? You don’t like it?” she asks, her white teeth flashing in a smile as she starts to ride me.

I can feel my sexual tensions boiling up again. I need to do something.

“Next time I’ll expect something in return,” she tells me. “Don’t think this is a one-way thing.”

I pull up my leg and hook my calf around her neck, slamming her down onto the floor, then roll to my feet and slide down the ladder. She yelps in pain, but is on her feet like a cat.

“I’m not going to chase you,” she calls after me, as I make my way to the cone like section of the building. “Would’ve just been nice to have you around, you know.”

I slide down, dropping down ten feet with a roll, before continuing downwards. I need to get away. I need to get away as fast as possible.