1

The first pain I register surprisingly isn’t my skull feeling like it’s being raped by a hammer and chisel, but my wrists feeling like someone’s sawed through my tendons with a freaking rusty metal pole.

First, I do the logical thing that anybody would do; open my eyes. The problem that arises is that after I do that, I’m not sure if I’ve actually done it. I try again, and the same pitch-black paint covers my vision. Ok, so that didn’t help. The next natural response of mine is to reach for my pills, but when I move my right arm, I hear the clunk of something heavy and metal. Alright, so my arms are shackled above me, and it feels like they’re going to be torn off from my shoulder sockets. My kneecaps nearly splinter when I try and move from the stone hard floor that’s nearly as cold as Zorikan’s soul. Can’t see. Can’t move. Everything hurts. Dandy new beginning then, isn’t it?

“He moved. I think he’s awake,” I hear. A cynical, nasal voice that instantly makes me think a doctor. Or a teacher. Maybe it’s a doctor teacher.

“Wait here, you’ll freak him out. I’ll go in and talk to him. We might stand a chance at reasoning with him.” Hold on, I know that voice. Smooth, feminine, and deep yet elegant.

“Reason? You want to reason with this rapid monkey?”

“Yeah, it can be done. Now shut up and run some tests or whatever it is you’re supposed to do.”

I hear a door open. The absence of a creak means its well-oiled, so why the hell are these shackles so rusty? Which bastard oils a door hinge to a room with shackles that feel like they held medieval knights before?

“Hey, Kallix? How’re you feeling?”

“Lights?”

“What?”

The pitch blackness has suddenly been replaced by a scintillating brightness, so shrill that I can see less than I could before. “Turn them off.”

The lights flick off.

“Not that off. Slightly off, so I can see.”

“Sorry, Kal. Can’t really do that.”

“The hell did you bring me here for? And why you? Could’ve sworn I’d been captured by that bitch Qiara, and if I recall correctly, that’s not your name.”

“No, it isn’t.”

My eyes finally begin to adjust, and her unmistakable squatting figure comes into a fuzzy reality. Thought I’d never see her again. I thought I’d left that chapter of my life behind. Usually when I run away from my problems, it fixes things, but it seems that this one ran after me. “Why’ve you done this, Amethyst?”

“This… might be hard for you to hear, Kallix, but you’ve got to let me explain.”

“You work for her?” I deduce, incredulously.

“No… wait, let me explain.”

“Explain? This whole damn time, you’ve been with her? What in the god damn world Amethyst! Was all that shit you told me a lie? All of it? Was Blax with her too, and you’ve let him go on to do his own bull shit because you’re just a lying little bitch!”

Amethyst flinches at the accusations. “No. Blax is dead.”

“Then? Have you already killed my brother too? He’s on the damn kill list, you know that, right? Am I there too? Is that why you brought me here? Or was it to be bait to lure him here, that sounds like something you’d do,” I spit.

“Stop, Kallix. Be logical. If I wanted you dead, I would’ve killed you a long time ago. And I work with Qiara, not for her. And if you even know me at all, then you’d know that there’s a reason for it.”

“Huh? So you can get rich and no longer have to worry about all your childhood problems, drown yourself in god knows what kind of drugs and forget about everything? Forget about all the shitty things you’ve done? Forget about how many people you’ve killed with the claim that you’re doing the logical thing, or being pragmatic?”

Amethyst gazes evenly at me. “Unlike you, I don’t just have my own interests in mind. You can’t think of the time before Bansilin, because you were still in grade school. You didn’t witness people obsessing, craving, and pouring their wallets, minds, family and souls into stronger, deadlier drugs. Cocaine, heroin, bath salts and flakka, to name a few. Those drugs ruined people, physically, mentally, and financially. West Side was already in an epidemic long before Bansilin came along, but when somebody tried to create a drug that wouldn’t ruin the society like all the others, the media found a nice little way to blame everything on it.”

“Bansilin destroys people,” I say, hoarsely. “You’ve just never seen it, first-hand.”

“Don’t be so quick to assume,” she snaps.

“Oh, and I guess that all the cash from selling to school kids’ mothers and fathers is a nice plus, isn’t it?”

“What do you think I’m doing with that money? What the god damn hell do you think? I’m donating it, all of it. To the homeless funds, to the anticorruption agencies and anything else I possibly could. I joined the military so that I could give myself an additional purpose and wouldn’t be tempted to indulge myself with everything I had. I’m not wicked, and I’m not trying to ruin people’s families. I discovered a lesser of two evils, so I’m trying to keep it in power, while using the side benefits to help other causes.”

I’m blank minded, panting and in a vile mix of shock and pain.

“I don’t expect you to understand. Afterall, a street dog doesn’t know why it needs to go to a kennel, and what can become of it afterwards.”

I cough. “Fine. You win. Let me out of these damn chains. I’ll freaking call Kaloaan over here, you can have him. Kill him, I don’t give a damn.”

Amethyst sighs. “That’s not why I’ve you’re here.”

“Hey,” calls the nasal voiced doctor teacher. He peeps through the door, and his bald, large nosed and eared, spectacle wearing figure matches the perfect sculpture in my imagination. “Amy, we got to hurry it up. If you can’t get him to cooperate, then I will.”

“Hold on, Sarkin,” Amethyst snaps.

Sarkin chuckles and disappears behind the door.

“You take these chains off me, I could slip through the door and take him out. You could kill him too, if you wanna,” I offer.

“You’ve got no idea how much I want to, but I can’t do that right now.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’ve got a job to do.”

“I’m pretty sure you could do it better without him.”

“That’s… a good point.”

“So why don’t we get rid of him?”

“Because I’m not top dog, ok? A lone wolf wouldn’t understand that,” she tells me softly as she stands up to leave.

“Ok, look, look, look,” I hiss in a hushed tone. “Just loosen these cuffs for me, ok? I’ll break out myself and take care of Sarkpin or whatever his name is. Top dog won’t know it’s you.” I desperately try to hide the disgust on my face. I can’t even say Qiara’s name. “You don’t want to do… whatever it is you’re trying to do… on me, right? I mean, you’re just trying to kill two birds with one stone here, and I’d rather be the stone than one of the birds.”

Amethyst looks at me over her shoulder. “What are you implying?”

“Let me bust out of here. We’ll make it look like it wasn’t your fault, and I’ll get someone… better, to take my place.”

“See that’s the thing. You’re the best one.”

“No… I’m not. You know that. I can’t be.”

“Just relax, it will be over soon.”

“Hey! Hey wait!” I holler as she exits, gently shutting the door behind her. “What about Blax! What about the kids! Don’t you want to help them!”

There’s no response, and I’m left alone in my steely cold darkness. God damn… why didn’t I just go to Sekera? I could’ve been with her in the hospital right now, playing… boardgames or something.

A beam of light sweeps over me as the door opens again. Too bad, I wasn’t alone long enough to delve into one of my famous self-loathing monologues. Maybe next time.

“Alright, ye little twunt,” says the unmistakably lisped voice of Sarkin. “You can’t see it right now, but I’m holding a very loaded gun, and I’ll blow your brains out onto the wall if you don’t cooperate, alright?”

“No you won’t. If I was so invaluable to you, I’d be dead already. You need me for whatever experiment shit you’re going to pull, so killing me is out of the picture.”

“Well…”

“And if killing me isn’t and option, then you don’t need the gun at all. You can just tuck it away, and I’ll know that you have it. That’s threat enough, isn’t it?”

“Um… no. I think I’ll keep it pointed right at you,” he decides.

I hear a jingle of keys, and my left wrist comes loose. I don’t waist a millisecond, lunging forwards as far as I can and grabbing the barrel of the gun, pointing it away from me. Turns out I was wrong about him not shooting me.

The bullet ricochets off the wall, hits the door and drives straight through his forearm, missing me by an inch. Blood splatters over me as the gun skitters away and Sarkin doubles over in pain. I shrink into as small a ball I can muster as the bullet bounces to the floor, to the ceiling and then into Sarkin’s side, sprawling him beside me.

I open my eyes, to see Amethyst standing at the doorway with a look of sheer horror on her face. “How…”

“You’re welcome,” I croak. “Now get these off me.”

Amethyst doesn’t respond but drops to Sarkin’s side. “What happened?” she demands.

Sarkin coughs violently, wreathing in pain as blood oozes onto the cold floor.

“Goddammit Amethyst get these off me!” I holler.

I hear the crackle of a walkie talkie. “Is everything alright in there? How’s the patient?”

Amethyst struts out of the cell. “We need a medic in here fast. Sarkin’s been shot.”

“No don’t call more people!” I hiss.

Amethyst struts back into the room. “How the hell did you…?”

I hear a door being flung open, and two men in white coats bundle past Amethyst, dropping to Sarkin’s side.

“The patient’s dangerous. I recommend we move him to a more secure facility immediately,” Amethyst suggests.

“Go on then,” mutters one of the men, too preoccupied with shoving bandages into Sarkin’s wounds.

Amethyst nods, takes and unlocks my shackles. My arms feel like they’re floating to my sides on clouds. She jerks me close to her and whispers, “Don’t do anything dumb.”

She shoves me into the observation room or whatever it is and out into a hallway. It’s then that I notice that the bullet didn’t miss me entirely but sliced through a good section of my forearm. The sting wells up as thick, dehydrated blood flows down to my wrist, bent behind my back by Amethyst’s iron grip.

“Are you… you are!”

“What?”

“You’re actually taking me to a more secure cell!” I exclaim.

“No, god damnit, but I need to make it seem like I am. Just play along,” she assures, relaxing her grip on me.

At the end of the hall, I see a window. Bad idea.

“Look,” she continues. “I’m going to take you to the cell, but once we’re inside, there’ll be these trollies things for apparatus.”

“Appawhat?”

“Never mind. There are no security cameras in there, so you can just slide into one and I’ll roll you out. From there, we can make for the basement and you can use a garbage shoot to get out alright? You’ll have to swim through the river.”

“That stream of sludge? I’ll drown!”

“It doesn’t… are you bleeding?”

The blood finally slides between my wrist and her hand, lubricating it as I kick off the wall, practically flopping over her. I land, push open the window and tumble out in a single, fluid motion.

“Kallix no!” she hollers. She manages to barely grab my ankle, but not enough to stop me from falling.

I tumble once, and lash out, grabbing a windowsill or something. Shit. No grip. I drop after my slip second of gravitational hesitation. I land feet first, and since I’m facing the building, I crumple backwards, nearly cracking my skull as I roll back onto my feet. I twist, and I’m falling again.

Thud.

That’s all I hear as I hit the pavement. The wind is pushed from my lungs. Blood oozes from my nose. Pain splinters through the left side of my face, spreading from my nearly dislocated jaw joint.

I give myself five seconds of head spinning before I force my hands to the ground. C’mon Kallix, you sick bastard, get up.

I push, actually managing to lift myself up a couple inches, despite my brain still pirouetting with Andromeda. I bring my knees forwards and look up with blinking, blurry, starry eyes.

At first I think I’m looking at a black hole. Nope, just the barrel of a gun.

“Shit,” I breathe, as the figures of over six men, all clad in black uniforms with red highlights come into vision. Each of them has a gun pointed to me.

“Mr. Rane,” the one before me commands. “Put your hands behind your head. Slowly.”

I cough. “Yeah, yeah. You got me. Don’t let it get to your head.”

Gunshot.

The man’s head snaps to the left. His body follows soon after.

The other five spin around, hammering the triggers of their guns but before they can even find a target, all of them are gunned down. Bullets paint the pavement around my feet as a battered blacked out SUV skids to a halt before me.

In a blur, I witness the door open, and somebody drag me in my the armpits. Too many things happening too fast.

Jumped out of a window, probably got concussed. How many floors? Somebody is shaking my shoulders. What? What do you want? Why can’t I see them? Are there lights on? Have I gone blind?

“Kallix!” they shout.

I open my mouth, and pain shoots through my jaw. Screw the pain. “Ufghhhrgleg,” I respond.

“Why’re you always bleeding?”

“Ufhhhhgarrrrfg.”

“We came to break you out of there… seems you did the job for us.”

Oh shit, I think as my eyes come into focus. I rub them to make sure that they aren’t lying to me. “Oh god,” I manage to huff.

“Yes. You haven’t got much of a choice anymore,” responds Zorikan.