9

Ok so I was kidding about falling, but I almost did. I’m Kallix Rane, I don’t fall, remember? But I did nearly. Thankfully, I’ve scrambled back into bed, with Kaloaan still asleep. I don’t bother with the drip, but it wouldn’t have made a difference if I had wanted too. Thin bright clouds were so cramped into my skull that it felt like I was on an intense weed high, without any of the high.

Unfortunately, Zorikan plowed through the door a few moments later, just as I was gratefully sinking into slumber.

“Wake up. We’re going.”

Kaloaan grunts. “Huh? Going where?”

“West Side.”

“We’re in East Side?”

Zorikan doesn’t bother answering the question. “Be ready to move. We’re leaving now.”

For a moment, I think that his meeting’s affected him, rendering him blunt and icy, but then I remember that he’s always been like that.

Wait, has he? He certainly couldn’t have been like that as a child, so then when did that happen? What even caused that? What was he actually like as a kid? Or as a teenager?

The door slams shut, jolting me out of thought.

Kaloaan runs his hand over his face with a long, exasperated sigh.

My eyes meet his.

“We’ve got a lot of preparations to make.”

“We?” I ask, eyebrow raised.

“Yeah… I don’t want you involved in this, and you know that, but it’s not like telling you anything will change you. I give up Kallix. You win. You have won,” he says slowly, like he’s admitting his demise in an extended, strenuous chess game.

I swallow. It’s been a while since he’s spoken sense. “Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“If I die… during all this… don’t blame yourself, ok?”

“Why? If I died, you’d blame yourself. You’d probably hate yourself.

…

Sucks that I kind of already do.

~

I shrug. “Too bad, I’m not going back to the hospital.”

Kaloaan groans. “God-damnit Kallix.”

“No. I said I’m not. I’ll go to the Swifters and… find out what time we’re going… or something.”

“Three days. Including this one.”

“Three days? You’ll still be incapacitated!”

Kaloaan shakes his head. “Best med tech in the world here. I’ll be fine by day after tomorrow.”

“Can’t Tash lead the assault?”

“Snapped his femur, remember? He’s not even coming.”

“Ok… well then I’ll just…” my words drip to the cement as I see a couple on the sidewalk. They stop, a few paces from us, just as shocked. “Oh great,” I mumble.

“Mom, dad,” Kaloaan breathes, racing forwards and embracing both of them in a massive bear hug.

With the three of them together, I notice that Kaloaan is far taller than both my parents, and much broader than my dad. Huh, guess I was stunted from malnutrition or something.

“You look… terrible,” Mom says, looking over her son. “Were you hurt? Are you okay?”

Kaloaan nods. “Yeah. I… got in a scuffle with a couple of Qiara’s men. Don’t worry, I’m alright.”

Dad’s eyes drift off his son and linger on me for a moment. “Hi Kallix.”

I nod at him, shoving my hands deep into my pockets. My shoulder throbs with tension.

My mother hugs Kaloaan again.

“You haven’t come over in a while, Kaloaan,” Dad says, pulling his eyes from my unappealing visage.

“I know, I know, but I really have to deal with Qiara first.”

He’s lucky. His uniform hides his bandages.

“Oh dear,” Mom breathes as she sees the thick, dirty bandage on the side of my neck. She rushes to me, her mom instincts kicking in, then stops tentatively, a pace away from me.

My gaze meets hers, for the first time in months. Maybe years.

Slowly, as if she’s trying to pet a rabid dog, she brushes a strand of black hair away from my face. It’s so long that it reaches my collar bone now. “Are you… ok? What happened?”

I shrug, making her flinch and withdraw her hand. “Kaloaans scuffle,” I murmur.

Mom’s face twists with worry.

“You look like you could use a place to stay for a little while,” my spindly dad says, struggling to lift his gaze from the pavement.

“I always do.”

He folds, easily defeated, and soothes a rupture in his combed back hair. It’s as ravenously black as mine, only glossier. His thin fingers twitch in the same way mine do. His cheeks are hollow, and his eyes sunken, just like mine.

And yet I don’t think he could be anything less like me.

Mom is flustered. “Kallix you… we think… it looks…”. She’s unable to even formulate a sentence beneath my sullen, fox-like gaze.

“What was that?” I ask, taunting her.

Kaloaan steps in. The mediator of the family, as he always was. It’s probably been nearly three years since the four of us were together. “I think Kallix should be on his way. He’s got a lot of business to attend to. Right, Kallix?”

Lifelessness radiates from my expression. “Tons business. Tons and tons of it.”

Kaloaan’s eyes scrunch shut, as if he’s begging me to leave.

Why keep him waiting.

I turn on my heel, and walk away, shifting between lolling my head back to look at the ever grey sky and hanging it low to analyze the tiny sparkles in the sidewalk.

I could have stayed. I could have unleashed every drop of boiled up anger I’ve been keeping stuffed inside me for so long. I could have called them terrible parents. They would’ve known that I wasn’t lying. I could’ve shouted every word I’ve kept for them right down their bansilin laced throats.

But that would’ve attracted attention, and if any Qiara’n assassin were to so much get a hint of it… even if Kaloaan and I escaped, it would be over. Would I mind, honestly, if Mom and Dad were killed? Would I? Would it affect me? It would take a load off my shoulders if they were. I wouldn’t be as… guilty? That’s… not the right word. Why would I be guilty. No, that’s bullshit. Screw it. Screw that. Screw everything.

I long to scamper across the rooftops of West Side, but I’m weak and I need to rest. I should talk to Sekera. No, I wouldn’t even know were she is. How about I…

My train of thought is halted and blown to bits as I catch a man in a brown suit and dark cap standing across the road and staring directly at me. I’m definite that I’ve never seen him before.

By instinct, I move behind the nearest shelter I find, a dented, silver saloon car, and make a quick scan of the rooftops. Don’t see anything. I look back at him.

He beckons me stiffly, with evident urgency in his dark eyes. He too glances at the rooftops but doesn’t move.

That’s a good sign. I think.

I upturn my hands in the universal gesture of, ‘what the hell?’

He pulls of his cap and wipes sweat from his bald head before looking back at me, very worriedly. Why isn’t he saying anything?

He beckons me again.

Screw it, he looks harmless enough. Maybe Qiara’s using a new tactic at getting me. Clearly her assassins are incapable.

I scan the rooftops once more, then both direction of the street before I cross, making my way to his side.

“At last,” he breathes with a thick East Side accent.

“Who are you and what do you want?”

“Hold on,” he says, grabbing my arm and pulling me between a coffee shop and a laundromat.

I skitter away from him, ready to parkour the hell out of here as he reaches into his pocket.

I’m already halfway up a fire escape when I see that its just a phone. He hasn’t even noticed my take off. Whoever this is, they aren’t a fighter.

“Yes,” he says into the phone with a sigh of relief. “Yeah he’s here. He’s alright and in one piece.”

I drop back onto the asphalt.

“No… no I don’t know. How was I supposed to…? Ok, sorry. Yes, I will. I know. Ok, I’m giving him the phone, one second…”

I take the heating piece of metal from him and hold it tentatively to my ear. “Hello?”

“Kallix!”

Oh, thank god. It’s just Tauren. This must be one of her drivers. “Hey,” I respond. “What’s up.”

“That whole shootout downtown!” she cries. “Is Kaloaan dead? He’s been missing for days! And where you involved in it?”

“No, no he’s not dead. He’s back on his feet. Yeah, I was there, but I’m fine too. What is it, why did you call me?”

“We need to meet… now. I have bad news and we have to act on it ASAP. I hope Barron over there hasn’t given you any trouble.”

The brown suited, bald man gives an awkward smile.

“No. Not at all.”

“At least. You gave him a ton of trouble finding you. Point is, you need to ride with him to my place. We have to talk now now now.”

“Ok… ok, alright I’m coming. Relax.”

“Don’t tell me to relax, this is anything but the time to relax.”

~

My nostrils fill with the nostalgic smell of Tauren’s perfume as she buries me in her embrace. I feel an odd sense of comfort wash over me as I enter her extravagant home. “So? What is it?” I ask her, stepping in a backwards circle as I gaze at the weirdly wonderful artwork on her walls. Sure, Wesslin may have been a valiant prick, but he did come with a pay-off. Yes, I know I’m a dick for thinking that. “Are you sure you didn’t just want to spend more time with me?” I prod with a smile.

She smiles back. Come to think of it, the way her green eyes crease as she smiles is actually really cute. Maybe we could mess around a bit, later on.

She touches the left side of my neck. It’s still red and hideous. “What…”

I grind my teeth. “Got shot. In the skirmish. Relax, it’ll be fine.”

She swallows heavily. “Kallix you could’ve…”

“I know. Move on.”

She blinks, taking a moment to register how differently life could’ve gone should Blitz’s aim been a tad bit better. Huh, would’ve affected her a lot more than it would’ve affected me.

“It’s going to leave a huge scar,” she concludes.

I shrug. “A badass one. Now tell me why I’m here… please.”

I’m guided by her soft, long fingered hand to her sofa. My calloused hands have trouble identifying the fabric beneath them. She takes a deep breath. “You’re not going to like this.”

“I don’t expect to,” I murmur, after a moment.

“We got Qiara’s updated kill-list.”

“And?”

“And…. you’re on it now. Whatever she wanted with you alive…is gone. She wants you dead, just like the rest of us.”

“So? What difference does that make?”

“A huge one. You see she’s been unable to progress because she can’t access me in my house, Kaloaan is the goddamn chief of police and has survived assassination twice, and Zorikan is harder to kill that a radioactive cockroach.”

I shrug. I know all that already.

“But you… live on the streets and aren’t exactly the definition of subtle.”

“And…?”

She whips out her phone and scrolls for a moment. Then, she reads my lifestyle description to the day, followed by my physical attributes and where I’m most likely to be found. All of it, every word, is true.

“How did you get this?” I ask.

“I spent a nauseating sum of money on a bounty hunting hacker, called Jivvizen. This is what her assassins know of you. If you leave here now, you’ll be dead in a few days.”

Can’t argue with that. “I’ve escaped her before. I know how to deal with-”

“No, you don’t. You know how to deal with police and gangs and bullies, not assassins.”

“And? I’ve been dealing with things I don’t know how to deal with for my entire life.”

“Yeah, but I have a say in your life now. Sorry,” she gives a small laugh. “I’m, kind of your best friend,” she says, laying her hand on my thigh. Sekera flashes before my eyes. “So I’ve been thinking about this. You need to get off the grid. Lay low until Kaloaan sorts this out.”

“I’m sorting it out with him.” I brief her on Kaloaan and Zorikan’s plan to storm Vvickander’s tower. “And I’m going with them. Like it or not.”

She sighs in disappointment. “Regardless, there’s a good two weeks until they’re prepared, and in two weeks…”

“I’ll be dead.”

“Exactly. Which is why you need to get out.”

“What do you suggest? The Dunes? If you give me the supplies and equipment, I could make two weeks work, so long as no bitch ass military pulls up.”

Tauren shakes her head. “You need to disappear entirely. Become a new person.”

“A new person? I quite like myself as I am.”

“And so does Qiara. So the change is happening.”

“What do you mean? I’m not sure I like where this is going.”

“Well… Kallix… don’t kill me but… I’ve enrolled you in school.”