My feet carried me swiftly down the alley, the alcohol numbing the sensations of impact against the pavement, maddeningly slower than the child before me. Her braids swung back and forth as she ran, much faster than I could, hypnotizing me. She couldn’t have been more than ten – how was it that I couldn’t keep up?

“Come on, Torven, get your shit together,” I whispered to myself, trying desperately to pump my legs harder. They weren’t responding well, as if I were pushing through a sea of molasses instead of air.

The kid turned, sending a wave of dirt in the air as she dashed into a side street.

I followed her, stumbling around the curve, my hands connecting with the stone street below. The rough pavement scraped the palms of my hands, the sting of gravel embedded in the skin. I picked myself up, urgency pushing me forward, anxious to catch up to this kid.

Now standing, I brushed off the dust and dirt I’d gathered in my graceful change of direction, lungs heaving with effort.

The girl was just standing there, a mischievous smile on her red face. She tossed my wallet into the shadows.

I didn’t hear the thud of the leather hitting the pavement, instead, it was a clap, as if someone caught it smoothly in their hands.

The shadows moved, turning into a couple lanky teenagers, backed by a hulking man standing a head taller than everyone else here. I shrank back; this was a setup. This kid had lured me to a secluded location so these thugs could really mug me, for real.

A fist slammed me in the stomach, violently pressing the air from my lungs and my organs displacing. I doubled over, wheezing from the sudden blow. One of the teenagers.

I coughed, spittle flecking the concrete below.

The same fist again, this time at my side. I barely even registered it in enough time to raise my hands, though it did nothing. I was still too drunk to do much more than stand there - well, crouch there - while i took the hit. At least the ‘Ona did something to dull my nerves, because while the punches definitely hurt, I figured it could’ve been worse.

I peeked up to notice the large man going through my wallet, the other teenager peering over his shoulder. I counted myself lucky he hadn’t been the one punching me, or I doubted I’d even be conscious right now.

“Guys – stop! Look at this.”

The teenager holding my wallet had pulled out my identification card, complete with my vital information. My heart sank. What would they do now that they knew who I was? Clearly, there was some kind of recognition there. My father was going to kill me - assuming I survived this encounter, first.

The teenagers hustled together, the large man peering over their shoulders. The kid had slunk away into the shadows, but now re-emerged to see what the fuss was all about. I lay on the ground, panting heavily, assessing my situation. Would I be fast enough to evade them all?

Before I could even think about getting up quick enough to make an escape, they all turned their attention to me, their faces solemn and surprisingly enough, wary, as if they were afraid of me.

“You a Montgomery, like, that prick, Lord Montgomery?”

I blinked. Should I tell them? My ID card said as much, but would they believe I was anyone else? I didn’t know what to say.

“Obviously he is, it don’t matter what he tell you,” said the large man, clearly these teenagers’ minder. “I got an idea.”

I paled. Whatever this man’s idea was, I surely didn’t want to be a part of it.

“Bring him to Tūtū Kaika. She won’t want to miss this… opportunity.”

The large man slid a finger over his WaComm, a clunky, outdated yet apparently functional model, typed surprisingly quickly for someone with hands his size, and then looked up at me.

“Tūtū Kaika has agreed to meeting you, kid,” the man said. “It’s in your best interest to be polite.”

He lumbered over, his legs thick as tree trunks, and pulled me upright, supporting my weight.

“Do I… do I have a choice?” I rasped, the words tough to get out through my swollen lip.

“Nope. Let’s go.”

~

The man called up a car with his WaComm, a ragged, beat down vehicle that barely looked like it could function. But, we all piled in all the same, the two teenagers, the kid, myself, and the man who apparently owned it. The backseat was crowded with me sandwiches between the two teenagers, and up front, the man and the kid sat comfortably with plenty of space between them. I envied their leg room. The inside of the car was just as run down as the outside. The upholstery peeling, revealing degraded foam, the kind that disintegrated as soon as you put any pressure on it. The seats were lumpy and lopsided, causing me to tilt and lean into the teen on my left. He gave me a glare about it but said nothing.

The longer the drive went on, the more anxious I became. Who was this Tūtū Kaika? And why would she want to meet me? But, deep down, there was a part of me that was burning to know at any costs. Whoever this was, and whatever they wanted, had to be far more interesting than anything I’d been involved in before. Though, I couldn’t help but fear for my life.

Quickly, the fear became just a sour taste in my mouth, overpowered by the desire to know, and the excitement and promise of adventure - now that I wasn’t actively being punched in the face anymore. Not that it really mattered, anyway. My life was all laid out for me already. It was almost intoxicating, the threat of messing it all up in a single night. It sharpened everything around me, each sense so powerful it was painful.

As the car drove on, I found my mind wandering, despite my clearly perilous situation. I had taken many, many classes that scrutinized the lives of the poor, of the displaced Nari’e here in Aruga, but it was another thing seeing it in person. How could they live this way? The stark differences between our lifestyles, just by sitting in this car alone, was enough to stagger me. Experiencing this firsthand was more eye opening than any of the research papers I’d conducted or any surveys I’d received throughout my whole graduate school education. How much did I really know, anyway? Did I know anything at all?

The car stopped in front of a warehouse. We were deep in the Nari’e quartier now, in a section of the city I’d never been before. The best bars were at the border of the Nari’e quarter, but still close enough to the ritzier part of town so that they were safe enough to get drunk there. Aside from tonight, those were the only parts of the Nari’e quartier I’d seen. Having driven through the thick of it over the last fifteen minutes, I know felt as if this was an entirely different city. It had a completely different feel, a certain desperation that tinted the air. The neon lights edging the all-nighter businesses along the streets seemed to scream for help, flashing and blinding.

“Blindfold him,” piped up the kid from the front seat.

“What? Why?” I said. “I’ve already seen how we got here. What’s the point now?”

The kid sat up in the seat to glare at me. “Cause I seen it in movies. Ya gotta be blindfolded!”

The man sighed. “Pa’ani, relax. He won’t snitch on us or nothing… besides, he’s our honored guest. He’ll behave.” The man stared back at me pointedly.

I gulped. If I got more on this man’s bad side, I’d be sinking in a Nari'e grave, deep at the bottom of the ocean.

The teenagers got out of the car, pushing me out of the door. I staggered out, the effects of the alcohol long burned off by adrenaline and fear. Instead, now all I felt was the pain of that punch to the face, the chase from trying to catch up to the kid, and everything in between.

“Stand up straight, and don’t say nothin unless she asks you a direct question. You got it?”

I nodded briskly, regretting the motion immediately. I was starting to feel the hangover already, my head throbbing even more. I wanted desperately to get out of this alive, but even more so, I wanted to see who this person was. A fatal flaw of mine, I supposed, this curiosity.

“Lead the way,” I said, gesturing in front of me. “I’ll behave.”

I followed them into the warehouse, my apprehension growing with each step. The warehouse was nothing more than a large room, with several broken windows letting unfiltered moonlight in to dance, dappled on the floor. Shipping crates edged the room, filling up each wall. In the very center was a single shipping crate, alone, and opened. Dim lights shone out from it, a warm glow of invitation. Two Nari’e men stood outside of it, muscles flexing as they glared at us – me. We approached slowly.

“I’ve brought you a visitor, Tūtū Kaika,” said the man who brought me here.

“Bring him inside,” a light voice beckoned from inside the shipping crate.

The two guards on the outside nodded at me. Carefully, I stepped forward. What was in store for me if I went inside? I couldn’t deny, the voice I’d heard sounded female. My curiosity was burning to know what was really going on here. It was that feeling that picked up my feet and set them down, one step at a time, closer and closer to the shipping crate.

A woman sat cross legged on the floor in the center of the shipping crate, another leaned against the far right corner, just barely out of sight from the lights shining from the floor. The cross legged woman wore an expression of fierce determination and wariness, her teeth bared at me, her hair in tight cornrows against her head.

I bowed my head at her. “Uh, Tūtū Kaika,” I said. “A pleasure to meet you.”

The woman laughed a hard chuckle. “Is it, now?” Her lips twisted into a grin. “And who is Tūtū Kaika meeting?”

“Mr. Torven Montgomery,” I said politely, not bothering to conceal my name. Her goons had already seen my ID anyway and knew who I was. If they hadn’t, I wouldn’t even have gotten here.

“Ha’ana, stop your games. He’s frightened,” said the woman in the back corner.

I stepped back, a little startled. Had I offended her? I’d assumed the cross legged woman was Kaika, but evidently, that was not the truth. This woman, Ha’ana, was still smiling at me, albeit maliciously, but she was still clearly amused. She stood, allowing for the woman in the corner to reveal herself.

“My name is Mea Kaika,” said the woman in the corner as she stood.

Her vibrant, deep brown eyes stared into my soul, the same shade as her hair, the hue of a burnt coconut husk. The waves of her hair were secured away from her face with two heavily decorated clips, adorned with pearls and shells. She stood nearly to my shoulder, her smooth, perfect skin clearly that of a youth. Remarkably, she seemed to be even younger than me.

My mouth fell open. Her beauty was obvious, but that paled in comparison to her energy, how she carried herself, the effect she had on everyone else around us. Clearly, she was a charismatic person. How else would someone as young as her come to lead such a group? And she had to be their leader – why else would they bring me to her with such reverence in their voices, such fear? I could only wonder what exactly their group did here, though. Were they but simple thieves, working together to scrounge a living? The scientist in me ached to know how their hierarchy functioned, how each of them played a part in their miniature society.

“You seem to be…speechless,” she said, the slightest of smiles hinting at her lips.

I blinked rapidly, struggling to regain my composure. I didn’t know what to say now that I’d gotten here. What was I trying to accomplish, again? Her presence ruined my ability to think rationally, or at all.

“You must want something. That’s the only reason anyone visits me,” Mea said, turning her head as she watched me sputter. “But this time, I need something from you. Can you help me?”

She surprised me yet again. “What could I possibly give you?”

Mea smiled; fully, this time, dazzling me with her charismatic expressions and sparkling, white teeth. “Just your time.”

“My time?” I said, unwilling to argue, yet still thoroughly confused.

“I’d like to show you what my people, Ka Po’e, are all about,” she said, still smiling warmly. “I’m sure you’ve heard of us.”

It all came together as soon as she mentioned Ka Po’e. She must be a part of their leadership, somehow, maybe organizing their protests and riots I often heard about on the news. She probably wanted from me what anyone ever wants from the son of Ralen Montgomery – their voice in the government. My heart sank a little. I knew she hadn’t wanted to spend time with me, a stranger that her thugs had brought to her, but a part of me had hoped for more.

She stared at me, her eyebrow raised, waiting for my response. I knew it was a bad idea, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her no. I wanted to see more of that smile, for whatever reason I could take.

“So? What do you say? Allow me to show you what we’re about, and you promise not to tell your father about the…circumstances of our meeting?” She positively glittered.

I glowed, basking in the warmth of her pleading grin. Awed, I only nodded.

“Can I walk you out?” she asked me, gesturing still with a sweet smile.

Like putty in her hands, I nodded again. I followed behind her like a lost puppy, one foot after the other, only for her. The woman she had called Ha’ana stepped up as if to stop her, but halted mid step; Mea had frozen her with a single look. We walked out of the shipping container office, her goons parting for us like the red sea, complete with dangerous and wary stares for me, concern and respect for her. I ignored them all, instead only watching her hair bounce and sway as she walked, the strands occasionally catching the light like a halo.

We approached a nondescript door at the far end of the warehouse. She opened it, letting the cold air breeze into the building, abruptly awakening me from my trance. For I had been entranced by her, of that there was no doubt.

“You can call your car here. I’m sure you have one,” she said, leaning against the open doorway. “Meet me here tomorrow morning? Say, ten o’ clock?” She leaned over to my WaComm, typed in some numbers with ease, her scent filling my nostrils with a floral sweetness in her close proximity. When she finished, she rested back against the doorway once more.

“It’s a date,” I said, high on the hopes of tomorrow.