Chapter 8 - THE MARKET

A couple of minutes before they reached the town where the market was being held, an anxious looking Kassia had turned towards Ada to warn her that the place would be crowded.

Of course, Ada would be lying if she said she didn't share the older girl's apprehension. After all, this would be her first experience with large crowds.

Still, she couldn't help the familiar twinge of bitterness in the back of her throat, sparked by Kassia's comment. It was the same one she'd feel whenever the Professor would cut short any of her more ambitious endeavours with a dispassionate, calm reminder of her own limitations.

The comparison, even if unintentional, between her new friend and the man she left behind, was enough to hit Ada with a wave of guilt. Kassia wasn't the Professor. There was no condescension behind the older girl's words, only worry and care.

Still, for once, Ada wished she could prove everyone's worries wrong.

And not completely validate them by freezing like some frightened animal the second she stepped into the market.

Turned out, being there, surrounded by a turbulent sea of people, was nothing like staring at them through a car window. She felt exposed, skin crawling at the mere thought that there was nothing there, no barrier between her and all these strangers, nothing to stop any of them from just reaching out and touching her or harm her if they wanted.

And touching seemed inevitable. All these people were crowded together around endless rows of market goods, barely any space left for them to move about, forcing everyone to brush past each other, to push or squeeze through just to get somewhere.

It was so loud too. A cacophony of voices constantly shouting at or over each other, of music blasting from portable radios or speakers, human chatter mingled with barks, squeals and clucking from a variety of animals being sold or just roaming about.

And the smells! There were so many of them, thick layers of scents from food and other products, sweet, spicy and pungent, all mixed up in the already suffocating humid heat. They flooded Ada's senses, hitting her all at once. Trying to process them only made her feel dizzy, stomach churning up at the queasiness that had already settled there.

It was all too much.

She felt sick. She could barely hear her own thoughts.

Why was she here? She wasn't even supposed to be here. Maybe she should just go back, it's not too late. Just run back and-

"Ada?"

Her eyes flew open (when had she closed them?).

Immediately, her gaze dropped to the hand holding her by the arm. Then back up again, locking with Kassia's own worried brown eyes.

"Hey, are you alright?" the older girl asked, leaning in close so she didn't have to raise her voice to be heard over the background noise. "I know this is a lot for you. It's okay if you need a minute."

Long, slender fingers slid up, past Ada's elbow and up to her forearm, rubbing soothing circles over her skin. "We'll stick with the less crowded stalls, if you want."

There wasn't really a question there, but Ada recognised one all the same in the other's soft, intent gaze, so she took in a deep breath and gave a curt, slow nod. The queasiness was still there, sitting hot and heavy on her stomach, but seeing the other's relieved smile made it tolerable somehow.

She could do this, right? If not for Kassia, then for herself, at least.

"Don't buy too much junk," Gabriel chimed in, his loud, rough voice making Ada tense back up again. "I'm not bringing the car here."

Soft smile wilting like a flower in a desert, Kassia shot the boy a charged, irritated look.

"Fine," she said, rolling her eyes at him.

Keeping her hand on Ada, the older girl straightened her posture, took a deep breath and let out a long exhale through her mouth, as if composing herself. Only then did she turn to address the boy, a smile on her lips and a lilt in her words.

"Wanna check out the artesanal stalls with us then, Gill?"

"Yeah, abou that..." the boy trailed off, eyes wondering off to something that had just caught his attention.

Kassia frowned and followed his gaze, Ada doing the same.

A couple feet ahead, between two of the less crowded stalls at the very edge of the market, was a small group of men, standing close together.

The group was an odd mishmash. They wore loose, simple clothes, though some of them had forgone a shirt altogether in the intense heat, a sheen of sweat over their skin, while others preferred to simmer under heavy, dark jackets. Most of their faces were obscured, eyes hidden under baseball hats or sunglasses, but it was still easy enough to tell that most of them were young, some even close to Gabriel's age, while others were clearly adult men.

Despite the few oddities, at a first glance, they seemed to blend in quite well amongst the people in the market. They looked normal enough to Ada, at least.

Except for the fact that the entire group was looking straight at the three of them.

A shiver ran up her spine, leaving a trail of prickles and goosebumps behind on her skin.

There was definitely something off about the way those men were staring at them, something that set off alarm bells in the back of Ada's head. She was about to ask the other two who those men were, when Kassia's grip suddenly tightened around her arm.

"Seriously, Gabriel?" the older girl snapped, the high pitch at the end causing her voice to crack.

The sudden outburst earned the three more than a couple of odd looks from the people around them.

"Don't give me that," Gabriel hissed back, lowering his own voice and leaning in, as if trying to keep the words from escaping their tight circle. "You're the one who decided to waste time frolicking in the beach. You know I don't come here just to shop around for trinkets. I have more-"

"More important stuff to do?" Kassia cut in with a snarl, making no effort at all to keep her voice low, despite Gabriel's attempts. "Yeah, I heard you the first time! You're such an ass, I swear you-"

The words died abruptly in her mouth.

Kassia's nails sunk into the flesh of Ada's arm. The younger girl had to press her lips tight to keep any pained sound from escaping past them. Instead, she blinked and looked up at the older girl's face, only to freeze at the look of pure horror and shock she found there.

Holding her breath, Ada followed the girl's line of sight, just in time to catch Gabriel's hand adjust something behind him, at waist-level, hastily pulling the hem of his shirt down to cover it.

"Gabriel..." Kassia whispered, voice strained and weak, as if struggling to get any sound out of her throat. "What is that?"

The boy's dark eyes had been darting around, wide and restless, across each curious face in the crowd. But when they shifted towards the older girl, they narrowed and hardened. His expression turned flat, betraying nothing but a stone-cold resolve, something close to a dare in them.

"Is that..." Kassia stammered, voice shaking, barely above a whisper, wide eyes glued to boy's waist. "Is that a gun-"

Gabriel lunged. In one fell swoop, he grabbed a fistful of Kassia's tank top and yanked her up to his eye-level, nose stopping just inches from hers. On instinct, the older girl's hand shot up, sinking her fingers into the tight grip on her tank top to try and pry it off, the movement forcing her to let go of the other girl's arm.

The second that hand left her, Ada had this sudden, violent urge to lash out. To grab Gabriel's face and tear it away from Kassia. To push his body down and slam his skull on the sharp edge of a rock on the ground.

But the horrifying, vivid, bloody image that accompanied that impulse was enough to steel her hand, which fell mid motion, left to twitch uselessly beside her.

"What I do with my free time is none of your business, Kass," Gabriel said, tone low and cool, despite the clear strain behind his voice and in the bulging veins on his neck. "We have a deal, don't we? You don't ask questions, and neither do I. It's best we keep it that way, for both our sakes."

He smiled then, a tight pull at the corner of his lips that never reached his heated eyes. "Right?"

For a tense stretch of time, all Kassia did was glare at the boy, nostrils flared, lips trembling and chest heaving with every deep, shallow breath. But then, slowly, as the anger faded from her eyes, her grip on the boy's hands loosened, shoulders sagging as her breathing evened out.

"Right," she whispered back, dull eyes dropping to the floor.

Gabriel searched her face for a couple of seconds, before relaxing his posture and letting her go.

"We meet here in two hours," was all he said, as he tapped away at the screen of his wrist watch. "I'll ping you when I'm finished."

Before Kassia could even open her mouth to reply, Gabriel had already turned his back to them.

He strode over to the group of men, who greeted him with toothy grins and rough handshakes, some clapping him on the back and whistling. The boy smiled back in kind, his entire posture and expression changing to mimic theirs so perfectly that it gave Ada a feeling of whiplash.

The oldest one in the group slung an arm over the boy's shoulders and leaned in to whisper something in his ear, to which Gabriel shrugged, eyes darting back over to Kassia and Ada one last time, before letting himself be dragged off into the shadows of an alleyway.

For a long, suffocating stretch of time, all the two girls did was stand there in silence, skin sizzling under the scorching sun. Ada couldn't tell how much time had passed exactly, only that it was enough that even the most curious of gazes in the crowd had already grown bored and turned to more interesting sights and conversations.

But with each second spent gazing into those shadows beyond the market, the thoughts and questions kept building up and boiling in Ada's head, pressure growing beneath the skin, urging her to do or say something.

"Come on," Kassia murmured at last, soft enough that Ada would've missed it, if weren't for the sudden touch on her elbow, tugging her close. "Let's go."

"Wait, Kassia," she called out.

When she received no answer expect for an even harder tug towards the bustling crowd, Ada frowned and pressed her heels down on the ground to stop the girl from taking another step.

"You're upset," she pointed out. She watched as her friend's shoulders tensed up, the older girl's back still turned to her, refusing to turn around to meet her head on.

That only spurred Ada on. She didn't want to see Kassia in such a state of distress, but the pressure inside her was growing and threatening to explode. So, she bit the inside of her cheek, took a deep breath and pressed on.

"Why were you so angry with Gabriel back then?" she asked, words growing rushed with each passing second of silence from the other girl. "What was he hiding behind him? Who where those men? What 'important stuff' does Gabriel have to-"

"I don't know!" Kassia snarled, turning around to face her.

Ada flinched back, wide eyes taking in the girl's features, all twisted up in seething rage. The glare the older girl threw her was more burning than the scorching sun, and it effectively pinned Ada down. Her whole body curled into itself, trying to look smaller, trembling hands tucked close to her chest.

As suddenly as it came, the rage on Kassia's face vanished, replaced by utter shock. She was left to stand there, panting and trembling from the exertion, expression growing troubled.

"I'm sorry. I mean..." The older girl stopped to press her lips tight and swallow down a lump, gaze dropping to the ground between them.

"Look, it doesn't matter." She gave a long, suffering sigh, mouth twisted in a pained, almost begging look. "Trust me, it's better if we don't know."

Ignorance is bliss, Ada.

"What?" Ada stuttered, eyes darting across the people around them. "Who...?"

A light frown settled on Kassia's brow. "What's wrong?"

"I..." Ada's fingers rose to brush against her right ear, still tingling from the whispered words she thought she'd heard, a sharp, familiar pain sinking into in her temples.

Noticing Kassia was still staring at her with a worried expression, Ada dropped the hand and averted her gaze.

"Nothing. It was nothing," she said, glaring at the ground.

The words came out with a bit more force then Ada had intended. So, she coughed and wrung her hands, risking a glance at the older girl before trying again in a much softer tone.

"I'm sorry. I didn't meant to make you angry, I just..." She trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

For a while, Kassia just stared at her with a blank, tired look. Then she sighed, and it was like the action alone had brushed off the weight off her shoulders, because her whole posture and expression grew lighter.

"Look, forget that stupid jerk," she said, making a face and throwing a rude, dismissive gesture towards the alley where Gabriel and the other men had disappeared. "This is officially a girl's day out now, alright?"

Kassia smiled, not as bright as her usual toothy grins, but pretty close, and just as soft and warm. With slower, gentle movements, she stepped forward and offered Ada a hand, tilting and nodding her head in the direction of the furthermost stalls.

"Come on, there's some neat stuff I want to show you," the older girl chirped, before stopping herself. "If you want, I mean," she added with an awkward shrug, chewing on her lower lip.

Ada blinked slowly at the offered hand. Like a magnet pulled towards steel, her eyes wondered off to that dark, empty alley. She let them linger on those lifeless shadows for a second or two, before turning her gaze back to Kassia.

Mirroring her friend's earlier warm, inviting smile, Ada took the hand, letting their fingers interlace.

"Okay." She nodded at Kassia. "Let's go have fun."