Friday, January 28, 2022 - Aqrabuamelu compound, Flushing, Queens, New York, United States

The five of them stepped out of the warehouse in Queens. Blinking their eyes at the bright sunlight.

Well, Ella stepped out and the four others stood in the doorway. Ella looked back.

“Come on. I am not sure what we are supposed to be doing.”

They stood there.

“Wait, is this the first time you have been outside?” Ella was suddenly very concerned.

“Well… yes” said Adrahasis.

“We have never seen the light of the sun before.”

“Yes. In fact it seems to be causing me to burn? I might be, aah, aaaah!” Added Etana. And then they burst out laughing.

“Haha. Very funny.”

“So… this is the first time we have been out without supervision though.”

“Like ever? You guys are like twenty something right?”

“Life of being a soldier is tough. They let us watch a shit ton of television though. Like we had to watch lots of Friends before coming to New York.”

“Friends? That is like for old people.”

“Don’t tell Abra. He was so in love with that actor guy. Jimmy?” Tauthe was laughing.

“Joey. Damn you. And I wouldn’t start throwing spears Miss Ray Barone.”

Tauthe turned red and snapped, “Shut up Abra.”

“Who is that?” Ella asked.

“Ray? Everybody Loves Raymond?”

“Never heard of it.” Ella felt a bit more comfortable with them joking around. At least they wouldn’t find her body stuffed with venom floating down the Hudson or something.

“So what do we do now?” Ella asked.

“No idea.”

“Well, is there something you saw on television you always wanted to do?”

Adrahasis cut in, serious and grave, “Imagine a childhood where everything you do is watched and weighed. Where you have to excel because if you do not, your people will tear you apart into small pieces.”

“And at the same time being educated to go out into the wider world. A world where humans, who we are trained to look down upon, are given much more freedom. And with that freedom they destroyed their planet, let weaklings masquerading as strong men control them, and seem to not have a care in the world?”

Ella thought about it for a moment. “I… think I would hate humans. And envy them.” She sounded meek and scared if anything which was not like her.

“Now you get one weekend, one, to go out in that wider world. What do you do?”

“I think you can go out there with hate and justify everything you ever thought about humans. Or…”

And Adra smiled gently since Ella was able to make the inferences.

“Or you get to go out and not waste one minute tasting as much freedom and enjoyment as you can for one weekend.”

Ella looked up to see each of them contemplating what Adra had brought forward. He had made it a binary choice between bitterness and hedonism. Extremes but some middle path maybe wasn’t possible yet. It might not ever be possible.

Adra closed it out, “I choose to be ridiculous.”

“Me too.” Said Tauthe.

“Me as well.” Said Davcina

Etana looked at them. “I don’t know how to be ridiculous, but I’ll try.”

Then they looked at Ella. And Ella realized something, she was no guide to ridiculous.

“Let’s open our packages while we figure out what to do.” Asked Etana diffidently.

In each, they found a set of casual clothes, ten thousand dollars in neat hundreds, a phone, and a set of keys with an address in Manhattan.

Ellas box didn’t have a phone but a set of instructions for pairing to her phone.

There was also a note in Adra’s from Bahu - Adrahasis had to translate them

Whatever money is left should be returned. No unsanctioned killing. Don’t expose our existence to anyone. Kill them if needed. A fire would be a good choice. Bonus points for creativity though. Anyone late on Monday will be hunted and killed too. The keys are for our safehouses around the world. Emergency only. And don’t lose a key. Or we will kill you. Have fun! — lots of hugs and kisses and daggers. In blessed Inannas name. Bahu.

“Well… that is all sorts of terrifying.” Mused Ella.

Adra then pulled out a match and burned the note. Holding it until it was singeing his fingertips before letting the small scrap drift away into the snow and finish burning.

And then Ella realized she was going to have to call Charlie. She had no idea how to have a “ridiculous” weekend. That was Charlie’s job. Ella’s job was to pester Charlie into studying. That wax how their relationship worked, and it worked well.

Two white Range Rovers with tinted windows pulled into the parking lot and Charlie hopped out, “Come on guys. Let’s go!!!”

Adrahasis looked to Ella who nodded. They piled into the cars and each put a phone on speaker to plan.

Ella had texted some basic info and enough hints so that Charlie knew these were not ordinary people. But it didn’t matter. They drove over to SoHo and picked up disposable clubbing clothes for later. Charlie ran Ella over to their places to grab stuff and Ella grabbed a quick shower.

“So who are these guys? Tauthe seems kind of mean. Etana seems nice enough but he is so shy. It is kind of cute.”

Ella thought about the rules that Bahu and laid out but since Charlie already knew about the Aqramuabelu it didn’t feel like a violation.

“Seriously? They could totally be FOBs, but Etana is seriously hot. Tauthe seems like a bitch though.”

Ella gently agreed and told her to keep it all on the down low.

“The other two? Shame we couldn’t all fit into one car.”

Ella briefly described Davcina and Adrahasis.

“So they want to do ridiculous huh?”

“Yep. And they have to be back by Monday 5:00 am sharp. No delays at all.”

“Ridiculous, hmmm.” And Charlie got a dreamy look that made Ella nervous about what she had released.