Bang-bang-bang!

“What!

Don’t fucking bother me with your ads,

I said I’m not buying—"

“—Lyra. This Himari, Apollo’s supervisor!”

……

“Is Apollo with you!?” a familiar voice shouts back from behind a hotel door

“Yes!”

“You better not be lying,”

“So this is where Lyra has been staying” I comment looking around at the well lit corridor of many other room doors

Amidst the packed city of Old York, we arrived at one of the many

And when I say many, I mean a lot,

We had driven through several streets of all identically looking apartment complexes

(I have no idea how Himari could even tell them apart)…

…….

“I thought you both stayed at the beach house Apollo?” I turn to the young man questioningly

“I did too,” he looks as surprised as I

(What has Lyra been up too?)

……..

“—Swear if you’re lying about Apollo,” the door slides open revealing the Lyra’s tired face,

Her eyes are circled with dark rings and bags as they dart around to us three standing at the door,

“What the fuck is he doing here?” she notices me and attempts the shut the door but Apollo blocks it open,

“Where have you been?—” he shoves his way into the small but comfy room, Lyra wearing pajamas right now, has her clothes carelessly scattered about on the floor, an assortment of snacks are littered on the nearby bed where an open laptop sits, some music faintly playing from it....

….

“—I have been busy taking care of stuff, Apollo,” Lyra replies coldly

“You have been avoiding calls from chief Kiefer to come in” Himari speaks up,

“So?

I don’t understand how to use your technology anyways,” fibs Lyra passing a hand through her untidy kept, pale blue hair

“There is an open laptop right there,” points then Himari

“Hhhhh

You only call me to help with your dumb missions and stupid training exercises, I don’t work for you, and if you say it’s because I owe your government for helping me walk again, then fuck you because your stupid technology was the reason I couldn’t, to begin with”

“..

Just say that you will check in tomorrow,” Himari already sounds exasperated by just speaking to Lyra briefly

……..

“Nuh uh uh!

Not you Kage

Don’t you take a step inside!” Lyra turns snapping at me as I’d begun to enter her apartment

(What did I do?)

Hey, hey, hey, hey♪

“Why are you being harsh to Kage?

I thought you were sad when you thought he was dead?” asks Apollo

“Ha!

Ask Kage if he’s sad that I’m alive!”

“What are you talking about?–”

“–Look,” interrupts Himari sounding fed up now..

“I am here on—”

“—Shut the fuck up, I’ll check in tomorrow!” Lyra barks at her

Don’t say you will♪

“……

Very well…” clearly taken aback by the hot tempered girl, Himari uncomfortably exits the room

(She looks ready to square up with Lyra herself…

……

“You don’t have to act like that Lyra” Apollo lectures

“I know, I know,” sighs Lyra

“But seeing Kate here really soured my mood”

“Again, what did I do to you!?

I thought you would be happy to see me?”

One day you will♪

“Pffft!

That’s funny!

We met before here already Kage, I had nothing to say to you then same as now,”

“We did?”

“In prison,

I beat the shit out of you,” Lyra smiles tauntingly

(That was her, the guard?)

“The first time we meet since that mountain and that is how you treated me?” I leer

“Don’t fuck with me, Kage!

You know what did back then!” she leers back

As our two voices get louder Apollo backs away and raises the volume of the music playing from Lyra’s laptop

I pray you will♪

…..

“I tried to save us?

I couldn’t save Karina?

What is it, that you suddenly don’t like!?” raising my voice

(Why is Lyra making me act up?)

“I’m done talking.” The girl takes a deep breath and darts forward swinging at me with enough force to take off my head

I dodge back quickly, slip behind her into a front choke

When I grab your neck, I touch your soul♪

“Calm down Lyra, tell me what you are mad about we don’t have to—”

—Umph!

She knocks her head back so into my nose,

“Awgh!”

I release her in pain as blood starts gushing from my broken now nose

Punch!

Lyra follows up with a straight right jab

Gasping for air I still manage to duck below, ramming by shoulder into her knees, as Lyra falls to the floor I scramble on top of her placing her in a rare naked choke.

Take off your cool, then lose control♪

Lyra tries her headbutt tactic again but I press my head close to hers, blocking any space to create any force for the attack

Lyra immediately tires to roll over, anticipating that I wrap my legs around her ribs tightening my grip to restrict her movements

……

Apollo sits on the bed munching on Lyra’s snacks…

Hey, hey, hey, hey♪

“Lyra stop, you have to tell me what happened” I speak directly into her ear

“Say you will calm down and I’ll let you go.”

“Mnnnggh!” Lyra still struggles to get free

Don’t say you will♪

“Say you will Lyra

Say you will!”

“Let me go!” her voice comes out watery, as tears begin to flow out her eyes

“Its you, its your fault you!”

“What did I do?” I slowly start releasing my grip

“You, when Apollo fell, and Karina’s body was just right there bleeding out

I couldn’t move, I was in so much pain,

All I had was you, there in that moment Kage it was just you and I

You took me by the throat and dropped me, tossed me off the mountain to die!”

You will, you will♪

…..

“Huh!?” Apollo exclaims going from spectating to involved in an instant

He opens his mouth to speak but stops himself, nodding to me Apollo decides to let me explain first…

“I did that to you Lyra?” I look back at Apollo just as puzzled

“Don’t play me with Kage” Lyra now fully crying

“When I remained frozen and floating for months in that sea all I did was replay that moment

In my mind, over and over.”

Hey, hey, hey, hey♪

“Karina just died in front of us and at the time I thought Apollo did too, and here you were planning to finish me off as well

I was just trying to tell you……” Lyra’s voice trails off by her heavy breaths and bubbly annunciation, she struggles to keep her tears at bay

(I don’t know how to feel about this right now)

“If what you say is true….” I start, no words come to mind…..

All I can really do is watch her cry

I—

—(“Just this once Kage, I will you feel it”)

Like a floodgate being opened for the first time, everything,

No, one thing alone gushes in.

How Lyra felt, I started feeling.

Drip

Sorrow

Drip

Anger

Two drops of tears roll of my cheeks falling to the floor,

More soon follow

I don’t think I ever cried before.

(Are these my emotions?)

“Ly!—"

I can’t even contain myself the moment I speak more tears burst out uncontrollably

(Is this what feeling only one emotion is like?)

Apollo drops, hugging us both silently like an older brother,

He doesn’t understand what’s happening but tries his best to….

(To what?)

“Why he fuck are you crying,” Lyra wipes her tears

“I don’t k..

I don

I don’t know”

“When I thought, you were all I had left, you literally tossed me away like I was absolute garbage,

The look on your face Kage,

It was like you were watching an insect

Something as insignificant as me,

Why should I survive?

Is that what you were thinking?” Lyra presses

Tears start to well up in her eyes again

“No,! It wasn’t me, I t wasn’t me, it wasn’t me

I Promise you Lyra!

I promise

It wasn’t me

Believe me

Say you will believe me!”

Please say you will♪

Normally, I think about everything I say before I say it,

This time no thoughts come before, I feel myself fully integrated into this emotion,

Letting it consume me, everything….

….

“I would kill myself before I’d kill you or Apollo,

Your lives have meaning

I don’t matter I am like a leaf blowing aimlessly in the wind,

I wouldn’t try to….

It wasn’t me,

It couldn’t

For me to look down on you means that I would first have to see myself as a person worth something.

I don’t

You are entitled to your life,

Me, I am just a body being used, being pushed towards things I cannot control,”

For real♪

The tears won’t stop.

(Never before have I felt so

So,

So immense, so brimming

So filled with something)

“………..” Lyra says nothing, teary-eyed staring at me in total disbelief

Any preexisting thought she had of me now clouded from my out of character outburst

Apollo pulls Lyra close with one arm and me with the other

“You two,” his voice sounds as though even he had been trying not to cry

“You two,

I am not completely what happened between you, but…” Trying to find the words..

“Its just us here all we have is each other, Kage included, there are things Kage does not understand about himself…..” Still unable to come up with something Apollo pauses

“Just.. stop fighting,

Say you will talk this over.”

I pray you will♪