Just like Tango said, it's lit up like Christmas.
Way down the way over yonder I see lights flashing red and blue so I head towards them. Hood up, mask on, I just look like any other rubbernecker pedestrian. Besides my hot nasty fucking drip, that is.
Both clothing and cocaine.
Fuck-face bum ass pigs tell me to move along but I crane my neck to get a good look at this Koala dude's place anyway. Regular looking townhouse meth lab, I guess. Like the guy at Rocky's place said, they've got the works. Plus more SWAT troopers and an armored personnel carrier. This cleanup is locked down tighter than a Nymph in the Cult of Artemis.
Believe me, I've tried.
As everything starts to slowly set in, I suck a sharp breath through my teeth, crossing my arms. "Fuck. Fuck."
Uncle Hades suspected she was using. Not much mystery as to which drug, seeing as I'm at a meth lab. Gods damn it. Since when? Where was I? I never even knew. I didn't make enough effort to check on her, to be there for her, to be her best friend.
Son of a bitch. I'm the fucking worst.
Can't get mopey though. Not if she's in a jam. I wasn't there for her then, but I am here for her now. I'll cry about it once she's let loose from whatever imprisonment they've locked her into. First, I have to figure out what's inside that the cops are keeping so secure. Cracking my knuckles and my neck, I roll my shoulders around and cinch my backpack tight before doing the same for my sneakers. Then I snap one more pic for the story, a shot of myself and the house behind.
"Damn, who is she? Handsome as fuck. Wait."
I fix my luxurious, soft, chin-length brown hair then take another.
No caption. They'll know soon.
This shit's personal. These fuckers are dead.
Charging electric power, I sprint up the wall of a nearby building to get some air then leap off with a flip, driving my heel forward and down as I fall the distance. My leg connects with the roof of the APC and folds it like the tank from the other day, the shockwave overturning the patrol cars nearest to it. Alarms start to blare and voices shout orders and I just laugh at them all.
"Surprise, motherfuckers! Some fries, motherfu–"
My voice gets drowned out by gunfire.
I target the SWAT personnel first, since they have the biggest guns. With a dirt nasty roundhouse kick, I [WEBNOVEL CENSOR: GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF VIOLENCE]. Bullets ping off my energy field as I run wide and shoot lightning at a bunched up group of piggies. [WEBNOVEL CENSOR: GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF VIOLENCE], emitting the immediately disgusting smell of burned hair.
Something whips past my head and snags a nearby bush. What the fuck? Bitches are shooting nets at me? One of the SWAT troops has what looks like a six-shot grenade launcher so I make short work of him, checking that yes, the grenade capsules contain quick deploy netting.
Well! Better watch out for that!
I knock them out of the cylinder and bag one to check out later.
"Whoa!" I yelp as someone else swings on me.
A SWAT soldier with his baton. I'm not gonna use my powers on this one, 'cause I can hear the news chopper somewhere and I feel like showing off.
"Alright, piggy, let's dance!"
On the defensive, I backstep when he swings again, duck under the next, and sidestep the third. When the news chopper's spotlight is on us I reposition with another dodge, slipping behind him. He swings yet again but I land a heel kick on his wrist to intercept it. His hand pops, broken, and he drops the baton.
Are they watching? Better be. My turn.
Side kick to the right, I dislocate his shoulder with my shin. Left hook inside to the ribs, I break a few of those. Jab center mass, he takes a step back. With his balance compromised, I go for an ankle pick with the back of my heel.
He just barely adjusts in time but it's already over.
It was a feint.
I grab hold of his bulletproof armor when he pivots back into an advance and hit him with the dirt nasty Uchi Mata, throwing him full force over my shoulder and slamming him against the asphalt.
"Ippon!" I shout, leaving him there to flex at the camera. Walking backwards, I point up at it, nodding and smiling for my viewers at home. "Yeahhh, bitches, that's right! I make it look easy! Yondan, baby! Shoutout Primeval Judo Association! I still love you, even though you motherfuckers banned me!"
He's trying to get up so I offer him a hand. Dazed and confused, he takes it. So I punch the lights out and walk away laughing. More sirens are coming and another chopper or two so I trot up the stoop and go inside.
"Annaaa!" I call, stepping over the plastic tarps and hazmat cleanup stuff. "Annaaa? You in here?"
The place is ransacked, predictably. Looks like it really was a meth lab. They've got glassware and everything. Still smells like paint thinner and nail polish too. Am I mistaken? Is this just a big DEA bust? Nah, can't be.
When am I ever wrong?
Not this time.
I find her down in the basement, locked into a sort of stasis. She's floating in zero gravity, suspended like she's underwater, her shimmering black hair flowing in a slow cloud around her head like a halo. Her expression is fearful, caught off guard, and confused, red eyes wide open and shocked like she's seen a basilisk.
Shiiit. There are bandages around her forearms. White tape, some of it encrusted with dried blood. She looks… thin. Like she's lost a good amount of weight, and not in a good way.
She looks sick. Hooked on ice. It tracks…
I walk a circle around her. I need to get her out of here quick, before more cops show up. Otherwise it might get ugly and she might get shot or something.
"Weird barrier. Not hers. Ugh. Reeks of sphinx magic."
The odd prison reacts to my presence, a wavering ripple flowing through its surface. A woman's voice speaks, "This, an echo. A memory left behind, not the person who sealed it. To receive this protected message, to know these phantom secrets, to hear the voice of its sender from beyond, one must answer true to the riddle that locks it away."
"Ah, shit. So this isn't her? Just a–Mmm. Guess it couldn't be that easy, huh?" I scratch my head, tapping my foot, and scowling at this mirage of Anna. Another clue she left in her wake. For me, no doubt. "Fuck, more thinking? I really don't have time for this! The cops are on the way! A'ight, whatever, sphinx. Let's hear it."
"I am a brush of paint so soft it is hardly noticed, a quiet symphony among shared company, the spark of life to something new. What am I?"
"Um. Wait. So… Can I ask questions?"
No reply. I'm not sure she's in there so much as it's just her voice tied to the stasis. Like an automated recording. Damn, even the sphinxes are working remote now. Pacing back and forth, with no time to call Athena for her wisdom, I run those words back in my head.
"Brush of paint? Who's painting? Anna paints, right? So… Maybe it's the title of one of her paintings. A quiet symphony, I guess that could be a painting, and it's definitely viewed by shared company. The spark of life–like, starting a new canvas. Yeah! A painting!"
"Incorrect. Two attempts remain."
"Shit. Uh. Oh, come on, Nicole. Thiiink. A spark, brush strokes, quiet music, what about fire? The start to a big one, like a wildfire. Yeah, sphinx, my answer is fire."
"Incorrect. One attempt remains."
"Or–Or what?"
"The message will be erased."
"Fuuuck!" Police sirens are drawing nearer, I can hear them from upstairs. "Oh my Gods. Oh, Gods. Fuck me. I'm gonna cry. Oh, fuck. I'm gonna lose her. I'm gonna lose my childhood best friend because I'm just so, so stupid. Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
Tires screech outside. The piggies have arrived as reinforcements.
Amidst my panic, Aunt Athena's words come to mind. Think about it, Nicole. I can't help you any more than this. The answer is right in front of you.
Right in front of me.
Anna is right in front of me.
I gasp as realization dawns.
"A soft brush, unnoticed, musical and incredible to the shared company, the start of something new–A kiss! My answer is a kiss!"
"More specific."
"Her first kiss!"
"With whom?"
"With me!"
"Correct."
[RECORD SCRATCH!]
I know, I know, I know! Okay? But we were kids raised on stories of how our uncles and aunts were direct siblings who were also married and had kids and cousins making babies with cousins and it was all very confusing for us being cousins of the same age. We were just too young to understand what we were doing. As soon as we grew old enough to realize, we stopped all that. I swear. It was an oopsie from when we were, like, twelve. To fourteen. Yeah, alright, we kinda knew it was wrong to some extent but didn't care at the time.
I don't give a fuck if you judge me!
[RESUME!]
The phantom Anna's stasis breaks and she slowly floats to the floor, blinking awake in a sluggish daze. Once on her feet, in those cute little polished buckle shoes with white knee-high stockings, she rolls up the sleeves of her white collared shirt and smoothes the pleats in her ashen gray tweed skirt. Then she smiles, and it's the most heartwarming thing I've seen in months. Gods, I love those freckled cheeks of hers.
"Always my hero, aren't you?" she asks, her soft-spoken voice made ethereal by the odd mysticism as play. "You've done it. You broke both codes. I'm sure you had a great time solving them. And I'm sure you'll be happy to hear there are more to come."
"Fuuuck!"
"Listen, a lot of bad things could happen if the wrong people tracked me down, so the secrecy is crucial. I need to make sure it's you who finds me, and nobody else. Right now, aside from my family, you're the only one I trust. The one person I know who will always want what's best for me. I need you, Nico. Please."
I dash up the stairs to try and batten down the hatches before the cops bust in here, fighting against them as they slam that stupid battering ram thing against the door. "Word, Anna! If you can hear me! A little quicker, please! Let's speed this shit up!"
Her ghost fearfully looks over its shoulder for a moment. "They're here. I don't have much time."
"Yeah, neither do I!"
"The next hint I'm leaving you will be at the place where we smoked our first cigarette. Do you remember? Gods, I hope you do. Shit! I have to go! Hurry, Nico! Please!"
"Yep! I'm on it, princess!"
Anna's ghost fades away and disappears.
I know exactly where to go next.
Just have to get out of here first!
Letting go of the door, I hit the deck on the stairs and let them breach. The instant the door breaks open, a net whips by overhead and hits the air ventilation instead of me. Real predictable, assholes. I drop my shoulder and charge, exploding with electric energy that propels me straight through them, and blows out half the townhouse in the process. [WEBNOVEL CENSOR: GORE] and debris rain down around me and I hurry outside through the gaping hole I blasted open in the wall.
Chilly nights, police spotlights, and a damsel in distress.
I don't wanna stick around. Those nets sketch me out.
I'm gone.
A split second later, I'm all the way across town.
I jog out the last of my momentum, shoes landing softly on the grass of an open field. There's nobody out here, so I make myself relax a little and shake out the jitters left over from that scrap. The wind brushes through the shadowy trees to my left as I walk toward the dark structure up ahead across the field. The sharp crescent moon is hanging low, like a scythe hanging over this quiet place of death, misery, and decay.
Prism United High School.
Otherwise known as hell on Earth.
I light a cigarette using a few sparks from my fingers, then pause to check out the net grenade thing. With a few sharp taps and a spark or two, I ping the firing primer and it blasts the net into the grass. Upon closer inspection, I discover, like, fifty different types of magic inhibitors woven into the netting.
"Better not get caught by those," I sigh, leaving it behind. "Sons of bitches are tryna inhibit my steez!"
There I go trudging over to the stadium to resume my heroic adventure. My memory's a little hazy on this one, but I'm pretty sure Anna and I were underneath the bleachers when we smoked our first ciggie. If not, it's somewhere around here for sure, and I think I'll find it if I look around.
Gods, it's weird being here again. Everything is exactly how we left it. Nothing here has changed except for me, and I've changed a fucking lot since back then. Most of it for the worse. Um. All of it for the worse. I used to be so much more present in life. I had things I wanted to do. Places I wanted to see. People I wanted to be with.
And now? Now, it's kinda just… me.
Nothing to do. Nowhere to go. No one to be with.
But I don't really give a shit. I'm used to it.
So I tell myself, at least…
I groan as I slip under the bleachers, taking a long drag and blowing the smoke up high. "Ahhh! I fucking hate! Thinking! About the past! And thinking in general! Less of that! Damn, I need a drink."
Checking my backpack, I come up short.
"Wait, what? Where'd that fifth of whiskey go?"
Either I drank the whole thing or I forgot it at Rocky's.
If it's there, I'm fine with that. Unless the sirens took it.
So, here I stand, smoking a cigarette by myself in the middle of the night underneath the bleachers of my old high school's sports ball stadium, where I fucked many a fellow student athlete back when I was in my youthful days. At least I have coke. I do like coke. [WEBNOVEL CENSOR: DRUG USE] my mood is immediately improved.
"Ohh. Much better." I sniff hard, loving the salty drip. Damn, I [WEBNOVEL CENSOR: GLORIFICATION OF DRUG USE]. "A'ight, Anna, where's the next clue? What the hell am I even looking for, anyway?"
Nothing really stands out, so I just kinda wander around, checking out what's written on the bleachers above me and searching the dirt beneath me too. That's a lot of dicks drawn in permanent marker up there. A lot of dicks. Never change, teenagers. I love to see it. A bunch of cigarette butts litter the ground too, which I'm also very proud of. I fully support adolescent degeneracy. Just say no? Just say yes.
[WEBNOVEL CENSOR: GLORIFICATION OF DRUG USE].
Something clangs in the near distance.
I'm frozen in place. "Whuh wha dah?"
Silence. Crickets. Chirp chirp chirp chirp.
Sounded like it came from the other bleachers.
"H–Hewwo? Is anybody out dewe? Hewwo?" I cut across the football field–actual football–and approach the other set of tall bleachers. "Hewwo? Mistew Obama, is that youwu?"
There's nothing and nobody under here.
"Hmm. Stealth check succeeded. Must've been the wind. I'm going to turn my back and walk away now. I sure hope nothing comes up from behind and tries to stab me."
I do as promised, seriously wondering if I was just imagining things. Wouldn't be the first time my delusional ass invented unrealistic paranoias. Any room can be a panic room if you just give me a fuc–
I react, lurching left. A little shadow thing the size of a football soars right past me, quietly screaming the whole way. Whatever it is, it hits the dirt and bounces a few times, rolling to a stop a few paces ahead of me. Holy shit, there actually was something that tried to stab me.
Oh, fuck, there are more.
"Hey, hey, whoa!" I cry out as I start bobbing and weaving around this sudden onslaught. "Jesus! What is the deal here, man?" Another one screams past and I swat the next aside. "Chill, yo! Chill! Let's all just relax a damn second! What did I do to deserve this?"
"Trespasser!" a gravelly and terrifyingly manly deep voice declares as the things gather together. "Thou art infringing upon protected grounds, interloper! Stand and fight, or die like a dog!"
"Y'all, I could punt your little asses into the goal net from here! But, if you insist, I'm gonna need more details before we have ourselves an honorable duel, gentlemen. Who art thou, whomst is thine master, and why doth thine buttocks reek of cottage cheese?"
"Cot–Cottage cheese? You ask for a stay of violence, yet you insult us with such baseless insults! You, who doth wear such gaudy and gauche apparel as to match thine footwear's chromatic arrangement to thine woolen sweater!"
"Yo, hey! Bitch! I look fantastic, thank you very much! At least I have the decency to face thee head on! Yet thou art cowering within the shadows of night like base rogues! I spit in thine general direction!"
"Thou art digging thine own grave, craven beast!"
"I'm digging faster than you, and I ain't even got a shovel!"
"Impossible! Thou foolish wastrel! No creature as pathetic as thee could best us in excavation speed! We're gnomes, bastard woman! Thine insult hath fallen as flat as thine bosom!"
I break character and laugh my ass off. "Nooo! That's so fucking meaaan! You leave my A cups alone! I yield, I yield!"
"Then die in disgrace, heathen!"
"Nooowo! Mistew Obamaaa!"
They start throwing themselves at me again and I flee like a craven, dodging flying gnomes as I bring this glorious battle of ours to the open field. I don't wanna hurt these dudes so I don't fight back, just smoking my cigarette and evading their attacks until they tire themselves out. Any second now. After several minutes, they start to slow down and eventually stop, wheezing in the grass like little deflated footballs.
"Hey, uh." I blow smoke over my shoulder. "Looks like I won by attrition, huh? You gonna talk now? Please? I really wanna know who's having you protect this place. And why. So you can either tell me, or… Uhh… I'm gonna stick all of you in my backpack and shake it around really hard."
"Thou foulest… Foulest of cretins! Blackguard, thou art! Accursed! Accursed… Blast… It is… It is you! Who we… Ohh, bollocks. 'Tis you who we… await. After all. 'Twas she of the Underworld who bid us… Defend this place, we must! Against all who defile it! Save for one! The one who… The one who wears blue… and refrains from violence… The trial hath been given! The conditions hath been met! Thou art… Thou art deemed worthy!"
"Little dude, I have no idea what you're saying."
"Anna Walsh bids thee her kindest grace, heathen! For what reason, we know not! Nor why one of such refinement as her… wouldst spare any thought to a ruffian… such as yourself…"
"'Cause she loves me, ye rapscallions! Now tell me what you know of her whereabouts, or I will toss you up into the air really high and catch you, then do it again!"
"No! No! Anything but that! You must enter the woods! And find the sacred tree! Upon the branches of which you were seated! When you confessed your love for her! At the age of sevent–"
"Wha-heyyy, little man! We don't need to be saying all that much! I told her I love her as a person! As a friend! That's what I confessed! Gosh, I just–I just sure do love that cousin of mine in a strictly familial and platonic sense! Nothing weird about that! Se–Seventeen? No way, man! I stopped all that stuff way before that! I would never say I loved her for real! Like, whaaat?"
"That's not what your mother said last night! Ohohhh!"
I have the ultimate wildcard. "My Mom's dead, you little shits!"
The shadowy gnomes just sorta stand there for a second.
Then they fucking bolt, scattering in every direction.
The sight of it just makes me laugh, and I light another cigarette as I start walking toward the woods. "And good riddance to that junkie bitch…"
First off, thank the Gods for smartphone flashlights.
Second off… I don't know. Leave me alone.
I guess I'm going into the spooky nighttime forest!