Excerpt from Untitled Story, on-going started Jan, 2022
ONE
The Facts.
Listen close, don’t wander astray. These facts tie you to the land of the living, keep your head above the water, the demons at bay; you walk the safe path, don’t leave it - even when the morning breeze whispers your dreams.
Remember: the day is not your friend.
Some find it hard to abide. Perhaps the dawn whispers too sweetly. Perhaps some are too greedy.
Imagine this, the sunlight says. The Congress seat, the Oval Office, the bejeweled crown. Is that not what you wish for? You shake your head. You can’t step off the path, you know. Do you not want this respect? This honor? Oh, but you do. You want this.
Consider this, the warm wind says. Singing along to explosive music in your friend’s car, voices raw, the beat pounding in your ears; your children, tucked on your lap, as you recite a fairytale; kneeling before someone’s special smile with a sparkling ring.
Does this not entice you? You want love, don’t you? Gods above, of course you do. You want all of this, all of this, all of this.
It’s hard to resist, isn’t it? A siren song pulls you into the depths. Your hands twitch. Your heart aches.
Are you curious? Step off the path. See what happens.
But-
-you wonder about the downside, the consequence. Nothing comes from nothing. A life for a life. A dream for a dream.
Look closer.
Fact One: Don’t go out in the daytime.
If you dare, peer between the window shaders. What do you see? The blazing sun? A leafy breeze? Audacious youth stroll down sidewalks, arms linked in arms, smiling brilliantly, blindingly, while you hide in the dark, cold and lonesome. You wonder, why can’t you have that? Why can’t you warm your face under the sun? Why can’t you walk down that sidewalk? Do you even remember how smiling feels?
Why not step off the path? What could happen? Surely a little step couldn’t hurt. A footstep onto the frozen lake.
Fact Two: Don’t get curious.
On impulse, you nudge the shaders aside and pop the window open. Your skin tingles as warm, pleasant summer floods in. Hey, this isn’t so bad, you think. You stick your fingers out. The sun glows like white fire on your palm. It’s beautiful. Why hadn’t you done this sooner?
Ah, but then you see.
You yank your hand back and clutch it tight to your chest. The sun isn’t warm and pleasant, no - it burns.
You examine your hand. It’s a red, angry sore, tender to the touch, and you feel a little betrayed, but you mostly feel resigned.
Of course. I should’ve known.
Fact Three: Don’t pretend it never happened.
This world isn’t built for me.
Fact Four: Step off the path - you know what happens.
TWO
Maslov woke to pounding on his door.
He lay in bed for a moment, bleary-eyed, body still soft from sleep. He distantly recalled his dream of flying a classy black bomber over the tundra wasteland. It hadn’t been all that different from his former life, except in the dream he had been taking the lovely machine on a joyride instead of wiping small towns off the map. It had been a good dream.
The door was pounded on again, a resounding knock, knock, knock.
He carefully sat up - his back wasn’t quite right these days - and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He squinted at the dimly glowing clock on his bedside table. 4:58. The time ticked by another a minute as he considered this.
Knock, knock.
He fumbled for his glasses, then stood and stretched, yawning widely. His knee throbbed faintly. He shuffled out of his room, paused to shrug on his coat, then shuffled to the door. Peeking through the eyehole, he saw a slight figure in a dark hood, coppery coils spilling out from its shade. Skinner. Of course it’s her. He sighed and unlocked the door.
“What do-”
She pushed past him and flopped onto his sofa.
Maslov frowned but closed the door behind her. He flicked on the light and sat down in the armchair across from her. “Thanks for the heads up, Skinner. The hell you here for?”
She didn’t answer, just kicked her feet up on his cushions and crossed her arms.
“Hey, boots off,” he chastised. She merely raised the corner of her hood to glare at him. He caught the edge of a purple-black bruise across her cheekbone. He dragged a hand through his hair and sighed again softly. Far be it for him to judge her nighttime excursions.
“Kid, why’re you here?”
“Don’t call me kid. You’re barely an adult,” she grumbled, pulling the hood back over her face.
He smiled thinly. Finally, a response. “I’m still older than you.”
She hooked her ankle over her other leg and muttered something that sounded vaguely threatening under her breath. He pursed his lips.
“Trouble with your folks?”
She scoffed.
He pressed his fingertips to his forehead.
Maslov had thought he’d be able to get out of this shanky city faster when Adler had only put Skinner on his watchlist. It’s just some kid, he’d told himself. Tough, smart. She’ll sort herself out quick enough. He hadn’t realized he’d be playing parent for a dysfunctional teenager.
“You can’t be coming here so late,” he said. “It’s almost morning.”
“I’m not having issues,” she snapped. “My parents are just being parents. I’m dealing just fine.”
Her voice skipped up on the last word. Maslov’s frown deepened.
“I’m fine,” she huffed.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“I can hear you thinking it,” she said curtly. “Have some faith in me.”
“I do-”
She barreled right past him. “Bro, they don’t suspect anything of the sort. They still think I’m all traumatized from the accident. Maybe I’m ‘adjusting’ to normal life slower than they thought, but they sure don’t think I’m one of them. Hell, they don’t even know they exist.”
He narrowed his eyes. “And when they find out? When you refuse to go outside? When it’s clear you changed? What then?”
“I’ll figure it out, dude. Quit worrying.”
This girl would be the end of him. She didn’t seem to care about her family finding out, or have any idea of what she was going to do when they did find out, because they mostly certainly would with how she was acting. He’d promised Adler there would be no more mistakes, no more off-kilter newbies let from their leashes.
He folded his hands neatly on his lap. It’s just some snarky kid. Nothing to worry about.
She sighed loud and long, sinking deeper into the sofa. “I’m getting along good, so you don’t need to worry about faking reports for Adler.”
Maslov startled. What? How did she…? Oh. His stomach turned sour. “How did you know about that?” he asked, even as he remembered why Skinner had been added to his watch list.
She flicked her finger at a fray in the sofa, arrogantly casual.
“Skinner.”
She tapped her ear. Her shark teeth flashed. “Don’t chatter where my bugs can hear you.”
“Your bugs? Video cameras? Recorders?”
“Yes, my lovely bugs. So fit you can’t see them.”
He bit his tongue to keep from lashing out. It’s just some kid, he repeated, It’s just some kid. Nothing you can’t handle. Yes, she had been labeled a risk because of her inability to care about consequences, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. “You’re watching me. You can’t be doing that.”
“Why not? Who said? You’re always keeping tabs on me, but who’s keeping tabs on you? Someone’s gotta watch you.”
“That is terrible logic. I was ordered to watch you. I am also your superior.”
She waved him off. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. ‘I’ve been at this for six years, kiddo. You’ve been one of us for a week’. You say the same crap every time. We both know the only reason you’re here is ‘cause you screwed up on your last assignment and this is your second chance from Adler. You get me through the changing all right, Adler gives you a pat on the back and you’re reinstated properly in your blood-sucker hierarchy.”
He wanted to punch her, second chance or not. “And your point?” he said mildly. He felt like spitting it.
She knocked the hood off her head. “Get off my back and get a life.”
He clenched his teeth. “This isn’t about me and you. Do you know what happens if we’re discovered? It won’t just be you who goes down; it’ll be the end of all of us. We’ve all worked too hard for a newbie to destroy this life-”
She cut him off with a harsh laugh. “This life? You call this a life? I have to pretend to be a broken, damaged girl so my parents don’t drag me out outside. I sit in my room all day, studying for a college I’ll never go to, lying to a family who will age and grow and die when I’ll be stuck in this body forever. I-”
She broke off suddenly, shrinking into the sofa with her arms around herself. She looked very young, then, something that Maslov hadn’t really thought of her as in a while, with that tough-girl attitude she flaunted.
He knitted his fingers together and leaned back against the chair with a sigh. He stared up at his pale plaster ceiling, pondering his choices. He’d had three assignments before her; all complained of the same things. All of them eventually got over it and learned to deal with their new life, one way or another. He himself wasn’t any different, for sure. He got bit, he got turned, he sucked it up and joined his new family.
He stood up and sat on the sofa beside her. “I know what it feels like, I really do,” he said softly. She scoffed and looked away, but he continued. “There’s only a few outcomes after becoming one of us. One: You slip up and my group or another comes for you. Two: You learn to deal with what’s happened, and that means leaving your old life behind. I suggest you sort that out sooner than later.”
Skinner bit her lip and frowned at the carpet.