Alex

It was the first thing I noticed coming out of Kusu’s house. A tiny speck in the sky, gently floating down from the heavens to the earth. A flower, after a closer look, twirling through the air, dew glistening in the sunset. “How would a flower have dew so late?”, I thought, “How did it get up there in the sky?”. I caught it between my fingers, feeling the droplets slip down them and to my forearms, breaking free from my elbows, reuniting with ground they seemed unaccustomed to. The flower had a peculiar shine to it, and the petals felt stiff and smooth to the touch. I remembered Kusu had flowers around the house similar to these, although one of those falling out of the sky seemed unlikely. Towards the center of the flower, a small glowing yellow light was present. I pressed gently against it, and several fiber optic cables slithered from the anthers of the flower. They swayed through the air like worms surfacing in the rain, then retreated back. I felt a slight twinge in my chest at this. An alliance key? I knew I should probably report it to the police, but I didn’t want to be late to Soraya’s party. Most of their spies took months to act anyways, a few hours delay wouldn’t hurt much.

The rest of the walk to Bacia’s house was uneventful. The summer air felt crisp on my skin, and the breeze was perfect for the outdoor restaurant she had booked. Just had to pick up Bacia. Cozbi, also leaving from Bacia to go to the party, passed me. He was wearing white satin gloves up to his wrists, with a 3-piece suit as well. We gave each other a slight nod, and passed each other, then he pulled me into the spin we had planned before, catching me in his arms.

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“You ready?”, he asked.

“Yeah”, I replied, excited to finally dance, as we had practiced for months beforehand.

After a few minutes, I made it to her house. The air seemed unusually cold, and the house was painfully quiet. I stepped onto the hardwood floor with a shiver traveling up my spine. Something felt terribly wrong in this place. I twisted the flower stem around my fingers, the gentle massage of the fibers soothing my nerves. Bacia was taking a nap on the sofa, completely still on the sofa, so I decided to go to the kitchen for a while until she woke up. There was a pot of chai on the stove, with some residual heat coming from it. I took a ladle from it and was going to put it in a cup, but the drink tasted a lot more bitter than I had expected. After a few seconds, I began to lose balance.

“You, you did this?,” an unknown voice from behind me shrieked. The chill went back down my spine, and I slowly tried to turn around.

“What is…”

A loud bang came from the inside of my head, and pain seared through my head as I fell to the floor. I felt myself slowly slipping from consciousness, only left with the flower in my fingers and the memory of a cup of chai next to Bacia.