Although it was an uncomfortable truth to admit, it was certain that mages were responsible for the development of one of the most attractive narcotics in history. It was called oculix; more commonly, ollie. This drug was not swallowed, snorted, nor injected, but intended to be dropped into the eye. The effects could show themselves gradually, like decaying retinas over years, or loss of brain function. Sometimes, dropping would result in instant traumatic bodily harm, particularly when the liquid contacted parts of the body other than the eye like mouths or hands. Other times, nothing would happen at all. People could try to predict what factors would lead to what outcomes, but no amount of study could give a full picture of the drug’s nature. Whether it was bought from a store, or dealt, despite the potential risks, it gave people previously unimaginable satisfaction, and more and more people, mage or not, found its temptation impossible to resist.
Azura had resisted it, for many years, which admittedly wasn’t particularly hard for her. It was easy for her to resist dropping poison into her eyes the way it was easy for her to resist eating uncooked meat or staring directly into the sun, and yet she still found herself one day in a rundown convenience store, looking to buy a tool to administer poison.
The lights were unbearable for her. They were consistently emitting a harsh, sickening buzz and were constantly flashing brighter and dimmer; they looked and sounded like they were a single puff of a gentle breeze away from falling from the ceiling and crashing into the floor. She wished she could divert her attention towards something more pleasant, but all she found were repugnant stains on the floors and walls that could have been weeks or months old. The air almost felt toxic to her, being unusually humid and smelling of grime, and full of flies that the owners couldn’t be bothered to swat.
She wandered around from aisle to aisle looking for where the droppers might be, and as she searched, she noticed a few people enter the store… people with glowing golden markings that coated their arms and neck. She swallowed and turned away for a moment, trying to shield herself behind the rows of snacks in front of her, starting to read the nutrition facts on the back of chip bags as she tried to tune out their loud chattering. She stood waiting for a moment awkwardly looking around acting as if she had some great interest in the delicate intricacies the effect of her choice of processed carbs had on her bodily health.
She glanced back for just a moment and saw the mages now in the southeast corner of the store, still smiling with each other. One picked up a dropper, and they started moving back towards the counter. She stayed still while they walked, silently staring at them from the corner of her eye as they approached the cash register.
They reached the counter near the entrance of the store, and she started her own walk to the droppers, trying to subtly stand behind the aisles. She saw a few rows lined with eye droppers, all seeming to belong to the same one brand, stuck in a red plastic and cardboard packaging that comfortably dangled from the hang tabs. There were at least a hundred of them. They were all different colors, some of them had bulbs that were blue, or yellow or green. It seemed there was a different dropper for every color of the rainbow.
While she was taking her time looking at the droppers, she was disturbed by an annoying snickering sound coming from her left. She knew what it was and didn’t want to look, but she took a short, focused glance anyway, and saw the mages from all across the room covering their mouths, giggling in her direction. She darted her head back to the rack. She breathed in, preparing to grab one, but before she did, a fly landed on the one she was going to grab.
It was only there for a moment, and then flew away. She frowned, then picked up one of the droppers and headed for the counter.
Azura prepared herself. In her head she tried to logic her way through it, as if she was just going about any other completely normal part of her day
She made a quiet breath in and stepped into line behind the last mage. Immediately in the corner of her eye she made out the other three mages lightly chattering to each other while eyeing her down. Azura began squeezing the packaging in her hand, and looked at the man in front of her. The mage was getting ready to checkout. He placed his dropper on the countertop, and the cashier scanned it in a swift motion.
“Alright you’re due 15 bucks man,” the cashier said to the mage.
“Gotcha,” the mage pulled out 9 green cards from his back pocket and handed them to the cashier. Almost done, Azura reassured herself. She started to walk forward. The mage grabbed his dropper and began to step away.
“Oh hey! How’s Dezi doin?” The cashier blurted at the mage.
The mage stopped in his tracks, “Oh yeah she’s great man! Cost a pretty penny and all, but you know I say it was worth every dollar, You know things really weren’t lookin’ great for a few days there.”
“Oh yeah totally I get that man, you know I had a brother once and he a…” Azura tuned out their conversation as she squeezed the dropper tightly, just standing and tapping her foot as she waited for their conversation to end.
“Alright, well I’ll see you around man!”
“Yeah, see you!” The cashier waved with a smile.
Azura sighed, and finally approached the register. She hesitantly placed the completely squashed packaging on the counter, waiting for the cashier to scan it. Instead, looming above her, he just stared for a second or two. A bead of sweat began to form on her forehead.
“I would like to purchase this please,” Azura told him shakily.
The cashier’s stare quickly turned to a glare, as he reluctantly scanned the dropper laying in front of him.
“20 bucks,” he said.
Azura’s mouth dropped, “Don’t you mean 15?”
“I mean 20,” He repeated.
“You charged the other man 15—”
“If you don’t have the money then don’t buy it,” he commanded her, getting visibly more annoyed the longer she stayed in his line of sight.
Shocked, Azura stuck her hand into her pocket and pulled out 4 blue cards and handed them to him. He shoved the dropper toward her and placed the cards inside of the rundown cash register without the utterance of another sound. Azura rushed out the door.
She found herself still unfamiliar in that part of town. Despite the smell of the convenience store being the sort that made her struggle to prevent herself from gagging with its putrid, odd plastic-like stench, the outside of the store was not significantly more tolerable to her. It was a type of stench that was only partly known to her nose, a mixture of smoke and garbage, both of which were aggravated by the day’s intense heat. Those were the smells that she knew, but there was something else mixed in there, an aroma entirely unique to this area that she had not been regularly acquainted with. It was like a blend of rotting fish and cotton candy… and some other element that she just couldn’t put her finger on. She couldn’t stand this smell, she couldn’t stand its waft being thrown at her as she moved from one street to the next, continually varying in its intensity depending on where she was, though always remaining; but despite the scent being near objectively unappealing, Azura had found part of herself being allured by it, which made things ever more uncomfortable for her.
Azura was approaching her destination. She walked carefully through a parking lot of cars to reach the narrow wedge between two large brick buildings, an alley that was large enough for a truck to drive through, but positioned between some unremarkable structures that did not look at all significant enough for a person to look twice at. It housed merely a dumpster and some backdoors to the buildings it cut between. It was empty, dirty, wet and gross. Most notably though: empty.
Azura was confused for a moment as to why the alley was so empty, until she heard the boom of a voice from behind her.
“Hey Azzie! Everything go alright, not too much trouble, yeah?” Bear asked her, with a grin of positivity. Bear was a large man, nearly seven feet tall with a muscular build that could snap Azura in half if he chose. If a person didn’t know him, their first instinct upon seeing him would be to clutch their valuables close to their body, before they even had the chance to be warmed by his inviting smile and greeting of a friendly, Hi, how are you?
“Uh yeah, you know there were some things…but all around it went smoothly.” Azura admittedly could have hoped for it to have gone smoother. “You certainly left quite the impression on that cashier though. He very obviously overcharged me… mystery as to why.” She cocked an eyebrow toward Bear.
“Oh DAMN it! Yeah sorry, totally forgot to tell you, that guy always overcharged me whenever I went there… like ALWAYS. Even if I hadn’t shoplifted, I’m pretty sure he still woulda overcharged you.”
Azura blinked, “Well, I will definitely take note of… that… for future reference.”
“Hey hey hey, there won’t be a future to reference to, alright? This will seriously be a one-time thing… y’know it’s just a bitch and a half to find places selling durable droppers. But hey, I really appreciate you for going through with this,” Bear lifted his wrist so he could access his watch, and transferred 20 dollars to Azura, “I know you’re uncomfortable with–”
“Hey I had just never gone to that part of town before,” Azura protested.
“Yeah.” He readjusted himself.
She gave Bear the dropper, happy to be rid of it, wiping her hands on her pant leg like that would help separate her from its presence, and what it took for her to get it.
“Would I be dumb to say I hope this one lasts you longer?”
“You’d be hopin’ high.” Bear chuckled, then gave a confused glance to the gnarled state of the packaging but didn’t say anything. “No, nah, dead serious this time. Goin’ forward this thing is reserved for special occasions, a’right? And that reminds me!”
He began to slide his backpack off his shoulders, “Hold this one second―” and handed her the dropper once more. Bear shoved his hand into the bag and from it pulled out what at first looked like a stuffed rock, but as he held it out towards her, she could see it was a plush doll of medieval knight. Azura could not help but break her flat expression, as it was overcome by a stupid glee that expressed itself in a bunched-up grin.
“Thought it was appropriate.” Bear smiled.
Azura let out a laugh, “You cannot be serious right now… did you write it down? That was three months ago!”
Azura took the knight out of his hands and gave him back the dropper.
“Come on,” he said playfully, “do you really think I would have to write it down to remember?”
“Okay you totally wrote it down”
“Yeah okay the moment you pointed her out I wrote it down,” Bear snickered. “Do you like her?”
She looked down at the doll. “Obviously. This has filled the stuffed knight-plushie sized hole in my heart like nothing else could.”
Bear played along, “Well, I wish your heart could be filled up with all the stuffed knights in the world, but I hope just this one guy will do.”
“She’ll do.” Their smiles made the scorching heat bearable for that moment, even as sweat began to drop down their necks. Azura glanced at her wrist. “Hey it’s five.”
“Oh! Say no more. Lead the way!” They wiped sweat off their foreheads and began to walk out the alley together.
“YOOO!”
They turned around.
“YO HE-HELMHELME!”
A young man bolted towards them from the other end of the alley. He was nearly tripping over ever step like he was running on a skating rink, and it didn’t take long for him to slip. FOOMP! He seemed to bounce on impact and landed right by Bear’s feet. What lay below them was a scared, bruised and panting man, who didn’t seem to be any older than twenty. He was in a collared white shirt and freshly ironed brown pants, accompanied by a pair of sneakers coated by a layer of dirt stains.
He looked up at the two, who would have spoken if their mouths weren’t stuck agape. Sweat fell down his face from forehead to chin; if it weren’t for the immense heat Azura may have mistaken them for tears. His blonde hair ran down his neck, which almost covered a glowing golden marking of a small bird near his collar, just a smidge bigger than a coin.
“Please, help me out,” He groaned, still barely separating his words. The mage’s face was a canvas of desperation, but despite this part of Azura hesitated to extend her help to the man. However, Bear had no reservations, and took hold of the stranger’s arm to help him to his feet.
Without a moment to explain any further, the mage stood silently, as their eyes all met the introduction of another party. From around the corner at the back of the alley, two more men ran to them, but these two had no signs of harm, and seemed to have no intention of asking for help. The two looked like brothers, maybe twins, being a similar height, weaker build, and matching bulb shaped bald heads to finish. They almost resembled two lamplights. Though, where they didn’t fully align, was that one had a brown beard, and the other was clearly trying, and failing, to grow one.
They slowed to a walk as they neared Bear and Azura, giving them a better look at their exhausted and gnarled faces.
Bear walked in front of the mage, letting him stand with Azura behind him. “Okay…” Bear was awaiting a response.
The beard raised his hand up as a hello, “Hey,” he let out, with a smile, like he was greeting someone at work.
“Hi,” Bear said back, wearing a smile that couldn’t even be half genuine.
“Think we can get by you to that guy right there?” He pointed to the mage.
Bear said nothing. Azura looked to him, and then back to the two bald men, unsure of exactly where would be best to focus her eye contact in this encounter.
The bearded man spoke again, “If we could just…” he nodded his head. “just sneak past you here.”
Bear’s neck rolled back to get a peak at the beaten man that stood behind him. He slowly rolled it back forward, and took a deep, loud breath in. He smacked his lips as he stared into the lamps in front of him.
“So why you chasin’ this guy?” His mouth showed the same faint smile as before, but his eyes showed no sympathy.
The beard still smiled, and left out a chuckle, “Well this prick right here, he’s a little scammer aren’t you?” His tone became more aggressive, but was all pointed at the scammer.
The mage shook his head and protested to the two lamps, “No I-not, I’m―” He swallowed, trying to moisten his mouth. “I am not, not. I really I just tried to explain you know―”
“Yeppp you are, aren’t you. Yesss you are.”
“Come on please―”
“This guy owes us some shit,” The beard explained to Bear, “and we really would appreciate it if we had not a lot of shit owed to us.”
“Yeah…” Bear turned to the mage. “Can you give these guys what you owe them?”
The mage’s face broke, as he stammered for a moment trying to work a response to that question.
“Yep right there see that’s what we are working with here, no reason here, he’s a con artist I’m telling you man.”
The beard pressed forward, trying to move closer to the mage but was met with a wall. Bear held out his left arm and gave him a harmless, but firm shove back, letting him stumble on his feet for a moment. Azura locked eyes with the patchy lamp standing a few feet in front of her, then let her eyes dart away back to Bear. It seemed they both believed it best to stay quiet for the time being.
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Confusion crossed his face. He squinted his eyes at Bear. Azura clutched the knight tightly, and shifted her shoulders back, making sure to keep her feet light and ready if anything was about to happen. The two men seemed to have a similar idea.
“What’s happening here?” The beard looked back and forth between them all, trying to find which face he could most comfortably direct his frustration at. “You’re defending the mage here?”
“Listen,” Bear sighed.
“Seriously cannot believe this right now you”
“Hey,”
“you gonna take the scammer’s side here―”
“Listen, hey,”
“that is just nuts, that is freakin nuts―”
“Stop.”
He stopped. Their agitation was seemingly washed away in a moment, and was replaced by previously unwitnessed silence.
“I understand there was some misunderstanding with you three,” Bear spoke to the both of them now. “and that’s not my shit to clean up. Sure you can figure that out another time. However,” Bear took a step closer to the two lamps. He was just a foot away from their heads, looking down straight into their eyes, which reluctantly met his. “I am wearing my favorite shirt right now. My brother got me this shirt. I really don’t wanna mess up my shirt, because you decided to make your shit my shit.”
Bear leaned in closer. “Do you understand what I am telling you?”
The lamps took a moment just to breathe, and hesitantly looked to each other for their answer. They both looked back at Bear, and promptly to the ground.
“A’right.” Bear continued. “Now, you two, go back that way,” Bear pointed to the back of the alley. “You, go that way.” Bear gestured to the mage to go behind them.
The mage mouthed a fast thank you to Bear and Azura, and swiftly left the alley, as the baldheads watched. Bear watched the two patiently with his arms crossed. They soon let up and turned around.
“M’screw you man…” The beard muttered under his breath, as they began to sourly trudge back the way they came.
Azura shouted, “That’s right!”
They stopped and flipped their bodies around.
Bear turned back to Azura, his eyes about to pop out of his skull, looking like his lips would burst open any second with a, “What the FUCK?” but instead he just made a grunting sound like a tire with air slowly being let out.
Azura blinked, not being able to let a breath out of her chest, not being able to move, not being able to say anything out loud, she could only ask herself in her head, shit, why did I do that?
The men stood at the back of the alley, with their eyes now not focused on Bear, but on her. They looked to each other once more, shook their heads, and proceeded to walk away.
Azura began to breathe again. She looked to Bear, expecting to see a face of disappointment. Bear set his face in his hands, groaning, before fading into a goofy laugh. He looked at the sky and began to cackle, calming Azura enough to where even she was able to let out the faintest giggle.
“Ohhh my god what was that?” he laughed.
“Sorry about that, sorry. I’m sorry.” Azura said to him.
“Dude, you’re good,” he bopped her on the shoulder, before letting out one last ha-HA! “Alright seriously, go time.”
Azura nodded, and the two finally began to make their way home.
The trip to the apartments was another walk and a 15 minute subway ride. The scenery on the way home Azura looked on far more fondly, passing by tall towers that glowed neon blue from lights woven between bars of black steel, working together to perfectly power the hands, technology, and minds that built them all. Businesses, trading centers, factories; they each had a function, and part of the city’s grandness was each part’s ability to fit that function, paying less mind to traditionally artful design. Its practicality was its art, which to an extent, Azura could appreciate.
However, Azura didn’t live in a shining apartment complex in a tower, nor did Bear. They both resided in a lot of a few dozen apartments on the north end of the city, where the modern architecture had not quite spread to yet. Their buildings were just three stories tall, and were a browning white color, like white sneakers that had been worn too much. Maybe part of the appeal was hoping to hold out long enough for them to somehow be renovated.
The friends waved bye to each other as Bear went to the opposite end of the lot as Azura, and she continued to her door on the first floor. Azura pressed her thumb to the face of the silver touchscreen which jutted out of the door obnoxiously just above the knob, its threatening presence unique to her home alone. After a moment, a keyboard appeared on screen. On it she typed in, $4s!9L#0N)8g, having to annoyingly bounce between the uppercase and lowercase buttons, until the screen turned green, at which point she lastly looked straight above the box, into a camera encased in a protective layer of metal. Click. She finally turned the knob and set foot in the apartment.
She set down her knight plushie on the dining table by the entryway. The floor wasn’t large by any means, granting enough space to have a tight, but functional kitchen, attached to an underwhelming lounge which was found just left of the entrance, completed with a couch to fit four, a blank wall for a screen to be projected on, a few cushioned light chairs that could be moved around a table two feet off the ground. The decorum mainly had functionality in mind. A cabinet to stuff games inside of, a waste bin in the corner out of sight, and no lamps, as the ceiling lights were able to cover the whole room. It may not have been everyone’s idea of a nice room to have guests in… including Azura’s.
The door hadn’t been shut three seconds before a voice called to her from down the hallway that cut between the lounge and kitchen.
“Is that Azuuura? Azura Themia is that yooou?” The voice cutely teased, as its source revealed itself. A woman moseyed down the hallway over to Azura with a bunched smile and squinted eyes. Azura did not return it, her eyes darted left to right as if she wasn’t sure this person was addressing her. She had the face of a woman in their late twenties, and prominently black curled hair that dangled down to meet her mid-back. She was fairly tall, too, living comfortably just a few inches under six feet.
“Yeah, hey,” Azura greeted her.
The woman’s arms opened up as she met Azura.
“Aww c’mere… c’mere.” She jested as she locked her in a tight bear hug. Azura hesitantly raised her arms around her, and closed them together lightly, still uncommitted to the act of hugging her.
“Okay, uh,” Azura said into her hair, “what’s happening?”
The woman pulled back with a mouth agape, looking into her wearing a face of shock.
“Uh-what? Can I not hug you anymore? Are we not hug-buddies now?”
Azura closed her eyes, finally catching on. “What did I do?”
She scoffed, “Huh? Nothing! Nothing at all, what do you mean? You’re all good. Ha— ‘what-I-do’. Can you imagine if there was something I wanted you to do, though? Like imagine if there was one very specific thing that I told you multiple times to get done before tonight? Ahhh, I’m just joking. I know you wouldn’t let that happen.”
She smiled at Azura silently for moment, squinting as she waited for it to click with Azura… and then it did.
“Dishes,” Azura said, disappointedly.
“Mmph. Yeah. And you know, if I do recall, it was three times, once last night, once in the morning and before I left, ‘Azura! Make sure the dishes are out of the sink before tonight.’ and, man, were those dishes very not done, huh?”
Azura walked past her to the kitchen sink, “I’m sorry, I was going to do them, it’s just Bear… he wanted to watch a movie, and… yeah it just slipped my mind.”
“Well, I can thank him for that one tonight.” She had the face of a cat, being able to switch quickly from an expression of cutesy glee, back to her natural presentation of a tiredness for the people around her.
Azura stepped into the kitchen and could still feel the silent judgement piercing her from behind, only slightly remedied by the fact that she was at least separated from her by the freshly cleaned breakfast bar. Azura stood over the sink itself prepared to wash her hands and grab a sponge, but stood motionless as she peered down to see the silver pit cleaned out of all traces of dishes and scraps of food.
“Sotie, did you do the dishes?” She glared up at her, who stood still on the other side of the bar in front of her.
Soteria looked confused. “Yeah. What, was I supposed to leave them in there.”
Azura had trouble thinking of an answer to that. Maybe the answer was obvious, and she should have been able to admit it with more ease, but whatever the case was she couldn’t shake her frustration at it being asked.
“You trusted me to do it, it was my responsibility to do them, I would have gotten them done. We still have an hour!”
“Azzie,” Soteria laughed, “are you taking me doing the dishes as an insult to you. Do you not see how pathetic that is.”
“Hey I didn’t use the word insult― I’m just saying you asked me to do them. So that’s work, cooking, and now I just made you do the dishes too…”
Soteria frowned at Azura, as she got up from the counter. “Okay, I hear you.”
She walked into the kitchen and came up to sink, yanked out the faucet and sprayed it Azura.
“AAA!!!” She screamed through the blast of water shooting at her face.
Soteria released, and let the faucet pull its head back into place over the sink.
“What the hell?!” Azura yelled.
Soteria shrugged. “Now you have something to do. Go change clothes,” she said, as she proceeded on her way back down the hall and to her bedroom. “And clean the water off the floor, too!” she added, for good measure.
Azura spit off the water dripping down her lips.
The hours passed, and after clothes and floors had been dried, Azura was able to indulge in an atmosphere of calm and warmth. During that night’s dinner, she made sure the lights were dimmed so the table’s main illumination came from the soft orange glow of the LED wrapped around the white circle’s rim. After a day of unfamiliarity and disgusting scents, she found the air in her apartment to be kinder, filling her head with the delightful mixed aroma of cooked vegetables and red meat covering her plate. Even kinder to her, though, were the laughs and stories from friends together for a shared evening.
“I mean if there’s something that I am missing with it then really guys, I’m open to being wrong, but it just doesn’t make sense to me,” said Ren: Bear’s brother. He was just a couple years older than Bear, but if they were walking down the street together, a person wouldn’t be able to tell that he was born any sooner than the mass of bone and muscle that stood beside him. They might just assume Bear was his bodyguard.
He continued, “I get needing your time off, really I do, but calling sick and then going to a concert I mean just pushes it for me, it does!”
“Unbelievable… do they even have any respect for the comic business?” Soteria queried.
“Honestly!”
“You wanna hear about nightmare coworkers though? Azzie’s got it.” Bear tilted his head to her in a quick nod.
“Hm?”
“Azzie you’ve gotta tell em’ about it!” Bear insisted, while shoving a fork full of green beans in his mouth.
“Oh please! You have something to share, go ahead!” said Ren.
“Okay,” Azura obliged, “so, the new guy at Patcheez, he showed up today. He must have just turned fourteen, he honestly looked right out of algebra class. He was hired as a chef, and he comes to me from the back and asked how to turn the stove on.”
“What?! How does that even happen?!” Soteria butted in, “That’s gotta be the one joint left in the city where you still need to know how to cook to work in the kitchen! How do you even get hired?!”
“However he did it, it means it’s my job now to make sure he doesn’t burn down the building.”
“Hey, you’re doing your duty keeping Patcheez safe, remember that,” Bear jested to her.
Ren chimed, “You know maybe he just never used a stove before? Maybe he got hired because he was good at other things?”
Soteria gawked, dumbfounded. “Why the hell would you work as a burger cook if you’ve never used a stove?!” She pierced a piece of steak with her fork.
Soteria shifted to her left to face her while she held her steak piece upright. “Listen, this is what’s got to happen here. You find this kid again tomorrow, you just put your foot down, ‘If you don’t know what you’re doing, you better figure it out, because it isn’t my job to save yours!’ he’ll get it, and you just saved the kitchen.”
“Respectfully, though, it’s not really her job to save the kitchen, that’s all on management, yeah?” Ren contested, “Just go talk to your manager and they’ll see what they did wrong. Then they’ll handle it.”
“Really think they’d do their job second time around if they didn’t do it the first?”
“Y’know, there is another solution here you guys aren’t really sayin’.” The table’s attention turned to Bear as he gave a meek shrug. “Don’t do anything. Kid’s probably gettin’ checked pennies over $30 an hour? So he doesn’t know how to press a few buttons, I think they’ll all be fine.”
Ren responded, “You could be right, there.” He smiled at his brother, and continued, “How about you Sotie, how’s your work doing?”
Soteria paused her chewing with her lips pressed together to one side and looked to Ren awkwardly with wide eyes.
“Uhm,” She muffled with food still sitting in her mouth. Azura locked her eyes on her, unsure of what response she should be anticipating. For a millisecond Soteria looked back at her, and promptly darted her eyes to her plate. Soteria chewed some more and swallowed.
“I got promoted.”
“You got promoted?” In that moment the tension of her wonder was released, expressing itself in a wave of surprise that washed over her when as the three words were uttered from Soteria’s mouth.
“Wow! That is just nothing but great news! Congratulations!” Ren praised her. “I’m sure that’s going to be a huge help.”
The warmth of the table’s light shining on Soteria’s face was overcome by a sudden paleness in her cheeks, as the blood faded from her head like it was being squeezed out a bottle.
“Help her with what? She gonna use it to build more of those gadgets and stuff?” Bear asked with sincerity.
“No I was talking about the raised rent,” Ren clarified.
Soteria eyed Ren. “Dude.”
“Oh, crap— should I, should I not have?”
Eventually dinner was finished, and the warmth turned cool as dishes found themselves in the sink once more. The time of laughs and stories was over, and people began to say their goodbyes. The warmth was nice while it was there, but it would always eventually subside.
“Well, really we both had such a great time tonight, this was really nice, guys,” Ren spoke to the girls while Bear leaned over behind him, tying his shoes.
“Straight back to you. Hopefully we can do this again sometime soon,” Soteria reciprocated.
“Absolutely! I think we should be free for this time next week!”
“Let’s do it.” She grinned, and Ren returned it. Bear stood up and opened the door.
“Sotie, good to see you tonight!” Bear gave a quick wave in the doorway as he made his way out, with Azura and Ren joining him.
“Woah where you going off to?” Soteria called to Azura.
“Oh Bear and I are just going out for a couple hours. I’ll be back by twelve.” Azura answered.
“…got it,” Soteria permitted, but added, “Message me where you are!”
If the dinner they had just left was the meal, then the walk out was the dessert. It was eleven, and in that part of town the streets weren’t littered with cars honking at each other trying to get to their meetings five minutes early, and the sun’s anger had finally relented, gifting them with a smooth cool breeze that they brushed along with each step. The night was calmer, more focused than usual.
Bear led Azura to a tiny rundown record store with just one floor, sitting comfortably across the street from two taller buildings, in slightly better shape. They hopped onto the dumpster which still remained untouched behind the store, then made their way onto the roof, where they finally sat down.
“Oh yeah… yeah right here is the spot of spots, check that out!” He motioned to the shining light of the sky which stared down to them, just barely waxing into the shape of a crescent, and wedged between the two stacks of concrete and steel which, under its aura, were utterly unimposing.
Moww!
“DAMN IT!” Bear shrieked to the city, as a tiny cat trotted up to them, like a shadow barely sticking out in the darkness that engulfed their view. “Azzie get it! Get it away dude seriously! GET IT!”
Azura swiftly shooed it away until it hopped onto the dumpster, and back into the dark. “Bear… a cat?” Azura playfully teased him.
Bear was able to let out a chuckle, “Azzie you have my allergies and it wouldn’t be a joke to you, serious… ser… ACHOO! Here we go…”
Azura giggled, and they scooted in snugly together, gazing to the city, stars and moon that dazzled above them.
Following a moment of silence, Bear had to ask her, “Sick-as-hell?”
“Sick-as-hell.”
She asked him, “Did you enjoy tonight?”
“Did I enjoy tonight?” he repeated. “Course. Yeah I enjoyed tonight! Mean, how often recently are the four of us all together for a night? We need more of those.”
She eyed his hands, tapping his thighs in a rhythm.
“Yeah.”
He reached in his pocket to pull out a dropper and vial, holding it on his lap as he looked at the sky. He began to unscrew the vial. “Help me out here and make sure I don’t eat shit when this starts to wear off, yeah?”
“What happened to special occasions?” Azura asked.
He let the vial sit in his lap again. “Well, tonight is special, isn’t it? Everyone together? Feels right…”
“We could just talk,” Azura suggested, “look at the sky.”
Bear met her eyes, and his head drooped down as he turned back away. He pocketed the vial.
“You’re… yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Better to do this on my own anyway, I can wait til’ later tonight.”
Azura let those words float in the air for a moment, before she pressed forward.
“Or… maybe you don’t have to do it at all tonight. Just go home and end the day asleep in bed.”
Bear heard her. He turned his body so they could face each other.
“I mean we got the droppers, didn’t we? That was the whole point, that whole deal earlier? Are we really just gonna have let that happen, only to not get anything out of it?”
“Yes, we have the dropper. And I went out of my way to get it for you, why waste that tonight? Why not save it until there is something to celebrate?”
“You’re not hearing me. Tonight’s perfect for celebration! Got a nice new moon, and Sotie’s promotion! Gotta celebrate for her sake, you know she won’t.”
“We did celebrate. We were together. You drop that now, and you’ll just be throwing away money.”
“Oh…” Bear slowly nodded. “I gotcha… you’re worried about me going dry.”
Azura let out a sigh, “It isn’t… well just think about the rent. You’ll be needing to pitch in more, and that’s your home. Don’t you want to help out Ren as much as possible?”
“Eh we got a system. Certain amount of my paycheck weekly goes into the apartment, and if that goes up… well it goes up. All this comes from my personal fund.”
“It’s the same account, Bear. You’re still losing more money!”
“Well… then I’m losing money. It happens. If I gotta end up sacrificin’ a subscription or something, well this stuff’s worth it.”
Azura cut the sell. She dug down and asked what she had been meaning to ask all day, “Is it worth your life?”
Bear’s head wobbled to the left and right while he tried to get out an answer, soon he spit out, “What? Azzie what… what are you even― what? Is it worth my life?”
“Well... yeah.”
“It’s… Azzie it’s not even a heavy mix here this is just a pick me up!”
“Bear.”
He said nothing.
He couldn’t bear to look at her in his silence, he couldn’t even bare to look at the skyline which had previously shown them comfort, he just looked down at his feet, quietly. Azura waited. Despite the darkness, she could make out his nose dripping ever slightly.
Bear answered, “It’s part of my life.”
She raised her hand to meet his shoulder. He still looked to the ground.
“It’s not the only part of it,” she said, “and that’s why I want you to listen to me when I ask you, please just let it go tonight.”
Bear raised his head, and finally mustered up his strength to look her in the eyes. He stared deeply into them. They became the moon. The lights of the city around him became stars. His hands twisted and pulled on the fabric of his pant legs, as they sat, and both waited for him to speak again. His gaze weakened, and he let his eyes drift away. Suddenly, the city was just the city. He reached back into his pocket and pulled out the vial, unscrewing it in his lap.
“You’d just be asking me again next week.”
She let her hand droop back down from his shoulder and to her side. Hope faded from her expression.
“Okay.” She didn’t stop him. “Just know that… yeah.”
Bear nodded. He got the message.
He pinched the rubber of the dropper, and the glass became filled with a shining golden liquid, like an enchanted honey. The dropper was lifted up to his head with his right hand while the open vial remained in his left. He paused before looking to his friend.
“Y’know, it really was a nice night though.” Bear sniffled.
He lowered the dropper back down for a moment as he rhythmically inhaled and exhaled.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah yeah.. I-huh.. jus-huh..”
ACHOO!
His torso shot forward like a gun as he roared a powerful sneeze, throwing his hand along with it and splashing the vial’s contents onto his exposed leg, leaving a glowing impact that stuck to where it touched.
“s―SHIT!” Azura shrieked.
“OH SHIT! Azzie! Sh―Help me get it off! Get it off!” He cried with an urgency she had never heard before.
Azura hastily used her sleeve to try and rub any of it off his skin as she let out a sea of vulgarities, but her efforts did nothing. Its glow remained only for another second, before it sunk further into his leg. He tried to hold onto her as his body begin to lose its sense of balance. She held his hand tightly focusing on every beat of his pulse.
“Oh fu..f… god,” Bear slurred.
“Bear you― you’re good! Just listen to me, look at me! You’re alright, you’re okay Bear! You’re going to be fine just look at me!”
He looked to her a final time, and then his vision went sideways, unable to focus on a person, or object, or anything else outside the darkness of the night.
“BEAR!!!”