(Kyla’s POV)
I searched the strange place under the hallowed grounds, but found nothing useful or interesting. By the time I returned to the surface, it was dusk and my comm chittered constantly as it received several hours of messages at once.
‘12:22 Irina: Where are you? Flame boy’s got his panties in a wad. I covered for you, but don’t make me regret it.’
‘1:30 Irina: Whatever you did, it’s causing quite a stir. Rebel 😈’
‘1:06 Pyro: We need to talk. It’s important.’
‘12:45 Pyro: Where are you?’
‘1:00 Quan: Bitch!’
‘12:30 Pyro: You’re a good girl, I know you’ll do what’s right.’
‘1:05 Unknown Sender: Be careful. He isn’t what you think.’
‘1:06 Pyro: WHERE ARE YOU!?’
‘12:03 Pyro: Kyla, I feel like we had a misunderstanding. Come see me tonight and we’ll work everything out.’
‘1:07 Pyro: WHAT THE FUCK! ANSWER!’
The messages just kept coming, and in no particular order. I guessed that Pyro must’ve learned what I’d been up to. I knew he would eventually, but I didn’t think it would be so soon.
The whole way back to Sky City my comm continued to chime with messages and calls. Not bothering to check any of them. I landed on a building that stood high above the others, only the towers Sky Haven reached higher. The city was beautiful at night. Lights glowed from every window and along the sides of tall buildings. The scene reminded me of home for some reason; I wasn’t sure why. I still couldn’t recall many details of my life before the ritual, but maybe that was a good thing—at least it made it easy to move on from my brother's death.
“Hey,” Irina said, tossing away a blunt.
“Doesn’t that stuff blunt your senses?”
She shrugged. “What stuff?” I opened my mouth, but she went on before I could answer. “You should be more worried about the trouble you caused today.”
“If you mean the zephyr, I saved us trouble. It’s not my fault if everyone else can’t see that.”
She cocked her head to the side and opened one of her eyes a little wider. “The zephyr?”
“Well, I asked Pyro about it and—”
“Nevermind that. Look, Pyro is a bit of a control freak if you haven’t noticed. I wouldn’t blow him off for too long if I was you, and be careful Kyla…I like you.”
The way she spoke made me take pause to consider her words. I would’ve asked her to clarify, but she flew off as soon as she’d finished speaking and I wasn’t about to follow her.
I pushed the rooftop door open and went down a flight steps to reach the office Irina and I shared.
Her desk was an eyesore—always littered with junk and Mr.Crunchy wrappers. The way she treated her body, both amazed and confounded me. There’s no way I’d look that good if I ate the way she did, smoked and lazed about, only doing any real activity when it was required to get more snacks.
Then again, I didn’t envy the attention she got from men and I wasn’t so sure she liked the nickname they gave her. As far as I could tell, she wasn’t intentionally deceptive about her intentions so she shouldn't be blamed because a bunch of men were disappointed when she wouldn’t sleep with them.
I organized her pens, put away the handheld she used almost exclusively to play “Knights Quest” during meetings, and scraped dozens of plastic wrappers into her trash can.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
A thunk and sudden increase in weight caught me off guard. Inside the can, a blue screen flicked on. It was a case tablet. The metal case had a yellow stripe on it which meant it contained top secret information. I pulled it out of the bin with intent to put it away, but I noticed it was unlocked. The file was open already with security footage on the screen.
I wasn’t supposed to have access to top secret information. I was told that I would some day, but not just yet. As I was about to press the little lock icon, I noticed the face in frame. My hands trembled and the tablet fell out of my hands.
I couldn’t place the face at first, but in my heart I knew that this was someone I knew, someone important to me.
Picking up the tablet, I pressed play on the video.
The boy was running through a hall after another familiar face. I didn’t recognize him either, but he bore the mark of a traitor on his cheek so I knew he must’ve been a criminal. Whoever the man was, I didn’t remember him fondly.
The boy though, I needed to know who he was. I needed to remember. The clip came to an end as the man shoved the boy down a separate hall then turned to face Sadie and Irina.
I should never have watched the video, but now that I had, I needed to see more. I needed to know what happened. I scrolled through all the data on the tablet, but all of it was corrupted; only the one short video remained.
Taking the tablet to my desk, I spent the rest of the night watching the video clip over and over and over again. Would watching it help me remember? I didn’t know, but I couldn’t stop. I also couldn’t help wondering if someone had intentionally destroyed the rest of the data on the tablet, but that was a question I didn’t have the courage to ask. It would mean accusing Irina of a crime she was too lazy to commit and besides, she’d been nothing but nice to me.
When Irina walked into the office she hardly acknowledged me. “Hey,” was all she said before sitting down at her desk.
She pulled her hand held from her desk, without verbally questioning how it got put away.
The sounds of “Hyaa! Huh. Huh.” and squelching flesh filled the room as she jumped back into her game. If she. Noticed I had her file, she didn’t seem to care.
What I was about to do, I couldn’t take back, I knew that. I also knew that I should have just handed the tablet back and let it go—really, I never should’ve hit play, it all started with that.
Now I knew exactly how many steps he took in each hall—37—before turning; I knew the exact moment when he started using magic to run faster—1 minute 3 seconds and 45 milliseconds into the video. I knew every door, every floor tile, how many separate halls he passed. I even knew exactly where the video was recorded. The fact he could even use magic was news to me, but I didn’t worry about that.
Oddly enough, the surveillance storage repository had no recorded footage from the night in question. Not just in the holding cells, but every camera in the entire city had a two hour blank spot. It was no longer a question of if someone erased data, it was who… and why? Perhaps that’s what Irina was investigating.
I took a sip of water from a plastic bottle on my desk then cleared my throat before loudly saying. “Good morning.”
“Hey, again…” she looked over her screen at me “…you know how I feel about that phrase.”
I forgot for a moment, Irina never said good morning. Usually she’d respond, “somebody, somewhere, is being killed right now, so is it really a good morning?” I never bothered arguing. All of the heroes were strange, she was by far the strangest, but at least she was thoughtful.
“Right, sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. You should go shower and get some sleep. You’ve got bags, and you smell worse than a half charred city.”
I was holding the tablet in such a way that she should’ve noticed the yellow stripe, but she still didn’t say anything about it.
“Sorry, I had a busy night. I cleaned your desk when I got back, and—”
“Thanks. It was getting a bit out of hand. I probably should’ve done something about it sooner.”
“Yes, well I found something while cleaning.” As I spoke, I got up and placed the unlocked tablet on her desk. The video was still playing, but I paused it when Irina’s face became visible. “Can I ask you about this?”
She shrugged, “What about it? You wondering if it has to do with Sadie’s vacation? Cause if so then I can’t answer that.”
Sharp pain told me I’d bit my lip a little too hard. “I think you just did, but no. I was wondering about the boy. Who is he?”
Irina put her game down and took a moment to consider the image.
“That’s Gill.” She declared. “One of my previous students. He started off like you, inquisitive, smart. Then he attacked Pyro like a fool and now… well he’s supposed to be dead, but he never was good at doing what he was supposed to do.”
My head hurt after her words. Was it a complement, a warning, or something else entirely? I didn’t know, I wasn’t going to be distracted. The name Gill struck me wrong, like a bad feeling—I pushed it away.
“Not him,” I rewound the clip to its being, “him.” I asked, placing my finger on the screen.
Her eyes dropped. “Be careful what questions you ask, Kyla, you might not be ready for the answer.”
“You’ve been saying a lot of weird shit lately.” Tapping the screen again, I added, “I want a straight answer, who is he,”
“That’s your brother.”