We finally finished packing up after our little dance, and I was still buzzing with excitement—we had enough. Enough to finally move away from the taxi gangs, the brothels, everything. I didn’t have to hide them anymore, or go out to collect taxes. It was over. No more making the kids go hungry or fighting those scumbags for scraps in the township. We had enough.

Once again, I strapped Yelena onto my back, gathering up the supplies and slinging them into the backpack Maria had carried for us. I tucked the money into a hidden pocket sewn into my shirt, making sure everything was safely out of sight. I decided to leave the five dollars from the girl in my pocket—just one bad thing today, and it wasn't even that bad. Maria shot me a look as she took the supplies, daring me to even suggest taking it from her. I wasn’t stupid enough to argue.

We started walking back toward the orphanage, making our way around Paradise City, along the outskirts of Goudstad. The sun hung high, burning through the air, and it felt like it wanted to melt straight through my skin.

As we walked by the high brick wall, Alexander’s Bastion came into view. I made sure the girls didn’t notice. In the square was a large screen, playing a video I knew all too well. I hated it when they saw it—the one I’d watched a thousand times before.

The video showed a tall man with dark hair, standing at a podium. I could almost hear his voice in my head as his face flashed on the screen—his one good eye glistening with tears, the eyepatch casting a ghostly shadow over his face. I hurried Maria along, even as the words played in my head:

“Please, leave us be. We’re trying to save you! I beg you, with tears in my eyes, leave us be! Because if you try to hurt my people again, I will kill you. I will kill you all!”

Standing beside him was the current general, Llorona. Everyone on Kaleidos knew her name, though it was rarely spoken aloud. She held the head of someone important—someone I assumed had been The General of the people the tall man was addressing.

She grinned, a wild, triumphant expression on her face. It was like her whole life had led to that moment. It wasn’t long after that Paradise City became a pile of ash. But that never mattered to me, especially now.

I could walk through hell with a smile. I laughed and joked with Maria, until Yelena, having woken up from her nap, pulled herself up on my back and asked, “Boris, why do the finks get powers and we don’t?”

I immediately looked everywhere around us, making sure no one was in ear shot, before I snapped at her, “Do not call them finks, young lady!” She hugged my neck tightly, apologizing.

I softened my tone. “Don’t call them that, kiddo. If they hear it, things could get real bad. Okay?”

She nodded fiercely against my back.

“Right then,” I said, realizing now was a fantastic time to give her the same lesson I'd heard all those years ago.

She tilted her head curiously, and I gestured toward a massive tower off in the distance, seemingly touching the sky.

“You see that tower?” I asked, pointing to the massive structure. It was the largest on Kaleidos, maybe even the largest building on earth, stretching far past the clouds, out of sight.

Yelena squinted and leaned over my shoulder, trying to get a better look.

Maria smirked. “Think it would take a blind man not to see it.”

I shot her a playful look but kept going. “That tower’s there because people messed with something they shouldn’t have. So much so, we made God angry. He let loose hell on earth—creatures that even the finks were afraid of. They went around killing anyone they could get their hands on.”

I gestured wildly with my hands, mimicking Father Nikolei’s storytelling, just like I’d seen him do when he was telling me this years ago.

“But when God saw good people—people like us—dying, His anger cooled. He trapped those monsters in that tower,” I said, nodding toward it.

“But God still wanted us to learn. So, once a year, He gave us powers in that large building we were playing dice in front of earlier,” I continued, pointing my thumb past the gates we walked through, now quite far away when I glanced at them over my shoulder.

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“And he told us that if we stopped fighting, stopped climbing, those creatures would be released again. Anyone, any age, any height—if they stood in that building, they’d get powers. The powers are His way of showing His love for us, and climbing is our way of showing our love for Him.”

Yelena tugged at my hair. “But… you said finks are bad.” She paused, scrunching her nose. “But God loves them? So… does He love bad people?”

I sighed, shifting her weight a little on my back. How do you explain something like God's love to a kid? The weight of it felt too big for words, too tangled to make simple. So I just said, “God loves everyone, kiddo. Even sinners.”

She fell quiet, like she was turning that over in her little head.

“But sinners took over,” I added after a moment. “People started hoarding their powers, keeping God’s love for themselves and their friends. That’s the finks, kiddo. Making us suffer while they fatten themselves on the food they take from us, the land they won’t let us use.”, I snorted, before adding, “The only good thing about them is that they keep climbing.”

She threw her arms around my neck, trying to climb onto my shoulders, her voice full of curiosity. "What did we do to make God angry? I thought he always forgave us?"

Maria stepped in to answer, far more eloquently than I could, “He does always forgive us, kiddo, but sometimes he gets angry when we don’t live up to what he knows we can be. As for what made him angry—these people we call scientists built a machine. The Hadron Collider. That’s what made God angry.”

“What does it do?” Yelena asked, perched on my shoulders, her eyes fixed on Maria.

“The Blessed say it tore a hole in reality,” Maria replied, “but don’t listen to everything they say. It makes God angry, and that’s good enough for me.”

We walked in silence for a while after that. Yelena climbed down from my shoulders, and Maria helped me tie her onto my back quickly before we kept moving. Yelena nuzzled her head against me, her little hand clutching my shoulder as she asked, “Could I have powers? Could I be normal?”

Again, one sentence from a girl and my heart was dust. How do they know how to do that?

“You’d be worth more than ten finks in black, my girl,” I said, my voice thick. “Far more powerful, could win every tournament you ever entered. But you’re already special. Far better than just ‘normal,’ okay? Far better than any of us, even the finks. I mean, you even got one to roll your dice for you.”

I felt her nod into my back. Maria gave me a gentle pat on her back and added, “Even though Boris is an oaf, he’s right for once. You’re something special. Normal could never compare. Come now, maybe Boris and I could stop for that piece of meat you wanted? Maybe even a burger?”

“What’s a burger?” Yelena asked, her voice full of confusion.

We grabbed a burger from a stand for twenty bucks. I was worried we wouldn’t have enough, but Maria reassured me that we did. I took a single bite before I waved Maria’s complaints away, telling her I didn’t like it. That was a lie. It was the best thing I had ever eaten. But I let Yelena and Maria share it, watching them devour it as if it was the best thing they'd ever tasted, which almost made it worth not eating. Almost.

We were back on the edge of Goudstad after our burger. A long brick wall stretched ahead of us, keeping us from Paradise City. At the end, the entrance to the township came into view. It was then that Yelena asked, her voice soft with curiosity, “Boris, why do I have to hide being a girl?”

Why was she asking me all these questions? Maybe it was the first time I’d been alone with her long enough for her to ask? But when I opened my mouth, I wished with everything I have looking back, that I didn't. I shouldn’t have said a word. But instead, I said, “Because Vincent has a tax to keep you guys ‘safe,’ and if we don’t pay it, he’s gonna make you work in the brothels, the fucking bas—”

I rounded the corner, and straight into a taxi parked on the side of the street.

“What was that, Boris?” Jimmy asked, smirking at me, leaning against the side of the minibus, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

“I think he was talking about Vincent,” Sergei replied casually, sitting against the wall just out of sight, putting his cigarette out.

But neither of them mattered. Standing there, trying to hide behind the minibus, was Jack. He wasn’t meeting my eyes, staring at the ground instead.

My stomach went ice cold.

I should’ve killed him earlier. Right in that booth. Put my thumbs through his eyes. How could he do this? I’d helped Glenn when he was down on his luck. Helped Jill get the medicine she needed.

I clenched my fists, barely keeping my breathing steady.

Maria was staring at them, but I saw her chin lift, her fists clenched. She knew the rule: no talking. They might have realized she was a girl that way. I felt a swell of pride seeing her hold back, keeping herself in check. I didn’t think I could’ve done the same in her place.

“What’s the matter, cat got your tongue, choir boy?” Jimmy taunted, climbing into the back of the minibus. “Come on, we’re going for a ride. You got some explaining to do.”

Jack tried to slink away, but Sergei grabbed him by the back of the collar and shoved him toward the minibus. “You too,” was all he said.

Jack’s eyes darted around, desperation flickering in them as he pleaded silently with Sergei. He avoided my gaze, but I made sure he felt it. I made sure he knew.

“Come on,” I said, walking toward the minibus. I stopped and turned to Maria, whispering to Yelena, “Not a word. Not one word. If you speak, you’ll get a hiding you’ll never forget. Not. One. Word.”

Then we stepped into the minibus. The door slammed shut behind us.

And we went for a ride.