7:14 P.M.
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The sun said goodbye to the city, tinting the sky with a sea of reds and violets, and turned the buildings into endless black silhouettes on the horizon, like irregular steps on a staircase that aspired to the sky.
The temperature had dropped subtly without Adam noticing. As he went out of the gym, the cool wind stroked his still-wet hair from the shower he had taken before leaving. He zipped up his tracksuit jacket to keep from catching a cold and kept walking. An hour of working out with weights and another with the stationary bike had made him sweat buckets, but now he felt refreshed.
Adam wore a blue sports tracksuit; he had a small gym bag in his hand, headphones in his ears, and a happy smile on his face.
He was coming home, listening to the best music he could hear for a day like this, a music track full of joy, full of spicy bliss, and a lot of sensuality. That was it! Exercising and getting away from Malin and that apartment with so many rooms for a while had restored his batteries. He felt alive, as he hadn’t felt in recent weeks; even sexier than before. He felt he could conquer anyone he wanted; that he could look into anyone’s eyes, and just by opening his mouth, get anything.
Adam felt powerful, although with a more simple and mundane power than the one he sought to forget, but that lately everyone insisted on reminding him: Juzo, just by being alive inside his consciousness; Malin, with her preaching about responsibility and training; Trevor, with his obsession with keeping him away from the company; and even his friend and doctor, Sarah, with her understandable, if sometimes uncomfortable, questioning about all the medical checkups he had asked for because of his fear of being poisoning himself with so many energy emissions. And of course, Broga with his remote surveillance, who knows from where, and the thugs who followed him.
All of them were constant reminders that one way or another, with or without intention, his sacred privacy no longer existed.
But that day, at that moment, everything was different. Everything was nice and promising.
Was that the beginning of a new life? Winds of change for a new beginning? Or it was just the cruel mirage in the desert, designed to deceive the thirsty traveler? Because one thing was certain, he was heading home—or rather, his transitional housing—and there, Malin was waiting for him to get on the subject once again. What new beginning could he hope for then?
The faster you do what she wants, the sooner you’ll see her going back to her own place, Juzo told him. Or were those his own thoughts?
He turned up the music; he didn’t want to hear certain truths for the time being, neither coming from his twin’s mouth, nor his own, nor anyone else’s. It was best to keep traveling with his mind and feel what he didn’t feel for a long time: freedom; an immense space where only he existed, where there were no scientific projects or watchful androids.
Carefree, he walked along the pedestrian path, took a detour and, humming the music aloud, entered the small nature reserve in the immense Cyan Central Park. Oh, for goodness’ sake! How much he needed to visit the nightclubs and bars in the Ciccone neighborhood! Did he miss light bombs, movement, noise, artificial smoke, and getting lost in the crowds and darkness!
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Well, for now, getting lost in the shadows of that little wilderness would do.
First, he saw the huge red eye of the Park Ranger Cyclops shining in the distance, submerged in a sea of trees and plants, then he recognized the android’s silhouette. It was a bit difficult to do it; aside from the fact that it was starting to get dark, the Cyclops’ jumpsuit was green and camouflaged quite well. Fortunately, the light in his eye was still a beacon wherever he was.
The red light was moving away. Good. The automaton was doing his rounds and was heading toward the north end of the park, which meant that Adam had a free pass to go toward the south sector, the usual place where he could discharge the extra energy the gym had not been able to remove.
He made his way through the thick plants and bushes and came to the beautiful, huge pond that stretched out into the reserve’s core. He looked around to make sure no one was near and took off his headphones to hear if anyone was coming. The chorus of frogs, crickets, and other insects joined the beat of the song.
He left his bag on the floor, and when he was going to pull the splint out of his finger to avoid burning it when throwing his flames into the pond, his phone chimed. Someone had texted him. The sender, Lisandro Carinae.
“And speaking of things from a past life...” he murmured and read the text.
> I heard you’re dating a very pretty blonde! I’ve got a bottle of champagne ready for when you get back. And bring your new friend with you. We miss you in B-Crush.
Adam didn’t know if he had to blush over the message or be bothered about the dating part. What would Malin say if she read the text? On the other hand, since when did Lisandro write soft cheesy messages? He was a dirty-minded, demanding guy. A few weeks ago, that message would have said something like, ‘We know about the blonde chick, champ! What are you waiting for? Bring her white ass here so we can check it out!’ Or something even raunchier. Perhaps being kind was Lisandro’s way of catching his attention again; since Juzo, he’d ignored every invitation the wealthy playboy had made.
He was going to reply to the message, but he remembered what Trevor had told him at the club that Friday: ‘You are not like them. Why are you hanging out with these people?’ And he stopped. Did he need to appear on Lisandro and his circle’s radar again? He missed B-Crush, of course; and he even missed Little John, the bouncer; but with so many emotional shakes in the last few days, these people had lost their charm, if they ever had any.
‘What’s the difference between you and them?’ Trevor had said that night, and although the phrase hadn’t been meant to be a real question, Adam had an answer for it, That I can do without them, and I’ll still be someone.
He’d needed no one to be his own man. From a young age, he had built himself, studying, paying admission to the University with his modeling work, and being competent in what he did. To be someone, he didn’t need to appear in a magazine, though it had been a nice experience, nor be the friend of an arrogant, millionaire boy; a little brat who, by the way, hadn’t even visited him when he was in the hospital and his twin passed away.
He was Adam White, and though now he was also—kind of—Juzo, he was still him. It didn’t matter if he let his hair grow, or if he didn’t shave, if Malin was waiting for him at home, or if Trevor looked at him warily. After weeks of darkness, Adam felt like himself once again, and no one could change that.
That had to be celebrated, and as funny as it seemed, the first person who came to his mind to join his celebration was Malin.
His phone chimed again, and this time it was a call. He recognized the tone and rolled his eyes. “Detective…” he greeted her as he picked up the call.