Dinner passes in a blur. I was cognizant of my surroundings, but that was the extent of it. My state could be described as simply going through the motions.

I barely recall Athea pulling up to our favourite restaurant, where a waiter dressed in the restaurant’s outrageous burger themed outfit showed us to our seats. Then, I proceeded to commit the ultimate blasphemy I’d once sworn against.

I ordered a single offering of potato wedges. Nothing else.

Meanwhile Athea had gotten her usual– a double patty monstrosity that came with a serving of vanilla milkshake.

I can’t remember what I did as waited for her to polish off her meal, and I don’t want to. I just know I was subjected to all sorts of indignant looks. I would know. I was considered one of the zealous regulars here. We would let the daggers in our gazes fly if anyone merely ordered a side dish during their visit.

After all, how could a person go to a place famed for exquisite heart stopping cuisine, rife with oil and cuts of thick, red meat, only to have a large bowl of basic bitch potato? In my humble opinion, it was a fair judgement.

My dazed, roiling mind finally comes to a halt when the vehicle pulls to an abrupt stop. The seatbelt catches under my chin, the thin rubberised edge digging the underside of my throat. I pull it away, brush the taut strap past my nose, and catch a heavy sniff of manufactured rubber.

The artificial stench clears the remaining cobwebs in my head. My senses gradually return. I lick my chapped lips, curse at myself for not getting a burger, then turn to look out of the convertible windows.

The tinted glass dulls the glow of blinking streetlamps outside. Their harsh, artificial lights are softened into a comforting, almost hazy, glow. On either side of the road stand trees taller than any sort I’ve seen in the city. The lush canopy towering over us blends together and forms an endless carpe of green.

Framed against this backdrop, the streetlamps gain an interesting effect. They seem to hover in mid-air, becoming balls of light swaying with the wind rather than man-made constructs.

“So you feel good enough to sightsee, now.” Athea’s voice prompts me to look at her.

“Where is this? What are we doing here? Why did you let me order just the wedges? I’m too embarrassed to live, I can never go back!”

I receive flick to the forehead for my dramatics. She rolls her eyes when I make a rude gesture with my hand.

“It is good that you’ve gotten some sense back, but bombard me with too many questions, and I’ll ignore every single one.”

Translation: speak calmly and less like a chicken with its head cut off.

I take a deep breath and gather what’s left of my composure. Having a close friend who knew you like the back of their hand was good. You needed people you could let loose with, or risk going crazy. I don’t have to walk on eggshells around Athea or worry about offending her. Likewise, she speaks her mind without fear of judgement.  

“Where are we?” I ask.

“On the road leading to Timah Hill.”

“Why did we come here?”

“You told me you needed a quiet place to destroy your phone.” Athea frowns. “You don’t remember?”

“Apparently.” I probably let something slip during our meal, though I can’t remember what I said. “Sorry, I can’t remember. I was totally out of it up till now.” I hang my head, sighing miserably. “You shouldn’t have put up with that. I wish you’d slapped me or something.”

“Or something.” Athea shrugs off my apology, not looking bothered in the slightest. “I can understand why you acted that way, so I left you as you were. Not helping you order a burger was a small payback, though.” I knew it! But, I can’t blame her. Other than my damaged pride, it was harmless. “How are you feeling?”

“Good enough.” I give her a friendly slap to the shoulder. “I’m lucky that you entertained my nonsense and didn’t dump me on the side of the road,” I joked.

“I wouldn’t do something that vile,” Athea says this with a heavy air of solemnness. “Anything could happen if you were left alone at this time of night. I would run a blade through my own chest if I hurt you.” Her declaration simultaneously moves and alarms me.

“Hey, no need to be dramatic. This is the safest country in the world. Ranked, even.”

“There are no absolutes. You will never know what might happen.”

“I’m not worried. You would avenge me if I got caught up in something terrible.” My declaration is met with a serious nod. I continue, not joking in the slightest, “It goes without saying that I’ll do the same for you.”

“Of course. I have your word, and you, mine.” The way Athea says it is reminiscent of pledging loyalty to a higher being. Since the first day I met her, she’s always been an odd duck. It has never more apparent.

I’ll be seriously worried about what would happen if Athea joins a cult. With her in it, I was certain they’d be able to accomplish insane things, like establishing someplace as a death colosseum and forcing people to fight to the death. Maybe even world domination.

I get out of the car. A cool breeze sweeps through, and I tilt my chin up to meet it head on. The wind threads through my hair, a gentle caress that sends a shiver down my back. I pat down the rebellious strands of hair that spring out of place. Despite my resolve to keep it at shoulder length, my hair usually ends up growing past my shoulder, which is a problem, because it gets messy at the smallest provocation.

Athea doesn’t have the same problem. I turn to look just as her dark brown hair billows out behind her, framing her almond shaped eyes, the alluring slope of her face, and her glossy lips. It’s a picturesque scene of nature and natural beauty melding together.

I slap a hand over my eyes. “I know I already said this a thousand times, but…”

“I’m so beautiful that it’s blinding,” Athea says. “You’ve always said that. I usually say you’re exaggerating, but tonight,” she raises her hand as if grasping at something. “I’ll gladly accept it.”

Huh. That was new. I can’t help but be curious. “Why the sudden change?”

“With the moon smiling down on me, it’s hard not to feel gorgeous.” I look up to where her hand is outstretched. There is a gap between the leaves, revealing a luminescent sphere. The moon. “There is no greater blessing. The moon is dainty and untouchable, I can’t help but think it’s allowing me to compare myself to it.”

“Looks pretty normal to me.”

“That’s because it is the only one you’ve seen.”

“The only one I’ve seen in person, yeah.” There are times I can’t make heads or tails of what she’s saying. “But there’s plenty of photos of others discovered throughout the solar system.”

Space exploration isn’t advanced enough to make other planets inhabitable yet. But, there is plenty of photographic evidence of far flung planets – like Jupiter, with its sixty three moons.  

Athea responds with something surprising. “You shouldn’t discount moons in other realms, too.”

“Realms?” It’s a strange word to use when there are more frequent and familiar definitions like ‘World’ or ‘Universe’. “Even if I believe in the existence of other realms, as you put it, it’s not like I’ll visit them. I don’t see why I should take them into account.” I scratch my head. “I’m lost. How did we get so far off the subject of you accepting my compliment, anyway?”

Athea’s mouth hooks up in a easy smile. “It’s just a what-if, Mei. Don’t take it so seriously.” She slings an arm around my shoulder, ignoring my surprised squawk. “Allow me to thank you for complimenting my wondrous once more. My vanity was just starting to run low.”

We fling several sarcastic jokes back and forth, but nothing as strange as the whole moon debate comes up again. I would love to wonder what brought it up, but the reason for us being here gradually creeps up on me.

I fall silent as we continue to walk. Athea follows suit. Barring my volatile thoughts, the silence is companionable and the weather, refreshing. It was truly a nice night to be strolling around like this.

We’ve left the locked convertible behind us, and we quickly reach the so called entrance. There’s a flimsy road barrier up, accompanied the sign that screams, NO VEHICLES PAST THIS POINT. We ignore it and continue on our way.

What is once neutral ground begins to slope upward. Walking takes more effort the steeper the incline grows, but it’s bearable. I’m still wearing a blazer, but luckily, the cool weather prevents me from being cooked.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The road gives way to a dirt path littered with dead leaves, twigs and pebbles. My newly shined shoes will likely become unrecognizable by the time we return. It’s nothing that can’t be solved with a high pressure hose, however.

Athea definitely chose correctly. Rather than going to a random, unknown place, she picked somewhere perfectly suited to my needs while still being familiar enough to navigate. Timah hill is fairly isolated, and we know of a perfect spot.

We continue walking for several more minutes. I glance around, searching for an opening in the bushes. I reach into my pocket, tempted to pull out my phone. I stay my hand since I’d already turned it off before we started our walk.

“Damn, I suck at this. Can’t see a thing without a light.”

“Which is why I always say to leave it to me.” Athea taps me on the shoulder. I spin around to see her gesturing to a worn, treaded path behind a bunch of shrubs she’s pushed aside. Athea smiles cheekily.

“Fine, you win. Again.” I grumble as she pulls me forward. “Must feel good to have eyes like an owl.”

Athea smirks. “It’s one of the many benefits of being a god. You’ll never match up, mortal.” I roll my eyes.

We follow this newer, bumpier path until it crests. The foliage opens up, trees and bushes slowly parting to reveal a small patch of open terrain. We’re on top of the smaller hill connected to the main one. Though I say it’s small, it spans the length of three buses if they were connected nose to nose. There’s quite a bit of room, enough for at least one picnicking family.

“Another thing you might be tired of me saying, but…” I admire the glimmering stars above us. The night sky is unfurled, the inky landscape dark and vivid. “I’m really glad your brother found this place.”

“Heres has a big enough head without your praise.”

“I can’t comment. I haven’t even never met him, yet.” I frown at her.

“I’d love you to finally meet him.” Athea follows up with a familiar reply. “But he doesn’t make time for me, let alone for a friend of mine. It has nothing to do with closeness. He simply doesn’t care about anything other than his work.”

I drop the frown. It was worth a try. “I thought since you accepted my compliment, your reply regarding your brother might have been different this time.”

“An attempt worthy of admiration.”

“Don’t go poetic on me, now.”

We stand around. I want to get this over with, but I can’t muster up the energy. My conscience, or what’s left of it, screams at me to head back to Athea’s convertible and keep my phone as evidence. The cynical and more logical side, or so I hope, argues back with a more rational and frightening thought.

“There’s no turning back. I’ve already burned that bridge,” I say to myself. Even if the cause of death had been indirect, the fact remained I in Shi Ning’s death. Erasing my digital footprints was all that was left in obscuring my part in Ling Ge’s scheme.

If I thought things would be like this a year ago, I wouldn’t have believed it. The treacherous moat that I’d struggled through since childhood had finally come to an end. From the catalyst of my birth mother fleeing overseas to finally being able strike out on my own, everything had lead to this very moment.

I take out my phone. “Alright, sim card’s the first to go.” I scuff out a patch of grass with my shoe until it gives way to soil. I place the tiny plastic between my fingers, bending it until it snaps. “I guess I’ll need to recontract,” I say as I bury it.

“I can help with that.”

“Thanks for offering but,” I smile wryly at Athea. “Tomorrow’s the day Ling Ge hands over the money he promised. I’ll be able to afford a new line, even repay you everything I owe.”

“You can keep whatever you borrowed. I have too much money to spend by myself.”

I shake my head. “No way. You let me leech off you all this time. Not paying you back wouldn’t feel right. Even Auntie Bao, kind as she is, would consider me a ungrateful parasite if I didn’t.”

“Your aunt and I have never thought of you that way.”

I shrug. “But I do. Once I pay both of you back, that’s one title I can finally get off my back.”

As I bend down to confirm I’ve buried the pieces of plastic deep enough, Athea speaks up again. “What other titles did you bestow on yourself? Do enlighten me.”

I chuckle. “Best friend, adopted child, burger connoisseur.” Her stare drills into me. It can’t be possible, but it feels as if she can see exactly what I’m thinking. I keep my next words steady, “Why’re you asking?”

As I wait for Athea to reply, my nimble fingers quickly take the phone apart. It has a number of dents in the back cover and parts where the paint is scratched off, but it’s in better shape than I expect.

A lump builds at the back of my throat as I stare down at my trusted sidekick, in pieces. It’s been through so much. Doing this almost feels like a betrayal.

“You’re not a murderer,” Athea suddenly says. “You have no business claiming it as your one of your titles.”

My phone slips through my nerveless fingers. “What the hell?” I scramble to pick it up and clumsily brush off the bits of dirt and grass sticking to the screen. “I never said anything like that!”

I’ve always hated getting emotional, and for the most part, I’m an old hand at it. Living with the Hans showed me you had to hide your weaknesses, or have it exploited time and time again. After so many years, I’m confident in my ability. I’ve done it even in the presence of those normal people would struggle against, Ying Ze being a good example.  

But Athea is my closest companion. She’s been with me since the days of Shi Ning’s relentless campaigns to single me out in the private school we attended. It speaks about my unbalanced state of mind that I didn’t have a plan to deal with the inevitably of being found out.

Athea snatches the phone, taking advantage of my distracted state. “You don’t need to say it for me to know. What you’re doing speaks for itself.”

“I’m clearly doing what I said I’d do. Give my phone back so I can mess up the damn thing. Unlike you, I actually want to get out of here before sunrise.”

Athea inspects the device. “You’re taking it apart so precisely. Are you hoping for someone to put it back together?”

“Who would anyone bother to try?” I argue. “Also, you know better than to assume someone would find this. We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“I didn’t see you reset your phone. Don’t say you did, because I’ve been watching. I’m sure you’re also aware the data inside won’t disappear even the phone is found broken.” Athea doesn’t let up her barrage and continues in a calm, detached manner, “And I believe your relatives are still on the hunt for the one responsible for releasing that scandalous video. I’ve heard rumours of money being offered to anyone with even the slightest evidence of the perpetrators.”

The shred of patience I had secretly fostered is ripped apart by a sudden swell of rage. I throw my hands up. “How are they going to find it all the way out here? Even if they’ve got eyes in every corner of the country, the chances of them finding it here are practically zero.” Seeing that she’s unmoved, I resort to pleading. “Just hurry up and give it back already. I want this to end. Please.”

“Then you won’t mind if I help speed up the process.” Athea wrenches her arm back and throws my phone on the ground. I can’t gauge how much strength she uses, but the crackling of metal tells me the device won’t survive whatever comes next.

“What are you doing?!” I throw myself at the phone, but Athea retrieves before I get the chance to grab it. I’m left staring up her from the ground.

“Don’t let your guilt blind you, Mei,” Athea says. “You don’t deserve the fury Ying Ze will unleash upon you if she finds out.” Before I realize what she’s planning to do, Athea stomps on the phone hard enough to splinter off bits of hard plastic and glass. The harsh wheeze of metal sounds like thunder to my ears.

“Stop it!”  I lunge for her. “STOP IT!”

Athea shoves me away as easily as wiping sweat from her brow. The grass carpet cushions my fall, and I’m frazzled, but unharmed. I claw the ground with my hands, digging up handfuls of grass and dirt as I push myself to my feet. I was ready to hurt myself to wrestle my phone back.

Athea must have known this. Without waiting for my next move, she hurls what’s left of the mangled phone. The clutch of metal hurtles off the cliff, into the distance, dropping like a weight into the pitch black mess of forest below.

I scream. It’s a sound I had no idea I was capable of making, so shrill and heart stopping, that my own eardrums ache.

I put one foot in front of the other, an unreasonable part of me wanting to chase after it. I barely take three steps before a pair of muscled arms wind around my waist, rooting me in place. I struggle, kick and flail, but my captor remains oblivious to my efforts.

“If you don’t let go,” I warn. “You’ll regret it.”

 “You won’t hurt me.” There isn’t a single bit of hesitation in her voice.

“Fine. But I can hate you. I’ll hate you with everything I got.” I look over my shoulder. She meets my glare head on, her gaze unflinching. “Knowing you, that would be far worse than a flesh wound.”

Athea doesn’t let go. “You can’t hate me forever.”

I’m not sure what to say. The conviction in her voice is nauseating. The tangle of complicated emotions I previously forced to simmer at the pit of my stomach now hurts badly enough I’m struck with the urge to empty my dinner on her shoes.

Athea is strong and sturdy where I’m weak and disappointing, not a shred of doubt and self-loathing to be found in her body. She ends up supporting my weight as I lose all feeling in my legs, going limp as a wet noodle.

“What are you doing?” I choke out. I’m embarrassed by the way my voice wavers, the way my vision blurs.

“Being an accessory to murder,” she says.

My tears spill over. “You’re so stupid,” I say. “I don’t want to hate you, too.”

Athea laughs. “I’m far too lovable,” she says.

I laugh along with her. Afterwards, we bask in the empty silence. There’s no howling wind or bolt of lightning to cast judgement on me. It’s as if what happened earlier is a figment of my imagination.

Eventually, though, Athea helps me up. My legs still tremble, and that’s how I know it must have been real. We start back down the hill, Athea shouldering my weight until I’m able to walk properly.

We’re back on the road when Athea breaks the silence.

“I can hear you thinking,” she says.

I won’t be surprised if she can. I don’t bother lying and answer, “Sorry. It’s just… do you really think that I’m not a murderer?”

A beat of silence passes between us.

“This might sound cruel,” she says, “But I think you can’t be considered one. Yes, your video might have been the catalyst for Shi Ning’s decision to take her own life,” I hate myself for flinching at the blunt words. “But, carrying out the deed falls on her.”

“Honestly? I expected her to retaliate,” I mumble. “I really didn’t think she would just… give up.”

Athea mulls over my words. “From what I observed, I agree. She doesn’t strike me as the sort who gives up when she is cornered. However, I suppose we will never find out why she did it.”

“Yeah…” Athea starts the engine. The vehicle rumbles to life. “Hey, you mind dropping me off at the hospital?”

“Are you sure you want to spend the night there? You haven’t had proper sleep with the funeral going on.”

“I’m sure.”

“Alright.” Athea laughs. “Relax and try to get some rest before we get there.”

“It’s going to be the easiest thing I’ve done all week.” I stroke the leather seats with a touch of reverence. “Hey, Athea?”

She hums to indicate she’s listening.

“Do you think it’s possible for me to visit another realm, someday? I don’t really want to die just seeing one moon.”

All the stress from today has finally gone to my head. There is no other reason to why I proposed such an absurd prospect. There’s so much impossibility in that sentence I nearly bash my head on the car window. But then, I hear her answer.

“I’ll make it happen.”

“Alright.” My smile is wobbly. “Which realm,” the word tastes strange on my tongue, “would you say has the most beautiful moon?”

“Therth. There are three of them there, with the lazurite moon of the twilit zone being the most magnificent. I wouldn’t mind gazing at it forever.”

I can’t bring myself to point out how ridiculous Athea sounds. Still… if such a place truly exists, I wouldn’t mind going there. “Sounds great. I’ll hold you to it, then.”

Athea lifts one hand off the steering wheel, wrapping it around mine. “Gods never breaks their promises.”

I chuckle, pulling my hand away. “Enough with the god and mortal shtick.”

“Haha, alright. Now sleep. I’ll wake you when we get there.”