Alister
I watch as police sirens blare into the night. Along with a few ambulances and reporter cars heading towards the house's direction.
I glance at my car and see Clara sitting in the passenger seat, smoking a cigarette, looking at the dashboard as if half asleep. I don't like the smell of smoke, and I don't let people do that in my car. But tonight is an exception.
"Why do you look distracted?" Leora whispers as she appears beside me.
I lean against the wall, trying not to grin as I speak. "That look in Clara's eyes. And the way you described her killing those kidnappers in the van. Everything screams of a highly skilled huntress who views living things as target practice when pointed a gun at. I can tell she lied about never killing animals on her trips."
Leora stares at me blankly. "How was your first time?"
The words take me straight back to my 9-year-old self on top of a bridge. Watching as the older kid fell into the canal with fear and terror in his eyes. It was the first time someone had made that expression at me, and it brought such satisfaction and adrenaline inside me that I smiled. That was also the first time Miranda, who was nearby, witnessed me. Saw the potential and strength that no one did and swore to nurture it.
I look down at my phone and notice the red dot moving over me. I press the button on the controller, and after a few seconds, a bird falls down from the sky.
"Glasses! Wait!" Lev cries out, but I'm already moving towards him.
"I hope you know this was your last chance." I say, stepping onto the outstretched wing of his feathered form. The black feathers buckle beneath my weight, pinning him down as I take out my knife. I sharpen my senses at the shrill caws of the crows above, waiting for his signal to begin attacking me.
"Let me explain!" he stammers, feathers rippling as he begins to shift. I step back cautiously, watching as the transformation overtakes him. Within moments, he's a kneeling man breathing heavily.
I don't give him a moment to recover.
My boot collides with the side of his face. His head jerks sideways, a sharp grunt escaping him as he falls to his side.
"Ouch!" he hisses, eyes wide with a mix of rage and disbelief. His hand grazes his cheekbone. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"You really expect me to believe you weren't planning on betraying me?" I snap.
An insufferable smirk curls his lips. "To be honest, I'm always thinking of betraying you. Why wouldn't I—"
His words die in his throat, replaced by a strangled cry. His back arches violently as electricity courses through him.
When I finally stop pressing the button, he grits his teeth, then glances up at me through the curtain of hair, defiant. And smiling.
"Ever occur to you that I might be enjoying this?" he pants.
I stare at the idiot, refusing to play this game again. "Oh really?" I tilt my head slightly. "Then how about I let you enjoy this every three minutes."
He seizes again. His body convulses until he curls tightly into himself. His cocky expression disintegrates into a grimace of raw pain.
"Okay, okay! Stop it!" he gasps as he forces himself upright again.
"Why didn't you alert us about the man coming back?" I demand, stepping closer.
He winces as he rubs his shoulder. "I tried to. Even had my crows brutally attack him, but he managed to get home." he says. "I tapped on the windows, like you said. But none of you heard me. I kept going back to the second-floor corridor window."
Oh. I was in the attic. Clara in the basement. We wouldn't have heard that.
His head snaps up. "There. That's the truth. I wasn't betraying you, freak." His eyes flick over to where my car is parked, then drop to the ground. "Not if it's going to hurt her. Or make her sad."
That catches me off guard. Because I know exactly how she'd react. Would Clara be hurt? Probably not. Sad? Doubtful. But frustrated? Absolutely. Just an annoyed pout that her charms weren't as effective as she thought they were. It'd sting—not because of him, but because her pride would take the hit. A blow to her ego, not her heart.
Still, I see it now. Her tricks worked.
"You like her."
Much to my irritation, he groans and rolls his eyes. "Relax. It's not in the sense that you think. It's just… she's the first person who's ever been kind to me. I've always been surrounded by people who only wanted to use me since I was a hatchling. Even when I got older, it didn't change. Not even after you kidnapped me."
His tone gets quieter. "But… she's good to me and never tried to hurt me. You all might treat me as an asset or tool, but...she makes me feel human."
"You really think so?" I find myself asking out of curiosity.
He exhales and smirks. "I'm aware of what she's doing. I'm a sweet talker myself when the situation calls for it. I spotted it the moment she opened her mouth."
Then he glances at me, grin widening. "This is one department I'm better at than you."
I narrow my eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"
He leans forward slightly, amusement dancing in his grey eyes. "It means… Iknow when a leash is being tied around my neck."
Ah, I see what he's up to.
I cross my arms. "You also seem to have a way of turning people against each other, don't you?"
The flush hasn't left his face. He might call it manipulation. He might see it as a leash. But part of him clearly doesn't mind being tethered—at least, not by her.
The sound of police sirens cuts through the air again, snapping us back to reality. I glance down at my watch. She's supposed to be home by 8.
"Let's go now. Our lady awaits." I say, and he gives a small nod before shifting back into his bird form. Talons grip my shoulder when he lands.
Clara is still in the passenger seat. A half-burned cigarette is held loosely between her fingers.
"Are you enjoying your cheap dose of lung cancer?" I ask her through the open window as she exhales a puff.
She gives a subtle smile and shrugs. "I've had worse."
She continues staring at the dashboard like it's hiding secrets while my eyes wander to her loose strands. I reach out slowly, my fingers extending towards the stray hairs that have fallen across her forehead.
"Why didn't you come sooner?"
Her words cause, my hand to freeze before retreating back while I think of what to say or how to proceed.
She squeezes her eyes shut as she pinches the bridge of her nose. "No, sorry, I shouldn't have said that. My bad." she sighs. "In the basement, he demanded them to confess if they saw anyone come. All of them knew I was there." Her fists clench tightly. "Yet no one said anything. Even after he pointed a gun at them."
She stretches a hand toward Lev and pulls him gently onto her lap. The damn thing nuzzles against her, feathers fluffing as she strokes him.
It's funny how he said she makes him feel human when, out of all of us, she's the one who treats him like an actual pet with no intelligence.
I rub the back of my neck. "Why didn't you shoot him before? Didn't you bring your dart gun?"
"I did." she scoffs. "But the guy was an elephant. Tranquillizer didn't work on him. Maybe because he took it out too fast? I don't know."
That would explain the wobbling, I guess. The drugs hadn't stopped him, just made him sloppy.
"But once I shot him, he knew someone was hiding in the basement. He shot one of the women. Seconds before you entered." Her pupils dilate as continues. "Her eyes. She was looking at me as she died. Wondering why I couldn't save her. Maybe even regretted saving me. He yelled at me to come out."
Her expression seems to darken as she glares ahead. "You have no idea the rage I felt for him then. You gave me a good opportunity to escape, but I couldn't leave. Not without inflicting some pain on him."
She finally turns to me as her crystal blue eyes seem to soften with a sympathetic look. To my surprise, she reaches out and touches my cheek. Her hand cold against my skin while her thumb strokes my black eye, causing my face to heat up as I resist the urge to wince at the sting. Or finally lean in. "And then I saw him hurt you, and I completely lost it. I wanted him dead."
I stare at her as I feel words brewing inside me. Ones I don't know how to let out.
"Any regrets?" I manage to say as my eyes drift towards her lips again. The smoke from the burning cigarette curls like ghostly script into the air.
Her hand retreats and rests on her lap as she takes another drag. "Only that I didn't get a chance to make him suffer. Just like he did to those poor women."
I smirk as I feel my heart race at her words. "I'm a bad influence on you, aren't I?"
She chuckles, finally. "Well, the damage has been done." Then her eyes fall down to my bag. "What's that?"
It's then that I notice I didn't close it properly, with the corner of the brown paper file peeking out. "Nothing." I push it deeper and close the zip. "Shouldn't you be going home? It's almost 8."
Her gaze doesn't leave my bag even when I push it behind me out of view.
"You're right." She sighs. I back away while she exits the car. Lev flies off and lands above the hood.
I turn around and walk towards the driver's seat. "I don't think we left any fingerprints in the house because of the gloves. If what you said is true and the women won't expose our identities, then we're—" I feel my bag being pulled and unzipped.
"Hey!" I snatch it away from her but not in time, as she's already managed to extract the documents, holding them triumphantly in her hand.
Her eyes sparkle with curiosity as she gazes at them. "What is this? Why would you take something other than the mirror?" She flips open the file, scanning the contents.
I reach, my hand stretching out to reclaim them. But she's too quick and steps back, dodging my hand with ease. Her gaze devours the document as if searching for something specific.
"It's just a file I wanted to drop off to someone on the way. I had it in my bag all along."
"Lying really is second nature to you." She says, dodging whenever I try to snatch it. "Your bag was empty before we entered."
I know it's too late as I watch her eyes go wide. Gripping the documents tightly as horror and disgust churn in her eyes.
"That...sick bastard." She mumbles.
I reach for it again only for her eyes to shift to me. "I swear if you try to snatch again, I'll set your car on fire."
I know it's an empty threat, but seeing her enraged like this and looking back at her reckless streak, I know she wouldn't hesitate.
And I know she reached the part about the law firm because her anger gives way to disbelief, and she looks like she's been punched in the gut.
"That's...Cirrus.inc's legal counsel." She whispers.
I sigh. "It is."
She continues reading, her eyes scanning the pages with a ferocity that's both captivating and unsettling. I know she's making the same connection.
"Not surprising they did that." I shrug as I lean against the hood of the car, my eyes drifting towards the direction of the police cars. The faint red and blue lights can be seen flickering against the houses. "Just what you'd expect from a corrupt company."
I glance at her from the corner of my eye. To see how she reacts. To see if she would deny what I just said or protest in any way. Make up reasons for why her family's business would support such a man. But I know she won't. Defending them at this moment, after seeing what that man did to those women, will mean she's looking for ways to justify their actions.
And suddenly, the lights blur and my vision flickers. My chest tightens as an alley forms around me.
I watch the twins corner and shove my younger self's face into the gravel until it grinds into his gums.
And there she was. The school nurse, standing at the mouth of the alley. The one who always dabbed antiseptic on my cuts and sympathized with me. She saw the boot pressed into my back, the blood on my lips, the tears I couldn't hold down.
And yet...she turned and walked away.
There's a special kind of cruelty in people like her. Not the obvious kind—the blunt violence of fists and boots. No, theirs is softer, quieter, and infinitely sharper. The cruelty of watching. Of knowing. Of seeing someone broken and bleeding at their feet and still turning away.
I used to think words mattered. That if someone said, "This is wrong. They should be punished. You don't deserve this," it meant they believed it. That they'd stand by it. But words are cheap. They taste sweet on the tongue, leave you warm for a while, and then rot into ash when action never follows.
I close my eyes and snap the rubberband on my wrist three times. It works, and I'm back in the neighborhood. Leaning against the hood of the car while Clara is busy reading the document.
"Why would you hide this?" She finally says, and I look at her in confusion.
"What?" Surely I must have misheard her.
"Why didn't you show it to me? What were you going to do with it?" She stares with her brow furrowed and lips pursed.
I feel something snap inside me. Maybe it's because of the hallucination, but I can't stop the words from flowing out.
"Say I didn't hide it from you," I begin as I straighten up. "Even circled the most suspicious parts." I start walking towards her, arms folded, with a blank look on my face despite the frustration brewing inside me. "What would you have done? What will you do now that you know?"
She takes a step back, her shoulders squaring as she tries to regain her composure. "I..." she begins, but her words trail off.
"That's the thing, Clara." I near her. The smell of cigarettes sharp as it mingles with her jasmine scent. "Knowledge in your hands has never changed anything. Ever."
She takes more steps until her back presses against the wall of a house. I can see the defensiveness rising in her eyes as they bore into mine. Daring me to come closer. And I do.
"Glasses, what—" Lev begins to call out, but I ignore him.
"You tried so hard to prevent all secrets from being exposed. Yet now you're horrified that your company would do such a thing? And angry, I would hide all this from you? like it'd make any difference?"
The moment I see her eyes gloss over while she glares back at me, I know I've gone too far. All the frustration I felt now changes its target. My instincts scream at me to fix this and...apologize.
If she starts to hate me again. It'll ruin everything.
"Are you done?" She asks, coldly.
I part my lips to respond, to try and salvage the situation, but Clara doesn't give me the chance.
"I'll only say this once," She stares as if willing me to die this instant. The fact that I find it intoxicating makes me sick. "Talk to me with respect, or don't bother talking to me at all." With a swift motion, she slams the documents against my chest, the papers rustling leaves in the wind. Then she shoves past me and storms toward where her car is parked.
I groan, running a hand over my head before kneeling down and picking up the papers that had fallen.
"You did the right thing." Leora says. Which obviously means the opposite is true. I fell for her trick after all. I told myself I wouldn't be agitated by what she did, and I failed.
"You complete idiot!" Lev's voice rings back. As he drops down infront of me. "What was that about? Why would you say all that to her?"
"Be quiet." I say as I gather the papers.
"...You're going to end up alone if you keep this up." He persists. I stay silent.
"Glasses, you need to go and apologi–"
I glare at him. "If you don't shut up this instant, I'm going to—"
But then, a wave of exhaustion crashes over me. It hits like a collapsing wall. My knees give out, and the papers slip through my fingers. I try to move, to speak, but it's like drowning in concrete. Darkness creeps into the corners of my vision like ink spilled in water. I try to reach into my pocket for the controller. I need to break it. But my limbs feel heavy. Sluggish.
Lev's annoying voice calling out to me is the last thing I hear before I blackout.