Daughters of Forgotten Light

by Sean Grigsby

  Shamika had been smart in building up her defenses. Lena wished she’d thought if it. Maybe it was too late to fortify the ganghouse without making it obvious they were planning the same thing. Besides, the Daughters’ dwellers were in such an uproar over the murder it would be impossible to get them to do anything until after they were appeased.

  “OK.” Lena walked over to Jessica and patted her shoulder. “I need time to think this through.”

  “Wait,” Jessica said, halting against Lena’s guiding hand. “I can’t go back there.”

  “Why would they think you know anything? You said yourself, they don’t consider you guys to be that smart.”

  “Me being here is enough. A lot of your dwellers saw me, and the OC will know I came to you, if not now, then after the shipment. Just give me somewhere to stay. I think I’ve earned it.”

  Lena sighed. Jessica was right. She’d risked her life in bringing bad news, and with all the things sheilas on Oubliette could say about Lena Horror, being unfair wasn’t one of them. “You got it. Wait with the others downstairs and I’ll have Hurley Girly find you somewhere to stay when she gets back.”

  Tears that she’d, now clearly, been holding back poured from Jessica’s eyes and she wrapped her arms around Lena’s neck. “Thanks, Horror!”

  Lena froze, her arms extended in surprise, and an instinctive desire to shoot her rang came over her as the dweller hung like a heavy necklace. But after a few seconds of feeling Jessica cry into her shoulder, Lena brought her arms around and patted the dweller on the back. She was now under the protection of the Daughters of Forgotten Light.

  Chapter 19

  It hadn’t been but a few minutes when Sarah saw the flash of cyclone wheels whipping around the corner a few blocks ahead.

  “Don’t shoot until she’s off the bike!” Ava shouted.

  Sarah tapped Ava on the shoulder. “We’re not taking her alive?”

  Ava ignored her.

  They whipped around the same corner Dandelion had taken, and Sarah had to squeeze Ava’s waist tighter so she wouldn’t fall off. Ahead, right in front of a building, Ava’s cyclone lay on its side, slowly spinning from the energy buzzing off the still-engaged wheels.

  “No respect,” Ava grumbled to herself. “Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck! I’m going to rip her eyeballs out…” She continued in her murderous oaths, but it got to where Sarah couldn’t understand them.

  They pulled up behind the overturned bike, and all the Daughters turned off their wheels. After jumping off Sarah’s cyclone, Ava began an attempt to lift her own.

  “Come help me with this!” Ava blurted in the midst of her effort.

  “Girl, shut it off and leave it there for now,” Dipity said. “I thought you wanted to nab this dweller.”

  Ava let go of the bike and stood straight, as if she only just remembered the dweller who’d stolen her bike. She turned off her overturned cyclone’s wheels and gave the bike a cursory onceover before leaping over it and running toward the tower’s entrance.

  “We better hurry,” Hurley Girly said. “Ava’s gonna have all the fun without us.”

  Sterling waved for Sarah to follow, and they all jogged after Ava.

  Climbing the stairs put a hurt on Sarah’s legs as she started huffing after the first couple flights. It was the most exercise she’d done since leaving the space port. She hadn’t done much real training at all, come to think of it. “We’re not going to shoot her, right? I haven’t gotten a chance to practice with my rang gun yet.”

  Dipity stopped at the top of a flight. “Hold it,” she said. “Get up here, Pao.”

  Sarah obeyed and pushed past Hurley Girly.

  “If your rang goes off,” Dipity said, “I sure as hell ain’t going to be the one standing in front of you.”

  Dipity disengaged the safety with the press of a button, and Sarah’s rang hummed a bit more angrily. Sarah took a deep breath and led the way as they continued their climb.

  “You’re about to get some shooting practice… when we catch that dweller,” Hurley Girly called from below, just as winded as Sarah.

  Whatever happened to innocent before guilty? Sarah wondered. If the dweller attacked them it would be one thing. But if she gave up willingly, they would have to take Dandelion alive.

  Wouldn’t they?

  “She’s going out on the roof,” Ava shouted from a few flights up.

  “That dweller’s a dumbass,” Dipity said.

  Sarah surged up the stairs with renewed energy, and the others behind her did the same. The thought of Ava nearing the roof and beating them to the punch – more like several punches – must have done it. Sarah caught the door to the roof as it swung back in the wake of Ava’s charge, and The Daughters poured onto the top of the tower.

  Ava slowed her gait, steady and prematurely victorious. Dandelion stood in a defensive crouch looking for a way to escape, but only one other path led back to the street – over the edge and twenty stories down, quick and final.

  “And they used to call me retarded,” Ava said. Laughter seasoned those words, and it was horrifying.

  “I didn’t kill anybody!” Tears dripped from Dandelion’s swollen eyes.

  Ava raised her rang, aiming it at the dweller’s chest. “I wouldn’t give a shit if you slaughtered every last dweller in your building. You fucked up when you stole my bike.”

  “Apology! Apology!” Dandelion raised her hands in defense. Sarah doubted it would block whatever came out of the rang. “I had to. They were going to kill me.”

  Ava didn’t say anything. She must have been done with conversation. Her rang spoke, though, silently. It was the tiniest of sounds, but Sarah was sure she heard it, like the rising energy of a dying star. It was as if the rang wanted to be shot.

  The tension was too much. It wasn’t right. None of this was–

  “Wait, Ava,” Sarah blurted.

  At first Ava didn’t respond, her head only twitched enough to make her hair fall to one side. But then, slowly, she lowered her arm and turned to Sarah. She was not amused. Her squinting, glaring eyes could just as well have been another weapon in her arsenal.

  “I just…” Sarah gulped and tried to steady her breath “…they want justice. The dwellers. We should take her back and have a trial.”

  Hurley Girly laughed behind her. Dandelion backed away.

  “She’s dead anyway,” Ava said. “What difference does it make? I kill her, everyone’s happy.”

  “I’m not happy,” Sarah said.

  “Don’t think because you’re a Daughter now, it gives you the right to go against me. You’re still the ass.”

  “I just want to help you make the right decision. I know you’re pissed–”

  “You don’t know shit!”

  Sterling clapped her hands. It got everyone’s attention. She’s right, she signed. It would look better if we brought her back alive. This is a dweller thing.

  “It was a dweller thing,” Ava said. “Now we have to make a show of force. Unless you want every dweller out there to think it’s cool to rip us off. Hell, let’s start a cyclone rental business.”

  “Maybe we can show force and be fair at the same time,” Dipity spoke up.

  Ava groaned. “Not you, too.”

  “I’m not going back there,” Dandelion made the mistake of reminding Ava of her presence.

  “Don’t you worry!” Ava pointed a finger at the dweller, who cowered at the edge of the roof. “I’ll make sure you don’t.”

  “I don’t give a shit one way or the other,” said Hurley Girly. “Just kill her so we can get back and mingle with some hot dwellers.”

  “The majority says we should bring her back,” Sarah said.

  Ava took slow steps and put her nose to the tip of Sarah’s. “Don’t talk to me about the majority. The majority sent all of us out here to die.”

  Sarah stood taller than Ava, and she was surprised to realize it now. Ava’s demeanor and commanding presence had always made her see
m ten feet tall. But her lack of height didn’t mean a lack of violence and psychotic rage. Oubliette seemed to breed that in every woman who stepped foot on the city’s glass. But Sarah would fight the crazy in herself. She had to. Everything had changed. But this, this moment here was one thing she knew she was right in. This would be the first step in keeping herself sane.

  “Keeping her alive will give you plenty of time to think of ways to torture her.” Dipity was trying to help, but damn it, she was doing a terrible job.

  “You daddyfuckers stay the hell away from me,” Dandelion said.

  Ava scratched the side of her face. Her toxic frown morphed into a satisfied sneer. “All right, then. Pao, since you’re so wet to arrest her, you go get her before she decides to jump.”

  Ava joined the other Daughters and they all stepped back a few paces, always eager for a new form of entertainment.

  Hurley Girly made shooing motions with her hands. “Go get her, Pao!”

  Well, Sarah thought, now she’d done it. Shame on her for expecting help in apprehending Dandelion all neat and tidy. The dweller clung to the edge of the roof, fidgeting and eyeing Sarah as she took each step with care. Surely, Dandelion had to realize Sarah just saved her thieving dweller ass. Sarah didn’t expect a thank you. She just wanted no trouble in Dandelion coming back to the ganghouse. No fuss. That was all.

  “You’re not touching me!” Dandelion snarled like a rabid dog. “I’m not going to let those hags put me on trial. They’ve hated me since I came to this shithole.”

  Sarah pocketed her hands in her new jacket, trying to make herself seem a little less threatening – if anyone could have ever called her that. She felt her brass knuckles and began to roll it around in her palm to keep her focused, calming the nerves.

  “Dandelion,” Sarah said. “I believe you. But if you don’t come with us it’ll look bad. If you did nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Running is for…” Sarah paused for a second, embarrassed about what she was about to say, “…pussies. Do you really think you can hide in this city?”

  “I’ll go to the Amazons,” Dandelion said, so matter-of-factly that it looked like she could float down from the top of that building if not walk past all the Daughters without any resistance.

  “Oh, hell no!” Ava shouted.

  “It’s O –” Sarah reached out a hand, hoping Dandelion would take it, but instead the dweller threw a punch. It was a sloppy throw, and the months of training Sarah’s parents had run her through kicked in like a reflex. Sarah blocked Dandelion’s punch and in the same moment removed her right fist from the jacket, brass knuckles in place.

  Sarah never landed that punch, even though it was as sure as sin. It never landed because Dandelion’s face was blown off before Sarah’s knuckles could find it.

  A blue ball of light had blasted from the top of her forearm – the rang. It had gone off and did what it was designed to do: destroy whatever was in its path. Dandelion’s head shredded into bits of blood and bone that shimmered against the glow of Sarah’s rang ball. The dweller’s lifeless body fell backwards. Sarah gasped and reached to grab it, but wasn’t fast enough. The body toppled over the edge.

  “No!” Sarah could do nothing but fill the space where Dandelion had been, and watch the dweller’s body plummet through the air, slamming into the street with a sudden squish. Sarah’s stomach lurched. She wanted to vomit, but a steady diet of manna left her heaving unproductively.

  A buzzing ricochet filled the air. The ball of light from Sarah’s rang kept flying in the direction she’d accidentally fired, toward the twin tower across the street. When the light ball hit the building’s glass it buzzed and popped, reversing its course and speeding back to where Sarah stood on the roof.

  Her fighting instinct was only good against a human opponent. She had no maneuver to battle the oncoming orb. She should have run or ducked, but her legs were glued and her whole body shook from what she’d seen that rang shot do, what it was about to do to her. Sarah screamed and crossed her arms in front of her face, squeezing her eyes shut and hoping it wouldn’t hurt.

  Another buzzing pop racked her forearm. She waited, for pain or the light at the end of the tunnel, or the blackness of nothing. None of that came. She opened her eyes and dropped her arms. The city returned to quiet. The other Daughters didn’t laugh or make any noise whatsoever.

  “Holy shit,” Hurley Girly said.

  Sterling stood with her mouth agape.

  “There goes that plan,” said Dipity. “Glad I wasn’t in front of you coming up the stairs, Pao. Fucking A.” She looked at Ava, whose stone face made the hollow pain in Sarah’s gut throb even greater. “I knew we should have had her practice before now.”

  Ava stalked over to the edge of the roof and peered down to the bloody mess on the street. Sarah dropped to her knees and clung to the glass next to her, no longer caring about showing a tough exterior or being the Daughter she thought they all wanted her to be. She’d killed someone, unintentionally or not, and if she had a soul it felt like she’d bathed it in sulfuric acid. And the thing that scared her more than what she’d just done, was that it’d be easier to do again. The next time could be on purpose, and maybe she wouldn’t feel… anything.

  “Where’d you learn those moves?” Hurley Girly asked.

  Sarah ignored her. They were just words, noises, they had no meaning when they reached her ears.

  “It was like some kung fu shit,” Hurley Girly said.

  Sarah looked up at Ava, who rested on stiff arms against the roof’s edge. The thought couldn’t be helped, even among the other voices racing in Sarah’s mind – if she’d just let Ava do what she was going to do, Sarah wouldn’t have blood on her hands. She would still be one of the sane, just a guest in this house of horrors.

  “It was an accident,” Sarah whispered.

  “I know,” Ava said.

  “The truce…”

  “Is only for gangs. Don’t worry. You’re in the right on this.”

  “No.” Sarah closed her eyes and cried.

  Ava grabbed Sarah’s chin. It wasn’t a caring gesture, more like grabbing a dog that wouldn’t obey. “Whatever moral standard you’re still living by – drop it. This isn’t Earth, if you can’t tell. We have our own rules. That dweller was going to die one way or another, it was her destiny. I just hope her death will mean something if it gets you to dry your eyes and act like a Daughter for fuck’s sake.”

  Ava stomped away. Her words echoed in Sarah’s mind, at first as a whisper, but then growing in volume. It was enough to get her on her feet. Then all she had to do was put one boot in front of the other, following Hurley Girly and the others down the stairs and back to their cyclones. She’d dry her eyes and grit her teeth to hold back guilty tears. But she wouldn’t forget. Until she found a way to make herself whole again and be rid of the dark cloud around her, she’d fake it.

  Chapter 20

  Lena had seen the blue light of Daughter cyclone wheels from her window. She took her time going down to the main room of the ganghouse and sat in her favorite spot against the wall.

  The shirtless Asian woman walked over. “Are we going to stay here all damn night?”

  “My gang just got back,” Lena said. “We’re going to need your help fixing our door.”

  “That wasn’t our fault. If your newbie hadn’t left us here by ourselves–”

  “You’re also going to help us with adding some other stuff inside the ganghouse. Now go back over there with the other dwellers before I lose my patience.”

  The dweller huffed and turned away.

  “And put a shirt on.”

  The low hum of the cyclones grew closer and soon the Daughters rode in through the open door. Ava didn’t look as righteously happy as Lena expected. All the Daughters, besides Hurley Girly, looked despondent as if they’d lost one of the gang. But Lena counted all of them present with Ava’s stolen motorcycle returned with them. Sarah looked the worst, but Lena could te
ll she was trying to be tough.

  Dipity got off her cyclone with a blood-soaked body over her shoulder. She hurried to the gathered dwellers and dropped it on the floor. The dwellers jumped back when they saw what was left of Dandelion’s corpse. It was like Ava had punched her through the nose and just kept going. The body lay open like a busted, gory piñata. It was fucked up, even for Ava. She must’ve really been pissed.

  “Are you satisfied?” Lena asked the Asian dweller who’d paused in pulling on her shirt to gawk at Dandelion’s remains.

  “No one’s ever going to steal a cyclone again,” the dweller said. “Not after seeing that.”

  Lena swallowed, fighting the urge to puke. You got that right.

  “Two of you go to Grindy’s with Sterling and Hurley Girly,” Lena said. “I need you to get some tools and other stuff. I’ll get you a list. And get these fucking dead people out of here. I’m surrounded by stiffs.”

  Nodding, the dweller finished putting on her shirt.

  Lena walked over to Ava, who was inspecting her bike and running her hand over its curves. “Did you have to be so fucking thorough? I’m pretty sure that dweller was dead after you shot her face off.”

  “Wasn’t me,” Ava said, not looking up from her cyclone. “Pao did some ninja shit when the dweller threw a punch. The rang went off.”

  “No kidding?”

  “Yeah, then the body fell off the roof. You might want to teach her how to shoot.”

  “Hurley Girly can teach her. She’s next in line.”

  “Sure. But I think you need to talk to Pao, too.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Well, not if you talk to her.”

  Lena sighed. What the fuck now?

  Ava got up from babying her bike. “I think she’s having some morality issues or some shit. I tried telling her that kind of stuff doesn’t matter here. Maybe you can get her thinking right.”