by K. T. Hanna
As usual. Something was off. Did my early warning system come with a sense of humor? Because it did this without any clear indication of what might be wrong. Maybe I shouldn’t eat the take out I was going to grab on the way home? Maybe someone was going to jump me and wrestle me to the ground as I tried to retrieve the package?
A little more clarity would help immensely, because right now, I was far too jittery.
Warning: Portent Ability glitching. Abstain from use.
What? I asked it.
What what? It sounded like it had no idea what I was talking about.
Nevermind.
That was really odd, but I didn’t have time right now. It was all I could do to contain my curiosity. I wasn’t using anything. Maybe the oh-so-infallible system had glitched.
Slipping through the security was a non-issue. Basic metal detectors and a few park security staff who were just looking for weapons. Given the time, they were probably eagerly awaiting a shift change too. Bypassing the videos blaring the history of the bell, I pulled out my phone and circled the bell. It hung behind a rudimentary railing. No alarm that I could see. Nothing around it stuck out to me. I took a couple of pictures, hoping I looked like a college student researching a paper, or hell, high school would do too.
You make a very convincing thief.
It was odd how much I’d missed SCs interjections by partitioning my thoughts. I grimaced before retorting. You realize that’s not a compliment. Right?
Of course. You’re just being super silent about how you’re going about this. I’m not sure what your plans are, or if I can help you in any way.
It hit me right then. In keeping all of my thoughts to myself, even with my random thought interjections that I’d been attempting to slip in now and again, the system had grown suspicious of me. I was almost glad I’d been sent on this errand. Although now I was wary of the reasoning behind it.
I got sick and tired of you always hearing me. So I decided to just not think as much as possible.
I shrugged in order to give it a casual flair. At least I hoped I did.
The cogs whirring in the systems brain were almost audible.
Try not to keep too much from me. Many of the assignments are given based on what I’ve observed, and how you seem to be handling past missions and any crisis situations.
Well, you know, it’s not every day someone gets shot right in front of me and has their blood spattered all over my face.
Sarcasm deflected most things, but the pain in my chest right then was real. Maybe SC was onto something. I hadn’t dealt with the death. I’d brushed it off, in much the same way as the washing machine cleaned my clothes. Avoiding dealing with things was much more my forte.
SC didn’t say anything, like it was waiting for me to come to my own conclusions. Tricky system.
I’m not used to death, and I’m not a fan of it. These missions, tasks, assignments you send us on, whatever you want to call them. They’re illegal in all sorts of ways. This one included.
I focused on the bell, trying to figure out just where this package would be. It said the inside the enclosure of the bell. In order to retrieve it, I would have to cross that black metal railing. While it wasn’t exactly an imposing barrier, it was illegal to touch the bell.
You dislike breaking the law?
You sound surprised.
Rules don’t apply to the Second Chance Program. We are above the law. Beside the law. We keep humans safe.
Yeah, yeah. I was pretty sick of that mantra by now.
What about this irritates you?
Genuine curiosity? What an interesting choice, and I needed to get better about directing my thoughts. Either way, it gave me serious pause to truly consider the question. Humankind requires laws, and rules. At its core, it’s what separates us. From the sapient and the non, to the inherently decent and the inherently not. Nothing is black and white. Just shades of grey. Humans don’t need to be kept safe. We need to be contained.
Prevented from doing harm to themselves and the world around them? Yes?
A bit late for that. I barked a laugh, outwardly, unable to contain it. Maybe I needed help too.
We do realize that our actions might not always seem as if we mean to protect humans. All of the empires we’ve tumbled have been for the overall good of mankind. But it is our directive to strive to rectify and prevent any incidents that could pose a cataclysmic effect.
I wasn’t sure why those words left a bad taste in my mind. For all I knew, being babysat was exactly what the human race needed. Who was I to pass judgment on a system that lived in my fucking head? Yep, there it was again. Somehow, this system had lain dormant until my death, upon which it was activated and intruded on my every thought.
I didn’t like it at all. Maybe explaining why we’re doing something would go a long way to helping us do things willingly. What was so important about that file that someone had to die for it?
The death was an unforeseeable misfortune.
There. Right there. Unforeseeable. Wait. Does that mean you can predict or preempt some things? As in, you sort of know what’s going to happen?
It paused. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was conferring with others, or with something else. We do see some of what is to come, but not all. There are many paths to be chosen, and each choice can affect the path beyond it. Right now, your choices and place in our program are unclear. We are not sure what to make of you.
An enigma. I could dig that. But somehow I got a severe sense of danger from those words. My choices are mine. If the fact that I’m an individual who wants their own trains of thought, who wants to make their own decisions is unsettling for you, then I believe you’ve totally misjudged what it means to be human.
This time the pause took long enough for me to realize that the sun had set. The building would close soon. I needed to move, and here I was standing there, typing everything into my phone in an attempt to look like I was either studying or in a massive texting flamewar.
This is something we must think on. Please complete your task and return the item to Nya.
Before I could say anything else, there was a blankness in my head where the voice had just been. Not like usual, not just quiet and sort of there. But gone. Not that I didn’t think it couldn’t come back, but for just a second, I felt lonely.
I cleared my throat and leaned against the railing, watching the bell. At least I hoped people thought I was doing that, but I was actually contemplating just how to get into the enclosure, which I was sure had pressure plates or something to alert security to the fact that someone was trying to touch the bell. In order to touch under the rim, I’d have to stretch myself in an alarming manner. Perhaps the posts holding it up were a way I could get to it.
Frowning, I decided that was one of the worst ideas I could have. I was a Runner, not an acrobat. I paced around the bell, pretending to continue taking photographs as I surveyed it. Okay, it didn’t look like the floor tiles were going to be pressure sensitive, in which case it might prove far easier to do what I needed to. to act. At the very least, I could probably outrun any guards that decided they’d chase me, right? As long as they weren’t short distance sprinters anyway.
Back around to where I’d started from, I crouched down to tie a shoelace, nice and close to the barrier. While doing so, I looked up, and there, sticking out from under the fucking rim of the damned bell was a corner of paper. It wasn’t quite within reach from where I was crouching.
I stood and angled my camera in for a close up. If this didn’t work, I’d be very upset. And it better not smash. I gasped as I accidentally let my phone fall. It hit the ground with a thud and not a smash and I thanked my mother for getting it that expensive case the Christmas before last.
Dropping down to retrieve it, my hoodie fell forward over my face, partially obscuring my view. I was
low enough that I could reach out and snag the corner that stuck out the most, and yank it out, but only if I stretched like a superhero made of rubber. I was balanced low on my feet, my upper body leaning forward. It was a damned nice core workout, but I felt like I was precariously teetering.
Reaching farther in, technically not doing anything wrong yet, I finally managed to stretch enough to reach the damn corner of whatever that was, and I had to tug with some super strength to dislodge it.
I exerted enough force, that the damned bell moved ever so slightly, and I watched in horror as the slow swing teetered right in front of me.
And then, I heard that telltale click of a phone camera.
I don’t think I’d ever moved quicker than I did right then. I jumped up to the side, with both of my feet on the railing, and jumped down over the other side of the bell to the kid with the phone.
“Give me that.” I kept my eyes downcast and thanked myself that I hadn’t thought to wear any telltale clothes with a school logo. Everything was black and drab, and frankly, concealed anything about me.
“Already posted it, man.” The kid said, his voice shaking. The friend who’d initially been with him had already scampered off.
“Fuck.” I sighed. “Show me, then.”
He handed me his phone, and I could feel the fear in his hands as he did so. The picture wasn’t bad. It didn’t give away anything. I was immensely thankful that past me had decided not to wear my student hoodie. Track team apparel wasn’t exactly common. Not even my hair color stuck out. My clothes were baggier than I’d realized, and in the dark background behind the little structure that housed the bell, it made me appear like more of a non-descript shadow.
“Don’t do that shit again. You never know the why of a situation. Stuff like this could get someone killed.” I hoped I hadn’t overdone the lowering of my voice. It made me sound really damned weird.
The kid nodded fervently as I handed him back his phone. Once he had it, he turned and fled. And I decided that sounded like a fantastic idea.
Jogging home in the dark was usually something I loved. The air was always cooler, especially in early spring. There was this wild abandon about running fast through a light no one could see you properly in. Freedom.
Except every few steps, my back twinged. Shit. I’d managed to pull something while executing my brazen vandalism of the bell. That’s what I got for not stretching before executing any type of bendy stuff.
Maybe I was paranoid, but I ran back to our apartment the long way. Clutching the prize in my hand. Since I wasn’t dead again, I assumed it wasn’t poisoned. Yay. Got to live to thieve another day.
Assignment update: Please leave the package in your mailbox. A direct visit with Nya is no longer required at this time.
I frowned. That was unexpected. Perhaps my talk with the system while I was about to steal the damned thing went better than I realized. Or maybe they just wanted to discuss my fate at a different time.
Not that I minded. It was almost eight at night and I was drained. Dropping the letter into the box, I dragged myself up the stairs and let myself in. Plopping down on the couch, I let my head fall back against the soft, worn cushions, closed my eyes, and sighed. At least the warmth of the couch made my back feel better.
That retrieval bugged me. It felt like a test. And the worst part of it was that I didn’t know if I’d passed.
“You okay?”
I opened my eyes to see Orion sitting on the recliner. Well, it didn’t actually recline anymore, but it had once in better days.
“Yeah. Sorry. I’m a bit beat. Didn’t see you. Saw nothing but good old faithful couch of softness.” I hoped that took the sting out of my not noticing him. My brain wasn’t cooperating right now.
Orion chuckled, and I raised an eyebrow in question.
“Just you. Death doesn’t seem to have changed you.” There was a sadness in the way he said it that caught my attention. He looked down at his hands, that melancholy aura settling over him again.
“You know, Blue.” I used to call him Blue when we first met. I much preferred Ry now, because if anyone was blue, it was Cyan. Although I guess her name got the jump on that.
But it worked. He looked up at me with a soft smile, glowing blue eyes, and a slant to the way he held his head.
I continued, emboldened by his reaction. “You were dead for no time at all. Not in real time, not compared to any experience you’ve had. If you’re like me, you don’t remember death. You just remember being awake. Not being awake. And then being groggy and awake again. There’s no way that tiny moment defines us. We’re still who we were. Still going to be who we’ll be. It’s the choices we make along the way that tell us who we are.”
Wow, I was going all philosophical and shit. But Orion seemed to be drinking the words in. He was wearing his I’m-seriously-considering-your-argument face.
“Good points.” Now the steel entered his eyes. Blue, strong, and fierce in a way I’d not seen before. “I think I’ve been wallowing for too long.”
“Probably. You tend to wear your feelings on your sleeve, except for when you’re in denial. I get the feeling your head was in the big D while I wasn’t in the program.”
“Big D?” He raised an eyebrow at me, wiggling his nose. “Dick?”
“Idiot.” I laughed and decided against throwing a cushion because it was currently in the perfect spot. “Denial. Anyway, now I’m in it, there was nothing to separate reality from the nightmare world of SC.”
“Stop psychoanalyzing me. You’re supposed to be an IT major.” He glared at me, but it was half-hearted at best.
“Even if I’m right?” I needled him.
“Even if you’re right. Which I’m not saying you are, but there is an if.” He leaned back and looked at the ceiling before blurting out words I’d not expected. “Liberty Bell test?”
I blinked rapidly, like something had just got in my eye. We probably needed to dust around here. I tried, but couldn’t keep the incredulousness out of my voice. “So, it was a test.”
“Yeah. It was about time for you to take it. So it was either that, or a meeting with Nya.” He watched me, like he was trying to see if I’d give anything away.
“No Nya today. Just had to drop the thing off.”
“Thing?” He seemed more curious than I would have thought if it was a test everyone went through.
Maybe the tests were tailored to the person and where they were within the program since being pulled into it. “You know, the package I had to retrieve from inside the bell.”
“You what?” He stood up. “You had to get to the actual bell?”
“Yes?” I went back to my logs quickly, to the interface on tasks. Yep, right there. “Retrieve a package blah, blah, inside lip of the Liberty Bell.”
“That’s so weird.” He sat back down, putting his head in his hands. “I’ve never heard of anyone having to get inside the boundaries of the railing before.”
“Maybe they wanted to see how far I’d go?” I offered, thinking things over in my head to try and figure out the possibilities. “I was keeping my thoughts from them.”
“Oh, we all go through that.” He waved my concerns away, but his next words told me he didn’t quite understand what I’d meant. “Everyone goes through that stage of denial where they want their thoughts to be their own. All the time. You’ll get used to it soon.”
But that was just it. I didn’t want to. Having a spy in my head all the time—well, except for right now—wasn’t the way I wanted to live. It was my brain and my thoughts, and my head. Even if they’d saved me from death, I was still me.
“Is the test how you hurt your back?” Orion prodded me unexpectedly.
“How did you know?”
He laughed. “I’ve known you since we were tiny, and I know how you walk. You didn’t come in here like y
ou usually do. You were obviously favoring your right side.”
That’s what I got for keeping friends for a lifetime. Next time around, I’d be more careful. Although, maybe this chance was my next time around. “Observant, aren’t we?
I offered a glare but didn’t put my all into it.
He sat back again, closing his eyes instead of looking at the ceiling. “Do you need me to work the knot out for you?”
I seriously considered the offer and shook my head as I answered. “Nope. Still too tender.”
He sighed, his eyes still closed. “You never take care of yourself.”
“Takes one to know one,” I quipped back with my extreme wit. It was all I could come up with on the spot with my tired brain and body.
“Let me enjoy this moment.” Orion said, his voice but a murmur.
I leaned back again, eyes closed. He could have this moment. For now.
I wasn’t expecting to fall asleep on the couch. And, in hindsight which is always twenty-twenty, it was a very bad idea with my extremely shitty back. Groaning as the front door closed with a loud bang, I blinked my crusty eyes open.
Jacob stood in the center of the entryway with a big grin on his face. “I see you partied like wild animals while I was gone.” His deadpan delivery would have been better appreciated if I hadn’t just woken up.
“Sure. Animals,” was my brilliant retort.
He laughed, breaking the moment and dragged his suitcase along the floor. Its wheels clip-clopped every time they hit a groove of the wood. If the planks had been thin, it would have been much worse.
Orion was still asleep, his chest rising and falling with a steady rhythm while he unceremoniously let drool run out of the left corner of his mouth to pool on his shoulder. I watched him for a few moments. Nothing creepy about it at all. If I’d had the energy, I would have reached for my phone to take a very candid picture of him. Wasn’t the most friend-like thing to do, but it would be hella funny.