One Wish, One Choice

by Abby Hope Patrick

  “I’m quite tired,” he said as he lifted his hand to his mouth, covering his fake yawn.

  Damn, he even makes yawning look beautiful. The thought went through Anja’s mind before she could stop it.

  Kano caught her eye and grinned. “I’ll go if you go.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The air was so cold that it burned the group’s skin as they walked against the wind, down the wide streets of Okland.

  A snowflake landed next to Anja’s foot. She bent down and watched it melt into the pavement. When Anja was younger, she and Rufus had gone snowflake hunting in the winter. They would run around the orphanage’s garden trying to see if they could catch them on a piece of black card and study them before they melted. After hours of that, they would pick the prettiest ones and attempt to draw them for Willow to look at. She had stacks of snowflake drawings that she kept under her bed after displaying them on the wall all winter.

  “We’d better hurry up if we want to get there before we freeze.” Kano was walking a few steps in front of Anja and his voice dragged her out of the memory.

  He glanced back over his shoulder, then moved to where Anja was. “So, what do Kettleton folk do for fun?” he asked, matching Anja’s pace.

  “Fun? That’s not a word we use in Kettleton. Instead, we say ‘work’.”

  “Sounds interesting.” His grin was contagious and Anja found herself smiling too. The rest of the group were far ahead. Anja could faintly hear their laughter.

  His smile suddenly faded. “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you end up at the orphanage?”

  “My parents died in a terrorist attack,” Anja whispered, staring down at her feet.

  Anja expected Kano to give the usual response but instead, he stayed silent, slowly nodding. She found herself telling him the story, not because he’d asked but because she wanted to share it with him. “My parents were on their way to work when the presidential motorcade drove by. It was the exact moment that terrorists blew up his vehicle. They died in the bomb blast along with President Atgas’s husband and forty-three others.”

  Kano didn’t ask anything more, instead, he tilted his head and slowly said,

  “I never met my Dad, he left before I was born. I was the man of the house, I split rent with my Mum and we moved to Okland a few years ago. Then she got ill. We had a month between when she was diagnosed and when she died. One month to say goodbye. After that, I moved into an apartment and met Miles. Then I couldn’t afford that anymore so I found an advert for a roommate and moved in with Faye.” He finally stopped, releasing a breath.

  “Hurry up!” Miles called back, breaking their trance.

  They all sat at a booth at the back of the bar. Kano quickly ordered a round of drinks, using his ID. Then another and another.

  A while into the night, the bar started playing a love song, and to everyone’s amusement Saskia and Miles stood up and started singing along with the duet. Saskia’s voice was low and beautiful, she hit every note and started swaying as she got lost in the music. Then Miles began ‘singing’. Everyone clapped their hands over their ears to stop them from bleeding. He continued to belt out the lyrics.

  After that torture, they ordered another round of drinks, the round that took all their common sense away.

  Anja noticed that Kano’s eyes seemed to be on her most of the night. She sat opposite him and occasionally he’d lean in and say something that would make her burst into laughter. She decided to not overthink anything because like Rufus often reminded her, she did overthink most situations.

  Even now, her friends could still surprise her. Miles’s terrible dancing skills. Saskia’s very inappropriate sense of humour. Kano’s fascination with riddles.

  “Alright then,” Anja said, “Tell me a riddle.”

  Kano cleared his throat, “What has a head, a tail, is brown, and has no legs?”

  The whole group took turns guessing, but with each answer, Kano shook his head. “You’re all wrong. The answer was a penny.”

  “Another!” Miles declared, clamping his hands together dramatically.

  “The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?”

  “Oh, I know this one,” Saskia said smiling, “It’s time!”

  Kano shook his head and Saskia let out an exaggerated huff.

  “The answer isn’t always time.” Miles pointed out, laughing. Anja focused on figuring out the riddle, blocking out their squabbling.

  “Footsteps?” she guessed.

  Kano smiled. “Very good, I didn’t think you guys would get it.”

  “We didn’t,” Miles protested, “Anja did. Saskia and I still suck.” Saskia slapped Miles’s arm. “Oi! I only speak the truth.”

  Anja had fun analysing the group’s drunken states.

  Faye was a quiet drunk. She sat in the corner of the booth, occasionally making a snappy comment, but staring into the void most of the night. Saskia was loud and didn’t stop talking. With every drink, her volume rose, and as it rose her words became more and more sloppy. Occasionally she would put on a strange accent.

  Miles would laugh at anything even remotely funny and kept cracking jokes that he thought were hilarious, but weren’t. The alcohol didn’t have a huge effect on Kano, it just took the serious edge off of him. He smiled more and seemed relaxed.

  For Anja, it didn’t take many drinks for the world to begin spinning. She remained in the booth, knowing that standing up and walking wasn’t an option at that moment. Her head spun and she found herself saying the first things that came into her head, and only thinking about them after. That’s when she should’ve slowed down but when Faye called for another round of drinks, she didn’t decline them, happy to dull the absence of her brother even if it was just for one night.

  It was a miracle they didn’t get lost or arrested on their way home. Anja had to hold onto Kano to keep herself from tripping, while Saskia seemed to give up on walking properly. Miles rolled his eyes as Saskia veered off to the right, he extended his hand to her,

  “At least try to walk in a straight line.”

  “I’ve never been straight in my life, Miles. Why should I start now?”

  They got back to the apartment and separated off into their rooms. Anja collapsed onto the sofa, pulling the blanket over her head to block out the spinning world around her.

  Miles came out of his room a moment later. He perched next to Anja.

  “What are you doing, Miles?”

  “Saskia sent me out here to check on you.”

  “Why?”

  He indicated to her dishevelled appearance in response.

  “Miles, you can go to bed. I’m fine.”

  “If you could see yourself right now you wouldn’t be saying that.”

  “What do I look like then?” she asked.

  “Like a lightweight.”

  “Well, I think she looks better than you.” Kano had entered the room during their conversation and now stood just beyond the coffee table. “I’ll take over babysitting the lightweight. You can get some sleep.”

  Miles didn’t argue. But he did get Anja some water before leaving.

  Kano took his place on the sofa. “I’m guessing you don’t drink much.”

  Anja shook her head, then stopped as the world began to spin. “Mrs Dorsin was very strict about alcohol.”

  “If you stay with us long enough, you’ll quickly learn how to hold down the vodka.”

  Anja groaned, “You mean I have to go through this hell again?”

  Kano just smiled. He sat with her until she fell asleep, their quiet laughter filling the room.

  Chapter Twelve

  “It’s snowing!” Saskia yelled from the top of the apartments’s stairs. She rushed down, her curls pulled back into a low bun. A few strands had managed to escape the band and were now hanging around her face. “Get up you idiots! We’re going outside.”

  Saskia yanked Anja from her spot on the sofa. She had been glued to the sofa for the l
ast two days, checking as many cameras in the city as she could access, looking through records to find Rufus’s name and doing everything in her power to find him.

  The group grabbed their thickest coats, hats, gloves and scarves. Kano was smirking at Miles who was wearing a fuzzy pink scarf. Miles glared back.

  “You promised to buy me a scarf before the snow came.”

  “It must have slipped my mind,” Kano replied, batting his eyes innocently.

  Saskia was pulling her shoes on next to Anja, who leaned in to whisper, “Why didn’t you give him your spare black one?”

  “I thought pink suited him better.”

  Saskia rushed out the door with the rest of the group following behind, Kano and Anja trailing at the back. Saskia shoved the front door open, almost colliding with one of their neighbours.

  “Watch where you’re going!” He glared at Saskia as she muttered an apology. Anja kept her head down and walked towards the door, feeling eyes boring into her back. A few seconds after she’d exited Kano joined her, sweat dotting his forehead.

  “That could be a problem,” he muttered to Anja. “If they recognised Saskia…”

  “It’ll be okay,” Anja said, placing her hand on his arm. He smiled down at her.

  Damn that smile.

  Her heart pounded. She quickly removed her hand and followed after the others. The falling snowflakes whirled around them. Already there were a few inches of snow covering the streets. The group walked for a bit, the cold invading each layer of their clothing. Then as Kano and Anja turned onto a quieter street, a snowball whizzed by and smacked Kano in the face.

  “Damn you, Miles!” he shouted, brushing off the snow. He reached down, collected the snow in his hands, and threw it at Miles’s head.

  Miles ducked just in time, letting out a victorious shout as he moved to stand behind Saskia, using her as a shield.

  “Are you kidding?” Saskia yelled in protest as Kano got ready to fire again. Saskia moved out of the way just as Kano launched the next snowball. It hit Miles right in the face, snow splattering down his collar and dusting his eyelashes. He cursed loudly but recovered quickly, aiming his next throw at Anja.

  The snowball fight quickly escalated into an all-out war. The girls split from the boys and formed a base around the side of a bin. Faye was the attacker, her hits almost always landing true. Saskia and Anja spent half the time throwing the snow and the other half laughing. Sometimes Anja would land a hit and enjoyed the look of pure shock when her surprise attacks worked. Curses and insults were thrown almost as much as the snow. The snow soon soaked all of Anja’s clothes, her hair stuck together, half-frozen.

  After an hour they called for a break. Everyone collapsed onto the pavement. Their cheeks were rosy and their fingers, numb. Faye pulled out five vodka miniatures from her coat pocket.

  “A present,” she said, handing them out, “For not being too crap.”

  “Geez, thanks, Faye. That means a lot,” said Miles, sarcasm dripping from every word. Faye held up one specific finger in reply.

  The vodka helped bring feeling back into their bodies. Faye chugged hers down in one go but the others took small sips, pulling faces at the burning sensation it left at the back of their throats.

  Anja realised that this was the first time in two weeks that she hadn’t thought about Rufus. Guilt squirmed powerfully inside her stomach. Kano noticed her expression change and slid to sit next to her.

  “It’s okay.” He downed the rest of the alcohol. His voice was rough from the cold. “No one blames you for having a break and enjoying yourself for once.”

  She knew Rufus wouldn’t blame her, but even taking a morning to herself felt wrong. She wanted to go back to the apartment and continue working to find him. But the truth was that after all this time she’d found nothing more, not even one lead. She was racing against the clock, and time was running out. But Anja had no idea how much time was on the clock in the first place. The mystery of it all stressed her, and not knowing what Rufus was going through pained her.

  She opened her mouth to tell the group that she was going to head back, but Kano saved her the trouble.

  “I think I’m going to pop back and cook up a warm lunch for the victors.” He paused, looking around at the group but focusing on Anja as he said it. “Anyone up for helping?”

  Anja smiled as she rose from the pavement. “Sure, I don’t think my fingers can survive much longer.”

  “That settles it then, Anja and I will head back and start cooking. You guys can take on Faye in a snowball fight.” Faye’s eyes sparked with the challenge. Before they’d even turned a corner, the group had resumed the battle, Saskia’s yelps and Miles’s high-pitched shrieks following them as they walked.

  “Thank you,” Anja said, pushing her hands into her pockets, only to find that they were filled with snow.

  “We promised to help you find your brother and having a snowball fight isn’t going to help. I still think you needed the break though,” he added, nudging her shoulder with his. Anja offered a thin smile in return.

  When they arrived at the apartment Kano entered the kitchen and rifled through each cupboard in turn. “What should we cook?”

  “Well I don’t know how much cooking skill you have, but my skill stops at adding water to noodles and waiting five minutes.”

  Kano grinned, then grabbed some pizzas from the freezer. “How about we cheat and just cook these?”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  He reached over to turn the oven on. “You didn’t think to tag your brother with a tracker by any chance?”

  “Weirdly that didn’t cross my mind.” Sarcasm leached into her words.

  Anja checked Rufus’s emails again. She’d guessed his password on the first try — it was the same password he’d used since he was ten.

  She combed through his emails, desperate to find a clue, any clue, but nothing caught her attention. Kano moved around the sofa to look over her shoulder, his eyes flicking to every email title, trying to find something, anything. He then sat to the left of her on the sofa. After a moment he leaned in, reached his hand up and touched her hair, pulling from it some snow that had stuck to her during the snowball fight. Anja’s eyes shifted to look at him, but she didn’t dare move.

  Kano seemed to catch himself then, swiftly pulling his hand back and muttering, “Piece of ice…”

  Anja turned back to the screen, the right side of her mouth lifting in a hidden smile.

  Suddenly Kano’s hand moved forward to place his finger millimetres away from the screen. “Who’s that?”

  “It’s his editor. He always sends emails to Rufus to check up on his writing progress.”

  Kano looked from the screen to Anja. “Do you know what Rufus was writing about before he left for Okland?” Anja shook her head. “Can I read Rufus’s reply?”

  His editor’s email was simple, inquiring how his work on the column was going. Anja scrolled down to the reply from Rufus,

  “It’s been done for a while now but I think I’m almost ready to release it. There is going to be a big reaction to this one and we need to be ready.”

  “What story is he talking about?” Kano asked, his voice excited.

  “I wish I knew. Since I moved he hasn’t been talking about them unless they’re finished.”

  “What if this is why they took him? He had a story that someone didn’t want shared and so they shut him up before he was able to finish it.”

  Anja didn’t know how to reply. Just like Rufus to throw himself into danger without thinking twice…

  Kano continued, “I mean, we know that it wasn’t a random kidnapping, the way the attackers were dressed told us that. So, we’ve got to believe that it was someone with power and influence that wanted him. And this could give that person motive—”

  A burning smell drifted towards them.

  “Crap. The pizzas!” Kano hurried to the oven and pulled three very crispy pizzas from within.

&nb
sp; “You had one job,” Miles sighed as he and the girls walked through the front door. Faye had noticeably less snow on her and a smug expression on her face.

  Saskia took her place in the kitchen and cut off the badly burnt parts of the pizza. The group sat down to eat, Kano passed out rugs to the snow-covered trio.

  “You can take off the pink scarf now,” he pointed out to Miles.

  “I could take it off, but I quite like the look.” Anja laughed around a huge bite of pizza. Saskia tilted her head back, her curls falling loose around her face.

  “Keep it,” she giggled. “You look better in it than I do. Not many people can pull off neon pink.”

  Anja was about to share Kano’s theory about why Rufus had been taken with the group but as she was about to speak the lights in the apartment switched off.

  “What’s going on?” Anja asked, but Faye shushed her.

  “There are people outside,” Faye whispered in the darkness.

  Anja strained her ears to listen, she could hear the faint sound of footsteps coming from behind the door.

  Kano began to speak but he was interrupted by the sound of the apartment’s door being smashed open.

  Before they could react, a team of armed police burst into the apartment. Guns were raised towards the group.

  Anja tried to back away but there was nowhere to go. Her vision clouded with tears. Fear made her legs shake violently beneath her.

  The voices of the police echoed around the small space.

  “Hands above your head! On your knees!”

  The group obeyed. Their hands raised as they lowered themselves to the floor.

  In a matter of seconds, the police spread throughout the room. Their phones were collected and placed in a clear bag.

  The police grabbed their raised hands and handcuffed them behind their backs. Faye had recovered from the initial shock and began kicking the person holding her. She got one good kick in before one of them raised a taser and fired right into her chest. Her whole body shook uncontrollably. The others watched, horrified, as she fell writhing to the floor.