//------------------------------// // You will never escape ch9 // Story: You Will Never Escape // by Autistic Witch //------------------------------// I stretched as I awoke, earning several pops from across my body. Curious as to why my alarm wasn’t beeping, I looked over at my alarm and saw that it was 12:06 pm. Shit. I jumped out of bed and rushed through my morning routine, not even making coffee or breakfast, and to the office. When I got in, I saw Rarity sitting at her desk, rubbing her temples. “I missed her.” Rarity looked up at me and gave me a crooked smile. “Your SIL is a piece of work.” “Sorry about that.”, I said as I dropped my backpack then took a seat in front of Rarity’s desk. “You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn’t marry her.” “Yeah, but I resemble my sister enough for her to behave around me.” “That’s good to hear.” “I’ve got more good news. I got Blue off my back, but it turns out he and Gray aren’t affiliated, so they’re still an issue.” “Hold on, wait.”, Rarity said while bringing her hand up. “Who would hire two different assassins?” “And it turns out Blue wasn’t hired to kill me. He was hired to abduct me. I don’t know by who or why.” “Maybe… uh, I got nothing.” “I know that my father and youngest sister want me killed, and both their wives are divorcing them, and I don’t think- what do I even call her?- Chancellor's wife would want me dead if she’s divorcing that cheating scumbag. That just leaves my two older sisters, and Royal doesn’t want anything to do with me. She could want me disappeared, but she doesn’t strike me as that kind of person. I could be wrong, but I’m going to check other possibilities first. That just leaves the middle sister, Fizzlepop.” “I’ll let you get to it.” I gave Rarity a salute then went to my desk. I searched for Fizz on all the usual places, but there was only her private Instabook. I then punched her into our background checker and found her military record. Honorable discharge, lost her right hand and got a head injury, former Seal. Impressive. Code name, Tempest Shadow. There we go. Her address popped up in the search, but she lives on the other side of town, way aways from any other member of the family, all the way in Klugetown. Why would anyone choose to live in that hell hole? Chancellor doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to let one of his children live in such a place, even if it was a choice. I looked for where she worked and found a non-profit for at risk youths. Oh, that explains the location. “It looks like I found the black sheep of the family. As in, she’s the only white sheep, former military, works at a children's non-profit, even lives in the same crappy hood as the kids.” “I wonder what led her down such a different path?” “That’s what I’m going to ask her.”, I said as I grabbed my backpack. “See you later.” I put the address in my phone as I headed down to my bike. I stopped for some breakfast and coffee then headed to the youth center. Getting there took the better part of an hour, and when I say hell hole, I mean the streets are more potholes than road and families are living in houses that look condemned. The youth center Fizz worked at looked okay, but it was still clear what part of town it was located in. Heading inside, I was greeted by an average small reception area with chairs, a hallway off to the side, and a front desk. I approached the front desk lady, who wore teen friendly looking clothes. “Hi, I’m looking for Fizzlepop Berrytwist. Is she here?” “Fizzlepop Berrytwist, oh, you mean Tempest. Yeah, she’s in the activity room. Just down the hall, you’ll know it when you see it.” I nodded and headed down the hallway. There were several doors, mostly single doors with a couple double doors. It was through an open double door that I saw Tempest talking to a preteen. They’re sitting at one of many white, plastic tables, and the kid was drawing. Tempest had her right arm resting on the table, which was prosthetic up to just below her elbow. I quietly approached them and looked down at the kid’s drawing. It was crude but clearly showed a man lying in the street, getting cavity searched by the police. Poor kid. “That looks very nice.”, I commented. The kid looked up at me with a blank expression. “Thanks”, he said dully. Tempest also looked up at me and recognition flashed in her eyes. “Smallfry, this is my sister, Sunset.” I gave him the best friendly smile, but his expression didn’t change. I couldn’t blame him. I too shut myself off emotionally when I was a kid. It let me exist without having to deal with the reality of my situation. “Hey, Smallfry, why don’t you go play with the others. I would like to talk with my sister.”, Tempest said. “Okay” Smallfry slid off the chair and walked over to a rugged area with toys for various ages. I took the seat Smallfry previously occupied, putting me right in front of Tempest. “So, you prefer your Navy nickname?”, I asked curiously. “Yes, it was given to me by my actual family, as powerful as a raging tempest, as silent as a shadow.” “That answers a few of my questions, but I have many more.”, I said in a more serious tone and pulled out my license, letting Tempest get a good look at it before putting it away. “Someone hired a man with blue skin and crimson eyes to kidnap me. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this, would you?” Tempest got a resigned look on her face and nodded. “That was me. I hired him to take you somewhere safe. I don’t want to alarm you…” “I already know about the assassin.”, I said firmly, cutting her off. She spoke to me like I was a child. I hate that. Tempest looked surprised. “Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.” “Clearly. Now, why did you feel the need to hire a mercenary instead of just talking to me?” “I figured you wouldn’t believe or go along with the plan.” “You're right on the second half. I’m not leaving my family.” Tempest nodded solemnly. “You’re better than us.” “And that leads into my next question. Why are you nothing like the rest of our relatives?” Tempest leaned back in her chair, and her face told me that was a loaded question. “That requires a family history lesson to answer.” “I’m listening.” “You’re lucky to look like our grandmother. Our grandparents’ marriage was not a love filled one. Our grandfather raped our grandmother and got her pregnant, and their families forced them to marry. I look like a female clone of our grandfather. I’m disgusted that I look so much like him. I don’t want to be anything like him. That’s why I joined the military, work here. I’m trying to be a better person.” “I see.”, was my only reaction. Tempest looked surprised by my lack of reaction, but this kind of story is hardly rare as far as I’m concerned, and I couldn’t get emotionally invested in it. “It is sad to hear that happened to your grandmother.” “What are you going to do now? I can’t protect you.”, Tempest said worriedly. “You don’t need to worry about that. I’m sick. I’ll be dead in a couple days.” Tempest looked me over and pulled out her phone. I could only guess she was comparing what she saw now to an older picture. She looked between me and her phone for a bit before a sad realization spread across her face. She put her phone back and bowed her head. “I wish I got to meet you sooner.” “I’ll let Rarity know to invite you to the funeral. I have your number.” I got up and left without waiting for a response. Although, when I got to my bike, I didn’t immediately ride off. I’m going to die in two days. Saying it out loud smacked me straight in the face. I could do the usual kind of stuff people do when they know they’re going to die, but that could land me back in the hospital. Maybe tomorrow. I took off but didn’t head back to the office. Instead, I drove out to the beach. Not many people were there given that the overcast skies were not great beach weather and it’s the middle of the work day. As nice as it is that the beach isn’t crowded by tourists and their garbage all summer long, the same lack of tourists has caused the economy to suffer. The nerds say the water level has risen a couple inches. “Yay, climate change.”, I said sarcastically. The cloud cover stretched out over the water as far as I could see. The gray clouds gave the water a slight gray tint as well. It was beautiful in its own way but also a constant reminder that we’re in increasing danger. Our permacloud isn’t even the worst of it, ancient diseases reemerging from thawing ice, anthrax outbreaks in the north from thawing reindeer carcasses, increasingly violent storms, and some places are already being flooded. You’ll hear the over dramatic types saying the world is doomed, but that’s not true. Humanity is doomed, but Earth will survive and recover in a few thousand years of our extinction, and everything we have built will be gone with the only traces of us ever existing being our space junk. “Almost makes dying seem preferable.” I was about to ride back off when I spotted a familiar head of blue hair. Flash. The poor guy never managed to get his music career off the ground. We’ve lost touch over the years, so I have no idea what he’s doing now. He still looked okay, if with a bit of a dad-bod. I dismounted my bike and hurried to intercept him. “Hey man, how ya been?” Flash looked up at me surprisedly, then got a look of recognition on his face. “Sunset? It’s been a while.” “It sure has. What are you doing here?” “Oh, today’s my day off. I’m taking a walk to clear my head. Wanna join me?” “Sure” We headed down the sidewalk and looked around at all the places we used to hang out at. Very few of the businesses that were around when we were kids are still around, many of the buildings being boarded up or a new business that has nothing to do with tourism. Even during the summer, you aren’t going to see the food trucks that used to be all over the boardwalk. “This is depressing.”, I commented. “Yeah, it’s like everyone is slowly disappearing. Unfortunately, I’ll be joining them soon.”, Flash said sadly. “What do you mean by that?” “I can’t earn enough money here to support Muffins and the girls. Even with her disability benefits, it’s just not enough. We’ll be moving in a couple weeks.” “A couple weeks, that means you’ll have to drive back for my funeral, assuming they’ll find my body.” “What kind of goodbye is that?”, Flash asked worriedly. I took off my helmet and looked Flash straight in the face. His face dropped when he saw how pale and sickly mine was. “I’m dying, Flash. I’ll be dead in a couple days.” Flash’s head fell and his entire body tensed up as he tried to hold back his tears. The look of pain on his face made my heart break. “Is there really nothing that can be done?” “Nothing” Flash looked back up at me like he was pleading for another answer, but none came. Flash pulled me into a hug, and I could feel the tightness in his chest. “I love you, Sunset. I never stopped loving you.” “I know. I wish I was better to you. You didn’t deserve my crap.” “You didn’t deserve any of that either. You were just a child. I wish I could’ve helped you.” I pulled back from the hug and fixed him with a serious expression. “You did help me. I don’t think I would’ve made it if you weren’t there. I will never forget you, wherever I go. Goodbye, Flash.” I pulled away and put my helmet back on. “Goodbye, Sunset.”, Flash said sadly. I nodded and made my way back to my bike. I drove off and back to the office. Rarity wasn’t there, but she left a case box on my desk. I looked over its contents, but my mind couldn’t focus. Knowledge of your impending doom is quite distracting. What should I do for my last day alive? I knew what I was doing tonight but afterwards. I closed up the box, taking the case notes. At least for today, I still had a job to do. I heard the door to my apartment open as I was in the kitchen, and Twilight walked in. She was wearing her usual casual attire of sweats and sneakers. I gave her a smile as I finished plating our meal and brought it over to the table. “So, how was your day?”, Twi asked. “It was… something. I met the middle sister today.” “Oh, what was she like?” I played with my food a bit before answering. “She was… actually nice. She’s just as disgusted by our family as I am and is trying to be better. She even referred to me as her sister.” “Wow, sounds like someone worth getting to know.” “Yeah”, I said halfheartedly. My lack of enthusiasm caught Twi’s attention, and she gave me a light smack to my side. “And you are going to be around to get to know her, no matter how bad you look.”, she said forcefully. I gave her a gentle smile. “Can we at least act like I’m not for tonight?” Twilight wrapped her leg around mine and nuzzled my neck. “Gladly” I scarfed down the rest of my food and brought out what alcohol I do have and every sweet treat I have stuffed away. Twilight finished her food in a more relaxed manner as I poured us each a glass of wine. Once Twi had finished her food, we dug into the ice cream and sweets. By the time we were finished, we were both slightly drunk, and we stumbled to bed and out of our clothes.