We spent the weekend together, I so joyful to have her back, to have truly back, that I couldn’t bear to be apart from her for even a moment. She hadn’t just rebounded from her depression, she had truly conquered it a thousand times over. I was witness to a transformation the likes of which I had never seen, a final goodbye to the lifestyle in which she had lived. I was overjoyed, not only to see her become what I always believed she could be, but that I would be there to witness her new birth, a restoration of a soul who was even more wounded than I.
Saturday about and the two of us went back to my house, taking a fair amount of care to avoid being seen. It meant a longer route back home, but it was a custom we’d come to ritualize. With Wanyama, there was no chance for us to make mistakes. I found Mom in the living room, holding a rolling pin with just the slightest suggestion that its uses were meant for me.
“I’m gonna take a shot in the dark here and assume I made you mad,” I commented. “If you’d be oh so kind to give me five seconds-”
I didn’t even get two before she was on me, whacking me with the rolling pin in a mad frenzy and chasing me around the house as I tried desperately to escape her reach. She was totally incensed, shrieking and yelling at me in a smattering of Spanish curses so vile that I was half-wondering if she’d eaten a bucket of salt before I’d arrived.
“Mom, holy crap, let me speak for just one- Ow, watch where you’re swinging that thing!” I roared, getting struck across the back and almost choking on the baking powder still attached to the pin. “For the love of God, I want to be civil- DAMMIT!”
“Qué chingados! Tú gilipollas! Come mierda y muerte, que te folle un pez!” she spat furiously, utterly stunning me. She never, ever swore like this- hell, she never even swore, I was the foul bastard of the family. I must’ve seriously pissed her off to drive her to this!
“Mom, I am begging you- Ow, damnit!¬- I wanna live, now will you please stop!” I shrieked.
“Whoa! Whoa, just hold on for a second!” Sunset cried ardently, somehow possessing the courage to come between me and my mother. “Please, I know you’re mad but if you’d just give us a few seconds and let’s all calm down-”
“Qué te jodan! No me jodas, niñita!” My mother screamed, raising her rolling pin to the heavens but not bringing it down against her. Thankfully, my mother’s anger extended only to me.
“I promise, it’ll all make sense if you’d just let me tell you what happened!” Sunset beseeched her.
“Voy a matar a ese Cabrón!”
Sunset looked back at me, begging for help. “Get her to calm down, do something!”
“What am I supposed to do, she’s hitting me with a rolling pin!” I yelled.
“Manda huevos, cara de culo!” Mom stormed, and the two of us just began slinging insults at one another, a mountain of foulness so intense that I was certain everyone on the whole damn block could hear us cursing each other to oblivion. It felt like would never end, my inhuman taunts brawling with her hometown slang that was hell-bent on beating me to a pulp and dragging me across the room by the ear like I was a little child-
“Will you both shut it?!” Sunset finally screamed, a petite figure of fiery anger that struck the two of us dumb as dunces. Part of me marveled at the fact that a girl barely up to my chin had just effectively silenced both me and my overly Latina mother in five syllables, an incredible fear if anyone had ever bothered to know how bad me and my Mom could argue. It would’ve been pretty funny if Sunset hadn’t been yelling at me. “Holy cow, you both need to chill out. Just- shut up and sit down, both of you.”
“How dare you order me around in my own home-” my mother said angrily, starting to fire up once more.
“Ma’am, please understand,” Sunset said, taking a seat on the coffee table. “I am very tired, it has been a long week, I am physically and mentally exhausted and I have no patience for stuff like this right now. I started my weekend by fighting a bunch of monsters that tried to feed on everyone in my school and the person that they struck first is the one you’ve been trying to smack with a rolling pin. So if you’ll give me just five minutes of your time, I’ll be able to explain at least a little bit of it to you, and maybe it’ll start to make some sense. Can you please do me that favor?”
My mother’s anger was nowhere close to abated, but it was at least silenced for the time being. I couldn’t help but give a small grin as I knew she was nowhere near prepared to take on the bomb that was about to drop.
Five minutes later my Mom had fainted dead away, leaving me and Sunset tasked with reviving her- as well as finishing the story. She’d been so utterly dumbstruck by the tale that she couldn’t handle it, passing out right around the time that Sunset started talking about the Sirens. She hadn’t even gotten to the part where they’d put an enchantment on me. Fifteen minutes later, when we’d finally been assured that my Mother was alright, we started up again- and she passed yet again when we told her about the Sirens enchanting the entire school. It was less funny this time round, as I had to pour a bucket of water on her face and she nearly broke my nose swinging her rolling pin. Thankfully, after what was an hour-long struggle to tell the story and have it make the slightest shred of sense, we were done. Mom’s anger wasn’t fully abated, but at least she understood that I hadn’t really been to blame.
Made me hope that I hadn’t done anything illegal.
“So… so let me try to understand this,” she said weakly, her fingers twisting and turning the rolling pin in an effort to give herself something to do. “You,” she said, pointing at Sunset, “Are a being from another world.”
“That’s correct. I was a unicorn in training to become royalty,” Sunset said.
“And you got kicked out of your homeland,” Mom continued.
“Also correct. The portal is in the statue at Canterlot High. That was a few years ago.”
“And you’re dating my child, who was attacked by creatures from your world,” Mom added.
“Yes. The Sirens, who were only struck down two days ago. Their magic is broken.”
My Mom turned to me, still looking pretty faint from the news. “Did you know any of this?” she asked.
“Me? Heck no, only found out the other day,” I answered. “Been asking questions like a maniac ever since. Surprised she hasn’t gone crazy from it yet.”
“And… and you’re- OK with all of this?”
I shrugged. “Why not? Doesn’t change much, really. I mean, she’s still the same girl.”
Mom looked at me, darted her gaze over to Sunset, then back at me again. “Well,” she said finally, “What do I know? I guess it doesn’t make any difference…”
I grinned. Knowing her, it was going to take a considerably long time for her to get used to the whole situation, but she was unlikely to complain too much. After all, Sunset helped me stay out of trouble, she got along with my Mom real well, and she’d been a good influence on my grades. It was practically my Mom’s trifecta.
Mom eventually got up and went back to her work, though I could hear her muttering in Spanish the entire way, using a string of utterly stunning superlatives. I could barely understand half of them.
“How… how do you think she’s gonna handle it?” Sunset asked me hesitantly.
“Ah, you’ll be fine. She would’ve said something otherwise,” I remarked.
“She was more polite about it than you were, at the very least,” Sunset grinned. “I still can’t believe you asked me about racing…”
I went red, not fully over the stupidity of that one. “Oh come on, it was the best I could manage at the time!” I said defensively. “You should’ve known I wouldn’t have delivered anything stellar right off the bat!”
“But still, that’s your first line? I could’ve taken that as something offensive, you know,” she fired back.
“I’d just been attacked and brainwashed for two damn days! Poor choices were inevitable!”
The two of us went on at length for a fair amount of time, Sunset having her fun poking me with my awkwardness, I trying desperately to defend what little position I had at my disposal. I certainly wasn’t over the outright idiocy I’d committed, but I was happy she’d become more playful. It was another change in personality she’d had since the events of Friday night.
All too soon, Sunday came to a close and it would be time for us to start school in the morning, leaving me filled with trepidation. Though Sunset assured me that everyone else had little memory of what had occurred, it didn’t leave me feeling any more comfortable about my own mistakes. I’d gathered from hints Sunset and the others had dropped that I’d said some pretty nasty stuff and gotten into a couple fights, but I wasn’t really certain of how I’d react if I came across a guy with a broken nose. I’d know my own handiwork on that one well enough.
“Relax, it’ll be okay,” Sunset assured me as we walked back into her apartment. “Everybody was pretty terrible because of the Dazzlings’ spell. No one’s gonna remember any of it.”
“And if they do? It’s a whole other mess of problems for me,” I replied, sinking into the couch. “I’ve got a track record the cops already know about. If someone were to report me for anything I did- I’m a legal adult now, babe-”
“It’ll be OK,” she said firmly, planting an assuring kiss on my forehead. “I know why you’re worried, and I promise it’s not going to matter. You’re free of that now.”
Free. Just as Sunset was free of her own darkened past, so I was free of the life I had led. No matter what darkness we’d spread, what sins we’d committed, we were ruled by them no longer. Because of one another, we could go wherever we want, be whomever we desired to be, achieve truly anything. We brought limitless possibilities to each other that we never would have found, or even bothered to find, without doing it all together. The weekend had given me a lot of time to think about what that meant- not just for me and her as individuals, but for us. With my new car and graduation coming up in the next few months, I was starting to dwell more and more on the possibility of leaving this place behind. Of leaving this city and never coming back- the ultimate goodbye to the person I’d been.
“We could go anywhere, you know,” I said softly.
Sunset, who had gone into the kitchen to grab a couple of glasses, turned and looked at me in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“We’re free, Sunset,” I said. “We could go anywhere, do whatever we want. Have you ever thought of just- running away? That we could just disappear into the world and start over completely, just leave all our fears and failures behind? I mean,” I continued, getting up from my seat, “Look at what you’re capable of! Look at that pile of college offers you’ve gotten! You got eight yesterday alone! You are filled to the brim with so much potential that you could literally change the world! Who says we have to stay here any longer, that we can’t go off and make our own destiny? Just- what if, right?”
Sunset thought about that for a moment. “We could, couldn’t we?” she said slowly. “I won’t lie, there’s times I’ve thought of just running away from this place and leaving everything behind- but, could we really do it?”
“Sunset, you’re a unicorn from another world, you fought off a trio of ancient monsters and saved an entire city,” I said incredulously. “I think you’re capable of doing whatever the hell you feel like doing. Just- OK, hear me out before you say anything, but I’m going to suggest something kinda crazy.”
Sunset gave a small smile. “Go on.”
“OK, I know you’re kind of indecisive about where you want to go to college, so here’s an idea. It’s stupid, it’s insane- like, bat-shit insane, but still… what if you were to reach into that pile of acceptance letters, grab just one, and that was the college you went to? And that’s where you went off to, that’s where you made your future?”
Sunset looked down at the hilariously large pile of letters in thought. She’d gotten more than anyone would have ever realistically expected anyone to get, the two of us having lost track somewhere around the start of the month- I think we’d been at 68. Everyone in the academic world could see what she was capable of, how brilliant and how amazing she could be- it was her chance to make her own life, free of the memories of the places that haunted her. She had no future here, just as I had no place in this city- we had both outgrown our sins.
“What about you?” she asked, turning to me. “What would you do?”
“I’d go with you,” I said simply. “I promised to follow you into the dark, if that’s what it took- I can follow you into the light, too.”
“But you’d need to take care of yourself,” she protested.
“I could get a full-time job,” I said. “I could work in athletics somewhere, work as a bartender if I could get the chance. I’d like to go to a technical school if I could find one- I may not have the chance to be as successful as you, but I could have my own little victory. I’ll have finally left Wanyama, the West End, and my old man behind… for good.”
Sunset looked down at the pile of letters once more, placing her hand across the top and brushing them gently with her fingers. “Are you certain that we could make it?” she asked quietly.
“I’m more than certain,” I said firmly. “I know we’d light up the world. Go on, girl… find your future.”
She took a deep breath and plunged her hand in deep, grasping about and making a mess as she anxiously fumble about in the pile. Out she pulled a crisp letter bearing a seal that I hadn’t seen in a couple weeks, nor one that I recognized. She looked down and pulled out the letter and began to read quietly, a small smile growing on her face as she saw the next step in our journey. “Congratulations, you have been accepted into the University of Standford,” she whispered.
“Alright, West Coast!” I said excitedly. “Never seen the ocean before and you and I get to see the big daddy of them all. Sounds fun.”
Sunset gave a tiny laugh and tossed the letter aside onto the countertop, starting to grab the remaining letters and bring them to the trash. “That was a crazy thing to do,” she said. “It could’ve gone really wrong, you know.”
“But it didn’t,” I said calmly, “And now look- you’ve got a future! You know where you’re headed and so do I, we have a chance to make a new life in a place we’ve never been before. That’s more than cool… how’s it feel to know your future, girl?”
Sunset smiled and rolled her eyes, unable to find any suitable reaction. “It feels good, I guess. Yeah, it really does.”
“And I don’t doubt it,” I said, wrapping my arms around her from behind. “With what little time we’ve got left here, let’s leave this city unforgettable- and go rock the world the moment we leave it behind. Deal?”
“Deal,” Sunset replied, wrapping her fingers in mine.
Monday morning began with a strange feeling of apprehension, I taking a little longer than usual to get dressed and leave. If I were honest with myself, I really didn’t want to go. I was tired of the endless spectacle that was high school, and more than eager to leave it all behind. With Sunset and I’s decision last night, I was beginning to form a mental countdown until graduation and our departure. We had a lot of work to do ahead of us –planning how to get there, bringing our stuff, jobs and where we’d live- before we’d even be able to head out. There was also the matter of when we’d even leave, something I hadn’t fully thought out yet. Thankfully, it was only the very beginning of April. We’d have more than enough time till August to figure it out.
I was pretty quiet when we arrived at school, taking a few minutes to enjoy the pleasant morning. Winter was thankfully behind us now, spring taking root as the sunshine warmed the air. It was glorious weather that I’d desperately been waiting for ever since Sunset and I had started dating- we could final enjoy the city to its fullest extent, barred by the cold no longer.
“You alright?” Sunset asked me as we relaxed beneath the Wondercolt statue, polishing off the last bits of our breakfast. “You’re not still worried, are you? I told you to relax, it’s okay!”
I shook my head. “Nah, not anymore. Am curious, though, as to how people are gonna be. The place just got a big shakeup, I kinda wonder how that’s gonna affect everything.”
“It shouldn’t too much. I don’t expect anything big,” she replied.
“Evil magic monsters invade a high school and you don’t expect any changes?” I asked drily.
“So maybe I’m more accustomed to it,” Sunset admitted. “But still, they’ll bounce back pretty quickly. They had an entire weekend to get away from everything.”
“Yeah, true,” I said, downing the last of my egg and cheese muffin. “Well, we might as well get going. You ready?”
Sunset took my hand and we went on in to class, I opening the front doors with a sense of apprehension. What was this school going to do in the aftermath of a near catastrophe?
The answer was exactly as Sunset had predicted- nothing. There was a small mention of the event over the PA system by Principal Celestia, but no one really seemed too phased. Life was normal again- no monsters, no magic, no curses or spells. Just a bunch of teenagers trying desperately to avoid staff and responsibilities on our road to the end of the year. The cliques still existed in perfect harmony, the jerks were still the jerks and the popular people were still popular. Nothing had changed at all… except the school’s treatment of my girlfriend.
It took me a while to get used to people coming up to her and not trying to harm her, but instead bring words of kindness or a friendly gesture, or a genuine conversation. Though I and the girls were Sunset’s closest friends, she had gained a sudden boon of popularity among the student body. Finally, after months of trying, Sunset herself had struck down her doubters once and for all- though it probably helped that she had saved their necks. But still, there she was, among people who wished her well, and she was more alive than she’d ever been. Despite all my attempts to bring her around and help her out of the pit, Sunset had done it herself and in her own way. I never would have been able to do it for her and I felt foolish for ever thinking I could.
I found myself watching her throughout the day, a mixture of delight and wonder at this sudden transformation. That brightness, that light I’d seen in her had come to fruition, but this was never what I had expected. I’d been envisioning a more relaxed version of who she already was: quiet, unassuming and somewhat reclusive. Instead, Sunset was lively, outgoing and full of a fire that was entirely unique. She was more than just herself, she’d become something extraordinary.
It was a perfect day. Or it would’ve been, if it hadn’t been for one little roadblock still left standing: Octavia Melody, bane of Sunset and I’s existence and a sorehead. I didn’t know what she was so mad about –Sunset told me around lunch that she had been part of the battle of the bands and lost- but it was so much more than that. It was as if Octavia had taken everything Sunset and I had done personally, as if every success and triumph we had was a transgression against her somehow. If I had known all those months ago what trouble she would cause, I never would have bothered trying to talk to her.
“Look, I know she’s getting on your nerves, but let it go,” Sunset cautioned to me as Octavia threw yet another jibe, reverting to her usual diatribe that I was a complete thug and Sunset was a monster. “She’ll never quit, she’ll never be able to let it go. She’s too weak-minded to ever let it rest.”
“Hey, you don’t get to ignore me!” Octavia yelled over the crowd. “You don’t listen to that skank, you listen to me!”
“No, let it go- I said no!” Sunset said angrily, but I ignored her, gently pushing her aside so I could go confront my tormentor. I’d had about enough of this and I wasn’t really interested in letting it continue until I left this school.
“Are you ever gonna quit?” I said, shoving my way past a few of the students to face my musically inclined enemy. “I mean, are you not capable of growing up and putting on some semblance of adulthood? At all?”
“How dare you-” she began to say…
“No, you’re listening to me,” I cut through forcefully, raising my right hand to silence her. “Why won’t you give this up? What did we do that made you so angry, so hurt that you will never let us have a moment of rest? Don’t you see that nobody cares anymore? Look around you- Sunset won. She beat you, and this school’s attitude towards her today proves it. Just let it go.”
Octavia couldn’t say a word against that and she knew it. I had her caught between continuing a fight she knew she’d never win and the fact that I was dead right. It must’ve killed her to keep silent.
Sunset, who had been standing just behind me, saddled up alongside me and stared down her greatest tormentor. The two had been at odds ever since I had arrived at Canterlot High, probably even before that- a rivalry that had been marked by the cellist’s cruelty and malice of a bitter soul. Yet here Sunset stood, unafraid and her eyes filled not with anger or hate, but with pity. Despite all that had Octavia had committed against her, Sunset was too great to hold a grudge. “Octavia, I know why you’re still upset,” she said calmly. “I know it must hurt, and I know the reason you hate us both is because of me. But can you listen to me? We don’t have to be friends, we don’t have to even like each other, but we can let this go- let it end right now. Will you do me that favor, and let’s make peace once and for all?”
Sunset finished with the simplest of gestures, an outstretched hand extended in peace out to her worst, most cruel of persecutors. Octavia stared down at the hand as if it were a snake coiled to strike, practically backing away in primal fury. Sunset didn’t flinch or move a muscle, staring at Octavia intently with a burning light in her eyes. She was dead serious, completely committed to the gesture. To her, this was important. She meant every word.
It was just another reason why I loved her. Despite my own misgivings, for I surely didn’t want to, I stretched out my own hand, the ‘W’ brand on my palm reaching freely for this bully. I didn’t like her one bit and my inclination was to humiliate her rather than befriend her, but Sunset was right, as per usual. This was the right thing to do.
Octavia stared down at both of us in shock, perhaps wondering why we weren’t seeking revenge upon her. Maybe some small part of her that still possessed some decency was looking at us and wondering why we would ever do such a thing, why we would want to forgive her after all she had done against us both. And maybe, just maybe, part of her would take Sunset’s hand and finish this. For the longest time she stared at us, her gaze constantly flicking between me and Sunset. I saw her hand shiver and creep upwards just a little bit, the tightly balled fists beginning to loosen-
A quick squeeze shut and the musician’s eyes hardened like stone, her gaze fixated upon my open palm. She gave both of us a leering sneer, saying, “I’d rather get ill. No matter what you two say or do, I’ll never trust you, I know who you really are. And I’ll make you pay for it someday.” With a tight spin she was gone, disappearing into the crowd and leaving us behind.
Sunset sighed, stroking her fingers through her hair in defeat. “Well, we tried,” she said in frustration. “That was a mature thing you did, by the way. I’m proud of you, you didn’t try to start a fight.”
“There’s no fight anymore,” I answered. “She’s lost and she might as well just admit it. Besides, forget my maturity, I’m shocked at yours. I just wanted to shut her up for good, I never would’ve done what you did.”
“It’s just what Twilight taught me,” Sunset replied as we headed along. “She offered me friendship when no one else would, and I turned everyone in the school into brainwashed minions. I should be able to forgive Octavia if I was forgiven for what I did.”
I shook my head in wonder, left astounded by my girl yet again. She’d changed more than I ever would’ve thought, possessing a maturity beyond her years. She was young, that was true, but she was willing to make peace with her enemies- the perfect foil to myself. I really never would find a girl like her ever again. “So what’ll you do? Just keep trying?” I asked.
“I guess I will,” Sunset replied. “See if I can wear down her defenses, get her to listen to me. In the end, it’s still her choice. She may never listen.”
“It’s more than what I would’ve done,” I said. “Besides, I think it’ll work in the end. Remember the last time you tried to make peace with someone?”
Sunset laughed, her mind recalling all those months prior what had finally broken my back and caused me to relent. “Didn’t you say you got offered a ‘fresh fish’ by somebody?”
“Yeah, I did,” I replied, a toothy grin appearing on my own features. “Always wondered what the hell that meant, it was such a weird thing to say.”
“Did you ever find out?”
“I did, actually. Wasn’t a sex term- they were selling me actual fish.”
The two of us could’ve been heard laughing halfway down the block.
I woke early on Tuesday morning. Unusually early, in fact, well before the sun was even beginning to creep over the horizon. I had been sleeping deeply when I suddenly awoke with a start.
I shot up from the bed and looked around my room as if searching for something amiss. I, of course, found nothing. I couldn’t find any explanation for my sudden recall back to the waking world. It was almost as if I’d been struck awake by something that had dissipated into the ether the moment I had awoken. There was just no reason for it, yet somehow I felt incredibly uneasy. What on earth was wrong with me? Try as I might, I couldn’t get back to sleep and spent the next couple of hours lying across my bed in an anxious heap.
“What’s wrong, dear? You look tired,” Mom said to me as I headed for the door.
“I’m fine, just didn’t sleep well,” I said dully. The truth was that I’d been so on edge that I’d almost forgotten to go to school and had been forced to rush the whole thing. I hoped Sunset wasn’t wondering where I was.
“Hey, sorry, I was running a little late,” Sunset said breathlessly, dashing into my car the moment I came rolling up to her building. “I guess you were, too- are you OK? What’s wrong?” she said as she caught sight of my expression.
I gave myself a rough shake. “I’ve been edgy ever since I woke up,” I mumbled. “Something’s wrong with today but I don’t know what.”
“Did anything happen?”
I shook my head. “No, that’s why I don’t get it,” I replied. “I just know something’s up. Something is wrong out there.”
Sunset scrutinized me for a bit, then cupped my chin in her hand and kissed me on the cheek. “Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll be alright in the end,” she said soothingly. “Come on, we need to get going or we’ll be late.”
The drive to school helped me relax a little, Sunset’s calming presence easing some of my worries. It was a welcome comfort, but my instincts were on full alert. Danger! Be wary! they yelled, more loudly than they had in years. Oh, something was very, very wrong today…
We had to make a bit of a mad rush out of the school parking lot to the front lawn, our quest for a parking spot taking more time than we’d wished. Thankfully, we had a few minutes to spare and weren’t really all that pressed-
I skidded to a halt as shock hit me with the full force of a raging bull. Sunset ran into me and nearly toppled over in surprise, she staggering back a few steps before she regained equilibrium. “Hey, what on earth was that for? What’s-”
Then she saw it, too. Her mouth hung open in a perfect O shape as she slowly, shakily came to my side and gawked alongside me. “Baby, I… is that- is that what I think it is?”
I didn’t say anything for a while, her words filtering through my ears like molasses. However, through the shock and slowly growing terror, I gave one slow, heavy nod.
On the side of the Wondercolt statue base, sprayed in ink the color of crimson, was a gigantic fat ‘W’ brand. A brand I’d seen used for orders, for rituals, as territory markers. A mark that would strike fear into even the most hardy of criminals in this city, for it was the mark of the most dangerous man in the city, the very mark that abided on my hand.
Wanyama’s mark.
All of my senses went into overload as panic erupted within me, every fiber of my being screaming to leave now. Had Wanyama been watching me? Had they followed me here? Or worse, was there another reason that they’d targeted the school? Were they after someone else, had someone broken the laws- had I broken any of Wanyama’s laws? My mind was racing through everything I’d ever learned there, desperately searching for any possible answer that could explain this, why the nightmare I’d sworn to leave behind was now targeting my school. God help me, I could only think. God help me stop this, don’t let it happen!
“Why is it here? Who put it there?” Sunset asked of me. Her eyes were wide, but only with shock. She didn’t understand the danger, she didn’t know how scared she should be. My senses were on full alert, cocked and ready for any sign that they were about to attack, that they were coming. What if –God forbid- they were already inside the building? Their’d be no stopping them, it would be a massacre on an unimaginable scale. My ears rang with the screams of gunfire and students as they were mowed down by Jester’s Big Cats, his team of merciless assassins. If Kiumbe or Muuaji had been sent here…
“Help me cover it up. We need to get rid of it,” I said quickly, rushing over to the statue to inspect the damage. I put my hand across the paint, trying to get a feel for what had been used. Simple spraypaint, by the looks of it. I could put something over it temporarily until I could get some paint that would cover it up, hopefully paint over before they had seen it- if they hadn’t seen it already.
“What’s wrong? What do you need me to do?” Sunset said, coming to my side, realizing I was in a full-flown panic. “Do you know what happened?”
“No but we need to get rid of it now before it’s too late,” I muttered. “Maybe we can have it gone before it gets called in, maybe they won’t come here-”
“What’s it mean? I know it’s the mark on your hand but I still don’t-”
“Sunset if we don’t get rid of this thing, everyone in Canterlot High is going to die!” I said feverishly, my voice breaking as terror threatened to break me down. “We have to get this thing covered right now or else they’re gonna come here-”
“Whoa, slow down. Who’s gonna come here-”
“Wanyama will come here and kill everyone!” I shrieked. “PLEASE help me get rid of this before it’s too late, maybe I can do something to stop it. If the mark is gone before it’s called in then maybe a Big Cat won’t come here, if they’re not here already-”
The front doors swung open and I jumped in front of Sunset –maybe I could give her a chance to get away before they opened fire-
It was Godfried, the custodian, pushing out a barrel full of paint brushes and buckets to cover over the brand. I could’ve cried, my body starting to shake with elk fever as I realized not only was Wanyama not here yet, but the mark was going to be destroyed. We were, for the moment, safe.
“What on earth-” Sunset said of me.
“Thank God,” I choked, dashing up to the old man and offering him any help he needed.
He looked fairly surprised at that, glancing at his brushes and then at me. “Ain’t never had a student offer me help b’fore,” he mumbled, fingering his white moustache. “Don’t even know if it’s allowed… don’t you have classes to go to, anyhow?”
“Not a big deal, this is important,” I said hurriedly, looking around agitatedly. Come on, the more time we wasted the greater chance one of the Sentries would call in the kill order and by then it’d be too late!
Godfried gave me a strange look, almost as if he was suspicious. True, it probably didn’t look great that a student was offering to clear graffiti, but I knew better. I wanted to live!
“Gwon in, don’t worry about helping me out,” he said finally. “It’s my job to clean up stuff like this, gwon inside and get to studying.”
I left feeling distinctly uneasy. I knew Godfried would get the job done, but I would feel more comfortable having seen it done myself. Now all I could do was wait for Wanyama to show up and kill us all, if the mark had been called in.
By the time second period came around and I made it to Miss Cheerilee’s class, talk about the oh-so-obvious mark was rampant across the school. I guess they’d never seen anything like it before here- they’d better hope they would never see anything like it again. Though they all discussed why someone would want to vandalize the school statue with a giant ‘W,’ none of them knew to whom it belonged or why it was there. They couldn’t understand how much of a danger they were in. None of them, not even the staff.
Miss Cheerilee was rather pensive when we first arrived, not saying a word as we took our seats and waited for class to begin. With a heaving sigh, she grabbed a paper from her desk and began to read in a dull monotone, completely void of her usual enthusiasm.
“As all of you are most likely aware, today our school’s Wondercolt statue was vandalized by an unknown perpetrator,” she said. “As of this time, there is no identified suspect and no witnesses have come forward with any information. With aid from local authorities, it is suspected that one of Canterlot High’s own is responsible for this defacement of school property, and we request anyone with any knowledge to please contact your home room teacher and then…” She gave a sigh of frustration and threw the paper aside, visibly relaxing though still appearing fairly serious. “I know what happened was unusual,” she said slowly, “But I also don’t think any of you would do such a thing. I trust you… you’re better than that and you want to be better than that. I trust that you wouldn’t do such a thing. So if any of you know anything about who did it or what happened… please come talk to me. It’ll be a big help to the school so as to ensure it never happens again.”
Her eyes lingered on me for a time and a half, her gaze a strange mixture of sadness and concern before she finally turned around and carried on with the day’s lesson. A few of the students glanced around at each other, with more than a few looking back to glance at me.
Of course they would suspect me being the perp. I’d been a part of the school long enough to be a known face, the brand on my palm was common enough knowledge, and now that brand had defaced the school statue. I felt a chill run through me as I thought of what could happen- the cops would come and even if I was put in temporary holding, I was still vulnerable. Wanyama had plenty of guys nestled in the force, whether they be informants or working for them to keep the rest of the police off their tails. If I got arrested, I’d be stuck with the blame for breaking Wanyama’s ultimate law- the mark and the name Wanyama belong to one man and he alone- Jester. I’d be killed in seconds.
I doubted any of the staff could protect me from that.
Throughout the rest of the day I was on edge, either expecting Wanyama to burst through the doors, guns blazing, or to see the cops come and take me away to an early execution. I was distracted and unable to perform at any level, constantly uneasy. Not even the arrival of Granny Smith’s long-desire TV’s in the cafeteria could distract me for long. It could be at any moment, at any time, Wanyama could come in and slaughter everyone in this school in a matter of seconds. I’d seen Upanga and Ukatili come back drenched, having decimated an old gang called Waylon who’d been stealing Wanyama’s sex trade. If they ever came here, to a place like this…
It was all I could to do not be sick.
“So what’s going to happen? Do you know why they were here?” Sunset asked me as we drove back to her apartment after school.
I shook my head. “Don’t know nothing, the staff don’t know either,” I answered. “I don’t know why they were there, why they’d want to put a kill order on the whole school. Nothing ever brings Wanyama to this part of the city, everything they need is elsewhere- drugs, women, guns, all of that keeps out of the East End. There’s no market for any of it here. I just don’t- and they didn’t even show up! If they put that kill order in, why was it never called? I don’t know what happened!”
“Who would put the mark there? Why would they?” Sunset asked.
“Either Jester or one of his big three- his advisors, Wise Men he calls them,” I answered “They’re the only ones with the authority to place a kill order. Then the Sentries will catch the mark and call it in to one of the Big Cats, Jester’s team of assassins. They go in on the building and wipe everyone out who is inside. Jester’s evil, but he’s got everything down to a science to ensure exact control of every facet of Wanyama. No one does anything without his saying so, that’s how he got so much power and practically rules the city. He has watch over every single one of Wanyama’s followers, and the laws keep them in control.”
“But why, though? What would… is it because of you?” Sunset asked slowly.
“I… I don’t know,” I confessed, rubbing my fingers through my hair. “It doesn’t make sense, not any of it. I left, yeah, but there’s law concerning that. And I can’t think of anyone in Canterlot High doing anything to piss Wanyama off… it just doesn’t make sense.”
We traveled on in silence for the duration of the trip, I constantly on the lookout for someone I recognized, the mark arousing my old paranoia. I could be under surveillance every hour of the day, they could be planning my death right now. Nowhere felt safe any longer.
Whether she noticed my unease or simply was scared herself, I didn’t know. But the next thing Sunset said was music to my ears. “Do you want to stay at the apartment tonight? Maybe you shouldn’t go back to your house tonight…”
“Yeah, I think I will,” I said. “Thanks, beautiful girl.”
“It’s what we do for one another,” she said simply. “I know you’re worried, but relax for now. There’s nothing we can do for now.”
That was true, and that was exactly what I was worried about.
The next two days deteriorated rapidly as my early bout of panic became fully-fledged terror. The moment we got to school on Tuesday, plastered across the school doors, was another Wanyama brand. If Sunset hadn’t been there to steady me, I would’ve gone to ground and fallen into a fit of hysterics. The nightmares I’d kept locked away in the back of my mind were suddenly a reality, the footsteps of the men who had shaped my life suddenly in the same place as the world to which I’d escaped, away from their influence and power. They were here, they knew where I was, and at any moment they could unleash a fury and pain this city, this school had never seen. I could barely eat a thing all day, and I knew the amount of whispers and stares in my direction were increasing. Another statement was issued, this time warning the students that whoever was caught would face “severe penalties.”
They couldn’t imagine how severe they’d get.
“I know it’s not you,” Sunset assured as we left that day. “Anyone who knows you would say exactly the same. No matter what I’ve got your back. We can prove it wasn’t you.”
“How, Sunset?” I rasped nervously. “I’ve got the mark on my hand, the entire staff know I have an arrest record. I’m the only person like me in this school, I’m the automatic suspect. If they come get me I’m going to die-”
“No you’re not,” she said fiercely. “We’re going to figure out who’s behind this and we’re going to catch them, I promise. Just trust me, OK? I’ll figure something out.”
I nodded, not sure what she could possibly do, and terrified of her involvement. Wanyama was something she didn’t understand like I did, she could never fully understand how lethal they were. If… if they did something to her…
I didn’t sleep much that night, staying over at Sunset’s yet again. I kept vigil over the door, truly expecting to see Muuaji or one of the others to come through the door with a gun in hand. I was strong, I was capable, but I knew I was no match for the Big Cats. I’d be killed instantly.
“Please eat something. I know you’re worried, but it’ll help you feel better if you get something in your stomach,” Sunset said to me over breakfast, I merely picking at my scrambled eggs. Sunset had gotten up early to make a pretty exquisite meal, taking great care with the toast and eggs and bacon as if she were a culinary artist. It was just a small way she was trying to make me feel better, another reason to love her… I could still barely stomach the thought of eating anything. Wanyama was my only concern.
I almost cried at the sight of the school, another Wanyama brand plastered across the school sign near the road. It was loud, abrasive, and insistent, a clear calling sign for Wanyama to come and finish the job they hadn’t even begun. Who was doing this, and why? Why had they decided to come here, what had caused all of this? And why, why of all things, were they taking so long to even arrive?
Sunset’s eyes blazed at the sight of the mark, her spine stiffening whereas mine had gone limp. She muttered something about “proper connection” or something along that line, but didn’t say a word to me, utterly lost in her own thoughts.
“I can’t wait any longer,” I said fearfully. “I’m gonna go straight to Principal Celestia’s office, they need to know what’s going on. Screw getting in trouble, this is getting out of hand.”
“I’ll try to meet you there,” Sunset said, “I’ve got something I need to do- if you can’t find me, look for 8-Bit!”
“8-Bit? The nerd who’s always off in the corner?” I asked, thrown for a loop by her sudden connection with the guy. I’d only talked to him once and he was the strangest person imaginable.
I headed straight for Celestia’s office, coming to a slow halt when I saw, to my great surprise, Vice-Principal Luna departing the room with a furious expression on her face, one that switched to alarm at the sight of me. “You shouldn’t be here. Get to class now!”
“I can’t, I need to talk to you and your sister, it’s urgent!” I pressed.
An angry voice in Principal Celestia’s office rang through the door. Luna glanced back at it before returning to me, saying, “No, you don’t understand, you need to get out of here right now- leave this to my sister and I.”
“But you don’t understand, it’s about that mark, it’s a-”
The door opened to reveal a pair of gangly cops, both looking particularly disgruntled as they were followed by a furious-looking Principal Celestia. The pair of cops caught sight of me and almost exploded with energy. “That’s the one,” the older of the two said and they headed towards me.
“What in the- oh dear God, help me!” I yelled as the two officers grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me against the wall, wrenching my arms behind my back and slapping a pair of handcuffs across my wrists. “No no no, you can’t do this, please don’t do this!”
“By the rights vested in me, you are under arrest-” began the officer who had a hold of my wrists.
“Hold on a moment! Stop this at once!” Principal Celestia said angrily, trying to come between me and the officers.
“Get out of the way, ma’am, police business,” he said brusquely, almost shoving her aside to get to me. I turned around and –for the first time- got a good clear look at his face and I recognized it immediately.
“God help me, this is not happening! Somebody help me!” I roared, absolutely losing my cool in the panic of the moment, thrashing about wildly in a desperate attempt to get them off of me, anything to get away from the man who was trying to drag me away…
“Stop, you cannot treat one of my students in this manner!” Luna objected, barring the way down the hall to the front doors. All around me I could see doors opening as students flooded from their classes to see what the commotion was all about. Far in the back of the growing crowd I could see a familiar wave of red-and-yellow hair pushing madly through the throng to get closer.
“Ma’am, please step aside, we have our suspect, we’re needing to leave,” said the officer. My mind raced to place hold of his name- Barstow, I think. I knew his partner, too, a skinny bastard name Collier. I’d seen them before, and they had seen me. This was going to be the end, if they got me into their car-
“And what crime is my student accused of?” Luna demanded of him.
“Ma’am, have you not been paying attention to your school? All that graffiti has a source and it’s this idiot- look at the damn fool’s hand!” Barstow said, throwing me around like I was a ragdoll and displaying my branded palm for all to see.
“If that is your evidence, then it’s a poor presentation indeed,” Luna said coldly. “As we have told you numerous times, we do not know who is responsible and we have no leads. A poor showing, considering that you and the rest of your task force have been keeping watch on the school at nights.”
“Ma’am, we know this is the suspect,” Barstow insisted. “The mark on the palm matches the ones you’ve been getting hit with. And come on, just- just look!”
Luna’s mouth went agape, looking absolutely appalled by what she had just heard. “How dare you!” she hissed.
“Excuse me, ma’am?” Barstow asked.
“I concur with my sister,” Principal Celestia said coldly, her figure practically shaking with barely concealed fury. “How dare you discriminate against one of my students on the color of their skin!? Any one of my students could be capable of something this foolish, yet you single out our only transfer student- the only one you consider to be an outsider. Now,” she said, turning to me, “Are you guilty of the crime they accuse you of?”
“NO! Holy hell no!” I shrieked, praying desperately that somehow she’d be able to pull me out of this.
“Then there you have it,” Principal Celestia said simply, turning back to Barstow. “I may only be a school principal but I have a law degree and I’m fairly sure that racial discrimination is forbidden. You have no evidence, poor suspicions, and bias all at your feet. Now release my student at once or else I will make phone calls that will see to the end of your career!”
“But-”
“Now you listen here,” Principal Celestia said dangerously, her voice dropping several octaves as she advanced towards the officer. “I don’t care what you think or your opinions, but you have all but attacked one of my students due to the color of their skin and tried to destroy their future. I’m an active participant in the local town halls, I have wonderful connections with city hall and I’m in a prayer group with the mayor. Wanna keep pushing me?”
It was a standoff between a Wanyama crony and the only woman who could possibly spare me from death. The two stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, Celestia’s normally warm eyes filled with a burning fire that met Barstow’s steely cold gaze perfectly. Finally, after an age, I standing there on bated breath, Barstow relented. “Take the cuffs off,” he told Collier.
The moment I was free I leapt away from the two men, wanting to be well out of arm’s reach of the two maniacs. I could feel my legs shaking uncontrollably, this needed to end before I lost control and collapsed…
“This is the only chance you get,” Barstow said severely. “If there’s another incident, we come back and finish this.”
“I’m amazed you’d have the courage to try,” Principal Celestia said disgustedly, watching with cold distaste as the two men stalked through the crowd and out of sight.
The crowd began to disperse, wandering back to their various classes. Not a moment too soon, as could hold myself together no longer and I collapsed to the ground, my heart pounding so violently within my chest it could have burst right through.
“Easy, you’re alright,” Principal Celestia said, coming down next to me along with her sister. “Breathe in and out, very slowly. Try to control it. Just like that, in and out… relax, you need to relax or else you’ll do more than collapse…”
“Principal Celestia- what happened, what’s going on?” Sunset appeared from within the crowd, catching sight of me and rushing over. “What happened, is-”
“Go get Nurse Redheart, Miss Shimmer. Tell her one of the students is having a panic attack,” Luna said and Sunset was off through the crowd like a shot and disappearing from sight, leaving me there to stew in my fear and growing humiliation as I struggled to get even a simple breath. Utterly, completely worthless...
It took a while for me to regain some semblance of control, to get my heart to slow and my mind to cool. I couldn’t manage to say it at the time, but Principal Celestia and Luna had saved me from getting killed. They couldn’t know, thought that Barstow and Collier were just some racist cops. They didn’t know that they were part of Wanyama. If I’d been taken away they would’ve struck me down in the back of their cop car or some alleyway and that would’ve been it. They were certain to tell Wanyama that I was there and that I had broken the laws, but I was still alive. I had a chance of finding a way out.
Nurse Redheart, accompanied by a stricken Sunset, came down and checked me over, doing whatever she could to check me for anything that could lead to worse problems. After looking me over and helping me to really relax, she said I would just need to avoid any high-stress situations the rest of the day and try to do some calming exercises. Otherwise, I was in good shape. I could’ve told her that much.
“Now that we’re certain you’re secure, we do need to ask you about that graffiti,” Luna began as I got to my feet, Sunset offering extra support for balance.
“If you’re asking me if I know who it is, I don’t,” I said. “I don’t know but I know what that mark means and you better find out who it is before it’s too late.”
Principal Celestia looked at me with raised eyebrows, perhaps surprised by my choice of words. “Are we in danger?” she inquired.
“Yes,” I said firmly. “More than you can imagine, unless you find the culprit behind this. I don’t know why they’re putting the mark on the school, but it’s gonna lead to something terrible real soon if you don’t put a stop to it.”
Sunset opened her mouth and then shut it just as quickly, squeezing my arm ever so slightly so as to get my attention. I made a mental note to ask what the matter was the moment we were done.
Principal Celestia and her sister shot each other a glance. “If you’re certain of there being a risk present,” she said slowly.
“Certain? I’m terrified and confused as hell, I don’t know why it’s happening and that scares me to death,” I replied.
“Then I’ll start making phone calls,” Luna said. “I have some friends at the nearby precint, I’ll see if I can get extra aid out as quickly as possible. You two should get going now, leave the rest of this to us.”
Sunset and I nodded, slowly making our way down the hall until we were out of sight of the two women. The moment I thought we were in the clear, I pulled Sunset aside and said, “Those two cops were Wanyama cronies, we’re out of time. They know I’m here.”
“And they blame you?” Sunset asked. When I nodded, she added, “I think I may be able to help. Before we left school yesterday I talked to 8-Bit and borrowed a couple of his security cameras.”
Didn’t expect to hear that one. “What?”
“He’s super paranoid, thinks the government is spying on him or something,” she said dismissively. “But he’s smart enough to make a bunch of tiny little cameras that he keeps on him wherever he goes and I managed to convince him to give me a few. I may have caught whoever it was putting that mark on the school sign.”
I was nonplussed. “You’re serious.”
“I went and ripped them off the Wondercolt statue when we got to school. He should be working on the footage in the news room right now.”
“Holy- come on, let’s go!” I roared, grabbing her hand and practically dragging her along.
8-Bit’s real name was Myron, some poor geek who’d been cursed with every nerd stereotype in the book. But he was smart- frighteningly smart, if I was to be truly accurate. If he couldn’t help us catch the perp, nobody would- and I’d be dead.
“Yo, 8-Bit! Heard you got the goods to save my neck!” I said, crashing through the news room door.
“Stop! Don’t move!” he shouted, racing over to us with a countenance that suggested I had stepped on a land mine. “Were you followed?” he demanded.
“What? No, I came to ask for your-”
“Better check for cameras,” he said, looking us both over intrusively as he scanned our bodies for- I couldn’t imagine. “Hmm, don’t see any wires, either. Maybe I should get the metal detector-”
“Hey! I ain’t got time for this crap!” I said angrily, reaching out to push the guy away. “Look, Sunset said that you helped set up a couple of cameras that may have caught this idiot-”
“Myron, it’s urgent that we see the footage. Is any of it ready yet?” Sunset said politely, overriding my aggression.
“Hmm… guess I’ll search you all later. Yes, it’s done. In here,” he said, motioning for us to join him on the computer. “You placed them properly, didn’t you?”
“Exactly where you said I should,” Sunset replied.
“Excellent! Then we’ll see just what we could hope to see- government agents tracking our every move, vandalizing our privately run schools-”
“Yes, very great and wonderful- I wanna live! Let’s roll this thing, will you?” I begged.
8-Bit didn’t exactly look pleased at being ordered around in his own office, but he complied nonetheless and opened up the screen and pressed play.
The footage started off with a close-up view of Sunset as she placed the cameras wherever she had been told to, diligently working until she was satisfied in their secure position. As she walked out of sight, it became a hodgepodge of students and staff leaving school behind and disappearing out of sight. As we fast-forwarded through the majority of the footage, the light of day quickly disappeared and gave birth to darkness. Occasional cars drove by a few paused and parked across the street in the nearby housing, but nothing unusual.
“Jeez, how late did they get up to go do this?” I said incredulously. “We’re past midnight and still nothing…”
We kept pushing on through, I beginning to wonder when they had dared commit the act –they wouldn’t have done it in the morning hours, would they?- until we reached about 3:30 on the clock when a figure wearing a hoodie slowly sauntered into view, the person’s hair flowing out from underneath the hood.
“Haven’t… haven’t we seen this person somewhere before?” I asked.
“We have,” Sunset said grimly. “I’m not going to say it unless I’m sure, but…”
The figure walked in front of the sign, spray can in hand and began their work, defacing the property with smooth, simple movements. Everything about this person was familiar. Very familiar in fact. I was beginning to think the same as Sunset, I wouldn’t say unless I was certain….
The figure moved away from the sign and walked back to the sidewalk, but not before the lights beneath the statue came to life, activated by the nearby motion. Suddenly the entire area burst into light and the figure beneath the hood was instantly visible… and instantly recognizable.
“I KNEW IT!” I screamed, the vein in my temple instantly popping as all my pent-up fear and aggression erupted with the force of an ancient volcano. “THAT STUPID, LOWDOWN, IDIOTIC MORON!” I raced out of the news room and was instantly greeted by the sound of the bell. Thank God, I could find her right now and end this, get it out and the open. Of course it was Octavia, who else would do something that fiercely idiotic?
“WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS THAT TITANIC JACKASS?!” I roared, stepping out into the hallway and effectively silencing everyone in a fifty foot radius. All eyes were on me as I stood there, with Sunset somewhere behind me, racing to catch up. “YOU ALL KNOW WHO I’M WANTING- WHERE’S OCTAVIA?!”
My rage must’ve been a sight to behold, because the entire crowd parted and revealed the stupid cellist standing right in the middle of the hallway, looking at me as if I were a walking mummified corpse. She knew she’d been caught.
“You!” I shrieked, flecks of foam spattering from my mouth. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?! Do you know what could’ve happen, what could still happen? You thought, ‘Oh, it’s just some mark, maybe the fool grabbed a hot door handle-’ this is a gang mark! Wanyama’s brand! You were so butthurt about Sunset beating you once and for all that you had to go and be a gigantic soreheaded asshole and you could get everybody killed!”
“I- I didn’t mean-” she stammered helplessly.
“I don’t care what you didn’t mean!” I yelled. “Your stupid screwing around is putting everybody at risk and I did not run from Jester and the rest of his killers to die because of your stupid mistake!”
“What’s going on? Miss Melody, what’s going on here?” said Principal Celestia, pushing her way through the halls to stand between us. “Please, you are causing a disturbance,” she said to me, “After what happened this morning, you know you need to stay calm-”
I was well beyond having self-control. “No! No!” I raged. “This stupid bitch put Wanyama’s mark on the school- not one, not twice, but three f---ing times over! That’s a damn KILL ORDER! Whenever Wanyama puts their mark on a building, it means everyone inside is to be put to death! Those cops that came today work for them- everyone in this entire building is going to die and it’s because of her!”
A stunned silence met my words, with various students showing signs of shock or growing horror. The reality of the world I’d grown a part of, the world they’d only seen in newspaper headlines and news reports was now in their backyard, the barrier between the segregated and the accepted now shattered. My old life had come crawling into the present and now endangered the lives of all who were near. For what was probably the first time in their lives, the fear of Wanyama had struck them straight through the heart.
“Are you certain?” Principal Celestia asked.
“I’ve seen it happen over and over again, for years now,” I said angrily, my sides heaving with poorly controlled emotions. “Jester’s Big Cats are gonna come here once that mark gets called in and they’re gonna slaughter everyone here like they’re animals! You have no idea what’s coming for us all- they will not stop until every single person in this building is dead.”
A few gasps and even a scream as the impact of my words trickled through the crowd. People began to shuffle away, heading for the doors in an attempt to escape the coming danger. Panic was about to take a stranglehold.
“Get to my office. Lock the doors,” Principal Celestia ordered hurriedly, disappearing into the crowd to begin prepping the evacuation. Without another words, Sunset and I rushed to her office and slammed the door behind us, locking it instantly and even shoving her desk in front of the door- we scratched the floor but I didn’t particularly care. It was an extra barrier.
“Stay out of sight,” I ordered Sunset and I dashed over to the window and pulled the curtains to, effectively cutting off any chance of sighting us from the outside world. Filtering through from the front lawn were the sounds of terrified students, the roar of car engines and the screech of tires as whoever could get away disappeared, running from the school before it was too late. Somewhere out there, maybe even just outside, lurked a team of cold, brutal, efficient killers that, with just one simple command, could wipe out an entire building full of armed thugs. If they were out there… it was already too late.
We waited in agony, I dreading the moment when the sounds of panic and fear would be cut through with the sounds of gunfire and replace all the sound and motions of the outside world with that terrible emptiness that comes with death. But, despite the worst of my fears, nothing came except the eventual emptiness as the rest of the school fled, and a knock upon the door that was Principal Celestia.
“Is anyone still here?” I asked the moment she walked in, locking the door behind her.
“All students and staff have been safely evacuated,” she informed me. “Your warning was convincing enough to those who were present, and I ensured that all remaining staff safely departed as soon as the student body had safely fled. You two and I are now the only ones remaining on school grounds. Now we simply wait for the police to arrive and then we shall go from there.”
“If that mark got called in, they may not be enough,” I warned her. “If we have to run...”
She didn’t say anything but she did drop a glance towards the door and the window. She understood just as well as I did that we’d have almost no chance of escape if it came a real firefight.
“You said those cops worked for them,” Sunset said, “If they know you’re here, then you think they’ll blame you for the mark.”
“They will, hands down. It’s an automatic assumption,” I answered. “Thank Christ you have the footage from those cameras otherwise I’d have nothing to defend myself with. If they don’t come here to the school I’m going to have to seek them out-”
“That is absolutely out of the question,” Principal Celestia said.
“There is absolutely no choice, it’s never gonna end if I don’t go straight to the source and fix this!” I replied. “Look, I get you’re older than me and all that but this is a world you don’t understand- I was born in it, it bred me, I lived in it all my life. I’m the only one who knows what to do.”
“No, that’s stupid, you’ve got to think of something different!” Sunset protested.
“Hey! If I could pull something way less stupid than I would, but I ain’t got a choice here!” I said angrily. “Wanyama’s channels make for very precise means of contact, I’m gonna have to work their way if I’m gonna do this-”
The sound of sirens drawing closer suddenly began to ring in my ears, a cacophony if signals and flashing lights that suggested more than a few patrol cars were headed our direction.
“Dammit, they’re alerting everyone in a mile radius, they screwed up already!” I spat, rushing to push open the blinds.
“I thought you said they’d fight-”
“The Big Cats don’t take on large forces unless they have to, they like having a numbers advantage,” I said. “They’re all war vets from some god-forsaken country, they know how to fight. Now they’ll hide and wait until the cops leave…”
The cops stormed the building with enough noise to wake a sleeping giant, crashing and barreling down the halls with no regard for stealth. I didn’t have much love for law enforcement to begin with, having come from the West End, but this was just sad. With all the noise they were making, I knew that if Wanyama was watching, they’d have plenty of time to hunker down and wait. We’d never see them coming.
Of course the cops didn’t find anything. Of course they didn’t see any suspicious activity. No bombs, no weapons, nothing for the dogs to find (did find some pot in a couple students lockers, though). They’d never find anything because Wanyama never let themselves be found unless they wanted to be. The force cleared the building and did a couple of sweeps, but said nothing was discovered. A few asked why they’d even been called and I got a couple dirty looks, no doubt they blamed me for their disturbance of their day. I didn’t care and glared right back, I never needed their help in the first place.
After they left half an hour later, they left the three of us standing on the front lawn, watching as the useless good-for-nothings drove off and left us in the dust. “That was a waste of time,” I snarled. “Pricks, they made everything worse.”
“Are you certain that there is danger?” Principal Celestia asked.
“Wanyama cops know a former member is here, where someone was leaving kill order brands. There was.”
“Then you two should leave, get away as quickly as you can. If they’re seeking you-”
“Then they’ll find me no matter what,” I said. “I’m going to stay here until they arrive and see if I can get them to talk. It’s the only chance I’ve got.” Turning to the two of them, I said, “You both should leave. I don’t know what they’ll do to you if they find you.” Actually, I had a pretty good idea of what they’d do, but I didn’t dare say it.
“And you’re certain of your decision?”
I nodded. “Very well… I can’t force to you flee, but… Miss Shimmer-”
“I’m staying,” Sunset said determinedly.
“Oh no you’re not!” I replied hotly. “This ain’t exactly gonna be a friendly chat, they may just shoot me on sight! Get the hell out and get away before-”
“I’m staying and that’s final. You’re not going to do this alone,” she insisted, stamping her foot down for good measure.
I gave a frustrated roar. “Fine, just- just hide somewhere and stay out of sight! I don’t care, just get to where they can’t see you!”
I slowly went back to the front steps and took a seat, putting myself right out in the open. I adopted a perfect body spread, arms to the side and hands outstretched, my legs prone before me. It was a supplication gesture, a sign of submission. Maybe if they say my positioning they’d understand I wanted to bargain, to speak before there was violence…
Of course, they didn’t have to listen to me at all.
The late morning sun crept higher and higher into the sky, reaching its high point and slowly descending down towards the horizon. For hours I waited in the baking sun, my body begging to move and relax, to find rest and shade, but I willed myself to stay put. One wrong move, one wrong word and every effort I’d given would be wasted. I had to remain…
The sun began to leave shadows on the ground as the clock kept ticking, the bright blue sky beginning to turn orange and pink as evening crept closer and closer. My body was now screaming for relief, a chance to rest and shift position for just a single moment because that would be enough. Sunset, true to her word, had stayed hidden out of sight somewhere, and I hadn’t seen her in several hours.
Doubt began to creep into my mind. Were they truly out there, had they actually come for me? If so, why did they wait? What caused them to stay their hand? Surely by now they would have done something and finished this. Something was very unusual about all this, and despite my extensive knowledge of Wanyama’s workings, I didn’t know what was going on. Something had changed.
“Sunset!” I called quietly, rising slowly from my seat on the steps, my body cracking and popping from the stiffness. “Sunset, are you there?”
“I’m here,” I heard her say, though I couldn’t pinpoint her location.
“Come out, there’s a change of plans,” I whispered. “Something’s happening.”
She materialized out of the bushes like a chameleon dropping camouflage. I’d never even seen she was there, not even heard a whisper. I was stunned. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t think they’re coming. Something isn’t right,” I said. “Come on, I’m dropping you off at Sweet Apple Acres and then I’m heading out to find them.”
“You’re not going to go alone, that’s dangerous!”
“And it’s dangerous to have you with me!” I said as we ran to my car. “I need you to be at a place where there’s protection so I can seek out the night guards Wanyama’ll have posted across the city.”
“And you just leave me behind to wait for you to come back?” she demanded.
“This isn’t some kind of-”
“Look out!”
I swung around with the lightning reflexes gained over a lifetime of hard fighting, but I never would’ve been fast enough to react in time. The moment I wheeled about I saw the bat come flying forward and I tried to dodge out of the way-
Crack! The wooden bat made heavy contact with the side of my chest and I went sprawling, crashing across the ground and tumbling across the lawn-
I heard Sunset scream somewhere across what felt like a great distance and the sounds of rapid movement, rough, rapid movements of a tussle-
I looked up and saw the bat raised again, the weapon headed straight for my skull for what would surely be an incapacitating blow-
I dodged as quickly as I could and received a blow to the side of the head, I rolling across the ground to try and gain some ground between me and my attackers-
A flash of black and my attacker was on me again, trying to keep me grounded and away from the others. Out of the corner of my eye I saw three other figures, one walking towards me and the other trying to get a hold of Sunset who was fighting off her assailants with every ounce of energy she could muster-
Wham! Another blow across my chest and I felt a horrible Pop! as the bat made it’s made, practically crushing my lungs and stunning the air out of my body-
“You’ve broken our laws, kimbia,” growled my attacker, pressing his foot down into my gut and digging it in. “Jester wants you to answer for your crimes.” I knew this man, an old Enforcer named Derrick. He’d been wanted for multiple assaults when I’d first met him-
“Hey, the girl won’t stop- ow, dammit¬- help me do something about her!” yelled the second man, a brutal man known as Aguirre.
“Sunset!” I gurgled, spitting out a massive gob of blood, my head still pulsing madly from all the sudden damage I’d taken. I couldn’t quite focus, I couldn’t see yet, if I had a few more seconds-
Sunset was writhing about and pushing herself away from her captors, a man I knew and had fought alongside for years, watching as the girl I loved gave him everything he could handle and even a little more-
“Enough of this! Kill her!” yelled Derrick, tossing Sunset’s captors a jet-black pistol-
“NO!” I seized Derrick’s foot still imbedded in my gut and gave a powerful jerk, nearly snapping his heel and sending him facefirst into the ground-
“Stop him!” he yelled, his voice muffled by the earthen ground-
They didn’t have a single hope in Hell. All of these men were hardened fighters, veterans of a long street war of domination. But so was I, and I was trained by a professional fighter and fueled by a furious desperation. I was seeing red.
I was on Sunset’s captor in two seconds, crashing into him with the force of a rampaging bull and striking him across the chest with a pair of lobo punches-
His arms went flying and he staggered back, releasing her and giving her the break she needed-
It wasn’t a heavy blow but it was enough to bring him to the ground, as Sunset aimed a well-placed punch across his jaw-
“You traitorous f—k!” I felt a pair of arms wrench themselves around my neck and tighten, cutting into my windpipe-
I went to my knees and flung myself forward, throwing my attacker onto the ground before me, immediately leaping up and landing straight on his chest, feeling the crunching sound beneath my feet that spoke of his ribs shattering-
A violent shriek of agony ripped through the evening air as I faced off against the remaining three. Derrick was back on his feet and looked incensed, while Aguirre and the other man –a former Hunter called Sosa- were already racing towards me-
I kicked the pistol Aguirre had been holding away and charged for the man, placing him in a headlock and swinging with all my might, hammering his skull with all the force of my power and hatred, all focused the one man who had dared tried to hurt her-
Sosa grabbed the bat from the ground and was raising it to swing, my unprotected skull a perfect target-
I threw Aguirre straight into the man’s stomach, the two men toppling as they became entangled with one another-
“Msaliti!” Derrick raged, charging into me and delivering a series of blows across my side-
I brought up my arms to cover myself, absorbing the force of his blows until I could find an opening, delivering a quick strike to his chest to push him back-
It worked and he staggered back, using his precious few seconds to recover-
Big mistake. I leapt into the air and delivered a crushing blow dead center of his face, breaking his nose and knocking him down so violently that he was unconscious before he even hit the ground.
Aguirre and Sosa had finally gotten themselves free and were back up, now as desperate and dangerous as I was, incensed by the poor success of their attempted assault. The two men rushed me as one opposing force in the hopes of overpowering me-
It was a stupid thing to do, but I reached out for their faces and thrust against them, trying to push them away until I could get an opening and manage them-
Didn’t work. Sosa pushed me aside and threw me to the ground, a flurry of punches assaulting my face and I felt a cracking sound from somewhere in my mouth-
“Wait, man, look out!” Aguirre yelled-
Crack! The hefty barrel of the abandoned baseball bat was more than enough as Sunset swung with all of her might and caught him fully across the back of his skull, sending him racing towards the hard ground in a heap.
“Stupid girl-”
Sosa shouldn’t have let his attention slide. I grabbed hold of his shirt and flipped him, scrabbling to be atop of him, squeezing his neck so tightly he was gasping for breath. “Big mistake,” I snarled, and with a single, forceful swing to his throat he was incapacitated.
I sat there atop my former friend, my chest heaving with exertion, feeling the blood drip from my face as I reveled in my victory. Then, all in one single moment, the enormity of what had just happened came crashing down on me. I had just been attacked by Wanyama to be delivered to an execution, they’d almost killed Sunset and I was lucky to be alive! I began to shake uncontrollably and I spat onto the ground, a single tooth going flying.
“Are you-”
I grabbed her and checked her over in a flash, searching for marks or injuries of any kind. “Are you alright, are you hurt? Did they do anything to you, did they touch you or-”
“I’m fine! I’m fine, but look at you- you’re bleeding!” Sunset said worriedly, reaching into her purse for something to clean me up. “You need medical attention, we need to call the police.”
I’d been expecting it, waiting for it, dreading it, but I hadn’t expected anything like this. Wanyama, the monster I’d tried to flee for so long, was here, in my reality. It was like the fabric of the world had just been torn, the barriers between past and present taken away. It had actually come to this…
“I don’t understand, what were they trying to do?” Sunset said, dabbing at my face gently with a kleenix.
“They were going to take me away to Judgement,” I answered thickly, blood still flowing from a tear in my mouth where I’d bitten it. “Pull me away and kill the ones close to me. So there can’t be any chance of revenge.”
Sunset gasped and her eyes went wide. “But if- it can’t just be me. They would have to be after-”
“They can’t. They never knew where I lived, I kept it secret,” I said, but a trace of doubt began to niggle its way into my mind. I’d always been extremely secret about my attachments when I’d been part of Wanyama, wanting to protect my Mother from the horrors Jester could unleash. The kinds of things he’d done to people before were…
I heard a strangled laugh from somewhere beside me and I looked over to see Sosa was beginning to recover, trying to push himself up off of the ground and to an upright position.
“You filthy bastard,” I growled, clutching his throat and bringing his face inches away from mine. “You were going to kill me for something I didn’t do, now who the hell told you where I was? Answer me!”
“You shouldn’t have betrayed your true family, Scales,” Sosa gagged. “You broke our laws, you knew the penalty-”
“I didn’t f---king do anything!” I yelled, shaking him forcefully. “I got framed for something I didn’t do, now tell me where Jester is so I can finish this!”
“You didn’t?” Sosa asked, his face taking on a curious expression. “If what you say is true, Scales, you’d better hurry… Suds finally found you out. He knows where she is.”
Horror. Ice cold horror froze my body and I felt an unearthly chill seep through me. No, it wasn’t possible, he couldn’t have- there was no way I’d been- that she was-
“Bastard!” I screamed, and threw Sosa hard into the ground, knocking him out for good. “No, you evil, twisted sonuvabitch you couldn’t have- NOOO!”
“What happened, what did he say?” Sunset demanded. “Are they already-”
“We need to leave right now. NOW! MOVE!” I roared, racing back to the car and leaving her behind.
“Hey- wait for me, not so fast!”
I practically dove through the window, slamming into the door and ripping it open. I started up the car in a flash and screamed, “Get in!”
Sunset dashed over to the passenger side and before she had even closed the door I was off out of the parking lot and into the streets, racing down the roadway as fast as I could possibly manage. If only I could get there in time, if I could just reach her-
A red light suddenly flared before me and the cars ahead began to stop. “NO! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!” I roared, finding a small slot through and racing through.
“What are you doing-”
“We don’t have time!” I said loudly, ignoring her fears as I drove like a madman, undeterred by whatever stood in my way. I only had a short amount of time and if I didn’t make it-
“Move out of the way! Move out of the way! Move, dammit!” I screamed, gunning the gas pedal as I drove. I weaved in and out of traffic in whichever way I could so I could keep on moving, whatever maneuver was possible to let me push forward and get home before it was too late. I was running out of time, every second that ticked by…
The sun was almost completely void from the sky by the time I entered the West End, racing past Manny’s Gym and even getting a quick glimpse of the man walking out of the building. I didn’t stop, I couldn’t stop, I had nothing else on my mind-
Sunset gave a small scream and put her hands to her mouth as we drove down my street. “There’s lights ahead… Oh no…”
The flash of police lights ahead as I gunned on ahead, coming to a screeching halt just a few houses away. The crowd was evident even to the unattentive layman, a singular group of neighbors and passersby who’d stopped to see the commotion… I could see women running around in a panic as police tried to restore order…. A cop car had made its way onto the curb and two men were standing there talking to one another in a hurried manner… the ambulance on the side of the road with its back doors open and no lights on…
I pulled out my keys and ran on ahead, my heart having stopped the moment we’d arrived. I could feel a crushing weight pressing on me from all around, an inescapable sensation of horror forcing itself upon me. I knew what I was going to find, but I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t want to believe it…
“Let me through,” I said loudly, trying to shove my way through the overlarge crowd.
One of my neighbors, Mrs. Rocco, caught sight of me and made her way over to me. “I’m so sorry, I wanted to call you but I didn’t know your number. We tried to contact you-”
“I said let me through!” I said forcefully, aggressively throwing people aside in my efforts to make my way towards the center of the crowd where something pulled at me, clawing its way and dragging me in.
“Hey! Watch it, asshole!”
“What’s your deal, prick?”
“Oof! Watch what you’re doing!”
“Let me through!” I screamed, barreling everyone else aside until I finally stood before the crowd and could see-
A small circle of policemen and medics surrounded her as she lay there on the ground that was our front lawn. I could see the chain around her neck, the necklace I’d gotten her for Christmas. She was still wearing her work uniform, a simple little outfit she’d been so proud to wear every single day. And now here she was, her white uniform drenched in her own blood. Her hands that were so worn and strong now lay flat and feeble on the ground. Her eyes and her smile, the only pieces left of my earliest memories, were closed and sealed away in her unconscious state as she lay there with a massive gunshot wound to the chest, as she lay dying in front of the one place I had always believed she would be safe from me, from the world I’d been a part of, one that had abused and tortured her through me and my father for years without end. The world that had finally found her at last.
“Mom…”