One Vision

A week had gone by since I came home destroyed inside and out. Stagger never left me. He took care of me. My black eye had swollen shut by the end of that night. My face was a mess and so was my self-esteem.

Stagger even did what I knew was hard for him.

He helped me shoot up.

I could see it in his face. It killed him every time he pushed the needle into my arm, but without it, I’d get sick.

Real sick.

I could also tell that he was keeping it from me. Pretty sure he thought I’d use too much on purpose. He kept my hype kit in his pocket and insisted on being the one to prep it.

He was right to.

He tended to my wounds every day. Fed me, made me get my tired, depressed bones out of bed and shower. He even helped me clean up my little apartment. He kept the curtains on his favorite window closed all week. The light from outside made my healing eye hurt so bad I screamed.

I was having nightmares.

I kept dreaming about it. Reliving my beating over and over. I’d wake up scared, out of breath. But he was right there. It wasn’t the pain. I was just so scared of her face. She was so mad. I could still feel her hate. The scary part about it was I felt like I had felt it once before. She reminded me a lot of someone else. So much so that I dreamed of Robin’s face on her body.

Gozen Morrow. The Mother of Owls. The memory of her came back to me so suddenly it took my breath away.

Back when I was Siobhan.

I woke up in the middle of the night. Stagger was at the window, but I didn’t disturb him. He was standing there looking out while the street light from outside splashed a slice of amber across his face. He kept the curtains narrow so the light didn’t hurt my eye. I laid there in the dark, watching him. Thinking.

Gozen Morrow was a celestial and the leader of the Valkyrie at Demonhead; a group of female warriors that were some of the strongest in Blue Veil. A fighting force that helped Perun take over the world. A single Valkyrie was worth forty warriors, they would say.

And it was true. Demonhead was atop the Titan’s Teeth, the biggest mountain face in the wide world. Titan’s Teeth sat on the continent of Valhalla at the top of the world. That didn’t make sense to think about, but the more I thought about it, the more it did.

Blue Veil used to be a whole planet, but after the War of the Old Gods, a battle called Ragnarok, the world was shattered into pieces. The howl of the great wolf Fenris who killed Brahma. The roar of the winds created by Midvalley Broken Crowns. The two of them broke it.

Now Blue Veil’s many continents floated in the sky, orbiting the Hellmouth, where Fenris slept. An inky black spot at the center of the planet. A sphere of perfect darkness that absorbed all light.

I was born after Ragnarok, I think. The first time I was born I mean. When I was the girl I got my middle name from.

When I was a little girl Perun’s generals swept countries, conquering everything they saw. Every town, every road, every sanctuary. Driving their enemies further down to the cold lands near the Hellmouth.

Gozen Morrow’s Valkyrie destroyed my homeland with Midvalley’s NEST Army. Back then I was strong. Stronger than I am now. I didn’t cry. Not even when my village burned in a flash of light. The whirling white fire and lightning from Perun’s great war hammer, Mjolnir.

Not that he needed it. He could scorch the earth with the snap of his fingers. Summon fat fingers of lightning from the heavens to obliterate his enemies. That’s why they called him The Lightning Emperor.

Gozen took me as a little girl to Demonhead. She gave me power. Made me a lesser celestial like the rest of the valkyrie sisterhood. But unlike them, I was small. The fight in me wasn’t as big as the fight in them and because of that, I became a slave.

And it was a hard life.

Slave’s tended to Demonhead. They cleaned, they cooked, and dedicated their lives to the upkeep of their keepers. Some of them even lived in the arena. Destined to help stronger women perfect their technique by having it used on them over and over again. A lot of young women died there. Died as an Owlet Feronia, the title of a slave.

Gozen hated weakness. But for some reason, she always hated me more. From the day she found me as a little girl.

She was almost mad that I didn’t cry. That I never cried. No matter how hard she made my life. I could take a lot back then. My multi-tool and I. It’s sad I’m such a cry baby now. Any and everything had water coming out of my eyes like a little kid.

Every valkyrie elite had their own slave. Someone that did for them, cleaned their armor, prepped their weapons, their meals, tended to their quarters. They even answered their mail and delivered their packages.

I was Gozen’s.

Collared and kept.

But I couldn’t remember her face. I thought hard about it. Focused on it. Gozen’s face never became clear in my mind through the haze.

No surprise my brain put Robin’s face on her body.

Five more days had gone by when Stagger’s strong hands took me by the middle and hoisted me up onto my dresser. I sat there as I had twice a day every day for a week while he looked at me with those hazel eyes.

I’d stare back.

Not long. Just long enough to know he wasn’t judging me.

The swelling had finally gone down. Now I just had healing cuts and bruises to deal with.

Robin took it easy on me. As bad as it was, she showed me mercy.

My left eye had a mean purple bruise under it that extended down over my cheek. My bottom lip was split in the corner and blood had scabbed over it. Miraculously she hadn’t broken my nose. It was a shade of chapped red from how many times she’d pounded my head into the door with it.

My right eyebrow was cut and still bleeding whenever it felt like. Probably from the amount of alcohol in my system, thinning my blood. Blotchy, light bruises colored my right cheek but they were fading.

The worst was her handprints around my neck. He gently tilted my head up and I winced, setting the bottle of whiskey down beside me.

“Sorry,” he said.

“No, it’s okay.” He dabbed a cloth at my raw nose.

“She worked you over pretty good.” He said, “You’re a tough cookie.”

“Don’t call me that.” I laughed a little, but the sound stopped when I breathed out a sound of pain.

Smiling hurt. It stretched my scabbing skin, pulled at my sore face.

“Why? What’s wrong with being a tough cookie?” He asked, grabbing the antibiotic cream out of the little first aid kit he’d bought for me.

He dabbed some on the end of his finger and tipped my head back again to tend to my wounds.

“Cus,” I said, going quiet while he applied it. When he finished, I finished explaining, “Robin and her friends used to call me an oreo all the time.”

“Oreos are awesome,” He said.

We both laughed a little and I playfully punched his chest.

“Stop.”

“What?” He said, smiling that smile of his.

“Don’t make me laugh, it hurts.”

He breathed a little chuckle.

“Yeah, I know. I can see. You look awful.”

“I’d ask to see but I’m afraid to look.”

“I thought you didn’t much like mirrors.”

He was so close to me I could smell his skin. A kind of oak and chestnut smell mixed with men’s body wash. A hint of vanilla shampoo, maybe.

“I don’t.” I shook my head, again finding his eyes.

“Why?” He asked and my eyes retreated again.

“Hey,” he tipped my chin up with a curled finger.

“What?” I whispered back.

“You don’t have to say anything you don’t want to. We’re moving at your speed, Kiddo. Charlie Speed.”

We shared a smile. My face reminded me how bad it had been abused as the healing scab at my lip broke open.

“Ahh,” I complained and he dabbed my lip again with the cloth, catching the little dot of blood that formed.

“Turtles move faster.” He added.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed.

“Listen. Stag...” I took a deep breath and my coffee brown eyes finally came back to look at him.

“Charlie?” He said.

“You’re not gettin’ sweet on me, are you?”

“No, ma’am.” He said after a telling pause.

“Liar.”

“Jerk.”

“Just don’t, okay?” I asked him. There was a plea in my voice.

“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded.

“M’serious. You deserve better than damaged goods, Stag. And even if I stop using... I’m never gonna not want it.”

He tilted his head to make me look him in the eye.

“People can’t always be fixed... but they can get back to good, Charlie.” I felt his stare and it scared me, so I looked away again.

“You didn’t have to do what you did,” I said, changing the subject.

“What?” He asked, playing dumb.

“Don’t do that,” I placed my hand on his chest. “You know what I mean.”

An hour ago, he helped me put heroin in my veins again.

That first night I could barely move. My hands were numb from protecting my face. From getting bounced off of every piece of furniture in Robin’s office. My body was aching with need. The withdrawal was setting in and I was a mess of dried blood and tears. I knew he didn’t want to feed me my poison.

“You were in pain.”

“I’m always in pain, Stag. It’s part of my charm.”

“Listen. Before we get too far, there’s something I need to tell you.” Stagger said and I frowned.

“I can’t take any bad news. Whatever it is, do me a favor.”

“What’s that?” He asked.

“No matter how bad it is, just save it.”

He looked me in the face so sternly I had to look back. Even though it hurt to do. I looked him right in the eyes. Something that was happening more often these days.

With him at least.

“Some secrets you shouldn’t keep,” he said. I could tell how serious he was.

“Just save it. I have a habit of running people off before we get to secrets. And besides, whatever this is? We can’t.” I dropped my head.

I felt his lips on my skin as he kissed my forehead.

“I know.” His breath was warm. Comforting.

Both of my hands were on his chest then. I could feel his warmth through his shirt. Feel his hard body beneath. My small fingers curled against him and I took a deep inhale of his scent as I sat upright, reluctantly pulling away.

Snatching up the bottle of whiskey beside me, I turned it up to my lips and took a swallow. It burned going down and my throat was still sore from Robin wringing my neck. Stagger pulled it from my hand and took a pull himself.

“So what next?” He asked me and I shrugged.

“I dunno,” I watched him grab my box of cigarettes, taking one out.

I let him place it between my lips and light the tip. I took one from the box and did the same for him.

He stepped back and sat on the edge of my bed and we both just looked at each other for a long time.

I wasn’t really sure if it was the kind words or the care he’d taken putting me back together, but I know he rescued me. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do when I got home that night.

I know what I was thinking about doing.

I shook the thought out of my head.

“You ever have something happen that’s so bad it just... makes everything else clear?” I asked.

The first time I’d ever seen his eyes avoid mine was just then.

He looked wounded. Convicted. I knew what that was like so I didn’t press him. Wasn’t hard to figure out. A guy like him spending all his time with a loser like me.

He was trying to make up for something or someone he lost.

“Yeah, I know what that’s like.” He answered with a short nod, pulling a drag off his cigarette.

“For the first time in my life I just...” I shrugged. “I dunno. I feel different.”

He nodded and we both smoked in silence. I wanted to tell him everything. Not just because of what happened last week, but because it felt like it was time. Like everything that had been sitting on my shoulders just fell off. As masochistic as it sounded, my life changed while Robin was beating me half to death.

I looked at Stagger and recounted the entire event to him.

He sat silent, watching me while I talked him through the details of Robin disassembling me.

“She wouldn’t even let me lay there to catch my breath. She made me stand up and take it, y’know? Like I owed it to her.” I shook my head, dabbing my cigarette butt out in the ashtray.

“Then this,” I pointed at my neck, lifting my chin. “I could tell. I never been that scared in my life. I knew I was dead, Stag. She was gonna kill me.”

“Why did you follow her into that office?”

“I dunno. Part of me knew it was gonna happen.” I lit another cigarette.

“That’s pretty messed up, kiddo.”

“y’know what’s even more sick?”

“What’s that?”

“The last time she got her hands around my throat I just accepted it. She slammed my head against that door so many times I almost blacked out. I thought that was it and I just let go. I felt like I deserved it. To die, right there.”

I stared at the floor. I didn’t want to see his face. I was scared of what he would think of me.

“Hey.” He said and my head bounced up to look at him, “Nobody deserves that.”

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“You don’t deserve that.” He said again, his hazel eyes boring into me.

“You say that now. You haven’t heard it all yet.”

Stagger stood up and walked over to my window to look out of it. The light didn’t hurt so much anymore.

I started leaving my curtains open for him. Part of me always hoped he’d be there when I woke up.

And there he was.

My guardian angel.

I frowned at that thought. At myself for thinking it. Like I had to remind myself that I wasn’t worth saving.

“Storytime, Stag,” I said with a joyless smile on my face, hopping down off the dresser. I walked over to my little loveseat in front of the TV and sat down slowly. My body still ached. My bruised ribs screamed at me and I grunted like an old lady.

“I was twenty and I still didn’t have my license. Dad tried a bunch of times to get me drivin’ but I kept gettin’ in trouble. I got pulled over drunk one time in his car and they revoked my right to get my license altogether,” I blew a cloud of smoke.

“I was a horrible kid. I’d steal from my parents all the time. Hang out with washouts, get drunk and high. Everybody in my family hated me except two people. Sometimes three when mom was in a good mood.”

Stagger didn’t say anything. He just listened.

I appreciated him for that.

“I could always rely on Sam and Dad though. No matter how bad I was, they never turned their backs on me. One day I had this nightmare, I woke up screamin’ and delirious. I dreamed about fallin’ from a really high place. Fallin’ to my death, y’know? And it was so real. So fuckin’ real. Anyway... that night dad finally had enough. He thought I was on drugs again.”

I looked at the back of Stagger’s head. He still hadn’t moved.

If he didn’t hate me yet, he certainly would in a moment.

I took a quivering breath, afraid to say more, but knowing I had to. He had to know what I really was.

“I wasn’t though. I was really tryin’ not to relapse. I wanted to be the daughter he wanted me to be for once. I was actually tired of bein’ a bad person. Fighting with my family all the time. Boozin’, staying out late, stealin’ and lyin’. It was too late though. The damage was done. He tells me to get out. To be gone when him and mom got back from work. He really hurt my feelings that day. I never thought he’d lose faith in me like that.”

I tapped the ash off my cigarette into the ashtray by the couch.

“So, like the bitch I was, I decide I’ll teach him a lesson. I pack my backpack and grab the keys to the spare car. Samantha tried to stop me.”

“Charlie,” Stag said.

“No. Stagger... just listen. I need to say it out loud.” I glanced up to see him nod his head.

“She tried to stop me.” I continued, “She tried to tell me to just stay, just talk it out. But I got in the car anyway. She was so full of spirit,” my voice was breaking.

“My memory’s a little fuzzy here. I don’t know exactly if I took a handful of pills, I don’t know if I snorted somethin’, or whatever. I don’t know. But Sammy got in that car with me. All she wanted to do was keep her big sister at home.” Tears were rolling down my face.

“I keep telling myself there were two other cars on the road that mornin’. The police report says we were all by ourselves. My stupid brain tries to tell me I couldn’t have done it all by myself. Tries to make up a lie, but I finally accepted the truth.”

“I got high.” My mouth was dry as I forced myself to keep talking.

“I was going too fast and I lost control. We spun out and my car door flew open. I wasn’t wearin’ my seatbelt so I got thrown out. That’s how I broke my jaw. But I remember, Stag. Right when I was losing consciousness, the last thing I remember was hearing my dad’s car go through that guard rail. I remember hearin’ Sammy scream.”

My shoulders jerked through my sobs. I felt my face get hot and my stomach clench in a knot. I felt my world break all over again reliving it in my mind. I cried for Sammy, I cried for my daddy, my sisters, my momma.

“I find out later the car did a nose dive into oncomin’ traffic. Sammy’s neck snapped on impact. Two other people died in that pile-up. A little boy and some sweet old lady on her way to get groceries. They all died and it was all my fault.”

“Holy God,” Stagger’s voice faltered.

I looked up to see him looking back at me. There were tears in his eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Charlie.”

“Not as sorry as I am.” He came to me, placed his hand on the back of my neck. His warm touch comforted me as my shoulders shook through tears.

“I lost Sammy, I lost my family... I even lost my freedom. I got charged with three counts of vehicular manslaughter. I spent two years in prison thinkin’ about what a horrible piece of shit I am. Every day inside havin’ the same vision. One vision in my head over and over again. Imaginin’ the terror on Sammy’s face.”

Stagger let out a long breath, “Damn.”

“I deserve everything I got. Everything that’s happened to me is my fault. Sammy was the best thing my parents ever did. She made them happy again. She made us a family again. Daddy was so proud of her and I took her away from him.”

“You made a mistake, Charlie.” Stagger said, his voice soft.

“I am a mistake.”

“No more,” Stagger said, getting to a knee. He lifted my chin with a finger.

“It happened, Charlie. Some things we do we can’t ever take back. We don’t have a choice but to wear them, to learn from them. But we always have to find a way to move on. We are not the sum of our mistakes, Charlotte.”

He placed his hands on his chest. Guilt was in his eyes from our shared losses.

We had the same kind of wounds.

He took both of my hands in his and rubbed them with his thumbs.

We mourned together in silence.

We didn’t really talk anymore that night. There was nothing else to say. We traded the whiskey bottle back and forth. Finished a box of cigarettes. Watched infomercials on TV for the noise.

Sitting there on my little loveseat, we were each other’s therapist.

It was just me, Stagger and time.

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, Stagger was gone. I didn’t know where but out of nowhere he was out of my life. I didn’t leave my apartment for another two days, just hoping he would come back. I didn’t have a choice though. I needed to get out and try to find a job. The rent wasn’t going to pay itself and I’d already been down for over two weeks.

I dug through my clothes and found the nicest thing I had. Comfortable jeans and a trendy t-shirt I managed to score for cheap in the young women’s section at a discount clothing store. It was a little bit of a snug fit but nothing scandalous. It was a chilly September day so I grabbed my jacket out of the closet and threw it over my shoulders.

I had spent over an hour with a hot straightener in my unruly hair, flattening it out by feel earlier. I was used to it by now. I refused to take that electrical tape off my mirror so I learned to get it right without needing to see what I was doing. The only reason I even bothered to wrangle my hair was to cover up the left side of my face that hadn’t quite healed completely. I still had some bruising right under my eye that had faded to an odd greenish purple color.

I made sure I got up really early. I didn’t want to risk running into Jack. I knew his dad probably told him about the last time he saw me. The last thing I needed was him asking me questions I didn’t feel like answering.

I heard my phone buzz.

That never happened.

Ever.

I ran full speed from the bathroom, tripping over my clothes from yesterday, slamming into the ground and crawling the last few feet, my heart pounding in my chest. I grabbed up my broken phone and held it to my chest.

“Please, Daddy. Please, please, please.” I prayed, my eyes closed before I looked down and pulled the phone away from me. The name I saw on the screen surprised me.

Bobby:

Why are you doing this to me?

Then below that message, another one from Max.

Max:

What did you do?!

I was confused. I stared at the two messages. Then another one came in.

Bobby:

You can’t leave well enough alone, can you? Now you’re after my career!?

My eyes went wide. I managed to navigate past the breaks in my screen to call max.

“Well, you’ve really done it now, haven’t you?” She said.

“Done what?” I said back, confused.

“I’m not saying what Rob did to you was right. She asked me if you were okay and I told her I didn’t know.”

“You’re not saying what Rob did to me was wrong either.”

“You know better than that.” She replied.

“I still don’t know what’s goin’ on. What is it I’m supposed to have done now?”

Another message buzzed on my phone. Then another. And another. I looked at the screen. Robin was texting me hateful messages.

“Why is Robin cussing at me through text?”

“You really don’t know or are you lying?”

“I’m not lyin’. I don’t know what’s happening! She’s talkin’ about her career. All I did was ask her for a loan and she beat the shit outta me.” I insisted, pacing the floor.

“Pictures got out.”

My stomach hit the floor.

I leaned against the wall by the bathroom door and slid down it. Fear gripped my entire body.

“I’m dead. I’m fuckin’ dead...” I whined, my chest heaving in fear as I started to hyperventilate.

“Breathe,” Max said. “Getting to you isn’t going to be that easy.”

“What? Why?” I asked, feeling a small moment of relief.

“Have you looked outside?” She asked. My eyebrows tightened.

“No, why?”

“Your apartment is on TV.”

Air just left the room.

“Oh my God... Oh my God. Max, I... I swear!”

“You always swear.” She sighed, “Look, what Robin did was terrible, but going after her career is a little much.”

“What?! Max, c’mon! Why would I do that?! She fucked me up just for asking her for money, what do you think she’s gonna do to me now that she thinks I released pictures?”

“Did you send pictures to anybody?” She asked me and I shook my head as if she could see me.

“No. No one. I didn’t-... I mean, to Dad?”

“Daddy wouldn’t have done this. Look, I’ve got to go, I need to get to Robin before she gets to you. Best advice, just stay away from her. And don’t talk to the press until we figure this thing out.”

“O-okay. Okay, I... shit. Shit!”

“Are you alright, by the way?” Max asked finally and I nodded.

“Yeah, I--... I’ve been home for a few weeks. I didn’t go anywhere. I just stayed here.”

“Listen. They won’t make it easy on you. Robin’s celebrity is sometimes overwhelming and this scandal is going to bring you a lot of attention.”

That last word rang in my head like a funeral dirge. NEST didn’t like Re-Cars in the spotlight. They would make Robin and me disappear.

I had to get to her.

“I’ll talk to you later,” I said, panic rich in my voice.

“Alright. I’ll try to talk to her. Maybe I can calm her down before she actually does kill you,” she replied.

“Thanks, Maxie,” I said before hanging up.

I stood up from the floor and paced around my shitty apartment hyperventilating. I walked over to my window.

Stagger’s window.

Where was he?

I rushed over to my TV and turned it on, flipping a few channels to find the news. I saw the unmistakable dirty bricks of my building and the reality of what was happening set in.

“It’s over. I’m gonna get locked up again.” I covered my mouth with my hand, staving off tears. I was such a fucking cry baby.

Walking over to my curtains, I pulled them open to peek outside.

There were thirty people standing in front of my broken down, ghetto apartment building. All of them had cameras. Lenses aimed right up at my window the second the curtains cracked open. I snatched them closed again.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” I screamed, smacking my phone repeatedly against my head. I had to find a way to make this right. I had to get things back to normal.

My phone rang in my hand.

I looked down at it and recognized the number immediately.

Agent Paul Lyons was calling.

I couldn’t stop them anymore. Tears spilled out of my eyes and I wanted to hide.

“H-hello...?”

“You know you just fucked up. Right?”

“Yes, sir.” My voice was tiny again.

“What are you gonna do about it?” His raspy voice asked.

“I don’t know.”

“What the fuck does that mean!?” He shouted.

“How did... how!?” I asked, my voice a whine.

“Some asshole at Robin’s gym took pictures of her office after you left. The same asshole sent the photos to some Paparazzi fuck. Some other asshole took pictures of you on the train with your face kicked in, looking like you just got out of a noose. Y’know you’re listed as one of Robin’s siblings on Wikipedia? That’s news to me.”

I swallowed hard.

“Please help me.” I pleaded, not knowing what else to say.

“It’s out of my hands. I and the rest of the Triumvirate have ruled.”

“I c-” I started to say, but he interrupted me.

“This isn’t an icebox situation, Charlie. It’s a you and Robin disappearing kind of situation.”

I hung up on him.

Terror gripped me as my phone rang again in my hand.

It was him.

NEST would never interfere in the lives of regular people. That wasn’t part of the agreement they had with the governing bodies from Earth to get the influence and the power they had. Whether he was bluffing or not though, I couldn’t take the chance.

My family was safe at least. They wouldn’t risk boxing us all.

But Robin and I? Totally different story. They’d make it look like she killed me and fled the country or something. Either way, we were both disappearing.

I scrambled to my dresser and yanked it open, frantically throwing clothes out onto the floor.

“Where is it?”

I rummaged through my accessories, tossing rings and bracelets and phone screens I’d accidentally broken on top of my dresser until I found it. Still pristine white. Still beautifully knitted.

That white scarf.

I wrapped it around my neck, it’s warm, comforting fibers seeming to snuggle up to me like an old friend. The half of it that hung down billowed once on its own.

A blinding light suddenly filled my vision and I stepped back from the source.

I heard a faint humming in my ear. Like a chorus of voices miles away on a perfectly still, quiet night. The singing faded, the light in my vision coalescing in the middle of my living room, forming the shape of a person.

I scrambled back onto my bed, eyes wide as that figure came into better focus.

She looked exactly like me.

Her hair was shorter and neat, not wild like mine. She had a permanent scar around her neck that looked like the remains of where a collar sat, hugging tight to her throat. She had a single, brilliant, tawny brown owl wing that swept out behind her. As the light faded from her body I saw her little frame shrouded in armor.

Shoulder pauldrons, a shimmering breastplate with the emblem of a shield on it, and below that a battle skirt made of a material I couldn’t quite identify. At her side was a curving sword that looked like a katana with the last five inches of the blade missing. It had a tassel hanging from the pommel, the grip checkered white and black. The sheath was white and black with gold inlaid at its accents.

She smiled at me from a face identical to my own.

“You found your multi-tool.”

“Yeah...” I nodded, climbing off of the bed. My pace was slow as I walked over to her.

“I can see your thoughts, Charlie. You don’t have to explain.”

Her accent was different from mine. I couldn’t place where from. Maybe someplace in Scotland or Ireland. If I had stayed in school I might have been able to answer my own question.

“Life has been hard.” She said, hurt on her face as she regarded me.

“Yeah.” I nodded, fighting tears.

“I know you don’t know what to do. And I can’t help much. All I can tell you is that I set this plan in motion a very long time ago. And I intentionally wiped it from my mind so the workings of it couldn’t be extracted from me or you.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Fight, Charlie. You have to fight.”

“Where is the Heart Fire? Where is the Creator God, Brahma? They’re comin’ for me and I don’t know what to do.”

“All good questions, and if I could answer them, I promise I would.”

She stepped closer to me and her small arms pulled me into an embrace against her breastplate.

“But you have to follow your heart. Keep your wits. Think.”

“I can’t do this. I’m not strong like you.”

“You are me, Love.” She whispered into my ear with all the tenderness of a mother.

“You just have to find me inside.”

I nodded, pulling away to look her in her green eyes. The only thing about us that was different.

“You’ve got Sammy’s eyes,” I said.

“More that she’s got mine,” she smiled. “You haven’t got long. What you seek I would have put where only you or I would go.”

“What does that mean? Where would only we go?”

“It’s so strange... It’s like when a word is on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t quite...” Siobhan shook her head. “I don’t know, Love. I’m sorry. This little piece of me is all I had time to make for you. Trust your heart, keep your multi-tool close. It’ll see you through.”

“I can’t fight them here,” I said, steeling myself.

“Aye, no you can’t. But you remember how to fight,” she said.

“I do.”

“And you can fight them there. Where you have power.”

“I can,” I nodded, more to convince myself than her.

She unslung that sword at her side and lifted it out to me.

“Remember the way of Blood and Blade. Just because you’re a Valkyrie doesn’t mean you’ve got to be evil like the wicked heart of the Mad Queen. Take your power back and it’s yours wherever you go. Here on Earth or in the Endless Sky.”

I took the blade from her without another thought, turning it over between my hands before it disappeared completely.

“Fly, Love.” And with that, she broke apart into hundreds of sparkling points of light.

I looked down at that scarf. I watched it pull back over my shoulder and sprout into a five-foot owl wing made of tawny feathers at my right. One and only one wing, just like Siobhan’s.

I thought of Stagger then and his big, black hawk wing.

The mark of a multi-tool powered by a celestial.

It only created more questions than it answered. I lifted my right hand and that beautiful sword reappeared in it. I took it’s handle and pulled four inches of the blade free. Its edge was blunt, not sharp.

An Atma Sword. The chosen weapon of the Valkyrie. Women that were strong enough to use its blunt edge to tear through their enemies. To bash them into submission or death. In the hands of a Valkyrie, that blunt edge was a flaunted threat. They could make it cut like a razor.

Siobhan had stolen this weapon from Gozen Morrow herself.

I willed the wing away, the scarf returning to hang across my chest. Zipping my jacket, that sword disappeared soon after and I rushed out of my apartment.

I ran down the three flights of stairs towards the front door.

Jack hurriedly came out of the office, looking up at me.

“Charlie! What the hell is going on? There’s so many cameras outside I could barely get in here! They kept asking me if I knew Robin Rampage was your sister,” He looked confused, searching my face to see if the claim was true.

I looked at him and said, “Is there another way out of here?”

“What the hell is happening, Charlie? There’s news vans out there!”

It took everything in my power to get Jack to calm down and show me another way out of the building. He led me down to the basement where the building conjoined with the shitty apartment building behind it through the shared storage room. He kept asking me what was going on, why so many cameras were outside looking for me.

In the end, I had to shout at him to shut him up and even that only resulted in changing the subject. He gushed over me for the six minutes it took me to get out of the other building’s front door.

“Look, Jack. I don’t have a whole lot of time here, alright? I gotta go.”

“But... holy shit, this is crazy. At least give me something, my dad’s gonna be pissed all those cameras are on our front lawn.”

I sighed, “What do you wanna know, Jack?”

“Rockin’ Robin is your sister?”

“Yes.”

“What!? How did I not know this...? What the hell are you doing living down here? She’s loaded!”

“Yeah, well. Clearly, she’s not that fond of me. Look, can we do this later? I’ll get you an autograph or somethin’. Right now I got shit to do. Just do me a favor and don’t believe what you hear and don’t tell the fuckin’ press anything, alright? You didn’t see me this morning.”

“Was she really the one that did that to you? My dad said he saw you that night. He said you looked really bad.”

I blew another sigh, “Jackie, look... shit’s more complicated than that, alright? My sister would never do somethin’ like that to me, alright? Just... believe it.”

“Yeah,” Jack said, but he didn’t sound convinced.

“Don’t give those assholes any information. When I get back we can... I dunno, catch a movie or somethin’.”

“Alright, I get it. Bribery is nice and everything but... I’d rather you wanna go out with me cus you like me, not cus you need me to keep my mouth shut. I ain’t a rat.”

“Right... sorry. Look, thanks. You’re a good guy Jack,” I said, turning to step away.

Jack stopped me with a hand on my stomach and I looked back, locking eyes with him.

“I dunno what’s going on. Just be careful.”

“Tell your dad I said thanks for everything.”

With that, I bolted. I ran like my life depended on it. I had about twenty dollars on me and a bus pass in my wallet and by now I knew NEST would be on the bus stops to make sure I wasn’t trying to run.

I yanked my phone out of my pocket and spun mid-step, chucking it over a fence as far and as hard as I could, not missing a beat as I pounded my small, sneakered feet on the sidewalk. I couldn’t have them tracking me.

I had to get to Robin before they did.

I ran until I was almost sick and then I ran some more. I got all the way into Midtown taking the side streets. Cutting across someone’s yard, I took the long, rocky hill down from the dirty backroads of the ghetto onto one of the main roads.

I used to come this way when I was walking to the dollar theater to see a second run flick. Me and one of my old boyfriends used to go there a lot. The staff didn’t care that we were doing Whip-Its in the near-empty theater and smoking huge bowls of weed. I’d let him snort coke off my neck before we got frisky and fucked like zoo animals in the backseat of his old school car.

That life seemed forever away now.

I didn’t exactly know how to take all this. Jogging out of breath down the street, I thought about how fifteen years ago I thought I was going crazy. Seven years ago I knew for a fact I wasn’t. Two weeks ago, I swore I’d never go to Blue Veil again.

And thirty minutes ago I agreed to do the opposite.

I saw a taxi cab and waved it down, hopping up and down but it passed me. Not that I blamed them. I cheated nearly every taxi driver in the city out of at least two rides before they got wise to me.

The next one I waved down pulled up to the curb. I opened the backseat and looked at the driver.

“Can you take me to Vista Pointe?,” I said, panting.

The driver was an Indian man with a smooth, well-manicured beard and a handsome face that was hard to forget. I recognized him and he recognized me.

“Money first. You stiffed me last time.”

Fucked up part was I really liked Indian people and kinda felt bad stiffing him. Always thought they had a really cool culture. It went without saying when you were from a world full of gods. Indians believed in over thirty-three million of them. Assuming he was Hindu anyway. Guess that was kind of a reach to assume in this city. Fucker could believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Cthulhu for all I knew.

I let out a hard sigh and got in the car, tossing my crumpled up ball of money from my sock into the front seat. I learned my lesson about keeping cash in my wallet.

He actually sat there and counted it.

“C’mon, man,” I bitched.

“You shut up,” he said, turning around to look back at me, pointing hard.

“Just shut up. Last time you got in my cab, I took you all the way downtown. You get out, tell me to fuck my dear, sweet, ailing mother and run off without paying. You have NO right to rush me. I will sit here and count this money until I am happy. Understand?”

I was a deer in headlights.

He shouted at me and I shut my mouth and listened, nodding my head.

“Good,” he added for good measure and turned around to count.

I waited patiently, looking around the cab. My hands nervously tapped at my thighs, beating a little rhythm that’d been stuck in my head for a few days.

The cab was surprisingly clean. Even the nameplate and information on the seat back was spotless. The seats had been cleaned, the windows didn’t have any fingerprints on them, even the air freshener on the rearview mirror was new. Apparently his name was Saeed Anwar.

Sitting on his dash where most cabbies had a hula girl or bobblehead toy, he had one of those annoying desk trinkets. Y’know, the magnetic thing that had the perfect sphere floating on it and served no real purpose? That one. I rolled my eyes at it.

He was carefully uncrumpling all of the bills I balled up around four quarters.

“It’s all here,” he said, putting the car in gear.

“Good,” I nodded, trying not to make the moment any more awkward than it already was.

“I’m really sorry?” I added, my lip curling sheepishly.

He stared at me through the rearview mirror.

“You’re lucky I’m Buddhist and believe in forgiveness,” He pulled the car back out into traffic. “I started to run your ass over.”

I avoided his eyes, looking out the window.

“I get that a lot from Cabbies. That a Union response?”

“Blow me,” he shot back.

“Would it get you to drive any faster?” I said, returning his stare through the mirror.

He stepped on the gas so hard my head smacked the seat.

“No, thank you. I don’t know where you’ve been.”

“Funny.”

“Not joking.”

“Alright. We’re good here.” I threw my hands up in resignation and went back to looking out the window.

“How did you get the black eye?” He asked after a few blocks. My hair must have moved enough for him to see the slight discoloration of my skin.

“Got in a fight.” I lied, watching the city go.

“You had a black eye the last time you got in my cab.”

“I stole some shit,” I said and shrugged.

“And this time?” He asked.

“I steal a lotta shit.”

“You’re a pretty girl. You shouldn’t be out in the streets fighting people.”

I snorted, “The fuck does what I look like have to do with what I do?”

“A woman should be-”

“What? Mild-mannered and in the kitchen?” I glared at him.

“Better than spending her life bitter and angry.” He stared back, “But not what I was going to say.”

“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes and he looked back at the road.

“A woman should be wise enough to know how to make good choices. This is what distinguishes a good woman from a foolish girl. The same too of a man.”

“Yeah, well, when you sprout a pair of tits and a vagina let me know what both sides of the fence are like.”

He shook his head and didn’t say anything back, and thank god. Everybody was trying to give me life lessons these days and I was getting sick of hearing them.

Forty-five minutes later, thanks to a good bit of traffic, we made it to the Hillridge Building in Vista Pointe. It was a lavish, multi-unit estate that was clearly made for people whose salaries were in excess of half a million plus. Robin and Andy were the richest people I knew of personally, Robin probably edging Andy out by a hundred grand or so, but this place was bonkers. It had a massive water wall fountain outside and there were huge sculptures all around the building with expensive looking, well-manicured lawn work all over the place.

Gold and silver accents ran up the corners of the building with its reflective windows and it extended up so high I had to tilt my head down in the car to see the crest of it.

Thankfully the mirrored glass wasn’t on the bottom most floor. White and brushed aluminum accents held the place up with a drive-up underpass by those elaborate, black and glass doors with the fat pearl colored push rails.

I reached for the knob of the car door and looked down at the fare meter. It read $21.20.

“Listen, Saeed, right? I don’t want to open the door, run off and tell you to fuck your mother... But, full disclosure... I don’t have that dollar twenty.”

“Get out.” He glared at me through the rearview mirror.

“Just thought I should-,”

“Get. Out.”

I curled my top lip sheepishly again and said, “I’m really sorry?”

“Out!”

I climbed out of the backseat and was barely able to close the door before he sped off, burning rubber in my face.

“Yeah. Great customer service, Asshole.” I said, fast walking towards the building’s entrance.

I pushed the front doors open to the sound of a deep voice.

“Nope!” said the attendant at the front counter, coming round it to head my way.

“Huh?” I said, confused, looking up at him.

Way up at him. Fucker must have been six-five.

“No. Leave, Charlie.”

“What!?” I stared at him, “Are you fucking ki- ..”

His strong hands grabbed me by my little shoulders and started turning me around.

“No. You don’t understand, I-... Fuck.” My shoulders sank in his hands and he shoved me back outside.

The big rhino almost sent me tumbling onto the ground.

“I don’t even fuckin’ know you!” I turned around and shouted at him.

He pointed at the street.

“I know you!” He yelled back.

I flipped him off.

“Oh, fuck you, Doorman! Why don’t you shove somebody’s luggage up y-”

He bucked his chest towards me, clenching his fists and I flinched backward a few steps, almost falling over again. I tried to hold my ground after the fact but my eyes were downcast.

“Leave,” he barked.

“Fine.”

“Now!” He yelled.

“I will!” I roared back.

He took a step out of the door and all my bluster melted.

“Okay, okay, okay!” I said quickly, lifting my hands and backing up, a thrill of fear running through me.

I had ten feet of temper in a five-foot body and enough mouth on me to piss off the Pope. Unfortunately, I was also a coward. Max used to say I walked around with a chip on my shoulder like I wanted people to kick my ass.

Getting punked out by a fucker that huge was only natural. It wouldn’t be the first time I got slapped up by a grown man, but I’d be an idiot to let someone this guy’s size at me.

Like an unwanted pregnancy, I needed a plan B.

Looking around, I blew a sigh and started towards the street.

“Fuck.” I didn’t grab any cigarettes and I gave that cabby my last twenty bucks.

I took a very long walk down the street and around the block to the back side of that wide plot of land Robin’s building sat on. Hopping the fence, I jogged across the tennis court, past the pool towards the parking garage out back. I waited by the back door until I saw an expensive, exotic looking sports car pull up and park a few spaces away.

An elderly man with a spry step hopped out of the car and I smiled. He walked around to the passenger side of his wildly expensive automobile and opened the door to help his wife out and the two headed my way.

I stood up, pushed my hands into my jacket pockets and walked up to them. I felt kinda bad lying to old people, but I still put on my best lost lamb expression.

“Hey, guys. I came down to get my mom’s keys out of the car and forgot to get my key card. I’ve been down here a while.”

“Oh, sure, Sweetheart. Come on in with us,” the woman said, smiling at me. “Aren’t you just a pretty little thing. I just love all that hair. Are you in college, dear?”

I just sorta nodded and walked along with them.

“Oh, George. Don’t you remember that girl who used to stay in my dorm hall?” She said to her husband.

“With the... the-- she had the,” he said, trying to remember as he swiped his card and opened the door for us.

Then they both said together, “Different color eyes.”

I smiled as I walked beside them down the lavish hallway, listening as they reminisced on their college days.

“Yeah. She was a real cutie-pie. Not as cute as you, of course, dear,” he chuckled warmly and gave me a wink.

I wasn’t a blusher, but getting a wink from a warm, adorable old man like him put color in my cheeks.

“Thanks.”

“Yes, Art History class, Melba Grayson,” The wife said.

“Yeah, they do kind of favor,” Her husband agreed.

“What’s your name, Hon?” She asked me.

“Charlie,” I admitted, still smiling.

“Oh! Isn’t that cute? What’s that short for? Charlene?”

“Charlotte,” I said, my whole name feeling alien in my mouth. But I was happy to tell them. They made me feel good.

“That’s a gorgeous name,” Her husband said. “I always liked the name Charlotte. Your mom’s got a good head on her shoulders.”

“Thank you. And thanks again for getting the door for me.”

“No problem, Sweetheart.” the wife said.

“Any time. You be good, Kiddo.” her husband replied.

Kiddo.

That word reminded me of Stagger. If I needed anyone right then it was him. I nodded and offered the old man another smile and they headed towards the bar in front where the big doorman was. Least that’s what the arrows on the walls said.

I waited until they were around the corner before I burst through the stairwell door. I took them two at a time, hopping, jumping and running my way up.

I made it to the third floor before I popped back out and jogged for the elevator. I didn’t want to take the chance of getting stopped by a doorman down in the bottom floors. That and all the running I’d done had my smoker’s lungs aching so bad I wanted to puke.

This place looked like a study in excess. Everything was the most expensive version of itself like some lavish episode of Twilight Zone where neither sense, reason nor a reasonable budget ever escaped.

I was winded when I finally got on that elevator and rode it all the way to the penthouse suites where Robin lived. The doors rolled open and I jogged down the long hallway, the balls of my feet burning from bouncing on the tips of my toes in a full sprint almost since I left home. I found her door and came to a stop.

Breathing heavily, I felt my heart give a thrill.

Here I was. About to knock on her door, the warning she had given me playing back in my thoughts.

“I’ll beat you to death, Charlotte.”

I believed her.

“Charlie, just open the door. Open the door, open the door, open the door,” I said to myself, trying to force courage where there wasn’t any.

I shook my hands off like I was working nerves out before disarming a bomb. My hand lifted and extended a finger to her doorbell.

No response.

I did it again.

I heard the door click and my heart skipped a beat. It swung open an inch.

I reached for the doorknob and pushed it inward with a tap of my finger.

I didn’t trust her. I didn’t trust that she wasn’t on the other side of that door, waiting to get her hands around my throat and crush it. I remembered the pain in my neck and my hand went up reflexively to rub at it. This time she would squeeze until she heard my neck pop.

I inched forward a step at a time, every step bringing with it the mental image of her fucking me up in her living room where no one could stop her.

Of blacking out for the last time.

I pushed the door a little wider, then looked around into her gorgeous home.

The entire back wall was glass, looking out over the city. Every inch of the flat was modern, the ceilings extending upward for ages. A waterfall spilled water down from the ceiling, creating a wall between her living room and that wide open bar with the orange and white stools. The sound of the water was a constant, relaxing, burbling sound.

I loved the color orange. It was my favorite. Her kitchen looked like a mix between a Retro 1950s movie and an episode of The Jetsons with those orange accents that made me jealous. Those wide, white countertops. The Robin’s Egg Blue walls.

Robin’s Egg Blue.

Cute.

I walked further in, felt how plush her carpets were under my feet, accenting hardwood. Turning to see the wall by the fireplace opposite the glass, above it she had at least thirty pairs of boxing gloves hanging there. All autographed by legends of the past. I was in awe of it.

Turning, I walked around the bar and looked at the cobblestone wall that separated the kitchen from her living room space. The size of her television was obscene. Elegant speakers built into the wall, that oddly shaped couch an egg white color with orange pillows and Robin’s Egg Blue accessories on her modern end tables.

“So this is how the ten percent live, huh?” I said, dwarfed by the scale of her home.

I couldn’t afford half of her door handles, let alone the rent here.

I felt her before I heard her. Like when you know someone is looking at you. By the time I could register what direction she was coming from, sparks flew in my vision and my feet left the floor.

I hit her carpet in a roll and slammed into one of her end tables.

“What the fuck are you doing here!?” She roared.

“Bobby!” I said, sitting up, my jaw aching and my right ear ringing.

“I didn’t rat you out. I swear! I s-” I really had to stop swearing.

It didn’t fucking work.

She was on top of me in an instant. Her hands were reaching for my throat. I knew I couldn’t let that happen.

I couldn’t.

I’d never get my words out. I had to make her listen.

She was stronger than me by far. The best I could do was clutch her thumbs with my smaller hands and try to drive them back towards her wrists.

“I’ll break ’em! I’ll break ’em, I swear to God!” I yelled up at her.

I wasn’t gonna break shit. That woman’s daily gym training shredded through my soft ass like garden shears through a gelatin snack.

She tugged one of her hands back out of my grip and grabbed my throat anyway.

“Ggnk!” I kicked. I kicked and squirmed under her, pleading with my eyes. I let go of her other thumb and regretted it instantly.

She balled up her fist. I saw it coming. My head wrenched to the side as she slammed it into my face, forcing my lip against my tooth, cutting it.

I reached out with my free hand and grabbed her end table, yanking it down onto the top of her head. She howled in pain and I skittered, kicking and squirming away from her. Crawling to get behind her couch and curl into a ball.

She was on me, grabbing my kicking ankle before I could get too far. She pulled me right back, nearly yanking my shoe off completely.

“Robin, I di- AHH!” Her elbow dropped into my kidney. “I didn’t. They’re coming!”

She grabbed me by my hair and stood up. I tried to get to my feet but she dragged me across her soft carpet by the roots, screaming.

I screamed hysterically. I’d lost my mind with fear. I kicked and screamed, losing my shoe, exposing one of my threadbare socks with a hole in the toe. I wailed, hoping somebody would hear me. If she was going to kill me, I was going to make sure there would be witnesses.

I wished I was six feet tall. I wanted to rage at her. I wanted to be able to fight back and show her what it felt like to be this scared.

She threw me into the corner of her living room so hard my jacket ripped off in her hands. I hit the wall sideways and tumbled onto my shoulder blades. I was panting like a marathon runner as she threw the remains of my cheap jacket aside.

She prowled towards me like a hunting cat. I couldn’t even speak, I was so exhausted from screaming. I crawled over to her expensive armchair, clambering my way to my feet.

“Is this what you want? You fucking junkie!” She grabbed me by my shirt and launched me across her coffee table. I slammed into her television stand and brought the big flat screen down on top of me, curling up to avoid it hitting me in the face.

She threw the television aside and yanked me up again, ramming me into her wall, blasting the air out of me with a fist in my stomach. I hung by the collar of my shirt in her hand as I coughed and dry heaved. My face scrunched up, prepared to take another beating.

“You come to my house?” She growled. “You come to MY HOUSE!?”

My legs gave out. I dropped to my knees and wrapped my arms around her, trapping her arms at her sides, hugging her to me. The blood leaking from my face soaked into the waist of her white pajama pants. I felt her looking down at me, but I didn’t have anything left. I was using the last of my strength just to hold on.

“Bobby,” I huffed and heaved, “I’m sorry. Please don’t hit me anymore. I-... I can’t.” My lungs were burning.

All I could do was cling to her, my arms wrapped around hers, holding them to her body. She could break the embrace whenever she wanted. Maybe the sight of me down there hugging her, begging her not to hit me anymore, begging her for my life, finally got through to her.

I was no match for her. I’d never win no matter how many times we fought. I never had and I never would. Maybe the champion in her finally realized there was no victory in beating on someone weaker than you.

“You win, Bobby.” I swallowed hard, “Okay? You win. No more... Please. Please.”

“Let go of me you little cry baby,” she said.

She sounded irritated, but not enraged. Her voice was soft.

“No,” I was so tired. “You want me to beg? I’ll beg. I’ll say whatever you want me to say, just for once in your goddamn life listen.”

There was silence and then she sighed.

“Fine. Talk.”

It was her turn to back away screaming. She broke free of my arms and fell back, crawling backward across her carpet, her eyes wide.

A five foot, tawny owl wing sprang out of my back.

“I’ve been tryin’ to tell you all along,” I said, sitting back on my heels.

I wiped the blood from my nose and mouth with the back of my hand.

“I’m not crazy, Bobby,” It felt so good to finally say it out loud. “I’m sorry I made everything so hard but,” I swallowed, “I was goin’ through a really difficult time in my life.”

Robin stared at that tawny wing. She pointed.

“You... that-- wh... what the fuck is th... Holy shi-..” Her face was a mask of fear and confusion. A look I’d never seen on it before.

“Yeah. Holy shit is right.” I pushed myself up to my feet. “... We gotta go. Right now.”

Just then we heard her front door burst open.

I spun round to see it fly wide and tumble into the fountain.

Six tall, broad-shouldered men stepped into view from around the bar. Each of them was armored in black tactical gear that looked like it had been blended with a kind of sleek knight’s armor from out of the future. And each of them had a massive black wing at their backs, unfurling into the room, filling up the spaces behind them.

And all too suddenly long, five foot, black iron rods crackled into existence with white glowing prods at the ends, brandished in their hands.

“Fuck.”

Robin crawled to my side.

“Charlie, what the fuck did you do! What’s going on, what the fuck are you!?”

I reached down to help her up. She took my hand and stood as the men slowly approached us.

They stopped several feet away and parted their ranks to let a beautiful Asian woman in armor step through them. It was Lillian Little.

Lilith herself.

She was only an inch or so taller than me and had a dangerous look in her lavender eyes. A wide swath of purple in her black hair. Her lean body armor was similar to the broad men she’d come with. A perversion of the Valkyrie armor Siobhan was wearing earlier, only darker and much more compact. More modern. The NEST logo on her chest had a purple glow.

She didn’t carry an Atma Sword but produced from thin air a thick, black ring with a tapered, purple edge. She whirled it around her wrist and smiled at me.

“Charlotte. I’m so happy you decided to misbehave. I kept begging Belisle to let me hurt you. I told him I could break that spirit of yours and have you sitting, laying and rolling over like a good little bitch. Just like I used to. He always turned me down... Until today.”

The memory of the time I’d spent in her hands sickened me. She was trained by Gozen but decided not to follow the way of Blood and Blade. Instead, she became an interrogator for NEST.

“What can I say. I’m a squirmer,” I shrugged, fresh blood leaking from my nose.

“That you are. And the sounds you make are,” she groaned with erotic satisfaction.

“You’re twisted,” I said back, fighting the urge to throw something at her.

“Will you be a dear and come along nice and quiet? I want to take you home and hurt you. Not here where it lacks occasion. I promise I’ll make it special this time.”

“Hard pass.” I shrugged my small shoulders, wiping my nose again.

Lilith looked at my sister and gasped.

“Did you kick my puppy?” She lifted a finger and shook it, “Tsk tsk.”

“Lilly, I think we need to talk about our relationship. It’s really not healthy,” I said, trying to get her attention back on me instead of Robin.

“You should feel honored that I love giving you so much of my attention,” she licked her purple painted lips slowly and my top lip curled in disgust.

“I’m sure that’s what you say to all of your victims, Mr. Cosby.”

I felt Robin looking at the side of my face.

The rods in the hands of the men behind Lilith suddenly crackled to life with white-hot electricity, hiding my words as I whispered to Robin.

“Robin, just do what I say. Throw me out the window and jump.”

“What?” She hissed at me.

I turned to look at her.

“Throw me out the fuckin’ window and jump. DO IT!”

She grabbed me by my shoulders and spun hard. Her well-trained body responded so quickly I felt my back crack. She whirled us both towards the window as those men came rushing on.

I felt her launch my body through the air as hard as she could. I flew away from her for a moment, but she leaned forward into a full sprint right after, the illusion in our movement making it seem as if the world were shifting around us and we were sitting still.

I hit the glass so hard the wind exploded from my lungs. My head rocked back to hit the double paned surface. My little frame collapsed against the window, jarring my insides before I felt the glass give way behind me.

It wasn’t like the movies.

Glass went tearing through my clothes. It cut into my skin in several places. White hot pain was driven into me as gravity grabbed me and started throwing me towards the earth, shimmering glass orbiting my body as I fell.

Robin dove right out behind me, her body a spear. Moving in slow motion in my mind as my wing caught the air, my plan was to catch her up in my arms. To slam into her in the air and with luck, clutch each other for a hard landing.

But I forgot the building had mirrored glass.

A burning red light lanced out behind my fall. It plumed into a wide sphere in the air and swallowed my sister whole. My mouth opened to scream. I knew what it was. I turned my body to look at my reflection in the mirrored windows as I fell.

All I saw was the burning eyes of Chroma God looking back at me.

From the sockets of Orcus, the celestial of the underworld. The Punisher of Broken Oaths.

His face was hidden behind a helm, his wide shoulders bare. Thorns, brambles, and arrows protruded from him as if pierced ages ago in a long-dead war. Power coursed through his arms and chest, his image was blown up to cover the entire side of the reflective building. The eyes of Chroma God sent beams from his sockets through the eye slits in his helm. They were wide and blaring beautiful light from within.

“Oh my God!” I screamed out as his red light encircled me. I felt it pull at my belly button. I felt it rip me inside out. I felt like I was falling into that reflective glass until the world burst around me.

I fell forever.

I screamed soundlessly until the world spat me back out.

My arms and legs flailed as I fell through the air. My wing flapped frantically but could claim no purchase on the wind. I hit the ground hard, wide blue squares of concrete beneath me as I rolled to a stop.

I laid there for a long moment, unable to move. Pins and needles prickled my entire body. My back felt like I’d been whipped. My shirt was barely hanging on to me and blood was dripping out of my wounds from the glass window.

“Fuck...” It took me an even longer moment to get to my feet. I stumbled a bit as my vision started to clear.

“Shit.”

In front of me was a huge structure of coiling, pearlescent stone. It looked like it was constructed from hundreds upon thousands of giant seashells. Vast spires shot up into the darkening blue sky.

Up and up I looked, the sky bleeding into brilliant purples, pinks, and whites. A spiraling and beautiful Galaxy drew a sparkling disk above.

I recognized it right away.

“No. No, no, no...”

It was a temple. The temple. The last stand of the Valkyrie slave, Siobhan.

My last stand.

I was looking at The Lightly Perch.

I turned around and realized my feet were on an edge. I stumbled back and fell over, crawling away from it. My wing disappeared as I looked out at the great blue sky that I was standing at the very edge of.

The temple behind me, it’s entirety sat on a massive stone plate that sat just outside of the biggest, bluest bubble I’d ever seen. And I didn’t know it was a bubble from just looking. It stretched on so far I couldn’t see the curve in it. I knew it was a bubble because of the great explorers of old that drew the first maps of the world.

I was looking at a planet that sat in a universe created entirely by the ancestor power. The Creator God, Brahma.

The surface of the planet was broken. Disjointed. It looked as if a ball had been shattered into hundreds of smaller, jagged pieces and each of those pieces still floated around its center. Only the center was so far down I couldn’t see it. The sky seemed to go on forever down and in every direction. Great, green chunks of earth were so big and vast that continents back home seemed small by comparison.

It was a view I hadn’t seen in a long, long time.

I was standing at the platform at the end of the world.

And below me was Blue Veil.

My left palm was burning like I’d touched a white-hot brand. I looked at it and saw the celestial markings on my skin. Orcus had branded me with a one-way gate key. I closed my palm tightly, letting the marking sink in and vanish.

It was there forever now. I couldn’t go home without his permission.

Just then I realized what I did. My eyes shot wide and I turned around to face The Lightly Perch. I searched its grounds, my eyes squinting as my head turned left and right.

“Robin!” I started running towards the temple, the sock on my foot sliding loose as I ran with only one shoe on.

“Robin!”

I couldn’t live with the thought of losing another sister.

Even if she hated me.