Her silky black hair blew across her shoulders and she took a deep breath. “No. I’d transfix on it. Once I was processed, I had all the time in the world to think. I liked to think they ended up okay. Except for Snake. I regret not killing him.”
Galan lifted her chin and guided her eyes away from the pages. “After this evening, you’re never allowed to think of him again.”
“I can’t promise that.”
“Ever. Again,” he ordered, demanded.
“You don’t understand,” she said, pulling out of his grasp. “I’m a criminal. Acriminal. I should’ve died in that crash. I should’ve been kept in a-a cell for the rest of my life. The moment I finally got free of William, I didn’t run or call for help, I killed. And I-I don’t regret it. He’s out there somewhere. I ran from the shipwreck like I ran from him.” Yahiro lifted her finger to the sky. “And I hate that.”
“How do you know he hadn’t died?”
“Because of the videos!” she practically shrieked. “The ones they forced me to participate in, day after day after day. Someone provided them to the police to destroy any credibility I had whatsoever, destroying years and years of working for the force, that even my handler, who hadn’t even tried to talk to me after I’d reemerged, shook his head at.
“No one cared that if I hadn’t done those things, innocent people would be brutalized. Why would they? I mean, those tapes were convincing.” Yahiro cried as she spoke but he made no move to comfort her, knowing the moment he did, she’d stop talking.
“I saw every single one. If I were a detective on my case, I’d have nothing to argue. I’d have to believe them.” She closed the folder in her hands. “In the end, I stopped caring and I stopped trying. It was easier to go mute and let the anti-anxieties and antidepressants take effect. I miss my sister a lot, even my mama, and... William, but I think I miss the anti-anxieties the most.” She sighed.
“Drugs,” he said, seeing words flash behind his eyes.
Yahiro rubbed her nose on her sleeve. “The prescription kind, yeah.”
Galan had no reference for them in his world but he knew what it felt like to be out of his own skin; right now he felt wholly on edge, and his heart pounded for two valos and not one.
He remembered the deathlike state he was in a dozen day cycles ago as clear as daylight. He felt now. It was harder to focus, harder to breathe, the light felt brighter, and there was a jump to his step. If there was a drug he could have taken, back when he was a ghost, that would make him feel how he did now, he would’ve taken it. If he could have had the female in his life long before now, he would have. The more he thought about it, the more he grieved for her. He was beginning to understand.
“I miss a lot of things actually,” she continued before he could respond. “I miss having a hairbrush and pizza. I miss my friends at the precinct and the coffee runs. I miss the good days where I put criminals like myself behind bars.” Yahiro sat down at the edge of the fountain. “I’d like to celebrate Christmas again and spoil my sister with presents. I really miss dogs... and cats, and I think I’m never going to get over not having underwear here.”
She went on and on, crying through it all until the sun lowered and purple clouds filled the sky below them. He learned much of her world and as she spoke Galan realized one thing: Sonhadra, even in all its glory, was nothing like Earth.
He sat down beside her, wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and draped his wing over her head and back to shield her from the cold. The tips of his ruffled feathers swayed in the watery fountain base.
He pulled a small metal disk from his strap and handed it to her. “Can you show me these things?”
Silently, she took it from him, pressing a button and turning it on, creating the electric blue energy he had seen so much of at the human’s temple. The light it cast didn’t absorb into his skin but it did widen his eyes.I’ll never get used to human creations.
“How did you get this? All of this? Did you really find the ship?” Images appeared on the screen as she swiped the disk.
“Where there are others like you, yes. I came upon them following an acrid smell.”
She glanced at him, her tears dried, but her eyes were red and puffy. “Were there others like me? Females I mean, in orange garb? Were they okay? I feel horrible now that I’m safe and they’re not. I want to go back and save them. I want them to be safe too.”
Galan debated on whether he should tell her about the human, Brailen, and shooting him through with an arrow. He decided against it since he wasn’t female, nor was he in orange. “There were females in orange clothes. I don’t like this color on you,” he said gently, touching her sleeve. “The one who gave me this,” Galan pointed at the webbed white scar on his shoulder, “was a female named Annie.”
“Annie?” Her eyes lifted to the horizon and narrowed. “What about a Preta or Charlie?”
“I don’t... know.”
Her expression sobered again and he didn’t like it. “I can go back and lead them to Dawn if you wish.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No.”
She tilted her head at him. “Why? What happened?”
“The ak’rena came and their blood soaks the ground. It’s no longer safe during the night. It draws more... predators. The carrion bugs will rule during the day and the wall of corpse husks will make you sick.” Yahiro blanched but he continued, “All the humans lived and they were still alive this morning.”
“And tonight!?”
