Not my first time here. Probably not my last either. When I’d broken bones, they’d fixed me up, rushed me through the healing process with whatever patented processes Sanctum had—pure oxygen chambers and what-nots.
I finally woke in my bed. It was comfy, soft, and the sensation on my skin was new. I hated it. I liked it when a hot shower or the sear of my skin being inked were the only sensations that could have me clenching my teeth and wincing.
There was nobody around to speak to me or tell me what day it was.
Throwing myself into a shower, I stayed under the hot water, letting memories spike through the back of my head.The last actual memory I had was of the tree. I was looking for Ezra. He hadn’t responded to any of my texts or calls. I’d kept it all to myself. It was dangerous for someone to know you had a weakness, and Ezra... after two dates, both involving sex, I was worried someone had noticed, someone was trying to get at me.
There was a plastic bag, with the things recovered from me when I’d called in the emergency rescue text. I hadn’t been able to breath or move. My arms ached a little now, but there were no breaks. I looked through the bag. I’d had a silver ring and matching chain on me. Silver complemented me, accordingto all the guys whose legs I’d spread like butter across hotel mattresses.
“Fuck,” I grumbled to myself. My phone screen was smashed, though new phones weren’t an issue here. But as it turned on I could see the date. March eighteenth. I’d been out of it for ten days. Ten whole days of not knowing where Ezra was. He could be dead, and all because someone had spotted him with me.
The phone on the wall beside the door rang.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Harlan.” A chipper voice sounded. It was Claire, my usual eye in the sky and voice in my ear. “I hope you’re ok.”
“Hi, Claire,” I said. “I know I made a mistake.”
She chuckled. “It’s okay, sir.”
“You should’ve been in my ear, you should’ve been piloting a drone,” I grumbled.
“It’s really okay. I’m just glad we were able to get to you,” she said. “I was calling to ask if you needed anything?”
“A new phone,” I said. “Oh, and the name of that fucking drug.”
She hummed in her usually excited way. “I’m on it,” she said. “Stay with me one second while I pull up your records. And what type of phone? The same make and model as your previous one?”
“Yes, yes please,” I said, looking at my phone light up across the room from me. The screen was far too smashed for me to see anything on it, but after ten days it was probably notifications from those stupid games I played. Brain-numbing match games I was obsessed with.
“The drug they gave you was Nexzen,” she said. “I’ve got the information here. It’s a first-generation sedating antihistamine with topical soothing properties. Did you have a reaction to it? I can edit your file from here.”
“No, no, that’s okay,” I told her. I’d seen the name of it inside Ezra’s apartment. He was looking into it. He hadn’t told me too much about it, but it didn’t sound good. I must’ve heard the name while I was out of it and put up a fight. Flickers of memories came through, but I couldn’t make heads nor tails of them. “Thanks, Claire.” I hung up and threw my partially wet naked body onto the bed. There was nothing I needed right now more than I needed answers to Ezra’s whereabouts.
The last time I saw him, he’d been on his knees, so sweet, begging me to stay the night. I couldn’t, he was my respite from work. The indulgence in life I hadn’t ever given into. He was a part of me nobody saw, and I knew too much of it might be a bad thing. And it was only our second date.
A knock came at the door after a little time passed again. I’d dried off enough on my bed and answered the door in wearing only the towel, clinging to the bundled up front of it. Mercy stood there in a red power suit with a matching bold red lipstick. She held a wrapped phone in her hand, and tapped the tip of one of her fancy shoes on the tile.
“I thought you’d be better put together,” she said. “I’m not convinced about anything you’ve told us. Like, what were you doing in the East Village?”
I accepted the phone from her. I knew I didn’t have to tell her anything, but it was sometimes best if you did, not because of anything awful, but because she would always have your back. “I was seeing a friend,” I said.
“A friend I don’t know about?” she asked with a smirk. “All your friends are here, or dead.” She shrugged. “So, do you want to tell me more about this mysterious friend of yours?”
“Not really,” I said. “But if you’d like to watch me get changed? You can stay.”
“I’d rather not,” she said. “Although, I’d probably be too preoccupied by the tattoos to ever wonder what people see inthose things men have between their legs.” She had a cackle that travelled.
I tried to laugh back, but it didn’t come close. “Not all of us enjoy women like you do,” I told her. “But I can appreciate a woman’s body and what it does.”
“You’re being gross now,” she said. “Go call your boyfriend, or whoever it is.” She winked at me. “And come see me when you’re done, I’ve got some work for you.”
The thing is, she wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t right. Ezra wasn’t my boyfriend, at least in no official sense. He was a guy I was very much obsessed with. I wanted him, completely, every single part of him, and I recalled every single kiss I’d given him, every single part of his skin I’d touched with my tongue.
I opened the new phone, double wrapped to signal it was clean—no bugs in here. I still never trusted them not to get into all my business, but that was the life here. Make good money, have no privacy, but you can come and go as you please, as long as you give Mercy a pound of flesh and she can count on you for her high-paying gigs.
Slipping the sim card between phones as the new one set itself up, I managed to get a look at myself in the mirrors around the room. It wasn’t often I could tell the difference between where I’d been tattooed and what was a bruise. Another reason they were nice to have. I noticed dusty white marks and lines on my skin, fading some of the tattoos. They must’ve been where I’d gotten more of the poison leaves on me. I didn’t even know that shit grew here.
Notifications came through, distracting me once again.
