“Hey, Luckner, I’ve been expecting you,” Auntie called.
She held open the lobby door to the Golden Crown Apartments, a blue and yellow building near Midrun and Westridge’s border. By the time Luckner made it to the front steps, the streets were empty of people. Heavy clouds crawled above while basking in the firelight that burned across Legends City.
On the last leg here—while taking detours to avoid the clomping monster so it couldn’t follow him like an easy chump—he saw the last of humanity as fearful and confused faces peeking out through their window blinds. With the streets cleared, the monstrous roars and screeches ranging out from blocks away intensified; the gunfire sounded like distant salvos of mini-explosions.
Or they could be large explosions; he was uncertain how much military power the authorities could exude in a crazy situation like this. With all that was happening outside, Luckner wouldn’t blame anyone for being scared while in their homes.
Could locked doors even stop Mythics?
Yet, Auntie stood outside with him and held the door wide open. She wasn’t his actual auntie. It was just a name given to her by everyone in the Golden Crown. She was a portly black woman with a face engraved by smiling lines. She smiled right now like she was having a pleasant night.
Luckner passed her and entered the lobby; the tension built up in his body had a reason to relax now. If only a little.
There was an argument breaking out between one of the residents and the landlord. Gathered around were familiar faces and some people Luckner had never come across before. He turned away from them in favor of talking to a friendlier, relaxed face.
“What’s gotten you waiting at the door, Auntie?” Luckner whispered.
“Oh, I just feel blessed, Luckner,” she said, closing the door with a soft click behind her.
“Blessed?”
“My eyes see what they need to see, and there’s no confusing that with the noise.” She raised her head proudly. “I knew you would be here right now, and you showed up to confirm what I knew.”
“Is that what the tarot cards are saying?” Were those cards even aware of the insanity that was happening outside?
“Bah, the cards are behind me now, sugar. I haven’t needed them for a month.”
“Really?”
When he first arrived at the Golden Crown, Auntie had always invited him to a free psychic reading. He never took it, but he understood it was one of her businesses, along with hair braiding, babysitting, and other activities that required money getting passed under the table.
Nothing she did was illegal; she just didn’t like the government being in her business. Her biggest money-maker was in the cards since there were many superstitious immigrants, mostly Blacks and Latinos and Eastern Europeans, in Midrun. Maybe business was declining at the moment.
Auntie snorted. “You’ve been imprisoned by your own self. Inmate and warden. I’m not surprised you haven’t caught on.”
“Caught on to what?”
“What’s been happening around you,” she said. “I don’t need to see into the future to know the man and his dogs were gonna roll up in here. They’ve been talking about it for a week on the news. Martial Law and all that.”
Luckner shifted side-to-side. “I haven’t been paying attention much. It all seems hella sudden to me.”
“Again, that’s because you imprisoned yourself.”
“Isn’t it fair to say my situation imprisoned me?” Wasn’t it fair to say it was his ex’s fault for imprisoning him?
“Situations happen to all of us, Luckner. But you got the mind to deal with it.” She softly flicked the side of his head. Then she tapped her knuckles over the scar in the middle of his bare chest. “And now you got the heart, too.”
Luckner startled a little, surprised. How did she know about his heart? As he stared at her, her smile widened into a knowing grin. It irked him a little because if she had insider knowledge on what he was going to experience today, shouldn’t she have intervened?
Or maybe she had a point about him being locked up by himself. Luckner knew he had given the rest of the world less of his attention with the breakup last month. Now that he was thinking about it, he couldn’t remember when he had a conversation with any of the people in the lobby. The past weeks were foggy in his head.
But right now, he was halfway out of the mental prison and feeling a little sharper. At least sharp enough to follow the thread Auntie left for him.
“You’re Awakened?” he whispered.
She nodded.
“Singularity?” he asked. He was guessing that part of the script might say a lot about the person’s overall capabilities.
“[Diviner].”
“Wow, that’s a perfect fit for you.”
“Like I said, I’m blessed.”
Luckner wanted to ask more about her discoveries since she had been at this for a month. But his heart flame was flaring, exciting him, and it was hard to settle on the first question. Did she know anything particular about the Circle System? Did she know anything about him being different? Halfhearted? Belonging to someone named Lylyth?
Who was Lylyth?
But just as he settled on his first question, the argument reached a crescendo. Then Auntie turned away from him wordlessly. She started heading upstairs. He would have to follow her to get his questions answered ASAP, but someone yelled, “Luckner!” before he reached the first step.
“Come on down here, young buck!” they called.
Luckner grunted, letting Auntie go—for now—in favor of facing the crowd of worried and agitated residents.
In the middle of the pack was the man who liked to call him young buck—Mr. Baylor, a cranky, salty black Vietnam war vet. Moments prior, he was facing off against Mr. Senaad, an Egyptian man who was the establishment’s landlord. Luckner quickly thought over the bits of the heated debate he had overheard. He went ahead and summed it up for himself—guns or no guns?
They didn’t recontinue their debate just yet because everyone was staring at him now that they paid Luckner their full attention. Some of the older women and young girls were openly gaping, their eyes glued to his body. Their enthralled attention put Luckner in an odd position.
He was beginning to understand that he was now a chick-magnet. It didn’t seem to affect Auntie much, which might be due to her being a [Diviner], but he was having an apparent sway on the women here. Even the men were a little stunned.
Luckner frowned.
This power was easily abusable, he recognized. A smile here. A wink there. A few white lies and words that meant nothing, and he could get a lot of what he wanted without trying. He could probably creep his way through most troubles with a Singularity like [Incubus].
His former best friend was the charming one, while Luckner was a little more aloof, quirky, and to himself growing up. The backstabbing bastard had charmed his way around Luckner’s defenses, into his ex’s pants, and then out of Luckner’s life after leaving a mess of things. It was strange for Luckner to now have a more potent version of charisma oozing around him.
The human half of him found this development worrying. It wanted him to turn away and flee into his hole. The fiery half of him was a little thrilled by the attention. It was not overt, thankfully, but his fire did burn a tad hotter. In the end, the best he could do was keep things casual. He still didn’t have a good grasp of what he could genuinely achieve with his new abilities. But he refused to run away because he was afraid of himself. At least not with so many eyes on him now.
“I’ve been lifting,” Luckner said, breaking the silence.
“You hear that? He says he’s been lifting.” Mr. Baylor’s voice was rough, and the words sounded a little muffled, like he was rolling them between his molars. “Good on you for finding a way to move on, but all that muscle will do you little good if you can’t fight. And we need to be ready for a fight.”
“We do not need to do anything but listen to our government,” Mr. Senaad said. Out of everyone here, his English was the strongest. Fairly neutral. “Mr. Baylor, I turned a blind eye to what you hoarded in your unit. I respect you enough, sir, to let it go. But you must respect my decision not to load up the rest of my property with guns like it’s a munitions factory. That’s irresponsible.”
Mr. Baylor whirled onto the landlord. “We have children and women to protect up in here, man! You think what’s out there is going to let us sit in here nice and tight.”
“Guns would bring more problems than they would solve. If in an emergency, we should prepare to evacuate per the procedures I had posted on every level.” Mr. Senaad turned to everyone. “We’re going to be okay. We’re in America, and America has the greatest police and military strength in the world.”
Speaking of charisma, Luckner saw that Mr. Senaad had a jar of it himself. He was balding, and he was a little pudgy, but he gave off a friendly aura. Even when he got angry with late payments, he was still someone worth talking to about any little matter. He had the resident’s attention and was doing an excellent job of resting their fears.
Did a good enough job for Luckner to attempt to flee the scene again since the attention had fallen away from him.
“Young buck!”
Damn it, Mr. Baylor.
“Yes, sir?” Luckner turned to him.
“You were the last man out there,” Mr. Baylor said. “Auntie was sure as sin crazy opening that door, but it was you just like she said.”
“It’s good to have you back,” Mr. Senaad said quickly. “You should head to your unit and rest.”
“Nah, man! Stay down here for a second. Tell the people what’s out there, man. Don’t hold nothing back.”
Mr. Senaad pressed his lips into a fine line. It was evident to Luckner that the landlord wanted to keep the mess on the streets out of his property. It didn’t make much sense to Luckner to try to quiet anything. People got the news, the internet, their families to tell them what was up. But maybe there was something more visceral about hearing it from one of your tenants.
“Did a monster give you that scar?” a younger girl asked before getting hushed by her mom.
“That’s not possible,” Mr. Senaad said. “Have you always had that?”
Mr. Baylor waited patiently for an answer.
What could Luckner say?
He was in the middle of minding his business, grieving over the breakup, when a woman wearing over-the-knee boots and lilacs perfume showed up. Then everything went downhill from there—he died, he was reborn, and he got into a street fight with a gang of goblins. It was ridiculous series of events, but now the real world was settling in. The atmosphere felt way, way heavy. Something about the ridiculousness experienced with Lylyth and Gixzha did not merge well with the reality these people were enduring. Like the environment wasn’t suitable for it.
Or Luckner was not yet ready to reveal that he got super enthusiastic about the savage changes he had undergone. He was not prepared to share that he burned with an inhuman passion no drug could replace. A passion that was intoxicating, empowering, and promising of more to come. Deep down, he knew he could open more avenues for thrills if he went back and corrected his mistake. Once he committed to the bond with that goblin girl, then they could really—
“Luckner, are you alright?” Mr. Senaad asked.
“A lot happened out there. A lot, a lot,” Luckner said, panting a little.
Damn, was it hot in here, or was it him? Fuck, he might’ve riled himself up again. His chest was sweltering.
“You don’t have to talk about it,” Mr. Baylor said softly. “I understand. You saw some bad things. We’re glad you made it back, Luckner.”
“This is a sign that we should all head to our units,” Mr. Senaad said. “We’ll talk about this more later, Mr. Baylor, I assure you.”
“I’m telling you I can go get the stuff from my warehouse now before it’s too late,” Mr. Baylor said.
At this point, most of the residents were taking Mr. Senaad’s advice and heading up the stairs. Luckner could see that the elevators were closed down, probably to avoid someone getting trapped in them if a power outage occurred. As the other residents streamed by, he ignored the little glances they stole of his new appearance. He was a little stuck on the moment where his fiery-side, his [Zeal], had flared up considerably.
A good part of him was attached to Gixzah and what he hadn’t completed. It made him wonder if that would gnaw at him if he turned away from correcting his mistake. Funny, everyone was worried about safety and protection or having the firepower to defend themselves. Still, here he was concerned about whether or not he was going after a female of a different species.
Man, his priorities were screwed up.
Mr. Baylor and Mr. Senaad were still going at it. Most of the residents were up the stairs. Luckner figured it was finally time to settle in for the night. Seclude himself so he could come to a definite conclusion on what he wanted.
A wet thump rattled the door, silencing Mr. Baylor and Mr. Senaad and freezing some of the residents that lingered. There was little to no noise that followed after that other than the drone of fighting echoing across the city, but Luckner knew something was still there. He knew it in his gut, and the more he focused on that feeling, the more it unraveled vital bits of information for him.
The thing behind the door was not human or animal.
It was also as strong as him or a little stronger.
Before he could pull any more information out of his gut-feeling, the door’s mail-slot pushed open.
“Hello, is someone there?” Mr. Senaad asked.
“Move!” Luckner warned.
Mr. Baylor grabbed the landlord and yanked him aside. They moved just in time, too, before a translucent fluid squirted all over them. The jettisoned liquid hit the lobby help desk and started melting through it.
By then, Luckner reached the door. His heart roared, the internal fire of [Zeal] spreading to every inch of his mighty frame.
“[Flame Up]!” he growled. One hand combusted, becoming the center of an orange ball of flames. The other hand opened the door.
