ALEX

𝙼𝙰𝙼𝙰'𝚂 𝙱𝙾𝚈 𝙺𝙽𝙴𝙻𝚃 𝙳𝙾𝚆𝙽, 𝙶𝚁𝙰𝙱𝙱𝙴𝙳 𝙰 𝚁𝙾𝙲𝙺, 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝚃𝙾𝚂𝚂𝙴𝙳 𝙸𝚃 𝙾𝚅𝙴𝚁 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙴𝙳𝙶𝙴 𝙾𝙵 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙲𝙻𝙸𝙵𝙵. It shot down with a speed that shocked them all, soundlessly striking the bottom.

  "Wait," Mama's Boy stuttered, "why did it fall so fast? That ain't how gravity works." His eyes were large and glassy.

  Scarlet stepped over to the edge.

  Just the act of seeing someone inches from death

  (one push could send her into the void)

  made Alex's skin crawl. Sweating, she twiddled her thumbs and took a step forward, joining them side by side. Her eyes popped.

  That's a really far drop . . . I don't know if I can do this . . . Even if I have a shield, what if everything goes wrong?

  "That's exactly the problem," Scarlet said. She bent down, picked up another rock, threw it up and down a couple times, and tossed it over the cliff. It zoomed to the bottom once again. "Yup. This subdivision is twice as heavy."

  "Twice as heavy?" Alex asked diffidently. "So if we hit the ground, we—"

  "Feel twice as much pain." She nodded. "Exactly. But what I want to see happen, Braeden—it is Braeden, right?"

  "Hm." Mama's Boy nodded. "Braeden Willingham, I'll say it again."

  "Right, do you think you could cast those shields over us now, just as a test?"

  "I mean," he went on a little reluctantly, "I can try. But I don't know if that'll hold up once we reach the bottom. For me, it worked when I leapt off the mountain, made it the whole way down without a scratch—well, without a scratch would be an exaggeration. I had maybe—ahhh—one or two cuts. But—"

  There's always a but, Alex wanted to say.

  "—I don't know if they'll save you guys. I'm not entirely sure how the power works just yet."

  "Did you steal it?" asked Scarlet. She blinked rapidly before adding, "Sorry, I mean, did you copy the power?"

  "Nah," he said, and he looked as if he was about to say something more, but his large bubbly eyes trailed off towards Alex.

  Or more precisely: over Alex's shoulder. An eagle came out from nowhere, so close to her head that she viciously jumped and winced. Grasping her beanie with both hands and disciplining herself from screaming, not because she found the creature scary—she loved birds!—but because the whole situation about falling three hundred feet put her on edge—literally, it seemed—she sighed. Blankly, she watched its beautiful black and red wings blotch part of the Spiral, then watched it glide towards the house. It faded out of her sight within the space of ten seconds, never to be seen again. Unless, maybe, the owner of the building had kept the winged creature as a pet, commanding it to do whatever they wanted. That was possible, as far-fetched as it sounded.

  But a lot of things were far-fetched, so many things in fact that they may as well not be far-fetched at all. If she remembered correctly, and right now memory was a huge issue, back on Earth the idea of having a city populated with more than sixteen million people while still maintaining a level of sustainability would have been considered implausible. Alex certainly didn't think the construction of over a hundred apartment buildings in the span of—what, five years?—was possible, let alone plausible. Granted, this opinion was given to her by her parents, because, come on, how can such a little kid differentiate between what was possible and what wasn't? Her mother used to say, "They'll use up way too many finances, there simply isn't enough money." And what if there had been? Where would they find the time? Pull it out of their asses, maybe? Right.

  Nonetheless, the city managed, still at the cost of public expenses, as Katherine Ramiro had predicted. And you could pin a lot of the blame on the governor, who may as well have been the goddamn president of that city. St Anderson's was a great place, an amazing place, actually. If you wanted to go somewhere fun, the arcade for example, then you would walk in feeling the lasers bathe on your skin. You'd walk around paying attention to the great chords of laughter and large bunches of people, ranging from children all the way up to the middle-aged. You would stop, listen to the sound of EDM floating into your ears, tickling the inside with its smoky ghost-fingers, whispering: This is where home is.

  You'd look up. Phoenix would be waiting on the other side of the arcade machine, and although the year was 2035, you'd understand that time and tide couldn't quite wear at that game he'd so religiously play: Space Invaders. And you'd walk over to him, smiling with a crooked yet white line of braced teeth, and say, "Waiting long?"

  "You're on time, I'm impressed," he'd say. And seconds later you'd fist-bump each other.

  You wouldn't think it impressive at all. If anything, you might think it was lazy, and be worried the whole night about what he thought about you. Then, after all was said and done, you'd realise that he's your friend—your best friend. No matter what you did, he would love you the way you were. Almost unconditionally, given that you two had known each other since kindergarten and connected like two missing pieces to the same jigsaw puzzle your father told you to stay away from. Of course you'd never stay away from it—it was too damn fun!

  He'd always come dressed in that shiny silver jacket, along with those black tracksuit trousers. The afro, too—you know the one. It puffed out like a paintbrush, and you'd make sure to remind him of this every time you couldn't come up with something interesting to say. Sometimes, it would honestly be unkempt; he'd been growing it out since the fifth grade, after all.

  You'd stop, think, and say, "Nice hair." There was nothing like a little friendly banter to get the ball rolling. A long day of school and you could already feel the grogginess dissipate.

  "What are you, gay?" he'd say in that funny little voice, crossing his eyes so that they were both pointing at the flat stub he liked to call a nose.

  "I'm cringing," you'd say.

  After that, everything would be nothing more than darkness. You'd laugh the night away, playing all sorts of video games—dance stages, racing games where they'd give you the gnarly, realistic-looking bikes, and of course, Pac-Man—grateful that you had the chance to live a real childhood, and with someone you love, no less.

  "You're supposed to grab the batteries, if you do you can go back and kill the ghosts."

  But you already knew that. You'd been playing Ghost Chaser for a long time now. So much in fact that you wanted to impress him with your skills. "I know," you'd say happily. "I know what I'm doing, don't worry."

  Then there would be silence. It would break easily.

  "Alex?" he'd vaguely say.

  "Yeah?" you'd respond, concentrating on the game in front of you.

  "You have a boyfriend?"

  You'd giggle nervously, taken aback. "Oh no; I don't know how I feel about boys." But that wasn't entirely true, was it? You were damn well considering asking Phoenix out a couple times, but for the sake of maintaining the friendship, you decided against it. And you could never quite master the art of the talk like you could the art of gaming. Maybe if you had, things would have worked out and you two would be holding hands instead of casually exchanging fist-bumps.

  "Damn," he'd say, "me neither. I mean, I don't have a girlfriend. I'm not . . ."

  You'd laugh, and then mess up on the game. "You're so stupid. You made me die!" You weren't really mad, but you did enjoy a good joke. Sighing, you'd add, "How good did I do?"

  "46,347," he'd read from the screen next to the three-digit username 𝙰𝙻𝚇. "You won't believe it."

  "What?"

  "You placed second, right behind me!" He'd point to it now, even though you knew exactly where it was. "Look!"

  Do I have a boyfriend? you'd think.

  "Alex, look!"

  Does he . . . love me?

  "Alex!"

  Her eyes shot open. "Huh?"

  "Alex!" said Scarlet. She gripped the smaller girl by the shoulders and shook her. "You doin' okay?"

  From Alex's perspective, the woman had been upside down, and when she ventured a gaze to her own feet she understood why. She was lying between Scarlet's legs and using her chest as a cushion. Some metres in front of her stood Braeden, looking not at all worried. Averting her gaze to in between her own knees, deep purple flowers popped out from the rustling foliage. An ant crawled up one of the stems.

  Rain pounded on the earth like tomtoms.

  "Everything all right?" Mama's Boy asked. "Because you ain't lookin' too hot, not gonna lie."

  Without knowing it, Alex gnawed at her lip. "What happened?"

  At the same time, Braeden and Scarlet answered: "You fainted."

  "Yeah," Scarlet continued. "An eagle swooped over you and you just . . . blacked out for a second there. Fuck, are you gonna be okay? We can head back to a cabin, if you want. You're sweating pinballs."

  "Hm," Mama's Boy agreed.

  "No," Alex said, "it's fine. I'm fine. Well, now I am. I just . . . have a fear of heights."

  "Sure?" Scarlet tilted her head slightly. "Because we have time." A rueful laugh. "A lot of time. We could come back in a couple hours if you're not up for it—"

  Before she could finish, Alex cut in. "I'm fine, let's just get it over with." She picked herself up, grabbed the beanie, put it on, and walked over to the edge. A great gust of wind smacked her right in the face. The idea of dropping all the way down still made the hair on her forearms bundle up in a thick layer of gooseflesh.

  I have no choice. If I want to get to the next subdivision, I have to get down there. Climbing won't work, look how steep it is! Flying? Fly where exactly? And it's not like I can channel water to somehow help me down because, well, there isn't any. I guess . . . I have to trust Braeden, I have to take Scarlet's word for it and trust people every once in a while.

  "Braeden, show us your shields, yeah?" Scarlet stood up with a small feminine grunt.

  Breathing heavily through his nose, Mama's Boy lifted his left arm and flexed it. Popping out in front of the fist was a long semi-transparent shield extending the whole way down to his knees. It was about as wide as a housedoor, tapering to sharp edges on both the top and the bottom. "If I flex one arm, I can make a shield like this, but if I use two—" He paused and shut his eyes. Raising his other arm into a flex, a second shield identical to the other coalesced, and soon it would begin to glow a powerful white. Vibrating, glowing brighter and brighter to the point where Alex had to cover her face, the two shields snapped into one and enveloped Mama's Boy in a round bubble made of the same material.

  Alex smiled slightly, said, "That's awesome!" and stood forward to touch the heavy plated armour.

  "Now, this casing is strong enough to withstand just about everything. Everything that I've seen, that is." Mama's Boy's voice was muffled.

  "Hard to hear you," said Scarlet, "you can come out now. I need to test something else."

  "What?!" Mama's Boy yelled.

  "I said come out!"

  Instantaneously, the semi-transparent bubble vanished into a million molecules. Mama's Boy reached down, grabbed a rock, and tossed it in his hand, alternating his vision between Scarlet and Alex. "You want me to try it on you guys?"

  "I think that'd be nice, try it on me first," Scarlet answered. "Unless, do you wanna go first, Alex? I know you took quite a spill."

  "Oh," Alex began, "no—no you can go first." For the first time in a long time, the corners of Alex's mouth lifted in dramatic harmony, displaying what a normal person would call a 'smile'. Sure it was a weak one, but at least it was genuine. That was all that mattered.

  Scarlet returned the smile strongly and said, "You got it. I'll be sure to call you if I need my ass saved this time."

  Now, both she and Alex were laughing. As for Mama's Boy, he continued playing with the rock he picked up earlier, staring blankly into the forest behind them. He stopped and clicked back to reality when Scarlet walked several metres to the right of him, making sure not to stay too close to the cliff edge.

  "Okay, so when you encase me, copy my power. Then try and throw some heavy, like—I don't know—a boulder, if there's one around." Scarlet peered around the place, realised there weren't any boulders, and then said, "Scratch that. Just hit me with your most powerful attack."

  Mama's Boy shrugged. "Hm," he said, expressionless.

  Alex raised her eyebrows, and again that faint smile returned. Something about that boy gave her the giggles.

  He extended both arms once again; only this time he didn't flex. Opening each palm and motioning with them as if he were shaping playdough, a white light spat into existence. It took only a flash for an entire bubble of semi-transparent armour to surround Scarlet, and when it did, she was chortling with excitement. A grin scratched across her face like an infectious disease that could spread just as quickly as it arrived. Alex began showing symptoms already: her lips now swerved and spanned from ear to ear, showcasing her teeth. Her eyes sparkled like freshly cooked breakfast laid out on a dining table. The wrinkles beneath them coiled.

  "That's—"—totally ripshit, she almost said. "—ah-amazing Scarlet!" It was only then that she realised that this was the first time she had used the woman's name without feeling sick to the bone.

  When the laughter quelled, Scarlet said, "Hey, try and hit me with your spike."

  Although confident it wouldn't pierce the armour, she couldn't stop herself from heating up at the thought of it slicing through. The reason for this was, the worst-case scenario always presented itself, infiltrating the human psyche like a group of kids you've warned about walking on your lawn, yet they did it anyway, time and time again, and you couldn't outright attack them. No—a fence did the trick, and sometimes, if the time called for it, a Pitbull with saliva dripping down the corners of its mouth. All sounded well and good till you realised the worst-case scenario was a bear.

  "The spear," he corrected. "At least, I think it's a spear." He flexed his forearm and a gooey, semi-transparent object formed. "Yup, a spear."

  "Stand back, Alex!" screamed Scarlet playfully, voice suppressed as if behind a sheet of glass.

  Adhering to her advice, she stepped under the canopy. Her mouth drew open for the merest moment, and in that moment her thoughts ceased.

  Slowly, Mama's Boy drew back his arm, bounced the spear on the palm of his hand until getting a good grip, grumbled, "Here goes nothin'," and threw it into the semi-transparent bubble.

  CLANG!

  The object snapped immediately, falling to the ground in two pieces and vanishing into spacedust.

  Relieved, Alex smiled. She even clapped. Thank God.

  From deep inside the bubble, Scarlet screamed, "Woo-ooooooo!"

  She reverted her gaze to the next subdivision—more particularly, the house on the wooden platform. At least she's safe. Still, a spear's a spear. A three-hundred-foot drop is a three-hundred-foot drop. And even when we get to the bottom, we'll have to somehow make it up to the house, which . . . Eh, it shouldn't be that hard. It's not that high up. Then again, we'll have to repeat the process of getting down from there. I hope I don't vomit my guts up again or pass out.

  But that dream was so nice, even if it lasted only a couple seconds. I felt like he was right there next to me again. His voice . . . Was that how he sounded? Was it?

  Sixty-seven per cent chance God exists, Phoenix said.

  Yes, yes that was his voice.

  But her thoughts were interrupted, and not by the sound of the bubble shattering; by something much worse: Scarlet's cries for help. She was gagging and breathing breathlessly, clawing at the inside of the shield, shouldering, trying everything to break free.

  Alex rushed forward and yelled, "What are you doing?!"

  "I can't get her out!" He did the playdough thing with his hands again. Nope. He formed a spear and lobbed it. That didn't work either. He formed a shield and opted to cut an airhole using the pointed edge. The shield shattered instead.

  "Just make it disappear!" suggested Alex.

  "I can't!" he said.

  Scarlet began by screaming subdued words, and now all she could utter were breaths and wheezes.

  "SCARLET!" Alex's voice screeched and echoed across the forest and over the cliff edge. The echo would not fade for a good five seconds.

  By then, Mama's Boy grabbed her by the shoulder and said, "Help me push it. We have to push it off the cliff and hope it shatters."

  "But—"

  "SHE'S GONNA DIE, ALEX!"

  Wordlessly, heart thumping, skin crawling with heat, she joined Mama's Boy shoulder to shoulder. Together they began pushing with all of their might, listening to Scarlet's increasingly waning cries. The semi-transparent casing scratched across the ground at a snail's pace.

  Come on! Come on! Push harder!

  Grunting and groaning and sucking in the pain, Alex's eyes started glowing blue. Flames grew from them. Likewise, her hair changed colour, as well as her lips; at the same time, she screamed.

  "𝘚𝘊𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘙𝘓𝘌𝘛!"

  The encasing slid across the ground quicker now, much quicker in fact that she was almost able to run with it. Approaching the cliff end, she halted. The bubble whipped down at an ungodly speed and hit the bottom, creating a loud—

  CRACK!

  A mote of dusty debris fogged around it. When it cleared, Alex saw that the case was broken, but Scarlet was motionless.