Chapter Three

“Hey, are you okay?”

I glanced up from the doodles I’d been working on during class, and I offered Kal a bright smile. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

He arched an eyebrow at her. It had been a week since I’d come back from the funeral, and I hadn’t missed the glances Kal paid me when he thought I wasn’t looking. “I’m just…making sure.” He gestured at the still half full cup of tea sitting on the chair arm next to me. “You haven’t even had all of your tea.”

“I’m not thirsty.” I stood and started gathering my things.

“You’ve been not thirsty all week.”

“Maybe my tastes have changed,” I retorted and turned to him. “Besides, what makes you the authority on what I should or shouldn’t be doing? I can do whatever the hell I want —“

He held his hands up. “I know, I know…” He tried for a smile. “I was just checking. That’s a thing friends do, you know.”

I narrowed my eyes, and ice coiled around my heart. “That’s your mistake then. We were never friends, Kal… You’re just a curiosity.”

As I passed him, he caught my elbow. “I’m going to be here when you need me,” he murmured. “Remember that, won’t you?” He let me go before I had to look back and tell him so, and he allowed me to leave with the dignity of keeping my tearing eyes to myself.

Xxx

I frowned as I stepped up to my door to find a rather tatty looking box sitting below the doorknob. Who — Oh. Lane’s flowing scrawl was plain enough to see on box, which meant it was that box. It took every iota of willpower I had to make myself pick it up instead of edging it away with my foot as I opened the door. “Hello Aurora,” Friday greeted. As usual, Missy hopped down from her cat tree and trotted over to rub my legs, and she mewed when I continued past her to the couch. I set down the box on the coffee table and stared at it.

“What’s wrong? Do I need to dispose of that package?”

“No!” I said perhaps a little too quickly. It was starting to sink in now; this was the one thing I was going to have left of Mom… I ran a shaky hand through my hair. “It’s what Mom left for me…”

“What’s in it?”

“I don’t know,” I replied and took a shaky breath. I reached to tear away the tape, but I stopped. Did I really want to know what it was? The box full of things she’d left to me instead of Lane?…

I stood and went to the computer room. Friday filled the room with the typical screens. There were a few notifications — I knew where those were from; Martin had been trying to talk to me about Project Luminescence, but I didn’t have the energy nor the desire to screw with another company. I had enough to live in my own little bubble and that was good enough for me right now. “Charlie? How’re you doing today?”

“Cramped,” was the disgruntled answer, and I sighed.

“I know… I’m sorry, but I need to make sure you’re stable before I give you a bigger system to play with.”

“You aren’t born “stable,” and you get to roam the whole wide world. Why don’t I get to do that?”

I smiled slightly. “Well, I haven’t given you a form yet, so there’s that.”

“You could.”

I shrugged. “Not one that would be good enough for you. You’d be far more restricted in that than you are currently. The memory and circuity required to keep you operating as you are, well… It’s not feasible for a graceful system. And then there’s the matter of choice.”

“Choice?”

“You want to live in the big wide world, Charlie? There are things you can’t predict. Humans, we know how to make choices. We have our own will. You…don’t.”

“Yes I do.”

I sighed. “Charlie, you can’t understand what I actually mean by that. Friday doesn’t even understand free will.” I laughed softly. She didn’t understand the concept of motherhood, either. “Anyway. What would you like to learn about today?”

“Choice.”

I sighed. “Beside that.”

“There isn’t anything beside that.”

“Why are you avoiding the box, Aurora?” Friday asked, and I sighed.

“I’m not.”

“What box?”

“It’s from her dead mother.”

She was dead.

“Dead?”

“It’s what happens when your system stops functioning.”

When she stopped functioning? Someone stopped her functioning for her!

“What happens to you?”

I didn’t believe in God or anything, but surely…surely her soul still wasn’t here? Everything anything said about ghosts involved them reliving the trauma of their deaths over and over again and degenerating into mere shadows of themselves… I groaned inwardly. Now I was starting to sound like Lane. Odds were, she was telling people she saw our mother… I shook my head. That wasn’t fair. No, Lane wasn’t that deseperate or deluded.

“You’re stuck.”

“No, you’re not,” I interjected. “You…you go on to a higher place, a place where all of the other dead are.” I bit the inside of my cheek. So I guess that was a lie to them; they were just computers, but if Charlie wanted to be human, well I guess there wasn’t any harm in telling him the same stories we told ourselves. Because, realistically, we were lying to ourselves, too. “It’s actually much better than this place.”

“Then why are you avoiding the box?” Friday asked. “If she’s in a better place, then why are you in so much pain?”

I bit the inside of my cheek. “It’s complicated…”

“Being human sounds like a whole bunch of complication,” Charlie muttered.

“Something like that,” I said with a chuckle before sighing again. They were right, though. I was avoiding the box.

I wandered back to the living room and sat back on the couch. Mom wanted me to have whatever was in this box for some reason, and if these were the last things I was going to have from her, well…it wouldn’t do for me to push it away like I’d pushed away my mother while she’d lived. She was gone now.

I grabbed my pocket knife off of my belt and slid it through the tape holding the box together, and with a deep breath, I opened the box.

“What the hell?” It passed my lips before I could stop it, but… This was junk. I felt sick.

Piece by piece I took everything out of the box — and really, there wasn’t that much. Lane — or Mom — had packed it real well with bubble wrap. There were odd trinkets that I vaguely remembered seeing around the house occasionally but never actually meant anything. For Gods’ sake, there was a sealed shut book at the bottom! What was this even supposed to be? My fingers found a velvet pouch, and I tilted my head and opened it and poured the contents out. A silver necklace spilled into my hands, and I picked it up to examine it. The chain was intricately made, and the pendant was a simple oval with some pretty engravings on the front and back. I flicked open the clasp with my thumb, and an absolutely beautiful stone sparkled up at me. Gold sparkles danced over blue, purple, and silver streaks. Everything swirled together in such a convoluted way that I couldn’t even tell what the base color of the stone was supposed to be — whatever it was. I tipped the locket forward so the stone fell into my palm, and something very much like electricity shot through my entire body. I felt my entire body seize, and I was suddenly cold and felt something press into me…

And then I could move again.

The rock fell from my hand to the floor, and I stumbled back a few steps. What the hell had that been?

“Aurora?” Friday asked. “You seem afraid.”

I ignored her and knelt down to peer at the stone. It looked perfectly harmless… I mean, sure, it seemed to glow, but that was just the light, wasn’t it?

My phone rang, and I jumped, my hands flying to my mouth to cover my gasp. I took a long breath and walked over to my phone. “Yeah?”

“Well hello, Miss Langley,” Jay’s smooth voice cooed. “I almost thought you were avoiding me.”

I chuckled softly and could already feel myself putting everything that had just happened into a little box for me to deal with later. Jay always helped me distract myself, which is why I continued seeing him on occasion. “Life has been a little crazy.”

“I heard… I’m —“

“Don’t you dare apologize.”

A pause, and then, “I thought you’d like to get out for drinks?” he offered. “Martin and his group are going out, and he asked me to invite you… I think he’s under the impression you’re avoiding him too.”

I pointedly ignored the voice in the back of my head reminding me just how badly this had always turned out for me in the past…

“I can be out of my house in five minutes.” This was going to be the easiest way to forget about it all, I told myself firmly. After this, you’ll be back to how it was. No more. To my credit, I hadn’t started again when I’d heard.

I could hear his crooked smile. “The usual place, then?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Xxx

Turns out, getting drunk was not the answer. I knew that the second I touched the first cup to my lips that this was a bad idea. I still shied away from anyone who got near me, shut down when anyone who I didn’t know tried to talk to me… I could still hear John’s laughs ringing through my ears, and the judgmental eyes of all of Mom’s friends stared at me through each person who paid me even a cursory glance.

And now? Well, now Jay, Martin, and Paul had wandered over to a group of girls at a table — yes, Jay, too — and I was left with sleazy guys leering at me from across the bar. Part of me wondered if they’d even notice if I just…left. They were pretty far gone.

“For some reason, I never thought I’d actually see you out here,” a familiar voice commented, and I glanced over my shoulder.

“I feel like you’re stalking me.”

Kal arched an eyebrow. “Don’t flatter yourself.” I shrugged and turned back to the drink in front of me, and Kal slid into the seat next to me. “You’re at a bar, but you don’t seem very intent on getting drunk.”

“She’s been working on that for the past half hour,” offered the bartender, and I just glared at him.

“Thanks, man.”

He chuckled. “Here for you.”

“Can I help you with something?” I winced at just how slurred Jay’s words were, and I turned to him with a smile.

“This fine gentleman was just keeping me company while you flirted with complete strangers,” I drawled. Jay’s eyes flickered, and he tried putting his arms around my shoulders. I slid out of my seat in the opposite direction. “In fact, he’s going to walk me home.”

“I can do that, sweetheart,” he mumbled, taking a step toward me, and Kal stepped between us.

“Listen to the lady,” he murmured, and he gestured back to Martin and Paul…who were also starting to look rather concerned with the situation.

Jay glared up at Kal, and I tried not to laugh; Kal had perhaps six inches over Jay. “She’s my girl, and I will be walking her home, if she wants to go.”

My eyes narrowed, and I stepped forward. “You can go fuck yourself, Jay. I’m not yours — or anybody’s — and I’m going home without you.” I looped my arm through Kal’s and tugged, and as we moved toward the doorway, Jay growled and threw a punch in Kal’s direction. He caught Jay’s wrist and pushed him away. Jay stumbled and fell on his ass, and as he rose, Martin and Paul rushed forward and grabbed his shoulders. Kal tried to step in front of me as a shield, but I yanked him back.

I looked at Martin. “I’m leaving,” I informed him firmly, and he just nodded. They held Jay back as I shoved Kal out the door, and the New York breeze ruffled my aggressively unkempt hair into my eyes.

“That one seems like a real keeper,” Kal drawled as we started down the sidewalk, and I jabbed my elbow into his side.

“Can we just not talk about that?” Because while we weren’t really a thing, not really, it did hurt that, as soon as Jay had any alcohol in him, he completely forgot about me…even though he invited me on the premise that it was so I could let loose. The bastard.

“We can talk about how we’re not supposed to be friends anymore instead,” he volunteered. “I mean, you did just basically volunteer me for basically a fight over your honor. That’s not something not-friends do for one another.”

I sighed. “I’m sorry.”

He grinned. “You must be drunk.”

“Accept the damn apology while you still can.” Blessedly, he kept his mouth shut. “What were you doing out tonight anyway?”

“I was just on my way to work, and I happened to see you in the window as I was passing by.” He shrugged. “I still absolutely believe in chivalry, so I figured I’d check in on you…” Concern flickered in his eyes again. “I really am worried about you, Rory. And I know that you don’t want to talk to me about it, but do you at least have someone to talk to?”

I bit the inside of my cheek. Friday and Charlie certainly didn’t count. But who the hell was I supposed to talk to? I respected Martin, but we certainly weren’t friends… I guess I could go out painting and meet up with Billy and them — they were always willing to listen, and honestly, that entire crew knew things about me that I hadn’t breathed a word of to anyone else…but they weren’t people I relied on regularly. It was nice to get things off of my chest, but it didn’t actually help me mentally or emotionally.

And while I didn’t want to admit it, I probably actually wasn’t okay.

“I guess I don’t.”

Kal didn’t say anything.

Xxx

“Have a good night, okay?” Kal asked as we stopped in front of the door to my apartment building.

I offered him a smile. “Thank you for walking me home.”

He nodded and returned my smile. “You should do that more often; it suits you.”

“What?”

“Smile, silly.” He gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze. “If you ever need anything, promise me that you’ll let me know?”

I swallowed a sigh. “I will.”

Kal shook his head and dropped his hand. “No you won’t.”

I shrugged. “You already knew that.” I gave him a wave before stepping into my apartment building.

When I got up to my door, though, it was cracked open. I sucked in a breath before nudging the door open with my foot, and I stared for a very long moment. The entire thing was trashed. Light fixtures were shattered, hanging from the ceiling by frayed wires, and some of my windows were fractured. My fridge was top sized, groceries painting the floor, and the cabinet doors were hanging by a single hinge. My couches were shredded, stuffing littered everywhere, and the tables…they had chunks out of them?

“Friday?” I called hesitantly, and then my heart stopped. “Missy?!” I rushed inside.

“Aurora, there’s something in the house.”

“Where’s my cat, Friday?”

“In your room,” I rushed to my bedroom, “but there’s something you should know first, Aurora.”

My room was surprisingly not trashed. Everything was still as I’d left it, minus my bed. The first thing I saw was Missy; she was curled up at the feet of my bed, purring rather loudly — more than I’d heard her before. She was also curled up around something rather colorful, and before I could heave my sigh of relief, the colorful thing moved. It sat up — it looked like some kind of lizard — and it peered at me with brilliantly silver eyes. Wires hung from its mouth, and —

‘Hello, Aurora.’

I screamed.