| Chapter 10

"I don't trust him." Vera followed me out of the Center building and out into the street. She glanced back at his office, third-floor window. "I don't."

"I think it's normal not to trust city officials." I pushed my hands into the pockets of my jeans as we made our way towards the street corner. The walking signal faded to black. The red hand told us to stop. "I think it's embedded in every human being."

"I'm not human, though." With both of her hands holding the sides of her hood, she looked at me. "I'm a Pylon, remember?"

My mouth opened awkwardly before I closed it and clenched my jaw.

She was right. I was in the wrong. Humans and Pylons may have resembled each other externally, but that was it. The insides of our workings? I didn't know it. There were documentaries which explained the difference, but I hadn't seen them. Surgery videos made me sick.

"Well," I kicked at the curb as I eyed the streetlight, "just because you're a Pylon, doesn't mean you wouldn't have a soul, right?"

"Souls." Vera snorted and shook her head. "Humans believe in souls. We believe in lights."

I looked at her as she looked ahead. The red hand remained.

"Lights in various forms. Shades. Colors. Strengths. Weaknesses. Just—"

"Lights." Like the stars in her eyes.

"Right." Vera nodded, shooting me a soft smile. Even with those glasses, I saw a twinkle. "Just lights."

The cars coming down the street came to a stop in front of us. I hadn't noticed the signal change, but Vera hadn't either, because she didn't move. We stood there for a moment, looking at each other. Smiling. I wanted to know what went on in her head, curious if she wondered what passed through mine.

Then, she walked forward and crossed the street. Clearly, she didn't wonder enough.

"Well, souls are like lights, too," I said as I caught up to her, walking beside her along the busy sidewalk. Two men dressed professionally with suitcases pushed between us. I stumbled for a bit, having been bumped by one of them. But when I caught my balance, I looked at her again. "Like stars."

"But you can't see a soul, right?" Vera's eyebrows lifted above the sunglasses. "It's just a figment of your imagination."

"Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there." I shrugged. "Oxygen is around us; we can't see it."

A couple walked between us this time. They laughed together, holding ice coffees in their hands as they huddled close to not bump us.

When they passed, Vera crossed her arms over her chest. "Some atoms are too small to see," she said.

"Exactly!" I smiled. "That doesn't mean they don't exist. So, you guys call it lights. We say souls. And, I mean, not all of us say souls, but it's common."

We continued with no destination. It was easier to walk without the stress of the what-ifs weighing down in your head. I'd done what I wanted to do; I told someone what I knew. The way Holmes reacted to the information wasn't how I pictured it going, but I also hadn't expected to get close to someone to explain it, either. I only hoped he had listened closely, heard the truths, and would call off the dogs around the fair.

Once it was clear, she could head home. Until then, I would keep her company. It was the least I could do.

"Humans." Vera sighed and stopped at the next intersection. "That's the one thing I don't understand about your kind."

Traffic jammed the street; cars were bumper to bumper. A woman in a small two-door honked at the sedan in front of her.

Vera made the good choice to stop. I stopped, too. "What's hard to understand?" I asked, facing her. "We're not difficult."

"Ha, so you think." Vera rolled her eyes. And laughed. "Humans are probably the most difficult beings in the entire universe."

"Us?" I pressed my hand flat against my chest. "No!"

I was exaggerating. The fact that she laughed made me feel better. I wasn't much of a comedian. My jokes fell flat. But this one, she caught the hook and rolled with it.

Still laughing, she turned and continued walking down the sidewalk. "Humans can't decide on the same beliefs. I mean, you're one species. Can't you be unified?"

We reached the next corner, waiting for traffic to stop. I rocked back and forth on the heels of my feet. As I listened to her, my eyes drifted towards the various restaurants and coffee shops along the street. With the smells of food in the air, my stomach grumbled.

Vera poked my arm as she continued, pulling my attention back towards her. "Am I boring you?" she asked me.

I shook my head as my stomach growled again. "No, I'm listening." I smiled. "Would you rather talk over some food, maybe?"

Vera straightened. The sunglasses failed to hide the shocked expression on her face; they slid down her nose.

Lifting a finger, I noted the glasses. When she didn't move them back in place, I fixed them for her. My fingers brushed across her cheek, on accident, but the warmth of her skin sent electricity through my skin. Like sparks. Real fireworks.

Her eyes widened; face flushed. "Uh."

I stepped back and rubbed my fingertips together. The residual shock pulsed through my hand. "Um."

"I was," Vera stammered for a moment before looking down at her hands as she pressed them against her stomach, "I was thinking."

That spark didn't fade. It was weird, something I hadn't felt before. I wondered if it was something that happened when you touched a Pylon's skin, or—

Is it because I think she's pretty?

I pushed my hands into my pockets to ignore the sensation, but I knew my cheeks were pink. I felt warm. "About?"

Her hand dropped at her side. "Um." She chewed her lip.

"It's okay." I straightened, weakly smiling. "A lot happened today; I get it. All we can do now is hope Holmes will believe us, so you can get home."

Vera nodded. "Right."

"Right." I motioned towards her, and me, my hand awkwardly moving back and forth between the two of us. "Until then, I'll keep you company. We can eat." I smiled. "And I'll listen to all of your stories."

"Okay." With a sigh, Vera looked up and down the street. Her gaze stopped and paused at different places, as if she noted the restaurants close by. "You know, I've never had a pizza."

"Really?" Again, like I'd done earlier, I exaggerated my shock. To my surprise, she reacted just the same. Giggling. Her hand covered her mouth.

"We need to fix that. One can never ever not have had pizza." I stuck my arm out for her to pick her restaurant of choice. "So, I'll make sure your first is amazing. I promise."

"Yeah?" Vera pulled her bottom lip into her mouth as she giggled once more. Her eyes peered at me over the sunglasses, flashing a few stars, some shimmering lights. "Promises can be hard to deliver."

My mouth parted slightly before I snorted and smirked. "Well, I can deliver," I said as she walked in front of me. "I swear."

"Good." She glanced back at me with a shy grin, one that brought the warmth back to my cheeks. She winked, too. "I've never had someone want to listen to me either. So, you've got two deliveries to make."

"I got you, I—" As I hurried to catch up to her side, I stumbled.

She laughed.

|||

A part of me wanted to order a Chicago style pizza, sit at a table, and chat with Vera while we waited. Yet I knew if we were seated, out in the open, the chances of us getting caught was pretty high.

She was dressed as a human, concealing the parts of her face that made her a Pylon, but it wasn't fool-proof. If someone looked at her long enough, they would spot the differences, call her out. I had a feeling Holmes had caught on; I only hoped, out of the goodness of his heart, he wouldn't notify the police of her.

But that was Holmes. I didn't have that much faith in the other humans religiously listening to the news. And like he mentioned, not everyone was a Pylon supporter.

To keep from running on anxiety-fueled assumptions, we stopped at a corner joint; Chicago was filled with them, even downtown. A quick in and out as long as it was cash. We were only idle for minutes before we were back on the streets, walking down the sidewalks; we had a paper plate in one hand while we balanced a large slice of pizza at our lips.

"This. Is. Delicious." Vera had to stop as she chewed. She closed her eyes, licked her lips. The sound of satisfaction left her with a loud sigh. "Holy crayen."

I slowly chewed the bite I'd taken. "Crayens?" I lifted my brow. "What's a crayen?"

Vera opened one eye to glance at me as she hummed through another bite. "A cow," she said, giggling. "That's what we call cows. Crayen."

Cows. COWS. "Ha!" I had to stop to take in a breath. "I forgot I asked you that."

"Yeah." Vera smirked as she took another bite.

I did, too. "But it's good, huh? The pizza?" I asked, laughing. "It's just pizza."

Vera purposely lowered her sunglasses onto the rim of her nose. Those stars shimmered in her eyes as she lifted her brow. Slowly chewing her fourth bite, she said, "Just pizza? I can say that about Sapphire." She took another bite. "It's just juice."

"Just juice?" David had said that, too.

Eating, walking, and talking wasn't doing us any good. I think I'd lost three slices of pepperoni when we crossed the street. If I dropped the rest of what I wanted to eat I'd riot.

The moment I saw a bench, I motioned with my head for Vera to follow me and sit. She had no objections. And when she sat beside me, neither did I.

"Yes." Vera took another bite of her pizza and spoke with her mouth full, "It's just juice. Literally. Comes from our Rosepon plants and we'll drink it for breakfast."

"Like milk?" I took a bite, too.

Vera shrugged. I'd never seen someone eat a pizza so fast. Without looking at me, she devoured the remaining parts of her pizza in four large bites. The crust was all that remained between her fingers. But even that was gone, too. She'd only taken a second to closely examine it as though it were alien.

Poor pizza barely stood a chance. I mentally swore to myself I wouldn't eat it so fast. I'd savor every bit.

"Sure, milk. From cows, right?"

I nodded, still mourning her pizza. "Yeah, crayens."

"Well, yeah, sure, like milk," she said, fixing her sunglasses. "Rosepon grows in abundance for us. Like weeds for you guys. Thousands of years ago, we learned to extract the nectar for our own personal use. Juice just so happens to be the most popular."

I placed the paper plate on my lap and let the pizza rest on top of it. "So, when did we come into play?"

"Well," Vera paused.

Taking a moment, I glanced up at the sky, squinting against the light from the bright sun. The Pylon's silhouette was still visible above the clouds, hovering without issue. Losing apart from its engine hadn't done much damage to it. That was a good thing.

"What do you mean?" she asked, licking her fingers.

I looked at her. "Humans. History's fuzzy, right? So, I don't know. But when did giving us 'juice' become a thing?"

She looked at me, then shrugged. Even that was something she didn't know.

I nodded slowly. "All right."

Honestly, because she was so open to telling stories, I wanted to ask about the accidents. Over the past five years, a lot more people died after being administered Sapphire than ever before. Nearing two hundred deaths topped the fifty that had occurred over a hundred years.

It was strange. Made no sense. Murder and violence were so far from a Pylon's character.

Would that be something appropriate to ask right now?

"I know you said you'd deliver my firsts right now, right?" Vera broke my train of thought. The sound of her voice was innocent, curious.

And I followed it, trying to look into her eyes through the sunglasses. Innocent and curious was better than the heavy our conversation would've gone. Let's avoid all things alien, hm?

"I did." I ripped off the corner of my pizza and chewed. "Listening over pizza? Did I fail?"

Vera sighed before she giggled. "No, you didn't. This is nice." She glanced around the bench. "I just have an idea."

Pizza pushed into the side of my cheek as I paid attention. "Okay?"

She smiled. "Okay, so I'm just going on hypotheticals here, but were you out last night because you wanted to explore and do things you hadn't done before?"

I swallowed that piece of pizza, barely chewed it. It scratched the inside of my throat on the way down. "Um, uh."

"I'm going to take that weird look on your face as a yes." Vera clasped her hands together, setting them on her lap as she looked at me.

"Not weird." I swallowed again and stuck out my tongue. I had to cough to relieve my throat.

"Ahuh." The sunglasses had fallen from her nose again. Her bright yellow eyes attempted to captivate my soul for the umpteenth time.

Just like that, my slight irritation-discomfort faded. I had to blink as I smiled at her. "But um, what were you going to say?"

The corners of her lips lifted into a smile. "I'll be honest like you were, okay? I left my ship because I wanted to see the fair, too. My dad's the captain of our colony."

My eyes widened. Her dad was Captain Roderick?

"And that sort of means I'm like—"

I blinked. "Royalty?"

"Uh, no." Vera laughed, shaking her head. "But I'm not allowed to venture out like other Pylons. I'm always in my room with no one to talk to, just by myself." She shrugged before taking a deep breath. "I just thought last night would've been a good time. It was empty, I could roam around without someone hovering over my shoulder. I took the chance."

I couldn't tell if it was all honesty. I hadn't been truthful with her. Yes, half-truths, because I had wanted to see the fair. But I purposely forgot to mention David and whatever criminal activities he'd found himself in.

If she had tried to compare her level of honesty to mine, then I could accept the idea of her wanting to see the fair, an opportunity given to anyone else. But the time of night and the situation that followed made it unreal.

I still don't think she had anything to do with the metal falling from the sky.

Pursing my lips, I said, "Okay, so you want to explore? Did you have anything else in mind?"

She stuck out her hand and touched mine. Again, I felt nothing but warm electricity. It was alluring. So much, when she stood, I followed and nearly dropped what was left of my pizza.

"I do," she said. "Come on."