| Chapter 16

I remembered the last time I saw my father. He was stressed but smiling. He constantly told my mother he was only doing what he needed to do. All of it was for the family; for us.

On the day he left, he reminded her if he didn't go out and make the changes he wanted, then no one would, and the world would crumble at his feet.

My mother had laughed at him, called him dramatic. I was just a boy, not understanding them at all, so I laughed, too.

But now I knew what he meant, what he was trying to do. He was trying to stop Holmes from making dumb choices. Trying to protect the city. Us.

And by protecting us, he never came back.

My uncle didn't know what happened to him. According to him and my aunt, my father never showed up at their house. A month's search found nothing, not even his car. While everyone thought he had just left us to struggle on our own, my mother wouldn't listen to them. Accepting the idea that he died was easier.

We buried a portrait of him, and a baseball because that was the last gift he'd given me. We tried to live within his memory, keep him in our light.

After hearing this truth, I couldn't help but feel angry, sad, and in pain.

I had no more tears to cry.

Vera stood at the cell's bars, searching for a door. She'd been doing it for what felt like hours, but with no success. The jail we were inside of wasn't normal; couldn't have been a regular police station.

It was too dark. Too small. Far, far away.

Vera turned and looked at me. "I think I know where we are. I heard about this place but didn't think it really existed. I thought it was just a story to scare us when we were kids."

Vera was talking to me, but I wasn't sure if I was in the right state of mind to listen. I didn't want to. Honestly, I wanted to sulk. What good was trying to do anything else, anyway?

As if she didn't notice, Vera sighed and continued. She looked back at the bars. "We were always told humans had a cage just for us Pylons. They'd keep us here if we were bad. Sometimes they'd kill us. Since we never saw anyone die, I didn't believe the stories. I thought they were just that—"

"Stories." I inhaled sharply and bit on my bottom lip.

"Yeah." Vera took a step towards me. "It was. Supposedly when we first arrived humans didn't trust us. It was a war before love, they said. The love of Earth."

"Where's the love?" I looked up at her, speaking from the sadness in my heart. "There's no love here. Just pain. Humans are—"

Vera kneeled in front of me.

"Humans are evil creatures." I closed my eyes. "We steal. We kill. We conquer what isn't ours. And you learn more and more about it, each day, even when you don't want to."

"I know," Vera whispered. "That's why we were going home."

Opening my eyes, I looked into hers. For once, her stars had a different reaction on me. Soothing effect. Calming.

"I only left my ship's corridors because I hadn't seen Earth. Not once. And I wanted to before we departed. I just didn't think any of this could happen. It's like it was my fault."

"Hey." Lifting my hand, I cupped her face. "You didn't cause this, none of this is your fault."

Vera's eyes slowly drifted along my face as though she sought meaning in my words. But I didn't think what I said was so difficult. Then again, I was difficult; I was someone who always over thought, never understood.

My mother had always told me when I felt dark and under, to search for the good and remove the bad. To take deep breaths. To think bright. What better way than to look into the eyes of a girl who believed in light?

"But it is my fault," Vera whispered, her brows pushing close together. "That night, after the woman died at the fair, my father was ready to leave. He ordered our Pylon departure. Partner-anchor ships were already heading back towards Earth to ensure we made it off this planet all right."

I watched her eyes change color. From yellow, to blue, to green. Mood eyes I'd never seen. "Partner-anchor ships?"

"Mhm. Pylons near Earth's orbit; they would enter the atmosphere and guide us."

I nodded, biting the corner of my lip.

"And even though I knew they were coming, they were so close, I just had to be the one to go outside. To taste the world never given to me," Vera huffed, sitting back on her legs. "I thought if humans were allowed to enjoy us all they wanted, why couldn't I do the same? Why couldn't I just breathe in your air as though it were mine. And now—"

Sitting up, I cupped her face in my hands. "And now the sky is falling, the world is in flames, and you can't breathe."

Vera bit her lip, looking at me.

I couldn't help but chuckle lightly. "Do you know I feel like that... all the time?" As her eyes searched mine, I searched hers. "It's just different when it's really happening."

Vera looked around us. "Is the world in flames?" she whispered.

"No." I smiled, brushing away her tears with my thumb. "But it feels like it, doesn't it?"

Slowly, Vera nodded. Her head turned, leaning into my touch.

Taking a deep breath, I said, "We'll remove the bad, find the good. It's how we'll get out of this."

"How?" she breathed.

Honestly, I wasn't sure how. I wanted to look brave for her. She needed strength right now. And I was the only one there who could provide it. It was what my father did for me. If there was one thing I could do, one thing I could take from him—

"Hey!" I heard David's voice. He was shouting. The sound of feet echoed in our direction.

Looking up, I saw him hurry out from the shadows towards us. He practically crashed into the cell's bars when he arrived, a grin on his face. Both Vera and I stared at him as he said, "I'm glad y'all alright."

I wasn't sure whether to be happy to see him. Or angry. Holmes had stormed in with police officers and he did nothing. He had only a look in his eyes. Fear.

Betrayal.

"You're here." I stood, grabbing onto the bars as I looked at him. "You left us. You ran," I hissed. "So, why—"

"Shit, am I supposed to leave you guys here?" he said, confused.

"You did." I pushed off the bars. "You didn't jump out and help me. You left me and Vera there to get captured and—" I rubbed my cheek as I rolled saliva around in my mouth. "—beaten. What do you want me to think?"

David tapped the bars three times. "Do you think I was going to call the cops? Did you forget they don't like me?"

I rolled my eyes.

"OR—" He tapped the bars again to grab my attention. "—did you not think of the possibility that the po-po are in on this? I mean, shit, you know Holmes runs half of this city."

"You left us," I grumbled.

David sighed. "I know. I was getting help, the fuck? How can I help you guys without an entourage?"

"What?"

From the shadows emerged a group of people. Not many, but more than us. Each of them stared at Vera and me before looking at David for confirmation.

"Yeah, we're getting them out," he said to them before looking at me. "First group we're saving."

David's entourage fit a stereotype; each looked as though they'd committed a crime. And technically, if they broke Vera and me out of the cell, they would be committing another.

But freeing us was something I'd look over; imprisoning us without reason was worse.

"Who are these people?" Vera stood beside me.

Like her, I followed them with my eyes. There were six of them—two of them with tablets in their hands, the others with hammers. I swore I'd seen movies with characters like them. Yet, as the two with their electrical devices approached a panel on the wall, I knew I was wrong.

They aren't regular "criminals." They're probably not bad people at all.

"This is my team." David smiled. "Been rollin' with them for about two years now."

"Two years." My face was pressed against the bars as I watched the panels power on. At first, the lights around them were red; I knew a silent alarm had gone off somewhere. After a second, they turned green. Bright. Something clicked nearby.

"Yeah," David laughed. "A kid gets bored, you know."

David had always said that when we were kids, especially before he would do something wrong. I remembered the one day he purposely climbed on top of our grandmother's couch, just to push her giant portrait of The Last Supper off the wall. When it crashed, he bolted, leaving me there like a frightened child.

I got in trouble for it.

But even then, he came back to get me. To make it better.

When we were kids, it was ice cream or chips he'd bring to nurse my wounds. This time, it was a team of rebels fully equipped to break me and a Pylon out of an illegal cell.

I can just hug you, man.

I stepped back away from the bars as it rattled. The people with hammers slammed their weapons against the doors. Glancing at David, I couldn't help but smile.

One of the hammers came down harder than the rest. The entire cage shook, and I had to move further away. With my hand stretched out, I pulled Vera with me.

"You know what?" The man who hit the cell door was older than all of us, hair lined with grey. He gave the door one more hit before moving back, letting the other two continue with the door. As he swiped his hand over his forehead, he looked at David. "I thought we'd be doing this shit sooner," he said.

"I know." David looked at his friend, while I looked confused, listening to them.

"Not like I planned on setting my cousin up or anything," David added with a sigh.

Setting me up? Was this all planned?

"Oh, right, right." The man looked at David in disbelief, then laughed. With a bump of his shoulder, he moved the other two people away, stopping their continuous blows. He lifted his hammer well over his head. "Just happened to fall in place, right?" he said, glancing at David. "Luck?"

His weapon came down. Hard. The cell's door couldn't take the blow. The latch sealing it closed ripped off, falling to the floor with a loud clunk. The two people who stood at the wall with their tablets in hand, rolled their eyes.

"Took you long enough," both of them said in unison before turning back to the panel.

The lights on the wall flashed green again, then red, before powering off all together.

David looked at me with an awkward laugh. "They had to shut off the alarm, you know. Keep dude from finding us breaking you out."

"Who?" Vera approached the cell's exit first. She looked at the broken door before looking up at the massive man who dealt the crumbling blow. With her lips pursed, brows knitted, she asked him, "Who are you guys?"

The man placed the hammer on his shoulder, sniffing at the sweat that hung around his nose. "Just a group of people who want to do the right thing," he said, then glanced at David. "Ain't that right, Mendez?"

"Yup." David looked at me. "Now, let's get you guys out of here before Holmes gets back. We've got shit to do."