We got outside and headed to the hover park to get his hover-car. I decided to just rip the bandage out at once.
“Um, Erik?”
“Yeah,” He stopped to turn around, “what’s the matter, why are you just standing there. Come on, the place we’re going to is amazing.”
“I don’t think I can go.”
“Why not? Is everything okay,” he said stepping closer.
“Yeah. It is. I just don’t think my boyfriend would be okay with it.”
His smiled dropped and my heart dropped along with it, I felt like a monster.
“What…what…boyfriend? How? I don’t understand.”
“Bairam asked me out and I said yes yesterday.”
Then right on cue Bairam approached us, as if showing up wasn’t enough, he came with flowers. I was stabbed with guilt. Bairam kept smiling like he couldn’t feel the tension his presence brought.
“Erik, how nice of you to bring my girlfriend out. Always so reliable.”
It was at that moment I noticed he wasn’t smiling at me; he was smiling at Erik. Was there something I didn’t know about? Erik just stood there stunned like he had been slapped. I wanted talking to him but Bairam held his door open and I decided it was best to leave him alone and walk in. I was a terrible person.
Bairam tried cheering me up as we drove to where ever he was going to.
“He had to find out eventually.”
“Why did it seem like there was something going on, did I miss anything.”
“I have no idea of what you’re talking about.”
“What you said to Erik…Did you bet on me?”
“Whoa, that is a very crazy conclusion. No, I would never. Look, the moment I met you I liked you, so I told Erik about it and he told me I was talking nonsense and that I should stay away from you. And if my knowledge did me any justice, I know that he has no right to say such and that you can make decisions for yourself.”
“So it turned into a competition of who would get me first.”
“Absolutely not, you’re not some prize to be won. I knew I wanted to be with you so I went for the window, yeah, I’d admit you seemed to have a thing for him but that didn’t mean I couldn’t try.”
“Ugh, this is so messed up,” I cupped my hands and placed my face inside.
“Hey, this is a date, you can’t be moody. I’m sure your mode will change when our date starts.”
“Where are you taking me.”
“It’s a surprise,” he smirked.
He took me to his spire-form it was much different from any of the ones the Leif’s owned, it seemed architectural structures were designed according to the family that owns it. We didn’t head to the hover park; he went through a hover-way leading to somewhere underground, right under his spire form.
After driving for a while we were hit with bright light, and the most beautiful sight unfolded in front of me. It was a garage, with all the latest technology. I could almost cry.
“I know you haven’t been able to do what you’re skilled at since you started working here. Anyway, I want to learn a thing or two about cars or machines or whatever.”
I kept looking out the window, gawking at everything in pure admiration.
“You’re going to let me work on it.”
“Every single thing you’re seeing,” he whispered, “even this car.”
I was filled with unadulterated ecstasy. The second he stopped the car I went to a wall filled with tools, brushing my fingers over them. They were still new, if not new then barely used, I picked up the ones I needed and went straight to his car to start, he stood at the side smiling while I took his car apart bit by bit and then put it back together like it was nothing. The model was clearly higher than anything I’d worked with but it was all the same mechanism they used.
After a while of standing and doing nothing, I made him join me as we fitted the different components back into the assembly, we recalibrated the magnetic flux and synchronized the electromagnetic resonance. It was a dream come true. We spent the entire day there, just working on different mechanical part. When the day came to an end, he dropped me off with a kiss on my forehead. I wasn’t in love with him, yes, but he was sweet and actually understood me, restaurants are nice but they weren’t my type of fun. I wasn’t some fancy Vaedrin I was a Nafren, through and through.
I entered the apartment to see Darius curled up on the couch.
“Where the heck were you? You had me worried. Don’t you know it’s not safe, look at how late you’re coming back. And why weren't you picking your phone”
“Chill would you, what’s gotten into you. My battery dies and I forgot to charge.”
“There’s a large killing going on and you’re asking me to be chill after you came back this late.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
He slapped his forehead with his palm.
“Typical me to forget that I’m the one who updates you with news. Some Vaedrin hosted this huge party and a lot of Vaedrins died, there was no trace of what killed them, only the fact that they struggled to breathe.”
“What? Vaedrins have no issues with air.”
“Exactly, it was after this case that they were able to link it with a lot of other cases they crossed off as natural. They have no idea who’s doing the killing and the pattern in which the person is using to kill, which means they have no idea who the person could be targeting.”
I was speechless, I didn’t think that it was possible for the Vaedrins to have such a problem. If Vaedrins were being killed what would happen to a Nafren. It wasn’t safe here.
“This is terrible,” I said as fear crept slowly up my spine.
“I know. My parents even called to ask if everything was okay. Let’s not even get started with Vida, she’s worried to death. How did you not know about this, where have you been all day?”
My excitement about the date had long vanished, I even forgot it had happened today. I moved to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
“I was on a date.”
“Huh?” Darius said as he entered the kitchen. His speed was actually remarkable. “You and Erik go on dates now? Are you official?”
“What? No. I went with my boyfriend.”
I could practically see the gears in his brain moving, I didn’t have the chance to tell him anything, it was basically the first time there was an information gap in our conversation.
“Why are you so confused? I told you Bairam asked me out.”
“Yes. But you also said you were falling for Erik.”
“I decided to go out with Bairam instead. You said you didn’t like Erik and that I should trash my feeling, well I’m dating someone else so consider the feelings trashed,” I said as I joined him on the kitchen counter.
“Tira. That’s not what I meant and you know that.”
“When he treated me badly, I couldn’t help but wonder if I imagined the entire thing in my head. Even as we kept going on our little outings, he never asked me out. I suppress my feelings so it won’t give him power over me. I’m not sure if he really likes me or if he’s just, I don’t know; using me to pass time.”
“Tira, you silly child,” he said as he pulled me into a hug.
“I like Bairam,” I said then pulled myself out of the hug, “Bairam doesn’t make me feel like there’s a status I need to uphold, he gets me, and wants to know the real me. Every time I’m with Erik, I feel like there’s a certain way I need to act since I’m with a Vaedrin but Bairam. It’s completely different, he wants to know the real me, he doesn’t want me to feel like there’s a standard I’m supposed to climb up to. I’m free when I'm with him.”
“Well it looks like you made the right decision then,” his words took the guilt I had previously felt. “But what about Bairam. If you’re still in love with Erik, it would be a thorn in your relationship, He’ll know you don’t really love him. He’ll feel the absence.”
“Then I guess I have to make sure I fall for him harder than I did for Erik.”
The next day was just a whole new level of awkward. Things got really weird for Yasmin and I. We didn’t have conversations like we would normally, it was starting to feel like I was actually working. I just carried out the tasks she gave and made sure things were in order. Erik was also nowhere to be found which was expected. It slowly became unbearable and I just cracked.
“So…you’re not going to talk to me anymore?”
She turned to me uninterested and then back to her tablet which she had been using.
“Yasmin, please just say something. I know you have a lot to say so just let it out.”
“You seem very confident about that,” She said with her eyes still on her tablet.
“I am, I know you, please just say something.”
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Yeah, well I want to talk to you.”
“You seem to have gotten cocky.”
I stayed still waiting for her response, I knew it was only a matter of time before she cracked.
“Fine. I’m upset because you broke my brother, I know it’s none of my business but I can’t help it. Why would you do that to him?”
“Because I wasn’t sure if he liked me.”
“Uh did you miss the signs,” she asked, dropping her tablet on the desk beside her.
“No, I also didn’t miss the fact that he was stringing me along.”
“What?”
“Erik is very confident, what exactly was his reason for the delaying, hmm,” I looked at her waiting for a response, “Exactly, Bairam is someone that likes me for me, I don’t want us to fight because of this. You’re a wonderful friend; I don’t want to lose you.”
“Me neither.”
We ended the day on a good note and I was more than grateful for that. I continued dating Bairam and we went on several dates, some were even in my apartment, Bairam made it easy to fall in love. I appreciated ever moment we spent together.
A couple of days passed by and the killing seemed to continue. All Vaedrin had Nimvar guards for protection. It seemed really unnecessary to me because what exactly do you want to protect them from? Air? I could barely spend time with the Vaedrins like before since I was also a suspect; ME. I barely saw any of them not Yasmin, who I was working for, or Bairam who was my boyfriend, it was messed up. I ended up spending time with Piran and his friends, when Darius was working.
He didn’t really have friends though, he had just two: Gisli and Darya, Gisli with dark brown skin had a tall slim build which I wasn’t really used to, it sometimes made me think he wasn’t a Nadrin; guys, especially Nadrin guys were supposed to be muscular. Although since tailoring was his skill, his build made perfect sense. Darya on the other hand had a build, her ruddy and weathered skin seemed to enhance her entire build, it wasn't much of a surprised since she worked in a ranch.
We were at a gazebo having a drink when Darius came to join us, he was still sweaty from work, he’d normally take a bath after work but he seemed to have skipped that routine.
“Yet another death, this morning,” Darya said before taking a sip from her drink.
“It keeps getting worse every minute,” Gisli said staring at the table, “Can we please change this topic.”
“I agree,” I said, “Honestly I still don’t get how you guys do this, taking the risk of letting down your aeriq while outside just because you want to take a drink, aren’t you scared of running out of air, it’s too risky.”
“Darius said the same thing, until he came back tired from work and joined the fun. You get better with time, breath, release mask from face, take a drink from cup, put mask back on. It’s that simple,” Piran said smiling.
“Madness,” I said shaking my head, causing them to laugh.
“You’ll grow to love it,” Darya said, tilting her cup towards me before drinking.
“A life gamble. But when you’re desperate, you’ll find yourself taking that risk,” Darius said as they all laughed.
“Isn’t there something we can do?” Darya said leaning towards her table after finally putting her mask on properly, thank goodness.
“About what?” I asked.
“The killing.”
“What do you want to do, there’s nothing to do,” Gisli said.
“There is. We can do an investigation to try and figure the whole thing out,” Darya said, “I mean think about it. Because of everything happening, we barely do anything, well, except Darius that is. My point is we have the time, we can figure the whole thing out and then catch this killer. If we don’t work, we won’t get air and how long will it take before our air runs out.”
“As messed up as that sounds. I think you have a point,” Darius said with his thinking face on.
“Yes but’s it’s unreasonable, who exactly will let us investigate,” Piran said.
“Well, with you in a task assigning position, Tira’s in a personal Tholen position and Gisli is one of the most requested Tholen, if not the most requested. We can gain access to anywhere. We just can’t stay for long,” Darya explained.
“I guess that clears the doubt. So, are we doing this?” Darius asked.
We all looked at one another and shook our head. It was a crazy idea but we were all willing to take that step, our plan, though barely a plan, was looking promising enough. Thankfully I loved breaking the rules and crazy was a new zing I was willing to add.