Page 3 of A Spark in the Ash

I dig into my pocket and pull out the key. I also grab some cash from my pocket, and hand all of it to Renwick. "Do you mind gassing it up for me? I'm not sure when I will take it into the city again."

He feels sorry for me. There's no question about that. Because usually, he would give me a hard time about asking him to do anything. But Renwick simply nods and climbs out of the car.

I watch as he starts up my bike, kicks up the kickstand, and pulls out of the parking lot, heading for the nearest gas station.

I pull out my key, and head up to the fifth floor where I used to live. I unlock the door, and step inside.

It's empty. I know that it's empty. Jaxon helped me move all my belongings out just over two weeks ago.

When we came back that day, I felt separated from it already. But suddenly, I feel kind of…adrift.

This sad apartment was my independence. It was me settling for a life I didn't want. But it was the first time in my life that I had lived on my own. Done my own thing.

I think about what is in my future. Life underground in a tunnel, surrounded by dozens of others. I might have known them at one point, but a century and a half of time tends to make people strangers once again.

And the others, the ones I've been with for all of this time, mostly hate me right now. They think I am a traitor.

They aren't wrong.

As I think about returning to the compound, I find that my chest feels tight with anxiety.

Jaxon is there, and that is enough to bring me back. But what do I have ahead of me? Just sitting around and waiting for the gate to react on the DarkVerse side? I might want to go home. But thinking about it right now, I kind of want alife. The time I spent with Jaxon felt…normal. We went out to eat. We went to hotels. We spent time with his family, and even though they are all criminals, it was something that normal people do.

My life isn't normal, but I want to give myself the option of gaining normalcy in the future.

Just to be safe, I double check that we didn't miss anything. We didn't. So, I walk out and lock the door behind me. I walk all the way down to the first floor and knock on the manager’s door.

He scowls at me, obviously annoyed that I never paid rent for this month and didn't fully surrender my keys until now. It was as I thought, that he wouldn’t give me my deposit back. But this was a tiny shoebox of a place, so it isn't a whole lot of money.

I hand over my keys, and it's done.

I get back in my car and start it, blasting the air conditioning. Then I back out and pull back onto the main road. I aim for my favorite casino.

It’s early. So, it isn’t busy. There aren’t a lot of people around. But I know how to work the system, no matter the time of day.

I make my way to a table and sit. “Deal me in.”

Creating a life takes money. I need more of it. I need as much as I can manage. Because if things get too out of control, I want to be sure I can take Jaxon and run, where we can survive on our own.

Chapter Two

Two more agentshave arrived at the compound when I return that night. Everyone is in the middle of a huge dinner in the mess hall.

They’re all talking excitedly. They laugh. They catch up on over a century of missed time. They’re all having a great time.

As I stand outside the space, I look in at them.

I feel like an outsider.

The black sheep of the family.

I’m one of them, but they are all disgusted by me. They all think I’m a freak of nature.

The newcomers shouldn’t even know that anything is amiss. But they can’t help but hear the whispers. The others can’t help but share the juicy truth. They can’t stop themselves from telling the story of the night Jaxon and I tumbled down the tunnel, the evidence of what we had been doing all over our lips.

They shouldn’t know anything about me.

But very few can resist the allure of gossip.

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