The Tribuo - 13. part II, chapter 6

KATIE

He glanced at me when I sat next to him, and I was startled to see how cold his eyes were.

“What?” I asked finally.

“What are you doing?” he asked quietly and I blinked.

“Sitting here with you, instead of making sure that Andrew doesn’t kill himself,” I answered carefully.

“It’s not going to happen until the twenty fourth,” he said and shifted his gaze to the pond.

“What’s up, Seth?” I asked a few minutes later, when he didn’t say anything else.

He sighed and looked at me again. I was relieved to see his eyes going back to their normal yellow selves.

“Look,” he said. “When you ran into him, it was an accident… An oversight on my behalf… I didn’t even think that might happen. But now that you are actually looking for him…”

“I am not looking for him,” I answered sharply. “And what do you mean -- an oversight on your behalf?”

“I should’ve considered the possibility,” he answered gloomily. “But it hadn’t even occurred to me. Believe me when I say this, Rayne. It won’t happen again.”

I didn’t say anything to that, I just stared at the frozen pond. Seth sighed and put his arm around my shoulders.

“Look,” he said. “After this is over, I am planning on taking a nice long break, how’s that?”

“A break,” I repeated.

“Uh huh,” he nodded. “ 'Till August… Or maybe September.”

I dropped my head onto his shoulder, and then we just sat there silently for a while.

“Seth,” I said finally.

“Mmm?”

“I don’t want to do anything in this city ever again,” I said firmly. “I don’t care if we have to go all the way to China or Siberia, but I am not going to do anything in this city. I can’t…” My breath got caught in my throat. “I can’t keep on worrying that… That I will run into him again,” I finished finally, and frowned furiously when I felt tears in my eyes.

“I know,” he sighed again. “Look, I promise that I will do everything in my power to make sure that you don’t see him ever again, okay?”

Frowning didn’t help. The damn tears started crawling down my cheeks.

“And you are right,” Seth continued as if not noticing anything. “This city is going to stay behind, after you are done with this assignment. That I can guarantee.”

We sat in complete silence that was only interrupted by my careful sniffles.

“Tell me about the different plane,” I said finally.

He thought for a minute.

“Well… To be honest, I am not sure if I can describe it much,” he admitted. “See, after your fifth successfully completed assignment, you might be offered a choice. To go on further, or to stay longer here. It’s like you would be able to get onto the next step…”

“Might be?”

“Yeah. It might not happen after the fifth one. Might happen later. Depends on different things.”

“Choice… Okay, let’s say I go further on. What happens next?”

“Freedom,” he answered simply, and I could tell that he was smiling wistfully. “Ultimate freedom. Once you get above all this…” he moved his free arm in a circle. “You become truly free.”

“So I forget everything?”

“No,” he answered immediately. “Memories are sacred. It is against… The law, if you wish, to tamper with someone’s memories. But you will be able to think about anything without being held down by emotions. Figuratively speaking, you will get rid of your chains… You will be able to see clearly, to understand the whole concept of justice and divine law without being corrupted by all those human feelings…” he grimaced.

“Higher being,” I snorted.

“Yes,” he answered seriously. “Believe me, I miss that.”

That made me straighten up.

“You’ve been there?” I asked incredulously, and he sighed.

“That’s where I am from, Rayne. Ended up here a long time ago.”

“Why?”

He shrugged.

“I figured that as an Observer, I could learn more about different concepts, and to be honest, I was quite curious to see what humans were like… Well, then I sort of got stuck here for…” he coughed. “...intervening several times. Then I met you, and now I am stuck here again. My own fault though,” he sighed again. “See, that’s the problem with this place. When you spend too much time here, all those emotions start rubbing off on you. I mean, I will never become like one of the humans but…”

“You start feeling something, huh?” I chuckled. “Besides all that justice and indifference?”

“Yes,” he sighed. “I am not saying that I dislike it too much, but it bothers me. I feel trapped.”

I thought about what he said. Ultimate freedom… That sounded frightening and insanely tempting. We sat on that bench for a while and we didn’t speak much after he finished talking. Finally, Seth looked up into the black by then sky.

“A snowstorm is coming,” he said. “Let’s go.”

“Snowstorm?” I frowned.

“Yes. There will be a hell of a lot of snow tomorrow.”

“Great,” I muttered.

We got up and started to walk slowly. Then I stopped.

“Seth…”

“Mmm?”

“How was he able to recognize me?”

“I have no idea,” he sighed deeply. “Not a slightest one. That is another problem with humans… The minute you think you figured them out, they do something that you never saw coming… Unpredictable,” he shrugged. “Let’s go.”

“Let’s…”

***** 

ANDREW

DeeDee stared at me without blinking, Pretty Woman completely forgotten, thank God.

“Katie,” she said finally. “What’s her last name?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “She never told me, and I didn’t ask.”

“So, hold on a minute…” she frowned. “I am confused now. Are you falling for Katie?”

“No,” I answered immediately, and to my own surprise, I realized I wasn’t lying. “I don’t know what it is… She is just really cool, you know?”

“Okay,” DeeDee said slowly. “What about your cock-tease then? I can’t believe you actually told her to get lost tonight…”

“Well, I didn’t tell her to get lost,” I said pointedly. “I just said that I was busy tonight.”

“Tomato, tomahto…” DeeDee waved her hand at me. “So what it is, Andrew? I mean, if you didn’t find a new crush, then how come you…”

“I don’t know,” I said with annoyance. “It’s weird, okay?”

“Ugh, Frey…” she got up and pulled another tortilla out of the pack. She kept munching on those ever since she got here. “What are you doing on Christmas?”

I thought about it.

“No clue,” I said finally. “I was planning on getting plastered, but… Now I am not sure if I will.”

“Wanna come over?” she asked with hope, and I knew why.

Since Christmas was a family holiday, that meant DeeDee would be stuck with Caleb and her Dad pretty much all day. I imagined myself sitting between DeeDee and her brother, while they exchanging mean remarks and maybe throwing mashed potatoes at each other, and shuddered.

“No, that’s okay,” I said quickly, and she sighed with great disappointment. “Hey, who knows, maybe Ellie planned something special for me this Christmas… You never know!” I added when DeeDee rolled her eyes and made a gagging face.

“If I were you,” she said gravely. “I would just invite this Katie girl over… You might actually get more enjoyment out of watching your stupid show with her all day than suffering from your cock-tease…”

She had a point. I did not think of that.

“Hey,” I said thoughtfully. “What do you think of the whole weird park situation?”

“I don’t know,” DeeDee finished her tortilla and reached for another one. At the last moment, she stopped and shook her head. “Those things are evil,” she said with regret and sat down. “But I seriously don’t know… It’s probably nothing. I mean, I can totally see why that guy reacted the way he did. I mean,” she shrugged. “If she looks like someone he used to be in love with… It’s totally understandable, right? And she was probably freaked out because of the way he stared at her. I know I would be…”

“Why was she crying in the bathroom then?” I demanded.

“Do you know for sure that she was crying?” DeeDee squinted her eyes. “I mean, she probably washed her face or something…”

“She spent almost fifteen minutes in there,” I said pointedly, and she rolled her eyes.

“Yeah,” she said sarcastically. “And it’s totally unheard of for a girl to spend a lot of time in the bathroom with mirrors, right?”

“Hmm,” I said doubtfully.

“Andrew,” DeeDee sighed. “You just making things complicated. It’s clear that the guy had no idea who she was. That means she didn’t know him either… Come on, Frey, let’s go watch my movie!”

Ugh, just when I thought that I might be able to avoid Julia Roberts tonight…