"Yes. Precisely. You die, that's what there is to be scared of. I was raised to think that there's something the comes next, but from what I've seen of
this world, I don't think there's anything else to be had. Death is... I mean..." Ana's face twisted as she lost track of the words she needed.
"Scary. It's scary. French isn't my first language, I'm sorry. I can't imagine having a headache for five years though." She shuddered - or perhaps shivered - against the thought.
"That would be horrible." Ana said, shaking her head as she pulled her own cigarette to her lips and gave it a final drag of her own, before flinging it out the window herself.
"As for a plan? We're leaving the city, and going to an abandoned chalet not too far into the countryside. The place has been rotting for years now, covered in spiders and webs, soaked and freezing - nobody will think to see us there. We will meet an accomplice, who will..." Ana stopped talking. Then, she opened her mouth again.
And shut it.
Her face contorted with the tremendous effort of someone trying to remember something they should really have known and not forgotten, but who could not for their life remember it.
"I don't have the word. He will take us somewhere else."
The car sped along, the city gradually growing smaller and quieter around them as they began to hit the outskirts. As the thrum and hum and slum of urban life died away, the green sprawl of the countryside grew to replace it, striking and tangled. It would not be long before they were at the exit.
“The Underground has means of detecting the people who are going to turn, before they turn. You seem like a pretty open minded guy, but lots of people ain’t, so we like to wait until they’ve got proof before we make contact so that they don’t just rat on us to the feds.” Mira said, pulling a smartphone out of the pocket of her trousers and tapping a phone number into it.
“Don’t worry. This is a burner.” She added as her thumb tapped the call button and turned on speaker mode. “And yeah, I wasn’t the only one operating in the city tonight. This was meant to be a convoy of three cars in total, one of them meeting us at the turning about five minutes ago, the next one… well, soon.”
The call connected.
“Hey, asshole. You’re late.”
Silence from the other end - except maybe, uncertainly, potentially, for the sound of ragged breathing.
“Sax?” Mira raised her eyebrow.
“Hey, uh, yeah. Hi María. How you doing? I’m running a little late as it is.” The voice on the other end, husky and rough but identifiably nervous, replied. The moment he said her name, Mira’s expression coldened, and she looked at Matthew with a finger pressed to her lips.
“That’s a real shame, man.” Mira swallowed. “Did you manage to pick up our friend?”
More silence. More breathing. In the background, a faint ‘click’.
“No. No I haven’t yet. I’ll have to see you there, María. Sorry but I think I’ll probably be a good couple of hours delayed.” The man on the other end’s voice broke near the end of the sentence. In the background another click, harsher and louder, metallic and grim.
A murmur of background speech.
“Sax?” Mira raised her voice uncertainly.
“Uh, yeah?”
“It’ll be alright.”
There came a long pause, and then a sigh.
“I hope so.”
The line went dead.
“Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck! Fucking stupid man! He’s been caught!” Mira screamed, rolling the window down and hurling the phone out of the car. “Kid, Matthew, you feel like being a hero? There’s another mage out there who probably doesn’t have long before they’re caught, assuming they haven’t already been taken by the FOE, and we’re the closest folks left. You can drive crazy right?”
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