5. Stolen Goods14 December, 2035She regained her consciousness with every long stride, arriving at the boarded-up pub gasping for air. She’d been convinced a Flesh was chasing her for part of the run, but didn’t have the strength to turn around and check. The thought of her saviour still lingered in her brain - expecting the creature to jump out at any moment, revealing it all to be part of a sick masochistic game. Even for a Flesh, it would’ve been extreme - but the idea that this was legitimate, that her cryptic message meant something, seemed even less probable.

  The run had taken her north of Parsgate, not venturing as far as the slums that tumoured from the very top of Albank. The Terrier was not open for business - ying dormant for fifteen years. At some point in time, it had been ransacked for anything useful, and then likely ransacked again for anything that might’ve been missed the first time. Unlike many buildings, however, it still had four walls, a ceiling, and a door with a sturdy look - which, combined with its location, made it one of the many haunts for Brandon’s crew.

  Lucy gave one st look at the desote street behind her, seeing no movement except for some distant lights from Albank Castle to the south. The rge radio tower atop glowing in yellow. Brooke would no doubt be heading there with news about what had happened.

  As she knocked on the door of the pub, she shivered at the cold. She still couldn’t believe that all of this involved Brooke: the girl that she’d headbutted in the corridor to protect her friend, the girl that she’d abandoned, the girl that she’d kissed. Lucy wondered how much of her story Brooke actually believed - and how much of it she had resigned herself to believing to stop her meathead pet from hurting anybody.

  The door shot open and Lucy flinched as a small silver pistol was directed towards her skull. It was lowered within a second, as relief spread across Brandon’s face - before he tried to mask it with sternness.

  "Are you nuts?"

  She invited herself in, ducking past him and into the dingy room. It was lit only by a few candles at the bar. Most of the furniture, with the exception of some stools, had been pushed aside to make space. Sitting at the bar - before spotting Lucy and rising to their feet instantly - were the two other members of the crew: Dyn Green and Olivia Hirst.

  Dyn was a few years older than Lucy, but was significantly taller. He had dark hair that was cut short, but still managed to look scruffy, along with a pointy chin and dazzling blue eyes. When they had first met, Lucy had passed him off as a cut-and-paste bro, but had been surprised to see how warmly he smiled.

  Olivia was a bit older - in her te twenties - and stood at an average height, with pale blonde hair that she had once kept in a pixie cut, until seemingly forgetting to cut it. She was wearing a tight-fitting leather jacket, slightly too big for her, that - along with a bck eyepatch covering one eye - had become something of a signature look.

  Dyn immediately swallowed Lucy into a hug, which was joined by Olivia, who patted the small woman on the shoulders. "I’m so gd you’re here."

  "You guys aren’t going to believe the night I’ve had," Lucy said, pulling away from the hug and smirking deviantly - already repcing the traumatic events of the night with a humorous account of misfortune.

  "Same here," Olivia said, matching her energy.

  "So you’ve opened the crate, then?"

  It was obvious to Lucy that the crate did not contain alcohol, and the look of surprise on her friends’ faces confirmed this. A hint of smugness swept across her face, as she stole their dramatic reveal from under them.

  Dyn took a step towards the bar and picked up a metal object that had been resting there. It was a rge golden disc, with a hollow centre - like a ring - which was too big for a finger, about six inches in diameter. He held it up in the air, making sure that Lucy could get a good look at it.

  "That was in the crate?" she said.

  "Yep. Just this. Nothing else."

  "Why do we still have it?" Lucy said, remembering that she had rushed back here expecting to find her friends in grave danger - having had the rug pulled by the illegitimate client.

  Olivia pced her hands on her hips. "The client no-showed. We waited, and got suspicious - so opened the crate. Saw that thing, freaked out, and left."

  Lucy scratched her scalp. "That’s weird."

  "Why would she hire us to steal this, then not come and collect it?" Dyn said, voicing the obvious question that everyone was already thinking.

  "Clearly," Brandon said, stepping back into the conversation after taking a pensive few moments to listen, "she got held up somewhere. Ran into some Flesh and was attacked."

  "Or, she’s fucking with us," Olivia said. "It’s probably worthless."

  Lucy shook her head and took a step closer to the ring, her eyes unable to move from it - as if it were pulling her forwards with a magnetic force. It seemed to be made of pure gold, and was so shiny that she could see her reflection within it. With the exception of a small hole, it was completely smooth - no markings.

  "Whatever it is," she said, picking it up and being shocked at how light it was to hold, "it’s definitely valuable. Alice Creed wants it."

  That stunned the room into silence, as everybody exchanged a gnce to confirm that they had heard that correctly. There were two questions on their minds: why would Alice Creed want this thing, and -

  "How do you know that, exactly?" Brandon said, sitting down but not turning away from Lucy, as he folded his arms.

  Lucy gave a weak smile, understanding his scepticism. She expined everything that had happened - about her encounter with Brooke, the showdown in Room Six, and finally, the two Flesh beyond Parsgate’s walls. All three of them listened intently, without interruption, Dyn and Olivia letting their jaws plummet further to the ground with every twist in the narrative.

  "We need to get rid of this thing," Brandon said, once she was finished. "We cannot have Creed coming after us."

  Olivia stepped forward quickly, snatching the ring out of Lucy’s hands. "Hold on a second, pal. We don’t even know what this thing does yet."

  "Exactly!" he said, frowning. "It could be dangerous, Liv."

  He made a grab for it, but Olivia dodged out of the way, making a graceful right-angled turn. A childish game of keep-away erupted between the two, as Dyn took a seat next to Lucy at the bar - the two of them turning their attention away from the theatrics of the two eldest in the room.

  "I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned Brooke," Dyn said, speaking louder than usual so that he could be heard over Olivia’s taunting. "That must’ve been weird."

  "Yeah, it was," Lucy said, pausing as Brandon crashed into a pile of chairs - an act that was met with roaring hysterics from Olivia. "I don’t know. We were never that close. I just didn’t think I’d ever see her again."

  "And now she’s working for Alice Creed."

  Lucy nodded her head solemnly. "I have no idea how that happened."

  The bullfight in the room had turned into a bickering match, and it was growing too loud for the sidebar conversation to continue. Lucy looked up just in time to see Olivia brush next to her, holding her hands up in feigned resignation.

  "Okay! Okay!" Olivia said. "But before we make any decisions - did anybody know that it did this?"

  She grabbed either end of the ring and pulled, and to everybody’s surprise - it snapped open, the two halves separating via a bronze hinge.

  "I want to suggest a theory based on Lucy’s Flesh friend," she continued, resting a hand on Lucy’s shoulder.

  "When you wear it, they can’t harm you," Lucy repeated.

  "Right," Olivia said, nodding along. "What if this is it?"

  She reached forward, and Lucy felt the coldness of metal against her neck - though resisted a flinch - as the ring snapped shut, forming a golden colr around her scruff. She jumped to her feet, but there was no pain - other than the throbbing of Olivia’s words in her brain.

  "It’s not budging at all!" Olivia yelled out - the panic in her voice growing every time she repeated it. This was the fourth time she’d said it.

  She was desperately tugging at the colr, trying to re-open its hinges and remove it from Lucy’s neck. To that point, there had been no success. With each pull, Lucy grunted with pain, her neck flung around with increasing levels of desperation. Dyn watched on with panicked eyes, while Brandon looked away - his fists clenched and shoulders raised.

  "How could you be so reckless?" he said, watching a spider scuttle along the floor.

  "I’m trying to fix it," Olivia growled back, not stopping her yanking. "You’re not helping."

  Brandon appeared at Lucy’s side and gave it his own effort. There was no change - it was still stuck to her neck.

  She was controlling her breathing, not sure what to make of the situation. She wanted to be furious at Olivia - for getting her stuck in something they didn’t understand, that was sought after by some of the most powerful people in the city. Yet, she could see a shorter fuse on the anger bubbling within Brandon, and knew that any outburst from her would be a catastrophic spark. A rift in the group wouldn’t fix anything.

  "We’ll figure it out," she said, clutching Olivia’s hand, trying to calm both of them down. "If we can figure out what this thing does - then we can work backwards from there."

  It was as if she were invisible. Neither of them reacted to her words - Olivia didn’t even look down at her grasped hand.

  Dyn piped up, trying to build from Lucy’s speech as the two seethed. "What if it’s not meant to come off?" He paused, re-evaluating his statement. "I realise that’s not helpful, but maybe it will be useful in understanding-"

  "Thanks, Dyn," Lucy said, shooting him a disapproving look.

  Something broke inside Brandon and he smmed his fist against the bar, his voice echoing through the empty pub. "Great. Just great! I hope you’ve got a fucking pn then, Liv, because this is all your fault."

  Olivia stepped forward - the two of them now staring each other down. He was taller, but she didn’t seem intimidated one bit. They had danced before.

  "How was I supposed to know this would happen?" she shouted back, shaking with distress. "I fucked up, but get off my back, Brandon. We’ll figure it out."

  "How?" he shouted back, right into her face. "You don’t have a pn, Liv. You never have a pn. It’s always on us to fix your mess. You’re so irresponsible-"

  "Brandon-" Dyn said, trying to cut in, but getting waved off immediately.

  "I thought you’d learned after what happened to Rose," he said, his mouth turning into a vicious snarl.

  The final word seemed to trigger something within Olivia, and before Lucy could react - the woman had raised her fist and walloped him in the jaw. He staggered backwards, grasping where she’d hit and wincing in pain, as Olivia stood breathing heavily, looking at him with fming eyes.

  "You want a go, Liv?" Brandon said, wiping his lip with his wrist and cracking his knuckle.

  Lucy watched on with desperation, unsure how to feel, let alone what to do. She shared Brandon’s frustration, but knew Olivia would never intentionally hurt her. Nobody could’ve known the colr wouldn’t open again.

  Up on his feet, Dyn positioned himself between the two before they could charge at each other - holding out his hands, trying to py the diplomat. "Guys! Break it up! This isn’t right."

  There seemed to be a second of hesitation from Brandon, but Olivia pushed past Dyn and smmed into Brandon’s chest, trying to tackle him to the ground - and having little success - as she rallied her fists against his chest. He shoved her off of him, knocking her to the ground with a sm.

  "For fuck’s sake, stop it!" Lucy yelled out, getting to her feet and groaning to herself about how she was now having to py mediator. Group politics were never her strong suit.

  As she raised her voice, she felt her vocal cords vibrate against the tightness of the colr. They seemed to stop at Lucy’s voice, respecting her intervention more than Dyn’s - for reasons she wasn’t quite sure of.

  "You’re both embarrassing yourselves! Olivia - I forgive you. Brandon - stop the white knight act."

  "This isn’t about you," Brandon said, spitting on the ground.

  "Isn’t it?" Olivia shot back, getting to her feet with a dirty look on her face.

  "No," he shook his head with vexation. "It’s about how I’m sick of you killing our friends with your recklessness."

  Olivia had started to barrel forward again, but before she could reach the taller man, Lucy was in her path - already squaring up to Brandon’s face. "Listen here, motherfucker," Lucy said, a poisonous gre in her eyes. "I’m not dead. But if you idiots keep fighting, rather than helping to figure this out, I will be. So, both of you - sit down and help, yeah?"

  The two combatants exchanged a look, snarling at each other like dogs that had been forcibly separated from a fight. As far as they were concerned, their issues weren’t going to be solved without violence - but it was hard to counter what Lucy was saying. Their fight would be at her expense.

  "I wonder if that hole connects to a computer," Dyn said, already moving on from the fight and trying to help solve it. "It looks almost like a headphone port."

  Lucy had no idea what that was, but nodded anyway - gd that somebody was contributing something useful.

  "I’m thinking back to old tech, and I don’t remember anything like this," Olivia said, through weak breath. "It seems new."

  She had calmed down faster than Brandon had, who was still standing still - red in the face.

  "How are we going to figure out what it does?" Dyn said, leaning back on the bar stool he had re-perched himself on.

  A thought crossed Lucy’s mind, and though she tried to dismiss it immediately - it tched onto her as tightly as the colr had. They needed help. There was only one person in the world that Lucy thought would be able to offer them that kind of help.

  "Penny," she said, causing heads to turn. "At the Manor. It’s the other side of town - but if anybody can figure it out, it’s her."

  Olivia and Dyn exchanged a look. Nobody else had ever been to the Manor - it was not considered a safe pce for outsiders to venture, due to the heavy guard presence. Manor kids had a reputation for being dysfunctional and uptight. They were surprised when they learned that Lucy had come from there.

  "Do you trust her?" Brandon said, finally re-entering the conversation, though still through gritted teeth.

  "More than anyone," Lucy said.

  "Then that’s the pn," Brandon said, as Olivia stifled a ugh. "We’ll head there in the morning and get this figured out."

  After some brief further chatter, the group dispersed - grabbing sheets and starting to settle in for the night. It was cold, but for December, it could’ve been a lot worse.

  Lucy waited at the bar, watching Olivia and Brandon talk in the distance - unsure if they were attempting amends, continuing their argument, or pretending it had never happened. Dyn pulled up next to her, a sleeping bag in his hands.

  "Hey," he said.

  "Hey."

  It was clear from his squirming stance that he wanted to say something, but wasn’t fully confident that he should. He chose to voice it. "Are you sure you’re okay with this?" he said. "Going back to the Manor, I mean."

  She wasn’t. Going back to the Manor meant going back to all the memories there, and all of the ghosts that lurked with them. Up until Dyn had said anything, she’d been performing mental trickery on herself - focusing entirely on Penny and the happy memories there. Her back held against the door of her brain, as the bad ones attempted to burst through from the other side.

  "Why wouldn’t I be?" she said, cursing as her voice cracked at the end.

  He gave a weak smile, unsure whether to push back on that.

  "It just... it might be a lot. If you need to talk, I’m here."

  "Good night, Dyn."

  Lucy couldn’t sleep. After a long night of facing her past, she was now faced with a day that would be even worse. To the Manor that dripped with bck tar - every memory poisoned with thoughts of what if.

  She’d found a way up to the roof of the pub and sat staring at the street below. It was cold, and she knew it was selfish of her to be up there - if a Flesh spotted her, they would all be in danger. But she couldn’t stay down there. She needed air.

  Out of nowhere, a voice spoke next to her - a woman’s voice that was carved into the crevices of her brain. With a sharp breath, Lucy whipped her knife out of her pocket and held it to the throat of the small, brown-skinned girl who sat beside her.

  "Miss me?" the girl whispered, twirling her long bck hair with her fingers, performing a cheesy grin.

  "Every day," Lucy growled, holding the knife tighter. "Why are you back?"

  The girl leaned forward, letting the knife puncture through her colrbone muscle, not letting it interrupt her speech, as sickly red blood oozed from the gaping wound created by Lucy’s steady stance.

  "I never left," the girl said, followed by a giggle. "I’ll never leave, Lucy."

  "Please... Leave me alone."

  Lucy wasn’t crying, but her face was frozen and stiff from the night - her fingers rock solid as they held the knife, plunging deeper and deeper through the girl’s weak flesh, shredding her vocal cords.

  The girl grinned again, blood dripping down her mouth.

  "You shouldn’t have killed me then, silly."

  She leaned to the side and Lucy gasped, reaching out desperately, as the girl plummeted to the ground - disappearing into nothingness on impact. Lucy turned away, covering her mouth and trying to hold in the tears.

  It had been so long since st time. She was getting better. She was moving on. Now, because of everything - she was repsing. Her lungs panicked, increasing breathing frequency to new extremes, before a new voice cut off her panic attack before it could properly begin.

  "Lucy?"

  Olivia popped out of the hatch Lucy had climbed up from, a nervous smile on her face as she saw the crumpled girl.

  "You, um, can’t sleep either?"

  Lucy nodded, gd the darkness granted her some shield from the intensity of her newfound insanity.

  "It’s been a tough night."

  "And a tough day tomorrow?"

  Lucy shrugged her shoulders. She hadn’t told them half of what had happened at the Manor, but they weren’t stupid - no matter how sacred the story was to her, they had figured out that Lucy had lost somebody. It was simir to Lucy’s retionship to the "Rose" Brandon had brought up. She didn’t know Rose’s story, but had enough context clues to know that she wouldn’t be able to cope if she did.

  "There are so many memories there," Lucy said, her voice barely a whisper, as she focused on the streetlights below, tensing her eyes to force the light into making funny shapes.

  Olivia appeared beside her, grabbing her hand, joining her in looking out on the world. "But Penny, right? You’re looking forward to seeing her again?"

  It took a lot to force a smile, even though she felt genuine happiness at the thought. The sadness was all-consuming.

  "Yeah. She was... Fuck. I don’t know, Olivia. What if she’s stopped caring about me? It’s been years."

  "Do you think she would stop caring about you?"

  Lucy looked down at the pavement below, letting out an exasperated breath.

  "No."

  Olivia pulled her in closer, resting Lucy’s head against her shoulder. "Then it’ll be fine, won’t it?"

  It wasn’t fine, and Lucy started to cry - tears streaming down her face and onto Olivia’s jacket as the older woman held her.

  "It’s not fine, Olivia. I killed my friend there. I don't know how I can go back. I killed my best friend."

  The hug tightened, as Olivia hushed her gently, letting her cry and let it out. Lucy wished it felt cathartic to say. It was the first time she’d said it to somebody in her crew - it should’ve been a weight off her chest, but she felt more crushed than ever.

  "What was her name?" Olivia whispered.

  Lucy sniffled, using her free hand to wipe mucus from her philtrum. The girl was back on the ground, waving coyly up at her, as Lucy tried her best to pretend she wasn’t paying attention.

  "Rachel."

  LilAgarwal