STRANGULATE | Markicest

56 | COMMOTION

By midnight, the City thrummed with such commotion that it muffled the blaring music.

    Screeching tires, honking horns, rattling pipes and steaming smoke—it all faded under the flurry of excited chatter and stolen glances.

    Konray walked down the sidewalk with her collar turned up, weaving in and out of the crowd. The City was usually packed, but it was never this busy. Evolveds streamed in and out of buildings, walking with their hands in their pockets or their purses and bags clutched tight. The fast-moving streets were now frozen—a traffic jam. The cars slowly inched forward, and a few Evolveds exited their taxies in the middle of the street to walk instead.

    Something was definitely off.

            Even when there was a festival, or a special visit from a High Evolved, it never backed up like this.

    Konray carefully examined her surroundings. There was an excitement in the air—a stronger life that she'd never felt in the City before. It was electric... magnetic.

    She eyed a group of girls walking by, huddled in whispers and dazzling glances. Konray caught a glow of blue from one of the purses.

    Her eyes narrowed. She continued to weave through the crowd, people brushing against her. Now that she focused, she saw that same glow in nearly everyone's pockets, or purses—or even in their mouths.

    Konray pulled out her phone and glanced down at Sojour's message, then nodded. She slipped into an alleyway, down a flight of dark, damp stairs, and into a dingy hallway. There was a single, blue light beside a slimy metal door. It flickered like a strobe light.

    Konray sidled up to the door, then knocked three times. Loud.

    There were a series of clicks, a rattle of a chain, and then the metal creaked open. A woman in scuffed overalls appeared; her face was grimy and spattered with oil, and it lit up at the sight of Konray.

    "Konnie," greeted Sojour, smiling.

    Konray smiled, blushing, and pulled Sojour into a hug.

    "I've missed you, dork," said Konray. Sojour tightened her arms around Konray before pulling away.

    "I've missed you too," she said. Konray slipped inside, and she looked around the room with a smile. Everything was still the way Sojour left it—rickety shelves of junk and tools, and that rusty car near the garage. Sojour never did get the thing to work again.

"I've got some curry on the stove if you want some," said Sojour. Past the line of shelves, a pot bubbled in the small kitchen.

"No thanks," said Konray. "As much as I want to stay, I can't be here long."

"Right," said Sojour. "Important things with the big man." She snickered, punching Konray on the shoulder. "Hey, I'm proud of you, though. Someone with your potential shouldn't be in the slums forever."

Konray blushed, and she chuckled, rubbing her arm. "Well?" she muttered. "You 'got the stuff?'"

The two of them giggled.

"You betcha," said Sojour. "Just a sec."

Her body fizzed out of sight—like she was a projection—and then she appeared on the other side of the room behind a line of shelves.. She slid a duffle bag from one of them and teleported in front of Konray. The outline of her body fizzed back into a solid.

"Here," said Sojour. When she unzipped the bag, color bled from it in a stunning glow.

Sojour pulled out three pills. They were individually packaged in a tinted wrapper, but it did nothing to hide the glow of the drug. Konray's brows rose.