Sweet Felony

The Feeling's Mutual

Aru wasn't sure if she regretted revealing her name to the Alus or not.

She was leaning towards not.

It wasn't like the whole secrecy thing mattered anymore, anyway. The mask? Gone. Her father? Gone, as far as she could tell. Now, her name? Also gone.

The interrogation had been short, mostly about her upbringing in the Ghataka clan, which the woman beside Subala seemed especially interested in. Each question was met with a bland answer, never thoroughly detailed. Aru had more important things to think about. She was here to gather information in an attempt to persuade her father not to kill her, which, the more she thought about it, was dumb as hell. It was one mistake, weeks ago, and now her neck was on her own father's chopping block because of it?

But then again, Suyodhana had raised her, provided for her, taught her everything she knew.

Idly, Aru wondered if her life would be any different if her mother was still alive. She remembered close to nothing about what she was like. Was her mother like her father? Was she a fighter? She was beautiful, Aru knew from the picture, but looks could be deceiving.

And even more curious, how had she died? Her father never told her, and she assumed he hadn't told Kara, either. Or had she not died at all and had just left the family?

But that didn't make sense... did it? Would her mother do something like that? Aru remembered her, barely, but being loving and prone to laughter, quite unlike her serious father. When was the last time she'd seen Suyodhana laugh?

When... what if... how... would...

The question words swirled around Aru's already-messed brain, threatening to drive her insane as she sat on the floor of her cell. She was not given the luxury of a bedroom this time, which she understood. After all, she had run away only days earlier.

But this new room wasn't a traditional prison cell either. It had no bars, just solid concrete walls with no windows. A few sheets, a thin blanket, and a lumpy pillow on the ground served as the bed. The only other furniture was the wooden chair she had been tied to. She'd thumped her fist on each of the walls, trying to gauge the thickness, and the heaviness of the responding sound told her she would not be able to dig her way out of this one. She might be underground even, for all she knew.

The locked door opener, and a familiar short figure stood there. Aru couldn't see anything useful out the door, just the bland wall of white concrete in the hallway.

"The Wolf makes her return," Mini said, dryly but humorously.

Aru rolled her shoulders in a shrug. "When faced with either being dead or being here, I'll pick the not-dead option."

Mini flipped the light switch, which was right outside the door so Aru couldn't even reach it, and closed the door, placing the tray of food and water on the chair. "Did you make it back?"

Part of Aru wanted to ask what it was to her, but instead she said, "Not really. I had to hide."

"From who? We weren't looking for you."

"No one was looking for me," Aru said. "The Ghatakas are a very strict gang. If you get de-masked and captured, they don't come for you. And you can't go back, either. If you do, the Sleeper puts a bullet right through your head."

Mini's face paled. "But... that's gotta be just an empty penalty, right? No one would actually carry out that threat..."

"I've seen it," Aru said grimly. "A man, a year ago, who got de-masked for two seconds in a fight, once the Ghatakas had won, the Sleeper stood him next to the bodies of the dead and shot him right then and there. In front of everyone else. As a warning."

"Oh, gods," Mini murmured. "That's terrible."

Aru had no response aside from another shrug.

"So..." Mini continued. "You haven't seen any Ghatakas since?"

"No," Aru knew it was a lie, but she couldn't reveal the truth. She had no idea how the Alus dealt with spies, and she had no interest in finding out.

"I was impressed, Wolf-"

"Aru," Aru cut Mini off.

Mini blinked behind her glasses. "What?"

"My name is Aru."

"Oh... okay. I can call you that?"

"I told Subala, Aiden, and that other lady," Aru said. "So, yeah, I guess."

"Right, so Aru," Mini tested the name out. She had to admit, she liked it better than Wolf. "When you escaped, I was impressed. I didn't think you'd figure out how-"

"Wow, thanks a lot."

"It wasn't an insult," Mini flushed, but continued. "But anyway, why did you come back?"

It was the same question Aiden had asked, so Aru answered with the same lie. "Safety. There was nowhere else I could go, not after I was- I mean, after I remembered I couldn't go back to the Ghatakas."

"You don't have any other family?"

"Not that I know of."

"No friends?"

"None."

"That's sad," Mini noted, and it was just that. A note. Not condescending, not teasing, not even pitiful. Just a comment, but it hit Aru all the same.

She didn't have any other friends, besides Kara. Friends were close to the last thing on her mind as a gangster. Friends were weak spots, her father said. Weak spots can be exploited. You must eliminate all weaknesses, or...

There hadn't been an or. The sound of a gun going off was one Aru had grown up with. It was no less ordinary than the sound of the radio in the mornings and evenings.

"Yeah, I guess it is," Aru agreed halfheartedly.

"Before you left, I thought we were sort-of friends," Mini admitted. "You treated my book well, and I judge people on how they treat books. At least, until I met Brynne. If she could, she would toss all of them in a fire, but she's lovable in her own smashy-ripping-everything-apart way."

Aru snorted.

Mini made her way back to the door. "Maybe, if you don't do anything stupid again, we could try being friends again? You seem nice enough, Aru, when you're not knocking out and kidnapping my friends. And it can get kinda lonely around here."

Aru laughed. "The feeling's mutual."