Gifted | Sleepy Bois Inc

Chapter Six

Dead.

Gone, passed on from this world, kicked the bucket.

Lapis is dead.

I stared at Wilbur with a mixture of shock and cold acceptance. With Storm, I didn't know her well enough to feel all that bad about her death. But with Lapis, I respected the dude. I didn't hate him. He didn't make me want to strangle someone.

My mind flashed back to my last conversation with him, held only one night ago. He had been alive, standing right there in front of me. And now? He was gone.

I reached out and grabbed my coffee cup, opening the lid and staring down at the last remaining speckles of the mixture hanging out at the bottom of the cup. Just moments ago, the mood had been perfectly fine.

Funny how things can change in a heartbeat. Three words that had completely flipped the atmosphere.

The thing was, I knew that I should've felt sadder. Lapis wasn't as well-known as Storm, so the general population wouldn't all be mourning him, but at least I should've been. I had known him, even if I hadn't known him well.

But I wasn't as sad as I could've been. It was more of a... resigned acceptance, in a way. He was dead. There wasn't much I could do about that. Death was natural, and it took lives however it wanted to. Such was the price of being a bounty hunter.

A price that, one day, I would find myself paying too.

"I've heard Philza talk about him a couple times before," Wilbur said, studying me carefully. "He was a good hunter, wasn't he?"

I nodded. "Never stuck his nose in other people's business, mostly kept to himself. He had a rare power, too."

"He was a Gifted?" Niki asked, the bridge of her nose crinkling slightly.

"Telekinesis," I sighed. "Wilbur, did they find a body?"

My brother shook his head. "Phil didn't say anything about a body, but then again, isn't Tryxel really uptight with this sort of information? You'd need to go directly to the source and spy to get the knowledge you want."

I smirked. "Way ahead of you."

"Uh... I'll pretend I didn't hear that. At any rate, that's the second death this week. Do you guys usually die this fast?"

"Usually?" I mused. "Usually, we end up in sticky situations, lose a limb or two, accidentally kill a bystander, get murderous inclinations, feel the need to find the nearest bathroom and are prepared to stab anyone in our way, but no, we don't usually die this fast."

Niki tapped my knee, getting my attention. She looked sad. "First Storm, and now Lapis. These two are at least slightly well-known. How many other lesser bounty hunters die daily?"

She had a point, but it was one that I didn't like thinking about. There were many bounty hunters in the world, because the job promised rewards to those who could catch them. You did whatever you wanted without an angry boss breathing down your neck all the time. You were technically allowed to kill without major consequences. But if you couldn't handle it, it was also very easy to die.

All those beginner bounty hunters... how many died chasing their first bounty?

"Let's go," Wilbur said, standing up. "We've been here for too long. We're going to be late for the photoshoot."

Niki got to her feet as well, a blush blossoming on her face. "Ah... I nearly forgot about that. Will Techno be accompanying us?"

Wilbur threw me a sidelong look. "To the photoshoot? Yes. In the shoot? Hopefully, not. He'd bring down our reputations."