The Horizons Series - Prologue

Faultline

August 28, 2019 - 10:00 PM
[ASHUR VALENTINE]

It wasn't my fault.

Though their gazes hadn't focused on me yet, it was only a matter of time before their judgment showed.

Mercedes... she promised.

That night, when we were texting about Lith, she asked me for the most embarrassing thing I had about him. It was her job to keep this recording a secret, not mine.

I can't control what she does and... and if you think about it, David should have known that! Why did he let her stay through the entire meeting?

The blame was his this time, not mine. But eight pairs of eyes tried to pin it on me.

"Don't look at me. She played the recording."

I already took the blame once and I wasn't about to do it again.

For my sacrifice, I deserved to be blameless...at least in their eyes.

Lith was a different story; In his mind, he was the judge, jury, and executioner.

In the past two years, how many times had I been executed? At least once each time we made eye contact.

When someone is about to fight, they show it.

The entire rhythm of your body changes in response to the fear, or anger, that you feel looking at the other person. It's a silent acknowledgement that one of you is going to regret this.

Lith hated me ever since we were kids; I didn't have a problem with the guy, but he loved making my life miserable.

After every fight, he'd cry. If he won or lost, there were tears. But he always came back for more, voice cracking, hands shaking, knees wobbling, ready for battle.

Tonight, it was the opposite.

Not noticing my own apprehension, I thought, 'Am I the only one expecting a fight? If he's angry, he should be running at me, at least.'

It was like a nightly stroll- a literal walk in the park.

The voice of a fourteen-year-old Calvin came to mind. He was telling us about his neighbourhood, and said this:

"Where I come from, if two guys are in a screaming match, tryna look big and shit, we don't gotta worry 'bout it. You'll see them on the street corner the next day, passing the blunt like usual."

"If it's a real fight, you don't hear anything until it's over. The dangerous ones don't say anything because they've got nothing to prove. So if we see a guy looking like he's on a mission, our mission is to reach home before the gunshots go off."

"Don't fuck with people who aren't trying to scare you off. You have more to lose than they do."

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting Lith to shank me like the damn supervillains from Calvin's hood, a.k.a the real-life Gotham, but his slow pace made me take a step back.

I caught myself and laughed internally. 'What the hell am I doing? I'm not scared of Lith. Whether he's calm or enraged, it's gonna be the same result.'

Finally, he arrived at the table.

Standing under one of the lamps, the white light illuminated his brown eyes, and the night air grew colder.

I could see the gears turning in his mind, his genius brain thinking, "How can I blame Ashur for this?", Trying to form a connection between me and the recording so he could remind me of my one mistake.