My Pharaoh

Chapter 16

Paloma

I'm on my way to a killing, the sun is setting, the air is warm, and the people are busy. But I walk slow, and smoke a substance I'm beginning to rely on more these days to keep me going, as reality starts to feel less and less real.

And every now and then I smile, when I remember he's not dead.

I reach an alleyway and wrap my face and hide a bag full of alternate clothes and my belongings behind some bricks.

I climb up onto the roof, and walk slowly, almost leisurely. It's hard to take anything seriously anymore, especially when I'm high. Life is a joke.

I sit for a moment and finish my joint, staring at the pink sky. Pink was my favourite colour as a girl, and in certain shades it still is, even though I only get to wear cream and black.

I continue walking and jumping across the roofs, with my dagger in hand. And then I see him, standing there looking at me, and I smile, and I assume he does too under his face covering. 

He hugs me and I hug back. And I bet to a person looking up from the street, or from a window, our black faceless figures against the intensely pink sky, might look romantic. I hope it does.

"I'll do your kill." He mutters to me, and it's exactly what I wanted to hear.

"No it's fine..." I say, trying to be sort of polite.

He shakes his head. "I don't want you doing this anymore."

I smile softly.

He pulls down my mask to see my face and then he sighs. I can see the pink sky in his eyes as he examines my features.

"You know," he whispers "I didn't know that you'd be here again, doing this. Otherwise I would've done thing differently..."

He waits until it's a bit darker and then he goes to kill the man, even though he has the power to execute anyone publicly.

I sit here and wait, and I think. Marrying him would mean I'd have to be queen...and I suppose he thought that would be dangerous for me. Dangerous and exhausting. He knows royal life best, he knows how hard it is.

I hear someone behind me and look, and he sits down next to me. He hands me a capsule of blood, and I smile.

"You remembered."

He takes off his mask and looks around to check that we're out of sight and then he smiles back at me breathlessly. Why is it a relief every time I see his face.

"Do you still pray?" He asks, pulling out a joint and matches.

I shake my head sadly and he watches me as he blows smoke out into the starry sky.

"Well, I did again for the first time in a long time..." I say "and I got exactly what I wanted."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"What's that?"

"You came back from the dead."