The Wonders of Hopes and Dreams By: Solinel FeatherHeart

005

The rest of the day feels like a blur, because the next thing he knows is the moon is peaking over the clouds, taunting him. Reminding him of his soon to be fate.

His feet feel as heavy as stone as he walks to the place he meets his Boss. As if someone tied the weight of boulders to his ankles and forced him to walk for days on end. When he sees the vacant building come into his view, he feels the tornado of emotions he absolutely hates feeling. He forces himself to swiftly climb onto the rooftop with ease.

To his luck, he doesn't see any signs that his Boss has been waiting for him. He seats himself by the ledge, his legs crossed over one another, his hands neatly folded in his lap. Lykas closes his eyes and practices his breathing. This is to save them. He reminds himself, his mind already feels as if it is calming.

Soon he senses people are around him. Following that feeling is the sound of his Bosses set of movements climbing onto the roof. Lykas rises to his feet and turns to face the man. He forces his body to stop trembling, he cannot show any signs of nervousness.

The man stops once he's where he usually stands. "Early as always, this is one of the reasons why I allowed The Viper to choose you. You are always so obedient, and you also make a good impression." The mans words causes his heart to skip a few beats. "Now, shall we begin our discussion?"

Lykas doesn't respond, he knows a response isn't worth it. The man will continue regardless. Plus, the response he wants to give him is something the man definitely doesn't want to hear. "Very well." The man opens up a file before allowing his Sight Chip to be pair to Lykas's so he can look over it as well. "The Viper has wished for me to tell you that her expectations for your mission are simple. You are to go undercover as a spy for an organization she has been tied to before."

"She wanted you to do this by morphing into an identity that isn't related to yours at all. Then, you shall work hard to join them. You are to become one of them. The Viper will give you a modification you can install into your System that will allow you to change appearances. She will also give you a name for this identity since it is falsely registered into the Criminal Files."

Lykas can feel his body getting more and more numb as the conversation drags on. Everyone in the City knows that type of modification has the potential to kill you when installed. And he knows that it had a duration period. He secretly calms his nerves and continues to listen to the mans instructions. "You are to get close to the man that is below the Leader of the organization. This mission may involve having to do things you don't want to do, like sex."

Lykas's eyes meets with the mans for a brief moment. He can feel the tension in the air now, all of it is directed to him. He sees the mans lips curl into an amused smirk before he continues. "Now, if you fail this mission. Well, she'll kill you. Then she'll kill your older brother, then lastly your little sister."

Lykas's blood runs cold. "What?" He can't help but break the bond of silence he has to stay under when the man is speaking. He expects what happens next. The man fiercely strikes Lykas across the mouth with the knuckles of his hand. Lykas's whole body turns from the impact, he tries to keep his balance but he ends up falling onto the concrete of the rooftop.

"You are to NOT speak while I am speaking to you. You KNOW this, Lykas. I don't want to have to punish my best worker." Lykas keeps his eyes to the ground. He doesn't move, he knows it could get worse for him if he does. "You can speak." The mans words are harsher, and more annoyed.

Lykas nods his head as he says, "Yes sir, I understand." "Good." There is a long pause between them. "Now get up." Lykas does. He rises to his feet, he keeps his eyes focused on the ground.

"We're done here. When The Viper meets with you, she will tell you more herself. Get out of my sight." Lykas forces himself to calmly walk to the pathway back to the ground. He forces himself to keep walking at a calm pace, but he breaks into a dash once he's far enough away from the building.

He doesn't take the underground pathway home. He walks on the surface of the City. They could die, they could die, they could die. His mind is an endless tornado of the realization. His body trembles violently. He can't let that happen, but the way he acted around his Boss could mess everything up more.

Lykas enters the house through the front door. He doesn't bother to try to sneak in, by the time he arrived back to the siblings house everyone was asleep and the house was dark. He quietly goes up to his room, he decides to leave the ladder down on the ground. He can't think, he's fried his brain on the walk home. He just lays down in his bed and curls up.

But, no matter how hard he tries he can't fall asleep. He finds himself tossing and turning the majority of the night.

He's finally able to calm his mind by just allowing it to pass. By the time small cracks of sunlight are spilling into his room through the cracks in the attic ceiling, he's calmed his mind and was able to get some form of sleep.

He's pulled out of his head when he hears the weight of Rykis's body climbing up the ladder to his room. He looks in the direction of the hatch as his brother is pulling himself into Lykas's room. "How did the meeting last night go?" Lykas rolls his eyes, he can feel the backhanded slap he received during the meeting bruising over. "I got slapped." Is all he says. But he can feel the anger radiating from Rykis.

"What. The. FUCK?" Rykis shouts, his eyed are wide. "That BASTARD!" "Shush! You'll scare Nomi!" Lykas snaps as his eyes burn right through Rykis's soul.

His brother turns his back on him so he can collect himself. "I will murder him one day. We should just kill him and then run." Rykis growls to himself. "Don't bother even trying. I'll survive." He says as he shrugs his shoulders. He closes his eyes and sighs. "Look, everything will be okay. It's worth what I'm going to get out of this."

He feels his heart skipping beats. If you don't get killed with me in the process. He can't help but internally say.

"Your Boss better fucking pray it is. Because if you get conned out of this after doing your best work for THE VIPER? I will kill him myself." Lykas can see that the statement isn't a statement, it's a promise. He doesn't respond, he doesn't dare. "Nomi isn't awake yet, but when you're ready to eat tell me."

Rykis says before he exits Lykas's room. Lykas pushes himself into a sitting position and he places his head in his hands. "Alright, I will." He promises. Rykis doesn't respond, he just leaves. The night where the moon is the brightest is approaching, he has to prepare soon.

Lykas opens up the original Mission File. He scrolls through it, just rereading every little detail for what feels like hours on end. In his head he repeats the phrase, It's worth it. He convinces himself it is, only because of how high the payment is.

He eventually does feel the bite of hunger gnawing at his stomach. He stores the Mission File and decides to get up and go make something for himself. He sees Rykis left a note on the table for him to read. He picks it up and sees in his very messy handwriting, "I went out to go do dumb shit. Be back l8tr. <3."

Lykas laughs a little as he rolls his eyes. "Dude you write like I'm your wife." He thinks aloud as he crumples the note and he tosses it into the trash can.

He quickly cooks himself something that's easy to make. He eats it standing at the kitchen table, his back leaning against the side. He's too jittery to sit still for a long period of time. He washes his plate when he's done and starts to do chores around the house.

He sees it's not very late in the day, which means that Rykis will be gone for a while. He shakes his head to himself. Oh well, he has too many things on his mind. He tells himself.