Fate Breakers

Chapter 10

Vince

Years Ago

Getting across Puerto Luz during Día de los Muertos in a timely manner is a fantasy. Dancers and musicians and vendors line every street, and whatever space is not taken up by them is being used by the people shopping and having fun. Knowing all this, Gannon still thought it was a good idea to start our day all the way across town. It's almost noon, and by two we have to start getting ready to leave so we can visit the graveyards. Any other day, this wouldn't be an issue. We could make it across town with thirty minutes to spare if we hitched a ride with one of the guards and ran the rest of the way. On an ordinary day, we could also make it by the skin of our teeth simply by running the whole way. But today is Día de los Muertos, and there is no damn way to make it across town in a timely manner.

"My moms are gonna beat my ass," Calvel mumbles, scratching his neck.

"Thanks Gannon," Isla says, squinting at him. "I could've waited a few years before seeing my grandparents again."

Gannon smirks, and it sends my body into a panic. When Gannon smirks, it means he has a plan, and those plans will either save us or damn us further. It's a roll of the dice on what the outcome will be. With that smirk on his face, Gannon marches right up to the storage boxes.

He leaps onto one of them, and I lunge forward the second the box starts to tilt. Whether it's from my weight pushing it back, Gannon finding his balance, or both, he remains upright. Gannon looks back down at me, flashing that smirk, like he knew that was going to happen. I glance behind him at the wall of boxes leading up to the rooftops. The barren, connecting rooftops that reach all the way across town.

"You're insane," I choke out, sputtering on my own shock.

"Yep," Gannon answers proudly, extending a hand to me. "There's only one way to figure out if it's all gonna work."

I take his hand, letting Gannon lift me up with Isla and Calvel close behind. We climb higher and higher, and my nerves get to me once we are at the top. We're still so far away from our houses on La Playa Avenue, and even without the crowds, we have other things to worry about.

Gannon grabs my shoulders, turning me towards him. "We'll be fine. We just have to take it one leap at a time, and you've already taken the first one."

I stare at him. "If you say the leap of faith, I'm gonna smack you."

He smirks. This corny bastard. Gannon takes off running and cackling, and I race after him without a second thought. I don't realize I've leapt across one building until my feet are already planted firmly on the other side.

Present

The whistle blows, and I take off running. The rope bites into my skin when I grasp it, but I ignore the feeling, planting my legs firmly on the wall. Since that Día de los Muertos, we consistently ran across the roofs to get anywhere we wanted to go. It wasn't just the speed that kept us doing it, it was the thrill aspect. I never took it as anything other than us having fun until a few weeks ago.

Gannon did as Fox advised, and we spent a week with just us in the cabin. To anyone outside, we were being childish and playing board games. For us, that's how we were able to be anchored to one another again.

There was a point in our childhoods that we were able to communicate by mere glances. That first night, we could still do it, but it was way too obvious. Calvel and I thought it was fine, but Isla and Gannon had other ideas.

"It's not gonna take a genius for them to figure out we already have an advantage," Isla had said. "That in itself is okay, but if they know the full extent of it, we risk losing one another again."