Falter stayed perched in front of the bordello as the sun dipped below the horizon. He kept watch on anybody who walked in and out of the front door. The woman had been right - it was a particularly slow day, and none of the customers seemed noteworthy. It still caused his skin to crawl, seeing these older men enter with an almost uninterested air around them, as if this was a part of their day that had become so regular that they didn't bother thinking about.
During the mid-afternoon, what he assumed were one of the owners of the place came out for a smoke break. He was a gruff, tall man with his hair shaved close to his head, wearing a leather jacket that was slightly worn at the edges. Falter stayed perched right in the middle of the building facing the location, a small part of him silently begging for the man to look up and spot him. The woman from before peeked through the door as her boss smoked and made eye contact, a look of alarm spreading through her face. Still, he stayed there, even as his joints creaked and the sweat dripped down his face, ignoring every call that hit his personal phone. There were a thousand thoughts racing in his head: considering every single entrance he could spot, what he would say in there, how to properly threaten the people inside and..... the rescue. When the woman clocked out, she came outside, now dressed in a jacket and long skirt, and gestured at him to come down.
He landed on the street with a hard enough impact to crack the concrete, causing her to flinch. As he bore down on her, his boots thumping heavily against the ground, she felt her body illicit a fear response, but she swallowed it down. "Okay, they keys are always with the manager, I'll go around back and wait for you there and-"
Falter's voice was laced with venom when he spoke. "No."
"Excuse me?"
"I... I don't want you to get hurt here. I'll go in there and I'll do things my way."
She tutted disapprovingly, furrowing her eyebrows. "You don't understand. We have to do this quietly, quickly-"
"I understand. There are people in there that-" Falter looked at his hands. They were shaking.
"I-"
"You can't just hurt people because they hurt others." She said exasparatedly.
"Wouldn't you?" His voice was quiet, so quiet that it felt like nails across her back.
She didn't have a response. As she looked at him, lit up only by the single bulb in front of the door, she felt as if she could see all the teenage angst, all the pain, all the anger radiating off of him. And she wondered if it was her own buried feelings reflecting off of the glassy armour. "I- I can't-"
Falter looked at her suddenly, scaring her once again. As she yelped, he reached out.
"May I?"
She nodded.
He grasped both her shoulders and brought her closer. "I know I'm not the hero this place is used to, but I don't want to be. There are monsters and magic out there in the world that are putting people at risk but I... I'm done letting the rest of us on the ground getting away with- with this. I have to fix things, I know, and I will but- but this time, I- I don't have to, no, but I want to. Do you trust me with that?"
YOU ARE READING
FALTER
Mystery / Thriller"Do you remember what we used to say?" "Never falter." "Yeah. Forever after." When a familiar cult emerges from the shadows of Youth City, underground rockstar Imti has to choose between hiding his demons behind a mask or finally facing everyone bur...
