As Long As I Have You // A. Ghale

Too Good to Be True

We had made it to Utkarsh. It was significantly colder in the part of Kyrat. People were showing less skin and had thick winter coats on. It was a different degree of dark up in the north. Maybe it was the seasonal depression that swept over the land, but it was probably Pagan's dark reign of terror.

"They're waiting for you downstairs." The man and wife pushes a bookshelf out of the way and leads us down to the other Golden Path members who were in charge of the weapon dispersing and cleaning.

"Ajay, thank you for reuniting us with the Golden Path in the south." The girl tells Ajay, before heading to the opposing side of the room. It was kind of like a basement but had a little hatch that could look into the upstair portion of the house.

"You can tell Amita and Sabal that we are ready to fight. We have targets picked." The man says, but was quickly interrupted by one King Min. You've got to be fucking kidding me.

"Pagan..." The girl whispers and Ajay springs into action, but the man stops him.

"That's my family." Ajay decides to stay out of it, and just listen. Pagan had been going on a bit of a tangent, but that's never stopped him before.

"You have a lovely home, very charming. Look at you, a lovely couple to match a lovely home. Very salt of the Earth." Listen to Pagan speak sent shivers down my spine. He had a very deep, monotonous voice that matched his ruling style.

"I was told that if I ever wanted to experience the hospitality of Utkarsh, you should visit the Ramas. We questioned everyone too, and they all said the exact same thing. They are the friendliest. They would talk to anyone." I had a sneaky suspicion that Pagan was going to do something bad to the couple, and I wanted to say that my gut was wrong. But, I couldn't because I didn't know.

I was lost in my thoughts when I hear two men walk in and began to blast to couple with multiple rounds of gunshots. Ajay opened the hatch and ran after Pagan. I follow him and join him on the hovercraft. He took over driving and took on the task of shooting the King. It all seemed too soon and way too good to be true.

A short radio transmission interrupts us, but we continue our flight. Listening to the absolutely devastating news...

"Hello, Ajay. Hello to you too, Delilah. Did you miss me? Oh wait, yes you did."

"Pagan? I just killed you!" Ajay yells, slamming the hovercraft downwards and landing in a haze. My heart was beating out fo my chest and Ajay's voice was very agitated.

"No, you just ruined a perfectly good body double with hair loss. Do you know how expensive he was to make? He wasn't even asian for Christ's sake! He was from Melbourne I think. His only crime was being born with perfect cheekbones. Who's face do you think is on the money?"

"Fuck, Ajay." I whisper and began to mentally abuse myself. Ugh, I could have killed him in the first day I had arrived here. I was sitting at a dinner table for crying out loud. I should have taken. him out when I was given the chance. It's far too late for that now.

"No matter. What's done is done. I suppose, next time, it'll just be you and me." Pagan's voice sounded so desperate for time with Ajay, it was almost sad. Too bad Ajay didn't care about him that way.

"It's you and I, you illiterate fuckhead." I say, pissed off at Pagan. We had almost killed him, but it was just his fucking stunt double. Who else would have a body double?

"I heard that, Miss Carver. Don't test your luck, you already know too much than you should." I was shocked when we recoiled with a hit like that. Talking about my father like that hit a dark place inside me with a burning hole of pain.

Ajay had seen that, and had put his arms around me, comfortingly. I wanted to kill Pagan with my bare hands, and Ajay knew that too.