The Unwritten Sin

Chapter 25

The two of them stayed on the rooftop until darkness fell.

"Wilder? I'm hungry."

"Me too." Wilder watched the lights on the ship flash red and orange. They had been on this rooftop for hours. They were both exhausted and needed food and water, not to mention sleep.

Wilder didn't know where the others could have possibly been, but he didn't want to venture into the streets again. They had cut it rather close with one droid, and he didn't want to take any chances with more, let alone in the dark. He could see the ministry from the roof, but the way he felt about James made him second guess himself. He was worried if he got within close proximity of the priest again he couldn't help himself, and if that happened, it would jeopardize their relationship, not to mention bring James into a third breach. He couldn't risk that.

He gathered himself. "We have to make a run for it," he said at last. "Let's go to my apartment. It's halfway to the ministry, and I am sure I still have food in the cupboards if the building hasn't been destroyed yet."

The carefully climbed down the ladder, and melted into the shadows. Both had their pistols out and ready. They took back streets to market square, and made it to the apartment without much fuss. The PCP droids were scattered across the city, downed and shredded with bullet holes.

"This is so much worse than I thought," Wilder whispered under his breath as he moved the unmoving body of a PCP droid to mount the stairs to the apartment.

The building looked as if it had been through an earthquake. Everything was overturned and upset in the room, and he had a hard time picking through it all. They sat at the bar, and ate toast and beans cold from a can. Wilder hung blankets up around every window and entrance to try and keep the droids from finding them because of a stray crack of light. As he bent over to move some of the debris, the golden pendant James had given him stabbed into his chest. He took it up to his face, and pressed it against the skin there. He couldn't even lie. Something inside of him ached when he thought about James, all alone in the ministry. 

Neptune watched him. "Hey, that looks weird. Can I see?" He took the pendant, and dangled it from his fingers. "Cool." As he moved it back and forth in his hands, something clicked, and a hidden compartment popped open, like a locket.

Wilder immediately took it back. "What's this?" he asked, opening it to reveal a single fingerprint with a slash down the middle. "That's odd," he said, "why would someone just leave their fingerprint in a locket?"

Half in jest, he placed his thumb against the raised print in the locket. It felt surprisingly similar.

"Dude," Neptune said, wild-eyed. "Let me see your thumb." He surveyed Wilder's finger closely. 

"Where did this scar come from? A whole piece of your print is missing."

"Yeah, I have no idea," Wilder shrugged it off. "So what."

"Not so what. It's not similar, bruh. It's the same. You must have gone through the machine and kept your scars like O."
"No. Then that means...."
"You're Ness. You found your old self! I'm So pumped!"
Wilder felt numb. He was the one both Adonis and James had mentioned running with. He had been the one to die on that backstreet in the last raid. He couldn't keep it all inside. He fell to the ground and stared into space. "That means.....I have to go speak to James," he said, making up his mind right then.
Neptune shoved snacks into his bag and shirt pocket, all ready to go.