The Tides That Bind Us [AfroFuturism]

Alone Together

When Zaharah stepped out of the bathroom, she met Jade sitting on the trunk, with a lolly in one hand and her phone in the other. She'd got most of her tears out in the shower, and it had left her eyes red and puffy, and a hollow chasm in her chest. Two years of her life had been stolen from her, she'd been treated like a lab rat and lost her family twice.

Life sucks, and then you die, Quelle would say.

Her sister sat by the bed, scrolling through her phone. She'd plugged Skorpi's charging pad into the TV console and he slept atop it. Music drifted in from the open door. If this day hadn't been a living nightmare, this place would almost feel like home.

Jade beckoned her over. You need to see this. As Zaharah sat beside her on the bench, Jade passed the phone. I was researching that Cameron guy and this video came up.

The Instagram video was from three years ago, had amassed quite a sum of views. The thumbnail showed what looked like pieces of paper on a rug. Zaharah hit play, and a chorus of shouting came through the speakers. Quelle face appeared on the screen, back-dropped by an open window.

"Ladies and gentlefriends, it's chaos in the Cyan household this eve. A moth found its way into the house and has earned itself three hunters. The camera spun around to Cameron, who stood near the door to the kitchen with a box in his hands. "Uncle Cam wants to catch it and put it outside." The camera moved to the other side of the room where Jade stood near the TV with a butterfly net. "Jade wants to catch it to nail it to a board. And our final contestant." She panned the camera to the coffee table where Skorpi stood with his claws poised in the air, ready to strike. "Skorpi wants to catch it for... reasons I guess."

Quelle moved from the window to the dark brown leather couch where Zaharah sat with a drawing tablet in her lap. "Z, who's your money on?"

The Zaharah in the video frowned. "Skorpi I—"

A chorus of screams nearly blew out the speakers, and Quelle aimed the camera to where Jade and Cam were standing. Then up at a vent where a piece of moth wing fluttered. "Oh..." She pointed the camera at the rug below the vent where more pieces of moth sat. "Oof." And the video ended.

For a while she stared at the screen. She thought she'd left all her tears in the shower, but more fought their way to the surface. And she fought back.

Jade took her phone back, but set it on her lap instead of scrolling some more. Quelle called him uncle, could he be the uncle you talked about this morning?

"No." She looked down at her chipped up nails with cracking blue polish. "Dr Will said Dr Cyan was married to our dad's brother. Cam is dad's best friend, apparently."

So we have an uncle out there somewhere. Do you think he'd know where Dr Cyan is?

Zaharah shrugged a shoulder. "We can ask about it tomorrow."

I found some other stuff too. She opened the browser on her phone and tilted her screen for Zaharah to see the article. Cameron Sanders Steps Down as CEO of Cylean Cybernetics Amid Controversy. Cameron who headed the company for twenty years is also owner of the Hurakan.

Zaharah skimmed the article, scrolling past pictures of Cam with their dad at various events. He'd been forced into an early retirement due to the suspicion levied against him after the accident. It's bad for the company's image, the board of Directors said, especially during such critical negotiations.

She moved to the article beneath it. Freak Accident: No Foul Play Suspected in Accident That Took the Lives of Cyan Family.

I want answers, Jade signed. I want to know what happened that night. Someone had to have set us up and I think Director Sanders knows who.