MF1.0 - 56 - Shades of Gray

Stef didn’t have to turn around to identify the speaker, she’d only heard a voice like his once.

‘Or should I call you angel now?’ Dorian asked as he sat beside her. ‘Assuming that suit isn’t just your fashion sense taking a detour.’

‘I thought you would have been long gone by now. Back home, or off in another story.’

‘I never came to this godsforsaken city for Astrin, I was here for something completely unrelated – no, I’m not telling you what – the professor just happened to stumble across me, and knew I’d like the job.’

‘Is this what you do? Gallivant around?’

He smiled and stretched. ‘It’s one of the perks of being immortal. Well, the fun kind of immortal, if you’re born to it, you usually don’t cherish it. Look at how pathetic the gods are, they don’t take an interest in anything.’

‘I wouldn’t know.’

‘You will soon enough, work for the angels long enough and you’ll pick it up. Well, before you die, of course. The uniform you’re so proudly displaying means you aren’t using the same talents I wanted you for.’

‘Not planning on getting killed you know.’

‘You’re sitting alone, in Central station, at night, wearing what may as well be a target.’ He pointed to the end of the platform. ‘The Solstice aren’t afraid of sniping people. Change your clothes. Now.’

‘That almost sounded like concern.’ The look on his face told her he wasn’t joking. She concentrated and required herself into something that may as well come from her wardrobe. ‘Better?’

‘Didn’t they warn you about that stuff?’

‘Not really, no.’

‘No bloody wonder there’s such a high turn over.’

She pushed the fear aside for a moment. ‘Do you hang around train stations for a particular reason?’

He flashed a ticket. ‘There’s nothing here for me now, I’m going somewhere else. Take a holiday, escape the world for a while. Any place where a mirror’s going to drop is depressing, it’s all I can do to keep from screaming every time I see a ghost.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘How many have you seen?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Mirrorfalls or ghosts?’ he asked. He sighed and stared at the tiled ground. ‘More than I’d like of both.’ He looked back up at her. ‘Spyder…’ he said slowly. ‘The suit, is that you really want?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Better than being Solst-ass.’ She slipped Frankie back into the bag. ‘What, you asking me to come with?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘I always book my tickets with a “plus one” just in case.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Never had a fictional character wanting to sweep me off my feet. While awake that is.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘You’re not my type, but this has nothing to do with that.’ He grabbed her bag and placed it on the ground and slid closer. ‘This is…’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">The train pulled into the station.

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">He put a hand in front of her. ‘Catch the next one.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘I didn’t even move.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Good girl.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">Her heart began to beat faster – being this close to a person always made her nervous, especially when it was by their own volition. Especially when they were…roguish and dangerous. He was attractive, she supposed, not that she was much of a judge when it came to that sort of thing.

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">The train pulled away from the station.

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘There are sins, there are virtues – everyone belongs to one of them. Me, I belong to Fortitude, I was always his, and I impressed him a lot more than most, hence the embargo. It was his idea to sell the story to finance the rest of my new life.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She nodded.

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘You could belong to any of them, but you also belong to Death.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘I…wait, what?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘You’ve already died once, Spyder, how long do you really think it’ll be before you go back there? That cold darkness, that’s somehow so much like going home that it feels right, how long until you sink back through that and go to whatever’s next?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She opened and closed her mouth a few times. Witty words and cold comebacks had abandoned her. ‘Hopefully a long time. No one knows when they’re going to die.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Those that have died once are always drawn back there. The professor’s gone, Astrin’s gone, the rats have left, you’re in a suit, I’m guessing the angels rained some hell onto that place, yet here you are without a scratch.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘I was lucky.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘How many more times are you going to be lucky?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Considering my luck in other aspects of life, I’d say I have a few more chances up my sleeve.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘You’ll be dead before the end of the mirrorfall. Is that what you want?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘I want to live.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Then you’re in the wrong place.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She smiled. ‘No I’m not. Besides, there’s someone here I want to get to know. Someone who did more for me than anyone ever has, and he didn’t even know me.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Don’t fall in love with an angel, only leads to pain.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">It was her turn to look at the floor. ‘I don’t think I know how to be in love. It doesn’t really figure into my world. It’s not love anyway, it’s more like…’ A grin spread across her face. ‘I’ve found the story I want to be a part of.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Careful Spyder, stories are dangerous things.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Everything is dangerous, some things are worth it.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">He squinted up at the timetable display. ‘My train is in four minutes. Last chance. Maybe literally.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She required herself into her suit for a moment, then back into the incognito clothes. It was all the answer he needed. He stood and bowed. ‘It was a pleasure, Spyder. Don’t screw it up and die.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She smirked. ‘I’ll try.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">He stood and walked away.

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘It’s my story,’ she muttered. ‘I probably will screw it up.’