The Red String of Fate

Of Broken Bottles and Broken Promises

Year: 840

"Levi? Levi..." Furlan looked upon his best friend, hungover and passed out on their dining room table. A pathetic sight to see his boss and best friend in. Every year it was the same, every year for the last three Levi went from the man he knew, and became some bumbling drunk idiot. "For fucks sake Levi, are you gonna do this every year? It's been three fucking years." Furlan whispered under his breath, walked into the kitchen, and started to heat a kettle of water. "You know, she's always going to be gone – it doesn't matter how much we both hate it..." he explained, looking over to the table with remorse. "Doesn't mean we should get all up in our feelings about it." He trailed off.

"Fuck you" Levi faltered awake, slowly opening his eyes. "fuck you. You weren't even there when it happened. You didn't hear the screaming. You didn't hear the crying. You didn't hear her beg. Your memories of her aren't the haunted ones." Levi stood up after saying his cutting words and stretched out his arms behind his back.

"Yeah? I'm also not the one that she wanted to protect her. I wasn't her Savior. I wasn't her boyfriend." He looked down at the pathetic mess that was his best friend, and felt guilt wash over him. "Look, I'm sorry okay. But you have to realize that death doesn't just ..." Furlan started before he was stopped by Levi slamming down a mug, shattering it without even thinking.

"we don't know for sure... that she's... that she's dead" Levi rebuffed, looking down at the cup he unintentionally shattered. "We never got word of her being dead. All we know is he took her to someone and she's... missing." As he finished the words, his usually calm face changed into one filled with worry and pain, and he could feel the tears well up in his eyes.

"Look, isn't it easier to think of her being dead than... her being... sold? As a slave? As a potential sex slave? To some creepy old..." Furlan started to argue, but seeing the look on his friends face, chose against it. "All I'm saying is that death is better than what some of those bastards would have done to her." He finished, trying to sound more empathetic. He hated seeing Levi in pain like this, and he hated that he couldn't share in the guilt he felt. All he could do was bring his best friend into a hug, burying Levi's face into his shoulder, and his fingers in his hair. "Levi, if she is out there, you will find her. We know she's not down here right? So, all we have to do is get citizenship. Then we can go find her." Furlan tried his best to backtrack and give a little semblance of hope to his miserable friend.

"Or..."Levi started with a grin "We can go talk to the bastard she called her uncle. I'm sure he'd love a visit from us."

Furlan sighed heavily as they approached the decrepit building. The decaying stairs welcomed them, empty bottles of alcohol strewn across the ground. Memories flashed to him of him, Levi, and Anya playing in the once perfectly maintained yard, of Anya sneaking out to join the boys in their nightly escapades around the town, and of Furlan waiting on the porch steps as Levi and Anya saw each other for likely the last time. Before Furlan could protest his seconds thoughts, Levi was knocking at the door with his left hand – a knife in his right. The lanky, middle aged man who greeted them looked of death and smelled of booze and piss. Levi gagged, and Furlan stepped behind Levi with a quick motion.

"Well! If it isn't the Midget and Sunshine Boy!" The man hollered with laughter. "Why don't you come in boys. Unless you're here to captivate one of my daughter's this time, if my niece wasn't enough for ya" the man was rude and glanced down at Levi "I'll give ya a good price, as long as you don't go ruining this one too" he said coldly as he opened the door and welcomed the pair inside, Levi still clutching his knife.

"Joseph. So good to see you as always" Furlan feigned a greeting, but knew he wasn't cutting it. "We're actually here to inquire about your lovely niece. You see, Levi here is still very much lovestruck by our childhood friend and hoping to find the whereabouts of your darling niece"

"Ha! Don't make me sick. That midget is why I don't have my maid anymore" The elder drunken man laughed, and took a seat at a small, dingy table surrounded by liquor bottles. "If they hadn't gone fucking around, she'd still be here. He only has himself to blame. Can't blame him though, she was a pretty little thing. So sweet, so mature for her age, so damn sexy. Especially when she was crying..."

"That's enough" Levi slammed his fists on the table and approached the man with the dagger in his hand, moving it up to the man's neck "Where is she? Where did you send her?" his voice was demanding, and his eyes narrowed "Where did you take Anya?"

"Oh, she's long gone. But you wanna know a secret?" The old man leaned down to Levi's ear "She was damaged goods when I sold her. Turns out she had a little extra... baggage" He whispered in Levi's ear while rubbing his stomach mockingly "don't worry though, ya ain't a daddy kiddo. She lost it. She was pretty far along too. Musta broken her heart, to lose her last piece of you. From what I hear she almost died too. Pretty sure she woulda gotten killed by her new owners too after that, if they have any sense in em. A whore who's used up like that isn't good for anyone after all"

Furlan practically ran to his best friends side, restraining him and taking the knife before Levi could move. Levi lunged towards the old man, and started punching him through Furlan's grasp, blood soaking his dirty shirt and the grotesque floors. The man cackled as Furlan dragged Levi out of the house, Levi's fists covered in blood.

"What the fuck was that" Levi bellowed at Furlan "I wanted to kill the bastard! He deserves to be dead" Levi screamed at Furlan, walking steadily back to the house they just left. Furlan reached out his hand and gripped Levi's wrist with intensity.

"Levi, we need to go. You know he'll call the damn MP's. You know he's paying them off. Plus... If you kill him, he won't ever tell us where she is." Furlan tried to reason with Levi, and on a normal day, nothing would have pulled Levi out of the blind rage Furlan expected him to be in the throes of. But when Furlan looked into Levi's eyes, all he could see was pain filling the steel orbs.

"Do.. you think... she was really..." Levi started stammering, glaring up at the bedroom window that he used to sneak in to. "Was... was I going... to be..." for the second time that day, tears started forming in Levi's eyes – thinking of all the things that could have been. All the promises they made each other, and all the plans they had made.

"I don't know" Furlan answered with a bitter honesty "When we find her you two can work that out" He looked up at the same window, and a memory of helping the two of them sneak out rang bittersweet through his head "but for now, we have to focus on getting citizenship so we can get out of this wretched hell hole and find her." Furlan placed his hand on Levi's shoulder, and brought him into a hug. "She deserves to be found. She deserves to be safe" Furlan reassured him, even if he wasn't so sure himself in their ability to find her among millions of people above ground "We'll find her. We'll keep her safe." He reassured himself and wiped the tears from his friends now bright - red face.

"I will fucking kill that man" Levi growled, moving his eyes from the bedroom window to the door "as soon as we find her, I will rip him to shreds. I promised her Furlan. I promised her that I would always keep her safe. That he'd never lay his filthy hands on her again. I promised her if anything happened to me you would be there for her. I promised"

"I know" Furlan looked down at his best friend "I know. And I know we will find her."