The Classix

(OLD) Chapter 35

    In the months preceding, Cartney would tell Emeray right before the Fanatix's Ansel on Eighteen episode that DEFED had just sent him a threat.

    In actuality, this threat came into existence barely a day after Foster was shot down in the Darkening.

    "I couldn't say anything then," he told me at that first meeting. "I couldn't just turn and make it all about Cartney Kirk when everyone's mourning Foster Farrand, you know? I mean, when DEFED reached out to me, I hid away from the Famoux for an entire week to cope. Nobody even noticed. It wasn't the time or place."   

    I closed my eyes for a second, willing myself to breathe calmly. He was telling me in this moment that, after the radio silence I'd been granted for a few weeks after the Fishbowl, DEFED was not gone.

    And despite everything we thought they'd been capable of, they were capable of so much more.

    "Are you going to tell her?" I asked.

    "Gradually. She needs to like me first. I mean, if she still hates me as much as she does now, she's not going to care enough to help me stay alive." He tugged at the collar of his leather jacket. "Do you think this is a good first step?"

    I considered it, putting a hand on my chin. "It's a really thoughtful gesture. But don't make her like you too much, all right?"

    He grinned wide. "Do I intimidate you, Chaps?"

    As the months progressed, Cartney too made progressions with Emeray. They went on their daily walks. They developed a system. They became friends. And all the while, Cartney checked in with me regularly, and for a long time our meetings entailed little to no urgency at all.

    But it was at this most recent one when he came in looking worried, strung out. He brought it up at once, that something is definitely going on with her, and for the first time I finally realized how much Emeray had changed.

    "I just don't get it," Cartney said. "I try to stop her all the time, but somehow she finds a way to get outside anyway. It's like she doesn't even remember how her only dependable friend's life is on the line."

    "Did you try reminding her?" I asked.

    "I remind her every day. She won't listen."

    "Won't listen?"
     "She bargains with me instead. Apparently if I just wait inside the coffee shop, I'm out of harm's way enough."

    My stomach turned. "That doesn't sound like Emeray."

    "No. It doesn't." Cartney picked at his hands nervously. "I don't know what's going on, man. She said something about seeing Foster too, you know."

    "Huh?"

    "Apparently he gave her the ring."

    I looked at him squarely. "That isn't possible."

    He nodded. "It's not, I know. And the bouncer who apparently saw him too didn't even exist. But she still got the ring at the party. It showed up."

    "That doesn't make sense."

    "None of it does. After that night, everything started changing, too. She suddenly cares so much more about her image that she's starting to care less about people she loves. I mean, when's the last time you even talked to her?"

    I wanted to find an answer immediately, but I was stumped.

    I have no idea when the last time we talked was.