[Milex]There is a light that never goes out

Chap 13

Chapter 13

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It was one mistake after another. Miles knew who was to blame: he made his own choice. There was no going back.

Fox came to the outer circle when Miles was on a day-off. He got into a fight in a bar because the owner saw him kissing the bartender at the backdoor. "Haven't you sinned enough!" The owner drew out a gun and shoot at them. It was like he simply went mental. Miles dragged the other boy towards himself and shielded him with his own body instinctively. He could make a half-wit shield still. "You're sacked!" The owner wasted all his bullets and shouted at the boy. Miles couldn't even recall his name. "Go to hell and die!"

He was crying. Miles didn't know what to do. "I won't let you die, babe." He remembered himself making some unrealistic promises. "Come to my place."

Fox was waiting at his cell for him. Miles never expected to see him here.

"Looks like you've got yourself all settled." Fox flashed him a fake smile, looking at the other boy behind him. "Who's this little angle over there?"

Miles didn't answer. He didn't answer when Fox mentioned with a pretended lightness that he had let Pauline know Miles was not dead. He offered Miles the job again: be a fucking lure and trick people to death. "You'd make a wonderful bait, Miles. Look at you, all innocent-looking."

"I can do it!" The boy behind him yelled. Miles could still hear it years after, a hopeful voice drenched in venom. Miles couldn't believe his own ears. "Why not? I hate them. All of them! They left my sister and my parents to die when they could have saved them—I begged them again and again, but they said it was too dangerous for them to go near our home! The monster's too strong..."

Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he was the crazy one and everybody else was right about it. Why did they have to stay in this living hell and die like insects when the Upper City was bright 24/7 like an undying star?

"Why me?" Miles asked him. Fox was studying him with a twisted, satisfied look on his face. "Shhh...Miles. Come here."

Fox patted his shoulder. Miles recoiled like he was burnt. He hated the man so much that he was even thinking about attacking him right there. He was not with his men, only himself. Miles was a magic user. A terrible one, but he still could—

"Your mum has lived a peaceful life, Miles. Now the price is higher. You pay for it by doing a better job and I'll let her have some more time." Fox knew what he was thinking. "Come to Eva tomorrow."

And Fox was right again. Miles was good at his new job. He became numb after only a few months, acting like he was going to the market to buy his mum some spring onions when he was heading to the sites to help with murder. He didn't talk to the boy anymore. He didn't talk to any other lures, magic users or "volunteers". He came back telling Pauline he was doing extra shifts in the factory. She knew he was lying. She didn't even ask him where he had been for the past three years when Miles first came back knocking on her door. Miles hugged her tightly for hours and cried until he was on the verge of passing out, not a single cohesive sentence out of his mouth.

Miles was good at it because he didn't play his role out of nothing. Fox had his men broke his bones or cut him open when he wanted it to be convincing: Miles always healed ten times faster than some normal people. He'd be reusable pretty soon no matter what Fox did.

Still, Miles was not the most cooperative worker. He waited too long to make the Explorers to notice him, or he waited until the least people were around. The first and only time he messed up his job severely, it was with Eva on his side. She seldom worked outside the factory. Fox needed her to protect him. That was a special case: the damage was pretty bad this time and three ships were sent out. Fox wanted a Healer, some special kind of Wizards, and he wanted one that was alive.