Ro (A Cyberpunk Retelling of Romeo and Juliet)

2

RO MONTAGUE

"Mother's tits, Ro!" Mercy, or Officer Mercutio officially, I'd suppose, walks in on the bloody scene. She lets loose a long, slow whistle while I calmly finish up the last of my eggs on toast. "You really did it this time, didn't you? You're wearing the Monty family ring and everything! What model is that, 2096?"

"2098. Organic tech. One second, bathroom break." I listen to her shuffle around the crime scene as I go in and use the facilities. When I wash up in the sink, I stare at my face. The nick in my neck, still bleeding, from when I'd chopped off all my hair this morning with a straight-razor. I didn't want to be a girl anymore. I didn't want to be weak. It wasn't fair. My brothers always strutted around with the sense of machísimo, taking as many lovers as they wished while I was locked away to be pure. I thought it was because they wanted to marry me off. I never would've guessed that it was because virgins sold higher on the black market.

My fingertips dance along my tanned neck, the spot where I'd angrily sawed at my hair and hit my skin too. My hair tended to curl where it was cut. It used to just be thick, but now it flipped up at the ends. My eyes, Ichika's eyes, were the same though, but different now. They seemed blanker, darker. I couldn't see my reflection in them, and it was like all the light just suffocated.

I slam the bathroom door open and see Mercy trying, in vain, to prop my brothers up into a sitting position. Rigor mortis has set in though, and their heads don't bend quite right.

"With these bullet holes, I doubt I can call it a drug overdose." Mercy clicks her tongue against her teeth. Her mother was a straggler, a believer in the Old Age Religions that worshipped some male god who had power over everyone or something. With her flaming red hair and freckled skin that burned like a tomato in the sun, Mercy got bullied a lot at school. I had to take a few bloodied noses just to keep her ribs from being kicked in.

With a strong sense of justice, and potentially vengeance from all that bullying, Mercy grew up to be a keeper of the peace. But peace wasn't kept straight as an arrow in the streets of New Verona. Thus, Mercy had to accept bribes from time to time just to make a decent living. She just felt extremely guilty and some kind of concept called "sinful" for doing so.

"Happy New Year." I tell her, tossing her the vials of purplish liquid at her, and unbuckling one of my brother's guns from their belts. "Make it a suicide then."

"Right, it's another year." She grimaces as she tucks the respective guns into my brothers' and father's hands. "Here I am still writing 2099 on my police reports."

"2100. New century," I sling my arm around her shoulder, pulling her close, "and a new crime family queen in town. With my favorite best friend, maybe we can even go legal."

She rolls her eyes at me and bats me away. "Darling, don't count on it. Just because you saved my creepily religious ass from schoolyard beatings, doesn't mean I can suddenly erase the rules for you."

I stick my tongue out at her. "How about bending the rules?"

She reaches for her digi-scanner, murmuring a basic police report and calling for emergency services to clear up a murder-suicide at Monty's Medicines. "I'm quite flexible, a fact you'd be able to find out if you gave me a chance. A shame Rosaiah stole your heart away from me."

"You're a barefaced flirt!" I frown at the memory. "Besides, you know Rosaiah and I didn't work out."

Mercy waits patiently for me to fill in the gaps.

I oblige her, feeling particularly chatty after murdering my backstabbing family members. "Rosaiah owned the brothel that my dad and brothers were plotting to send me to." I kick some dirt, watching the blinking light on Mercy's digi-scanner wink at me, almost like a challenge. "He bought me like I was cattle."

Mercy goes silent. When I stare into her green eyes, they're as murky as the river when you have to dump a body in it.

Her words are silent, yet powerful. "Ro, my badge might say I'm a cop, but you know I'm loyal to the Montagues and to you. If you want me to kill someone..."

I smirk at her, pulling her into a tight embrace and kissing her cheek. "That's why you're my favorite, Mercy." When I pull away, I push her frizzy, red hair behind her ears with a mischievous grin. "Your badge calls you a cop, and that sign over my store calls me a doctor." We laugh together over the ridiculousness of it all. How you can be anything in New Verona if you try hard enough. Be anyone. "Rosaiah will be joining my brothers very shortly. Of that, you can be certain."