###
Chapter 4: Tinsel
"Mmm?"
"Mmmphm!"
"Mmnnmph!"
Jimmy gave up talking after that. It was a bit
self-defeating to try and say anything around a sock jammed in his mouth} and
did nothing to ease the ache of his wrists, bound as they were by tight
plastic. His eyes were covered by a scratchy fabric that smelled like it was
out of some pre-historical adventure story, not modern self-cleaning stuff.
With nothing to talk about and no way to talk and nothing to see, Jimmy had nothing to do but put one foot in
front of the other.
The walk continued. It got cold. Then warmer. Then colder
again. Then really cold. Jimmy shivered, his teeth trying to chatter around his
gag. The person marching them along at gunpoint laughed at their misery. It was
a kind of laugh Jimmy had heard a lot growing up, he could recognize it.
Suddenly, Pix made an indignant sound around her gag and
Jimmy immediately strained against his cuffs. That did nothing but made his
wrists sting and made the sock jammed in his mouth even more uncomfortable.
Eventually, Jimmy came to the conclusion that the walk would
never end. His had jaw moved from cramping to painful to sheer agony. Then,
finally, the blindfold was ripped off his head and the gag yanked from his
mouth. He spluttered and worked his jaw, blinking his eyes. When his eyes
adjusted to seeing again, he saw three gunrunners – no, four, he noticed Tlessia
sitting on Anna’s shoulder. The only other one he recognized was Phil, with his
trademark skeevy smile plastered on. Jimmy knew if his wrists weren't bound,
he'd have tried to punch that grin right out of existence.
And then Phil would shoot him dead.
It scared him how certain he was of that.
Jimmy looked around for Pix, then saw she was behind him.
The gag and blindfold came away from her and she spat on the ground.
"Bleck, ugh, your sock tastes like your face," she
said, glaring at the sock, then at Phil.
Phil just sneered. He put his hand on Pix's butt. Pix
strained at her handcuffs and Jimmy growled. Phil's hand came away, holding
Pix's lighter.
"Nice lighter...cyborg." Phil smirked, taking out
a c-stick and slipping it between his lips. He lit it and walked towards Anna,
who edged slowly away from him. And now that Jimmy was done looking at the
people he wanted to see in jail, he started looking at the room. Or, well,
hallway.
There wasn't much to it. Two long walls, two doors, a
ceiling and some lights that had been welded to the walls. The door behind
Jimmy was unlocked. As he watched, Phil slammed the lock back closed with an
audible clang.
"You okay?" Jimmy whispered to Pix. She shook her
head, her face pale, her eyes tired. Jimmy had never seen Pix look so
downhearted before. Even when Richy and Edward had been at their worst,
tormenting her and Jimmy with a gleeful abandon, Pix still had that spark in
the back of her eyes, the core of her personality that made her so fun to be
around.
That spark looked dim, now. Dim and angry, smoldering like a
coal. Uncomfortable memories...
Jimmy tried to smile. "Come on. We're almost-"
"Shh," Tlessia hissed. "Okay, you two, get
over here."
Jimmy glared at the cat. The cat glared right back, then
patted Anna's calf with her paw. "Come closer. Do it, or I'll have Phil
manhandle you."
Pix stepped forward first. Jimmy followed, biting his lip.
Tlessia looked from one to the other. Jimmy tried to read what she was thinking
but...she was a cat. It was really hard to see anything other than adorable in
her glittering eyes. Maybe that's why she exaggerated her anger and
frustration, to break through that illusion via extremes.
Or maybe she was just annoying.
"Now, we're at a city called Tinsel, it's-"
"We know what Tinsel is." Jimmy frowned.
"We've been to school, and I'm the son of a diplomat. "
"Well, fine, Mr. Son of Diplomat." Tlessia pointed
her paw at him. "Tell me, what is Tinsel's main export?"
Jimmy shrugged. “Elevator use.”
Tlessia drew her head back. Jimmy hastened to explain.
"That is, it's the only city actually built near one of the functional
grav-shafts. So, it's like a trading port."
Tlessia stretched her neck up so that she was as close to
his face as possible (which wasn't very close at all). Then she grinned,
showing her fangs in a surprisingly expressive motion. "Exactly. So, that
means you will know to not make any fuss at the terminal. Cause if you do, we
will kill you."
Jimmy glanced at Pix, then at Tlessia. "But,
wait-"
"If you make a fuss, you could bring the law down on
our heads, and if you do that, you'll cost so much that killing you will
actually make us a profit. And it'll make me feel better!" Tlessia's glare
locked onto Jimmy's eyes. "And, so you know we're serious, I'm giving Phil
the sniper rifle that will be aimed right at the back of your heads."
Jimmy kicked himself, mentally.
He had thought, a while ago, that this Sunday couldn't get
any worse.
He needed to stop thinking that kind of thing.
###
The Urtish had evolved in the outdoors, lived in the
outdoors, developed technology in the outdoors. They liked the outdoors, they liked
nature. And Harbinger, fortunately, had rooms big enough for them to feel
'outdoors', even if they lacked the trees and forests of their homeworld. The
grav-shafts of Tinsel happened to be one of these rooms. The ceiling sloped
upwards and outwards, stopping about half a mile above the ground. Ten tubes,
all about the width of a house, ran from the ceiling to the ground floor.
Between those tubes sprawled Tinsel.
It had been well named. The buildings were a glittering
pastel of paper thin metal that the Urtish spun and hung between intelligent
poles of hardened plastics, which folded and interconnected in complex
patterns. The structures did not differentiate themselves as much as the
buildings Jimmy was used to – instead, tunnels and tubes connected spires of
rippling fabric, distended and shifted by the weather patterns of the room and
the hefty weight of the Urtish moving along them – shadows cast against the
papery metal.
The center of Tinsel was dominated by a broad thoroughfare
that led directly to a security terminal of hard, black metal that sat,
spiderlike, at the center of the five grav-chutes. A throng of humans, Urtish,
and other races in lesser degrees all headed towards that terminal, ready and
eager to reach the upper levels of Harbinger.
And in the middle of that throng, Jimmy and Pix sat next to
each other, trying to look completely unconcerned.
It was harder than it looked.
"At least we can talk," Pix said, keeping her face
directly forward. The back of Jimmy's neck prickled as he imagined that psycho
aiming a gun at him. By now, that sensation wasn’t entirely unfamiliar, and
that was just a little bit depressing.
"Yeah," Jimmy said, reaching back to rub his neck.
"Sorry about your lighter-"
"It’s okay," Pix said, her voice tight. After a
long, long pause, watching the line around them mill about, and listening to
the voices and the rippling of paper-metal buildings in the wind, Pix looked at
him out of the corner of her pink eyes.
"Soooo, did you mean it?"
Oh great. Jimmy gulped, his dry throat suddenly seeming even
dryer, somehow. After a bit of a struggle, he managed to speak.
"Well...yeah."
The line shuffled forward as yet another person got through
the interminable security check. Jimmy had never seen a group of people so
thorough in their searching. And he'd been into the Council Chambers. Sure,
he'd been a little kid, but he could still remember an Anachros checking him
over...
Ugh.
That thought, though, lead to the serious problem of getting to somewhere where the security services
might actually help. Tinsel wasn’t the Council Chambers, the Urtish weren’t the
Anachros, and he was fairly sure that the gunrunners had their ways through this
security. But what if there was a way they could trigger things?
No, wait, then Phil would…would…
Jimmy suddenly realized that Pix was saying things, the
words going in one ear and out the other.
"Uh, yeah," Jimmy said, trying to catch up. She
looked right at him.
"Then why did you wait till now!" She sounded
annoyed. "I mean, leading me on and on like that."
"Listen, I'm sorry," Jimmy whispered. "But is
now the time to talk about this?"
"Apparently! Apparently it takes me getting smacked by
a crazy person to get you to..."
What had he missed when he'd been thinking of other things?
His look of panic must have been way too obvious because Pix's eyes narrowed.
"Wait, did you even listen to me earlier?"
"Well-"
"By the Architects!" Pix threw her hands up, her
antennas sparking. "Jimmy, you...you...by the...I...thought you
weren't...god I hate you sometimes!"
"I-" Jimmy's words clogged. Come on, say
something! Something funny, something witty, charming, something to make her
love you back. Just like every single other time he tried to think of
something, his brain failed. But unlike the other times, he was already
falling.
"Just drop it, okay?" She looked away from him,
back tight.
What was she thinking? Was she as terrified as he was of
losing what they had?
"So." She forced herself to sound normal.
Normalish. "How long's the line?"
"Uh, long." Jimmy glanced back over his shoulder.
Did he see the glint of a scope in the buildings around and above and behind
him? Unlikely, as the whole rippling paper-metal effect created a wild
profusion of sparkles and glints. "Listen, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't
wait for a better time, I'm sorry I was so cowardly that I didn't say this
sooner...I'm sorry I wasn't listening..." He bit his lip. "Um, w-what
was the question."
"It wasn't a question," Pix said. "It
was..." She trailed off.
Jimmy was just about to prompt her before her expression
registered in his brain: Wide eyes, jaw dropping in shock. Jimmy turned around,
to see what she was looking at.
The Xorquin was in the line right next to theirs, wearing
his rumpled brown hat. Tall as ever, one of his arms had a dull white bandage
wrapped around his bicep. All three eyes glared right into Jimmy, like laser
beams.
Jimmy's mouth dried up like a Slor shoved into a fusion
reactor. He half expected the Xorquin to whip out a few machine guns and blow
him and Pix away, right there in line.
The Xorquin slid his hand toward his pocket. He froze, the
motion incomplete. Jimmy blinked, then followed the Xorquin's eyes, to the red
dot glowing on the back of the Xorquin’s hand. The dot whipped around, then
settled on Jimmy's heart. Modern, civilian firearms had loads of smart systems
designed to make them safer, while military firearms used a bunch of advanced
optics and targeting systems that made laser dot sights a primitive
affectation…which did nothing to make the little red dot – ingrained over
millennium of social history – any less intimidating.
The red dot swept back to the Xorquin’s hand, then to his
chest. The meaning seemed pretty clear to Jimmy. He could almost hear Phil’s
voice in his ear: I can shoot anyone I
want here, so why don’t we all keep moving?
"Okay," Jimmy said. “Maybe starting anything here
is a bad idea, Mr. Xorquin.”
Pix’s hand closed tight around his, squeezing hard enough he
felt his knuckles pop slightly. Jimmy didn’t really care.
The Xorquin took the advice as passively as he took anything
from being shot at to being shot. What thoughts were going on behind that
thing's forehead? His line started to shuffle forward faster than Jimmy's line,
and soon the Xorquin was gone. For now.
"Okay," Jimmy turned to Pix, then shuffled
sideways with their line, having to abandon their seats in the motion.
"Um, he's gone. That’s good! We’re safer!"
"Jimmy, Phil is aiming at the back of your head."
Jimmy nodded. "Just ignore it."
"How can I!?"
"Think of it like Richy!" he suggested. Pix
giggled, just this side of hysteric. Jimmy felt a tickle at the back of his
neck. The dot. He tried to distract himself by looking at Pix. First he looked
at her cheek. He noticed how cheek became ear and how her ear had a swirling
pattern of cartilage and this cute little earlobe...
The tickle faded and Jimmy realized that he really could
ignore a gun aimed at his head sometimes.
"We need to..." Jimmy whispered. Pix looked at
him, a flash of annoyance on her face.
Jimmy choked slightly.
"Need to?"
"Get back to the whole talk thing later," Jimmy
said, feeling a lump in his throat. He had seen Pix annoyed, and he had seen
Pix annoyed at him before. So why did it feel worse now? Well, firstly, this
went beyond 'annoyance', and, well, because he, with his big mouth, had changed
their relationship. It was like yanking the rug out from under the world.
"Yeah. Later. When we don't have guns aimed at
us." Pix said. She looked down. "Jimmy, I..."
The line shuffled forward. Jimmy's hands slipped into his
pockets, where they clenched into fists. "Yeah?"
"I want to go home." Pix's voice was soft.
Jimmy looked up. A tear slid down Pix's cheek and she looked
so lovely, backlit by the slightly too white sunlamp that Urtish used,
surrounded by bored looking aliens. Jimmy's heart stopped.
Who hugged first? Jimmy didn't know. First, they were
standing apart. Then they were together. Pix rubbed her face against his cheek
and Jimmy whetted her pink hair with his own tears. All the awkwardness, all
the questions, all the unknowns. Forgotten for now.
"Me too."
###
The line eventually shuffled Jimmy and Pix into the
spotlight, so to speak. An Urtish customs worker, looking deceptively large and
menacing even though he barely came up to Jimmy's chin, walked up to the two of
them. The Urtish’s look – bulging shoulder muscles, broad arms, fingers the
size of sausages, and tusks that thrust out and curved up under their forelip,
all of it worked to make the shorter race seem taller and more intimidating.
The customs officer grunted, looking them over, then shoved a blunt metal probe
at Jimmy's nose. Jimmy flinched and the Urtish growled something.
A moment later, a translator built into a bracelet stretched
tight around the Urtish's huge wrist bleeped out, "Hold still,
human."
Jimmy held still. The probe went back to his face and,
faster than Jimmy could think, two wires slammed up his nose. He jerked,
feeling them worm their way down his throat, then back up. He coughed and
gagged as the probe was jerked away.
"You could have just used my mouth!" He
gasped/coughed. From the amount of attention the Urtish paid him, he might as
well saved his breath.
The Urtish then ran a blipping doobober over Jimmy's body.
It never flashed red or anything, nor did it bleep REALLY loud. Just soft
bleeping. The Urtish didn't say anything, but from half remembered courses on
alien cultures, Jimmy didn't think the Urtish looked that angry or annoyed.
Hopefully. Another scanner, this time looking alarmingly like a sex toy, waved
over Jimmy's hair.
And then they were through. Jimmy looked at Pix, who was
still rubbing her nose. They walked forward towards the waiting area set up
around one of the many elevators. There was the Xorquin, standing there,
staring right at them.
And there, sitting a bit to the left of the Xorquin, reading
a newspaper, was Anna. Her tail twitched under her chair, slipping through the
obnoxious hole most public chairs had between the backrest and the seat.
She stood up, folded her paper up, and walked over to Jimmy
and Pix. She looked from one to the other. After deciding that everything was
fine, she jerked her head towards the chairs. Pix pointed at the Xorquin. Anna
glanced over.
Her eyes narrowed. The Xorquin stared at her, with that odd,
unblinking look he had.
"Jimmy," Pix's voice quivered, like something in
her was stirring. Jimmy looked at her, heart jerking up a bit. She motioned
with her head towards...towards a security station! It may have been surrounded
by metal-paper and crafted in the shape of a polyhedron, but it had the
universal symbols for police and safety splayed over it.
"Phil?" Jimmy looked back, to see if he could see
that glint – but the glittering of the Urtish city obscured his view.
Pix shrugged. "Think he can shoot us through the crowds
and stuff?" she whispered.
"Good point." Jimmy glanced at Anna and the
Xorquin, who were sizing one another up. Anna held her hand up.
"Don't move," Anna said. Jimmy nodded.
Then he ran. His hand grabbed Pix's elbow, but she was
already running too. He grinned, on the inside, then started panicking, because
when he glanced over his shoulder, he saw Anna and the Xorquin unanimously
decide they could both stop sizing each other up, just so long as their quarry
didn't get away.
Out of the corner of Jimmy’s eye, he saw people looking
right at them. Did anyone else think it was weird that two teenagers were
running through a security terminal.
Yes, someone did.
"Now, hold on-" someone shouted, someone human,
stepping out of the line as if to stop them.
Pix got to the security terminal. She ducked inside, then
slammed her fist onto a bright blue button marked with the alarm symbol. A
green light flashed above the button and Pix grinned at Jimmy before the
Xorquin grabbed her. Anna grabbed Jimmy.
"Great," Anna muttered. "That way!" She
pointed with one hand, her other arm looping around Jimmy's neck. He couldn't
breathe.
The Xorquin saw whatever Anna was pointing at and they both
moved off. Jimmy tried to drag his feet, but Anna hoisted him up and over her
shoulder. It was rather undignified. And almost impossible to breathe. Her
shoulder dug into Jimmy's chest and he saw a strange, disjointed view of the
Urtish security running up, looking as confused as anyone would.
Then he was in a hallway – a Harbinger corridor, not an
Urtish construction. The Xorquin kicked the door closed. Where was Pix? There
she was, held under one arm like a notebook or something. "Put me down!"
she shouted. "Put me down you scaly-"
The corridor, details indistinct, split off. Jimmy saw the
Xorquin split off, heading down a different corridor.
"Pix!" he shouted. "PIX!"
Anna kept running.
###
Anna set Jimmy down. Jimmy shouted inarticulately and took a
swing at her. She batted the swing aside, used the momentum to flip Jimmy
around, and slammed her fist into the small of his back. Jimmy hit the metal
floor chin first. He looked at the floor, cross-eyed, and then he stood up,
shaking himself and turned around. Anna glared at him, arms crossed over her
chest.
Jimmy didn't swing at her, his jaw still aching, his back
screaming bloody murder. "Okay, listen, you want to make money off of me,
right."
Anna shrugged.
"You don't want to make money off me."
Anna sighed, slowly. "No."
"Okay. Then let me go."
"No."
Jimmy looked at the ceiling. Where were they, anyway? He
knew they had taken at least two lefts, but a lot of the run had been one big
blur. He looked back down. Where was Pix?
"Okay, we're going to have to talk. So drop your
goddamn monosyllabic routine and-"
Anna glared at him. Jimmy glared right back, pointedly
forgetting she was taller, stronger, armed and better trained than he was.
"Okay," Jimmy said, softly. "You've already
said you don't like taking hostages."
Anna shrugged. Jimmy thought he saw something in her eyes.
He wasn't sure what, but it was something. Okay, what would Dad do? He'd keep
pushing, shoving, arguing and bullying till he got his way. Go Dad.
"So, do you want me as a hostage, or as a willing
partner?" Jimmy stood up straight, shocked at how clear his brain was
working. Aim a gun at him, he panics. Threaten Pix...everything became clear,
but so much scarier. "See, if you let Pix get carried off by that Xorquin,
I will fight you every inch of the way. Get her back, and I'll help you ransom
me off."
Anna narrowed her eyes.
"Listen, Anna...Pix...I love her. Okay!" A big
lump rose in his throat. He looked at Anna's impassive face, his heart
stopping.
"Oh damn it," Anna muttered, putting her hand on
her forehead. "Do you have any idea where the Xorquin might have been
taking her? Or why?"
Jimmy's heart beat again. Who knew life and death
circumstances could stop and start breathing, heart rate, blinking, saliva and
so on.
"Well," Jimmy said, trying to not look relived. He
tried and failed, but Anna didn't call him on it. "It all started when we
found this Data crystal..."
Anna nodded once he was done. "He'll be heading out, to
the Far Dark."
"That's bad, right?"
She nodded again. "Yeah. If you don't want to be found,
then you head to the Dark."
Jimmy closed his eyes. He could see a million issues with
his plan. Maybe he should just give up...
No, never give up. If he gave up, then he'd have to think
Pix was gone forever. Gone and...
No. No. No.
"Okay, we have to head for the Dark, then."
Anna brought her eyebrows up and looked at him. Jimmy's
forced optimism crumpled like tissue paper. He looked down. "Okay, what
can we do then?"
Anna sighed, slowly. "Nothing."
Jimmy stopped. He looked at his feet. And then, like a spark
popping between his eyes, a thought exploded in his mind. He jerked his head
back up, grinning like an idiot. "Do...you have a phone?"
Anna looked confused. Pix didn’t have time for that. Jimmy
stepped forward, holding his hand out. "Do you!?"
"Uh-" Anna pulled out a small black phone. Jimmy
grabbed it, flipped it open and closed his eyes. Memories floated around his
head.
"Pix, stay out of
telemarketing."
"Yes, but I have
one advantage…”
"I can dial phones with my mind," Jimmy finished
out loud. Anna looked at the ceiling, crossing her arms over her chest. Jimmy
could practically read her mind. It went something along the lines of 'why do
all rich hostages have to be insane?'
Jimmy licked his lips, drew in a deep breath, then pressed
eight numbers on the phone. He selected the texting option. Then, slowly,
carefully, his thumbs typed out:
A.Sinclare: Hello?
Pixie: Who is this?
A.Sinclare: Jimmy! Pix, are you okay?
Pixie: Jimmy! <3!!!
A.Sinclare: Listen, Pix, we're coming for you
Pixie: Okay, how?
Jimmy closed his eyes and looked at the ceiling. Shit, that
was the question.
A.Sinclare: Are you blindfolded?
Pixie: Yup. And handcuffed. MFer.
A.Sinclare: Are you cold?
Pixie: Well, it's a bit chilly.
Jimmy sighed. "She might be going to the Dark, I can't
tell."
He squawked when Anna plucked the phone from his hands.
"Hey!"
She turned the phone around, shot a 'look' at him, then
rummaged around in her jacket pockets. She had a lot of those, and after a few
moments rummaging, she pulled out a doobobber. Well, it looked like a small
holographic projector with two batteries duct taped to the side. A
mini-computer was welded under the projector and a dangling cable strung out
from under the casing of the mini-computer.
It looked like something McGuffin would build.
Anna plugged the cable into the phone, tapped a button on
the mini-computer, and a fuzzy, three dimensional maze. In the center of the
glittering greenish maze was a glowing blue-white dot, and a few corridors away
from that dot was a red dot – which flashed and winked invitingly. It didn't
move for a few moments, then started – tracking through corridors in quick,
jagged motions. Anna handed the phone to Jimmy.
Pixie: moving, J. typing hard.
A.Sinclare: Don't focus on typing. We'll find you.
Pixie: actually idea I
The red dot vanished and a image showed up on the phone. It
said: Pixie has disconnected.
The plastic click of the phone closing sounded painfully
final to Jimmy's ears.
Anna sighed. "Let's go."
She started jogging down the corridor, heading for the
nearest right turn, shoving the apparatus back into one of her infinitely deep
jacket pockets.
Jimmy hurried after her. "Okay, what do-"
"Shh!" She hissed, pausing at the corner and
glancing around it. She cocked her head...and Jimmy heard the faint sound of
motion.
Anna glanced at him, then jerked her head in the direction
of that sound.
They were two corridors closer when the sound of a SNAP and
a "ARGH!" came. That snap had been metallic and the argh came from
Pix!
There she was, running down the corridor, her arms still
tied behind her back. Something was strange about her head, but Jimmy didn't
have time to notice that. He shouted, hand waving: "This way!"
Anna drew a cheapo revolver and started to pop off shots.
The shots made weird sploch noises rather than the normal bang Jimmy was used
to hearing from guns. Six green globs slapped against the walls, marking off a
circle around the middle of the corridor. One after the other, the globs stared
to grow, till most of the corridor was covered with the greenish guck,
dribbling and dripping from the ceiling. Like a giant's tissue after a bad
cold. The distinct smell of acid wafted through the corridor. Jimmy realized,
quite suddenly, that he didn’t want to see anything that wasn’t build out of
Harbinger metal touch that green goop.
"Now run," Anna said.
The Xorquin, stuck on the other end of all the green, glared
at them as they rushed away.
###
"By the...oh...I'm going to kill that son of a
bitch!"
"It doesn't hurt as much as it looks," Pix said,
her voice brave. Jimmy carefully ran his fingers along her hairline, face set
with worry. He felt the smooth base of her left antenna, then a jagged edge-
"I'm going to kill him!" He growled, softly,
wincing as his finger caught on a jagged bit of metal. "He just sapped
them off!?"
Pix nodded. Jimmy slid his hand down to her cheek...put her
face up. She looked into his eyes. She blurred, suddenly and Jimmy blinked away
the tears, sniffling. "I was so worried." Talking around the boulder
that sat on his chest was hard. It was worth it. Pix put her hand on his wrist,
stroking his skin. Jimmy slid his palm down...shivered.
Her skin was so smooth.
Pix slid forward and Jimmy noticed a line of red on her
cheek. Blood from his pointer finger, sliced open on the jagged end of her
broken antenna. His fingers brushed over her ear, then slid into the back of
her hair. She moved forward, pushing forward with her back foot. Breath hot.
Her nose bumped into his nose. Pix flinched back and Jimmy's
arm dropped.
She turned a bright red. "Uh, what..." She looked
and saw his bleeding finger. "Ah! Your finger."
"S'nothing," Jimmy muttered.
But the moment was broken. A bumped nose, the electric
feeling of her skin, and that look in her eyes...all jumbled up...
Jimmy had no idea how he managed to stand still with all
these thoughts tumbling through his head. Say you love her. Tell her how the
thought of her being kidnapped or worse, how it had made his heart stop
working, made it hard to breathe. Say SOMETHING!
"Ahem."
Pix, being Pix, didn't move an inch. She just turned her
head and glared at Anna. "Ahem yourself, we're talking here."
Anna sighed and pointed at her own wrist. She didn't
actually have a watch, but the meaning was clear. Time.
Pix sighed. Anna turned back around and started walking
slowly.
"I guess we'd bet-"
Pix grabbed the front of his shirt, turned her head this
time, and slammed her lips into his. Jimmy's teeth bumped against his lips and
her tongue slid into his mouth. His eyes went very wide, even as hers went very
closed.
Five seconds and ten eternities later, she let him go and
stepped back. She was panting, face flushed. Her left eye opened. Jimmy stared
at her.
"Okay," she said.
"Iwasdumbforbeingmadandumlet'sneverdothatagain."
Jimmy nodded, unable to speak. Pix nodded back at him, her
two front teeth hooked over her bottom lip.
"Could...you...say that again slower?" Jimmy
asked. Pix opened her mouth.
"AH-HEM."
"Right." Pix took Jimmy's hand and dragged him
after her.
###
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