Alexis hadn't skated in five years, but her legs did most of the remembering for her, and it was as if she had never stopped at all. She had needed a respite from the isolation of the condominium, and luckily, the ice skating rink at the Domino City fair had provided her with the perfect out. Though she couldn't do the complicated triple loops or flying camels of her youth, spin and jump the young woman did, until she feared her legs would give out.
But Alexis's legs were stronger than she gave them credit for, and so her fear was for nothing.
About ten minutes from the time when the Zamboni came to clear the ice, Alexis saw that she had amassed a small crowd of admirers watching her from afar, and her face glowed with pride. One of her admirers, a little boy, stuck his face against the glass that separated the spectators from the skaters. His mouth was parted in an astonished o.
Then a younger girl standing beside the boy whispered, "Look, Ushio, a figure skater. Isn't she beautiful? Do you think I can skate like her someday?"
Ushio laughed. "No way, Miho."
The girl Miho scowled. "What? Really!? You take that back, you big idiot!"
As the young woman watched these two siblings bicker, a memory washed over Alexis as if it was brought on by a tidal wave.
She pulled at her brother's blue jacket. "Hey, hey, do you think I can skate like Kristi Yamaguchi someday?"
But Atticus only laughed. As he struggled to cling to the railing at the edges of the rink, he said, "Are you kidding, Lexy? You'd bust an ankle before jumping into the air like her!"
She pouted. Did a little bunny hop in place to prove her point. "I would not."
He stuck his tongue out at her. "Would so."
"Would not!"
Atticus stumbled off the ice. "Would TOTALLY so!"
Zane sighed. He was no stranger to their constant bickering, but he still found it tiresome. "Do you have to tease her all the time like that, Atticus?" He had been watching them from behind the faded hockey rink glass, being never much of a skater himself.
In a tone that indicated the answer should have been self-evident, Atticus laughed, "Yeah, I gotta! Comes with the big-brother territory, Zane. Didn't you get the memo?"
Drily, Zane remarked, "Must've missed the committee meeting. Syrus would never stop crying his eyes out if I teased him the same way you tease Alexis." Then, to her, he said, "I believe in you. Don't give up."
As the siblings' playful banter continued, Alexis became envious. She was beginning to think she'd never see her own brother again.
But then, past the crowd, she saw something interesting. A tall man standing high above the afternoon festivities. She hadn't realized there was a balcony by the clock tower, but now that she had, she saw him, and the two men that stood behind him.
For an instant, Alexis thought she would stumble backward, then dash off the ice into the crowd. The man looked familiar, almost too familiar… but for some inexplicable reason, she couldn't place him.
Tilting her bird-like chin further upwards, she squinted to look past the sun's rays and at him. But it was as if he was made of shadow, for even in the bright light of day, his figure twisted and changed. All she could see of him was that he blocked the sun.
And his eyes were looking down on her.
When Alexis returned that evening from the ice rink, she noticed a young man was standing at the front door of the condominium. He was looking into the window at the residence pensively, and his arms were folded across his chest. Everything about him seemed to shine amidst the setting sun's glow: his pale skin, his pale hair, his pale eyes. Even the gold accessories adorning his clothing seemed to shine with a brilliant light. He looked like a dashing prince taken straight out of a book of fairytales.
After climbing the stairs to her residence, Alexis stopped a few feet from the edge of the landing, then took one, two steps back. The man's handsome face should have put her at ease, but instead it did the opposite. She couldn't imagine why such a person would be here, at Atticus's place.
An eyebrow raised, she called out, "Can I help you?"
The young man turned instantly at the sound of her voice. Alexis's initial impression of his being royalty only grew stronger, for the man wore a silver military-style suit covered by a deep turquoise cloak, with gold shoulder pads embellished with delicately woven golden tassels.
Upon catching sight of her, the man then bowed slightly at the waist and smiled.
In a tone just short of a shout, he responded, "My sincerest apologies, miss! I stopped here because I was surprised to find this residence occupied. It's been vacant for a long time."
"I'm aware," Alexis said coolly, maintaining her distance from the stranger. His sudden presence here brought a deluge of questions rushing into her mind, one after another in repeated succession. Who was this oddly dressed young man? Did everyone in town know about the vacancy in the condominium? Could he know who had written the message on the back of her brother's graduation photograph?
When the man looked lost for words, Alexis cleared her throat and asked, "Who are you again?"
"Right-o! Sorry about that, sometimes I just get so tongue-tied when I'm talking to a pretty girl! I'm Aster," he said, striding forward, and finally stopping when he was in front of her. He then held out his right hand for a shake. "Aster Phoenix. The company I work for is one of the main benefactors of Domino City. You may have heard of it over the radio waves. We put out a lot of advertisements these days!"
She looked down at his outstretched hand. The gesture seemed friendly enough, but Alexis couldn't shake the feeling that something about this whole situation was just… off. She shook her head in lieu of shaking his hand. "I haven't. Sorry."
Aster's hand dropped to his side, but he kept smiling. "Of course! No problem. What's your name?"
After a little bit of initial hesitation, she said, "It's Alexis." She did not tell him her last name.
Aster then looked about the vicinity for a few moments, then said:
"Alexis! Wonder alive, I like it. You know, you look pretty new to the city. Maybe we could go out sometime! It must be hard to be on your own without having any connections … I could give you a tour of Domino. What do you say?"
She stared at him, dumbfounded. This guy, Alexis thought wryly, really has a way with words. First, he shows up to my condo completely unannounced, then he asks me out on a date. I wouldn't be surprised if he's gotten security called on him more than once.
His nerve, she thought afterwards, only rivals Jaden's. Maybe they'd be good friends.
She took another look at Aster and his regal yet outdated outfit. Then again, maybe not.
But Alexis remembered she was without a friend in this sprawling city. Even if she didn't really trust this strangely dressed stranger, it probably wouldn't be wise to go off burning bridges with people she hardly knew. He could provide the answers to the questions she had moved to Domino to solve.
"Maybe I'll take you up on that, um..." her voice trailed off as she fumbled for his name.
Aster's smile widened until he was positively beaming. "Aster Phoenix. But just Aster is totally fine. Only my dad ever calls me by my last name." In the pocket of his suit, she heard the faint ring of a cell phone. She thought it sounded like the jingle to a children's television show.
"Whoops! Looks like duty calls! Guess work never ends for a hero."
After passing her a piece of paper with his number written on it, he jogged past her and down the stairs to a silver car she hadn't noticed before. It was parked on the driveway next to hers. The license plate was hard to see, but the letters marked out:
D-HERO
She fought back a laugh. It didn't come as a surprise to Alexis that a guy dressed as extravagantly as this "Aster Phoenix" would have an equally ridiculous vanity plate. Still, she didn't know whether she ought to find him completely absurd or extremely impressive.
After looking up at her from inside his car, Aster rolled down his tinted window and called out:
"In the meantime... You should be careful about the company you keep, Alexis. There can be some unsavory types in this city, for sure. You can never be too sure of a person's intentions nowadays."
After Aster's impromptu visit, however, Alexis found that she was unable to rest soundly. The ice skating had provided only a temporary reprieve from the thoughts currently troubling her. She rolled over on Atticus's bed — her bed now — and thought about what to do. She thought about calling her friends. But what could she possibly say to them?
Hey, Jay, Bastion. I think someone's stalking me, but I'm not sure if it's the strange guy who was watching me skate earlier today or the man who came to my door dressed as Prince Charming.
Alexis was sure they'd find that she'd lost the little remaining sanity she had left. But hey, maybe her friends would find her new personality charming. Charming, and insane. Two words Alexis had never thought she'd use to describe herself.
She looked around the empty space and shivered.
No sense freezing to death, Alexis thought, and got up to turn up the thermostat. But while she was in the center of the condominium's living room, she noticed there was a hearth.
Atticus's voice rang in her head. "You know what I'm gonna do when I have my own place? I'm gonna have my own fireplace. That's when you'll know I've made it, Lex."
She folded her arms across her chest and rubbed the sides of her arms. Pimply gooseflesh was what her palms felt underneath.
Probably wouldn't hurt to turn on the fireplace.
She crouched down and smiled. Look, there's still firewood.
But upon checking the fireplace grating, Alexis saw a crook of a white edge poking up out of the charred wood. The white against all that black ash intrigued her. She reached in and retrieved it after blowing away the soot.
Lo and behold, inside the fireplace was a small scrap of paper, perhaps an old message. A name could be made out, although it was faint and hard to see.
She focused her eyes down on it, and received a shock. It was a letter. Addressed to her.
Alexis cocked her head and her dark blond hair fell to one side like a golden curtain thrown over her shoulder. Another letter? But she had been certain she had checked the whole house… Then again, it wasn't exactly in a place she would have thought to check.
And she was going to burn it. Somehow she wondered how she had graduated from high school at all.
After lighting the hearth, she flopped onto the couch and watched the movement of the flames behind the fireplace. They seemed to take the shape of tiny dragons.
She rolled over and sat upright.
Enough of this. I'm not sitting here and waiting for whoever took Atticus to start getting bright ideas about what to do with me.
Once Alexis was safely out of the confines of the condominium and walking the length of the shoreline, she unfolded the dirty letter and began to read.
Lexy:
If you're reading this, you must've come back to the condo. I told you not to come, but what can you do? Sisters are gonna do what sisters are gonna do. I wish you wouldn't be such a freaking PITA, but that's always how you've been. It's why I love you.
"Hate to break it to you, but it runs in the family, Atticus," Alexis muttered with an irritated snort and an eye-roll, but she kept reading. She did this by juggling her old cellphone in one hand and the letter in another, the harsh blue light from the device the only precious source of illumination she had. There had been a lighthouse in the distance, but from the rust that had overtaken the large structure, she thought it long since abandoned.
For your protection, I'm gonna give you some advice, as well as instructions on how to defend yourself.
Listen to me— there's a hidden safe in the condo. The code's 9263. Inside you'll find something you can use to defend yourself, along with some instructions on how to use it.
I'll cut my message here. I don't know who's watching me. You should watch your back too.
In Domino City, there is nobody you can trust.
At the conclusion of her brother's second message, Alexis felt like tearing her hair out. Why was her brother insisting on being so frustratingly vague? Could she not be trusted? When they were growing up, they had been inseparable. They played ice hockey together. Never fought over the last slice of pizza. Teachers that had been fortunate enough to teach both siblings called them the "A-Team."
Her older brother's sudden cageyness both saddened and frustrated her. In the years following his absence, Alexis realized that although she had been surrounded by many friends, she was always lonely. On three separate occasions, Jaden, Bastion, and Chazz had all attempted to ask her out on a date, with only limited amounts of success. They seemed to be more interested in getting into a relationship with her than getting to know her. And so her loneliness only grew, until it was almost fit to bursting.
Atticus was her confidante, her secret-keeper, the one she could trust above anyone else.
But now it seemed as if he had secrets to keep from not just her, but from their parents, and the entire world.
And the thought of it frightened her.
In this moment of enlightened silence, all Alexis could hear was the rain, soft, padding on the distant boardwalk leading to the abandoned lighthouse, and the distant roaring sound of the ocean.
She wondered if anyone had felt the pain she had felt.
Sighing, Alexis brought the letter down to her waist, and looked up. A figure was also standing on the beach's off-white shoreline, his arms folded across his chest. He seemed to be gazing at something unreachable located beyond the ocean horizon.
Hey, Alexis wanted to shout. Are you feeling as alone as me?
An errant gale of wind traveled over the ocean waves and made his black coat flap in the wind. Then, astonishingly enough, the lighthouse she thought permanently defunct turned on, and a bright beam traveled outward, illuminating everything in its path in a wide swatch of yellow light.
The stranger on the shore was now visible.
The midnight blue hair that ended at his shoulders framed his similarly colored eyes. The cheekbones that cut into his face were so sharp one would think whoever made him had done so with a pocketknife.
His appearance caused four words to spring to her mind.
Severe. Hungry. Ambitious.
Zane.
Alexis blinked.
… Zane?
No, it couldn't be. Zane moved away from Domino after graduation. Atticus told her that before.
But then her eyes traveled down from his face to his neck, and there, she spotted the same dragon-like marking that trailed from his collarbone to a spot beneath his clothing. It was the same dragon-like marking that the two men from the balcony had on the sides of their necks.
Her face felt frozen in place.
You have to get out of here.
Right now.
She ran back to the condo.
This time, there was no prince to greet her, and for that, Alexis felt immensely grateful. She didn't know if she could handle another unexpected visit from Prince Charming come hither on silver-sports car-steed.
With a feverous intensity, she began to turn over the place looking for the secret compartment, but this time, Alexis had no respect for how Atticus had left it. Couches were overturned. Beds were pushed to opposite ends. She left no vase unturned, and by the time she had finished, the condominium was unrecognizable.
It was almost like that time when they had a pillow fight.
So many feathers. Their parents had made them pick every last one up and sent them to bed without dinner.
Alexis gave her head a good and sensible shake and continued searching, silently cursing herself for her sudden sentimentality. OK, get a hold of yourself, Alexis. No more dwelling on the past. Find that safe.
After finagling the blueprint of the condominium from a very confused superintendent, she realized that there were only two places that could stow a safe.
One of them was underneath the minibar.
After shoving the wooden minibar to the center of the room, she knocked on the floor and heard a hollow metallic sound.
Aha.
She tore off the carpet there with a pair of scissors and found the handle to a safe. Next to it was an electronic keypad. After inputting the code, she took the handle in both hands and tugged, HARD.
Waiting for her was something she knew had always been there. But she hadn't wanted to think of it.
A sleek black handgun gleamed in the darkness of the safe, coated in a thin layer of white dust.
Reaching in, Alexis gingerly retrieved the gun from its resting place, and found it to be heavier than she had expected. She turned it over and over in her small hands, while being careful to not press or pull on any mechanisms, her only focus being to inspect the handgun closely. The grooves of the weapon felt comfortable in her hand.
Unsettled, she returned the handgun to its place in the safe soon after, and replaced the carpet by gluing it in place. She took only the piece of paper inside. Below the handgun had been a note, written in her big brother's typically sloppy script:
Lex, this is a pistol. It's been pre-loaded. There's an extra magazine in the safe if you need it.
Here are those instructions I promised you.
1. Treat this gun as if it were loaded. ALL THE TIME. Even if it's not.
2. Never point your gun at anything you don't want to shoot.
3. Don't place your finger on the trigger guard and keep the safety ON until you're ready to shoot.
4. When you're certain you want to shoot that bastard, grip the gun with your right hand. Use your left to support. Hold it tight.
5. Lean forward and hold out your arms.
6. Pull the trigger.
At the conclusion of Atticus's third message, Alexis suddenly felt sick, and had to look around the living room and then, out the window, to regain her bearings. Objects that her eyes normally took in—telephone poles, the lighthouse, parked cars, the night sky— she could only barely make them out now. There was a nauseating quality to their distortion.
"This is insane… I have to go to bed," she whispered, but she didn't know who to. But if she went to bed, maybe this whole situation would make sense.
As Alexis Rhodes fell asleep that night, however, these were the only words she remembered.
Pull the trigger.
… Back in the day, kids were told that the internet was scary and to beware of the big bad man who lurked on online chat rooms and hobby forums that could steal you away, never to see the bright light of day ever again.
But this incident happened not online, but on one sunny afternoon, during a carnival the PTA of Domino Middle School had hosted. A strange man at a fortunetelling booth had asked Alexis:
"Do you want to know what your destiny holds, young lady?"
The young Alexis flushed at the thought of being called a lady and nodded eagerly.
The fortuneteller set up a maroon tarot rug on the tabletop and beckoned her forward. After taking a couple of steps towards him, Alexis could see he was much more strange-looking up close. His raven hair was sectioned in two layers, one dark and one light, and he wore two tribal-themed tusk earrings that shook as he moved his head from side to side. Once she had taken a seat at the booth, he had asked:
"Do you know how to read tarot cards?"
She shook her head. Her eyes were on the intricate arabesque patterns on the backs of the cards. They were inlaid with flecks of gold and silver.
He smiled. "That's all right, then."
The man shuffled the deck and set out five cards in a star-shaped pattern.
"The Sun," he murmured, turning the center card over to show her. "That's you."
Intrigued, Alexis peered closer at the tarot card's illustration. The SUN card showed the brilliant yellow sun, but it was flipped upside down so that its smile was turned into a grimace. The fortune teller explained, "The Sun presented in such a way stands for loneliness, uncertainty… the loss of someone. Maybe the loss of part of yourself, too. The death of your innocence."
Alexis shuddered. What the man was saying was a lot for a thirteen year old to take in. And she didn't know why, but something about the tarot cards set her on edge. The other illustrations — a bleeding heart stabbed through with three glinting swords, a man hanged upside down by one ankle — were beautiful, but cruel.
She couldn't bear to look any more, but it was as if her feet were transfixed to this spot. She couldn't move.
Then she felt a hand on her small shoulder and she turned her chin up to look.
Gazing down at her was Zane. His lean face was drawn in a frown, and his white-and-blue uniform jacket was slung carelessly over his shoulders.
"Let's go, Alexis," he said. There was no warmth in Zane's expression or tone as he glanced from her to the tarot cards to the fortune teller and then back to her again. Only a tempered chill. All of a sudden she felt ashamed for having kept her family waiting.
"Ah, but the young lady hasn't had her complete fortune told yet," the mysterious man said with a click of his tongue.
Zane glared at him. Even at only seventeen years old, he could be as intimidating as anybody. "She doesn't need to have her fortune told. What you're peddling is pointless. Worse than absolutely pointless, even. It's misleading and predatory." His expression then softened as he returned his gaze to Alexis. "Alexis. C'mon. Let's go. Your family's waiting for you."
Ignoring the high school boy, the fortuneteller took her little wrist in his hand.
"Don't you want to stay and have your fortune told, young lady?" he asked, rubbing his thumb over the place where her pulse beat within, anxious and thready. His long hair was somehow wilder now and his teeth elongated to the size of fangs.
Alexis hesitated. She felt too frightened to say no to this man.
But she didn't have to.
The very instant afterward, Zane took all of the fortuneteller's tarot cards in one hand and dashed them to the wind. His voice low and dangerous, he snarled, "I told you before, she doesn't need to have her fortune told. Now, let go of her before I make you let go."
And he twisted the man's arm for further emphasis.
But the man did not let go.
Then Alexis heard it. A brittle and fresh sound like a stalk of celery being snapped in half.
It was the crunch of human bone.
"Zane," she whispered. Her voice was the whimper of a trapped animal. "Please stop."
But Zane did not stop. His gaze was reserved exclusively for his victim.
In a sibilant tone just below a whisper, he hissed, "I'm done playing games. Let. Go."
But the man did not let go.
Zane's pupils constricted into brackish-blue pinpricks as he continued to stare hatefully at the man sitting at the fortune telling booth. At that moment, it seemed as if he lived only for the man's pain.
The horrible crunching sound worsened into a sickening POP! as the joint of the stranger's wrist was dislocated and bone separated from bone. Only mere moments before there would be the blue-red color of bruising, and then the yellow-purple swelling, and then —
Alexis was panicking. "Zane, STOP!" she screamed. Blood was rushing to the surface of the man's skin and the older boy was grinning like he was enjoying the change in color. "PLEASE JUST STOP!"
With only a whimper and a moan, the fortuneteller slumped backwards into his seat, and released Alexis from his grasp. Zane did the same for him. Both schoolchildren left the auditorium soon after.
Alexis made sure to follow three paces behind him. Walking by Zane's side after that would be unthinkable.
"... Maybe Alexis should get a bodyguard," the elder Truesdale sibling said once they had returned to the Rhodes home. He had been in the kitchen peeling potatoes for vegetable soup. The behavior, Alexis thought, was strangely domestic for Zane. But the repetitive shearing motion seemed to put him at ease, so she didn't mention it. Zane had spent the entire car ride afterwards either grinding his teeth together or drumming his fingertips on the steering wheel.
Peeling potatoes was probably better for his state of mind.
"A bodyguard? Don't you think you're being a little paranoid, man?" Atticus echoed, struggling to contain a laugh from his seat on the couch. "We don't live in that bad of a neighborhood!"
Zane was silent. Then he put down the paring knife on the countertop.
"It only takes a single moment in a person's life for their paranoia to be justified forever," he said. And Zane didn't say a word more, but he continued to peel potatoes. He didn't stop until Alexis's reflection in the sink was covered in endless twisted spirals of dirty potato skin.