The Road Less Traveled

The blade’s blue glow was hypnotic—likely amplified by the mystery behind it in the first place. After all, Slater still had many unanswered questions regarding the object, although most related more so to the woman who had given it to him. What was she running from? Could she have been from the government? Perhaps even a secret agent? She also showed some interest in Slater himself, but before he lost himself to a host of hypotheticals and theories, Slater simply glanced at his handiwork laying face first on the pavement and decided the best course of action would be distancing himself from it as fast as possible.

While his feet began to move him out of the alleyway, they stopped just shy of exiting when he noticed the blade was still activated, and walking through the street with a glowing blade was the opposite of keeping a low profile.

He awkwardly fiddled around with the unfamiliar device in his hands. Should anyone have witnessed his fight just moments prior, they would’ve been confused at how one can go from handling something so adeptly to completely unaware of what to do. Eventually, turning around the object in his hands seemed to trigger the blade to dissipate somehow.

“I’ll have to figure out that one later.” Slater said to himself, now looking for where to hold the object.

His eyes darted around his sides, before he looked back at the light gray straps scattered about the floor of the alley. Slater quickly foraged for some still sturdy-looking strips, ripping them to be the length he needed, and tying them around the deactivated blade and to one of his belt loops. Jutting his waist around to make sure it was sturdy, Slater left the alleyway and began his run through the labyrinthine streets home.

With each step, his mind became increasingly less worried about the blade and more focused on getting home before Lillian did. That way, he could salvage something to save his hide from his sister’s wrath. As he blazed past person after person, he noticed that even among the small amount of them, none were white-cloaked like the man he fought had been. Fortunately, Slater was able to make it all the way back to his front door without encountering one.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he slowly turned the doorknob and pushed the door open, only noticing Lillian’s bike out of the corner of his eye as he did so. With his absent mind now being flooded with panic, his stomach went to his feet just in time to meet Lillian’s judgmental gaze. Being placed right next to the bubbling pot, Slater had no doubt she had already discovered his handiwork, hammered in by her hands on her hips and her foot tapping at a constant cadence.

His eyes had been captured by his sister’s gaze, so as he closed the door, Slater couldn’t even turn his head to make sure it had shut properly. Losing any sort of confidence he had in the alley previously, Slater could only muster a small shuffle towards Lillian in an attempt to close the awkward distance. By the time he got halfway to the pot, Lillian broke the silence.

“We have limited options you know, Slater.”

She used his first name, this was bad.

“You can’t just go and waste our food. What’s your excuse for leaving midway through the job?” Lillian’s hand gestured to the pot, having bubbles frothing out of it.

“You see I— Uh…” Slater trailed off, his eyes now retreating to the device strapped to his side. He was now torn about how in the world to explain the events of the evening to his sister. Not like that would get him off the hook, though. Before he could think of anything though, his sister’s sigh turned his focus back to her.

Taking one of the mushy and falling apart potatoes out of the pot bare-handed, Lillian looked at it and back to Slater.

“If we’re eating dinner, we’re going to have to find something else. Any ideas?”

Her anger hadn’t subsided, but her focus has shifted and Slater wasn’t about to squander the opportunity.

“If we hurry, we could still—“ Slater started sharing his thoughts, until a blast came from behind him and cut him off. His first thought was how the front door had just flown past him on his left and scattered debris throughout the house. He instinctively jumped to his right, dodging just in time to see Lillian chuck the mushy potato at where the door once stood. Once his head had fully turned, he was able to see two white-cloaked figures standing in the door, with one notably having potato dripping from their face.

“Sorry for the poor hospitality, we weren’t expecting guests.” Retorted Lillian, stern, yet on edge at the surprise visitors. Being unacquainted with Lillian, one would likely assume she was just standing straight up, but Slater was aware she was moments away from trying to pummel the strangers that had invaded their home.

“You’re after me, aren’t you?” Slater let out, half to confirm the enemy’s intentions and half to explain the situation to Liilian.

The non-potatoed disciple stepped through the entryway and began to address Slater. The woman had short brown hair, and a very neutral look on her face.

“We saw you with that thing at your waist. Hand over yourself peacefully, boy. As you have observed, we are not afraid to use force.” The woman pointed out the launched door, only to realize it was no longer there. Before she could voice her reaction, the door came flying back and hit both the white cloaks out of the house.

“That’ll buy us some time.” Lillian told Slater, breathing heavily from the strain of throwing a heavy object. “But not much, follow me and explain what the hell you did on the way!” Slater simply processed his sister’s command and began to rush out the door. As he approached the exit, he put his arms up to his face to brace himself from any attacks the white cloaks could throw at him.

Now outside, Slater saw the two hostiles still moving out from under the door. His mind fixated on what to do should they get up before he and Lillian got away, not realizing staying idle and contemplating was allowing that to occur. His only saving grace was his sister emerging from the house and grabbing his hand, tugging him to the right and pulling him along as she ran.

“This isn’t good, it wasn’t all ready yet!” Lillian’s voice resounded in anger, still making sure her brother was close behind her.

“Are we going somewhere specific?” Slater voiced his thoughts, only now recognizing the fact Lillian was taking a specific path through the streets. The duo zoomed past building after building and almost no people. By now it was getting late enough that even the stragglers had turned in for the night.

Lillian’s face started to show signs of frustration. “I’ll answer your questions when we get there, I just need to concentrate on navigating right now!” was the statement of hers which confirmed her feelings to Slater.

Eventually, while Slater did not know the route, he could tell which part of town they were nearing. Less and less rust became visible on the buildings, more stairs leading up to higher levels came into view, and the sky began to open up more.

“Lillian… Are we going to..?”

“The Middle Levels, yes.” Lillian quickly shot out. “It’s the only place we can escape from those crazies that blew down our door.”

Once Lillian had explained, the siblings had arrived at a large metal fence between two stone buildings, almost as if it had been forgotten about, with the fence simply being the easiest and fastest solution to keeping the two worlds separate. Almost perfectly pairing with what she had said, Slater saw the Middle Levels of New Louis in their entirety through the fence. While the floating monorails blocking out the sky remained out of reach, some of the buildings they now stood at the foot of. Housing in this area was way too expensive for two poor orphans without solid work, but sometimes they had the luxury of peering into the other world through the fence, neon lights blaring down on their faces.

“This is—“ Slater was able to get out, by then Lillian already knew the rest of his thought.

“Where we always used to meet.”

Growing older had done nothing to minimize the feeling of powerlessness the fence blocking them created. In particular, Slater thought back to one time they had visited the partition. Back then, Elio and Cora were still here. He must’ve been around ten at the time.

“We’re gonna make it there someday.” Elio had said, gripping the links of the fence.

“Then you guys can come and live with me!” Cora had replied, excitedly embracing Elio’s suggestion.

That was right, Cora had lived in the Middle Levels. He had almost forgotten from how long she’d been gone, but whenever they played with her, she had always been confined to the other side of the fence. At least, until Cora figured to start climbing over herself.

“Why don’t we just break down the fence now?” Slater had naively asked back then, met with a hand on his shoulder from Lillian.

“If we fight hard enough, I’m sure we’ll make a world where we don’t have to deal with fences!” The young Lillian assured the group. They had laughed in hope back then, and yet, the fence still stood.

Slater saw Lillian trying to slip her feet into the loops, starting to make her ascent over it.

“If we hurry, we can put some serious distance between us and those freaks, come on!” Lillian exclaimed.

The brother walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, tugging slightly.

“Get down, I don’t want to hurt you.” His eyes conveyed to his sister a focus she was not used to. Lost in understanding what her brother was trying to do, she found herself complying with his demand.

Placing a hand on the device on his hip, Slater quickly drew the blade and his hand flew out diagonally. Lillian’s eyes didn’t even track the full moment, but felt a small breeze from the movement that blew through the small forgotten space. The blade had ignited, boring a diagonal hole in the fence, barely big enough for the two to bend and step through.

Slater turned to his sister, who was still trying to understand what she had just seen. His sister’s statement from so long ago echoed in his brain once again, and this time, he gave a reply.

“I think…” Slater thought before he let himself say his next words. He knew what putting it out there meant. Putting it between him and someone else, but it was the next logical step, and so, the words came naturally: “I’m ready to start fighting.”