Identity

Ken shouldered past person after person, moving closer and closer to the girl.

She was entranced by the light, it seemed. Her eyes were locked on her hand inside its boundary. I have to get to her, he thought.

He’d felt that fearsome power not long prior, but the imprint it left on him was deep. It baffled him that the girl was so nonchalant about holding her hand within it.

He pushed closer and closer, people shouting things at him as he bumped them out of the way. He prayed silently that he would make it in time, but he wasn’t sure how long these even lasted. He wasn’t even sure how long this one had been here in the first place.

At last, he burst from the crowd into a much less densely populated segment of sidewalk: the edge of the sphere.

The shaking, swimming motion of the space inside resisted him as he pushed against it, but that, too, he moved past.

Now, there was nothing between him and the girl. People seemed to be more consciously steering clear of the area now. Ken assumed it was because the phenomenon was intensifying. Not a good sign for him. He broke into a run, hoping he would make it in time.

She looked up at him. Her eyes, starry as they peered through the distortion of the boundary, shot wide as they saw him sprinting at her.

“Hey!” Ken shouted, “Get back!” That was all he could get out before reaching her. He reached out his arms, ready to grab her and push her back.

She quickly, nimbly, sidestepped like a matador would a bull, withdrawing her hand and pivoting back on her outer foot.

Ken, anticipating the resistance of colliding with her, careened over forward. He slammed his hands and knees on the sidewalk, rolling onto his back in a heap from the momentum.

In spite of the combination of burning on his hands and knees and aching in his joints, he rolled over and up to be sitting up, ready to jump up again. But the girl was no longer reaching into the boundary. In fact… the boundary had disappeared. Along with the storefront it’d intersected with.

It looked empty—perhaps it’d closed up after the extirpation zone appeared overlapping with it. But… where was the rest of the destruction?

No one had died that he could tell from people’s reactions, the building was relatively undamaged, and even the sidewalk and nearby trees hanging over it were intact. Ken was sure it was large enough to knock the building over, but seeing the rather lame destruction it left behind compared to what he saw… he couldn’t help but question his memory.

Ken put his head in his hand, rubbing it as though that would help him remember.

The girl walked over to him, standing over him with a pitying gaze. She didn’t extend a hand to help him up.

“That was dangerous. Don’t do that again.” He saw her eyes sweeping over him out of the corner of his own. It seemed she was checking for injuries.

“Right, well, normally I wouldn’t,” he replied, groaning as he stood up. “But considering you had your hand stuck in there…” He trailed off.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she snapped back at him. “Don’t interfere with—” Her words caught for the briefest moment as she spoke. “—other people’s business,” she finished.

Ken had caught the pause. And now, as they locked eyes, he saw a flash of recognition that he couldn’t say he shared.

He dismissed it. Why would he know some random girl like this, in a city this large?

He took a step to move past her, but she stepped in front of him.

“I know you,” she muttered.

Ken’s eyes narrowed as the tension rose at her words. His eyes scanned her face again and again. But he didn’t feel the same recognition.

“Ah. Remind me,” he replied, taking a step back.

The girl just stared blankly back at him for a while, but eventually opened her mouth to speak. “From where I know you isn’t important.” She scowled at him. “But what should matter to you is I know what you’re doing.”

Ken raised an eyebrow, but inwardly he was panicking: it was too much uncertainty for his mind to handle. “How could you know that?” he responded, shifting uncomfortably in place.

She eyed him up and down with the skepticism of a prison guard looking on their detainee. “You work with that madwoman.” A shadow flickered over her face. “I’m actually glad I found you.”

Something flared in Ken’s chest at the mention of the madwoman—he only knew one person fitting that description. He marched forward, confidence restored somewhat. “I’ve heard enough.” He stepped out to the side of the girl, trying to let himself be taken by the flow of other pedestrians.

But the girl’s hand shot into the crowd like a viper’s jaws, yanking him back into the opening in the crowd of people left by the extirpation, yet to be filled by open-minded passersby. She had strength not betrayed by her slight frame, nearly throwing Ken to the ground again.

He brushed himself off. “What the hell?” he muttered, putting up his hands defensively.

“You are Dr. Ken Soma. You work with Dr. Irina Alexandrova.” She stared at him blankly, but he could feel the intensity radiating from behind her eyes. “I know the nature of the work you’ve been doing—and I know her role in this.” She gestured to the open air behind her, and the vanished storefront.

“I… have no idea what you’re—”

“Yes,” she cut him off, “You do.” She breathed deeply, releasing the tension in her body. Ken reflexively did the same. “And you don’t know the effect it will have. ”

Ken shook his head. “How could you know any of that? Why should I even believe anything you’ve said?” He scoffed, starting to walk off.

Ken’s mind whirred now. How did she know him? He racked his brain, searching for the memory of her But all he could find were the memories of the past draining month, everything else filed away for the time being.

“You’ll regret following this to its end,” she said to his back as he passed. But she let him walk away, this time. “She hasn’t told you everything,” she called after him. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

Though her voice faded due to the sounds and motion of the crowd, Ken turned back at her last words. But she, too, had slipped into the crowd’s flow, disappearing among it and headed the other direction.

“What…?” Ken thought aloud. Now’s not the time to think about it, Ken thought. Right now, I just want to get home.

He trudged back to the bus stop, mind spinning all the while no matter how hard he tried to thrust aside her words. He didn’t know what she possibly could have meant, but it was nothing good.

But… maybe it didn’t matter, Ken reasoned. No matter what, Irina was still their best chance at beating the phenomenon. But as Ken sat down at his stop, one thought plagued him as he tried to internalize that idea.