Some Thing Called Myself (Complete)

XVII: something different

Ch. 17: Something Different

"What?" Mirtes's jaw slacked. "Tai, don't."

They ignored her.

"Tai, wait!" Mirtes shouted. "You'll get in trouble again—Tai!"

Mara and Tai left Mirtes behind, far away in the Third Ring, while they crossed to the second. In it, Mara's eyes met Bernardo's, and the confusion in them morphed into nothing but the deepest fury as he looked at Tai. Bernardo tried to reach them, but one of the cockroach's legs blocked the way—and ruined the Sent's formation.

It screeched again. The cockroach looked more furious than ever as it limped on its broken leg, and each of its attacks made the ground quake. Unlike before, its long legs swiped down like spears trying to impale its enemies.

"Duck!" Tai shouted.

One of the cockroach's legs swiped over their heads, lifted, and went down again, almost piercing through Bernardo.

"What now?" Mara said. She got up again and looked from the pistol to the monster. "I'm not seeing the red light!"

"What red light, Mara? Just fucking shoot!" Tai answered. They tackled her to save her from another stomp. "Shoot, Mara, shoot!"

Still on the floor, wrapped in Tai's arms, she raised the weapon—and when she did, something, a presence maybe, brushed against her mind. Mara shook her head and took aim. There. The red light!

"What the hell are you kids doing in the first ring?" Commander Carlos shouted.

"Bernardo! Take them out of here; they're gonna get themselves killed," Solúcia added.

Mara thought she felt Bernardo approaching, but she ignored him. She took a deep breath, steadied her hands, and pulled the trigger.

I'm sorry, little one.

For a moment, the cockroach's focus turned to her, almost as if it could hear her.

Then, her whole world went red.

***

Sentinel HQ, The Next Day

Mara tried to stop herself from smiling but couldn't.

Life had changed yesterday when she killed that cockroach, and it had changed for the better.

After the cockroach fell, frozen inside the death of her massive body, the middle-aged man who gave Mara the pistol finally approached them. He had a kind smile on his lips when he helped Mara up—and away from Tai's arms—and he patted her clothes with a fatherly subservience. That same smile continued on his lips as he thanked his Sentinels for all their bravery and hard work. The man climbed up the still-twitching body of the cockroach, thrust a hand in the very middle of it, and yanked the blood-red ruby out.

"The Life Force of a cockroach killed at night," he had said, raising the massive ruby. "And thanks to Mara, it'll feed our Kerana tree. A round of applause for Mariana Alakija Fonseca. Today, she was the bravest among us."

And they did applaud, some with more energy than others.

It was...surreal.

When the several squads of Sentinels came back to HQ together—slowly this time, walking through seemingly endless tunnels and paths and abandoned neighborhoods that Mara had never seen in the heart of São Paulo—Mara knew things would never be the same. No one questioned where she had found the pistol; they questioned how she could have hit the cockroach's weak spot in her first shot.