A Hero's Lament | ONC 2023

Beset

Sunlight filters through Cash-Strapped Bank's shattered ceiling, casting jagged shadows onto the Persian carpet, grotesque maws swallowing once-crimson patches cleansed mere hours ago.

Above the seven chandeliers, construction workers murmur opinions regarding Eros' lethal force against the heisters while sluggishly labouring. Below, customers queue before the service counter, dozing at repeated advertisements flashing across screens above the clerks' heads or bowing over their phones, unconcerned a hostage situation recently occurred at this very site.

Tristan barely registers the arguments praising or condemning his actions. As a skinny colleague struggles to maintain his balance while hauling the next mirrored glass panel up his ladder, Tristan rushes to provide assistance. As always, the others grab a moment to marvel at Tristan's extraordinary athleticism.

The foreman paces beneath his workers' ladders, beaming, hollering an occasional instruction, animatedly gesticulating while praising Tristan's exceptional skills and work ethic on the phone.

Shrieking children skip away from the queue; their parents bicker about the heist anew as the boy elected to play Eros rushes at his targets and pretends to rip their hearts out of their chests.

Before the children's re-enactment intensifies, the foreman concludes his call then requests Tristan's immediate presence. In an impassioned monologue, boisterous enough for every person in the lobby to overhear, he unveils Tristan's promotion and subsequent assignment to a task force handling Mayor Chamberlain's response regarding the Asmodeus situation.

The foreman ceases his explanation when a black sedan parks outside. Hurriedly, he thanks Tristan for his contributions to the team, praises his skills again, laments inequality robbing countless youngsters of tertiary education, rambles about untapped leadership potential, ushers him toward the car then stuffs him inside.

Tristan instantly recognizes Mayor Chamberlain's right-hand man's slicked hair, pristine business suit and dark sunglasses. The man wastes no time confirming Tristan's promotion to a foreman then details the purpose behind this ad hoc shake up: Mayor Chamberlain's decision to form a fragmented task team charged with demolishing the city's Eros statues by tomorrow evening.

Before Tristan digests the meaning and long-term ramifications of Mayor Chamberlain's decision, before the weight of failing to accomplish what Hayleigh struggled to raise him for crushes him, the sedan parks at the Gemini Plaza. A group, dressed in construction gear, stand ready to commence the operation.

Bitter emotions blur sledgehammers' thunderous strikes shattering the Gemini Plaza's statue. Throughout, onlookers swarm the site, capturing the demolition for Check-Dat content. Brushing away tears, thankfully mingled with perspiration, every swing hauls vivid memories of Tristan's fists plunging through flesh and the silhouette's unrelenting strikes resounding in that murky hallway.

***

Towering trees canopied the northernmost suburbs' winding streets. Palatial residences peered through dense foliage at the single taxi disturbing the quietude. The taxi driver rolled his eyes at the radio as Ajay Chatterjee lambasted Mayor Chamberlain's move to demolish the Eros statues as hollow, populist and short-sighted. On the other hand, Mayor Chamberlain called for patience, assuring Ajay Chatterjee and his listeners that efforts to preserve and reformulate the guardian's societal role, while holding Asmodeus accountable to the public, were underway.

Tristan had normalized the taxi's steady thrum and cigarette scent. Constantly shifting his attention between his phone, the street lights blurring past and the driver's baggy eyes in the rear-view mirror, he craved a distraction from the anxiety his intention to reveal his identity to Alya induced. Considering his recent actions and their projected relationship, he accepted that she had a right to know.