Cosmo Prison - Book 1: The Edge of Earth

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

*Leo Qi*

After Christy’s melodramatic introduction, Ruiran leads me back through the door and into the room I’d woken up in.

She stands in front of me now, looking at me, but not quite meeting my eyes. Her arms are folded almost protectively across her chest, as if she’s hugging herself.

The door vanishes, leaving the two of us alone.

I’m the first to break the silence. “Where’s Debbie?”

At the mention of Debbie’s name, Ruiran’s lip curls. What’s up with her?

“I don’t know. Christy’s not happy with her.”

“Oh,” is all I can manage.

Ruiran notices the crestfallen look on my face. “Who is she to you? Your girlfriend?”

I stare. “No, she’s not my girlfriend. But I care about her.”

“I can tell how much you two like each other,” she says with a scowl, then turns away, signaling an end to our conversation.

I can sense a note of something other than annoyance in her tone. Sadness? Anger? Jealousy?

Maybe she had a boyfriend once. If she did, I wonder what happened to him. Must’ve been something horrible to make her so bitter at the simplest mention of love.

Thinking of Debbie leads my mind elsewhere, to thoughts of home, of family. Bringing me to yet another mystery. Are my parents and brother safe? I’ve had no way of knowing, being stuck here in my new prison.

Better to focus on the problems I can solve. Although I’m dying to find out how my family is doing, I have to ask Ruiran about Debbie.

“Ruiran?”

She turns at the sound of my voice and looks me in the eye for the first time. A strange emotion flickers across her face, but disappears too quickly for me to make sense of it. “Yeah?”

“Can you help me find Debbie?” I ask.

Her eyes harden. “Now, Leo, why would I help you?”

I shrink away from her. “Uh, because...” I can’t find a good reason. My voice peters out.

Something changes in her eyes. With a sigh, she nods and says, “I can try my best.”

*Ruiran Xun*

I trace my finger down the cracks in the stone walls. Every one of those cracks is another break in my life, a gap that won’t ever be fulfilled. One of them is Leo.

So far, almost everything he’s said has had something to do with Debbie. Debbie this, Debbie that, Debbie everything.

If I had made better choices in this horrid life of mine, if I had allied myself with Leo instead of with Christy, if I had chosen human compassion over mutant greed, if I’d met him before Christy, would he be thinking about me instead of Debbie?

His voice jolts me out of my thoughts. “Ruiran?”

I struggle to maintain my mask of calm as I lift my gaze to his face, but I’m aware of letting a bit of my feelings escape. After finally regaining control, I say, “Yeah?”

Leo’s face is full of anxiety. “Can you help me find Debbie?”

How slow is he? Hasn’t he realized that mentioning Debbie just makes everything worse for both of us? “Now, Leo, why would I help you?” I snap.