“I guess this is the end.”
I tell myself as my body goes numb. The heavy bullets of water raining down from the inked sky above feels like light kisses as they pepper my ripped leather bodysuit, and I plummet to the bustling city below me with them.
How did I end up here? With a top-secret plan to overthrow the government, you’d think that I’d be expecting a scenario like this but being mercilessly thrown off the biggest skyscraper by my best friend wasn't what I had in mind. There’s too much going on, but all my mind can do is relentlessly replay the scene before this: the kiss of Judas.
I was on the rooftop of the Archives, the hard drive to reset the corrupt government held tightly in my hand and resting at the edge to catch my breath. My partner Sam was close to finishing setting up the portal back to headquarters. The Gladiators weren’t far behind, but I spared the few moments I had with my partner to revel our success in retrieving the key to saving the citizens of our city. My heartbeat pounded in my ears, and I saw the door to the roof burst open as the Gladiators marched out mechanically in lines of two, radiating a dark red glow. Funnily enough, they didn’t shoot immediately. But once I heard the all-too familiar sound of a C-320 laser gun powering up, I swiftly grabbed my own and turned around to alert Sam that it was time for us to go. This was only to see him with his gun aimed at me along with all of the Gladiators having theirs poised as well. A smirk that made my heart flip was painted on his face as he chuckled at my confusion.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask him, voice quivering with shock.
He swept back his wet blond locks, cyborg eye shining a cerulean spotlight onto my dumbfounded face. “Hand over the Blueprint.”
I shook my head, not believing my ears. What was he saying? My best friend, my partner, erasing all of our hard work to change the world for the better by pointing his gun at me? I racked my brain with the few seconds I had but drew a blank on an explanation for his spontaneous behavior.
“Why are you doing this Sam? We’re so close. You and I have the Blueprint now! We just need to go back to headquarters and-“
The color emitting from Sam’s left eye suddenly flushed out a dark red, matching that of the Gladiators and sending shivers down my spine as it made a stark contrast the soft brown one on the right. The hum of his gun grew louder as the tension between us thickened.
“Don’t make me repeat myself again. Hand over the Blueprint.”
“But…”
I felt hot tears mix with the cold streams of rainwater trace down my face. This didn’t make any sense. I remembered the day I met Sam, thinking of how it was on a night much like this one. I heard the whimpering of a child from the depths of a dark alleyway when I was out with Parker, the man who found me on these same streets. Dragging Parker out of a heated quarrel with the market lady over pig’s feet, we went to investigate. The sight that we saw was heart-wrenching: a child clutching the left side of his face, blinking emptily through the ghastly blood that trickled down with his tears on the other side. Parker took him home and I watched as he crafted an artificial eye for Sam.
I soon learned that Sam was a couple of months older than me, and we grew up together under Parker’s care: training every day and being taught of the evil of the Stars, the corrupt government that let injustice run rampant through the city. Parker worked for the government but had a vision to put an end to the people’s suffering. He told us of the program he created to fix the Stars for good, calling it the Blueprint, and saying that once it was inserted into the system that ran our city, justice and order would be restored. But one night, the Gladiators stormed into our home, arresting Parker for conspiring against the government, and snatched the finished Blueprint from his frail hands. Sam and I both knew we’d never forget how we saw the man we considered our father brutally murdered in front of us and vowed to avenge him.
More moments flashed in my head: the groggy mornings we shared as sunlight poured in from the windows and onto the pages of planning that stuck to our faces from sleeping on them. The laughter following shortly after, looking eye to eye with pure joy. Feeling the small rising and falling of Sam’s chest as I upgraded the utilities in his eye, stuffing the air with an awkward but intimate feel. When he patched up my knee after a specific routine of combat, delicately dabbing the wound and reacting with a worried look every time I let out a hiss from the stinging. The nights we’d both cry ourselves to sleep, hugging each other until the sobs faded away and sleep overcame us. The day we pledged to retrieve and carry out Parker’s vision together, the one phrase that kept me going-
“We were going to rewrite the Stars together.” I managed to choke out, the pain of betrayal suffocating me.
And I could’ve sworn he twitched at the phrase.
“Don’t tell me you were thinking that I was going to share the credit with you,” he said as he let out a laugh. It was the same laugh that brought music to my ears, but now laced with poison. “You’re pathetic. Did you not think about what would happen AFTER we entered the hard drive into the system? We’d be heroes sure, remembered for the rest of time for restoring peace and harmony with a proper government. Large shelves in the Archives dedicated to us probably. We’d be the most powerful. But you know,” his evil smile widened, “I don’t want to share any of that with you.”
With a casual shrug of his shoulders, he pulled the trigger and a laser bullet pierced straight through me. The sear of the laser burned insurmountable pain into my right shoulder, bringing me to my knees as the “apology” he just gave me worsened the clench on my broken heart. The blast made the hard drive fly out of my hand, which Sam caught and pocketed with ease.
He waltzed toward me, the red glare of his eye beaming down upon my injured body as he picked me up by the collar of my suit. I struggled to have him release me, a futile effort with my bloody shoulder NOT helping. Dangling me over the edge, I couldn’t do anything but look helplessly into his eyes and croaked:
“I love you Sam.”
The wicked smile on his face dropped, and the red light in his eyes flickered ever so slightly. He tugged me closer and kissed my forehead softly. He went on to whisper:
“I never loved you. I don’t need you.”
And with that he let me go.
So now I’m here, falling to my death. I watch as the glow of the portal Sam made dissipates, a small sigh leaving me knowing that he’s already gone. As I get closer to the air traffic, cars honk loudly as I fall through the lanes in the sky. I ignore the cacophony and instead take the few moments I have left to see the array of fluorescent lights blur into soft brush strokes of pink, teal, lavender and yellow. Zooming past me and into the air, the colors fade to black. I wince, feeling the ground rapidly approach as I wait for the impact of the asphalt to bring my wretched life to an end.
But it never comes.
Instead I come in hard contact with leather and hear the creak of old rusty springs. I open my eyes in shock and realize that I’ve landed in the passenger’s seat of one of the cars in the skyway. I turn to the driver’s seat to see Sam, grinning at me with the smile I always knew. His eye welcomes me warmly as well, the green-tinted blue hue flashing onto my face.
“It was pretty convincing huh?” he chuckles as he presses the acceleration, making a U-turn eliciting honks from the vehicles around us. “As soon as the Gladiators came in, I needed to put on a show, so we didn’t miss this chance to take back the Blueprint. I didn’t want us to fail Parker. I took the portal to grab the car and get you in time.”
A tsunami of relief washes over me as I slack into the passenger’s seat, lightheaded from the loss of blood, tears brimming my eyes as they lose focus. Sam holds my hand with a bittersweet look on his face. As I fade off into unconsciousness, he says to me softly:
“I love you too.”
I feel a small smile forming on my face as everything goes dark, and Sam ascends into another road in the sky, never letting go of my hand.
I nod to myself.