More Than This

The tank finally fills while I brood on the next move. Go check out Dingo’s place, maybe try to figure out where he is. Maybe he was the one peeping in windows and driving Black Cadillacs. It wasn’t that I trusted Iago, just that he didn’t have many reasons to lie about that. Not to mention a proper Enlightenment soldier wouldn’t have had much trouble remaining unseen if he wanted to spy on me. But Dingo was hotheaded and liable for making mistakes. Sunshine swabs my arm again and hands me a band-aid. “You know, I can get myself out of here,” I comment. Sunshine shakes his head and we head to the exit together, “Sorry Shade, but you’re not…you’re not a vampire anymore,” he says. Up through the stairs and around the secret wall. For a second I picture what it would be like if I ratted this place out. Cops came busting in and hunting for a pack of mass murderers. They would be slaughtered. The bullets would bounce off the Enlightened and they would all beat a hasty exit through the tunnels underneath. If they could even get past the security and blast doors. Even the Paladins, armed with their Holy Guns, wouldn’t walk away without some scars. It wasn’t that letting me go was the nice thing to do, it was that it didn’t really matter. I wave to the guard and we’re back out on the street. I light a cigarette and start reaching for my cell phone. “Shade…there’s something I want to ask you. What’s it like? Being human again?” Sunshine asks me. I text Ferris to come pick me up. I take a long drag and stare out at the night sky. It’ll be morning soon. Ferris and I should stop to get coffee somewhere. Maybe talk about that kiss a bit. “You need more. More than all this,” I say with a waving gesture over the Enlightenment Building. He nods and his remaining arm brushes the socket where its companion used to be. “More than the Book?” Sunshine asks. “Something like that” I answer.