Chapter 2: Stray Sparks
539 Words
The storm hit fast.
Wind tore through the broken streets, flinging ash and debris into the air like ghosts clawing at the sky. Maxxi ducked under a collapsed awning, stone-faced as the wind screamed past. Her coat flapped behind her like a torn flag.
Then she heard it—
Not the wind.
A voice.
“Hello?! Anyone out there?!”
Stupid.
She stayed still.
One of two things shouted in the open these days: the naïve or the suicidal.
The voice came again, closer this time. “Please! I don’t want trouble—I just need shelter!”
A moment passed.
Then Maxxi vanished, space folding around her like silk. A flicker. A blink. She reappeared silently on a nearby rooftop, crouched low behind a broken railing, watching.
Below, weaving between abandoned cars, came a boy—no, a young man. Maybe nineteen, maybe twenty. Messy black hair. Worn leather jacket. A rusted rifle slung across his back, a backpack half open and spilling supplies.
Maxxi narrowed her eyes.
He wasn’t limping. Wasn’t starving. Not new. But not hardened either.
His head jerked suddenly toward a rustle—two wild dogs emerging from the shadows, ribs showing through their fur. They snarled.
The boy backed up, fumbling for his gun—
Too slow.
Maxxi sighed.
With a twitch of her fingers, space buckled beneath the dogs. They dropped mid-sprint, disappearing into a hole that shouldn’t have existed. The void shimmered, swallowed them, then sealed.
Silence.
The boy froze, blinking in confusion. He hadn’t seen her. Didn’t understand what had just happened.
Maxxi could’ve left it at that.
But something in her shifted. A thread tugged. She hated when that happened.
---
He found her two hours later—mostly because she let him.
“You saved me,” he said, panting as he stepped into the derelict mall she’d chosen for shelter. “Back there. With the dogs.”
She didn’t respond. Didn’t even look at him.
He tried again. “I’m Aiden. I’ve been out here for... I don’t even know. I lost track after my group got ambushed near Westpoint. You're the first person I’ve seen in days.”
Still silence.
He moved closer, slowly, hands up. “I’m not asking you to trust me. I just need a place to stay tonight. Tomorrow I’ll go.”
Maxxi’s voice was cold and flat. “If you talk too much, I’ll fold your mouth shut.”
Aiden blinked. “I... What?”
She turned to face him then, eyes like frozen steel. “You heard me.”
And something about the way she said it—like she meant every word—shut him up fast.
---
But he stayed.
Slept a few meters away, curled near a vending machine. Didn’t ask questions. Didn’t thank her again.
In the middle of the night, Maxxi sat on the edge of the balcony, watching the stars ripple like cracks in glass. She could feel the city shifting again, space pulling at its seams.
Aiden stirred behind her.
“I think the world’s dying,” he murmured.
Maxxi didn’t look back. “It already did.”
“Then why are we still here?”
She didn’t answer.
Because she didn’t know.
- Writer
