Chapter 24: Past Catching Up - The Night Market

The pulse of the music from the Kingfisher gave way to the hush of the backstreets, where the city had curled up for the night and left the pavements to echo with their footfalls. Duncan had ducked into a corner shop along the way and emerged with a couple of six packs of whatever was cold and cheap. They didn’t need good beer to keep the night going, just beer.

Laik led, hands in his pockets, Swan and Duncan a half-step behind swapping jokes. Viola and Pepper lingered near the back, sending each other into fits of giggles. Reese launched an empty beer can into a bin with half her body still swaying to a song in her head. She rose her arms triumphantly, taking a fresh one tossed from Duncan as a trophy as they crossed into the dark outline of a nearby park.

The playground sat at its centre, a crooked little thing of metal and wood that had seen better decades. They climbed onto its bones with a reverence reserved for royalty or ruins, claiming the roundabout, the swing set, the benches along the edge. Laik sat on the climbing frame like it was a throne. Pepper perched on a swing, half turning herself with the soles of her boots.

Duncan cracked the beers. Viola offered them out. Someone lit a cigarette, and no one minded the silence for a while. Until Swan cleared his throat like a man about to commit treason.

‘Alright,’ he declared, loud enough to wake a pigeon in a tree nearby. ‘This is driving me absolutely nuts. I’m not gonna do it anymore. No more games, you two; birth or bite?’

Pepper blinked. ‘What?’

He pointed, a beer in one hand, a grin on his face. ‘You’re brother and sister, right? Either by birth, or one bit the other. Which is it? Because it’s all anyone bloody talks about at home and I’m sick of the guessing.’

The question landed, and everyone turned to Laik.

Laik swirled the contents of his can, half amused, half not. ‘Bite,’ he said. ‘I turned her.’

Pepper tensed beside him, her fingers catching the swing’s chain, as if she might vanish into it.

‘Yes!’ Swan punched the air. ‘Knew it. Fucking knew it. Pay up!’

Groans went up around the playground. Duncan and Viola exchanged looks of theatrical betrayal before digging out crumpled notes from their jackets.

‘I hate you,’ Duncan muttered, handing over what was owed.

‘You love me,’ Swan replied, already fanning himself with the pile of winnings like a cartoon aristocrat. ‘You’ll feel better knowing your money is going straight to good things. Like more beer. And maybe some chips. I’m feeling the need for chips.’

Pepper frowned. ‘You were betting on us?’

Swan shrugged, grinning wide. ‘Some of us were curious. Some of us were smarter than others.’

‘Even you?’ Pepper asked, glancing at Viola, who smirked over the rim of her bottle.

‘I had money on you biting him, actually. Figured you might be the type.’

That earned her a ripple of laughter.

‘Don’t look at me like that,’ Viola continued, eyes twinkling. ‘I was curious. Everyone was. The big bad Enforcer has family? There were bound to be questions. Besides, mystery man over there’ – she gestured lazily at Laik – ‘doesn’t exactly scream approachable. People talk.’

Reese scoffed. ‘Yeah, they did. When he came on board, you know how many asked me to be introduced to him? Plenty, I tell you. That dark and mysterious thing was doing you favours.’

Duncan chimed in, ‘I mean, before you came along, everyone else thought the only one who could stand to be around Laik was the stick up his ass. Dude wasn’t exactly friendly. Sorry, Laik, but you know it’s true.’

Laik’s expression went flat. ‘Still doesn’t mean you get to ask about it.’

Swan wasn’t done. ‘Oh, come on. Don’t clam up now! I wanna know how it happened. How’d you two even meet? How long has she been putting up with you?’

‘That’s private,’ Laik said, glancing briefly at Pepper.

Swan groaned theatrically. ‘Boooo! Not an answer!’ He lobbed an empty beer can toward Laik’s head. It bounced off with a hollow twang, and Viola nearly fell off the bench laughing.

Laik didn’t move.

But Pepper . . . she looked around at the group, at the neon light from the corner shop flickering over the dark grass, at the faces she was slowly getting used to seeing. And maybe it was the beer or the late hour, or maybe it was the soft sting of being seen as a curiosity instead of a person, but she smiled.

‘Actually,’ she said, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, ‘I don’t mind telling it.’

Laik looked at her sharply.

But she just looked at the others, the swing creaking gently beneath her, whilst taking a slow sip from her bottle. ‘You want to know how it started?’ she asked.

The others leaned in.

Pepper tucked her knees up on the swing, boots creaking against the metal slats. Her fingers curled around the rust-flecked chains as the frame rocked gently beneath her. The laughter had faded now, replaced by the low hush of wind curling through the park.

She glanced at the others. Swan still held his beer can, Duncan was hunched forward, and Viola leaned against the slide, legs crossed, watching through a curtain of her dark hair. Laik hadn’t moved from where he squatted on the apparatus, cigarette between his fingers, eyes on the ground.

Pepper took a breath and lied as if her life depended on it. Because it did.

‘It was winter. A bad one,’ she began. ‘The snow was constant. The streets never cleared. After university, I’d been moving from place to place, mostly alone. I was running from bad decision to bad decision. Couch to couch. Ended up with bad boyfriends and even worse regrets. Did whatever I liked, thought I was invincible like everyone did in their twenties. Figured if I kept going, I couldn’t be stopped. But things got hard. I got sick . . . real sick. I had burned every bridge I crossed. Family had abandoned me, because why wouldn’t they? And I was working a job in a town that didn’t want me. My escapism was smoking as much weed as I could and riding every asshole who smiled at me right. I was a state.’

Laik’s gaze didn’t shift, but she felt the weight of his attention.

‘I was coughing up blood in the mornings. Pain kept me in bed when I needed to be out of it. Doctors told me to try this, take that. Meds didn’t do anything. Made me feel worse. I soon got tired . . . of, of everything. I remember the night well because I didn’t have enough money for the ’leccy. It was so cold my fingers cracked just trying to light a joint, and I flipped out, trashed the flat. I left to meet my dealer at a nearby laundrette, barely made it through the snow. Waited a couple of hours, but he didn’t show up. I was sitting on a machine, exhausted, coughing up crap in a hanky, wishing that . . . thinking bad thoughts. And then . . .’

She hesitated, taking a large mouthful from her can. By now the lie was coming with absolute ease, but there were fissures in the fiction. The parts she had to make up came instinctively. But there were wellsprings of emotion fighting their way through. And instead of hiding their existence, Pepper used them to their fullest to make the lie believable.

‘Then he walked out of the dark and through the door. Looked like someone else who didn’t know where he was meant to be. I thought he might be dangerous. And he was. Just not in the way I expected.’

A smile curled faintly. One part fond, one part something else.

‘He noticed that I didn’t have anything in the machines and asked me what I was doing. I told him to fuck off. He said that wasn’t nice. So, I repeated myself. He began to smoke. I began to light up. I got the wrong impression; thought he was trying the white knight thing. I told him I didn’t need a man to swoop in and save me.’ She paused, noticing him listening intently. ‘So he didn’t even try. We just sat there for hours. Started talking about everything from the weather, to the people, to the world. And when I coughed so hard I thought my ribs would break, he got a taxi to take me to A&E.’

Swan had stopped drinking. Duncan’s elbows were on his knees, listening. Even Reese had quieted.

‘He came along. I told him about the illness. Said the doctors didn’t care, nobody did, and I was . . . scared. I didn’t want to just be forgotten, you know? Just a headline in a newspaper people skim over. I wanted a life, and it was too early for mine to end. I told him I wasn’t ready to die. And he said, maybe I didn’t have to. Explained what he was, and I bought it.’

By the time she finished, the group had gone still. Viola’s smirk had faded into something thoughtful, her drink resting loose in her hand. Her phone buzzed in a pocket, making her keenly pull it free and type a message.

Reese exhaled slowly. ‘So . . . he bit you?’

Pepper nodded. ‘I let him. I gave him a choice. Either finish it for good, or turn me in to one of you. I didn’t want to make the decisions for a change. And . . . it’s why I’m here now. Because of Laik’s . . . decision.’

The silence thickened. But Laik stepped in then, voice low, adding to the charade.

‘I thought she’d hate me for it after,’ he said. ‘She had that look in her eye. You know the one – where you’re not sure if someone’s going to thank you or stab you in the chest. It’s a lot to deal with. But she’s resourceful. Clever. Stronger than I expected. Smarter too. Got mouthy real fast, but I dunno what I expected.’

That drew a ripple of laughter.

Pepper shot him a look. ‘I was cold. That wasn’t a personality trait. That was bloody frostbite.’

Swan chuckled into his beer. ‘Jesus. That’s grim . . . and kinda sweet.’

Laik shook his head. ‘I don’t think either of us meant for it to be permanent. But she stayed. Even when she could’ve gone.’

Reese leaned forward. ‘Under you? No offence, I would have run a mile.’

Duncan smirked. ‘I feel like a dick for thinking you were just Laik’s terrifying kid sister . . .’

Pepper picked at her nails as the humour faded away. ‘Well . . . it’s not the worst thing in the world, I suppose.’

Laik took one last drag on his cigarette, then dropped it, grinding the ember out beneath his boot.

‘I don’t say this often,’ he said, taking a slow, patient inhale. ‘But I’m glad it happened. Not the sickness, or the running. But that it brought you here. Your company ain’t been bad.’

Pepper met his gaze across the dim swing set. ‘I’m not sure what “here” is.’

‘Neither am I,’ he murmured. ‘But it’s not as cold as it was back then, that’s for sure.’

No one said anything for a while. The city breathed around them, distant sounds of people smearing into the dark.

That was until, at the edge of the park, a black car pulled up, its engine still idling, windows tinted to ink. The headlights cast long, narrow shadows across the grass and hedges. The air throbbed with the chugging of its engine.

Laik was the first to lower his drink and assess the threat. His stomach shifted like it always did when met with something unpredictable.

Viola rose, brushing dust from her trousers. ‘Alright, folks. Fun as this is, I’ve got to call it.’

Pepper frowned. ‘That for you? Don’t look like no Uber . . .’

Viola slipped her phone back into her pocket, trying to sound casual. ‘Yes, I’m just—’ she hesitated, smiling to herself, ‘going for a walk. With someone I met earlier.’

‘Do you even know his name?’

‘No, but he knows mine.’

Reese burst out laughing. ‘Oh my God, the scandal!’

‘You don’t walk when you’re in a car, you know that, right?’ Swan teased.

Laik leaned back against the frame, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. ‘Where I come from, “stretching your legs” isn’t taken so literally.’

Pepper swatted the air in his direction. ‘Behave. Wait, is that the someone from the bar?’

‘Maybe.’ Viola’s grin was wide, and feet impatient. ‘Enjoy the rest of the night.’

The group exploded into hoots. Duncan loudly wished her luck, causing Viola to quicken her steps towards her ride. The door opened. She slipped inside. The car rolled off into the dark and whatever was in store for its occupants.

For a moment, Pepper wondered if Viola had any idea what she was doing – and decided she absolutely did.

‘She’s ridiculous.’ Laik made a dry glance, but said it fondly.

‘Ridiculous? Have you worked under her? The woman is a menace. Puts me through it daily,’ Pepper said, drumming her fingers on the can. ‘But I’m glad she’s getting a win. She deserves it. Canis and Quinn are thoroughly demanding, I can’t imagine the crap she’s had to put up with for . . . decades, I suppose? I thought I was kept on my toes, but that one, she never stops. What we all do, it’s a hard gig. I think we need to remember that from time to time.’

She raised her drink toward the middle of them, proposing a toast.

‘To stopping once in a while.’

The others all chimed and took a patient swig in unison.

As the laughter faded, Pepper absently reached for her phone from her jacket. The screen lit her face in a pale glow.

Her smile slipped. She opened the latest message. Her eyes darted over the words once, then again, slower this time. The sound around her seemed to fall away – the city hum, the rustle of trees, even the idle chatter of the group. All she could hear was her pulse.

The phone trembled in her hand.

Laik, watching from his place on the climbing frame, had noticed and frowned.

‘What’s wrong?’