The Other Side of Life (Book #1, Cyberpunk Elven Trilogy) (8 page)

Anya ducked into the steak diner. She didn’t
want to be hit by the bullets of a frazzled, maddened
storeowner.

“
Annie!” A woman in her
early forties, with a nametag that read “Chloe ACL,” came up. The
second ‘c’ was almost completely scratched out. Few people knew
that it stood for Chloe Aik Chien London, her full name.

Anya exchanged a hug with her mother. Anya’s
first thought each time she saw Chloe was how fragile she looked,
like she’d topple over in a strong gust of wind. Eating more had
never done much for Chloe’s 100-pound frame.

“
I didn’t know you were
dropping by,” Chloe said affably, wiping her hands against her
apron. It was a month or two since she had last seen
Anya.

“
Yeah, I just thought
I’d”—Anya moved towards an empty table at the far corner, shoulders
tensing up—“say hi. I was in the area.”

When Chloe sat down, Anya automatically
handed her a wad of notes under the table, from one of the
envelopes.

Chloe’s eyes widened, before her lips
quivered the slightest bit.

“
Anya.” Her voice was tense
and hushed, as she shifted her gaze down and slowly shook her head.
They had been through this several times in the past.

“
Just take it, Mom,” Anya
murmured, drawing her hand back when a cyclist gazed in at the
diner through the window, from the outside. “They pay you peanuts
here.”

Anya looked at her mother with eyes that
knew too much. Chloe wasn’t lazy—she’d held three jobs at one
time—but money was always tight, and steady employment, hard to
come by. Anya was first in the family to attend college.

“
You’re going to get caught
one day.” Anxiety was written all over Chloe’s pale, drawn face.
Moments like this made her wonder if she had ever inspired or
encouraged criminal activity in her daughter.

“
They’ve failed ten times
already.” Anya put the cash in Chloe’s hand.

“
I’m managing, Annie,”
Chloe said quietly. She took the money anyway. “I get by on what I
earn here.”

Anya leaned forward, crossing one heel over
the other foot. “Rich folks just get richer—there’s no way for
people like us to catch up.”

Anya resented the fact that honest, morally
sound people—like her and Leticia’s family members—weren’t rewarded
for their hard work ethic. If being a thief would lead to a better
life, so be it.

Anya thought of the hooded man and the young
couple she had seen running off with their prized cans of beer.
Maybe they’d get bolder in future, and pull off a successful bank
heist. To Anya, that was more worthwhile than a string of petty
thefts.

Her thoughts shifted to the elves, The
Velvet Underground…and what other secrets they could be hiding.

“
What are you doing
tomorrow?”

Anya stared at her mother with a vacant
expression. Anya didn’t want to cause her mother any more
distress.

“
Shopping,” Anya lied,
lightly tapping her fingers on the tabletop.
Maybe I’ll become a compulsive liar like Nin, too.

“
How’s Leticia?” Chloe
liked Leticia, Anya’s best friend since junior high.

“
Still sane, still happy.
We’re helping out with a school play.”

Anya suddenly remembered there was a
rehearsal the next day—Anya and Leticia were stage hands, helping
with props and makeup. Anya had circled the date with a red pen, on
the calendar in her student diary. She had been too preoccupied
with overseeing a smooth transaction with the diamond orb.

Chloe smiled. “Tell her I still think she
makes the best chocolate cookies.” She paused, not wanting to nag,
but not unconcerned, either. She smoothed down some of her frizzy
hair. “And…stay in school, okay?”

The stout boss at the counter signaled to
Chloe, gruffly, with a grunt. She had to get back to work.

“
I don’t like him.” Anya
shifted her eyes to Ashmore, then back to Chloe.

“
He gives us free
meals.”

“
Yeah…like, leftovers.”
Anya wondered why her mother was content being passive. “Remember,
I quit in a day, when I was here.” A brief succession of repeat
circumstances was precisely what had prompted Anya to take a shot
at trying something new. Like being a career criminal.

“
Do you believe in…magic?”
Anya asked, out of the blue. The question caught her mother by
surprise. Chloe stood by her seat for a moment, looking at Anya’s
clear hazel-brown eyes. Anya tried to sound like she was taking a
trip down memory lane. “All those stories you told me, a long time
ago. King Arthur, Robin Hood—my favorite—”

“
Yes, I know,” Anya’s
mother said with affection.

“
Witches, faeries…” Anya
took a breath. “Elves. Did you believe in all of that?”

“
Of course,” her mother
answered, with a sparkle in her eyes. Anya recognized the sparkle
from her childhood days, when Chloe would read to her. “I always
did. Good stories have a tendency to take you away to whole new
worlds.”

Anya kept quiet. She knew she’d trip over
her own tongue if she made any mention about Nin and company.

A distant smile seemed to light up Chloe’s
face. “Those who don’t believe in magic are the ones who never find
it. Great things happen to those who Believe.”

* * *

Back in her apartment, Anya spent a couple
of hours researching everything she could find on elves and
medieval parchments. Several empty Recovery energy drink cans were
strewn about the surface of her desktop, and her upbeat Korean-Pop
playlist was blasting in the background. She made a short list of
the important points she had gathered so far:

. Elven Types .

Half-elf = Elandili | High elf =
Cala’quessir | Moon elf = Ithil’quessir

Sea elf = Ear’quessir | Light elves =
Ljosal’feir | Dark elves = Dokkal’feir

. The Elven Race .

Elves are a semi-divine species in between
heaven and earth (humankind), similar to the Biblical notion of the
angels. Light elves restore balance and beauty in the human world.
Dark elves, in contrast, are responsible for maladies befalling
humanity (bad dreams, illnesses, etc.). High elves are the Rulers
of Elves—they have power, skill, and knowledge.

Physique

Youthful, lean, light
and strong body. Do not be fooled by their lean frames. Elves are
also identifiable by their leaf-shaped ears.

Beauty

More beautiful and wiser than
humans, as seen by the phrase/insult: “Lle holma ve’ edan”—“You
smell like a human.”

Weaknesses

Pure iron is the elfin
version of kryptonite. Pure iron to elves is what kryptonite is to
Superman. Prolonged exposure is lethal.

The information was only making Anya more
confused. Were the online sources to be believed? Which type of elf
was Nin—did his name have anything to do with it? What did it mean
to be a moon elf anyway?

She took a short
break,
looking around the room, at the cardboard egg cartons that
sound-proofed the room. She and Leticia had covered the whole
apartment when they’d moved in, just as a precaution—nobody really
knew who could hear and see what, at any time. Prisons were tightly
regulated. Anya wondered when that prison policy would become
mainstream.

She gazed down at a scrap
piece of paper, where she had scrawled:
I’m a tough cookie / But what is he like, really / NIN = Mr.
Perfect.

It felt so weird, feeling drawn to Nin, when
she hardly even knew him. He didn’t even seem real, in the sense
that he didn’t seem to be a part of the world that Anya and Leticia
were familiar with. Or maybe that just made him more real than
anything else.

Anya brought down the volume of the
speakers, when she heard the door open. There were two low
voices—Leticia’s familiar, warm, friendly voice, and a lower, more
subdued voice. It belonged to Julius Lycata, Leticia’s on-again,
off-again boyfriend. Anya thought they made an odd couple. They
complemented each other because each was what the other lacked.

Anya was just about to save the document
when the computer froze.

“
Whatcha doing?” Leticia
sailed into the room with Julius. Anya guessed they were on-again.
Anya had always been a little envious of Leticia’s constant stream
of suitors and admirers, though she hid her feelings
well.

“
Research,” Anya replied,
not looking up from the screen. She clicked the mouse several
times—the CPU whirred in response.

“
Elves! Ah…” Julius was
standing behind Anya too. He seemed slightly more muscular than the
last time she had seen him. He had changed his glasses too, to a
rimless frame. He looked less studious—as a result of Leticia, no
doubt.

“
Uh…” Leticia wanted Julius
out of the room, fast. “Anya’s got a project.”

“
So right.” Anya tried to
stay calm. She switched the computer off anyway. “I’ve got to
reboot.” The last thing Anya wanted to do was shoot herself in the
foot, with any more explaining. “Damn computer hung on
me.”

“
It happens,” Julius
commented, running a hand through his short blond hair, before
picking some lint off the shoulder of his Hilfiger polo
shirt.

“
Mister…Perfect?” Leticia
read part of Anya’s scribbles aloud, before realizing this wasn’t
that much good as a distraction either. Not with a name
there.

Anya swiped the piece of paper and slipped
it into her shorts pocket.

“
Love letter?” Julius
inquired, with a teasing smile.

Anya didn’t have to pretend to look awkward.
She answered with a deadpan monosyllabic response, then crossed her
hands over her lap.

Tension crawled over her skin, as Julius
eyed her. Anya felt like telling him to stop psycho-analyzing her.
She’d never believed in romance. It was escapism. Pure fantasy.
Julius should know—he was the intellectual with the cool-headed
logic.

“
I didn’t know you wrote
poetry.”

I don’t remember you being
so chatty,
Anya wanted to snap at Julius,
but thought of what Nin would reply. He’d be civil and
polite.

“
Only when I’m suitably
depressed,” Anya answered, with a slight amount of sarcasm she
thought Nin would appreciate.

Just then, a scrumptious aroma wafted
in.

“
Pizza!” Leticia’s voice
rang out. Anya and Julius left the room. Leticia widened her eyes
at Anya when Julius wasn’t looking. Anya had to be more careful
next time. For now, both she and Leticia breathed easy.

The three of them were seated in front of
the television.

“
What’s the project on?”
Julius asked, after he’d taken a second bite of the pepperoni pizza
slice.

Anya was surprised by the unexpected
question. Her mind had been on the piece of paper tucked away
safely in her pocket, half the time.

“
Tolkien’s
masterpiece?”

Anya nodded, to show she understood. She
remembered that Julius was a big fan of the accomplished
professor’s work. “I’m writing an essay,” she said, trying to look
convincing, “on mythical creatures.”

“
Did you mention Legolas?
Arguably Tolkien’s most famous elf.” Julius laughed at whatever was
happening in the mindless reality TV show (about mindless reality
TV shows) that was playing on the TV. Anya wasn’t really paying
attention. Leticia leaned her head against Julius’s
shoulder.

“
If only they really
existed…” Leticia murmured, drawing a line down Julius’s chest.
Leticia was more comfortable than Anya, with physical displays of
affection. Anya thought maybe that’s what got her all the boys,
since she knew how to work her ample body too. But Anya would have
duct-taped her own mouth shut before hurting her best friend with a
snide remark.

“
Yeah.” Julius snuggled up
to Leticia. “Hypothetically, they couldn’t have.”

“
Why not?” Leticia lost
herself in his light, bluish-gray eyes.

Julius chewed on his food. “Lack of
evidence. No bones, no archaeological finds. Nothing.”

“
How’s your lithium essay
coming along?” Leticia asked, stroking his hair. She was doing a
fine job shifting the topic of conversation.

“
Is that a band?” Anya
asked Julius, crossing one leg under the other as she shifted her
seat position, on the sofa.

“
No…” Julius pushed his
glasses up his nose bridge. “The element, Lithium. Group One
element, alkali metals.”

Anya remembered the periodic table from
Chemistry 101.

“
I’m writing about the
history of lithium in psychopharmacological drugs,” Julius
continued, sounding like he’d just discovered a meteorite. Anya was
mentally counting the syllables in the second last word of Julius’s
sentence. “Helps patients from schizophrenics, to bipolar and
borderline disorder, to depression.”

“
Some kind of miracle
drug.” Leticia thought he’d find a cure for cancer, one
day.

“
Writing that essay would
make me very, very cranky,” Anya said to Julius.

He grinned back. “Just another day in the
life of a biochemistry senior.” He twiddled his thumbs, with a
faintly vacant look in his eyes, as he pondered on something. “You
should have seen the research project on DNA repair enzymes we had
to do last semester. It took eight weeks to polish the final
draft.”