Tiarto and Sana (Glimpse)

Miero, 23rd of the Second Sevis, Rebirth, Year 1651 of the Ahedis Calendar

Tiarto awoke one night from a nightmare and noticed a light beyond the darkness of his room. He almost brushed it off as D.A.P.S. They always worked in the dark, wearing lenses that allowed them to see where human eyes failed, named "verete" for whatever reason. If the light was on, this wasn’t them.

D.A.P.S. Industries delivered food to houses every sid. Tiarto learned about them when he tried to catch the regular thieves in the act. With a broom in hand, he waited and attacked the presumed burglars only to meet Mack, the lead of the operation. The industry had long been known for their honorable conduct and vetting of employees to limit the incidents of theft.

"Oh, right," Mr. Averco said when Tiarto explained his encounter. It had been a few sids since it happened, but the old man was rarely at his own home. "Those guys. It must have slipped my mind. Yes, they update the food. Makes it so much easier than just buying stuff every sid just to bring it all back. It's a waste if nobody eats it though, so stuff your face if you care. I have it bought out or decades."

Tiarto stood from his bed and picked up the book he just finished reading to use as a weapon. He was scared, but books of adventure and action flooded his mind with pretend bravery.

"Hello?" Tiarto called down the stairs. His voice broke from lack of use, and he cleared his throat, cursing in his mind. The element of surprise was gone, but the light stayed lit. Moments like these existed in stories he encountered. In some cases, behind the corner of the room was a contorted human figure or some other spawn of evil ready to strike. His hand shook just imagining it and the heavy tome slipped from his grasp.

Barnaby of the Dust Plains was a tome of considerable size and weight. It contained five stories, named Chronos One through Five, in a corrupt desert world that Barnaby and Jodi traveled. It turned out to be a fantastic read, but putting all five books into one giant tome was not a good idea. If Tiarto had a say in making of the stories, he would split them up into two books of normal size. Barnaby headed for the stairs. It would make a loud noise when it touched down. Tiarto could not let that happen.

His body fell with the book and caught Barnaby before touching down ten steps down. Avoiding death from plants left his body fit. A shadow of him cast onto the wall next to the stairs. If there was someone down in the library, this gave him away. He turned expecting the worst and saw, nothing. The lamp was on. He sighed in relief for his negligence. He must have left it on. Tiarto smiled descending the stairs to put the library to sleep once more. His hand extended to the switch as something shifted in the corner of his eye.

Panic turned him around. The couch shifted in the darkness caused by his shadow. Too many thoughts of evil creatures, from garavand to demon, circled his mind. He ran for the light switch beside the stairs to put those thoughts to rest. The imitated daylight flooded the library exposing a mass shifting on the couch beneath a brown blanket.

Tiarto approached and tried to pinch the blanket off with his other hand, but the folds escaped his pinches. An elbow peaked out and he decided to grab it.

"Turn the daylights off," a voice said from beneath the blanket. "What are you doing, old man? Turn the damn lights off!" The figure threw the blanket to the side, sat up, and looked into his eyes. It was a girl.

"Who the hell are you?" the girl asked mirroring what Tiarto was thinking. Her face turned to anger, and he reacted by swinging Barnaby. She blocked the book with an open hand, and launched herself forward, tackling him. Barnaby slammed on the ground as she pinned Tiarto to the floor with legs crushing his midsection. "You thought you could just break into this house and steal things, huh?" She interrupted his response.

"Not in my house, you don't!" the girl said. She flipped Tiarto over onto his stomach and held his hands together behind his back. She pushed them upwards causing him to scream out in pain. It made no sense.

"This isn't your house!" Tiarto screamed hoping she was just confused.

"So it speaks," she said. "How would you know, thief? Foradim, you old bastard, get out here! You have a thief!" The girl waited and repeated the phrase. She directed Tiarto to get up with a painful tug and walked him over to the stairs, kicking his feet.

"Mr. Averco isn't here," Tiarto said.

"What the hell did you do to him, you bastard?" she asked. A few more centimeters and the arms would dislocate from his shoulders. He needed to give understanding to the situation. No wonder police always used this technique. All the muscle strength he gained felt useless in the hold.

"He adopted me," Tiarto said. It held her attention. "He left like he always does, but this time he hasn't been around for a while now." The grip on the wrists loosened. Tiarto considered striking back, but she let go and sat on the edge of the couch with sad eyes. Tiarto's whole arm throbbed from the new angle. It felt nice, the physical contact. He almost forgot how it felt, but the pain was not pleasant.

"That senile old man," the girl said. "That's why they couldn't get in contact. Just once, ONCE, I wish he stayed in one place. Traveling as if he's some young adventurer. He's way past his prime. Old people and their crazy ideas. You won't find me giving a damn if he goes and dies somewhere in the middle of nowhere." By talking to herself, this girl was not proving to be of a sound mind, but it was something new. It was a lure of change, something Tiarto thought would never come. The nightmare he woke up from was a blessing, even if it depicted him as old as Mr. Averco, still living in the house.

The shirt she had on was too small for her mature chest, and reminded Tiarto of something from his past. He was looking at it too long and glanced away. She looked beautiful with hazel hair to the shoulders. Tiarto was curious how a smile would look like on her lips.

"So you know him?" he asked. "Are you related?" The girl looked over at him with a blank expression. In a split second, she stood up and headed for the door. Fear snapped into Tiarto’s brain. He did not want to be alone again. Without thought, he grabbed her wrist, but she pulled on his hand and swung her knee for his stomach. Knowledge of body tactics kicked into his mind. On instinct, he brushed the knee aside with his other hand, spinning her around. Right after, he tightened the grip around her wrist and spun the girl around, bending the arm up her back as she did before.

Tiarto smiled, but it was short-lived. Her heel ended up between his legs. His face contorted in pain as he fell to one knee. Still holding her hand, nausea arrived to his mouth. A smile flickered over the girl's face for a second.

"Proposing so soon?" she said with a smirk, "We've only just met." The small wicked smile was gone. She let go of his hand and walked towards the door.

"Wait," Tiarto managed to say, "Who are you?"

"Just a bit of the past," the girl said. Her voice was sad, "Looking for a place to call home."

She went out through the front door and swung it shut. The six clicks of the mechanism resounded in Tiarto's mind, each next slower than the one before. It was a countdown to action. He almost laughed at himself. There was no way he would miss this opportunity to break from a life of reading and taking care of the garden. This girl was his gateway drug to reality.

Punching his own arm to push the pain elsewhere, he forced himself to stand. He ran to the door and flung it open before the last click locked the door. He saw her silhouette turn at the gate and stumbled out of the house, almost tripping down the stairs. Tiarto found her disappearing into darkness between streetlamps. When closer, he got off the lighted path and into the greens along the way. The suburban area filled with fences and bushes proved good for tailing someone. She was no longer running. Nobody would be stupid enough to go after her. Tiarto realized he called himself stupid and smiled.

It felt strange, following someone. He read books full of following scenes, but it could not compare in practice. The investigators had a purpose as an excuse, chasing down a crime. He channeled a character from a crime novel he read once. He was a cool classy guy, but with a lot on his mind and a male mind that often got him in trouble. The story was about him, working as a detective in a futuristic world and- Tiarto ducked behind a shrub when the girl looked back. His mind refocused on the chase.

The two of them walked together apart for hours. Did she have nowhere to go? Perhaps she was trying to stay at her grandfather's place after a night of excessive partying. She accused him of being a thief, but Tiarto’s been there for years, and she hadn't visited even once. What sort of terrible granddaughter would that be? Given how the old man behaved, she was not that far off. Tiarto apologized under his breath for being harsh and ducked behind another tree just in time. Trying to solve the mystery while following would get him in trouble.

With daylight, the surroundings looked familiar. The girl sped up. Tiarto had to think quicker to react when she glanced around. She turned a corner. The focus on the girl drew all of his attention from the place he arrived to. He stood at the large brown gate of a building from before Mr. Averco. The sign beside the gate said "SH17", but Tiarto always read it another way. He almost laughed out.

#This would be the part of a story where everyone anticipates a flashback,# he thought stepping through the disgusting metal gate, memories flooding into his mind.