Chapter Five: Blame It On The Alcohol

What am I doing?

Fog: Look, man, he’s a sort of tall-ish guy with brown hair, has no sense of humor, and is very territorial.

Man: I’m sorry. I haven’t seen him.

Magma: Where is he?!

Fog: Bird nerd, could be anywhere. Maybe he’s in the ship.

Magma: Maybe, but-

Fog: Come on, Cass, we haven’t done anything fun. Since that talk with your mom-

Magma: Don’t talk about her.

Fog: Okay, but, I think we should just go and look in the ship.

Magma looked around the crowded ballroom with uncertain eyes before looking at me and nodded. I sigh and start walking towards the exit to go check on this feathered nerd so my best friend will stop worrying. Best friend? Man, I haven’t had one of those since I was a kid. It feels weird to say as a grown man.

Magma: Jamal?

Fog: Yea?

Magma: Am I a bad friend?

Fog: What? No.

Magma: Then, why do I feel so bad for bringing Crow here?

Fog: I don’t know, but maybe you should ask him.

Mags looked away guiltily after I said that and I felt a tinge of sadness. Wow, Jamal, already making the friend you’ve barely had for three weeks feel sad? You’re screwing up already.

We’re still walking and the silence is suffocating, but, soon, someone steps in front of me.

Fog: Hey! Watch where you’re- No.

Magma: Jamal, who’s this?

Fog: She’s-

Kayda: I’m his mother. Colonel Kayda Taniyah Richardson, at your service ma’am.

Fog: What do you want?

Kayda: I can’t talk to my son? Honestly, you always talk to me so aggressively. Not even a hug?

She holds out her arms expecting a hug, but I don’t move. She groans as she closes the distance, and hugs me. She leans in close to my ear and whispers to me.

Kayda: Follow me to the bar and I won’t hurt your friend here.

Fog: You wouldn’t.

Kayda: You know me. Do I bluff?

My shoulders tensed and I instinctually tightened my jaw. I knew she never bluffed. My ma was like that. Always straight forward.

She stopped hugging me and plastered a fake smile on her face.

Kayda: Wanna join me for a drink, Jamal?

Fog: ...Sure.

Kayda: Great.

She starts the walk to the bar and I feel Magma grab my shoulder.

Magma: You okay?

Fog: You’re not the only one with a bad mom.

We follow her and people make way for us. I remember how I felt going to the racing stadium with Magma three months ago, and how people looked at me in fear because of my dad. Now, rich people were making room because of my mother.

We sit down at the bar and I notice there’s a robot handling the drinks. His bright red eyes were setting off smoke alarms, but, for how he was dressed, I relaxed a little. He was wearing the same ironed suits the waiter bots were wearing and he seemed to not even mind us being here.

Kayda: Now, let’s talk. What are you “Tributes” doing? Getting in the way of the commission?

Magma: Maybe, they should stay out of wa- wait. How do you know about them?

Kayda: I’m the leader of Safe Haven, I’m paid to know everything about everyone and everything.

Fog: Before you got that job, you were doing that for free.

Ma narrowed her eyes at me.

Kayda: You should really watch where you’re stepping. That group is more than you think. Don’t make them your enemy.

Fog: Why do you care?

Ma scowled at me before straightening her posture.

Kayda: You making enemies with them could risk your father’s seat in it.

Fog: There it is! Here I was thinking, maybe you cared about my safety.

Kayda: I care about your actions and how they affect me. Your father needs to be in there, I at least, have some type of eyes in there.

Fog: Dad hates you. Why would he tell you anything?

Kayda: Because, he wants the only reason why his illegal smuggling ring isn’t completely dismantled to be on his side.

Magma: Wait. You just let him break the law?

Kayda: Please keep the fake high horses to yourself, Ms. Bales.

Magma: My dad believed you could make a difference. I-

Kayda: You what? Don’t talk to me about morals, when Recruiter covered up your mistake.

Fog: Cass, what’s she talking about?

Mags looked away even mory guiltily and I got the message: “Not now.”

Kayda: Just stay out of their way. If not, they may call up on a favor I owe them.

Fog: Is that a threat?

Kayda: It’s a possibility.

I glare at her and the waiter turns to her with a drink.

Waiter: Drink, colonel?

Kayda: Thank you.

She drinks the entire glass in one gulp and burps loudly, before wiping her mouth and pointing at me. She puts the glass down on the bar’s counter.

Kayda: Heed my words.

Fog: Will do, “colonel”.

Kayda: Un-grate-

Magma: You okay?

My ma’s face started turning a very dark green and her eyes looked glazed over.

Fog: Ma-

She then proceeded to violently throw up on me and my clothes, and fell out of her seat. She continued to throw up on the floor and twitched on the ground.

Fog: What the-

Then, my attention was drawn to her alcohol glass on the counter.

I look at the waiter bot who continued to work behind the bar.

Fog: What the fuck did you put in her drink?!

The waiter stopped working and I heard a slight chuckle. That’s wei-

Before I could finish that thought, the waiter turned around with a knife. His arm moves so fast, I could barely catch it before the blade met my neck. I hold his robotic arm there and look into his bright red eyes.

Waiter: You still got it.

Fog: What?

The waiter pulled away his arm and punched me in the face. I felt the metal break my nose as I went flying out of my chair and onto the tiled floor. The impact knocked the breath out of me and I gasped with a bloody nose.

Magma: What the-?

I couldn’t hear the rest of her sentence as the waiter threw the knife at her. The next few moments played in slow motion for me. To the knife flying through the air, to it stabbing her in the back, then her screaming out in pain and dropping on to the floor. The knife stuck out of her back like the flag that stands on Earth’s moon in Sector-1. Something claimed by the person that put it there. No. Stop thinking like that. Mags wouldn’t die from a simple stab.

The waiter jumped over the bar’s counter and a whole crowd of people started screaming as they started to realize what was going on.

Waiter: Three...two..one.

Suddenly, more of the guests faces turned the same dark green as my mother’s and they all started projectile vomiting on the floor. Meanwhile, more people started screaming and running away from where all of this was happening, but, from how far I could hear screams, there was no escaping this.

Waiter: Ah! Classic case of alcohol poisoning, or poisoned alcohol?

He bent down and was trying to pull the knife from Mags back. That definitely would kill her. I’m not letting that happen.

I leap forward and tackle him. He tries to push me off using my face and hits my nose. I wanted to scream in pain, but I couldn’t let this guy see me weak. I use my fist and punch him with as much as my aching body could muster and I bust one of his lights. It starts flickering on and off so much it’s blinding, but, then, I see something inside the lens after it goes out for good. I see a deformed face. The light in its eyes completely gone, as if this machine was the light now.

The waiter finally pushes me off and I fall to the floor again. The waiter gets up and runs away, leaving the knife inside of Magma. Thank goodness, not that it still being in her was good either. I hurriedly crawled over to her and found that you could barely tell she was bleeding with all of the red she was wearing.

I pick her up and hold her in my arms.

Fog: Mags?

Silence.

I sit there saying her name over and over again until someone screaming snaps me out of it.

Crow: Cassidy!

I look to my right and see Crow and Nebula running to me. Crow slides to my side and I see the tears forming in his eyes.

Nebula: My god.

I see she’s looking around and taking in everyone that was poisoned by that waiter. That waiter.

Fog: Crow, take Cass. I need to go and get the bastard that did this.

I gently hand over Mags’ body and stand with her blood, and my ma’s vomit all over me. I look in the direction that the waiter ran in, and I notice it’s the backrooms.

Fog: You’re not getting far.