Page 57 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly
Sparx sighed and moved the empty can to the floor so it wouldn’t stain the bed.“She never told you, did she?”
Callie just stared up at him, squinting in confusion.
“Brin killed a lot of people, Cal.Mostly homeless.At least you were trying to prevent someone from getting hurt.Brin killed people because they got too close to corporate property.”
Callie sat up, her mouth opening and closing several times.“Why didn’t she tell me?”
Sparx scoffed.“How would that conversation go?Hey babe, I’m home, I toasted some guy so skezzed out that he didn’t know he was trespassing?Brin was great until everything else that happened, but she clearly didn’t want you to see behind the curtain.”Sparx held on to the back of his neck like it was a lifeline.“I mean, I don’t blame her.Look at you.”
Callie had to admit that she wasn’t taking this well.
“Why did she tell you then?”
Sparx pulled Callie’s hands away from her mouth.“I don’t know.People tell me all sorts of things.I guess I just give off the vibe that makes people want to overshare.”
“But you’re bad at keeping secrets, Sparx.”Callie pulled her hands back, mildly annoyed.
“I don’t think it was a secret.She just didn’t think you’d want that dumped on you.”Callie was about to bite a fingernail, but Sparx glared at her.She threaded her fingers together instead.“Think about it,” Sparx continued.“You’d just finished corporate training, you were working a stressful job.Brin didn’t want to use you as her therapist.”
“God,” Callie massaged her forehead.“Am I a self-absorbed arsehole?”
“Wait.You learned that your ex killed people for a living and your first thought is whether or notyou’rethe problem?”Sparx shook his head.“That’s such ayoureaction.No, Cal.Brin loved you.She took on way too much and couldn’t admit when she needed help until it was too late.”
Callie flicked her eyes to Sparx and then stared at her hands, fingers tense and flexing.
“Look,” Sparx sighed.“I don’t want to shit on your memories of Brin, but…” Callie stared up at him.“Brin didn’t feel guilty about killing those people.”
Callie’s frown deepened.“Then why did she need to talk about it?”
“Because her problem was that there were so many of them.”Sparx let it sit for a moment while Callie’s face froze.“And the ones you took care of?They probably killed just as many or more than she did.”
“But I don’twantto be a killer!”Callie protested.
“Most people don’t.”Sparx put his hand on her knee.“That just means you aren’t a psychopath.”
“What about Sesi?Or Talia.”Callie resumed biting at her fingernails.
“They aren’t killing random people for fun, Cal.”
“But they’regoodat it.They killa lot”
Callie’s fingers had found their way to her mouth again.Sparx pulled them out and held them so she wouldn’t chew her nails bloody.
“I don’t know what to tell you.Are they terrorists?Vigilantes?Freedom fighters?I don’t know.But just because you killed a couple of people who probably deserved it so you could protect someone in the moment doesn’t mean you’re like them.It doesn’t mean you aren’t good.Hell, it doesn’t even meantheyaren’t good.”
Callie made to pull her hands back to her mouth, but Sparx held fast.“If we’re all killing people for good reasons now, who’s bad?”
Sparx exhaled slowly.“I don’t know.But if we’re going extinct and trying to take the planet with us, we can’t be allthatgood, can we?”
Callie huffed a small, mirthless laugh.“The only ethics classes I took were about killing Primaries to keep the AI from breaching containment.”
“I didn’t take any classes, so maybe I’m not the best person to talk ethics,” Sparx smiled.
“You haven’t killed anyone, so you obviously didn’t need them.”Callie nudged Sparx with her foot.
“True, but I have ghosted a lot of boyfriends.”
“You’re the epitome of evil.”Callie kicked him back.His humorous comment didn’t fix her issue, but it provided a tiny bit of hope that Callie might feel at peace with herself in the future.Sparx seemed to know it too.
