Page 8 of Stealing Samantha

The train tracks lowered, descending back towards the thickly built towers of the new downtown. The cars shuddered to a stop at a platform nestled between the second floors of two buildings. She looked out her window as she waited for the doors to open. The day was clear, not a cloud in the sky, and she could see a brisk wind snapping back the open coats and scarves of the people waiting to board.

The doors parted noisily, and Sam stood, clutching her flute case and her bag against her side. She followed the stream of people as they stepped down to the platform. The cold was just as bitter as she’d thought it’d be, even if there was no snow on this side of the mountains to show for it. She shook her right arm to slide back her coat sleeve, activating her comm device so that she could check the time. As long as she moved quickly, she’d make the first audition with plenty of time.

The streets were full that morning, she noticed as she took an escalator down. When she reached the bottom, she kept her gaze focused straight ahead as she made her way towards the address the first group had provided. Sam was waiting at a crosswalk when she heard the whispers start.

“Look!”

“Are they really coming here?”

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Beautiful?”

“Snake.”

Sam swallowed over her dry throat, her eyes watering from the sting of the wind. She shouldn’t look. She knew she shouldn’t. She shivered as she glanced at the last speaker. The man was scowling at a building to their left, and that pain in her throat burned down to the pit of her stomach when she followed his gaze.

The person they were looking atwasbeautiful. Beautiful and undeniably alien. The entire side of the building glowed with the advertisement—Dancers of the Forest; An Evening of Xithilene Myth and Music.The words floated beneath a vid-loop of a winged man leaping through the air as if gravity had never tethered him. Scales just as dark and inky vivid as Uvaess’ had been, but wings so broad and bright that they didn’t make her wince. She couldn’t look at him and see Uvaess—not with that coloring.

“Don’t just stand there in the middle of the road. Do you want to get hit?”

Sam turned her face away from the advertisement, heat flooding her cheeks at the reprimand, but the man who’d delivered it had already merged back into the fluid crowd of pedestrians.

Before she’d arrived on Xithilene, the wings were what she’d looked forward to seeing in person above all else, the alien characteristic she’d found most fascinating. Uvaess had changed that. Now the sound of feathers rustling had her skin tightening with gooseflesh and bile rising to her tongue. The way he’d trapped her beneath those blue black wings, shrouding her in their weight, pushing out all the light until she’d felt as if she might suffocate from the smell of him—down and powder and musk. Heavy, stifling, thick and wrong.

She couldn’t think about that any longer. Not today.

Sam’s fingers tightened around the handles of her flute case as she saw the street name she’d been searching for—Pine. It didn’t take much longer for her to discover the short flight of steps leading up to a nondescript olive green door with a slightly faded street number affixed across the lintel. She pressed the buzzer and smiled at the entry-camera as she hoped for the best. Four chances, four opportunities. She only needed one.

* * *

Seven hours later,Sam watched her face in the reflection of the train station bathroom mirror. She was scrubbing at the edgy eye makeup she’d put on for the last audition with the corner of the self-cleaning tissue she kept stuffed in a small pocket in her bag. The geometric patterns she’d drawn were stubborn, and the blocks of bold color left behind hazy patches of red and blue around her eyes. Just great, and she doubted she’d gotten the gig anyway. Despite her best efforts she hadn’t really fit the punk aesthetic. She’d been able to change her outfit easily enough, but she was still going to look like a mess for her dinner with Kayla and T’xith.

Her life was in shambles, but she didn’t need her sister and her brother-in-law to know it. She wanted to pretend—just for tonight. Two of the groups had told her outright that she wasn’t a good fit, and the other two would “get back to her,” but Sam didn’t have high hopes. She’d played well, but she could just tell from their faces that there would be no callbacks, and she wasn’t going to tell Kayla, even if there was a little girl part of her who wanted to spill out all of her worries. Her sister had already done enough for her, and Sam was finished with being rescued. If she let Kayla know the half of it, it would be tantamount to begging for her help.

Sam smiled shakily at the girl in the mirror. It’d be fine—she’d be fine. A few failed auditions and a dead end job weren’t the worst things that could happen to her. She straightened the strap of her bag across her chest and slid her gloves back on over her fingers before she closed her hand firmly around the handles of her flute case. She gave herself a firm little nod and left the bathroom.

The dinner reservations were at some fancy restaurant Sam never would’ve dared to go to on her own, but T’xith was either paying or having it’d be comped, so at least for tonight she didn’t need to concern herself with the price tag. She had twenty minutes left to kill, so she decided to walk instead of bothering with the train or a bus.

She headed out of the station and ducked her head against the chill breeze. She could taste the hint of water on the air, almost masked by the scent of the city. As she wove her way through the streets, she saw another ad for the Xithilene dancers. The same man with the bright wings was featured on this vid-loop, too, but this time he was dancing with a red feathered woman. She watched their graceful movements with a crooked smile. It really was something, like some sort of aerial ballet. She couldn’t imagine Uvaess ever moving like that.

Sam had almost turned the corner when she glanced back. There was something about the man that was almost familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on what, and she knew it wasn’t just from seeing him on the billboard earlier.

The sun had almost set by the time she reached the right block. Lights flickered to life as dusk’s gray mantle blanketed the city, glowing only faintly still. Sam saw the sign for the restaurant and headed towards the building ahead on her right. She hoped that T’xith and Kayla were already there. She didn’t think she could bear any more tense waiting in a single day. She already felt a little bruised around the edges from the series of auditions she’d completed. No one had warned her that trying to be an artist meant continually offering up the best parts of herself and hoping no one trampled all over them. Today had certainly provided a few kicks while she was down.

She took the low staircase that led up to the main entrance of the restaurant and stepped inside. Soft voices and relaxed laughter filled the air with a pleasant hum. She quickly removed her coat, gloves and scarf and handed them towards the droid waiting for them with outstretched metallic arms. It wasn’t an intelligent AI, of course, just a parlor trick for the rich and bored. Maybe they liked not having to tip a living worker. It wasn’t as if she understood their preferences, but she got a kick out of seeing one up close. She was pretty sure there wasn’t a single restaurant in Cherry Ridge with a service droid.

The decidedly non-automated hostess was watching her with a slight lift to her sculpted brow. “Reservation?” the woman asked.

“I’m meeting some people—Captain T’xith of theBite of the Fa’asathand his companion.Do you know if they’re already here?”

The haughty look faded as the woman’s lips parted. “Oh, the Xith—”

Before she could complete the thought, Sam found herself wrapped up in her little sister’s surprisingly strong arms. Kayla just about lifted her feet from the floor. “Sam! Finally—it feels like forever since we’ve seen each other.”

Sam untangled herself from Kayla’s vise-like grip and smiled lightly as she took in the sight of her sister. “You look good, Kay. Where’s T’xith? Is he waiting at the table?”

“Yes, come along. We’re all anxious to catch up.” Kayla was practically pulling her along as Sam gave the now amused looking hostess a nod.

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