Those Meddling Kids [Kai/Ada Blitz]

Kai McDonald

Are you serious?

Here we go. Folks like her didn’t believe someone like me. I didn’t look the part, didn’t speak the part. If Sandra had come I bet she would have listened. I’ve seen it in the classroom - folks presenting proof to the teacher but social order was better preserved if it meant keeping everyone in tact. In truth, I had nothing but a story, and… well, my own story. But I couldn’t tell her that. If I told her what I’d done and who I was, I don’t know what might happen. I’d violate the order of my parole at least… the worst being banishment, or death. Not great options.

“My friend… well, she told me about her friend being abducted and allegedly killed. A bunch of them, in the warehouse district, after curfew. She can’t get anyone to tell her where his body is, and - there have been rumblings of more folks going missing.” Now I know I sounded like a nut. Nothing that could’ve stood up in a court, not the least in front of a bunch of peacekeepers. “I - I know it doesn’t sound true but I’m not messing with you.” So I play another card, hoping it might work.

“Quest Hertz told me.”

Kai McDonald

There’s a moment where I contemplate slipping out of the door. This was a mistake, coming here and bringing myself to the brink of exposure. What would Sandra say if she knew that I was wrapping myself up in a contest that could turn ugly? Bloom wasn’t known as the most savory of types to begin with, and now with some ammunition against her from an opponent, who knew what kind of damage there would be for the rest of us. I twisted the bracelet on my wrist and looked from it to Ada.

“I know, I know. I’m just some kid from the street you don’t even know, telling you about some boy that someone thought was killed, or disappeared, or whatever.” Except it wasn’t whatever, it was a human life that had some kind of value. And as much as I wanted to believe it was his fucking loss, knowing that it came from someone like Quest, well - watching her, I’d been moved to take a harder look at the purgatory that I was in. And that meant giving a shit. It meant trying. It’s what my father would’ve wanted me to do.

“His name was Wilfred Surnois, and - we can’t find anything about him. Like he didn’t exist!” I babbled, looking from the door to her. “Look, I’m not the type of asshole that would pull your leg. I - I’m not from around here, and I just…” I took a breath. “I want to help set this right.”

Kai McDonald

She hands me a chipped cup and I take the tea with a quiet thanks. At the least she’s not turned me away. Most folks wouldn’t have entertained the thought, but here she was listening to some boy off the street. I wasn’t sure what convinced her, other than possibly the weight of Quest’s name. She wasn’t the type of girl to make up stories, so I had that going for me. Still - I wish she’d given a little bit more to go on than “I have this friend that died in a weird way.”

I deflate some when I realize that she doesn’t have the information that either of us would be looking for. There had to be someone out there that had access to his information - it wasn’t as though someone could just be completely erased. His family had to at least have not thought it suspicious, unless they were pushed into silence. That part was worse, thinking how they might have lost their son and couldn’t say why.

“That’s not good enough. We need to find someone that’s going to give us something that explains why it happened. Or at least leads us to the people that are responsible. Aren’t there like… I don’t know, notifications that the school would get if one of their students died? Someone has to know something.”