She said goodbye to her family.
There was nothing more to say.
She closed her wallet and pocketed it. She felt Aviary beside her. The flame licked the night, impartial to her offering. Sadness filled the night, but it felt clear. She hated it less.
As the tears dried on her face, Aviary suggested they have their faces painted. A renewal. Sophia was ready to object but she didn’t have the energy. She followed Aviary on weak legs to a stall where painters were turning regular people into skeletons.
Sophia was the first to sit down. She wiped her face with a tissue Aviary had given her, dampening it with her own tongue. Once it was clean, she looked up to see the woman with the cream corset who had startled her earlier. The woman’s painted face was incredibly well crafted, and jeweled too. It was no surprise that’s what she was here to do.
‘I’m Xtabay,’ she said. ‘A demon from Mexico.’ She curtseyed.
If Sophia was supposed to feel comforted by that, she wasn’t. ‘I’m … Sophia,’ she said. ‘I’m not a demon.’
Xtabay smiled and dabbed a brush in white paint. Sophia could smell the paint distinctly. It mixed with the artist’s perfume. The paint was cold but the touch of the brush felt reassuringly warm.
Aviary watched from a distance, arms folded, occasionally checking the crowd as it filtered through toward the museum. Sophia figured there was some sort of ceremony or concert inside. She wondered if Aviary would take her in there next. She made a mental note not to cry over her face paint.
She closed her eyes and relaxed for the first time in months. She almost lost track of the time, but by the time Xtabay was finished they’d accrued a crowd of children who sat cross-legged, fascinated by the brushstrokes. As soon as she had finished around Sophia’s lips, Sophia smiled and waved to them. They waved back and whispered to each other.
Xtabay retrieved a mirror so Sophia could see her work. When she saw it, her jaw dropped. Or at least a skeleton jaw dropped. The paint was detailed, with subtle shadows and gradients, and a deep metallic purple encircled her eyes. Xtabay had even painted the skeleton teeth past Sophia’s lips, wrapping around her jaws. The far edges of her jawlines were black, giving the illusion her skeleton teeth disappeared into darkness. It was disturbing, yet breathtaking. Xtabay started plucking sticky jewels from a tray and adding them to Sophia’s face, around her eyebrows and under her eyes until they formed a perfect circle. She added some to the ends of her cheekbone strokes and curled lines on her chin.
Aviary hadn’t seen it yet; she was staring fixedly at her iPhone, her face lit up by its screen. Sophia stood and waited for Aviary to look up. She looked distracted.
‘You’re very pretty,’ Xtabay said. ‘Do you like it?’
Sophia felt her heart kick faster. The way Xtabay smiled made her blush. She could almost feel the demon woman’s adoring gaze. No, she could feel it.
Sophia touched her chin. ‘It’s magnificent.’
‘Life is just a dream,’ Xtabay said. ‘Only the eternal life is the true life.’
The demon woman winked at her, then walked over to the children. Sophia didn’t know quite what to do so she made her way over to Aviary.
Aviary looked up. ‘Looks great.’
‘I think … she has a crush on me,’ Sophia said.
Aviary sniggered. ‘Did she give you her digits? I mean, number,’ she said. ‘Poor choice of words.’
‘No,’ Sophia said. ‘It just felt different.’
‘That’s good,’ Aviary said. ‘You’re becoming normal.’
The crowd seemed to ripple past them.
‘You know, like a real person with feelings,’ Aviary said.
Sophia caught Aviary’s wry grin but was too focused on the crowd. For a moment she was worried her synesthesia had returned to mix up her senses but they all seemed in order. Food smelled like food. Colors looked like colors and the faint tang of mezcal tasted like it should. She could feel just a little more.
‘Everyone’s so … happy,’ Sophia said. ‘I’m not used to feeling this.’
Aviary looked up from her phone. ‘They don’t look happy.’
‘No, but they are. I can just tell.’
Aviary was staring at her now. ‘Are you OK?’
Sophia swallowed. ‘I don’t know.’ She focused on Aviary. ‘You’re worried. I can feel it.’
‘Yeah, a bit,’ Aviary said. ‘Wait, you can feel it?’
‘I’m not worried about me,’ Sophia said. She snatched the phone from Aviary’s hands.
It was the same map Sophia had been checking on her own phone earlier. Aviary had zoomed out to fill most of upper Manhattan. Only now it was covered in blinking dots.
Sophia felt a chill sweep over her. She cast a quick glance around the crowd, checking for faces.
‘There’s no one here,’ Aviary said. ‘But—’
‘How long have they been here?’ Sophia said.
Aviary shook her head. ‘Fairly recent. We only lost our connection a half hour ago.’
‘They’re operatives, Aviary. They move quickly,’ Sophia said. ‘Where are your friends?’
‘Huh?’ Aviary was still inspecting the blinking dots. ‘They went home. The festival ends early tonight because of the hurricane.’
Sophia recalled snippets of news over the past few days about a hurricane moving through the Caribbean. She kept her television-watching to a minimum, mostly because it drove her insane.
‘We should get off the island now.’ Sophia said, looking up at the brooding clouds in the previously clear night. ‘And this … off my face—’
Aviary was already walking. In the other direction.
Sophia took off after her, moving against the crowd. She kept eyes on Aviary so she wouldn’t lose her. Aviary made her way through to the grass in Central Park, her ruck on both shoulders. By then Sophia was running. She caught up with Aviary at a big lake farther south. The lights of the city encircled them, reflecting off the water’s surface. Aviary stood at the edge, looking at her phone.
‘What do you think you’re you doing?’ Sophia said.
‘Look.’ Aviary shoved the screen in her face.
There was one dot moving just below the lake, heading west.
Aviary looked up at Sophia. ‘One operative. Right near us.’
Sophia zoomed out on the map to reveal a cluster of operatives on the upper west side, all moving in close proximity, next to Central Park. They were just on the other side of the park.
‘They’re converging,’ Sophia said.
She looked over the dark lake, thoughts racing.
‘On what?’ Aviary said.
‘Not sure yet,’ Sophia said.
‘Your earpieces and microphones,’ Aviary said. ‘They work on the phone I gave you.’
‘Not now, Aviary.’
Aviary was already running. Alongside the lake, south.
‘Shit,’ Sophia said.
She was going for the operative — why? So Sophia could deprogram the operative and expand their forces? A hundred yards from another eight operatives, in the path of a hurricane? What could possibly go wrong?
Sophia thought of trying to catch Aviary mid-run but they were too close to the operative. Growling to herself, she dropped her ruck to the grass and dug into the front pocket. She found an earpiece and slipped it in one ear. She pulled at the microphone cord, ran it under her T-shirt, clipped the microphone to her bra, and clipped the button to the hip pocket in her jeans. She plugged it into her iPhone and dropped that in her jeans pocket. Ruck back over her shoulders, she sprinted.
As she ran, her phone vibrated. She slowed enough to pull it from her pocket and see the incoming call. She hit the green button.
Aviary’s breathing filled her eyepiece. It was working, as she’d promised. ‘I’ll be there soon,’ she said between breaths.