Free City of the Falling Sky by Joseph Evans

a few hours and kept
drifting in and out of sleep. Each of his dreams were different,
but in all of them appeared a girl, the same girl, standing a short
way away, smiling at him with beautiful eyes. Each time he would
make his way over to her to ask who she was, but before she could
answer, he would wake up.
    Eventually he felt too sweaty and fidgety to
be comfortable. He got up and winced at his shin, but he had to get
out of his room for a bit, the air was going stale in there.
    Seckry decided he needed some fresh air. He
checked all the lights were off in the flat, checked his key was in
his pocket, and headed out into the square.
    It was warm again this morning and the
buildings emanated heat, making the air look like liquid.
    Before he’d even had time to ponder anything
over, something caught his eye; a pink, flashing animal logo above
the small arcade centre that Tenk was so fond of. Was it open now?
He wandered over and peeked through the window. There was a shabby
desk inside that was in desperate need of some varnish, but there
was no one behind it. It looked like the machines were running
though. He could see two teddy cranes, some rumbling driving seats,
and a standalone beat ‘em up coin op.
    He pushed the door gently and it creaked
open.
    “ Hello?” came a voice from
behind one of the walls. “Is that you, Tenk? Skipping school to
play Friction? Your mother will be down here again before long
giving me a good old piece of her mind.”
    “ It’s not Tenk!” Seckry
called.
    Suddenly an old man’s head popped up from the
desk. He had white hair, wispy and sparse on his speckled scalp, a
pair of glasses resting on his large, hairy nose, and he was
dabbing his lips with a tissue.
    “ Dear me,” the man
exclaimed, clearing his throat. “Someone’s been through the
mill.”
    “ Don’t ask,” Seckry said in
the politest way possible. He didn’t want to seem rude but he was
fed up of thinking about it.
    “ It might not be any of my
business but shouldn’t you be in bed trying to heal that black
eye?”
    “ I needed some fresh air,”
Seckry protested weakly.
    “ I haven’t seen you round
here before. Are you the Sevenstars boy?”
    Seckry gulped. “Uh, yeah.”
    “ Ahh. A belated happy
birthday to you, my son. Your mother’s a lovely lady. Had a nice
chat with her the other day. She popped in for some advice. Very
curious to know what the trends are in the city these days for a
boy like you. I recommended some Friction credits of course. You’d
be mad to move to the city and not be taken in by the Friction
phenomenon.”
    “ You sell the gift cards
here?”
    “ Yes, of course. I don’t
doubt you’ll be needing any for a while though, your mother bought
fifty notes worth. You’re a very lucky lad. Have you had a chance
to redeem them yet?”
    Seckry groaned internally. He wished he’d
redeemed the card the moment he was given it. Then Snibble would
never have been able to melt it into a pile of burning embers.
    “ Not yet,” was all Seckry
said.
    “ My name’s Henrei, by the
way,” said the old man, and he stuck out a semi-translucent,
pockmarked hand.
    “ Seckry. Nice to meet you,”
said Seckry in return. Henrei’s hand felt cold, bony and slightly
sticky.
    “ Your mum in work, is
she?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ And she thinks you’re all
wrapped up in bed, I bet,” Henrei smiled and raised his white
eyebrows knowingly. He took a bite out of his sandwich and
something red and thick glooped onto the desk.
    “ Oops,” he said, and whipped
out a cloth to wipe it up. “Can’t be caught with these.”
    “ Sandwiches?” Seckry
asked.
    “ The jam,” Henrei replied,
licking a bit off his finger. “Marbery thinks I made myself some
chicken and salad this morning. Supposed to be watching the
cholesterol, you know?”
    There was some creaking upstairs and Henrei
cringed.
    “ Stay there my love, stay
there a moment, ” he whispered nervously, and scoffed the rest
down.
    Seckry