He wakes up in an enclosed space, his hands tied, a wadded cloth in his mouth and a bag over his head. He senses another body in that space with him, breathing frantically. Kish.



The space shakes, and there is a smell of leather and gasoline. They are in the trunk of a car, Kilo realizes. It seems no sooner as he figured that out, that the vehicle squeaks to a halt and the trunk opens. They are pulled by rough hands and thrown to their knees. The bags are pulled off their heads, as they are greeted by their kidnapper.

“Hola,” says the man sitting on a fold-out chair in front of them. They are in a warehouse of some kind, most likely abandoned, and far from anyone who could help. They can’t see his face, but his pearly-white smile shines through the near black void surrounding them.

“Wait… Why are there two of them? Who’s that?!” the man in the chair exclaims, pointing at Kish. “Ay Dios…! Take the gags off of them. We’re not animals, come on!” He stands up as his minions remove Kish and Kilo’s gags. Kilo spits blood and glares at him.

“We ain’t done nothing!” Kish declares. His voice is steady, but tight with fear. “We just a couple of kids from Compton! We ain’t seen nothing, we ain’t done nothing! I don’t know what you heard, but I swear…!”

“Hey hey hey hey hey, no no no, hold on! Wait just a minute! Espera, chicos!” the man shouts. “It’s not time for that yet! Introductions come first, even dogs understand that! When dogs meet for the first time, they sniff each other’s butts! It’s the same with us. When humans meet, we share names, occupations, and hobbies!” Kish stares at him dumbfounded. Kilo glares. “… I guess I should start, since I did invite you here first…”

He clear his throat and stands up straight before them. They still can’t see his face. “Hello. Buenas noches. My name is Tarantula. I am a representative of an organisation named The Congregation. It’s hard to explain what I do to highschool kids, but… we’re sort of a consultant agency/bank. Truth be told, I love my job so much, I don’t really have any hobbies. Ok, your turn!”

Kish stares. Kilo glares.

“You are very rude young men… Well, not like it matters, I already know your names and everything there is to know about you. I just thought we should start on the right foot–”





“Why’d you come after us?” Kilo spits, teeth clenched. “Did those losers send you to try scare me? Well you can tell all of ‘em, I ain’t bitin’! I won’t join no fucking gang, no matter how much they beat on me or threaten me! So you can go to hell!!”

An oppressive silence hangs over the dark space. Tarantula stands over Kilo, looking down at him… and then he smiles, his chalk white teeth glittering in the low light.

He crouches on his haunches to meet Kilo’s eyes. “I like you, hermano. As a matter of fact, the gentlemen you’re referring to are clients of ours, and yes, they called your existence to our attention. But I’m here on my own orders. Jumping your friend here was just an accident, I guess. You’re the one I’m here for.”

“Kilo, man, don’t…!” Kish pleads.

“I don’t care what kind of orders you got, you don’t fuckin’ scare me!” Kilo presses on, seething, “Gangsters, thugs, you can’t scare me with all your bullshit! I see you. You’re just pussies acting all tough!! Y’all act like you protectin’ us from the cops and the government or whatever the hell else, but y’all’re the ones bringin’ the drugs in, y’all the ones draggin’ us into the turf wars!! So you can ALL GO FUCKIN’ ROT!!!”

Tarantula only grins wider. He stands up again and paces from side to side, hands on his cheeks. “This is so perfect!” he declares. Kilo watches him in disbelief. He is… delighted.

“That strength of character! The will to spit in the eye of death! You’re exactly what the big guys have been looking for! You wanna know something funny?! These Compton clowns…!” he says, gesturing to the thugs surrounding them, “They wanted me to kill you guys! And I was thinking about it, but this is so much better than I thought! You were right to turn them down, Hermano Kilo! You’re much better suited to working with us.”

The madman reaches into his pocket, and from it, he produces a silver compact disc.

“What… is that?” Kilo asks, confused.

“This is your awakening. If you’re as strong as I know you are, then I know that whatever is in this disc can’t kill you! You’ll make its power you’re own!” Tarantula says, ecstatically. He strides towards him, disc in hand.

Kilo is scared now, despite everything he said before. This man is evil, he knows it. He barely keeps from crying out as he takes hold of his face and raises the disc, preparing to press it into his forehead.

“Wait a minute! You don’t want him!”

Kilo and the evil man turn to look at Kish, shouting desperately. “He’s full of shit, man! Just a fuckin’ loudmouth, he don’t know what he’s sayin’!”

“Kish…!”

“He ain’t the one you want! I am! Me! Whatever you wanna do to him, let me have it in his place. I can take it! I can be the badass you need!”

Tarantula smile seems to split his face in two. “That’s cool!! Lying to keep your friend safe, even though it might mean dying?! That’s cool too!” Without missing a beat, he pulls a second disc out and positions himself between the boys. “Praise the Lord!” he shouts before shoving the discs into their foreheads. They slip past their flesh and skulls as like gelatine, leaving no scar.

Nothing happens for a second. Kilo looks at Kish, wide-eyed, breathing erratically. “What’s happening?” Kilo thinks at that moment, “We were just walking down the street… How did we get here?”

Then… something, starts happening. Kilo smells steam. Something inside of him burns and freezes him at the same time. Like his blood has turned to nitroglycerin. He tries to scream, but he can’t hear it over the inhuman scream in his head. The ropes around his wrists evaporate into dust and he falls on his hands and knees, the cement around him melting into soup.

In his agony, he falls to his side and looks at Kish. He is dying. His flesh twists as his insides bubbled and boil. Blood and offal squirt out of his mouth, his eyes, his ears and nose. Tarantula is watching. Kilo is watching. He is watching his only friend die, in fear and pain.

He crawls towards Kish, trying to reach him. To touch him. But when he reaches him, touches him, the life is gone from him already. Even as his body twitches and convulses, Kish himself is gone forever. And the burning inside him and the alien screaming become afterthoughts as the loss hits him, carving his soul in two and leaving the world a hollow void.

He looks at Kish, and doesn’t scream. Instead, he roars. And with the roar comes an explosion of steam that blows Tarantula off his feet. Freezing and burning inside out, Kilo stands and runs blindly from the place. He doesn’t look back.

—

Kilo remembered very little of the days that followed. The loss of Kish struck the community hard, but his true fate was never made public. There was no mention of gangs, of discs or of a Congregation. Nothing was said to the police. Instead, Kilo became the prime suspect for murdering his only friend.

The lack of clear evidence kept him out of prison, but the damage was done. In grief and hate, Compton turned on him, blaming him for murdering Kish. Even more so than he had been before, Kilo was ostracized from his home. He did not blame them.

In his mind, Kish’s death was his fault. His careless actions and words had led them to that awful place, and now he was dead. There could be no forgiveness for that. No atonement, no redemption. He was a misanthrope now: a man who believes in nothing, and is believed in by no one.

He did not understand at the time, but he does now. He feels it every moment of every day. When Kish died, part of him died as well.

“Kilo?”

He wakes from his dark daydream at the sound of Shizuka’s voice. She is crouched in front of him, looking up with a worried expression on her brow. It is the present day. He is not in the warehouse anymore.

“Kilo, did you hear me? Are you ok–”

“I’m fine!” he says a bit too quickly and sharply. Softer, he says “I’m fine, Shizuka. Thought you were hangin’ with the celebrity.”

“Yeah, I was, but I noticed you running off somewhere. You didn’t say anything, so…”

He rubs the back of his head and looks off to the side. “I just needed some air.”

“…You’re not still mad at me, are you?”

Kilo looks at her, taken aback. “Why would I be mad?”

“You know! After all that stuff with… Moya, and how I let her go. She did awful things to you, but I–”

“Shizuka. I’m over it.”

“Oh… Ok. If you say so…”