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“Not yet,” she replies, shaking her head. We play for a couple more moments, moving our pieces around the board, when she frowns. “Oberon…we’re always talking about my past, but what about you? I feel like I’ve never even asked, in all the weeks we’ve been doing this.”
“Eh—I haven’t had a very interesting life,” I chuckle. “Not compared to you with your amnesia and mysteries…”
“Stop,” she rolls her eyes. “Talk to me, Oberon. I want to know you.”
Her hand finds my knee under the table just as she knocks one of my pawns out of the game. She always knows how to distract me—not that she would need to distract me to win.
“Your past,” she says, voice gentle but insistent, “tell me.”
I exhale, feeling the weight of years bubble up from deep inside.
“Well…like I said, it’s not very interesting,” I murmur. “Pretty fucked up, though. My mom was a Glitter addict, dad was a gangbanger. They both fucked off when I was a little kid and basically gave me to the Eclipse.”
I pause, Aisling listening in silence.
“I was hungry, alone. They offered me a family, a purpose. But it was no fairy tale, just a different kind of hunger.”
“And that’s how you ended up at Dreamland?” she asks.
I nod. “Worked my way through the ranks, never got very far. They act like gangs are more of a meritocracy sometimes—the boss tells you if you’re loyal and smart, you’ll get far—but I was never going to get any more cash or real power. Caius Rossi likes to lean on his cronies, not people like me.”
“He uses people,” she says. “Not like real family. Real family doesn’t use you.”
“Like what we have?”
She goes quiet, biting her lip. I’m not sure if that’s an admission that she’s using me, but I kick myself for asking.
I don’t really care.
I would be here regardless, whether she’s using me or not.
“I think…” she pauses, her eyes clouding over. “I think I had a family. Before Dreamland. I remember something like it, at least, but it wasn’t like the Eclipse or the Angels.”
“What do you mean?”
She shakes her head. “It’s hard to tell if it was even real. There was never hunger, there was always food from the garden. I can still taste the carrots…they were so sweet.”
Her gaze drifts past the window, past the skyline. Echo Beach is out there somewhere, and beyond that, the Pacific Ocean. I guess that’s where she came from ten years ago—washed up on the sand like trash, picked up and sold for another man’s benefit.
“Tell me about it,” I urge, curious to peel back another layer of her hidden life.
“Hidden away,” she says, her hands now idle, the game forgotten. “There was this place—so lush, so alive. It was so green. We always had what we needed. And the beaches were covered in these colorful stones, shining like glass…”
“Sounds peaceful,” I interject. “But you’re right…it doesn’t sound real. I can’t imagine that kind of peace in this fucked up world.”
“I know,” she admits, nodding slowly. “I mean…maybe if the people on that island knew nothing of the Great Mutation. If they somehow managed to hide away…but how long could that have even lasted?”
“Must’ve been nice,” I say, feeling a tug in my chest for something I never knew I wanted.
“Nice,” she agrees, a small smile playing on her lips as she focuses on the board, a finger tapping on the rook. “It was home. Or…at least I like to dream that it was.”
“Home,” I echo, and there’s a silence between us, filled with the ghosts of our pasts. But the moment passes, and she shakes her head, as if clearing away cobwebs.
“Anyway—I have your king.”
I glance down at the board in surprise, finding that she has indeed boxed me in. I laugh and shake my head as Aisling starts to reset the board.
“Alright, alright,” I chuckle, my hand reaching out to stop her from resetting the board. “You win this round, Aisling.”
