[Date: 3rd Eqanox Calendar 11024]
[Planet: Namaek]
[Current name: Tobby Argyar, Age: 26]
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The air in Dorvan always tasted faintly of iron and rain.
By late afternoon, the city was pulsing, towers breathing heat into the skyline, its streets trembling under the weight of restless engines and people desperate to outrun their own schedules.
I stepped out of the my company building at 16:50 with shoulders heavy and a light heart. For the first time in a long while, the usual fatigue of the workday didn't hinder me at all. My older sister, Daisy, was finally coming home. Four years away in military service, four years without her sarcasm and her steady voice cutting through the noise of my life. She'd landed an hour ago and is probably gonna get home before I do. "Just three more hours", I told myself, "and I'd see her again".
The parking lot shimmered with the pink haze of Namaek's second sun. My car waited by the gate, engine humming low. David stood by the door with his face half-hidden by the shadow of the mirror.
He'd been my driver for a decade now. Although he was a bit talkative but reliable none the less. He's the kind of guy who could make even a traffic jam feel like a conversation worth having. But lately, something about him seems different.
And especially today, he was way too... quiet.
His usual grin was absent, replaced by a stillness that was rather unsettling. I greeted him anyway, trying to shake off the unease.
"Rough day?" I asked.
He didn't answer. Just nodded once and started the engine.
I paid it no mind, I'd rather not make it awkward by being too noisy. Sinking into the back seat, slipped in my ear plugs, and scrolled through my playlist. Moonlights by Agula Pyrè. A soft, ethereal tune that made even the city's chaos sound distant. Soon, I was half-asleep, floating in the melody's quiet current.
---
[18:37]
When I opened my eyes again, the surrounding lights had changed and he sky was bleeding orange into indigo.
After a little post-sleep yawns and stretches, I texted Daisy a quick message—"Running late. Don't start without me"—and then leaned forward.
"Let's stop by the mall," I said to David. "Need to pick up something special for tonight."
David's hands tightened on the wheel. "The mall?" His voice cracked. "Mm-maybe not t-tonight."
I frowned. "Why not, is there a problem?"
He didn't answer. His eyes kept darting toward the side mirror, fixed on something by the left view. I followed his gaze and spotted a white ice cream truck was trailing us in the far lane. It look harmless, except...
I'd seen it before!!.
The same blue logo, same cracked fender. It had even been parked outside my office that morning. And the day before. Always there, with a direct view from my window.
A chill settled in my stomach as the thoughts in my head began to spiral. "David," I said slowly, "how long has that truck been following us?"
He said nothing and just swallowed his words.
"David!!....?", I said again as my panic rose.
That's when I saw it, the reflection of steel in his hand. A gun.
I instantly froze. "What the hell are you doing?"
He didn't turn, but he met my gaze from the hind mirror. "Please, sir," he whispered, voice trembling. "Don't call anyone. Please don't make this any harder than it needs to be."
"David." My throat felt dry. "You're scaring me."
"I don't want to do this." He glanced back, eyes wide with panic. "But I have no choice. He has my daughter."
He lifted his sleeve then, revealing a tattoo burned into his wrist. A jagged insignia I'd seen once on the news—the mark of the Ierrsha Gang.
I couldn't catch my breath. "So they've got to you too ha?."
He flinched, shaking his head like a man trying to deny his own reflection. "I'm sorry. I really am."
Before I could speak again, his phone vibrated. He stared at the screen for a long second, then handed it to me with shaking fingers. "They want to talk to you sir."
A voice crackled through the receiver in a familiar, yet mocking tone.
"Hey there, Tob. Been a long time."
"Derick?" My pulse spiked. "What the hell is this? If this is your idea of a joke—"
He laughed. That same hollow, unkind laughter I remembered from the university days, when he'd been nothing but envy and bitterness in a human shell.
"Oh man," he said, "still the same golden boy. Tobby Argyar, the one who got everything without ever trying. The company, the name, the fame. Tell me, does it ever bother you—knowing your family climbed over people like mine to get there?"
I gripped the phone so tightly I could almost hear it crack. "Derick, whatever my father did to your family, I've told you a billion times that I've had nothing to do with it. I walked away from that life and him a long time ago. Changed my name. Built my own company. I denounced him—denounced all of it."
He was silent for a heartbeat. Then gave an exasperated sigh, "You still don't get it, do you?"
"Get what?", I replied in anger
"This isn't about your father's sins." His voice hardened. "This is about the orders of Mrs. Tyler Rodriguez."
My stomach dropped. "My stepmother?, what does she have to do with any of this"
"Oh, she's more than that now," he said. "She found out about your father's little affair with your mother. When she discovered they were still in touch—well, let's just say she took it personally. She was still cool headed when she hired us to investigate. But then she saw the will and went completely bonkers. Whatever was in there was enough to sign your family's death sentence, and now there's a huge bounty on your heads, your pop included of course."
I felt my the world going silent for a second. "That BITCH!!!."
Derick laugher after hearing me scream were like daggers poking my ego. The silence that followed was buzzing and suffocating.
Then came the final blow. "Oh, your sister and mother," Derick said as though recalling something important, with a slight tone of laughter. "Sorry, they didn't make it either."
My chest constricted. I couldn't breathe and everything around me lost focus.
"Noooo— son of a bitch, what the fuck did u do?"
"I'm sorry, sir," David muttered from the front seat, tears streaking his face.
[Bang]
"I didn't want this, you have to believe me." His voice became distant, swallowed by the ringing in my ears. Though I didn't feel anything, I was pretty sure there was a hole in my head. My mind reeled, searching for answers, for a reason, for anything that wasn't this. "Is this it, this can't be real. I can't accept this. I...."
My sight blurred. The car, the light, even my heartbeat—all of it fading into a single, unbearable hum.
In that darkness, I heard my mother's voice—faint, like a whisper carried from another lifetime:
"Those who live honestly die with peace and pride in their hearts."
I wanted to believe her. I truly did.
But in that moment, all I felt was the cold weight of a terrible lie.
It all ended with a single tear running down my cheek.