Rewind
(This story can be read on its own. However, it is a continuation of Rosa & Andrick’s story found in The Window and Shattered & Smeared, and reading them in order really allows Rosa’s personality to shine. Enjoy, my friends!)
Rosa jumped as the front door squawked, unsure if the exuberant cussing was a sign of success or failure. Footsteps thumped into the apartment’s front hallway, duffle bags fwumping down. Patience. She could wait until they were all in and had a moment to breathe.
“Hey, grab the first aid kit!”
Nope.
Rosa tossed the outdated magazine to the side, snatching the red and white paper cup off the cluttered coffee table-careful not to dislodge the thin gold chain scotch taped around it-and hobbled toward the doorway, her wrapped ankle whining.
“I dibs shower first!”
“Pick up your mess! This place is already-”
“-better next time. That was too close for comfort.”
“It worked, didn’t it?”
The smell of smoke hit Rosa in the face.
She clutched the paper cup to her chest, the smokey little heart inside thumping harder. She stretched up on tip toes, searching between shoulders and heads. “Andrick?”
One of the muscle heads shoved past her, soot smeared across his cheek and neck.
“Damn cops,” he growled.
Cops? Smoke? What happened?
“Andrick!” Rosa pushed into the tiny hall, ignoring glares and curses, the quickening thuds of her heart outpacing the timid thumps inside the cup.
“Rosa!” Sid laughed, his signature black leather jacket and slicked back hair both disheveled, but a smug grin firmly in place. “Chill, kid! He’s fine. Did his bit like a pro, even when things started turning sideways. Didn’t ya, Frosty?”
Andrick leaned with his back against the door, faded blue bangs stuck to his sweat covered face, a thin cut running along his jaw.
“Chalk ‘n char!” Rosa hissed, pushing the cup against his chest, the plastic lid half popping off, a strip of duct tape keeping it mostly in place. She tried to wrap one of Andrick’s shaking hands around the cup, but his arm was like a fifty pound noodle.
“Can you hold it?” he sighed, leaning forward and resting his head against her shoulder.
“Yeah, I got it.” She swallowed her heart back down, unsure if it had jumped into her throat over Andrick’s breath on her neck or because he looked way too much like a zombie from that old tv show.
She glared at Sid. “You had him out too long.”
Sid shrugged. “He could have brought the cup with. Or, if you hadn’t gotten clumsy on the last job,” he glanced at Rosa’s ankle, “you could have come. Made one of your fancy window portals to get him back quicker.”
Rosa’s insides squished in on themselves.
Nisa-the half hearted team mom-leaned into the hallway, hold up the rubbing alcohol. “Andrick, let’s get that face of yours cleaned up.”
“S’fine. I just need to lie down,” Andrick mumbled, pushing off the door and stumbling into Rosa.
Nisa shrugged. “Fine. But don’t let it get infected. We need you on the next one.”
“He’s been on every job lately!” Rosa snapped. “Even the little gigs to get supplies!”
Nisa shrugged, handing Rosa the rubbing alcohol. “That mind trick of his, it’s handy.”
“Both of you take it easy,” Sid said as he headed into the kitchen with Nisa. “After today’s success, we’re now ready for phase three. And you’re our lynch pin, little Rosa.” He rolled the r in her name obnoxiously.
Once again, no snarky comebacks could be found in her static fuzz channel of a brain. Exhaustion was a real kick in the backside.
“Now,” Sid called over his shoulder, “you’ll get to start making a real dent on your debt!”
Rosa’s thumb touched the chain wrapped around the cup.
She wrapped an arm around Andrick, the two of them managing to hobble down the hallway and into the bedroom they shared with two others. The past three months here had been a loop for both of them. The team wasn’t keen to having highschoolers around, no matter how much Sid praised their magic. Meaning, they were assigned the big jobs from Sid and grunt chores from everyone else.
Pause, rewind, play. Everyday.
Andrick collapsed into his mattress, sagging into the corner and barely keeping the cup upright in his lap.
Rosa sat the rubbing alcohol on the carpet, snagging her pillow from her sleeping bag and jamming it behind him. “Andrick, what happened? And why do you all smell like a bonfire?”
“Cuz there was a fire,” he sighed, taking another slow breath.
“Doofus!” She smacked him. Gently. Sort of. “This job was straight forward. Con the house staff, grab the charms, and get out. Why was there a fire?”
His stared at the floor.
“Andrick!”
He flinched. Rosa bit her lip.
“I…” He sat with his mouth half open, eyes unfocused.
She scooted closer, gently taking his hand and resting it against the back of her neck. “Show me what happened,” she said softly.
He eyed the half open door, then slid his fingers up into her hair.
His fingers turned to ice against her scalp, images slipping into her mind.
A fancy front door. A man in a suit answering. Sid nodding, arms full. A dropped paper. The man bending. Andrick’s fingers on the suited man’s neck. Andrick and Sid being waved in.
The images flashed faster, each step of the plan in crisp detail. Until it wasn’t. The pictures grew blurred, rushed, events deviating from plan A, B and C. Too many people, too many missteps. How many memories did Andrick alter? No wonder he was exhausted. What was Sid thinking, pushing forward with- Was that a gun?
“Whoa! Rewind!” Rosa commanded.
The images stopped, then backed up.
Rosa gagged, leaning back quickly to escape the red splatter, Andrick’s hand coming free.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to show you that part.”
“Andrick…”
“Sid said a fire would be a diversion.” He pulled a lighter from his pocket, letting it drop onto the floor.
Her chest tightened, hands shaking as they balled into fists. She crawled to the door, clicking it shut and twisting the flimsy lock.
“Rosa?” Andrick’s head lifted.
“We didn’t sign up for this.” She pulled a piece of chalk from her hoodie pocket, roughing out a large square on the beige wall. “Stealing magic items from crooked rich people is one thing. Taking a life, anyone’s life…”
“Hold on.” Andrick’s voice was tight and breathless as she scratched a second box, adding runes along the edges. “They won’t just let us leave. Not with-”
They both looked at the red cup, the gold chain wrapped around it winking.
She grabbed his hand before he could even start to unwrap it. “Your heart won’t last without that.”
“And Sid won’t let us leave with it.”
The door thunked. Someone cussed in the hall, banging a fist against the door.
“Sid won’t let us leave either way, now. We’re too handy, too good at covering up his mistakes.” Rosa lined up her fingers and thumbs at opposite corners of the chalk box. She should have seen it before today. Maybe she did, she was just too desparate.
Rosa poured magic into the wall, glass forming faster ever before.
“Rosa, you can’t get rid of the window on the other side,” he hissed. “They’ll follow us!”
“We’ll figure it out.” She shoved it open
“You first then. I’ll hold them back.”
More voices and beating fists.
“Not with the shape you’re in.” She grabbed her bag, the strap catching the lighter on the floor and tumbling it towards her. She glanced at the cup in his hand. Her cup. He would hate her. But there was no time.
Andrick’s eyes grew wide. “Rosa, no.”
“Andrick, go through the window,” she said.
The smell of magic sparked within the room. Andrick’s face contorted, his body flinching as he fought it, but he couldn’t stop. He climbed through the window as Rosa’s gut sank with self-loathing.
“Rosa!” Sid yelled in the hall. Door slamming intensified. “Unlock the damn door!”
Rosa snagged the rubbing alcohol, dumping the entire bottle over the carpet as she shimmied backward into the window. The lighter’s wheel dug into her thumb as she ground it into motion, sparks jumping, but no flame. She held it closer to the floor, grinding it again. Again. Again!
The door split, crashing into the wall.
“Brat!” Sid screamed. “Don’t you dare!”
Flames whooshed to life around her. Rosa shoved herself backwards out the window.
