I was on the bus that same Friday night. I was going to see the hockey match at the Sports Palace, in the Shell neighbourhood, in the northwest part of Thalis.

I was running late and the match had already started, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to pay too much attention to the match, anyway. I was only going there because I knew Siegfried would be there, playing.

His hockey team, the Dam, was playing against the Shell that night. I had to see him. I wanted to apologise to him as Agape had suggested. And once I would've done that, I'd hurry home. That night we had to perform the candle farewell ritual for Daniel.

I sighed. My warm breath clouded the bus window on my right. I had already made up my mind. I would stay, mend stuff, and become a spy for the rebels. Was I crazy?

Would I do it for justice? Or for vengeance? Those two were radically different, and yet Agape had made them sound the same. The clone ruling elite had us, traditional humans, under the most tyrannical rule. The President had caused my brother's death, but I wasn't going to fall prey to Agape's tempting proposal. Agape had made it look like one of the forbidden apples of the Garden of Eden, but murder wasn't me.

She promised that she would change the world after winning her war against the clones. I wanted, and needed, it to change to fulfil my dreams of becoming a mechanic since the clone law made it almost impossible. But was I willing to pay any price to get a chance to fulfil my professional dream? No. If she wanted to get clones murdered, it would be on her soul – not on mine.

The downside? My place in that terrorist organisation would make me a culprit by association, but I would survive.

Anyway, I regretted having angered Siegfried to such an extent. Why did he cut his hair? Was it a cultural thing? An honour thing? Was it a newfound, low self-esteem?

I found it hard to believe, that last guess. Siegfried seemed to be a lot tougher than any other guy. He was an enforcer, for the love of God!

It was almost ten o'clock when the bus arrived at the stop near the Sports Palace.

As I got off the bus, I realised I would probably find my 'friends' from the Dam. They were hockey fans, too. I wasn't in the mood to deal with any of them, especially now that I knew that they had a different idea of friendship than mine and that I had bothered them with my passion to become a mechanic.

The air was cool at night. That was why I was wearing long blue jeans and my dark brown jacket over my favourite red top.

Even though I had a bike of my own, my dear Frankie, I couldn't ride it to the Sports Palace unless I took one hell of a long route, bordering the City Centre. It was against the law that traditional humans rode a motor vehicle in that neighbourhood, whose only inhabitants were clones. The Clone Highway Laws. It would've taken me way too long to get there. That was why I had taken the bus. That law was also the reason why I took the bus to go to work every day.

I walked to the door of the Sports Palace and sighed.

I had come there so many times with Daniel! He didn't have what it took to be a player. Some of his friends were players, but in the youth squad. Surely they were all there. And Chloé, too.

So, there I was, crossing the doors of the Sports Palace.

The doors led to the top aisle of the stands. I looked down below, and immediately saw that there were no free seats left. The Palace was full, also noticeable in the deafening acoustics due to all that cheering and the chit-chat of multiple voices. I didn't feel like sitting down anyway.

Then, a loud noise took me out of my reverie.

A brave chorus of angry hockey fans was complaining about a foul just as I was slowly walking down the aisle looking for a free space. I had not been able to see the foul that had triggered that negative reaction. I heard angry whistles and insults in a cacophonous symphony, besides the squeaks of the wheels of the roller skates.

I stopped near the railing at the far end of the aisle. And then, I saw that some hockey players were ganging up and facing the referee like gorillas high on testosterone. One of them was Siegfried, dressed in the Dawn's team uniform, in green and black vertical stripes. And his new haircut.

Honestly, I liked his hair short better, with some rebellious bangs hanging over his forehead.

I saw him argue with the referee, but the latter's decision was unappealable. The game was resumed, and the Shell scored a goal. A chorus of euphoric cries of victory from fans dressed in blue and white echoed loudly in the Palace.

Then, I saw Siegfried, looking with murderous eyes at the player who had just scored the goal for the rival team as if they were alone on the court, completely absorbed in some lethal thought. But a companion with long, black, wavy hair, and a thin and short tail, skated close to him, elbowed him slightly, and took him out of that engrossed, obsessive state.

Siegfried began to skate again to counterattack. However, he got distracted.

He raised his head and suddenly saw me, standing in the middle of the top aisle of the stands, with my hands on the old railing. It had been repainted white without having scratched the old coat of paint. It was a botched piece of work, but there was no funding for more. It felt rough and cold beneath my hands.

I expected Siegfried's body language to be as rough and cold as the railing, but to my amazement, it wasn't.

Seeing me had surprised Siegfried, and it hit him so fast that it did not allow him to hide a brief sketch of a smile on his lips. At least he didn't look like he'd kill me.

But that nice smile soon turned upside down. He must've hated seeing me there. I was feeling giddy because the ice on his lips could be my death sentence. I would have to melt that ice in a few minutes, after the game.

I was still convinced of what I had told him during our argument, however. But I didn't want someone as imposing as Siegfried to hate me, even if it was for survival reasons. He was one of Agape's mercenaries, and he could be extremely scary when he wanted to. Just remembering his furious, icy eyes from the day before already made me shudder.

But we would put this enmity behind us. I was sure he would listen to me.

Despite that brief moment of discomfort for him, he immediately focused on the game.

It was starting to get hot in there. Was it the heat of so many people in such a small place? I opened the zipper on my leather jacket all the way down, but I didn't take it off. Underneath I wore a top of thin straps, deep red in colour. In fact, that was the colour of my neighbourhood team. It was customary for us to wear our colours on match nights even if our team wasn't playing.

Meanwhile, the audience cheered with prideful roars, especially the children of Dawn, who cheered on their new local idol, Siegfried. They adored him. No wonder. His performance was flawless.

He skated with such speed and precision that it seemed he had been born to do it. His uniform was slightly tighter than the other players because he was sturdy, so the friction with the air was barely noticeable on the fabric. He looked like a fish swimming in water with that high speed, those rash but precise turns, that way of attacking and counterattacking with the stick; seeing him play was quite a sight. He was smiling as if he wanted to stay on the court playing for the rest of his life.

Then, a good play ended in a goal by the Dawn team. Siegfried had put all his pride and strength into it. The commentator went mad with euphoria. The children were yelling with joy, raising their arms in the air.

I smiled until I heard a chorus of female voices shrieking of adoration in a high-pitched, eardrum-perforating cry, deafening the entire Sports Palace. They were chanting the name of the hero who had scored the goal, that was, 'Sigi'. They must've been suffering from chronically stressed, high oestrogen levels.

After a grimace of pain on my part, I looked right where those infernal, flattering, feminine moans emerged from: a group of foolish girls who were in the front row, among whom was Momo, who had painted two stripes on each of her cheeks, one green and the other black, her team colours.

Great! That was all I needed! Momo was a huge hockey fan, one of those who lost it, screaming hysterically for anything her hero did.

I made a face of disapproval and rolled my eyes. I muttered an almost silent "shit" as well, with my teeth clenched. Just imagining Momo approaching me to criticise or insult me ​​again, with that perfectly ironed, ginger mane of hair, that Miss Know-it-all face of hers, and that unbearable, high-pitched voice... I already felt like throwing up.

I felt the uncontrollable urge to hide but I didn't know where, and I quickly started looking left and right to see if there were any suitable nooks for me in the stands, so that I could dissolve into the crowd just in case Momo would turn around and spot me.

I admit I was extremely childish on such occasions. But I had been so absorbed by my thoughts of Momo that I hadn't realised that Siegfried had been staring at me. He was done celebrating the goal with his teammates, and he had caught me making faces, looking at Momo, and freaking out. Apparently, he was amused at my reaction, because he was raising an eyebrow and giving me a proud smile as if he was laughing at me in silence from the court down below.

It wasn't that I was scared of Momo. It was the mere fact that she was unbearable, that girl! I wanted to avoid her at all costs.

Then, the guy with the black, wavy tail from before skated to where Siegfried was with a naughty, mischievous smile. He discreetly peered behind Siegfried's back to see exactly where the latter was looking. Or at whom he was looking.

Siegfried noticed it, though, and he got angry at him. The nosey guy told him something that made Siegfried even angrier, and then Siegfried pushed him back with defiance. Siegfried had reacted defensively as a result of that mysterious exchange of words, but he had to stop messing around and go on playing.

In fact, it seemed to me that he would have gladly chased his teammate with the stick until the end of time, but the match wasn't over yet and they were losing.

The last goal had given them hope; however, they needed one more goal to tie, and it wouldn't be a bad result at least, especially considering they had less than five minutes left until the game ended.

"Daphne!" I would recognise that voice until the end of my days. Shit, it was Chloé. She was hurrying up the stairs. "Hey, how are you?!"

"Hello, Chloé," I greeted her even though I wasn't feeling like talking.

I would have preferred not to find her there. At the end of the day, we had to see each other at my house when we lit the candle for Daniel anyway.

"Daphne, I'm sorry. I wanted to see you before tonight to... well, you know." Her sadness was too young and deep.

"It's okay. How are you?" I asked her with eyes that spoke much clearer than words.

"I feel so weird, Daphne. It's just that... I can't believe it." Her burst of sincerity made me feel pity for her. She was too good a girl, too young. He was fifteen years old, too young to deal with that shit.

"It's over now, Chloé. Just let it be. You have to look ahead, and that's it." I was disgusted by what I had just said, especially because I had heard it a million times since my mother had died, and I hated it. It was the worst advice in the world.

I couldn't stand that shit of clichés that never helped, but that poor girl was a naïve, blond doll. Her only flaw was that she was satisfied by being a fashion magazine cutout kind of girl. She didn't have what it took to get such a hard slap from life.

"They say that time heals everything," she said, imitating the adults. In her eyes, I could only see a silent plea for me to confirm it.

"I have more experience in this than you and, believe me, they don't know what they are saying."

"So, what should I think?" She talked as if she was afraid of thinking on her own.

"Chloé..." I looked at her tenderly. That girl wouldn't be able to face the truth, so I'd make a more beautiful one just for her. "It's normal to feel bad. There will be a day when you will feel better. Just go on leading a normal life, as always. Talk to your parents and your friends, and remember my brother tenderly, but let him go... like a balloon flying away in the sky. That's what we're going to do tonight: remember him and let him go. His soul will soar and find peace somewhere up there."

Hello, sugar cubes!

Daphne's gonna meet Sigi face to face. How is he gonna react? Do you like the way Daphne turned Daniel's soul into a balloon?

Stay tuned to know more!

XOXO

MS