Seventeen million, nine hundred and seventy thousand. That's how much I still owe to the Organization. That number echoes in my head as I rise out of bed in the morning, my head throbbing in pain. I look down at my bandaged arm and sigh. Slowly standing up, I feel my legs actually support my weight. I walk around for a moment, limping but without the need for the crutches.

"Nice, small victories," I say to myself.

I walk over to the door and carefully open it, the creaking causing my head to jolt with pain. I groan and walk down the stairs, holding onto the railing for support. Mr. Giles looks up the stairs as I limp down. He offers a sad smile and spins one of the barber chairs to face me. He points to it.

"Take a seat, kid, we should talk," He says.

I sit down and sigh, sinking into the cushion and softly closing my eyes. The pounding sensation in my head calms down, but doesn't disappear. I open one of my eyes and look at Mr. Giles. He waits patiently for me to say something.

"What? Do they want another one million by tonight?" I ask, he frowns.

"Have you met the Patron?" He asks bluntly.

I bite my lip. What to do now? A bad lie will only make things worse, but who knows what the Organization will do if they find out. Then again, why should it matter? As long as I get them the money, it shouldn't matter.

"Yes, I have," I respond.

He sighs and stands up, walking over to a shelf of hair supplies. He walks over and spins me to face the mirror, starting to give me a haircut. I don't say anything myself; I just allow him to continue as he speaks again.

"I was a boy at the time, just out of college, nineteen years old," He starts brushing my hair. I stay quiet as he tells his story, nodding along when appropriate.

"I just started in the Organization, but back then, we were under a different leader. I can't say much, but that leader forbade us from making contact with a certain group. That's not the important part, the thing is I disobeyed and had to pay the price," He continues, grabbing his scissors and clipping away at my messy hair.

"I owed the Organization two million by the end of the month. If I couldn't supply it, I was dead. I wandered around for a while, and then I met him. He was my age, maybe a bit older, but he had such wisdom about him. Introduced himself as the Patron and asked me if I needed help," He turns my head from side to side and nods, setting down the tools and rubbing shampoo in my hair.

"I agreed to his deals, my fingernails and toenails, I opted to get rid of them all. He gave me thirty thousand for each one and gave me an extra four hundred thousand for doing it all at once," He dips my head in the sink, washing the hair and mixing in the conditioner.

"One million, but I still needed the other half. I refused to chop myself up anymore, and so he handed me a skinning knife, and know what he said?" He asks me, and I shake my head.

"Mr. Giles, if you don't wish to turn this blade on yourself, give me the skin of someone else," He says, imitating the Patron, pulling me out of the sink and grabbing a towel.

"I did as he asked, some poor bastard on the street, a beggar. God, his eyes when I brought that knife down on him," Mr. Giles shakes his head and dries my hair.

"My point here, kid, I understand you're doing whatever you can, but don't do what I did, never do what I did," Mr. Giles finishes up and nods approvingly at the work, sitting me up.

I nod as he finishes the story, taking a moment to process everything, and I take a deep sigh. I don't think I could ever be pushed to do such horrible things.

"Why did you do it, not the skinning part, I mean, why'd you betray the Organization?" I ask, and he simply shrugs and helps me to my feet.

"Why do humans do anything?" He responds.

I nod and limp over to the door, slinging my jacket and tightening my boots. I push the door open, and Mr. Giles turns around and calls out to me before I head out. I turn only my head back, and he gives me a sad smile.

"I did it for love, kid. That's something worth fighting for," He closes his eyes and turns back around, heading into the back of the store.

I smile and exit the shop; my father used to say something similar to that. Love, it doesn't have to mean anything romantic, but it's something so alien to me I don't understand it, like a forgotten face in a memory. It's there, in everyone, but I can't give it a shape or definitive feeling.

"Love," I say aloud, glancing up at the clouds, which blanket the sky.

"Love?" I hear a voice to the side of me, I glance over and see Nis.

"Yeah, I was just thinking about love," I respond, smiling at her presence.

She smiles back and walks up to me, joining me by my side and staring up at the sky. The clouds cover the sky, not a speck of blue light shining through, the sun cloaked by a gray behemoth.

"Do you think the clouds love the sky?" She asks.

"What do you mean? Why do you say that?" I ask.

"If you love something, you want it all to yourself, right? Or at least, you want to protect it. So if the clouds cover the sky, they're shielding it from us, out of jealousy," She says, pointing up at the sky.

I smile, it's a childish thought, but there's an intelligence behind the remark as well. Socrates would've loved her. I chuckle and pat her head. Even though she's been through so much, she's still smiling here and now.

"You say some strange things, but yeah, you're right. The clouds must love the sky," I respond, and she smiles.

"Thought so. Hey, you're all better!" She says, poking my legs.

"Yeah, I still have a slight limp, but I'm better. Why are you out and about?" I ask.

She shrugs and lifts her hand. I reach down my hand and take hers in mine. We walk through the streets, and she starts to tell me stories of Unk (The Patron). She goes on about how he always cheats at games and how it's no fun playing with him. I laugh at her stories, and she giggles along with me.

She skips as we walk, becoming more comfortable around me, spouting out about anything and everything she can. I have to remind her a few times to take a breath before she continues on another ramble. I eventually get a chance to ask my own questions.

"Hey, Nis, how old are you?" I ask her, she puts her mitt to her chin and thinks for a moment.

"I will be nine soon, in a week!" She grins.

"Whoa, in a week? We have to have a party then!" I smile.

As we continue to walk, she asks about my past, and I answer all her questions honestly, telling her about my parents and the debt I'm in. I tell her about Mr. Giles and Zahla; she doesn't like Zahla from my descriptions, which is fair because neither do I.

"I thought marriage was supposed to be full of love. Do you love her?" She asks me.

"Most marriages are yes, but in our case, it was forced on us; they just needed to keep a watchful eye on me, so no, I don't love her," I admit.

"Why do you still wear the wedding ring then?" She asks.

I freeze. She's right, of course, I'm not sure entirely why I still wear it, maybe it's because it's real gold and I think it's cool to have, or maybe it's because it will ward off other girls from trying to flirt with me. No, it isn't that simple.

"I'm not sure, Nis, it just feels wrong not to wear it," I respond.

"I think you are in love, but not with her, I think you're in love with the concept of having someone like that in your life," She says.

"Maybe, let's just chalk it up to that," I respond, looking down at her and my hand she's holding, feeling the cold metal.

"I don't think I want to be married to anyone," She says.

"Well, you're too young to be married," I say.

"Not right now, silly, I mean ever," She responds.

"Why not?" I ask.

"Well, if you're married, then you are expected to follow a set of rules and promises set by the other person. I don't want that, I want to be free," She responds.

"You're very wise for your age," I say.

"I know," She sticks her tongue out at me.

"Brat," I say, unable to hide the smile.

She giggles and points over to the toy store, her eyes sparkling as she practically pulls me along with her. She grins at the toys spread out inside the display. I ruffle her head and walk inside with her, the bell jingling as we enter. The clerk looks over at us and smiles. She's an elderly woman with a fancy dress on, the dress depicts red and white roses. She sets down the book she was reading and takes off her glasses.

"Why, hello, welcome to my shop," She smiles.

"Hi! You have really cool toys!" Nis beams, letting go of my hand and exploring the store.

The clerk smiles and turns to me, noticing my bandages on my arm. I pull my jacket down a bit to cover them. She pats my arm and offers me a warm smile. I return the smile and give her a nod. Nis comes running back with what appears to be a puzzle box.

"This one! Can I have this one, Kyne? I'll pay you back, I swear!" She asks, holding up the box.

I pick it up and set it on the counter, opening my wallet and shaking my head at her promise.

"Nah, no need to pay me back, Nis." I set down the money, and the clerk pushes it back to me.

"Christmas is right around the corner, please take it, on the house," She says, patting my hand. A warmth fills my heart, and I nod, squeezing her hand lightly.

"Thank you, that means a lot," I say and hand Nis the box.

"Thank you!" She calls out behind her, already attempting to solve the puzzle box.

I look down at it; even for me, that box looks hard to solve. Each side of the cube is a different puzzle, and it looks like you need to solve every side to open the box itself. It's not intended for kids, but there's no way that's stopping Nis.

Nis changes our direction to the North side of town, and I follow along with her, making sure she's not stepping on anything dangerous as she attempts to solve the puzzle box. As we turn onto a street, she makes the box click, and she beams.

"Yes! One side done!" She cheers.

"Good job, Nis! I'm proud of you!" I cheer with her.

She smiles up at me and looks around at her surroundings, and stops me at a crossroads. She looks around and nods.

"Okay, this is as far as I can take you. Unk would be mad if I showed you where our house was, so please go home now, Kyne. We can play tomorrow, okay?" She says.

"Will you be safe?" I ask.

"Nobody is safe, not in a world like this, Kyne. But Unk won't hurt me, don't worry. Have a great night," She says, squeezing my hand and running off further North.

Half of me wants to chase after her, but there's no doubt that it'll get her in trouble with the Patron, and I may never see her again. My own thoughts shock me, for this whole day, the thoughts of my debt had left my mind. More than that, my aching headache was gone. I smile in the direction she ran off and head back home. I return to see Mr. Giles out front, smoking.

"Out with the kid?" He asks, holding out a cigarette, This is the first time he's offered one.

"Yeah, Nis, she's a sweetheart," I respond, standing next to him, taking the cigarette and leaning down to his open lighter.

"Seems like it, is she involved with your shit? The Patron, I mean," He asks.

"I don't trust you with that information," I say.

He looks over at me and raises his eyebrow and smirks, patting me on the back and shaking his head approvingly.

"Damn kid, you've changed, and certainly for the better. You should be thinking like that, sorry I've been so rough on ya, this damn Organization," He says, seething.

"You told me what you did was out of love. Can you tell me more about her?" I press.

"She was a gem kid, part of a rival group, the classic story of forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet, ya know?" He says.

"You must be the Juliet," I snicker, and he whacks me on the back of the head.

"Smartass," He laughs.

We talked out there for the rest of the evening, he told me all about Juliet (Wouldn't give me her real name, so we called her that). It was a good night, it made me realize how much respect I had for him, he was a good man put into a bad spot, like my father, and now me.

These past few days were good, minus the pain from being hit by a car, having my fingernail ripped off, and skinning myself. As strange as it sounds, I began to see the Patron as a friend, I began to see Mr. Giles more like a real father to me, and I began to see Nis as like my little sister or daughter. But this next week, reality came knocking, and my world was flipped on its head, for the second time in my life.
I finally saw the Patron's true colors and saw the horrors of the Organization; everything was about to change.

And it all started with a letter.

A letter from the Boss.