Chapter 7: Stars and Wet Grass

“Smooth.” Ryan leaned against the car, his hands jammed deep into the pockets of his rain jacket. “That was therapeutic.”

Levitan walked away from Akio’s corpse, still puffing on the cigarette. “Yeah, well, I’m still feelin’ kinda fucked up ‘bout being a prisoner for five years.” They leaned against the car, next to Akio, and pulled on their leather jacket. It was chilly out.

Levitan could hardly believe that Ryan had held onto that jacket for all this time. It can’t have been easy. It was one of their most valuable possessions. When they checked the pockets, they’d found the pack of cigarettes, and even their wallet. There was no cash in it, but there were a few photos.

“Lev?”

“Yeah, Squirt?”

“What did they do to you, in there?”

They blew a smoke ring. “The list of things they didn’t do to me is shorter than the list of stuff they did.”

“Dang. Well, what didn’t they do to you?”

“They didn’t treat me nice or give me candy.” They chuckled.

Ryan huffed and folded his arms. “It ain’t fun