Last Violent Call

by Chloe Gong

Two knocks meant “all clear,” and three knocks meant “dorogaya, for the love of God, I’m holding something in my hands.”

Mai. The easiest combination of “Cai” and “Montagov,” perhaps the least original method of creating an alias in the history of starting anew.

Science could tell him that the ground was below his feet and the sky was above his head and the early light of day was upon his back. Roma wouldn’t listen. To him, Juliette was the sun.

If he didn’t love Juliette so much, he would really spend every waking moment in fear of what went on in that mind of hers.

“You won’t ever lose me,” he repeated, sounding so serious even with the jest in their actions. “And I love you, to have and to hold as my unlawfully wedded wife, until the universe itself goes poof.”

“I have an internal compass that centers on you instead of true north.”