Talos sat on an empty crate. It was well past midnight, and he took his first smoke of the day. The mage he hunted was taken away through channels; he didn’t think he would meet him again, the poor man would be exploited to all his worth, and there would be no escape; there was never an escape to those who were given to despair. Such people can only wallow in self-loathing. This truth he knew personally.

  “Take a break from that awful thing, you'll choke on it before you hit thirty if you keep up the pace. How many did you have today? More than thirty for sure. Even if you dont want to live long, at least you must strive to be a role model to your sister,” Calvin said as he lit one himself.

  Talos smiled wryly, “ I had only one cigarette today. Thirty by the end of the day? You can bet forty”

  “Truly we are destined to choke on filth”, Calvin commented.

  They sat there in silence for a long time when Talos spoke.

  “I can't be a role model to anyone, Calvin, even a child would see that, and Lisa is no longer a child.” Talos held the silence anguishly, till the need to confess was unbearable. “I hit her once, Calvin, not like she did anything other than worry for me. I was in a mood and…and…I slapped her hard enough that she fell on the ground, lips cracked and still. For a moment, my stomach was rancid, my heart in my mouth. I thought that was it. Mother’s screams seemed to choke me, but all my breath was already choked out of me.” Talos said.

  “That’s why you haven’t carried your gun on yourself recently”, Calvin nodded. “I’m glad you didn’t do it. I can't bear to see Mrs Vera after losing her two children.”

  “How long ago was it?” Calvin asked.

  “A few months ago”

  “And you're telling me now”, Calvin sighed, “I heard about the penalty on your father. I checked, it was but a minor mistake which they exaggerated, I bet the higher ups of the company have no clue of it.”

  “You tell me nothing, Talos, you give away nothing of yourself, slumped in your own brooding. Though I still call you friend”

  “I did now”, Talos muttered.

  “When it’s long past to do anything! One day, I might get the news that you shot yourself. And I would have laughed at it until it would dawn on me to check on you!”

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Talos winced but said nothing.

  “You need a kick in your groin. But not from me,” he punctuated with stamping his cigar.

  “Go home, Talos. Your parents must be worrying sick.”

  In truth, Talos didn’t want to. Stack a bundle of money on the table and say what? I destroyed the lives of two and probably their family for it, be proud of me? He thought.

  Talos has kept his dirty side hustle a secret, like a prostitute hiding her obvious profession. On one awful night, his guard had slipped, wasted drunk in the living room, his mother Vera chanced upon his revolver, and with trembling hands, covered his blood stained shirt. She did not look him in the eye the next morning, and they never talked about it.

  Talos reached home before dawn struck. Found everyone awake, Vera had cried again. His father, Edward, looked ten years older. Only Lisa sat unbothered with a determined face. They all turned to look at him. Talos put the stack of money on the table, Edward shot a grim look at his son, something of sadness and gratefulness mixed in those haggard eyes. Vera looked disbelieving. Talos didn't check on how Lisa reacted, he imagined contempt. Either way, he didn't have the guts to look at her.

  "Dad, repay it by today. If they start to trouble us with more nonsense, then please return home immediately. And mother, no need to make breakfast for me, I'm taking leave for today and I'm planning to sleep through the day" with that said, Talos went and slumped in his bed.

  The headache had grown stronger, his sleep fleeing, and his eyes burning. He did not notice Lisa enter his room until she sat beside him. Talos had his eyes closed as he felt her hug him. He opened his eyes to find her silently crying, pulling on his shirt to wipe her tears.

  "Hey, stop wiping your snot on me", Talos called, and she blew hard in reply. He had to change his shirt, he reminded himself, trying his best to fall asleep. Lisa shifted to his left to avoid the mess she had left and huddled herself. There was silence in the room and outside, and he felt it strangely relaxing. He tried to light a cigarette with his right, Lisa had nested in his left. Before he could light it, she plucked it from his mouth and flung it away.

  "I'm trying to sleep, I don't want to breathe that awful thing here, all the streets are so full of cigarette smoke that you don't even need to purchase one to smoke," she said, "Can we stop being so miserable as the outside world, at least when we are in our homes. For mom and dad to stop arguing all the time, and for you to stop looking as lifeless as others."

  Talos thought on it and said, "Maybe we are all mirrors. We reflect what the world inflicts, and as days pass by, the mirror gets blurry and unreliable, distorting an already unpleasant image. Till the mirror is riven with cracks and finally shatters and is replaced."

  "But we are not mirror's" Lisa asserted.

  There was truth in those words, a human is not a mirror, but the mind certainly is. He thought. But if that was so, then how does a person change? If a person, despite all his suffering, looks at another person and is capable of smiling kindly, then he is no longer a mirror. Talos had seen such people but did not count himself among them.