Thirteen days later, Fletcher was sitting on the floor of the apartment, stretching after finishing his rather cold morning run. The apartment was finally decorated with a tree in the corner and a few strings of lights elsewhere to brighten up the space. It wasn’t the most intensely decorated, but it was enough to bring holiday cheer to the space.

  His dad would be at work all day which, in truth, was a bit of relief given how difficult it was to reacclimate to sharing such a tight space now that Fletcher had been living on his own for so long. And today he’d finally decided to do the last task on his list before Christmas, which was less than a week away.

  Shopping.

  In theory, Fletcher liked the idea of Christmas shopping. Finding the perfect gift for friends and family was fun, but actually going out to buy the gift was mostly stressful, especially since he was a serial last minute shopper when it came to buying gifts. It wasn’t so bad with birthdays, but during the holiday season, it seemed the entirety of the colony’s population attempted to fit into the few malls contained within the walls.

  Despite the fact that Humans all lived in small, walled off cities with only the meagerest of means for producing their own goods, somehow there was still a shocking amount of consumerism in their society, a mixture of newly created products to distract from the sorry state of the world and a plethora of recovered items from the old cities such as physical books and artwork. Occasionally some retro tech could also be found such as the old style cell phones with touch screens or game consoles that still used discs (and even the discs to be used if one was really lucky).

  Fletcher did have a big advantage when it came to shopping this year given that he could go out during the day while the majority of people were at work or school. Hopefully that would make it easier to navigate the crowds.

  He finished his cooldown routine and showered, then grabbed his wallet and the list of gift ideas he’d been working on for a month straight. Pulling on the slightly large coat he was borrowing from his dad for his stay, Fletcher stepped out of the apartment, using the spare key to lock it behind him.

  A few minutes and flights of stairs later, he was outside in the bitter cold late morning air, regretting his decision to go out now instead of in the afternoon. He just wanted to be sure he’d have maximum time to shop without dealing with the usual rush of shoppers he’d dealt with every other year of his life.

  The nearest mall was located in the downtown part of Alcett, four blocks from the apartment building. A rather cold wind gushed over his face, and Fletcher opted to spend the money to take the bus to avoid freezing as much as possible. If he had extra time, he might do some clothes shopping for himself to find a new sweater. According to his father, this was Alcett’s coldest winter since its founding twenty-two years ago.

  The bus ride was like any other, and Fletcher didn’t even bother listening to music for such a short passage. The mall was a huge building that took up half the length of the block and stretched upwards for three full stories. It held everything from grocery stores to restaurants to clothing stores and even a couple of play areas for kids.

  Fletcher walked inside and sighed in disappointment as he noticed the swarm of people already inside. It seemed everyone else had copied his idea of going when they thought no one else would, or perhaps the mall was constantly this busy during the holiday months.

  “Sorry,” he murmured as he bumped into a man wearing a brightly colored scarf wrapped so high it obscured much of his face.

  The crowds were heavy. This was going to be a pain.

  Checking his list, Fletcher decided to start with getting something for Javier. It wasn’t anything big or even overly thoughtful, but a jacket with their alma mater’s logo was the best he’d been able to come up with given that his best friend was consistently the hardest person to shop for.

  Professional sport teams no longer existed, but universities still engaged in the most popular sports and played each other to provide some kind of athletic entertainment for the people. For years, Fletcher had just bought Javier tickets to see one of the big games in the area, but once his friend started a real job, Javier had decided to spend most of his free money on season tickets for all his favorite sports, eliminating the easy choice for gifts.

  The attire store he visited was among the least busy of the shops, making it a quick trip. Fletcher then tackled the next few items in quick succession. He got a cute set of toddler books for Amy—an expensive gift, but he was determined to get her into proper reading—and then some nice cookware for her parents.

  He decided to get lunch before tackling the rest of the list to give himself a break from pushing through hordes of people. He went with a teriyaki noodle bowl and coffee, and just as he sat down, someone else slid into the chair across from him.

  “Sunlight,” he exclaimed as he smiled at his friend. He tried to visit her at the embassy within his first three days of being back, but he’d disappointedly learned she was off in Jersay on a work trip that was scheduled to last until past Christmas.

  “Fletcher, it’s so good to see you,” she said. Her golden face reminded him of Beam, but more joyful and less teasing.

  “Your aide told me you wouldn’t be back until the twenty-sixth.” He took out the accompanying chopsticks for his meal.

  “We wrapped up early. I was just here to grab lunch when I noticed you.” Sunlight grinned as she set a takeout box on the table, displaying a collection of fries and chicken strips.

  Fletcher dug his chopsticks into his food, searching for a properly sized bite. “So what have I missed?”

  She laughed. “Nothing. However, I hear you’ve been very busy out in Bren’it’p. Beam writes me every other week, you know.”

  He chuckled, unsure if he was relieved or nervous to be with someone who had an inside source as to what happened out in the Unhuman city. At the very least, he was glad to be able to speak openly about his and Beam’s relationship.

  “Speaking of Beam,” Sunlight continued. “She mentioned she has a new potential mate, a boyfriend if you will, but she refuses to tell me anything about him or who he is. You wouldn’t happen to know him, would you?”

  Fletcher had just shoved a rather large bite of food into his mouth which he nearly choked on when she said this. Scratch that about Light knowing about their relationship. He wasn’t about to tell one of his close friends that he was dating her little sister without her permission. Things with Beam happened so fast, he didn’t even think about writing to Sunlight about any of it. Besides, he’d mistakenly assumed Beam would handle explaining all that.

  “Fletcher Anders, what do you know?” Light saw right through him.

  He shook his head and shrugged. “I’m no snitch, Light. If Beam wants you to know about this guy, she’ll tell you.”

  “‘Light?’ A tip from Beam?” she asked knowingly.

  “Sorry. If that bothers you—”

  “Not at all. In fact, I was a little embarrassed that I never got the chance to explain the [Jinn] surname thing earlier, and eventually it just seemed like it was too late for that kind of conversation.”

  They both laughed and continued their respective meals. Sunlight moved on from the “boyfriend” thing quickly—to Fletcher’s relief—and instead asked him about things like restaurants and activities he’d done while in the city.

  She made no mention of the assassination, and if Fletcher had to guess, she probably didn’t know about it. As to whether it was because that letter from Beam hadn’t made it to her or because Beam was choosing to omit that tale altogether, he didn’t know, but regardless of the cause, he was grateful. The last thing he wanted right now was to remember that experience. He was still having nightmares about Fieva’s teeth and her corpse coming back alive to haunt him. Sometimes Ruvo was there too, reminding him that he’d taken the kid’s mother from him.

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  Fletcher wanted more than anything to talk about it with his father, but he still couldn’t bring himself to broach the topic and worry his father further about his safety in the city. There was nothing that could be done about the situation anyway.

  He and Light finished eating, and Light declared she had to get back to work. They said farewell as she stood up to drop off her trash. As Fletcher went to do the same, his eyes caught sight of something familiar.

  The man with the scarf from earlier, though the scarf was just draped lazily around his shoulders now. The guy was staring down at a tablet, a cup of coffee next to him, but Fletcher had the uncanny feeling that he had only just been watching him.

  Something inside Fletcher wanted to confront the man directly, but he knew causing a scene in such a busy place was a terrible idea. Besides, it was probably just his imagination. Why would someone be following him for something as mundane as Christmas shopping? Shaking off his baseless worries, Fletcher deposited his stuff in the trash and returned to his shopping, turning his thoughts back to the conversation with Light.

  He was a little weirded out that Beam hadn’t mentioned that she was dating him to her sister which sent a new wave of worries through him that his girlfriend was embarrassed about dating a Human. He did his best to distract himself from the whole situation by focusing on finishing his gift-buying and dodging through the crowds.

  A slew of Christmas music blared throughout the mall, the familiar songs slowly putting Fletcher back into the holiday spirit as he searched for the final item on his list. He’d gotten Maya Ortega an antique vase, and he’d picked out a collection of special imported coffee beans from South America for Jorge given the man’s hobby in making coffee the old fashioned way. He’d also nabbed a few small items for other friends, like a high quality journal for Light and a set of nice pens for Heather.

  All that remained was to get something for his father, but for the life of him, Fletcher couldn’t decide what his own dad would want. Without Fletcher to support, Sebastian had enough extra money to buy himself nice things when he wanted them, and he wasn’t a man of many hobbies.

  Fletcher walked the length of the mall three times over, glancing over the directory every chance he got, but nothing called to him. As he stared at the directory for the twentieth time that day, he noticed the gaudy scarf out of the corner of his eye.

  Turning, he found the man from earlier, still holding a coffee cup and staring off in the distance.

  Okay, this was clearly more than paranoia. He was definitely being followed. But why? What did they think they were going to learn from stalking him through a mall during the holidays?

  Taking a breath to calm his nerves, Fletcher left the directory behind and thrust himself as deep into the crowd as he could, setting his mind on a single thing—losing his tail. He kept his head low and did his best to take sudden turns and dip into random stores. After almost thirty minutes of this odd game, he decided that would be enough. This would surely prove to himself that he was either crazy or being followed.

  As Fletcher stepped against the wall, giving himself breathing room from the crowds, his heart sunk. The scarf guy was there, only a few yards away. This time he was openly staring at Fletcher.

  The stalker grinned and walked closer, his coffee cup still in hand.

  “I believe you dropped this,” he said in a quiet voice, shoving something into Fletcher’s hand. “Best to be careful in these crowds. Wouldn’t want something important getting lost.”

  Fletcher glared at him, but the man kept a smile on his face as he ducked his head and walked away. Not that Fletcher believed he was going to stop watching him. If anything, he was only going to make it less obvious. Though that scarf made it impossible to miss him.

  The scarf… It was probably intentional. Knowing Captain Monroe, she likely wanted him to know he was being followed. Another way to threaten him.

  Glancing down at his hand, Fletcher discovered a note.

  Enjoy your holiday.

  -GT

  On the backside was a photo of him and his father at dinner two nights prior. They were always watching him, and they would be the entire time he was in the colony no doubt.

  Fletcher ran a hand through his hair, took a deep breath, and then reminded himself that there was nothing he could do about it. No doubt General Taki would keep this up even if Fletcher promised to spy. But he wasn’t going to do that. He wouldn’t betray the trust of his friends back in Bren’it’p like that.

  Shoving the picture deep in his back pocket, Fletcher forced himself to refocus on shopping. His goal was to put all his energy into finding a gift for his father and forget entirely about the stalker. He could do that much. Taking one last calming breath, Fletcher returned to his mission.

  It was getting late in the day when he finally caught sight of the perfect gift in the window of one of the scavenged stores which sold items retrieved from the old cities. He hadn’t known until he saw it, but now that he noticed it, he knew he’d never find something better. This might be the best gift he’d ever gotten for his father, and his excitement for Christmas morning surged. Maybe Christmas shopping wasn’t too bad after all.

  ***

  Fletcher set the songbook back in the holder on the back of the pew in front of him as the small string band—accompanied by an organ—finished the last bar of “Silent Night.” That marked the end of the midnight Mass he and his father were attending with the Ortegas. While neither he or his father were Catholic, going to the Christmas celebration had become one of their traditions after Fletcher and Javier became close friends.

  Sebastian had only briefly discussed religion with Fletcher, and best that he knew, his father believed in God and life after death, but nothing more formal. His own beliefs were harder to state, though he liked to claim they aligned with his father. Javier was and always would be a stalwart Catholic, but he never pressured Fletcher to accept any of his beliefs.

  Instead, Fletcher chose to believe there was a higher power to give him some sense of peace, and he liked to appreciate all religions for what they could offer. He led a happy enough life that he didn’t often see the need to seek God out and ask for changes. He was doing plenty fine on his own.

  His father was the first one out of the pew, followed closely by Fletcher, and then the rest of the Ortega family. Despite the late hour, they still had plans together, keeping with the tradition of opening a few gifts together as a group before separating for the night. This allowed each family to have their own private Christmas mornings but still exchange gifts beforehand. This year the Anders were hosting, so the families left the stunning cathedral behind and traversed the snowy streets back to Sebastian’s run down place.

  Now that it was decorated, it felt even smaller with everyone squished in, but Fletcher didn’t mind so much. Being crowded in with the people he loved only brought back good memories from his childhood when they first started this tradition, though a glance around the room reminded him that the Human government would threaten every single person in here to get at Fletcher.

  Amy went first, opening gifts from both Fletcher and Sebastian. She was shockingly awake for a two and a half year old at one a.m., but she tore through the wrapping paper eagerly and babbled in delight as she held her books and a new toy set. They then moved on to the next youngest, Fletcher. He, as usual, received a physical book from nearly every member of the Ortega family. Javier opted to change things up, and instead got him a tie covered in math equations.

  Fletcher thanked everyone profusely, already eyeing his new books, as they moved on to Javier. From there it was Cami, then Finn, Maya, Jorge, and finally Sebastian. Everyone was happy and excited with the gift exchange, and they ended the night with a round of eggnog before bidding the Ortegas farewell for the night.

  The door closed behind the family, and Fletcher turned back to his dad. Now it was time for their own private tradition of exchanging gifts. This spawned out of kid-Fletcher insisting that one a.m. was technically Christmas morning so he should be allowed to open his gifts. He and his father had reached the compromise of exchanging a single gift that night, and ever since Fletcher turned twenty, it’d been the only time they really exchanged gifts since neither liked going overboard on spending.

  “You go first,” his father insisted, passing Fletcher a slim box.

  Fletcher softly untied the bow holding the lid on and opened it to reveal a photo album. He briefly flipped through it to find pictures of him when he was just a little baby, surrounded by both parents, his father and the young woman he knew to be his mother, and then more of him growing up, including a personal favorite of him, Jeric, and Addy with their “weapons” back one day while the Future Breach Explorers were playing in the park. It was a touching gift given that Fletcher knew how much his father treasured those especially early photos that included his mother. Physical photos were an expensive commodity, so a personalized book like this was a very thoughtful gift.

  He grabbed his dad in a hug. “Thank you, but this is too much. You can’t give me this.”

  “Nonsense,” Sebastian insisted. “If you’re going to live all the way on the other side of the world, you deserve to have a little piece of home with you.”

  Fletcher smiled as he retrieved the carefully wrapped gift from under the tree for his father. He watched his father unwrap the boxed set of blu-ray discs containing the entire Star Trek: The Next Generation TV show from the late 1900’s. It was his dad’s favorite TV series, and twelve year old Fletcher managed to accidentally destroy the entire set due to an unfortunate miscommunication in which he thought the discs were free for him to use for a class art project.

  Now, thirteen years later, Fletcher had finally tracked down a new set to replace it.

  Sebastian laughed as he pulled the last of the paper from the boxed set. “I can’t believe you managed to find this.”

  “Well, I did owe you one.” He and his father hugged again. They decided to burn through more of Sebastian’s carefully saved electricity rations to binge the first three episodes of the series. The graphics were horrible, but his father was grinning most of the time, which was all Fletcher cared about.

  They went to bed exceptionally late, but with no young children to worry about, they were free to sleep in as much as they wanted. Fletcher crawled into bed with a smile still on his face. He was happy to be home. It’d been a very good Christmas.