The Devil's Chocolate

'Maybe it's time for us to move,' Ticho Sàmhchair thought to herself.

She and her band of misfits lived too long in the darkness of the secret passages that ran through all of Angkara underground. It wasn't necessarily a secret, but it was too long since it was used as Angkara's underground tunnels for cable works, sewer systems, and drainage. Since Angkara and the rest of the modern world paved their way to modernity, the underground was abandoned, left untouched, and eventually forgotten.

Like them.

She was sitting silently inside her cabin, which lit with yellow globules suspended on air. The globules came in different sizes, making their living quarters looked like a constant solar system, but only contained suns in it. She always thought that it was fitting for them, for they were silent stars suspended in space, waiting to burst in their very own supernovas, before finally disappeared.

She thought about it frequently, about the silent eventuality of their future, as an individual and as a group. Once she rejected it, but now she accepted it. If a better world created for Aster, she wouldn't mind to not be a part of it, only to be Her pioneer, paving the road.

A knock reverberating through her quarter. Aisha. She slowly walked towards the rounded rectangular brass door, turned the wheel mechanism on the center of it. The door's insides clanked and groaned before it slid open heavily towards her. In front of her stood her ten years old daughter, Aisha. She was pale, but her eyes were blue, she got it from her Pa. The blue was a nice consolation after the darkness and the occasional yellow from the globules.

"I got the food, Ma," Aisha said, "We already put it in the common room."

Ticho kneeled on a knee and stroked the little girl's ashy and wavy crown, "thank you, child."

"I bought this," Aisha produced a small dark blue pouch, then took Ticho's hand and placed the pouch on it, "I know you like this."

"The devil's chocolate," Ticho felt an urge to just cry then and there, "how did you get this?"

"I stole it," she said plainly.

She felt sick that her view of the world already infected her daughter, so much so that she admitted theft without a hint of fear or regret. She must've thought that she deserved it. She stole it from the people who didn't value it as much as she did. Besides, it was her gesture of love. She was thinking about the specific chocolate Ticho loved. The thought justifies the means. She looked at the pouch and gestured her daughter to came inside the quarter. She then pushed the brass door close and turned its valve.

"Did your friends know?" she asked Aisha.

"No," I'm sure of it.

"Good. I'm just…"

"…I know, Ma. Everything we do can't be selfish. Everything that we had, owned by every other friend. But I know you like the chocolate. It's your birthday."

She forgot about that, "ah… thank you. I'm not about to be angry with you."

"I know. Because I stole it from the people who don't deserve it. I feel no regret,"

She wanted to say 'good girl,' but something inside stopped her. Was that common sense? Was she still secretly thinking that theft is bad? She knew that nothing in this world is good or bad. It depends on the point of view, and the grand scheme of things. Humanity created rules to control one another, usually between the powerful and the less powerful. It was a tool and never reflected what constituted the truth. Aster never taught Her creations right or wrong, only the mindset. Humanity under Bel who resorted to the lies of rules. Her late husband told her so. The Pa of Aisha.

'Brooke,' she thought to herself, as a prayer, 'I wish you could see how pure Aisha is now. You would be very proud.'

She sat opposite Aisha on the small coffee table. The same coffee table where Brooke and she did their late-night talks about the world. She remembered the blue eyes, and the dark lips, all of it now transformed onto the face of the small girl. Their small girl. She deliberately opened the pouch and took one chocolate nut, then offered it to Aisha.

"No, thank you," she declined, "I figure they are delicious, and I might steal it again if I like it," the small dark lips smiled, "it's for Ma."

"All right, then. Wise girl," she said, then took the whole nut. It was glorious. The milky chocolate melted in her mouth right away. She wanted to cry. She could feel Brooke's tongue against hers, all those years ago. She clutched her fist, hoping that Brooke's calloused big hand would clutch against her, but she only just created a fist. A lonely one. An angry one. A sad one.

"Pa used to give you this chocolate?" Aisha asked.

"Miss know-it-all," Ticho said.

"You cried immediately," Aisha said. Ticho was taken aback. She didn't realize the tears.

"Don't worry, Ma. You're not the only person who lose Dad," she said, holding her clutched fist, "all of our people lose him too, and wished the same wish as his. Don't let them see you're crying, Ma. We're almost there."

She sometimes wondered if Brooke never left her at all. His strength and resolution seemed to still echo through his daughter. At that time, she felt embarrassed for showing her invulnerability, "yes child, we're almost there. The Prophet had appeared, the sacrifice had shown himself, and the Bel's world already started to crumble. We can only wait now."

"Let me have one chocolate," Aisha said, then took one nut out of the dark blue pouch.

She closed her eyes while chewing deliberately.

"Hmm…," Aisha whispered after a while, "I promise to you, Ma. The next time we ate this, we're going to do it under the sun, with no shame, because it's the Bel's world who should be ashamed of themselves, and Pa would be proud of us…"

Ticho felt a chill ran through her back and her arms. She thought it was her amazement. If only she realized that the sensation was only her gut, warning her of the future.