The 17 (31 page)

Content colors.

“What will you do now?” Zack asked.

Splifkin contemplated the question, his skin swirling orange. “I don’t know and it is wonderful. Absolutely splendid. Exciting.”

Zack grinned. “Good luck, Splifkin.”

“I wish you good luck as well, Zack,” Splifkin said, his large eye winking. “Now go. I’m tired of looking at you.”

†††

Mizuki stood at the window, staring out at the two moons that were once again together in the sky.

Zack walked in slowly. Mizuki didn’t turn to look at him. “They have a flare for irony, putting those moons up there again. Bastards.”

Zack stood next to her and held out his right hand. The light reflected off the moon tattoo and then off of hers as their fingers clasped. “They pretend to be jerks, but I think they are romantics at heart.”

Mizuki chuckled. “Yeah, regular poets they are.”

She placed her head on his shoulder and he reached over and combed his fingers through her silky hair. It was as soft as ever. He wanted to commit that to his memory.

He wanted to commit it all to memory for that was all he would have of her after this night, their last together in the Ankh’s sky. He wanted to remember her every touch, her every smell, the sight of her every smile and her every longing gaze, of her every wink and of every sharp knuckle and pointy elbow she thrust into his soft ribs.

He wanted to store her away in his mind for all time, able to recall her at a moment’s notice when he was feeling down or hurt or scared or lonely. He wanted her to be the thing he clung to in times of strife from now until the end of his time.

As she lifted her head to look at him again, a smile creasing her face and those big brown eyes staring at him with all the love in the universe, he knew she was doing the same.

She placed her head back down on his shoulder and sighed deeply. Zack felt her tears dampen his YOLO t-shirt. “Those moons have at least one night a year together,” she said. “We won’t even have that.”

Zack lifted her head off his shoulder with a light touch of his index finger on her chin. The moons lit up her big brown eyes as he gazed into them. He wanted something profound to say, but instead he just blurted, “Yeah, it sucks.”

She laughed deeply, her chest heaving. “Aw, you know just the right thing to say.”

Mizuki placed her head back on his shoulder and squeezed his hand.

Zack gently kissed her on the forehead. “We should focus on the time we did have together, like Anneka and Alldan. They relished the one night they had each year and didn’t dwell on the time they were apart. We were blessed to have many nights together, Mizuki.”

“Call me Anneka. I like it when you call me Anneka.”

Zack scoffed. “Really? I thought you didn’t like to be called Anneka?”

“I want you to now. It seems … right.”

“If I call you Anneka, you have to call me Alldan.”

She elbowed him in the ribs. “Shut up.”

“I love you, Anneka.”

“I love you, Alldan, to the moons and back.”

About the author

Since he wrote his first book at the age of 8 about "The Venusians" for a school project, Mike Kilroy has been hooked on writing. An award-winning journalist for more than two decades, Kilroy has now authored three novels: the best-selling, post-apocalyptic tome "Nine Meals," the swashbuckling young adult science fiction tale "The 17," and “Solo,” a book about the monsters that live inside all of us.

Be sure to add these other books from this author to your library today:

Nine Meals

2014 B.R.A.G. Medallion winner for excellence in Indie publishing

When the sun belched and the power grid failed, it was only nine meals until the end of the world.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IE0T608

Solo

New release

The end has come. Or is it just beginning?

Solo finds himself in a desolate world known to him only as the After. His memories from Before are gone … except for the haunting recollection of a woman—Eye Lyds—and a fleeting knowledge that he was a monster, a particular kind of monster.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RE7K0X4