“Piyumi, wait up!” 

The ends of Waliyha’s pink hijack trailed behind her as her feet pounded the pavement. Piyumi cocked a curious eyebrow, stopping a few paces away from the school gate as the girl skidded to a halt in front of her. 

“I’m…so…glad…I caught...you,”  Waliyha managed to puff out between gasps. “God…no wonder…I got such…a sucky score on the beep test…” 

“Is there something you want?” Piyumi asked, her eyes flitting to the road and then back to Waliyha again. “I don’t have much time.” 

Something in her words caused Waliyha to wince. She suddenly looked distinctly uncomfortable. “Well, um, I heard from my mum’s auto-repair shop that cars and, uh, motorbikes and cars are being stolen in the area. I just wanted to make sure…”

She trailed off, before cupping the bridge of her nose and sighing. 

“I just want to make sure you're being safe.” 

Ice flooded Piyumi’s veins, but she carefully schooled her lips into a breezy smile. “I’m being as safe as I can in this crazy world of ours,” she laughed, thumping Waliyha on the shoulder. “Tell your mum to keep an eye out, okay? People are lunatics.” 

“But Piyumi-” 

The harsh rev of a motorbike drew the two girls’ attention to the road beyond the gate. Relief washed over Piyumi. She gave a slight wave to a helmeted Mylene before shooting Waliyha an apologetic look. 

“Looks like my ride’s here,” she said, walking past the gate and putting on the helmet that Mylene tossed over to her. “I’ll see you around.” 

But Waliyha didn’t respond, opting to narrow her eyes at Mylene instead. Piyumi was suddenly glad that the 18-year-old purposefully forwent donning her signature white trench coat whenever she picked her up from school. The last thing she needed was anyone asking questions.

Still, it was as if Waliyha could see right through them. Even as the motorcycle drew away from the school and raced down the road, Piyumi could still feel her gaze burning into her back until she was nothing but a speck in the distance. 

The oddly soothing thrum of Mylene’s motorbike came to a stop as it pulled up next to the petrol pump. Since they had a few hours to kill before night fell, Mylene had told Piyumi that she’d treat her with something to eat. Sure, petrol station food wasn’t exactly the height of fine dining, but that did not tamper Piyumi’s delight one bit. 

“Was everything alright back there?” Mylene asked, shaking out her honey blonde curls as she took off her helmet. “Your friend didn’t look too happy.” 

Piyumi yelped as her own helmet got caught on her nose on the way up, before lowering it and slowly raising it again. She wondered idly for a moment if she’d ever master the art form that gracefully taking off a motorcycle helmet seemed to be. “Waliyha isn't my friend. She's just…worried.” 

“Want me to take care of her?” 

“Wha- no!” Piyumi spluttered, nearly toppling over in surprise at the way Mylene had casually suggested literal murder. ”She’s harmless. Honest.” 

Mylene stared at Piyumi for a long moment, before she shrugged and plugged the petrol pump into her motorbike. Waiting for her ride to fill up, the 18-year-old took the opportunity to fish out her white trench coat from her backpack and place it over her shoulders. Piyumi now knew that the 'M' emblazoned on the back of the jacket was the symbol for Morpheus, the gang Mylene belonged to.

“The boss wants us to hit some of the houses in town today,” Mylene said, reaching for the pack of cigarettes in her coat pocket. “Prepare yourself.”

Piyumi nodded, a thrill already setting in her veins. Even after a few months of tagging along with Mylene on her various jobs, Piyumi didn’t think she’d ever get used to the feeling. It was borderline electrifying, making the hair on her arms stand on end and her skin ripple with a layer of buzz. Is this what her father felt when he downed bottle after bottle? This intoxicating, exhilarating, heady spiral of emotions that made every part of her body burn? 

“Man, when am I ever gonna meet this boss of yours?” Piyumi complained, her voice louder than it needed to be to distract herself from the thoughts of her father suddenly flooding her mind. “The dude’s gotta be, like, a proper badass, right?” 

“Hn.” 

“I mean, you’re already a beast, so I can only imagine what he’d be like,” Piyumi pressed on, falling into a battle stance and throwing rapid punches into the air. “If anyone dared to mess with him, he’d probably be like WAPOW! Bambambam! And they’d be down before they even knew what hit ‘em! Right? Right?!” 

She raised her arms in a frankly insulting rendition of the crane stance before executing a series of quick kung-fu chops. “So? What do you say? Don’t my sick moves qualify for an audience with Morpheus’ esteemed leader?” 

“Never.” 

Piyumi froze. Her heart plummeted like a brick in water. Mylene's face maintained its trademark indifference, but there was a sharpness in her hazel eyes that gave Piyumi the impression that she was suddenly very, very angry. 

“I, uh, I’m sorry,” Piyumi lowered her head. “I shouldn’t have…I’m sorry.” 

For a long, awful moment, Piyumi thought she'd blown it and Mylene would hop on her bike and drive off, disappearing from her life forever. That was until something entered her vision that she thought she’d never see again. Something completely and utterly impossible. 

“Sorry it took so long,” Piyumi thought she heard Mylene say. It was hard to tell with the ringing in her ears. “It was out of print, so it took a while to track down."

With a shaking hand, Piyumi grabbed the near-mint copy of The Misadventures of Miss Adventures Issue #54 Mylene was holding out to her. Even with the feel of the smooth pages between her fingers, she still couldn’t quite believe what she had in her grasp. It didn’t seem real. It couldn't be real.

“Don’t cry. You’ll get it wet.” 

Piyumi gasped, a hand flying to her face. Sure enough, tears were steadily streaming down her cheeks. The realisation that she was crying burst what little hold she had left on her emotions. She held the comic against her heart, her sobs getting louder and harder.

“Thankyou,” she managed to say. The word felt too small to convey the gratitude she felt but it had to be enough. “Thankyou.” 

“What is he doing here?” Piyumi asked as soon as she'd dismounted from Mylene’s motorbike and found one Damien Biggs scowling at her with a considerable amount of missing teeth as he leaned against the wall of the narrow alleyway. 

“He’s here to help,” Mylene drawled as she handed Piyumi a black ski mask before tossing one to Damien. “Or would you like to repay the rest of your debt the old fashioned way, Biggs?” 

Damien flinched as he caught the mask, the snarl on his face abruptly dropping as he no doubt recalled the lesson that Mylene had quite literally beaten into him. His eyes fell to feet as he scuffed his toe into the asphalt. “Let’s just get this over with,” he muttered, pulling the mask over his face. 

Piyumi opened her mouth to protest, but the air of defeat hanging off Damien made her pause. It seemed that Damien was just as reluctant to be participating in their little heist, and that suited just her fine. In fact, it suited her more than fine. She hung back a bit to fall in step beside Damien as Mylene led the way. 

“Got yourself in a bit of hot water, eh?” Piyumi jeered. She felt untouchable now that Mylene was near. "How long do you have to work for us again?” 

Damien scoffed. “Whatever. One day, I’ll take over Morpheus and you all will be working for me. Mark my words.”

“Oh yeah? With you and what army?” Piyumi snorted. “Where are your little henchmen, anyway? They ditch your ass?” 

Genuine shock flashed across Damien’s face at that. “Why would I get them involved in this? I actually like my friends, you know.”

“I’m not sure they feel the same. Didn’t they leave you for dead not too long ago?” 

“If you must know, I wanted them to leave and they came back with help afterwards,” Damien then sneered. “What would you know about having friends anyway? You’re a fucking loner.” 

That stung. “I…” Piyumi’s eyes drifted unconsciously towards Mylene walking ahead. ”I… I have…”

Damien followed her line of sight. He barked out a laugh. “Who? The White Terror? Dude, she’s fucked.” 

“What are you-” 

“Stop dawdling,” Mylene’s voice broke their conversation. She had stopped at a car and was jimmying the lock open with the thin piece of wire between her fingers. “Pick a car, strip it for parts and take anything inside that seems valuable. Perera, why don’t you try unlocking one on your own today?” 

Damien sighed, sauntering off as if he didn’t have a care in the world. But Piyumi’s mind was reeling as she made her way towards the nearest car and jabbed a wire into its keyhole. She admittedly didn’t know much about Morpheus. Although she had been tagging along with Mylene on her jobs for a few months now, she was just as in the dark as she was in the beginning. All Mylene had told her was that Morpheus was one of the influential gangs in the state, conducting the bulk of its operations from the underbelly to escape the watchful eyes of the law. White it bugged her that she didn’t know more, she acknowledged that her current situation was pretty sweet. Mylene had been giving her a cut for her help and it was enough to cover the bills and at least one hot meal a day. Maybe, somewhere down the line, Piyumi would be able to climb her way up the ranks, carry her own M on her back. She imagined that the upper echelons of Morpheus lived like royalty. She’d kill to have that chance. 

Piyumi shook her head, trying to focus on getting the car unlocked. Why was she even giving Damien's remarks the time of day anyway? He had spit on the sacred name of Miss Adventures, and that alone made anything he said utter bullshit as far as she was concerned.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing to my car?!”

Piyumi had barely turned around before a fist came crashing into her face. She fell to the ground, her right eye throbbing in pain as the decidedly enraged owner of the car pounced on top of her. The woman punched her eye again, and she screamed as a fresh bout of agony hit her tenfold. Through the veil of tears clouding her vision, she saw the woman cock her fist back for another blow, before she was suddenly snatched up by her hair. With a swift knee to the pelvis, the woman crumpled to the ground. Mylene paid her no further mind, yanking Piyumi up by the arm instead. The commotion had caught the attention of some of the nearby residents, light suddenly flooding out of the windows of a number of houses. 

“We have to go. Now.” 

And with that, Mylene pushed Piyumi into the car she had hotwired and yelled at Damien in the driver’s seat to kick the engine into gear.

The world was spinning. 

Piyumi all but threw the small bundle of bills onto the coffee table before she almost tripped over feet in her haste to reach the fridge. The ice-pack she pulled out with a trembling hand cooled the fire dancing over her eye, but it did nothing to dull the harsh ringing in her ears. She stumbled into the bathroom, hoping that seeing her injury would calm her racing heart because, surely, it couldn’t look as bad as it felt- 

Piyumi’s chest tightened when she saw herself in the mirror. 

Her eyes were different sizes. 

Eyes were not supposed to be different sizes, Piyumi knew that. Yet the face staring back at her had a right eye that was sealed almost competely shut by an angry burst of black and purple. It served as a startling contrast to its left counterpart, which was blown wide in shock. 

The world spun even faster. Piyumi braced herself against the sink, but the world was still spinning. 

“Duwa?” 

Piyumi flinched. She quickly cast her face down so that her eye was no longer visible in the mirror. “Money for this month’s mortgage bill is on the coffee table,” she mumbled. “You’re welcome.” 

Even with her back turned to her father, Piyumi could feel the way Miyuru squirmed uncomfortably behind her. “About that…” he said after a long moment. “Just where have you been getting…?” 

The question was left unfinished to hang in the air between them, but Piyumi knew what he was asking. “I don’t ask what you get up to anymore,” she muttered. “So let’s leave it at that, yeah?” 

“But that’s different!” Miyuru protested, taking a step forward. “I’m your father!”

Oh. 

The heat setting Piyumi’s body aflame vanished in an instant, replaced by something frigid and frosty. She turned to face Miyuru, unperturbed by the way he gasped when he finally saw the bruise blooming over her right eye. 

“You haven’t been my father for a very long time,” she said. There was no venom in her words. Only the cold, hard truth. “What gives you the right to be now?”