The Night Market by Zachary Rawlins

apartment building.”
    Yael shook her head in disbelief.
    “Oh.”
    “Why is it ‘Unknown’?”
    “Dunno,” Jenny said, shrugging with an absolute lack
of interest. “Ain’t been there yet.”
    “...oh.”
    “I don’t even think it’s that nice,” Jenny said,
flopping back on the sleeping bag with her hands folded behind her head. “You
ever notice how they always call shitty apartment buildings ‘Le Chateau’ or
some sh-”
    “Miss Frost!”
    “Huh? Oh. Right. Sorry.”
    Yael stared at Jenny suspiciously, but she betrayed no
indication of noticing.
    “Why are you going there?”
    “What’s it to you?”
    Yael glanced up at the sky, and wondered if there
would have been any stars on the other side of the angry clouds that scarred
the darkening sky with a baleful red luminescence.
    “Because we are travelling companions, Miss Frost. And
to pass the time, companions exchange stories across the campfire.”
    Jenny laughed. Actually, it was more than that. She
made a scene, rolling in the dust and slapping the ground with her palm. Yael
glared at her until she regained a semblance of composure.
    “Where did you learn that stuff?”
    “My brother.”
    “He travel a lot?”
    “Every night.”
    “You mean dreams? That doesn’t count.”
    Jenny tossed the empty stew tin over her shoulder and
Fenrir appeared from nowhere to nose over it hopefully.
    “Nothing is real, Miss Frost,” Yael said charitably,
shaking her head at Jenny’s ignorance. “All experience is relative.”
    “You are a spooky little girl.” Jenny pulled the
yellow pack of gum from a pocket and shook a foil-wrapped piece free, glancing
at Yael’s hopeful face without a trace of pity while she pocketed the remainder.
“Anyone ever tell you that?”
    “More than once. I propose a deal, Miss Frost.”
    “Another?” Jenny leaned forward, her eyes reflecting
the light of the fire like two mirrors. “You do love bargains, don’t you? Last
one left me stuck walking your ass across the Waste. Not sure I’m interested in
another.”
    “You will like this one, I believe. A question for a
question, a story for a story. For the duration of the journey, Miss Frost. Unless
you are frightened?”
    Jenny shook her head slowly, her expression impossible
to read in the advancing shadows encroaching on the dying fire.
    “Why?”
    “Because we are on a journey, Miss Frost,” Yael
explained gravely. “Everything is permitted.”
    “I think maybe you’re just hungry,” Jenny said,
tossing a candy bar at her with no warning. Yael didn’t manage to get her hands
up in time and it hit her in the cheek. She was forced to scramble in the dirt
after it.
    Yael tore the wrapper open with utter disregard for
civility, cramming her mouth full of the sickly sweet mess of nuts and
chocolate. Her stomach briefly threatened to rebel as she choked it down, but
Yael clamped down on it, determined not to embarrass herself further. She could
not prevent herself from licking her fingers.
    “Miss Frost? Thank you.”
    Jenny lay on her back, staring at the darkened,
featureless sky, and said nothing. Yael tucked her knees underneath her
windbreaker and listened to the crackle of the diminishing fire and the faraway
roar of the wind.
    Gradually, the fire died and night began to creep into
the camp, but Yael did nothing to hurry Jenny along. She had done what her
dreams had told her to do, after all, and Yael’s dreams were never wrong.
    “Okay,” Jenny said abruptly, rolling to face Yael and
scratching her side lazily. “I go first, though. If your answer doesn’t make
sense, then it doesn’t count. Deal?”
    “Deal,” Yael affirmed.
    “Why did you run away from home?”
    Yael sat up on her hands.
    “How did you – ”
    “Easy there,” Jenny chuckled, feeding more sticks into
the ashes of the fire. “Save the questions for your turn.”
    Yael hesitated, not because she planned on evasion,
but because she hadn’t yet articulated her motivations