• Stretching to loosen her muscles and staring up into the sky to feel weightless, Kitch lifts her arms up in the air and jumps.
    There is no net, nor is there a cushion at the bottom of the fall.
    There is only pavement, hard and cold.
    Her ears are drowning in the high frequency beats that wrap around every neuron and tissue cell, taking over her entire being, making her want to scream with passion.
    The hair that usually occupies her face whips away and tries to escape the pavement below, but the roots rope it back to her head.
    Her clothes are full of open sections, so the air roughly yet gently caresses her bare skin.
    It tingles and sends more adrenaline to her vulnerable brain, which in turn sends blood shooting into her heart and makes her exhale as though the wind was punched out of her.
    The pavement grows closer and closer, until she can almost feel her skull cracking at the impact.
    When she reaches this point, she snaps her fingers and her upper body whips upward as if pulled by a snapping rubber band.
    A glowing, translucent green hoverboard grows from tiny sensors in her boot buckles and sends her flying through the maze of buildings surrounding her.
    The pavement is a thing of the past.
    There is only her, and the music, and the gray buildings that creep into her path until she shifts her body weight on the board.
    Cars whiz past and she almost runs into one, but sends it honking into a side alley.
    Through that same alley, comes another board rider, a man with spiky silver hair and a goatee.
    Atto grins, and then leans forward to catch up with Kitch.
    Beats also inhabit his head, but his are more industrial – more intense.
    He reaches her, holds out his hand and grabs her arm, sending her board spinning and her body twisting.
    She snaps her fingers once again and the board disappears like a computer monitor unplugged.
    In the same instant, she leaps onto his board and it automatically widens to account for the weight gain.
    Holding tightly to his waist, she swings her legs with the board as he angles it upward to the clouds.
    Up they fly, ever upwards until they feel like their lungs will collapse from the lack of oxygen.
    Suddenly, she snatches his collar and he shuts off the motor.
    They begin to freefall, but to them, they are still soaring higher, into space and among the emptiness of it all.
    With his right hand, he pushes her closer.
    With his left, he pulls her away.
    Her mouth clicks with his like two puzzle pieces creating the picture of a flower.
    He tears away and reaches instead for her pale neck, tickling it with his goatee.
    She reaches with her left hand to grasp his hair, but she reaches too quickly and the sharpness of the prongs on her ring draw a thin red line on his cheek.
    He nips at her nose and they click again, this time more briefly.
    In one swift motion, they tear apart and she signals her buckles to come to life again, and his board shrinks back to normal size, while hers buds from his to become her own.
    She spins away to avoid hitting an antenna on a building, and he splits off in the opposite direction.
    They circle around a city block, and then join hands side-by-side, swiftly fleeing an angry hovercycle.
    When they reach a safe distance, Atto laughs with a full-hearted joy that only comes from a moment such as this.
    A bug finds its way into his throat while his mouth is open and Kitch chortles when he lets go of her hand to swat at the insect that has already done its damage.
    She guides him away from the tall buildings and into a more secluded area, with tall trees and houses.
    He manages to cough up the now dead bug and focuses on the route.
    In a large park where little light shines through from the moon or the city, the pair finds a circle of tall lamps among the foliage.
    As they get closer, they see a woman and a man sitting in the grass.
    They land, snapping off the boards and coming to rest in the circle, hands still clasped together.
    The woman laughs at something the man has recently muttered, and she looks up at Kitch and Atto standing above them.
    The man acknowledges their presence, but does not look up.
    Further investigation would reveal that he is blind.
    The woman has a happy aura about her, as though she is usually optimistic.
    The two couples greet each other warmly, and Kitch and Atto sit beside them.
    The man offers them some cake; Kitch takes it while Atto does not.
    They eat cake and tell stories, most of them humorous, and laugh at every one.
    The woman, addressed to as Sabur, decides to douse the lamps.
    They all sit in the dark for a while, feeling the grass under their feet.
    Phelyx, the second man, switches on his hoverboard for a brief moment, to lift himself onto a high branch of the tallest tree around them.
    The others follow suit and find branches of their own.
    Kitch shares one with Atto; Sabur joins Phelyx on his.
    But they sit there for a long time, drinking in the new year and staring at the millions of stars above, wondering just how many of those stars they would be able to see the next time around.