The Boys from Falls

ARO
Hawken Trent. Polite. Sweet. Such a decent young man. A virgin, as far as I've heard. Hawk never hangs out with girls. Probably because Jesus told him not to. And now he pretends to be a hero, protecting another girl... from me. He calls me the aggressor. Inadequate. Reckless. Criminal. Let him call me what he wants, I've heard worse words. Hawk can try to stand between me and my money, but he has never had to fight for food. For that, the rich, neat schoolboy lacks the guts.

HAWK
I surprised her. You should have seen her face. A clean record, sweetheart, doesn’t mean my hands are clean. I just know how to stay out of trouble. But this time, it seems I’ve gone too far. We're caught at the scene of the crime. It's dark around us. The police are coming. We have no choice. We run down High Street to Quinn's bakery, where I take Aro to an underground bar that has been forgotten for decades. The doors are locked, the cops have cordoned off the building, completely unaware that we are right under their noses. For an indefinite time, I’m forced to hide in plain sight with a nasty girl. Tough. Rude. Dirty. A thief and a criminal. However, lost with her among many empty rooms, I begin to see Aro in a completely different light. She's smart. Brave. Tender. Sexy…
Everything changes. It’s something about this place. It has some effect on people. In Shelburn Falls, there’s a silly urban legend about mirrors: you can’t lean against them, as they are gateways. And we have consciously stepped into the looking glass. To hell with the records from the district archive. There has never been an underground bar here. This is the Carnival Tower.