"New Year's resolutions," I said, "Blue, you go first."
It was a tradition we had since school. Every year we each had to do something special on New Year's Eve. Something to mark the new times coming, prove that we had grown over the past year.
"Aw, Pitch. I don't know. do I have to?"
Blue stared down into his can of New Gold beer. This too, tradition. Blue never wanted to do his resolution. We always made him.
"You know you do."
I looked at him. It was only a matter of time until he would sense my gaze on him, lift his eyes from his drink and be forced to give in. I have the darkness in me. No one says no to that.
I knew Blue from first grade. Sure, I even gave him his new name. First day of school, waiting outside for the teacher to come and walk us in. He reminded me so much of a dog that my uncle used to have, a whippet. So skinny they are, trembling at the slightest breeze. That was the way Blue looked, so I named him after the dog. I can hardly even remember his real name, I think it was Marvin, or Melvin or something like that. These days though, everyone calls him Blue, not even knowing why. He doesn't even know why. That is the funny thing about it.
"Alright. I will."
"Fifty-six seconds, Blue, tick tock."
Velcro, or Benjamin to his mother, was counting down the remaining time on his wristwatch. One minute, that's how long you got to name your resolution. Fail and we'd give you one. No options.
"Okay." Blue said, slight panic in his voice, "I will spray a message. of your choice. on the outer wall of EterniVision!"
He was beaming with pride and excitement. And anxiety. Looking at me for approval. I held out for a few minutes, just to make him sweat.
"Alright. A message of my choice. I like that."
Blue was smiling now, trying to hide how nervous he was, waiting for my decision. Velcro was smiling too, no doubt thinking up all kinds of rude words he would like to see in red paint on walls. Finally I had it. I gestured to Blue to come over. He got up, passed between me and the T.V, blocking out the on-screen celebrations. I whispered the message in his ear. The smile on his face turned to a grimace of anxiety. I nodded at him. Velcro was looking at us, not knowing whether to offer protests at being left out or not. He chose not too. Wise man.
"Right, Velc, your turn."
Velcro took a deep drag on his cigarette and looked at me. Obviously he had already decided, probably days ago. And it would involve nicking something, something to add to his ever-growing collection of stuff. I have never known anyone that accumulated so much junk. It was like the stuff was sticking to him. And so he'd got his name.
"I'll tell you, my friends, this years sought-after item, to be added to the prestigious Velcro collection. A Channeller's crystal."
He let the words sink in the air, knowing it impressed Blue. When I saw it in his hand, that's when I'd be impressed. Maybe.
"No way!" Blue breathed.
"You'll see."
He was looking at me now, already knowing he had my approval.
"Fine," I said, "Know where to get one?"
"Naturally. There's a Channeller living in the same house as my dad. Seen her."
"How do you know she's a Channeller?" Blue asked.
"Seen her do it, didn't I. In the cellar. Didn't know I was watching."
"Whoa. Channelling is totally illegal. what if she'd seen ya, you'd be in so much trouble, could've sent you anywhere man, plop into space."
Blue was babbling on, laughing between the words.
"Shut up, Blue. I'm getting the crystal tonight. When she's asleep."
"Take it easy man, you never know what to expect from those freak Genies, they creep me out."
Blue suddenly went quiet as he realised what he'd said.
".Aw, Pitch, I didn't mean. that kid you know. he's alright."
I just fixed my eyes on him. Showing him how close he had come to getting me angry. I could feel the darkness in me turning, but kept it in. They were never going to know that it was me they were talking about. Freak Genie.
"He's not alright. And I don't ever wanna hear about that kid again."
"Oh, alright, whatever you say Pitch."
Silence fell. Awkward for them, but I liked the quiet. Finally:
"How about you, Pitch?" Velcro asked.
I smiled. They were dying to know, so I just smiled for a while. Keep them guessing. Then I let it fall:
"I'm going to climb the tower. Through the eye."
Blue nearly choked on his can. Velcro only looked at me, like he thought I had gone crazy. Then he said:
"Best of luck."
"You're not serious, are you? I heard that the tower is dangerous. and that sound."
Blue went quiet when he remembered; I don't joke about things like that. Then he just looked over at Velcro like he was asking him to talk me out of it. But Velcro knew me better.

What they didn't know, and I wasn't going to tell them, was that it wasn't any old New Year's eve. It was my eighteenth birthday. Yep, I was born just as the bells finished ringing out the death of the old year and my first screams had been drowned by the 'happy new year' chants from the TV. And somewhere deep in the double helix of my inheritance lay the element of darkness, waiting to happen.
Unlike my associates, I didn't choose my resolutions to impress anyone. It was for me, a confirmation all of my own. Something they would never understand. There was one young kid that might have, but he wasn't here to join in the festivities, now was he?
We sat there, quiet for a few minutes, watching the digital numbers in the top left corner of the T.V screen approach eleven. That was the time to get to work. Realise our promises, or face the consequences of failure. As the twelve chimes rang, and the crackles of firework outside announced the new year, we would be back here, missions accomplished. Or else.
"Time. See you back here in an hour."
I got up and put my jacket on. Emptied the rest of my can into my mouth and left the room without looking back at them. My challenge was waiting out there.

The Tower was looming large over the cramped houses of the Harbour, almost leaning over the edge of the sea. This was the dirtiest most degenerate area of New City. A maze of disused factories, abandoned warehouses and illegal technorganic clinics. You would want to know your way around to venture in. No problem, this was where I was born, where I'd lived all my life.
The rotten, acidic smell of the sea enveloped the whole area, but the wind was strong tonight, ripping the clouds apart and filling the streets with drifting litter. It made the Tower howl and moan, the stronger gusts turning the eye into a screaming mouth.
No one knew for what purpose the Tower had been built. It didn't seem to have any function, the hole piercing it's top an empty void. Maybe once upon a time there had been something in the hole, but the historians could only speculate.
The barbed wire fence erected in a semicircle around the construction was no real hindrance, not for me. I climbed it with ease, jumping down on the other side. It was dark here, in the shadow of the building. No lights to illuminate the Tower, only the dim streetlights from the road on the other side of the fence. The Tower itself was made of stone and metal, twisted and blackened with age. It had a diameter of maybe five metres, but it was hard to gauge its height. Standing on the ground beneath it, looking up, it seemed to go on forever, stretching higher and higher in the air, until your eyes could no longer follow. On the other hand, seen from a distance it didn't look very impressive at all. If I had to guess, I would say it was probably between twenty and thirty metres high. There was no visible entrance, but the broken metal tracks on the outside looked like there might have been some kind of lift operating there.
For as long as I can remember, when we were kids, we had been told to stay away from the Tower. Dad had been adamant; the Tower was one place you just didn't play around. It was dangerous. Why, he didn't know, only that it was, and we'd better stay away if we didn't want to get him angry. It didn't matter now, in one short hour I would be eighteen. Free to do whatever I wanted. Besides, I had found that things that weren't dangerous were hardly ever worth doing. Danny had known that too, although he had been four years younger than me. Afraid of nothing, my little brother. Maybe it runs in the family. Unfortunately, when Danny was ten he had decided to play dodge with the Shuttle, the high-speed train that ran from the Harbour to the City Centre on an invisible barrier of air above its track. I had told him not to, but he didn't listen to me. Maybe the only one that never listened to me. All the darkness in the world couldn't scare Danny. I had told him no, and he had done it anyway. Gone against my word. To impress me, maybe, but still, it wasn't my fault. My mother didn't agree. Doesn't matter now anyway, won't bring him back.
I went up to the Tower and put my hand on the wall. Cold stone, cold metal. For a minute I thought I could feel a faint vibration deep inside the Tower, like there was some great engine running in there, but then it was gone. The warped, broken parallel tracks of metal twisted around the tower like two great, climbing spirals. If there was any way of getting up there, these were it.
No time to waste, I grabbed hold of the nearest piece of metal, pulling at it to test its strength. Seemed solid enough, so I heaved myself up, kicking my foot into a crack between two bricks. The Tower gave up a mighty shout, almost like it had felt me kicking it, but it was only the wind blowing through the eye at the top. I was on the lee side now, but still the wind seemed to want to tear me off the Tower. On the side facing the sea it would be ten times worse, a real struggle. That is, if I made it that far. There was no shortage of cracks and gaps for my hands and feet to cling to, but they weren't all strong enough to support my weight, and a few times bricks would crumble under my foot, leaving me hanging by my hands. It slowed me down, and time was something I didn't have too much of.
About halfway to the top, it started to rain. A driving rain, swirling around on gusts of wind, lashing against my back. It was a slimy rain, full of toxic downfall, and it was making the metal slippery, slowing me down even more. How much time had passed? How much did I have left? The face of my watch was obscured by raindrops, and I didn't want to take the risk of trying to wipe it. Maybe my time was already up? If it was, I would accept my punishment, let them beat me. I made the rules; I would live by them. But no matter what happened, I wasn't going to give up on the Tower. It was it against me, and that was one challenge I wasn't prepared to lose. So, I kept climbing, my hands going numb with the cold. I stayed pressed closely to the wall of the Tower, not giving the wind a chance to knock me off. Sometimes I felt the vibration again, like there was something inside the tower, a motor or something.
Time lost all significance, but the wailing of the Tower grew increasingly louder. And then I was up. Grabbing the edge, looking into the eye. The wind that was howling through the passage seemed eerily warm. The inside of the eye was smooth, like polished metal. Nothing to hold on to. A five metre long tunnel, slick with rain and howling with wind. There was only one way I could possibly make it through. And it wasn't cheating. I never told Blue and Velcro about me being a Genie, but that still didn't make it unfair. My gelfs were a part of me and I had taken them into account when I chose my challenge.
I launched the ropes of solidified darkness from my hands, into the eye. Through to the other side, feeling for something to hold on to. There they were, the tracks. I wrapped the dark extensions of my body around them, pulling myself up into the tunnel. The howling died as my body partly blocked the passage. The silence was deafening. I never realised how used I had got to hearing that sad sound until then. It was there constantly, in the background, painting the feelings of the City. I imagined people all over the city, turning their TVs down and listening, knowing that something had changed but not quite knowing what.
Now that it was quiet, I could hear a low humming sound, and I could feel the vibration again. Struggling against the wind, I took the few steps that brought me across to the other side. Looked down the side of the tower, down into the water below. It was black and rough with wind. Deep. Slimy. Toxic. Not much was known about what had happened to the seas after the day of the Mushrooms, when the five nations launched their nuclear weapons against the Technorganics. That was centuries ago and nowadays most of us were immune to the radiation, but the effect on the life in the oceans was unknown. Maybe it was all dead, maybe ruled by some kind of hideous mutations. There were so much more important things to spend valuable research time on.
The water of the Harbour stretched outwards, beyond the limits of New City, out into the zones. What lay beyond that, no one knew. I wouldn't mind finding out one day, but now was not the time. What was the time? I wiped my watch clean and had a look. Eight minutes to midnight. I could still make it! I only had to get down from here, and there was one quick way. Standing on the edge, looking down, I could feel the frenzy of the wind and the rain beating against my face, the humming of the tower underneath my feet. It was an exhilarating feeling, and for a second I wondered if anyone had done this before, or if I was the first. It sure was a long way down, but it was my only option if I was to make it on time. What the hell. Better to die trying than to have to walk back there, half an hour late. Had to set an example.
I let the strands of blackness dissolve the second I jumped. The wind grabbed me, but instead of crushing me against the side of the tower, it blew me sideways, and when I landed, there was plenty of water there to catch me. I plunged deep into the black, stinking cold. It was like it was clinging to me, trying to hold me down. A strong underwater current came and swept me towards something hard. It knocked what air I had left out of my lungs. I touched the slimy side of the tower, continuing deep underneath the surface of the water. As my hand slipped upwards along the bricks, the wall suddenly turned into a hole. A blackness darker that the water, leading off somewhere.
Disoriented, with lungs burning, I fought to make out which way was up. Kicking hard I managed to claw my way to the surface. I could breath again, suddenly desperate to get out of the water. The docks were only a few metres away, and with some help of my solid darkness gelf I managed to get up onto dry land. Bruised all over, but alive. It was five to twelve. I started running. The feeling of power inside when I realised I could still make it gave me a boost and I reached the street where our so-called office was, just as the first bell rang. Reached the door on three. Stopped and took a breath for four and five. Stepped through the door on six. Half a minute to spare.
The eyes on Blue and Velcro were enough reward. The six chimes left rang out and the cheers from the T.V in the corner filled the room.
"Well," I said, "Did you make you resolutions?"
It took them a few seconds to answer, still staring me, dripping stinky seawater all over the floor.
"Yeah, yeah of course," Blue said. "You can check it on your way home. there for everyone to see."
He looked nervous. Nothing new there, but there was a puzzled look to his nervousness that amused me. I bet he would be wondering about that message for a long time.
"I will."
Velcro approached me, slowly. Studying me the way he would, like he was trying to figure me out. I didn't mind, let him try. Then he reached into the pocket of his long black coat and pulled out something. Held it up in front of me, his chocolate brown face breaking into a thousand pieces through the facets. It glimmered, reflecting all the colours and white. About the size of a small fist. Channeller's crystal.
"Piece of piss," he said, "I didn't expect it to be that easy. What about you?"
"I said I would. Took a bit longer than I expected, had to jump down on the other side. So the wetness."
Velcro smiled and shook his head.
"You're one crazy fucker, Pitch."
I couldn't help but laugh at that, the sincerity in his voice. Blue was laughing too, nervously, like he half expected me to get angry any second now.
"Here, you have this."
He handed me the crystal. Surprised me, actually. Velcro wasn't know to give anything away, that's how his collection had got so big. I gave him a questioning look. He just nodded at me. Like he knew something. Time would come when I would have to find out if he did, but not tonight. The year was too young and I was too full of satisfaction from my challenge. Instead I accepted the gift, returning his nod. I couldn't do anything with it, after all what use is a prism to a Genie of darkness? I knew someone who could really have had some fun with it, but as I already said, he wasn't here, and I didn't want to see the kid ever again.
Blue handed me a can of beer, and we toasted another successful batch of resolutions pulled off. After that there was nothing left to do but go back home, spend one last night in my parents' house. I would move out the next morning, time I got my own place.

Walking home, I took a detour, passing by EterniVision. I didn't really have any doubts that Blue was telling the truth, he would never dare lie to me. I still wanted to see it with my own eyes; it was after all my message. Following the outer wall from the other side of the road, I didn't have to walk far. There it was, sprayed in fluorescent orange capital letters: "DON'T TRUST THE NORMS! ETERNIVISION STEALS YOUR SOUL!" Tomorrow, EterniVision would have it removed as soon as they discovered it. After all, there's nothing quite upsetting as the truth.