Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit

Hours before my alarm is set to go off for the last day of school, my seventeen-year-old brother shakes me awake.
“Wha?” I mumble, my voice thick with sleep. “Wake up,” Jamie whispers.
“What’s going on?” I say, only it comes out as “Whas gong?” “Dress warm. We gotta go.” He leaves my room before I can ask anything else, and the urgency in his voice pushes me out of bed. I shrug on a hoodie, struggle into a pair of jeans, and creep down the stairs, careful to avoid the creaky step. Jamie’s waiting at the door. I look around for Kai, his companion spirit. She’s usually wrapped around his neck, or hiding somewhere to scare me when I’m least expecting it, but after a while, I realize she really isn’t here, and her absence perks me up a little. It’s been so long since I’ve had one-on-one time with Jamie.
Outside, it’s still so dark that I can see people’s cirth pendants glowing under their shirts. Jamie leads me quietly through the back alleys of Chinatown.
“Where are we going, Jamie?” I say, but Jamie just shushes me and walks faster. I gotta say, as far as quality time with your brother goes, this kind of stinks, and I mean that both literally and figuratively.
“We’re here,” he says finally.
I look up at the neon sign. It says XIE’S MEAT SHOP in English and Mandarin. “Uh. The butcher’s? What’s going on?” I say again.
Jamie ushers me inside and follows behind, waving to Mr. Xie. To my surprise, Mr. Xie just nods at him and waves us past the register and into the back of the shop. Okaaay. I am officially dying of curiosity. Jamie motions for me to follow him into the meat freezer, closes the door behind him, and asks me about…
“Gaming?” I gape at him like a goldfish, my mind struggling to catch up with what he’s just said. Hey, it’s only four in the morning. I’m still about 80 percent asleep.