Never Lost

06 - Really Bright For No Light At All

Kayda had experienced her fair share of running: away from cops, away from monsters, men, and one particularly shabby weeping willow who was mourning a spouse getting axed. She was used to it; after spending a good amount of your past life as a demigod it just happens.

Torch was used to it also, but for an entirely different set of reasons.

They were presented with two options, dart through the back alley or take the roof tops. Kayda did not like either of those options; both of them involved getting shot at and it was just a matter of picking the range.

"Rooftops," Torch insisted. "They have snipers on every building. We'll never clear it if we stay on the ground."

"They have snipers on every building," Kayda repeated back insistently. "We'll never clear them if they're shooting from 20 yards." Kayda was a had been a sniper for about 10 minutes in a past life, she was definitely qualified to make major judgement calls on this sort of thing. In truth, she was panicking.

"Rooftops," Torch insisted and then headed off into the kitchen before Kayda could get another word in. She closed her eyes and followed the loose cannon. Whether her pride would admit it or not, they were in Torch's home turf now. She would probably know the in's and outs of the place better than she did.

The kitchen was dark almost to a fault. Never mind the fact that it was two in the morning on the night of a blood moon; it was really dark in there. Outside the battle raged; gunshots and yells rang like traffic on a busy interstate. Kayda walked into the counter.

"Ow."

"Forgot to mention there's a counter there."

"Yes, I noticed, thank you." She grumbled under her breath and rubbed the side of her hip resentfully. A couple steps before her she heard metal sliding against metal followed by a loud clang. "What was that?" She was in the middle of asking when suddenly a dim column of light shone down from the ceiling. A breath of cold rushed in through the opening as she beheld the site of open sky. Torch at the top of a retractable ladder, her body half leaning out onto the roof.

"C'mon," she hissed and disappeared through the hatch.

Kayda was quick to follow behind. Torch's face poked out from the side of the hole as she climbed, her hair falling into her face like a curtain of grey dust. She brought a finger to her lips and motioned generically in front of her before reaching down and helping Kayda onto the roof.

"Why is your roof hatch in the middle of the kitchen?" Kayda hissed.

"Fire safety," Torch murmured and gestured forward again. Kayda followed her hand to see a tall man hunched over a gun perched on the edge. It was dark, unbearably so. The only light that shone came down from the streetlights in gentle orange pools that flooded the walkways at the front of the stores. Behind them grew a short expanse of woods that stretched a couple miles before reaching an ocean. This ocean was saltier than the ones Kayda had known in her past lives. One could smell it for miles into the inner city, it was tragically salty like a jealous ex-girlfriend and the sea spray could be felt all the way across the woods. In Neo Neo Neo, the wind was always howling.

And that was probably the only reason the sniper didn't notice the hatch opening behind him. It was like watching a silent movie. Suddenly she realized why Torch needed the cover of the rooftops – or lack there of it. With her white jacket and even whiter hair, she would have been a signal flare to anyone they would have tried to sneak past on the ground. Even in the mostly darkness, with the cover of the sea wind by their side, Kayda could still very easily see just about everything about her.