The Unknowables

Chapter 10

Shay grabs my sleeve and leads me quickly out of the train car. I’m better now that I can feel moving air but I’m still a little woozy so I let Shay guide the way, Kitty trails behind in our wake. Once we’re topside I can breath easier, I bend over and greedily pull the fresh air into my lungs.

“Are you alright Wren?” Kitty says and pats my back.

“I’m fine. Sorry about that, I probably should have told you I’m claustrophobic.”

“Probably.” Lance says.

Lance’s voice is bored and mocking again. A shadow of the comforting one I heard only minutes ago. Shay gives him a snake eyed look.

“Shut up Lance. It’s fine Wren, just think once you know how to fly you’ll never need to ride the subway again.”

“That would be nice.” I sigh.

We walk down the dirty street, obviously we’re in a bad part of town. Few people are out, even while the sun is up, and the ones that are out keep their heads down and hurry along their way. The walls of the buildings are painted with gang tags and illegible writing. I stay close behind the others. Suddenly Lance swerves down an ally behind a larger building with a sagging roof and a barred front door. The faded sign says ‘Grande ol’ Theatre’, old is right from the looks of the place. There’s a dented but solid side door which Lance goes straight for.

“I thought you guys only use hideouts that regular people can’t get into?”

“We do. But this isn’t a hideout and that door locks every time it closes, Lance is the only one who can pick it. Making it safe enough for us to use for training.”

“Training, shmaining. It’s more like playing.” Kitty says in response to Shay’s words. Shay pulls her hair playfully.

“Alright we’re in.”

Lance swings the door open wide and stows his picks in his jean pockets. Kitty tumbles through with Shay close behind. I pause and look at Lance, he regards me coolly back.

“Ready for training?”

I take a deep breath and say,

“I hope so.”

I step through the door. The theatre is large and dark, I can’t see the walls but  I can hear the echoes bouncing around a large space. The door closes behind me, leaving us in complete darkness. For a moment I’m a little scared but then I realize I can see despite the darkness. I look around, we’re at the side entrance of stage left. I can see the ragged moth eaten curtains hanging down in different shades of gray from the ceiling, in perfect detail.

Kitty and Shay wander back and forth turning on powerful flashlights and lamps. As the light changes my vision goes back to normal, with shadows and colors. Lance stays still, waiting until enough of the flashlights are on to see almost normally by.

“Where did all the flashlights come from?” I ask.

Shay replies, carrying a bright electric lantern our way.

“We scavenge most of them from garbage bins. You’d be surprised how many people will throw away a perfectly good flashlight when all they need to do is change the batteries. The batteries these ones run on are rechargeable. We have a hand crank around here somewhere that we use to charge them when they get low on power.”

“It’s a pain in the butt to charge some of the bigger ones.” Says Kitty as she hands a powerful flashlight to Lance.

“Think of it as a strength building exercise. Could you go turn on the balcony lights for me?” He asks Kitty.