Knights of the Grey City

Chapter 34 - SIDES

Two things seemed clear. One: the Grey City was much larger than we'd thought. Two: 75% of it belonged to the demons.

I was angry, angrier than I'd felt in human form for a long time. It had already seemed like we were up against impossible odds. For the Grey City to pull back the curtain and suddenly reveal that we were roughly 75% more screwed than we'd already thought... it was a betrayal. After everything we'd done, after all our sacrifices, we had started this war already losing it.

We tried to make the best of it. I did mostly for Katie's sake, because how do you tell a sixteen-year-old that she's doomed to die in a hell dimension with you? Tack on the little fact that I brought her in with my own actions, and that was a road I was just not prepared to go down.

So, Huang and I tried to spin it. We always knew we were outnumbered, he said. Yeah, I agreed. We already knew the demons were pretty much endless, and they had to be coming from somewhere. Now we knew where.

We've got three of us, now, Huang said. We can handle anything. Anything, I agreed.

I don't know if Katie bought it or not, because she didn't say a word. We flew back to the bottom of the tower and were swiftly turned out into Toronto, the abrupt way the Grey City seemed to whenever we accomplished something. See you in a couple days, it seemed to promise. The three of us went our separate ways.

I don't know if Katie bought our spin on the situation, and I had a sneaking suspicion that Huang might believe what he said. I smoked three cigarettes on the way home, one after another, my hands shaking like leaves.

When I got home, I was calm. I climbed the stairs to my apartment, prayed Eli wasn't there, and then felt kind of lonely when he actually wasn't.

What now?

There was nothing to do but keep on living.

It was Friday, too, which meant I could look forward to a weekend with nothing much to do but be alone with disturbing thoughts. Even though I was past the panicking stage, I barely slept at all that night. Leviathan did not appear to me to offer any answers.

What now?

I got up when it was still dark, knowing I wasn't about to get any more sleep than I had already. I fixed myself a coffee in the dim kitchen light, then sat at the table to stare out the window. Outside, flecks of snow blew through the white glow of the streetlights.

After what could have been a few hours, or a few minutes, the sun slowly started to rise. I couldn't actually see the sky; my apartment looked out at the face of the building opposite to it, but the light slowly shifted into a pale morning glow and the streetlights switched off.

Eli shuffled into the kitchen. "You're up early."

I grunted and swirled my coffee, the remains of which had gone cold. "Same to you."

"I got called in for a shift," Eli sighed. He started to prepare his breakfast, and though I hadn't eaten since the previous afternoon, the smell of his egg and toast did not appeal to me. "I guess I should really leave my phone off on the weekends, huh?"

"Maybe," I agreed.

"It's too bad, I was looking forward to some time off," Eli said. "I just can't say no to overtime pay. Maybe in a few years, eh?"

"Don't count on it," I told him.

"Bad mood today, huh?" He paused, looking over his shoulder at me with an annoyed frown.

"You could say that."

He left soon after, without saying much more to me, and I was left to continue gazing blankly out the window, thinking.