Knights of the Grey City

Chapter 49 - EXILE

Just as I got into my apartment after a long day of work (light duty to account for the still-healing arm, thankfully), I was surprised to receive a text from Katie.

Our previous conversations were all one or two words about entry into the Grey City, so receiving a Where are you right now? from her was pretty out of the ordinary.

I frowned. Home. Why?

Been to Liberty Village before?

Been through once or twice, I responded. It was a residential community a short bus ride north from my area. What's up?

Can you... come get me? I need to get out of here.

I blinked, staring at the blue light of my phone in the late evening darkness of my apartment. Was this... Katie asking for help? For my help? I didn't have a car or anything, so I wasn't sure what she was expecting. And why me? Surely, she knew other people who could help her out? She lived with her parents, for goodness' sake.

Address? I texted. She gave it to me shortly. I wheeled around and went back down my apartment's staircase, mystified as to what I was about to get myself into.

As usual, it was freezing cold outside. I shoved my hands into my pockets and got on the northbound bus. I stood near the front so I could keep an eye out for the right address, the bus driver shooting me a dirty look.

Some twenty minutes later, I hopped off the bus near a small collection of upscale townhouses. A few residents in scarves and toques were walking their dogs. Following my shaky recollection of the area, I went down a couple of streets and soon arrived at an ancient-looking, squat apartment building of two stories.

Katie's message did not include a room number, just the building. I dug out my phone to call her.

It rang through as my fingers slowly went numb. I cursed under my breath—what now? Could she not at least have provided me with a general idea of the situation? My imagination was starting to run to bad places.

One of the apartments up on the second floor had its lights flashing, and I thought I could hear the faint bmmp, bmmp of stereos. As I approached the front door, I glimpsed a small crowd of teens out back, chugging beer from red solo cups and stumbling towards their cars.

Oh, great. I sighed and headed for the lobby.

I mashed on the button I thought belonged to the apartment with the flashing lights until someone buzzed me in. I followed the slowly increasing thump of music up to that apartment, then just walked inside—the door wasn't locked.

I don't know what I was expecting, but it was a pretty typical scene. A barebones bachelor apartment that probably housed three or four roommates had been buried with empty cups and booze bottles. Kids hung out in party wear all over, sitting on the backs of couches and crowded in the kitchenette. The smell of alcohol and weed was overpowering.

I shook my head and started looking for Katie.

No one looked at me twice—it seemed there were quite a few people my age there. That I didn't like. High school girls being invited to college parties sounded like someone was looking to take advantage. I moved into the main room where the lights were flashing from some dumb digital stereo.

A few people were drunk enough to dance and seemed to be doing their damn best to get in my way. I started to push through.

I got a few glares and one sneer of "What's your problem?" from a greasy-looking hipster, but I silenced him with a look and kept going, steadily growing more annoyed.