Secrets of Denlock

The cold wind licked at my cheeks, causing them to sting and urging me to turn away. But I couldn’t. Pushing through the thick crowd of people, arms and legs swatted at me and people mumbled apologies and kept on moving though the average day lives. Probably to be cooped up in a boxed room all day. My eyes never left the black, shiny limo as it moved slowly in Denlocks grim morning traffic. The sky was grey and promised rain, giving the city a gloomy mood. A perfect day for some snatching, I thought.

“Rain, are you still with it?” My com talked into my left ear, concealed by my dirty-blonde shoulder length hair. I raised my black gloved hand and held the button on the side of the com. “Yeah I’m still watching it. Which light is it again?” I asked quietly. “The second one on Desmond Rd, Blayde’s got it fix, so be ready as Rain.” Tom said with a chuckle. I snorted at the fowl pun and continued down the crammed street. After a couple of minutes of snaking through the packed foot paths, I passed the first lights and had I reached the corner of Desmond Rd. A crossing sat at the lights and the people obediently waited on either sides of the street for ‘Walk right ahead’ sign to light up. I lined up with the other people and watched as the limo rolled toward the crossing. It began to slow down as the traffic light turned orange and drew to a halt right in front of the crossing. A small ding went off and people immediately started rushing off to their destination on the other side of the road. Here’s where my part got interesting. I walked across with the mob sticking to the far side of it were the limos bonnet stuck out. I quickly sank to the ground and hid between the car to my left next to the limo and began to army crawl myself to the last door of its sparkling body. The light turned orange signalling for all pedestrians to get off the road. I reached up and grabbed the handle of the door, my dark trench coat sleeve falling down and revealing a tattoo of a thin eye mask made out of weaving snakes. In between the eyes was a letter. The left side an ‘S’ and the right, an ‘R’. I silently opened the door and slid in on my belly. Shutting it with my foot I look out the window, flicked my long side fringe out the way and pulled on my slit face mask. A small child, age of maybe eight looked over at me, his hazel eyes spotting me, filled with fear. I smiled at him and placed a finger on my lips as we drove away, his face forever printed in my brain. I turned around the first thing I see is a cherry lip stick held out threatingly in front of me.

Chuckling slightly I gazed up at my client. It was a young girl around my age of sixteen with the typical golden hair and thick mascara, her eyes bulging with fear and her hand shook slightly. I clicked my tongue at her and push the stick away from me. “Wh-who are y-you?” she stumbled. I stretched my arms out and sank back into the seat kicking my knee high leather boots on to the head rest in front of me. “Rain’s the name and I’m here to collect a… delivery.” I said causally, casting a lazy look at her.

“Wh-what delivery? Why are you in my car?” She stressed to me. I sat up straight again and raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m here to collect the delivery from you and seeing as you’re in this car that’s why I’m here.” I said and gestured my hands at her.

“But I don’t have anything to delivery.” She squeaked. I smiled at her and slid a large sharp knife hidden in my leather arm cuff. I lifted my feet on to the chair again and twirled the point of the blade around on my finger, causing the deadly blade to tear the skin slightly. “But of course. Daddy’s little girl would never buy any magic would she.” I asked pouting my lips and giving her a pair of puppy dog eyes. Magic has been banned as long as I could remember the rare substance too dangerous for humans to wield around freely. Her breaths came out short, eyes never leaving the knife. “Magic? But magic’s illegal.” She said finally looking away and rubbing her nose, two obvious signs of lying. Fergo always told me the best liars are the ones who can fool themselves. She clearly was not this person. I snorted in response. “Come now dear. Don’t make this difficult for me. You know what you owe and I’m letting you have the chance to give it on your free will. You don’t want my terms to change do you?” I replied pointing the knife at her and gave her the hairy eye. She sat pressed up against the door window, her coat made out of some sort of dead animal. Staring at me, a sweat bead rolled down her cheek despite the chill. “Don’t play games with me. We both know who would win.” I growled growing impatient. I glance out the window behind the girl. The parker street flashed by and I knew my time was running out. She gulped then sighed and pulled out her wallet. I smiled at her. “Now there’s a good girl.” Her delicate hand shaked as she pulled thick amount of rolled up notes from the purse. I held out my concealed hand and gestured for her to hand it over, the black leather squeaking. She held the money out and hesitated. Shaking her head she let it fall into my hand. I took it and popped it into my coat pocket and slid the knife back in its sheath “Thanks sweetpeet. It’s nicer when a costumer works well.” I smiled at the girl and noticed tears welling in her eyes. I opened the door as we slowed at the lights, jumped out of the limo not before giving her a saucy wink and slipped into the mob of people that trudged across the road whilst pulling my eye mask off.

I pushed my way out of the crowd down a gloomy and dank alleyway. Steam rose from the vents and tall building walls were spray painted with screaming people running around that looked like headless chickens. My breath puff out and I kept my head low, my coats collar acting like a blind from the world. Men dressed in scruffy beanies and ripped outfits lent against the walls laugh and occasionally wolf whistling as I walk by. Ignoring them I came to a rusty ladder that trailed up the wall like a snake. Looking around I checked for any spying eyes only to see the coast was clear. Grapping one of the icy rungs I began to climb to the roof tops of Denlock. The wind pushed at me and the cold seemed to engulf me as I stepped of the ladder. I walked across the roof to the edge and stared down at the fatal drop. I still remember one of the first’s things I saw as a new rogue was the death of a man falling from one of these roofs. Fergo was showing me the life of the rogues and how our community worked. “You see, we need to travel by roof tops, to get to places without being seen.” Fergo explained to a ten year old me. My eyebrows furrowed together. “But why does it have to be so dangerous?” I asked. Fergo laughed and smiled at the confused me. “That’s life honey, if you don’t want to be seen, you have to go where no one goes. Here watch Daren.” He said as he gestured to the bulky man high above us on the rooftops.  He began running across the top straight at the gap between his building and the next one. He leaped over the opening and rolled one the other side to break his fall. “See it’s not dangerous?” Fergo said lightly. Daren continued across the flat roofs of Denlock using bars and high objects to make the bound between the buildings. I laughed at how easy it looked and started begging Fergo to let me try it who snorted at me. Daren kept going and going. As he jumped out to catch the wall of the next building his foot caught a pot hole. I remember watching his face turn pale and his scream as he fell, watching his lifeless body slump on the ground and the mark it forever left. I remember Fergo’s silence as we stood there. I should have been in tears. I should have never wanted to take the job, to never join the rogues. But the cold heartless part of me wasn’t shatter by seeing Daren fall to his fatal death. It was itching and begging to have a go to at the merciful roof tops. That how my new life began. I returned back from the memory and walked back from the edge and began running. I let the exhilaration fill me as I flew over the crevasses and when I made it to the abandoned observatory and I slowed down, I had to resist the temptation and longing to keep going. Signing I stop at the building. It was a huge dome mad of dark, rusty metal with a sheet of tin that could be pulled back to reveal a missing telescope. Nowadays we just use it as an entrance. I climbed another ladder up to the piece of metal and scrolled it open. “Home Sweet home.” I whisper staring down at the room, full of Slither Rogues, full of my family.