Broken Wings [Completed!]

Chapter 9

The world tipped under their feet. Misty, heavy air lengthened over the sky above, threatening to spill beads of cold rain. Remy fingered the handle of her knife. She'd always had been fascinated with the way it caught light at different angles, deflecting each and every one of their blows.

Adeline came to a stop beside Evira, watching the cars speed past and people walk about her as if she wasn't there. Because, of course, she wasn't. They were in two different lives, never intersecting. A street performer was playing a violin duet under the white marble of a statue, and Evira could sense the urge running through Adeline as her hands itched towards the opening of her violin case.

They waited at the traffic lights, almost like normal human beings. But when the green light shone at them, their purpose wasn't to rush to work or to see their family. Striding towards the street performers, her held breath mimicked the long note pulled by the bow. A cadence emerged between the two artists, and whilst a crowd was gathering, she tried to get away as fast as possible.

She found it. The slab where a strange, eerie pull made Evira bend towards it, like plants moving towards the sun. Except the difference was, the pull belonged to darkness and lurking monsters.

"Come around here," Evira called out, using her axe to catch at one end and haul up the slab. Both Remy and Adeline emerged, and then Cain, whose eyes were full of wonder and plastic dreams. Zoya had told Evira, when she was researching, that Cain had been born in Hell and never had set foot on the Earth. To some, he was unlucky, but what Evira had learnt from her time on Earth was that Hell and Earth were about the same. The sky may be blue instead of red, the noises lively instead of painful, but the people there--they were the beasts, only hiding behind masks.

Adeline dropped down first, hugging her violin close to her chest to stop it from scratching the walls during her fall. Cain hesitantly followed. The hard ground met Evira's, and she didn't know if it was her who pulled back, or the ground itself. It opened, brilliant, golden light shining through, reminding Evira of poems she'd once read about entering Heaven itself.

She didn't hear any joy, however. A towering block of bricks stood at the end of an alleyway they had entered upon, blackened by some thick, dark liquid that held a semblance to blood. Four large pillars rose to meet the sky, only to come back down empty-handed. It ended in a thin strip of metal--some kind of spike. Cain gulped behind her, but all she could see was her chance to fulfill everything she wanted.

"Jasper was telling me about that tower. It's supposed to be inspired by the Tower of London. You know, tortures and stuff," Adeline announced, picking up her pace to enter the empty arch.

Two guards stood at the entrance, immediately crossing their weapons to block their paths. They were mouthing something--probably saying something, but Evira couldn't hear them. The crowd looked towards Cain, expecting a translation. All Cain did was wave his fingers in the air, a white, delicate light becoming and unbecoming as it travelled and landed on their skin.

"You are not ghosts, nor visitors of Maddy Low. You shall not pass."

"You're not Gandalf, either," Evira muttered, secretly happy at the opportunity of another fight.

The guard furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, and Remy used her chance to slam her Apporip at his face. Adeline took the hint, swinging her own one, shaped like a violin's bow, except with a sharp metallic end, into the other guard's stomach.

Evira stood up taller. "Seems like you guys are suffering too," she noticed as the body of ghosts were skeletal, too weak to drag their feet across the floor. "Maddy Low is certainly mad if she won't let us help."

The two guards, even on the ground, had the nerve to cringe at her joke. It wasn't the best out of the books, she'd admitted.

"Help? You four?" The guard on the right laughed.