The Inevitable Eclipse

Chapter 2 - Found Family

"Cool speech at City Hall, Ivy!" Saf called as she strolled down the street toward The BookNook.

Ivy looked over her shoulder, the narrow street was empty, most of the shops were boarded up anyway. She turned back to her sister. "Keep it down please!"

"Oh please." Saf waved her hand dismissively, sparkling nails glinting in the early morning sun. "No one is here!"

Still, Ivy muttered, "We don't know that." There was no point in trying to argue with Saf and after that morning, Ivy really didn't have the strength to argue with her.

Saf was a warm breeze on a summer's day, she was the rain that made the flowers grow, she was the waves under your surfboard.

    Like Ivy, her hair was a dark, rich brown, so dark it was almost black, unlike Ivy's long straight hair, Saf's was wavy and cropped just above her shoulders. She had a dusting of freckles across her nose, aside from that, the sisters might as well have been identical. There had been plenty of times when their mother was stopped to ask about 'the twins', but as Ivy liked to remind Saf, she was eleven months older. She had eleven months more knowledge and maturity than her sister, (despite the fact that they were in the same class at school and had the same friends).

"So, are we going to be, you know, detectives tonight." Saf gave Ivy an exaggerated wink.

"Perhaps." Ivy winked back.

"Yes!" Saf looped her arm through Ivy's and dragged her away from the bookshop and down the street. "Is it in your pocket? Can I see it? Is it creepy or like kinda sad this time? Oh! Did he say anything else about when they might be meeting? Cause he can't really expect you to join The Night Fall if he doesn't even tell you where the meetings are."

"Slow down!" Ivy laughed. "I'll show you later, okay? It's not that exciting."

"'Not that exciting'? Ivy! A supervillain is trying to get you to join his... what even is The Night Fall? A revolution? A gang? A secret society?"

"A mistake." Ivy said darkly. She glanced to her sister and grinned.

"Alright, Miss Dramatic. I'm sure you'd fit right in with a group that refer to themselves as 'The Night Fall' can't get much more dramatic than that."

They had reached the end of the side street and there were people everywhere. It seemed that they had gotten bored of City Hall and were on their way to work and school. Or maybe it was because the penalties for being late had increased since Clarissa had been in office. She had explained to Ivy that you could tell a lot about a person by how punctual they are. Besides, tardiness resulted in a ridiculous amount of time wasted during the working day, or so Clarissa said. Ivy had learnt not to argue with Clarissa on things like that, she was only seventeen, Clarissa had much more life experience than her. Who was she to argue?

Ivy nudged Saf and whispered, "Can we change the topic please?"

"Of course!" Saf smiled, and then less than three seconds later, "Why City Hall? Everyone loves City Hall! It's like, the meeting place for literally anything. If you ask 'where are we meeting?' Ninety percent of the time, they're gonna say, City Hall!"

"That isn't changing the topic, Saf."

"But everyone is talking about City Hall! It looks even stranger if you start talking about something else!"

Ivy hated that her sister was right. Ahead of her was a whole day of speculation and rumours that she would just have to sit back and listen to without ever being able to interrupt with the truth. Who knows what she would hear about herself or Void and then she would just have to agree and maybe even laugh. It would take all her strength to keep her eye rolling to a minimum.