Shadows in the Concrete Jungle Book One: The Grey

Chapter Sixteen

Her dreams could have been nightmares, for all the turmoil and angst she felt in them. It was mostly just her falling into darkness, Noah reaching for her as her hand passed through his as she faded away, over and over again. And all the while, voices echoed in her head.

You are a failure. You are worthless. You are an imposter. You are not worthy. You will fail. You will end up killing him. You will end up dead. You will be forgotten.

It all replayed until her eyes fluttered open, then closed again, despair thick in her heart and throat.

Kendra was on the edge of sleep. Disjointed voices floated to where she and Noah had fallen asleep on the couch. They didn't mean to do it; they only wanted to watch anime together after their beatdown in the alley. But they had been so exhausted, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally, that they didn't make it more than eight minutes into the show before it was paused.

"...could have at least used Noah's bed..."

"...it's fine, they're just sleeping..."

"Are they dating...?"

"At least you left before the shower... hold on..."

There was silence for a while, and then Nicholas spoke up. "Jolly's ready..."

Kendra slid back into a blissfully dreamless state, her tired and aching body not ready to wake up yet. The witch and the angel had other plans though, because a crack of magic snapped in the air, and Noah was jumping from underneath Kendra, knocking her to the ground, katana in hand, ready to cut through whatever enemy appeared. Except it was only Jolly who had appeared.

"What the fuck!?" Kendra cried, rubbing her hip as she squeezed between Noah and the couch to stand up.

"Nick, we are tired," Noah groaned, collapsing on the couch and shrinking his katana back to its necklace size.

Jolly had walked to the countertop in the kitchen after he did a double take of the sleepy couple on the couch. "Hello to you, too!"

"That's for screaming and then fucking in the shower when I was trying to reenergize," Nicholas said, flipping them off before following after Jolly.

"What a dick," Noah sighed, helping Kendra stand up.

"I thought I was pretty quiet in the shower," Kendra said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She pulled out her phone and checked the time, forcing back a sob; they had only slept for an hour and a half. But no amount of sleep could make the weight in her stomach disappear.

Noah brushed his lips on her temple, and then guided her to the countertop, where Jolly was unwrapping a large parcel. The dark brown leather flopped easily open as he undid the flaps, and revealed a gloriously beautiful book. The pages were edged in gold, the cover pure white, the corners bracketed in ornate gold, with an unidentifiable language emblazoned at the top. The book itself seemed to glow in a golden light.

"This," started Jolly, " is the Enochian Manuscripts. It's written in the ancient language of the angels, which has all but been lost to time. I am regrettably out of practice of my Enochian, so I was struggling with it, until I found an archivist who helped me start a translation ledger."

He pulled out a slim notebook from between the pages and opened it, fanning through the pages. The entire notebook was filled with scrawls and scribbles, letters, numbers, symbols, and surprisingly, doodles. But Kendra's eyes shifted back to the book. She reached her hand out as Jolly said "aha!" after finding the page he wanted to in his notebook.

The book was so warm and inviting...

She let a single finger rest on the pages for half a second before it blew her right off her chair, her hand burned from a single pulse of light.