Halfling

Chapter 7 part 2

I ran to the door. I was surprised that Amy had jumped but I didn't think she would have jumped for no reason. She was probably using her air powers to float or something like that. I looked down and saw her pacing in the air. There was nothing under her and she was walking calmly. I wasn't afraid of heights. I would always climb on trees and climb as high as possible even if it was dangerous. I sat down and let my feet dangle in the air. It looked surreal seeing London so tiny and just sitting and watching my dangle. After a moment, I slid off and let myself fall.

I fell on something hard. My feet hurt when I stood but not too badly. I looked around. I was standing on something solid. Glass maybe? It was transparent but rock hard. I wasn't afraid. I was amazed. 'We're standing on the invisible bar that holds the building up in the air and keeps it hidden from ordinary humans' shouted Amy. It was so windy that I could barely hear her. Shivering, I looked at the building in front of us. It was old and grand but there was a part that looked newer and was probably added later. 'Humans can't breathe here but most halflings can' continued Amy. 'Follow me' Amy started her fast walk. I jogged to keep up. Amy's long hair was tied in a ponytail and was flapping in the wind. Her dark blue eyes seemed to shine. All of a sudden, Amy stopped. Not expecting to stop, I crashed into her. Stepping back, I noticed Amy pushing something in the air and a moment later I heard a doors screeching open. I watched with amazement as what looked like invisible doors open and reveal a small room. It was a lift. As Amy had to be annoying, she pushed me in the lift and stepped in graciously. She pressed the zero button and the doors screeched shut and the lift started to descend. There were no windows. The lift was small. I felt as if something was pushing against my chest. I shut my eyes and leaned against the wall. I've always hated lifts. The glass lifts were ok but it were the lifts with no windows that I hated. I am claustrophobic. After what felt like an hour but was probably ten minutes the lift slowed down and stopped. The doors slid open and I stepped out of the lift before Amy could push me out. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. I looked around and recognised where we were. We were in a small alley which was close to an entrance to the underground. The alley was dark and silent. Not a sound was heard. I looked around for Amy to find her staring at me. 'Why are you staring at me?' I asked confused. My voice sounded loud in the silent alley. 'You're strange' answered Amy still staring at me. 'Let's go. Which way to your house?' I started walking. We walked for a bit in silence. Amy was no longer staring at me but was looking at all the houses with interest. 'Why am I strange?' I asked. 'When we were on the invisible barrier you seemed to love it. High up with nothing visible under your feet but when we went into the lift you seemed to panic and you started to sweat. With everybody that came with me to use the back entrance it's exact the opposite.' It sounded as if Amy took a lot of people out through the back entrance. I carried on walking. I wasn't going to explain that I was claustrophobic. We stepped out of the alley to arrive at a busy road. People were hurrying on the streets and cars and buses were rumbling past. I spotted the entrance to the underground and hurried towards it. Amy was right behind me. In the underground were a lot of people. I wasn't that claustrophobic so I felt fine. I only felt horrible in small rooms with no windows. As neither Amy nor I had any money we had to sneak in. There were so many people here that you could hardly move past them they were all hurrying to the platforms. There is one thing that Amy is rubbish at and that is being patient. She started pushing her way forward. All I had to do was stay behind her. 'I hate using the underground' said Amy. 'It's always full of so many people' 'Not always' I said. 'Only in the morning and evening' 'And the people always smell of sweat. And most people wear some kind of strong and smelly perfume obviously thinking that they are more attractive like that. It makes them less attractive in my opinion' said Amy. She wasn't talking very quietly. Amy wrinkled her nose as we passed a woman that smelt of vanilla. 'You think I smell?!?!' shouted the woman turning around. A few people turned their heads but nobody paid us a lot of attention. The woman wore a short velvet blue dress that wrapped itself around her body showing off its shape. She had extremely high purple shoes. A large amethyst pendant glistened on her throat. She looked like she was in her twenties. Her hair was very long and white but it was her eyes that caught my attention. They were purple with no whites and no pupil. They looked familiar. 'Yes, I think you smell. Why would you want to smell like a dessert?' answered Amy. Amy didn't seem to be surprised by her eyes. The woman scowled and opened her mouth to answer when her head turned to me and she gasped. But Amy had already pulled me ahead and I lost sight of the woman. 'I forgot how touchy they can be' muttered Amy. We arrived just in time to hop onto the train. 'Did you see her eyes?' I asked Amy. 'Yeah. She's probably an elf. Elves have those kind of eyes' answered Amy. Elf. I hadn't imagined an elf to look like that. 'Why would an elf use the underground?' 'Loads of fey and elves use the underground. I think it's because they like to pickpocket' said Amy. The elf seemed to have recognised me. Why would an elf recognise me? The train had slowed to a stop and people were rushing off whilst other people were trying to get on at the same time. The train started to move again. 'Are there lot's of stuff from the stories out there?' I asked. 'Yep. Why do you think there are stories? Not everything is made up' said Amy. We stayed silent for the rest of the journey in the train. We got off and Amy started grumbling again. That girl grumbled a lot. 'They should stop telling me what to do' grumbled Amy. 'I'm not stupid' 'Who should stop telling you what to do?' I asked confused. 'The lady. She always says mind the gap. I'm not stupid and I have good reflexes' answered Amy who looked very annoyed. I let her grumble. We finally got out of the Underground. I started walking. I didn't live in the nice part of London. There were a lot of warehouses here. The streets were littered with rubbish and glass from smashed beer bottles and there were a lot of beer cans scrunched up. There were large cracks in the roads and the place didn't smell that well. A few drunk men whistled when they saw Amy who silenced them with a glare. Her glares were very effective. We arrived at my small home. It looked like nothing had happened. The walls were wooden and dirty and the windows were so dirty that you couldn't see anything through them. Something small ran past me. It like a squirrel. It was and it had some black design drawn onto its back but before I could take a closer it had vanished. Something nagged me that something wrong was going to happen but I ignored the feeling. I glanced at Amy and was surprised by her expression. She looked slightly sad but the next moment that expression vanished and I thought that I had imagined it. 'Are we going to go inside?' asked Amy. 'Yes' I answered forgetting about the squirrel. It was almost as if my mind knew that something was going to happen.

I walked into my home. The living room looked normal. Dirty and full of broken furniture. My dad wasn't there. He was probably in the bedroom. I walked to the door and hesitated before opening the door but in the end I opened it. Something flew at me. Something big and black. Amy leapt up and jumped onto the thing. Producing a dagger she stabbed it in the back of the creature and it vanished. 'Get up!' whispered Amy. I got up as quickly as I could. Amy handed me the dagger as she grabbed at her waist and produced a sword. I stared. She had just grabbed at her waist and all of a sudden she had a full sized sword. I didn't have much time to stare because more of the black creatures were appearing. They looked like living shadows. They had a human shape. A head but no eyes, arms and hands but no fingers and legs and feet but no toes. Their eyes were just red holes in the head. They glowed red. When they opened their mouths they revealed sharp white fangs that seemed to glow. I counted six of them as they ran at me and Amy. 'They're called Reapers and the only way to kill them is to stab them in the heart or decapitating them' shouted Amy as she swung her sword decapitating three in one go. I stuck out the dagger as one of the Reapers ran at. The dagger went straight into its chest. But instead of dissolving as I pulled the dagger out. It stepped back and seemed to leer as it ran at me. 'It didn't die, Amy' I shouted as I dodged it. I was surprised at myself. I didn't know I could stab or dodge or jump as high as I jumped up to avoid the Reaper. 'Did I mention that the heart is in the middle of its back' shouted Amy. She had killed four of the Reapers and there were two left. 'No!' I shouted annoyed. She could have told me that earlier. 'Reapers are really stupid so it's not difficult to fight them' said Amy somersaulting over the Reaper and stabbing it in the back. 'Use this' she shouted. Amy threw me the sword which I caught and stabbed it into the Reapers belly. The Reaper just carried on running making the sword go further into it and in the end it vanished. 'You fight well for a beginner' said Amy as she picked the sword up and pushed it to her waist. 'But why did those people send Reapers after you. They must want you badly' John's words came into my mind. Do NOT run away!!! Mr Roach will hunt you down if you do and he can do terrible things if you run away. It seemed so long ago when it was only two days ago. Amy's sword vanished. I stared and was about to ask how she could do that when I realised that that's probably what Amy wanted. Me being amazed and ask her questions of how she could do stuff. 'I think we destroyed your living room' said Amy. The table was now completely broken, the chair had been knocked over and was now lying on its side and the windows were completely broken. 'I think that the living room looks better now. You can even look through the windows now' I said as I walked into the bedroom to find my dad fast asleep on the bed.

It's a miracle how he stayed asleep throughout the whole fight. I don't think we had been that quiet. Our fight with the Reapers hadn't woken him up but the rumbling did.