The Dark Path: Stygian Days

The Ally

- The Ally –

Shadows move away from the shells of those who lived with miscreant deeds,

Echoes resonate throughout hallways of ghostly wails and cries,

As he who brings the night hunts for those who turn and flee,

And those who beguile innocent souls with their venomous and misguiding lies.

[Archer’s POV]

Finding Sierra’s home was slightly more difficult than expected. We wandered through the city on the rooftops and stuck to the shadows as the confusion and chaos that was caused due to the chase out of the city was still present. I had to wake Sierra up a few times to ask where exactly her home was. It wasn’t easy since she only mumbled a few words before falling back asleep each times I tried to wake her up.

After what seemed like a very long time, we made it to a pitiful looking building that was cramped in between a row of two-storey shop lots. Most of the lots were vacant and there weren’t that many people on the streets. I was actually quite worried that Sierra stayed in this seemingly unsafe part of the city.

“Sierra, we’re here.” I shook Sierra in an attempt to wake her up.

“Hmm?” she said sleeply.

“Come on, Sierra. You can’t be sleeping on my back the whole day.”

Sierra rubbed her eyes and stretched herself as I took the a mental picture of the surroundings.

“So, you live here, huh? It doesn’t really emit a very homely feeling…”

“That’s the least of my worries,’ she said as she sighed. “I’m way behind my rent and the landlord has said that he has already given me too many second chances.”

Sierra and I got of Ava and walked up the stairs to her place. The lot below where Sierra was a small coffee shop. There were hardly any customers in the shop and most of the waiters were sleeping, the cashier had his feet propped up on the cash register.

We climbed up the stairs and arrived at a pair of doors. Sierra pulled out a key and unlocked the doorknob. She then opened three number-coded locks with ease.

“That’s a lot of security.”

“You can’t be too careful, especially in poorer of parts of the city like these. It’s already bad enough that there’s no one who can look after me. Fortunately, living in a place like this has forced me to teach myself a few tricks.”

“Like running on rooftops from weird guys who have wolves as pets?” I said as I smiled.

Sierra giggled. “Yeah, I guess you could include that.”

Sierra stepped into her place while I stayed outside. I wasn’t exactly sure if I was allowed to enter. Sierra turned around and noticed that I was reluctant to enter.

“What? Do you want me to lay out a red carpet for his royal highness? Get in.”

“I thought you wanted to keep weird guys out of your place?” I said cheekily.

Sierra just rolled her eyes. “Just get in.”

I stepped into the rented room and looked around. It actually looked worse from the inside than it did from the outside. The paint on the walls were peeling. The wooden floor had moss growing on it. There were also hardly any furniture aside from a mattress in one corner and a badly made cupboard in another corner. A pile of newspapers lay next to the window.

“Life must be tough for you. How long have you been living here? I’m surprised this place hasn’t crumbled.”

Sierra was leaning against a wall as she watched me. “I was expecting you to say that. Well, it felt like crying when first saw this place but after a while, I just got used to it.” She shrugged her shoulders. “No big deal.”