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Chapter Four

Chapter Four:

Hope 

            On nights like these, I wished I lived in the country. Being in the city meant that you could never be alone; the world could always see you from its skyscrapers and airplanes, and all I wanted to do was disappear.

The grey haze of Willow Lane Park was invaded by sound and light outside of its margins. A procession of beaming headlights nearby pierced the impenetrable and disorientating blackness that should have been left behind when the sun blotted out. For just one night, all I wanted to see was the moon and a blanket of stars, but a grey haze hung in the air like a cloud, and the glow was smudged. Under the dapples of artificial light, the grass carpeting the empty space and the trees bordering the park were replaced by ominous versions of themselves.

            I sat amongst the shadows alone, and the bench was cold and damp from the rain. I could still feel the storm in the air; humid, static, no breeze. I had a sickening thought as I made my way further into the trees and mulled over the image of Harry’s hands steering me through the alleyway; his laughter in the face of his fear at Electra Palace; his blank expression when I told him to stay away from me. I wondered why I was willing to risk everything to protect a man I had known for a meagre 24 hours. I had two options: I could let him live a free life, and in return I could face the costs for letting him go, or I could stick to the plan and save myself. Both options made my stomach churn. I sat down on the roots of a tree and closed my eyes as the warm wind told secrets to the branches above my head.

Soon after dark, I heard footsteps.

“You agree to meet me, and then leave your phone switched off? That’s such a Hope thing to do.” The disembodied voice was British and modulated, with a subtle hint of bounciness. I recognised it immediately. Lily Berry had dyed her hair again; a fiery red, like blood. Her lips were rouged to match. She towered above me, hands on hips, black blouse paired with black jeans and sandals, her mouth twisted into a sloped grin and her hip bucked on one side. Even in the dark, I could make out the markings of her tattoos on the side of her neck.

“You’re usually up for a game of hide and seek,” I laughed and stood up, smiling and walking away from the brittle remains of the tree. Our feet fell into synchronisation on the broken pathway, but there was no hugging or fussing. People like us didn’t do that.

“Not anymore,” she muttered and pushed her hands into her pockets, stepping onto a branch in her way. It cracked beneath her foot. “How is it going? You look exhausted,” she observed, but it sounded sympathetic. I liked that about Lily; she wasn’t malicious. It was why we got along so well. 

“I’m fine. How are things back home?”

Lily exhaled for longer than usual, and we came to a stop at the end of the row of trees, in the empty shadows by the gates. “The usual.”

“Anybody else dead?”

“Nobody important.” She paused for a moment, searching for her next words. I felt a strange calm considering what she had said; you get used to death, even a little selfish about it. As long as those who die aren’t close to you, it’s just another missing person somewhere in the world. We had to accept that. “Haven has been acting strange since he got back. He said he spoke to you the night that he ran his routine check on you, but he wouldn’t talk about it.” She narrowed her eyes. “What happened?”

I pulled her away from the gates, back into the trees. Nobody was around, but we couldn’t risk anything. We could never be too sure. “I told him I couldn’t do it.”

Lily’s eyes widened, and she froze. “Are you insane?”

“I dunno. Probably. It’s the guy... He’s so different to all of the others we’ve dealt with in the past.”