Darker Cities

Chapter One

The skies have been dark for as long as auro could remember; as has everyone's spirits. The economy is broken as are the bones in most people's bodies these days. The shadows in every corner of the streets, under the clouds and even creeping from under the sad pieces of wood planks she calls a bed, seem to grow larger every day; filling the city with more darkness every weakening hour.

Water can be hard to come by, food even more difficult to find. Most have left to live in the darker forests and fields beyond the city. But now that there are fewer to grasp at the chance for condiments, it's that much easier to get it. That's the only reason she stays there; why anyone stays there.

And perhaps for the shelter. The buildings provide shelter and support, but it's mostly the sick or dead that fill them.

She has found an empty building once, or thought it was empty until a knife was pointed at her throat and she was threatened by a girl she now calls an ally. At least she's not completely alone.

And that's the thing, no one is ever completely alone; except the dead. She often finds herself wondering if the dead are better off than the living; and part of her believes it.

Before the darker days, she was told, a great flame in the sky rained light onto the ground and the building tops, scaring away the shadows. Its difficult to believe such a ftory, as almost no one alive now has ever seen the sun.

Some have claimed to have seen it, the one they call Kader has been said to have journeyed beyond the city, beyond the wood and returned. No one has ever even seen Kader in the flesh, around here at least, and Auro doesn't know if he's even real; another myth to give people false hope where there is none. Why would someone return from such a place? That is why no one believes his truth; no one would come back if they found a better place.

Auto can only dream of such a place; a place where she brushes her soft, glowing hair and bathes in the river of a waterfall. But these are dreams from a story she only attempted to borrow from a lost man.

She watches a scruff of hair fall to the cement and dirt and grabs another piece of tangled crimson hair and saws through it with her dull knife. The feeling of the hairs ripping apart feels strange in her hands. Auro saws at it until there is no hair covering her ears in the front, except the one long braid she keeps to the side of her cheek with a single wooden bead on the end.

The bead had some symbols on it Auto didn't recognize. It had been given to her by the same lost person who she had tried to take his book. He said it meant 'hope'; a lost word in this world of gray. But he seemed to believe it, and had she ever been given a gift before she may not have taken it; but as it was her first gift, Auro kept it as a reminder there were still some people who had things to give.

She's kept it in her hair since she was nine. No one's ever tried to steal it, so she figured it must not have any value. But she keeps it close all the time, a few inches from her face; never out of sight.

He also said to her that day, that if he comes back for it and she lost it, he would have to take Auto to replace it. She's tried to lose it since then, but could never convince herself to drop it and leave. Should he come back, this is how he will know her. This is why he will take take her.

Auro folds the blade of the knife into the handle after whipping off the stray hairs left to the cold metal and puts it in her bag. She took out her water bottle and poured some over her hands and took a sip.

Looking around she saw the usual people; minus a few who She's heard had been taken to one of the big buildings for the dying; there were less people every day.

Auro strolled down the streets at a slow pace, in no rush to get anywhere. Maybe if she had somewhere to go she'd speed up. But no one here is going anywhere; except the afterlife. I suppose we all will, some day.

Auro glances in all the ally ways, and the cracks in the crumbling buildings; a habit she picked up a few years ago when she had been tackled by someone who ambushed her using an ally. But now there wasn't any point in ambushing anyone. No one has anything worth taking.

"Girl," says a voice to her right, stopping Auro in my tracks. She doesn't turn her head.

"They tell me I can't run," the man says, and she knows who's speaking. He's a man who lost feeling in both his legs, his dark skin covered in wrinkles from chin up, more than an average man his age would have.

"I believe them sometimes. You can run, girl." He says, barely drawing attention from the surrounding people.

Auro pulls her hood over her head and continues to stroll. "I've tried." A lie. Yet, it couldn't be truer. She has tried to run from her past, to run from the crumbling city's heart, from the people surrounding it, giving it life, pumping its blood. Yet she stays here, letting the blood flow through her and to it, keeping it alive when everyone knows it's bound to stop pumping any day now.

Auro doesn't quicken her pace or look back at the man. Seeing people in such horrid condition is frightening; wondering if someday she'll look like that; if they all will, she doesn't doubt it.

Auro's feet lead her down many streets, through the long road from the Nest all the way to the center of the city. Then Nest is where most take refuge. Others go on and live anywhere in the city, leaving the crowds. Auro will never understand why they didn't just go to the forests.

She begins to shuffle to a stop when the people lining the sidewalks disappear completely. She can't hear any noises here; not coughing, nor complaining. It's oddly quiet.

Auro watches as a crow to the other end of the road twitch it's head around, looking for scraps. He finds something and makes a single peck noise that echoes through the empty windows and through the buildings.

Then another sound fills my senses; a sound louder than any crowd, with a higher pitch, and terrifying companions.

The crow almost explodes into blood and black feathers, jumping two meters then falling limb to the pavement.

A gunshot. All her instincts tell Auro to run, but a voice in her head says not to or she will end up like the bird. She stands her ground and watches all the windows in the tall buildings surrounding. She saw nothing but darkness.

Then noises of swooshing begin silently surrounding her ears, a sound difficult to hear. Shadows started jumping from the buildings. They were getting closer.

Two feet hitting the ground behind her made her whirl around and face their owner. The figure of a man stood silently still for a moment, then advanced at a speed that seemed impossible for anyone in the city.

Before she could react and step away, his grip was chasing away the air circulation from her neck. Auro's hands scratched wildly at his, but he held tight.

He loosened his grip,"Where did you get this bead?" The voice is younger than she thought, and maybe under the mask was a man in his thirties, maybe younger.

She finally decided it was best to answer and not be strangled to death, (although it would make a shocking headline if there was a city paper, ' rotting girl found dead next to crow' they'd say after someone eventually found her corps) She responds with,"a man gave it to me years ago" and the grip tightens, uncertain of her response, then the hand leaves my throat.

"You will come with us. Run, and you will be killed." He turns. A simple enough request. But Auro isn't about to go running off with some ninja and his shadows.

"I have to go back, I need some things," She says and holds her hands tight on her sleeves, hiding her shaking fingers.

He doesn't answer. Instead, he grabs her arm and begins hauling me across the pavement, away from the direction she came. I guess I don't have a choice but to be taken along with them.