unraveled

cloaked

✵       ✵      ✵

          Running away from home did the trick though. The thought jolted him back to reality. The blue walls were closer as if they hadn't walked towards it, but it towards them. He looked around to find that the cloaked figure was gone and so was Nia. He slowed his pace as all the other performers walked past him until he walked at the very end. At one point he just stopped and watched the group for a few seconds, each of them too overwhelmed by their own lives to notice him leaving. A gap yawned between two of the houses walled by trimmed hedges and lampposts, running deeper into a brick alley. It seemed like the only possible place to escape to that was out of the public eye. With curiosity biting at his heels he walked to the alley that smelled like the mud before rain and damp wood. Overhead, the sun hid behind the clouds, submerging the alleyway in cool, musty shade. He fastened his pace to meet a sudden curve towards the right. From another curve to the right in the distance, he could tell that the alley ran along the whole perimeter of the house. Windows hung high up in the walls looking out at something over the other side of the walls that he couldn't see. Nia stood in the middle of the path, quiet and clearly oblivious to his presence, her entire body still as if she'd been turned into a statue. He followed her gaze to see the cloaked figure standing at the other end of the lane facing the wall who clearly thought he was alone and away from watchful eyes. This was what lacks from leery crimes. Professionalism. Criminals had gone far too soft. Far too unattentive. Acelius leaned against the wall with his arms crossed as he watched the figure trail black, gloved fingers across bricks, pushing at them in some pathetically sad choreography between man and wall, until finally one brick slid into the wall. The figure extended his hand into the narrow chasm the brick had left and yanked something. An audible click sounded as the figure stood back and watched the bricks rearrange themselves to form a door that opened into darkness. The figure stepped in and immediately dissolved into the black as if merely made of ashes and smoke. Not even a silhouette outlined his cloak as the bricks stealthily slid back into place. A simple wall again.

          Nia stood frozen for a moment before rushing to the wall, moving her fingers in precisely the same way as he had. She was eidetic but that was not at all shocking. Just another boring trait in a boring arsenal. She waited a moment before placing her fingers on a brick and slightly pushing. Acelius stalked closer but not close enough for her to notice. The brick slid in and the doorway opened again. The dark devoured her as soon as she stepped in. She had once told him he had the attention of a pea, he could do anything but disagree as he grimaced at himself for not memorizing the pattern of the bricks which were now sliding back into place. Luckily, he ran quicker than a pea and jutted his fingers right before the last stones slid into place and pushed. They reluctantly obliged but snapped close as soon as he was inside. There was darkness everywhere, mixed into the air like an ink stain. The air was sticky and clung to him in sugary sweat. He pushed back his glasses to sit on his head scraping hair that hung in his eyes with them as if that would help him see better. He could tell a staircase descended to somewhere before him by toeing the edge of the floor he stood on and finding another surface underneath. Nia breathed loudly in the silence and he could tell she was just as confused as him. With a sigh he braced his hands on the walls on either side and carefully walked until he bumped into something. He heard a yelp that was followed by rough tumbling. A story told in noises perfectly punctuated at the end with a grunt. He continued his way down, lowly whistling as if he hadn't just pushed someone down a flight of stairs. He stopped once again as he felt the floor even out beneath him and a body at his feet. Nia got up clawing at his legs, scratching her nails on him in a false attempt to get a grip on something that wasn't at all slippery. He grinned instead of wincing. The dark hid how close they stood but he could feel her hot breath on his chin.