Fear the Light

The City Of Light

I looked at him fearfully. "W-what if they try to attack me? I can't defend myself, especially not like this." I raised my arms up, showing the screaming red burns. He tapped his foot rapidly, arms crossed, a thoughtful look on his face.

"I suppose you are right, um...come with me to the city limits. Then wait there, I have a plan...an idiotic, risky plan, but it should help at least a little." He was looking down as he spoke, uneasiness was plainly written across his face. He glanced up at me, then turned.

"Let's go...and let's hope this works."

He led me toward the city until I was close enough to see a large main street that ran through the middle of the city. Even from the distance I was at, I could see people and vehicles milling about within the city, as well as a few people going in and out of the city. "Damn, it's rush hour...this way." He leads me on a path leading far to the left of that main street and to a small back alley. I looked at him confused.

"But, I thought I was to wait outside the city." I ask in a small voice.

"That was the original plan, but there are way too many people out there, we can use these alleys to get close enough though." He led me through a series of cramped alleyways then suddenly stopped in front of me. "Okay, you wait here," He glanced over his shoulder nervously, "I'll be right back, okay?" I nodded confidently, despite the terror coursing through me. He turned and quickly walked down a alley branching off of the one we were in, I wasn't truly afraid until he turned the corner and I lost sight of him. I waited calmly for the first few minutes, then began pacing back and forth nervously. I was on the bring of full fledged panic until I heard footsteps from the side alley, I glanced over to see him practically running toward me. When he finally came close to me, I threw my arms around him then quickly let go, a heat touching my cheeks.

"Sorry, I had begun to worry." I said bashfully, looking at the ground.

"Really? Nevermind. Here take this and put it on, quickly." He handed me a large black sweater and I put it on, as soon as I did, he pulled the hood up over my head and looked at me. "It'll have to do. ..keep your head down, I know a place we can go to that should be safe for you."

"Should?!"

"Quiet! It is the safest place in this city for you. Now let's go." I followed him to the edge of the side alley and watched the flow of people streaming past, they wore all different colors and styles of clothes, but every few moments I would see, typically in pairs, men in stark white clothing much like Castrian's, although with the addition of an armored vest and a much more combat oriented sword at their sides.

"Is that your police force?" He nodded solemnly. "What's with the swords? Doesn't your society have guns?" I ask quietly.

"Yes, we do, but guns on police officers seemed like it would cause unneeded deaths, so a sword was the weapon of choice." I looked back out at the crowd then back at Cass.

"Shall we go?" The fear was more than obvious in my voice.

"Yes, I believe that we shall."

We emerged onto the street, merging with the flow of people, me walking close behind him. It was working, no one was noticing me at all, but my luck quickly ran out. As we were jostling through the crowd, I collided with someone that I didn't see coming the other way, the impact caused my body to turn, and as it happened, my hood fell down, and as it happened, the crowd pretty much vanished immediately, or at least parted around me. As I looked up, I saw with sudden fear white, armored pants. As I looked higher, my fears were confirmed as I saw a long, white sheath leading to the dark hilt of a sword. I quickly stood up to see a shocked and frightened face rapidly turn to anger.

"It's an Othersider!" He shouted and drew his sword as I jumped backwards away from him. Up until this point, Castrian hadn't noticed the event and had continued walking. He turned to see me crouched against a wall, the officer preparing to swing his sword down at me. As he begun his swing, I heard Castrian scream out for him to stop, but it was too late. The blade came down towards me and I instinctively threw up my right arm, but right before the blade hit my arm, my eyes glowed a bright red, and when I didn't feel the impact I looked up to see the blade stopped by a small shield of darkness right in front of my arm, through some unknown, ancient, primal knowledge I knew to swing my arm to the side and upon doing so, the shield flew at the officer, knocking him across the street. I stood and looked down at my arms horrified, the right arm of the sweatshirt gone, and the burn marks fading from black back to red.

"Come on! We need to go! Now!" Castrian's voice pulled me from my shock, and I saw more police coming up the sidewalk behind me and I took off running after Cass. I had no idea where we were going, but was just mindlessly following him. As were approaching a wide area heavy with police, he abruptly turned down an alleyway, I followed him through a few sharp corners and when I turned the final corner I saw him holding the back door of a building open, urging me inside. We both ran inside and he slammed the door behind us, quickly locking it.

"I think we lost them." He said between heavy breaths. "Hey Ix, you home?" He called out after we had caught our breath.

"Who's Ix?" I asked, still breathing a bit heavy.

"His full name is Montrenellix, but most people just call him Ix, he's the person I said could maybe help you, he is a very special person and a close friend of mine".

"Back here." I heard a muffled voice call from somewhere further into the building. I walked with Castrian as he went through the hallway, past a few neat, yet abstractly arranged, rooms and to a white door with a strange symbol emblazoned upon it.

"Just to warn you, he is a bit," he paused as though trying to find a proper word, "different, whatever you do, don't make fun of him." I nodded.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

He opened the door and I saw what nothing could have prepared me for.