I didn’t know and I didn’t care. I didn’t need to know anything more about Jet to understand he was a liar. He obviously knew everything about the people in the tunnel, including the adults, and he didn’t deem me important enough to share the information with.
“He must have liked you,” I finally replied, realizing Aurelia was waiting for me to say something. She still had that dreamy look in her eyes. I wondered if she had a crush on Jet. She couldn’t have been more than fourteen at the most, maybe he was old enough to be swoon-worthy for a young girl. He was pretty good looking if you could forget about his personality.
Aurelia’s face lit up. “Jet’s really nice.”
To some people.
It was time I tried to get some real answers from the girl, I had engaged in enough banter with her for one day. “Do you know about the other people that live in the tunnels? The older ones?” I needed to be careful of my words, just in case she didn’t know about their existence.
“The adults?” Aurelia asked. Clearly my concerns were for nothing. I should have predicted Perry’s sister would have known all about them.
“Yeah, the adults. Do you know much about them?”
She shrugged, sadness crossing her eyes. “Perry says I shouldn’t talk to them. She doesn’t want people to bother them.”
“Don’t you think it’s strange they survived?” I prompted. All the openness she had previously radiated was shriveling up now as she censored herself. Aurelia wasn’t comfortable with the conversation, it was as plain as day.
“I guess some people were lucky,” she finally replied. “Perry says I shouldn’t talk about them.”
Perry was a bitch.
“It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone.” Any guilt I felt about coercing a young girl was overridden by my need to know. I had to have facts about the adults, perhaps I didn’t need Jet after all.
Aurelia’s eyes flicked up to meet mine. She studied me like she could tell I might be lying. She might only be a young girl, but she was smart. Perry would do better by paying her more attention rather than see her as nothing more than a little sister.
She wasn’t talking. I racked my brain, trying to remember how I would convince my own sister to do something she wasn’t sure about.
There was only one thing that would work. “I’ll pinkie swear on it, if you want me to.” I held out my pinkie finger, seeing if she would shake it. Her gaze flicked between my hand and face. At least she was considering it.
“Aurelia!” The sharp voice cut through our quiet moment. The girl instantly jumped up.
“I have to go,” she said, already backing away.
“Aurelia! I know you’re out here, come here now.” I looked down and caught sight of Perry, stomping around below.
I pulled my legs in from the ledge and shuffled over to make sure she couldn’t see me. Peering over just enough, I saw Aurelia catch up to her sister. They disappeared into the building opposite, swallowed up by the ruins. Their secret tunnel had to be in that building.
At least Aurelia gave me one clue. Now I knew where to watch for an invasion of the mole people.
I remained on the floor, watching the area for more movement. I still needed to speak with Jet. Despite Aurelia’s promises that he was a nice guy, I was never going to believe her. He was a criminal, a sadistic, horrible person who had kept me hostage against my will – twice. She had made him sound like a saint. I knew the truth.
Nobody else passed through the area all afternoon. I was left alone with my thoughts, coming to no other conclusion than knowing I was no closer to solving any problems.
The sun was starting its slow descent down to kiss the horizon. It was time I started moving. I stood, stretching my limbs and finding them still painful and stiff. It was going to take a while to get over the damage the mole people had inflicted.
I walked slowly, compensating for my wrecked body. Oliver said he would meet me back at the basement apartment, hopefully he would make it back before I did so I didn’t need to worry about where he was.
Not that I ever stopped worrying about Oliver.
As I rounded a corner, a loud explosion erupted through the city. Instinctively, I crouched down and my arms flew over my head – sending pain bolting through my shoulder.
There was no debris that rained down on me this time. Wherever the explosion was, it wasn’t anywhere near me. A puff of smoke in the distance was all I could see of the damage and death that had occurred.
All I could pray for was that Faith and Oliver weren’t anywhere near the building that had blown up. That thought spurred me into action. Ignoring the now pulsing pain in my shoulder, I set off in a run toward the apartment. There was nothing I could do about knowing my sister’s whereabouts, but I could find Oliver.
I had to know he was okay.
My eyes searched the streets for the landmarks that had guided me only that morning. My feet pounded on the pavement in the same rhythm to my heartbeat.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
It echoed in my head.
The thought of being without Oliver, of something taking him from me, was unbearable. He had become a part of me, just as sure as my own limbs. Without him, I wouldn’t be able to survive. I was fooling myself the entire time I was living in my house on the hill. Being without Oliver wasn’t living, it was only existing.
By the time I rounded the last corner, I was nearly crazy with panic. My lungs burned and my legs were quickly turning to jelly. I stopped outside the apartment building, taking the steps down to the basement two at a time.
He wasn’t there.
“Oliver?” I called out. My eyes found all the nooks and shadows, searching them and making sure he couldn’t be hiding anywhere from me.
There was no response.
If Oliver wasn’t here, he might have been in that building. The explosion that could be heard echoing around the city could have engulfed him. Swallowed him up like his life meant nothing. Like he was nothing.
I couldn’t breathe.
This time, it wasn’t the mold and mildew making it difficult, but sheer panic. I had to find Oliver. The thought repeated in my head, shutting down any other thoughts.
I ran for the door.
And almost ran straight into him.
I managed to stop myself before collided with his chest. Again, I found myself desperate to wrap my arms around him but couldn’t cross that line. We were friends, I wasn’t supposed to need him so badly.
“Everly? Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes full of nothing but concern.
I stepped back, trying to regain my lost composure. “Yeah, I was just… going to get some food. Have you eaten?”
“I have.” He took a step closer, his brows knitted with worry. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re so pale. And breathless. What’s going on?”
Looking up at his earnest face, I couldn’t lie. There was no point. “I heard an explosion, I was worried you might have been hurt.” I held his gaze, desperate to know all that was running through his mind.
“I was worried about you for the same reason,” he confessed, his eyes leaving mine and falling to the floor.
Nobody cared about me as much as Oliver did. Not since the Event and I had lost my family. My heart, the same piece of me I had thought shriveled and dead, started to swell. It was a strange feeling, flooding my veins with warmth and lifting my spirits.
All that, in the space of less than a second.
Oliver was looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to say something. Anything. I wasn’t sure if I could find any words to speak. Because, as much as I knew my own feelings, I didn’t know his.
“I should go get food before it gets too dark,” I managed to get out. It was completely inadequate for what I wanted to say but it would have to do.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
I nodded, not ready to leave him again so soon. We walked side by side to the shelter, largely in silence. I didn’t want to confess that I had spen
t the day stalking Jet and he didn’t want to share his day’s activities for whatever reason he held.
The shelter was getting busier every time I visited. As the food supplies were running out in peoples’ private stashes, they were turning to the kindness of the shelter workers. The crazy kid had been right, the food was going to dry up soon.
As I waited in line, one of the spirits caught my eye. I knew he wasn’t real as he was an adult, standing taller than most people here.
And I had seen him before.
David was walking amongst the kids. He hadn’t seen me, he was going in the opposite direction. He shouldn’t have been here. I had seen him cross over and disappear with my own eyes.
Why was he still walking the earth?
I had released him, helped him settle his affairs with his children. He should have gone to the better place we were all promised. There was no way David could still be here.
“Ev? What’s going on?” Oliver asked, trying to see what I was looking at.
“It’s David. He’s here.”
“The spirit you helped?”
“Yeah.” A tall girl walked in front of me. I moved to see around her but David was gone. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me. Perhaps it was never him to begin with. I shook my head to clear the thoughts. “I don’t know. It was probably someone else that just looked like him.”
“Probably.” Oliver gave me a smile that was supposed to be reassuring. I tried to convince my shaking hands of that.
I got a small bread roll when I reached the front of the line and we walked back to the apartment once I had eaten. I needed to be away from the crowds, I yearned for some peace and quiet after everything that had happened. My aching body needed it even more.
As we sat in the musky apartment, silence settled between us. My mind was troubled, unable to keep the swirl of thoughts quiet for even a few hours.
Oliver was sitting across from me, his knees cradled to his chest in an attempt to stay warm. He blew on his hands and rubbed them together, trying to generate some heat.
I found the words falling from my mouth before I knew I was going to say them. “I need to find Faith.”
His head shot up to meet my gaze. “It’s been over a year. She could be anywhere.”
“She’s only nine, she couldn’t have gone far.”
“You haven’t even got any clues where she could be.”
I knew it was a hopeless search, but that didn’t mean I shouldn’t be trying. Faith was my sister, I would never be able to stop thinking about her.
Worrying about her.
Loving and missing her.
“I’ll find clues. She couldn’t have just disappeared.”
Oliver licked his lips to return some moisture to them before he replied. “Maybe it’s best you don’t know what happened to her.”
“How can you say that? She’s out in the world alone. She needs me, I was supposed to protect her.” Anger was rising up with the bile in my stomach. I didn’t know why Oliver was being so contrary.
He knew Faith, he had grown up with her too. She always wanted to hang out with us, he would constantly tease her about being a little drama queen. He was a big brother to her as much as I was a big sister.
“Things happen for a reason,” Oliver said quietly. “Maybe she wasn’t meant to stay with you.”
I was too stunned to say anything. And even if I did, I might regret what I wanted to say at that moment. No matter what Oliver’s opinion, finding Faith was something I had to do. I had been trying for over a year to locate her, it was time I stepped up my efforts.
Or perhaps there was another way.
If I could find out what secrets the adults’ held, I could restore the city. That would make it safe not only for my sister, but for all the kids. It was a long shot, but maybe it was crazy enough to work.
Chapter Thirteen
The night got colder as it wore on. I shivered and my teeth chattered all night. Morning was almost a relief, allowing us to move and generate some heat.
Oliver was awake before I was, staring at me as I woke up. Even with running a hand through my hair to try to smooth and untangle it, I felt self conscious. Once, I never would have left the house without looking perfect. Even though Oliver had seen me at my worst, it still didn’t feel right.
“Was I drooling?” I asked, wiping my face.
His lips quirked up into a smile. “No. You actually look really beautiful when you’re asleep. It’s peaceful watching you.”
For the second time in as many days, I was speechless. Oliver didn’t dwell, quickly standing and heading for the door. I stood too, shaking my arms and legs to get the blood moving around. The pain was a little better, but only marginally.
I opened the door and was instantly blasted with a gust of cold air.
No, not just cold, but frozen air.
Flakes of snow were softly falling to the ground in a silent dance, joining their mates already forming solid blocks on the pavement. What I wouldn’t have done for a heavy coat, gloves, and a scarf. My shirt and jeans were not going to stand up to the cold for long.
The raised voices of an argument drifted down with the wind. Oliver and I took one look at each other before sprinting toward it. We found them in an alleyway at the end of the street. Three boys, one of them couldn’t have been more than five years old.
“It’s mine, you can’t have it,” the smallest one said.
“I found it fair and square, it’s mine,” one of the bigger boys, in his early teens, replied. They each had a corner of a blanket, knuckles white as they held on for their life.
“It’s not! Give it to me!”
“I’m going to kill you if you don’t let go.”
“Like you could even try!”
Without warning, the two bigger boys lunged for the smaller one. They set on him like a wild pack of dogs, going for the most vulnerable one in the group.
“No!” I shrieked.
Oliver went to stop me but I was too fast for him. I jumped into the fray, my sole intention to get to the little boy before they could kill him.
I didn’t doubt they would.
Kill him, that is.
My hands clasped around the child’s collar, jerking him backwards. The grip of the other boy was too strong as his fingers dug into his little arms. He wasn’t going to give him up without a fight.
Trying not to think of what I was doing, I kicked the boy in the groin, trying to hit a sensitive spot that would take him out of the fight. I didn’t want to hurt him, I just needed to stop him for a moment while I took the child.
My foot collided with his belly, a little higher than I had aimed but it hit with some force, making the boy gasp as he let go. “Bitch!”
The other older boy let go as I lined him up in my sights. The child was finally free. I wrapped an arm around his struggling little body and picked him up. I half-dragged, half-carried him around the corner.
“Let me go!” he said, squirming in my arms. I returned him to the ground when we were a block away. He was breathing heavily as he straightened his jacket. “You let them steal my blanket.”
“They were going to kill you,” I pointed out. I wasn’t going to apologize, no matter how sorry I felt for the child. I had done the right thing, I was certain of it.
“Now I’m going to freeze to death,” he replied petulantly. Clearly I was not going to get any gratitude from the kid. “You should have left me there.”
“And they would have still taken your blanket. Go to the shelter, they might have a spare one for you there.”
He stood, his arms stubbornly crossed over his little chest. He had several scratches on his red cheeks, hopefully his only injuries from the fight.
“Do you want me to take you to the shelter?” I offered. I didn’t want to just leave him here, not when those boys were still so close. They would recover soon enough.
“No. I don’t want anything from you,” the boy spat the words at me before tak
ing off down the street. At least he had the sense to run in the opposite direction of the alley.
“So much for good deeds, huh?” Oliver’s voice startled me from behind.
“He’s not exactly in the fan club, no.”
“You did a good thing.”
I shrugged and we kept walking. Ignoring the rumbling in my stomach, we needed to find somewhere warmer to stay. Perhaps we would get lucky and find some winter coats or blankets of our own. There had to be some houses that were still yet to be ransacked.
As we moved, we passed kids curled up in the streets. It wasn’t unusual to see them out, especially in the daytime.
What was unusual was the fact they weren’t moving.
“Oliver…”
“I know. Just keep walking,” he said, refusing to let his gaze go to the kids.
They were all dead.
Frozen in place with no chance of ever getting up again.
It seemed so unfair. At times I couldn’t work out how I had managed to stay alive when so many others had perished. There was nothing special about me. No special skills that helped me to survive after the Event.
And yet here I was.
With Oliver, still alive.
I didn’t know why or how.
But I was angry. Jet and his secret adults could change things. They could make it better, protect all those children who should not have lost their lives by freezing to death in the middle of the night. It should not have happened.
The winter was only going to get colder. Things were going to get worse unless someone did something.
“Oliver, I have to go back underground,” I said, changing my course to head for the tunnels.
He kept up with me. “No, they’re going to get you again. You might not get away a second time.”
“I have to speak with Jet. He knows stuff. He might be able to help.” I never slowed my pace. I would have broken into a run if the ground wasn’t so slippery from the snow.
“They’re going to hurt you, Ev.”
“Jet won’t let them.” As I said the words, I hoped they were true. Jet had let me go for a reason, surely those reasons hadn’t changed in only two days.
Legends of the Damned: A Collection of Edgy Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 287