The Lost Heir (Book I)- The Violet City

Mimi & The Avenue

"Oh my God!" Isabella cried as a blast of air thrust them forward into a wild zigzag down a tube. Seth's shouts filtered into her ears as they whipped left and right. Then, without warning, the tube spat them out onto black asphalt. "Ouch," Isabella cried, rubbing her behind as she took in their surroundings. "This looks like an alley or something." Black brick walls were on either side of them, and above their heads warm lights spilled from what looked like a blue sky.

"That can't be the sky. We didn't go that far up," noted Seth.

"But it looks like it, and that definitely feels like the sun," she replied.

They looked around, spotting mostly trash bins and decaying fliers taped to the walls. They heard what sounded like a train whistle followed by a loud rumble. Then voices peeled into the alley, and above their heads a little gray bird tweeted the calls of the train whistle and then the rumbling noise. "It's a mockingbird," said Isabella.

"So that's where he went."

The bird flew a figure eight in the air and then, without warning, dive-bombed Seth's head, missing it by a hair. "I told you it was going to attack!"  

Before she could respond, the bird swam by Isabella into a doggy-door-size opening in the brick wall in front of them.

"Look. It went in there," Isabella said, getting up and moving toward the opening.

"Oh, no," Seth said, scrambling up behind her. "I'm not going back into another dark hole."

"But that bird saved us," said Isabella.

"It just attacked me," Seth reminded her.

"It lead us out here, didn't it?"

"It was just getting itself outside. We happened to head in the same direction. It's not like it waited around for us."

Before the rest of their argument could play out, commotion emitted from the hole the bird had gone into. "I don't think a mockingbird could make that much noise," said Seth. "Something else is in there." They both stood fixed in front of the small opening, like two deer about to be run over by a semi.

"I was actually a gray catbird," a teenage-sounding female voice began. "But sometimes I do a black catbird or just a plain ole lil' black cat. Depends on my mood. Technically, I'm not allowed to go feline, so I keep that under wraps." She was still talking but no one had appeared.  "Oh, no!" the voice cried. "I think I miscalculated something. I'm stuck. Frickety frack! Help, please! I can't change unless I'm upright."

Unsure of what to do, Isabella looked at Seth.

"I'm not going near that thing. Let's go," he said.

"Just move the boxes to one side, and I can get out. Please!" the voice implored.

Isabella, ignoring Seth's protests, knelt down in front of the hole and pulled free several pieces of cardboard. She immediately jumped back to her friend's side, afraid that she'd made the wrong decision. If she thought about it, she knew her instincts rarely led her astray. Of course, she felt a little different down here. Frightened and confused, but also calm and less chaotic. She really could not explain the contradiction. 

"Thanks so much!" the voice said as she crawled from the hole and stood before them. She was a girl. A short girl who looked no more than thirteen. Her hair was the color of rust and stuck to her head in loopy curls, and her eyes were a haunting sort of gray. She wore a ratty velvet coat, a too-big dress, and thick boots. "So, as I was saying, I do like to do the kitty thing when no one's looking. It's fun to curl up into a ball and roll, but it's not safe to do that outside really, and my mother would kill me."