The Lost Heir (Book I)- The Violet City

The Solstice - End of Book I

Dedicating this chapter to Janine Mimi (yay!) and the Wattpad4 (official dedications on other chaps) for the JustWriteIt Twitter contest gift (art work for the story!) and getting me through this chap when I was blocked. You ladies are the best!

Move on to Book II here on Wattpad. It's back up! Enjoy.

--- Allison Whitmore

And now... The Solstice.

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"Go left then right then up and over, you'll find it?" Seth complained, mimicking the patrolman from earlier, as they navigated through the quickly thinning crowd. "What's with all these bridges anyway?"

"They like to walk. Imagine if all those hipster hikers from Malibu knew about this place," Isabella commented.

"Yeah, but the shining blue waters of the Pacific are not cascading over the beautiful shores of beer bottles and soda cans of Santa Monica."

"Santa Monica is clean," said Isabella. Seth shot her a side glance. She continued, "Haven't you heard of Heal the Bay?"

"Whatever, we have to get off these streets now. These people are acting like its about to catch fire."

"You're the one so great at directions. So I'm following you," said Isabella, turning onto the footbridge behind him. A few cars on rails zipped underneath them. Traditional holidays often cleared the streets at home, but Isabella wondered why doing so was so strictly enforced down here.

"I think we just cross this and take a right down the road to find Bridge K." When they got to the middle of the footbridge they were on, Seth pointed beyond the street. "Oh sweet, I see smaller bridges between the buildings. Those must be the roads where people live."

She looked at the now empty rail line and noticed a light flickering in the distance. Not thinking anything of it, she continued walking with Seth. When they reached the end of the footbridge, she noticed more lights blinking, quick but steady. They looked to be just beyond the alley where she and Seth had emerged and came upon this strange town. She wondered if this was all some bizarre dream. She'd been having so many of those lately. But for some reason, she knew that it wasn't. She could not explain to herself why she knew that, but she did.

"This way," Seth said, striding in the direction opposite of where the lights were coming from. He looked over his shoulder to make sure she was following. He turned and stopped. "Quit daydreaming. I'm hungry," he said.

She tried to forget about the strange light and sped up. The clear skies thickened with a grayish haze filled the night. The weather changed rapidly here, she thought. When she reached Seth's side, a sudden chill climbed onto her shoulders and wrapped around her neck. She gasped. "Seth, I can't breathe."

"What?" he asked, sounding alarmed, placing a hand on her shoulder.

The streets emptied further. "Seth, help me." Isabella stumbled forward and Seth grabbed her arm. It was so cold. "Please."

A stroke of lightning cracked the sky. And the little glimmering lights she'd seen before seemed to be raining down on them. Seth pulled Isabella under the awning of a shutdown shop as air started to return to her lungs. "Seth," she coughed. "What's going on?" It was as if the floating lights were returning to her normal state.

"You were turning blue. I didn't know what to do."

"No, I mean in the sky," she said, fully catching her breath. What had choked her and then suddenly stopped? What was going on?