Shadows of Devils Acre

Chapter One

The shadows were thick with the putrid smog that surrounded the damp and dreary streets of Devils Acre. The silence that encompassed the sector of the acre was a harbinger of deceit and lies, with each step Jake and Emma took there was a chance that it could be their last.

They hadn't listened when Sharron said to stay put where he left them, instead their need for quick answers and directions clouded their sense of survival and so instead the two teens had wandered through the acres decrepit streets and were now utterly lost.

"Jake I think we should turn back," Emma's voice was a hushed whisper in the silence of the street, she stood two paces behind Jacob and every time she heard the slightest noise her head would turn to identify it.

"It's alright, we're just looking for clues Emma," Jacob answered not for a moment letting on how scared he actually was. He knew Emma's suggestion was the sensible one but he couldn't shake the feeling that this was where they needed to be. That lurking somewhere near by were the answers they were looking for.

They had already wasted so much time following Sharron around the river, they couldn't just stand around waiting for him to get a paper agreement as to what they owed him. Their friends' lives were hanging in the balance and any more time spent not looking for them, would all but certainly seal their fate.

"I understand that but we don't know this place Jake, their could be Wights anywhere." Emma tried to reason with him, with all the conviction she could muster with the little energy she had left, "We're sitting ducks standing out on these streets."

"we can't just leave, we haven't got the luxury of time to waste," Jake was to eager in his search to even think over what Emma was saying for more than two seconds. In his head after everything they'd done and been through, though just pull out on the last hurdle, there was to much at stake.

with their footfalls being purposefully light, the two peculiar children walked further down the streets they had stumbled upon. Unlike the others they had seen, this one had no store fronts or or wooden signs with odd names, it almost seemed abandoned.

Where on the last streets there had been a handful of people however haggard they were, this one held nobody accept them. It was almost eerily quite and the faint yellow glow of barely surviving lamps made a chill run down both their spines.

"why do you think it's so abandoned?" Jacob asked Emma as her continued to survey each building they passed, sometimes stepping closer to the decaying structures to peer through their fogged and dirtied windows, to get a sense of what exactly this place was.

"I don't know," Emma began to say almost to preoccupied with looking over her shoulder to speak. "I barely know anything about this place, except that it's apparently where Peculiar criminals hide," most of the occupants of the Acre were criminals who'd fled here to escape the law, all except the handful of normals that inhibited the slum.

"I guess that explains why Caul and the Wights chose it," Jacob remarked after watching a couple of rats scurry by his feet and a dripping sewage puddle not to far away. This place was utterly disgusting and it was untouched by the law of the Ymbrynes, making it the perfect place for the whites to hideout in.

A silence fell upon the two after Jacob's previous remark and both had stopped walking for a moment to gather their barings, then a loud wisp of wind flooded past and the noise ricocheted of the stone walls surrounding them on all sides.

Then another noise sounded out from further down the streets, only this time it was different. It was no longer the loud whisper of wind or the rattling of falling stones, no, this time it was foot steps and suddenly the looming threat of discovery and possible death was more apparent than ever.

"Jake!" Emma whisper shouted as she kept throwing her head around trying to look down the street to get site of who was coming. The footsteps were becoming closer and the possibility of a hiding space was becoming smaller by the minute.

"There!" Jacob shouted and without warning he quickly grabbed onto Emma's wrist and threw them both through a dark doorway and onto the hard surface of wooden floorboards. Neither of them had a moment to think of where they were or to even catch their bearings, as they were both quickly back onto their feet and pushing the door shut, blocking out the majority of light.
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Hey guys, so this is the first chapter I hope you all liked it. Please let me know what you think in the comments. Until next time fellow readers.