Resurrect The Sun (A BVB Wretched and Divine fanfiction)

Chapter 6

Normally, it was a quick stroll to the church, but tonight, everything was silent and shadowy and sinister. In the dark, every corner was unfamiliar and I had to move with caution along the wall. I knew that by night, minions paced the streets; the tall, curved horns on their masks cast strange shadows as they walked by, searching for rebels or danger. They held their staffs poised, ready to ambush. One walked past me at one point and I melted back into an alley, but it went on obliviously.

I had to take my time, creeping along slowly and sticking to dark alleyways and corners. My heart was constantly in my mouth; I was barely breathing for fear than they would see or hear me. Thankfully, I got to the church unseen, but it took a lot longer than I wanted it to. It was completely dark by the time I reached the building, the only light being the stars and moon hanging in the inky sky.

The church didn't look any different from the outside, bar the smashed windows, but I knew the inside was a wreck. Pews overturned, walls blackened from fires; ornaments broken and smashed, destruction everywhere. I shivered. The desert was so cold at night. I wished, not for the first time, that I had thought to take a jacket.

Checking that there were no minions around, I dashed across the street and into the shadows cast by the structure of the church. I then edged along the wall, heart still hammering, as my eyes flickered back and forth, searching for any signs of movement along the street. There were none – but I suspected it wouldn't stay that way for very long, so I turned the corner and found myself in the alley behind the church. The one where I had been talking to the deviant today.

I looked down at the sandy ground, and sure enough, as I squinted in the dark, there were several overlapping footprints in the sand, all leading the same way, out into the slums, and then, the desert. I was surprised F.E.A.R. hadn't thought of this, following the prints to find where The Wild Ones kept themselves hidden.

Actually, why didn't they think of this? Or maybe they did, but it didn't work, or there was something wrong with the idea...A nagging doubt began to form in the back of my mind, but a sound behind me made me jump and got my attention focused back on my current situation. Even if it didn't work, it was my only option. And it was worth a shot anyway, right?

"You can do this." I whispered fiercely to myself, and began to follow the prints.

They led through the narrow dirt tracks in between the slum shacks. I crept along as quietly as I could, trying not to make a disturbance. I turned a corner when I saw a girl about my age crouched at the side of the path. When she heard me, her head whipped around, and stared. Her dark hair was long and straggly, hanging in dirty clumps over her gaunt face; her eyes were wide. But now they focused closely on me and narrowed as an expression of distrust crossed her features.

"I don't have any money," She hissed, glaring, "Go away."

"Oh...I'm not...I don't...I'm just passing through."

She didn't budge, "That's what they all say."

"Well. Okay." I turned and started to walk off.

"Good luck, trying to get out of this place," She whisper-called to me, then laughed humourlessly, "You'll need it."

I paused. What did she mean? Did a lot of people come this way, looking for a way out? I turned around to ask what she meant by it, when minions' muffled voices began to draw closer.

Her head whipped around to look at me, "You're still here?! Run! Don't look back," I hesitated. Her eyes went wide, "Go!"

I didn't need to be told twice. I turned and dashed, ducking around a corner out of sight of the minions that had just passed by.