ONE (Book 1 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 37

"Where'd he go?" I asked, my head twisting at uncomfortable angles to try and spot Onyx. It hadn't taken long for him to speed ahead of us, which was somewhat promising. Hopefully that meant that Aknon was here, safe and sound. "How can we miss a dog like him?"

There were a few people hurrying about the streets, but they didn't pay much mind to me as they tried to avoid the horrid weather. The guards, who looked incredibly miserable, eyed me suspiciously before moving in the direction of the gates. I assume that they were going to see if I'd killed the guards in order to simply let myself in, as I was a rather peculiar person. Even without my unique features, I didn't give off the most normal of auras, especially with my tattered clothing, which looked a little too fancy for a common person to wear, and a little too impractical.

"I think he went to the right," Sarphi said, pointing in that direction. "But wouldn't it all meet up eventually? Like, if we went straight ahead, we'd still catch up to him?"

"Not if he's following Aknon's scent," Senka replied with a shake of her head. "He'll be going where Aknon went, we don't know if he rounded back on himself or not, he could've left the city through another exit or something."

"How do we know where he went then?" Prin asked, turning in slow circles. "We're getting some strange looks." It didn't surprise me that she was the one to actually say this out loud.

"I can probably find him," Senka said with a firm nod and began leading the way. Her strides were confident, as though she ran the city. We got even more strange looks from the guards, and as soon as one opened their mouth to shout a command, we began running.

"This wasn't part of the plan," I hissed as we turned a corner. "We were meant to be inconspicuous."

"Well, now we're conspicuous," Senka hissed back. "There he is." Her footsteps got quicker, and soon she was almost out of our sight too.

"Slow down!" Sarphi said loudly, her voice weak over the rain and her heavy breaths. "I'm tired." This reminded me so much of when we were young, and we were playing tag. She would always get tired first, and we would always let her win. That stopped when we were seven, and she'd finally figured out that we were taking it easy on her.

"Senka," I couldn't help but say her name in a slight warning tone, hopefully communicating that we were going to lose her if she didn't slow, but she seemed to ignore us. I looked behind us at the approaching guards and then to Sarphi and Prin. "Split up here." I pointed to the upcoming gaps in the buildings which were right ahead of us. "The meet up at the end."

Prin nodded, whilst Sarphi seemed to be too busy concentrating on her footing. Prin took Sarphi's hand and pulled her to the right as I turned down the path to the left. I hoped that these actually led to the same place. I was aware that most of the guards were following me, which was a bit of poor judgement on their part, given I was only one person.

I cursed my luck, and my father because I'll be doing that a lot more often now, when I ran into a brick wall. I considered hiding in the shadows, but I figured that would still get me caught. I then looked up, noticing that there was a pretty low-hanging roof on this particular building.

I stood on top of a barrel, which was conveniently put to the side, and then made a leap for the roof, my legs swinging as I grabbed a hold of it just as the guards rounded the corner and saw me. I stood on the roof and began running in the same direction as the others, jumping from building to building, praying that I'd be able to make it to the next one. This gave me an advantage over the guards, as they would have to round corners and they might not be able to keep up with where I was.

I cursed out loud when I heard someone joining me on the rooftops. I had no other choice but to divert my movements, moving away from the others, whilst attempting to keep track of where they were. It wasn't easy, but that might mean that it's not easy for the guards to keep track of them either.

Alarm bells began ringing, and I vaguely wondered how often they did that a day. We weren't exactly a huge threat, so I didn't know why they felt the need to do that.

I shook my head and took a big leap, grunting as I didn't quite make the landing. A sharp piece of metal sliced through my trousers, leaving a gash on my leg. I hissed and pulled myself up and continued running, albeit a little slower than I had been earlier.

I looked around frantically, whilst trying my best to stay on track and going in a somewhat straight line. The roofs of the city were not at all uniform, and it was difficult to tell if it would be safe. I didn't put too much thought into my footing. If I was caught by the guards, I wouldn't be safe either. I'd stand more of a chance falling into someone's fire than surviving an encounter with these guards.

I heard a yell from behind me, alongside a crash. I glanced back and noticed that the guard who was following me had fallen. This was good news for me, but I wasn't in the clear just yet. I could hear more yells and more bells. I tried to speed up, but that just caused em to trip over my own feet.

I gasped as I crashed to the ground, my forehead hitting the pavement, causing a buzz to echo through my skull. I blinked the stars out of my vision and stumbled to my feet, beginning to limp away, and praying that I was too far in front of the guards for them to catch up.

I didn't know what happened, I might've blacked out from when I hit my head, or something else might've been at play. But my world became black. My senses abandoned me as I began simply existing. Was I dead? Was this the afterlife? Was this my father, the deity who I've just discovered, reclaiming me?

THE END

But not for long!

Because the sequel, creatively named one point five, is now out and published!

Sorry it took a little while, I took a break for a few days!

Thank you all so much for your support, I really hope that you enjoyed reading ONE. I'm so grateful for each and every read <3 Much love and happy reading!