Beyond (Simon Snow Series)

13

                                     PENELOPE
          Everyone is staring at Simon, or maybe they're staring at his wings. I'm not sure. He's got them folded tightly behind his back, and his tail is hiding behind one of his legs, swishing back and forth lightly (it does that when he gets nervous).
          Mum has started talking to some of the people individually, telling them it's going to be alright and that they're safe here. (Wherever here is.) Then she addresses the whole group.
          "Alright. Now that we're all here, I can't stress enough that the most important thing we need to do right now is to stay calm."
          I'm thinking that's like the worst thing you could ever say to a nervous person.
         "They may have taken your homes and maybe even your families, your lives, but we'll get them back. We know what they are after, and we have some of the best mages working with us to defeat them."
           I hope she's not talking about us. We haven't been much help to anyone recently.
          "With their help, and mine, you will get your freedom and your lives back."
          She turns to Baz and motions for them to follow us. Shepard follows behind me.
          "Come on."
          Mum turns back around and squeezes through the crowd and towards a wide staircase. It's large and made of stone and so dusty that I don't think anyone's lived here in a very, very long time (which is weird, because if they painted pixies on the walls outside then they would've had to actually see them, but the pixies didn't come out here until a few hundred years ago, and they came back not long after the Mage and the Humdrum were defeated).
          Then she walks up the stairs all the way to the top. When we reach a floor decorated with green tapestries the stairs stop and all five of us take a sharp breath. A giant, gaping hole has been punched through the concrete walls and domed ceiling, the rubble settled in heaps on the ground all over the floor. From the top of the building we can see the rest of the town behind it. There aren't many buildings, just remnants of walls, but every single one has either scorch marks or piles of rubble from where pieces of them had been ripped away.
          I look for Simon, almost as if I'm not quite sure he would be there. He's staring directly down at the broken building below us. Baz and Agatha are scanning what's left of the town. Even Shepard is quiet.
          "We don't know what happened to them," mum says standing behind me.
          "Obviously nothing good," Baz says.
How could someone do something like this? It's barbaric.
          I know many things that could've been responsible, but why? These people weren't hurting anyone. They had been here for so many years no one had interacted with them in so long, there couldn't possibly be anyone with a grudge against them.
          Except the Humdrum maybe, but even he shouldn't have had a problem with them, they never hid Simon or failed to capture him, they didn't even try to go after him, they aren't dark creatures like vampires or the dragon.
          Shepard and Simon don't move when the rest of us back away from the edge.
          "Simon," I say, putting my hand on his shoulder as I turn to face my mum.
          "Yeah?" He asks, still staring down in a slight daze.
          I nod in the opposite direction of the view and his head snaps up, his eyes meeting mine before turning away from the town, and Shepard follows.
          "Let's go, I'll show you to your rooms," Mum says lightly.

          Our rooms are two floors from the top of the building and the broad hole that was blown through it.
          Agatha and I shared a room and a bed, Shapard got his own room and bed, and Simon and Baz shared a room. One took the bed, the other the couch in the corner, which I guess is a bit more comfortable than a bathtub (although there was a bathtub available here).
          I expected Agatha to take up a lot more space, but I guess since we didn't go back for her stuff at school she didn't travel with a whole lot this time. She was going to borrow some things from me until we made it back home, thank Merlin we stopped to buy her a toothbrush at the airport.
          "Pen?"
          I turn to see Simon standing in the doorway of the bathroom, my toothbrush sticking out of my mouth.
          "What do you think happened to these people?"
          I shake my head. "I'm not sure... maybe the Humdrum got to them before we got to him."
          "I don't think so," he says, shaking his own head. "The pixies never did anything to him, and he wouldn't use them to try to get to me, they're not very aggressive if something is none of their business."
          "Yes but Simon, who else would do that?"
          He shakes his head again and he looks like he did when we told him to get off the couch a week and a half ago. "I just... maybe it was whoever attacked us earlier. Whatever it was, it seemed powerful enough to do that much damage."
          I nodded and rinsed my mouth and my toothbrush, setting it on the counter next to me. "Maybe it was," I say. "But we can deal with it tomorrow. We could all use some sleep right now."
          "You're right," he agrees, "Goodnight Penny."
          "Goodnight Simon."
          Then he slips around the corner and into the dark, back to his room. And his couch.

>Hey everyone!! I just wanted to say a quick a thank you for reading my fic and I hope you're liking it so far! Let me know in the comments! Don't forget to follow (or add this story to a reading list) so you don't miss and update!❤️ Also, do you guys prefer the way I set up my paragraphs with indents or do you prefer something like this?-

"You're right," he agrees, "Goodnight Penny."

"Goodnight Simon."

Then he slips around the corner and into the dark, back to his room. And his couch.