When Forever Ends (Part 3: A Spark of Hope)

LIII

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F i f t y - T h r e e

Pine led us out of the tunnel and into a dark, tangled maze of back streets.

Right away, I could see major differences from the other city. The alleys cut between closely-packed brick buildings, a few of them crumbling into dusty piles of bricks. Every now and then, we passed back doors leading out into the alleys, the lamps above them bent and the bulbs shattered. Any window we passed (most of them were in the doors) was smashed in or boarded up or both.

This close to the tunnel, we were pretty much alone, but as we got further from it, we started seeing people huddled in doorways, crouched in shacks made of cast-out furniture leaning against the walls, and scavenging through brownish-green trash dumpsters. Everyone we passed stopped whatever they were doing and watched us with the same wary, hollow-eyed look.

Most of them shied away from us, attempting to press themselves into the wall. But as we went around a group of tattered silhouettes sprawled around a small trash fire, a bolder man with wild, thin hair and an appearance similar to that of a skeleton with skin stretched over it, reached out with speed I wouldn't have thought him capable of and clamped a bony hand around Maya's wrist. She let out a small cry of surprise and fear, and I slapped his hand away, glaring at him and daring him to try it again. We quickened our pace and hurried towards the corner ahead, but before we made it there the man called out.

"Stay with us, girl!" his gravelly voice carried clearly down the alley to us. "We could make it worth your while!" His friends guffawed and I heard something glass smash to the street just behind us.

I gripped her hand reassuringly, choosing to ignore the man despite the rage welling up inside. That's not word-for-word what he said, but I'll put it this way: That was the sugar-coated version, to say the least.

Once we had rounded the corner, Pine apparently found what he had been looking for: a series of metal ladders and platforms leading straight up to the rooftops. The only problem was, the bottom ladder was almost three meters off the ground.

"How are we going to get up there?" Sofie asked, echoing my thoughts.

He grinned at us. "Watch and learn!"

He stepped back, gesturing for us to clear out of his way, took a running start, and leaped. In an expertly performed series of actions, he flew up the wall opposite the ladder and kicked off it, then pivoted in midair and landed neatly on the lowest platform. He spread his hands in a "ta-da" sort of way.

"Wow!" Will said, craning his neck to look up at him. "That was sick!"

"Thank you, thank you!" Pine did a couple of mocking bows, as if her were performing onstage.

"I don't think I can do that," Sofie said in an aside to Will.

"You don't have to!" With a loud clunk, Pine brought his foot down on the top of the ladder and it screeched in protest as it scraped down to a height where we could reach it.

"Thanks!" I called up.

Will and Sofie clambered up the rusty ladder to the equally rusty platform, followed by Erin and Pine's friend.

I gave Maya a gentle nudge. "You go first," I said. "I'll be right behind you."

"Okay." She went up as I took one last look around. I wanted to make sure those creeps hadn't followed us. Luckily, I saw not a flicker of movement anywhere in this section of the canyon-like back-alleys. Then I followed her up.

When I got to the platform, it was just Pine and I. Seeing my confusion, he quickly explained that he had sent the others on up to the rooftop. I looked up and saw five silhouettes making their way up the last two ladders. I was startled by another screeching-scraping sound and whirled around. Pine was hauling the ladder back up.

"Just an extra precaution," he told me. "Come on," he waved me towards the next ladder. "They're waiting."

•••

I pulled myself up over the lip of the roof and dropped onto the flat expanse of small stones that covered this particular roof. I brushed the flecks of rust off my hands and onto my pants, then straightened and looked around at the strange landscape surrounding me, made up of hundreds of rooftops. Under the dark, starlit "sky", the dips and rises formed what looked like the surface of some alien planet.

"Hey." I turned and saw that Pine's friend was standing some distance away, looking at the rest of us expectantly. "If you're finished sightseeing, follow me."

"If you don't mind my asking," I said, "Where are we following you to?"

"I don't mind," she replied, "but you'll just have to wait 'till we get there. All I'll say is that it's somewhere safe."

I thought about this skeptically. Sure, Pine had helped us get away from the cops, but I didn't really know this girl yet.

"As long as there's food, it's fine with me!" Will stepped forward. "I'm starving!"

Sofie looked at him. "Will, you just ate six donut holes, five mini sandwiches, four slices of that lemon bread stuff, three cookies, two egg rolls, and one scone! How can you still be hungry?!"

He shrugged. "I dunno. I just... hungry!" He pulled a mysterious chunk of bread from his pocket and popped it into his mouth. "Take me to the food!" he said with his mouth full. Well, I'm assuming that's what he said. The bread mostly muffled his words into mumbles and hums.

"All right, then," I said. "Show us the way."

"My pleasure!" A mischievous smile slid across her face. "But I hope none of you are afraid of heights!" With that, she turned swiftly and a strange, amber-colored stone that hung around her neck flashed in the faint light. The girl darted off over the rooftops leaving the rest of us struggling to keep up.

•••

"That's not right," Pine muttered, as we approached a building that stood higher than the rest.

The top floor was raised above the sea of rooftops, and from what I could tell, it was a residential penthouse, one in better condition than many other buildings we'd passed. There was a small, stone balcony looking out, a couple of rusty chairs and a table taking up a majority of the space. A shiny, black railing surrounded the balcony, the metal formed into a very ornate, looping design. Behind the balcony was what looked like a one-floor house built right on top of a building. Except it was made of (you'll never guess) brick. I didn't see what Pine could be referring to.

"What's not right?" I asked.

He pointed up at the balcony. "You see that glass door?"

"Yeah." Now that he mentioned it, I noticed a faint glimmer of reflected light across what I had presumed to be a rectangular opening into the flat. Wispy curtains fluttered lightly at the edges. "What about it?"

"It was locked when we left." He jogged ahead to talk to the hazel-eyed girl.

I thought about this. If it was locked, then it should have been shut, but the door appeared to be wide open. That was why I saw the curtains moving. Call me paranoid, but it seemed to me like someone had entered the penthouse while Pine and his friend were gone.

I looked up again and watched the curtains gradually stop swaying. Then something occurred to me that confirmed my suspicions.

I dashed up to where our two new friends were conversing. I urgently told them what I'd seen and we all agreed on a plan of action. I motioned to my friends (who were just joining us) to keep quiet and quickly explained to them. They nodded and fanned out, pressing themselves against the brick wall below the balcony. Meanwhile, the three of us began climbing silently up the wall to the balcony.

What had I realized, you might ask?

The curtains were moving. But I hadn't felt a breath of natural wind since we were back on Magnus.