Soar, Part 15 - Crowd

Alex was laying in bed, reading on her phone when it vibrated to indicate an incoming text. She frowned and checked the time, which was indeed way past two in the morning, before opening up the text. It was from Roxie.

Holy shit it said.

Alex's frown deepened. The next text came in a few seconds.

Okay I need u be awake please tell me ur awake

yeah, im awake whats up? she texted back.

Oh thank Odin, I knew I could trust your whacked up sleeping habits

excuse u
i get plenty sleep

Yeah, yeah, not important right now
I need you to go get Skye and Olivia and meet me at Samhain Memorial

the... hospital???
y r u in a hospital??
are u hurt??
did something happen???
is that where the petrified ppl are???????
????????
ANSWER ME!!!

Sheesh, Alex, relax! I'M fine
It's got to do with the petrified people

Alex stared at the screen of her phone, her heart beating in her chest. Every passing second the new text didn't arrive was agony.  

It's... a long story. I'll tell it once you're all here

OH MY GOD roxie, don't leave a girl hanging!! u gotta tell me what's going on!!

I WILL, once you're all here! I gotta go find my mom now, explain things to her... GET HERE ASAP

Alex waited for a few tense seconds if there would be something else, before throwing her covers off and dashing up from bed. She pulled her clothes on, and opened her window, shivering as the cold autumn air hit her face. Then she hopped down.

It was the second story, but that hadn't stopped Alex before. She might not have wings, but she was very good at breaking a fall, partially thanks to her being a fae. She hopped gracefully over the fence dividing their house from the next, which incidentally was the one Skye lived in. This wasn't the first time Alex had sneaked over to her friend's room in the middle of the night, much to the dismay of both their parents.

Alex picked a small pebble off the ground and flicked it at Skye's window. Years of practice had made her aim pretty good, and it hit the frame with a knock. She waited. Nothing happened. She threw another one, a bit bigger this time. Still nothing.

After waiting for a few minutes she concluded that Skye must be asleep, and swiftly climbed the big maple on their yard, on of its large branches conveniently located within jumping distance of Skye's window. She inched as close to the window as she could, took a deep breath...

And she leaped.

The outer windowsill wasn't wide, and the only place to hold onto was the window frame, but Alex held on. As usual, the latch on the window wasn't on, which meant that she could open the window from the outside. It was a bit hard without tipping the center of her gravity too far out but she managed, and then she slipped in.

Alex flicked on the desk lamp, which incited a sleepy, though annoyed, groan from the direction of Skye's bed.

"Mornin', sleepyheads," Alex grinned. Skye squinted up at her from where she was curled against the still sleeping Olivia.

"No," she said and wrapped one of her wings around the two of them.

Olivia made a surprised squeak and scrambled up. She blinked, looking around dazedly until her eyes landed on Alex. She smiled and waved as Olivia squinted as well.

"This is new, never had you in one of these dreams," said Olivia, her voice hoarse with sleep. "Well, first time for everything." She lifted the blanket that was pooled around her waist. Skye slapped her arm.

"As fascinating as that proposal sounds like," Alex, crossing her arms. "This isn't a dream and there's something a bit more pressing going on right now."

Skye picked up on the seriousness of Alex's tone and sat up straighter. "What's going on?"

"Roxie texted me," Alex explained, walking over to the pile of clothes on the floor and chucking them at the two figures on the bed. "Something's happened concerning the petrification case. She needs us at Sam Memorial, as soon as we can get there."

"Sam Memorial?" said Olivia, apparently woken up. "She's not hurt, is she?"

"No, she's fine," said Alex, as the other two started to pull clothes on. "She didn't explain what had happened, said she wanted to tell us all at once when we get there."

"Well, let's go!" said Olivia, wrapping a scarf around her neck. "You wanna fly us over, babe?" She leaned towards Skye, resting her hands on her shoulder. She bit her lip.

"I hate using that form...." she said, rubbing her arm. "But I guess since this is urgent."

Olivia let out a small "yay" as Alex climbed out of the window again, hoisting herself up on the roof with momentum. The other two followed soon after.

Skye walked a bit further away, to the middle of the roof. She rolled her shoulder and flexed her wings and closed her eyes. When he opened them again they were pitch black.

Alex always found Skye's transformation a little too gruesome, so she turned to look away. Olivia on the other hand was completely engrossed with it. Skye didn't often use her true daemon form, mainly because it was inconveniently big, but mostly because she was a very unusual daemon in the sense that she was gentle in nature. She always thought that the form was a bit too morbid. It had its uses, of course, as one would assume a 5 meter tall demon beast with gigantic wings, horns, claws, and fangs had.

I'M READY, came the low rumble of her demon voice after a moment. GET ON. I DON'T WANT TO STAY LIKE THIS ANY LONGER THAN NECESSARY.

 Olivia squee'd happily and climbed Skye's back to sit at the base of her leathery wings. Alex climbed on as well, with less vigor. Skye flapped her wings, a strong gust of wind hitting the house underneath them, and then they took off.

~x~

They glided through the sky, way up high. The wind was strong and biting, and Olivia and Alex huddled close together on top of Skye. The trip didn't take too long, the distance had been short to begin with and with Skye's flying speed they made it to Samhain Memorial in record time.

They landed in the small park behind the building, and Skye turned back to her humanoid form. She slumped forward but Olivia caught her.

"Sorry," she said. "It's been a while since I did that, it drained me a bit more than I thought it would."

"Don't worry about it," said Alex, as they began to walk towards the hospital. "Thank you for going through the trouble. Really saved us a lot of time."

Skye smiled, a little worn out, leaning against Olivia for support. They rounded the corner and stopped.

"Uhhh," said Alex. "Is this normal? At this hour?"

"I don't think so?" said Skye, looking at the sight in front of them with a frown.

"I'm pretty sure visiting hours are way over," said Olivia, biting her lip.

The front of the hospital was crowded. There were people everywhere. They were moving this time, and Alex thanked the stars for that, but they seemed... angry. She wasn't sure if they were trying to get inside, or if they were trying to keep something out, or what they were trying to do.

"An angry mob?" Alex said, only half joking.

"Lord, I hope not," said Skye, looking very worried.

"Let's go ask them!" said Olivia and started to skip at towards the nearest person. Alex and Skye dashed after her.
_________________________________________________________________

dundundun. I'm sorry, I know nothing really happened, but I did feel like it was very important that the whole gang be present. I get the feeling we're on the home stretch here.

20 parts is fine, if we can wrap it up in that. I think that it's okay if we just kinda... end it where is ends. Or something.

Anywayy. Your topic is.... "Vanilla"

Pie out.