"On fire?" gasped Skye and rushed to the edge, Olivia in tow. Her eyes widened, her mouth falling open, when she saw the front yard of the hospital. The red glow from the fire below cast deep shadows on her stunned face. "...holy fuck."
"You know it's bad when Skye starts swearing," said Roxie humorlessly. "What do we do?"
"We need to get off the roof!" Alex said, a rising panic in her voice. "Now!"
"Fuck it," said Skye, trowing her hands in the air. "Fuck it!" She walked to the middle of the hospital roof. "Just fuck it all."
She hunched, her wings flaring up, as she let out a small grunt. Her eyes flashed deep red and her silhouette started to gradually grow, morphing into something much more horrifying. There was a low guttural growl that echoed through the night. The giant creature that was Skye's truefrom dropped to all fours with a loud thud, wings stretching out into the sky.
GET ON, she commanded. There was a pause as everyone stared at her in surprise. NOW!
They all moved at once, rushing over to Skye and climbing her back.
"Babe, did you get bigger?" said Olivia with a smirk, petting the side of Skye's face. The answer was a growl and a flap of gigantic wings as the daemon took off. They were up in the clouds in a matter of seconds.
"What about the people in the hospital?" shouted Alex against the wind. "There's tons of people still stuck there! Including Annalise!"
"And my mom!" replied Roxie. "Don't worry, the police will take care of the mob and by now someone will have called the fire department! We just... we just need to get out, that's all we an do right now!"
Alex looked like she wanted to argue, but didn't have anything to say. In the end she tisked and turned away.
"Say," came Vanilla's voice and the girls turned to look at her. She pointed behind them. "What's that?"
The girls slowly turned to look back just in time to see a flash of white pass above them. Skye noticed it too, as she let out a roar and flapped her wings to stop the forward motion.
"Is that... the bird?!" said Roxie, rising as up as she could sitting on someone's back.
"I think it is," said Alex, straining to see as well. The bird glided over their heads and then swooped down again. It let out a screech.
IT WANTS US TO FOLLOW IT, said Skye as the bird ascended again. It was flying loops a bit up and ahead of them. SHOULD WE DO IT?
"No way that's not a trap!" said Alex. "I mean, the bird was at the crime scene, I bet it's connected to this somehow!"
"I think we should go after it," said Vanilla calmly. Alex turned to stare at her. "We can probably learn more about what's going on from it, and even if it is a trap, I won't be careless enough to get caught in one again. Besides, we have a class A demon, I'm pretty sure we can handle anything it tries to throw at us."
GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME, said Skye, dashing after the bird. They curved around the city, flying on and on for several long minutes. Finally the bird started to descend, dropping down into a small park on the outskirts of town. They could all see the bird shrink and change shape as Skye followed it down.
Alex hopped off Skye's back, taking long strides across the park and slamming Anka against a tree with a hand pressed at his throat.
"Speak," she hissed, her eyes squinted and her voice dangerously low. Anka waved his hands in panic, trying to get Alex's death grip to loosen up a little.
"A-ah, calm down," he said, wincing as Alex pressed harder at his throat.
"He'll suffocate," Olivia's singsong voice came from behind her and she relented her hold a little. Olivia leaned closer to Anka, studying his face. "I do suggest you talk though. And keep in mind that I will have no problems setting Skye on your ass if you prove to be useless or of any kind of danger."
"Tha-that won't be necessary, I promise! I'll tell you everything I know!" he said.
"Why the sudden change of heart?" asked Roxie. "You've clearly been a part of this from the very beginning."
"Ahhh, yes, I remember you," said Vanilla, peeking around Alex. Anka's eyes widened as he looked at Vanilla. "You were one of the people in the middle of the crowd. You didn't look particularly excited back then either."
"I knew it," spat Alex. "I fucking knew you were a part of this, you little piece of - "
"No no no no, wait!" Anka hurried to say. "I mean, yes, I was there, but I never liked the plan, I wanted nothing to do with it to begin with, but then they tried to burn down the hospital and I couldn't just live with that! I... I don't want to be a part of this anymore!"
"Who's 'they'?" asked Olivia.
"My...my family," Anka said, hesitant. "My family is behind this."
"Shit, son, that's some whacked up family you got there," said Alex, her arm on Anka's throat tightening just slightly. He gasped. "But they are your family. How do we know you're not trying to double cross us?"
"I'm not, I swear!" he shouted. "I told you I don't want to be a part of it anymore! I never did! Too many people are getting hurt, I can't.... I just..."
"I believe him," said Vanilla. Alex glanced at her. She was staring up at Anka, like she was staring right into his soul. "He's telling the truth."
Alex's grip loosened and then fell off. "Well, she is the victim here, and if she says we can trust you, I guess we can give you the benefit of the doubt."
"Thank you," Anka wheezed, a hand rubbing his throat.
"So why exactly was your family petrifying people in broad daylight?" asked Skye, who had taken on her usual form again. Anka looked away.
"I... I don't know, exactly," he said quietly.
"I will personally drag your sorry ass soul into the lowest level of hell if you try to lie to us, boy," sneered Skye, pointing a threatening finger at Anka's face. He would have taken a step back if he wasn't backed against a tree.
"Ahh, I mean..." he started, holding his hands up. "They needed souls. I don't know what for."
"Souls? But..." said Roxie and then turned to Vanilla. "You... you said that your souls went into Limbo, didn't you? What happened there?"
Vanilla shakes her head, looking sad. "I don't know, really. I hadn't been in Limbo for a very long time before you appeared to the scene, at which point I was yanked back into the dream realm. Or almost yanked... I spent a lot of time drifting between the two..."
"And I don't know, because no one would tell me..." Anka said quietly. "It's a big operation, though, and mostly on a need to know basis, and I definitely didn't need to know. I do know it's very important to the head of the family..."
"Okay, so Limbo," said Skye, turning back to Anka. "They needed souls for whatever reason. So they set up the petrification curse and just... waited for people to walk into their trap?"
"Basically," said Anka. "It didn't matter whose souls they were, so they just set it up on a street they knew a lot of people would be walking on during the day. The plan was to get a truck and take all the bodies away after we had enough, but that kinda backfired when you guys appeared... The distraction spell was still on, you know, but since you were already suspicious of something being wrong it didn't work..."
"Lucky us," said Alex dryly, crossing her arms. "And you were left there alone to... guard them? We saw you fly out of the alley, by the way."
"Ahh, I thought you might've," said Anka, scratching the back of his neck.
"What about the text?" asked Olivia. "The graffiti on the street. 'Soar'."
"That was me," Anka confessed. "I... I'd heard about your dance group, and when I noticed that one of the victims was Annalise, I thought that... maybe if I got your attention... you would be able to, I dunno... do something about it?"
"That is a terrible idea, you know that right?" said Roxie, sounding amused. Anka huffed out a laugh.
"Yeah, I know. I was panicked. One of the people had paint, I just went with it."
There was a silence. Alex burst out laughing.
"What?" said Roxie, a smile tugging on her lips as well.
"I just...." Alex managed between giggles. "It's just to... crazy!"
Olivia snorted out a laugh as well. Anka let out a somewhat awkward chuckle. Soon they were all laughing, the tension of the night and the absurdity of the situation finally being relieved.
"Okay but seriously," said Alex after the laughter died down. "Your plan was the stupidest plan ever, you should have gone to the police and you are so lucky that we've figured out this much. What do we do now?"
"We need to go hide somewhere, I think," said Roxie. "Our place? I think we're kinda close, and mom will want to talk to us later on..."
"Where's your other mom?" asked Alex.
"Móðir is on a trip for work, she won't be home until next week," said Roxie. "There's no one there at the moment, unless mom's gone back already."
"Sounds good to me," said Olivia. Skye nodded in affirmation.
"Shame about your mother though," said Vanilla, shaking her head. "I had been hoping to meet dear old Reginleif again."
Roxie tisked and turned away, digging her phone out of her pocket and opening up the navi app. She thumbed at it for a moment and then said, "This way, let's go."
They all followed her, as she lead them through the night and back to her home.
_________________________________________________________
I do hope you're still not planning on ending this on Monday. Because this is so not ending on Monday. Your topic is "Present" which I don't think we've used.
Now I'm off to pack for the scout camp. Toodels.
Pie out.
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