A swift kick to her side woke her, but essences stillness was what truly jarred her. Another kick landed her mind finally tripped into motion.

“Up,” a stern voice commanded, and up she stumbled. But she was not the only one to rise.

Scattered around her, in varying stages of beaten and bloodied, members of her gang huddled in chains. Their fear was rank, but compared to the utter madness that had filled the air it was a mild evening breeze. Butch’s familiar figure huddled among the handful of scared gangsters.

There was so much to take in, questions to have, worries to hound her. The creeping mist weighed her cloak with chill water. The air was thick with the smell of sweat, decaying wood and blood. Fear oozed from the gang, Butch included, and even Anadrea and company were not spared worry. Terror defined every breath and traces of the earlier chaos.

If she were to write a list of all her problems, she wouldn’t know where to begin, but none of it bothered her. She was too taken by the fact she could breathe.

Her blood slicked forehead and her bruising ribs were nothing compared to that. Nor could anything else compare to the rapturous relief of a world that made sense. She pushed away the fresh memories still stained emotions she refused to ponder and buried them She cast them down and allowed herself only the pleasure of their passing.

So Two found herself without worry as they were rounded up and herded through the corridor of detritus she’d fled down. So complete was her relief that it even survived Butch sitting beside her and whispering into her ear. “Pst, lass. Pst, lass you in there. It’d be a rotten time for that oll curse to have rotten your brain.” His eyes darted about shiftily and he was covered in more than the preformative filth he preferred. Yet he still feebly clung to his cocky grin. “Tell me they left some sense in your head when they knocked it bloody.”

Two looked up at the fog shrouded night and sighed as reality, via Butcht’s increasingly urgent agitations, soured the little peace she found. “Hello, Butch.” She said blithely. “What need do you have of me this,” she glanced at a splash of blood staining his raggedy clothes before meeting his eyes. “Pleasant night.”

He gaped at her. “Pleasant night.” He chuckled then quickly fell into a fit of laughter that would’ve been a manic roar had fear not crushed it to a whisper. By the time he came down his fear had left, “Pleasant night. Girl you truly are one for the ages. If I didn’t know you were damned I might even kiss you.” Unfortunately, it was replaced by his usual bravado.

Two swallowed another sigh and stared at him. “What do you want”.

He smiled roguishly. ”I want the low down. What’s happening, the boss doesn’t tell me anything but you’ve got a way with her. Look,” He rattled the chains binding his arms. ”you even managed to convince these goons not to chain you up like the rest of us. Though it could be they didn’t think your twig arms were worth the iron.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Two shook her head and turned her attention to not stumbling and impaling herself on a piece of loose wood. The flashes of light had departed. Mist and fog reduced the once bright moon to a silver smudge. It was dark, fog made shapes of things near and far. The muffled rattling of chains and shuffling of feet were the only sounds.

She was trapped in a little bubble of misfortune being marched to an unknown fate. With a mournful sigh, she released the remnants of her reprieve.

A slew of empty words came to her and she fed them to Butch while she focused on actual thought. She filled her mind with what-ifs and maybes, possible answers to things yet unasked. There was nothing else she could do as she was dragged to her fate.

The signs of conflict were evident long before they reached the site. The debris had shifted, and pieces of destroyed buildings moved as if they were toys on a table thumped by an over-eager child. It ruined their path and combined with the chains and lack of light turned what Two had run in minutes into a grueling half hour.

Two crested a mound and all expectations she’d held of the mayhem’s source were dashed.

She clambered over a ruined store, half crushed into mulch she lifted her head and couldn’t help the breath that escaped her. A blob of mist sat the expansion’s centre. Lit by an inner glow and dappled with silhouettes. It made no doubt of the angels through the indistinct figures were questions save for Daisy’s unique figure. But it was what the light showed that took her breath.

If earth were flesh then the land before was the victim of a brutal mugging. Cuts deep and light marred it, but that alone was not enough. Fresh gravel pummeled from once sturdy stones gushed from sites of impacts that sent cracks and jutting rock spiralling every which way. Fog cloaked much of the abuse but that only gave space for her mind to conjure bodies of the vague shapes.

There was not an unblemished step in sight and the mist that crept and burbled along the floor gained an uncanny resemblance to whelling blood in her mind. The angel lit it all with soft light casting gentle shadows and forcing upon the scene a haunting serenity.

Anadrea ascended behind her. He too stared. “I don’t think we can cross that.” Two said after giving him a moment to ‘take in’ the scenery.

The guard glanced at her then took one look at the others who’d taken the brief interlude to mill about in their chains. He paused and for a moment Two dared hope. That hope was quickly abandoned as his features firmed. “We have been instructed to continue.” He commanded loud enough for them all.

“Ordered by who? Someone is going to snap their neck trying to go over that and it might be your man.” She stressed but her appeal fell on deaf ears.

He turned to her and with a cold voice reiterated. “You will walk.” His tolerance, it seemed, had reached its end.

Swallowing her complaints two descended the ir vantage and mad for the beaten earth below. Though she left plenty of time for the others to advance first. The other guard, who, till this point led the group had a similar idea. It was Butch, as bold and stupid as ever, who crossed. To her utter surprise, the oaf stepped onto mist so thick it rendered the mangled ground invisible and simply walked.

He turned and grinned with such smug flair, that if she didn’t know he regularly walked into the castle walls, she’d have been impressed.

The other guard quickly followed after Butch, lest he act on the ideas visible on his face. The guard was mortal but Anadrea, quietly overlooking the scene, was not. She had little doubt who’d chained the gangster.

Slowly the rest of them followed. Two stepped onto the thick mist and her feet met ground. That continued careful step after careful step. Until suddenly it ceased to be true. Her feet fell and found nothing, yet that nothing held her weight. As it went for the next step and the following, but the one after was stone again.

She looked up from her feet planted in the blanket of curling grey and found her company in the confusion of those around her. She glanced back and though he hid it well bafflement radiated from the trailing crow.

On it went, mist thickening around them, as she crossed the unseen and unfelt bridge to her fate. She could only hope the consequences of her actions were kind this once. The beaten land beneath the mist showed what would happen to her if it weren’t.