> “My cat Midnight, looked at the fire from my balcony. He kept watching until the fires died out.”

>

> - Of Myth and Legend, El Viajar and the Deuda

The pair continued through the Deuda. They wandered through parking lots, churches, and businesses, all familiar icons, fixtures of the night. But, it all melted together. They had followed the same path, more or less, for weeks now. The night grew to its usual strength, its power enveloping their bodies, and the light of the moon invading their eyes and sense of majesty.

As they followed the path, talking about odds and ends, and the history of the city, they spotted the church that Elena had seen that first day. They stopped in the field, side by side, and noted the cracked walls, the greyed stone, and the homeless praying beside the stained glass windows. Each window held bars over it, symbols of Intli, the Sun God’s power. Rays of light, images of growing fields, and people working dotted the imagery.

Each homeless, whether they be wrapped from head to toe in clothes, or if they only covered their bodies, each knelt and prayed to the imagery. Elena couldn’t hear it, couldn’t know it or understand it, not really. To her, the Sun God held only iconic value, but not any real, or overt power. If it held power or any meaning, then it would’ve been taught and practiced in the church. Her situation proved that all to be a lie.

They continued on, the night air growing cooler around them, tempting them. “The end of a day is the birth of night,” William said. He often said things like that at night, poetic, yet obvious.

“Duh,” Elena said, in mock irritation.

“No, no, you don’t get it,” William began. “When the day dies, it becomes night, only to be reborn again! Like the Necromancer you love so much.”

“I don’t love him!” Elena gave him a shove, and they both laughed.

Over the last few weeks, they had gotten to know each other and had become more comfortable with each other. It was like they had known each other for years.

“Anyway, it’s a symbolic thing. I read it in an old book. It was a line that talked about the relationship between day and night, and how they’re connected, like life and death.”

“What else did it say?”

“Oh, nothing. The author was murdered for preaching blasphemy. Death is the absence of life, after all.”

They stopped laughing at that, and instead continued on in silence, taking in the night as it is.

They continued their walk, Elena’s eyes drifted to the telephone poles, and the trees, and the benches. Every day they walked, she never saw a single poster asking about her. No flier about her being missing, or anyone looking for her. Nothing. Instead, wherever she looked, she saw decorations for the holiday.

Houses had pumpkins, orange lights that pierced the night, images of ghosts, cobwebs, and pictures of the Necromancer, of course, joined them. Along with these decorations, slogans grew as if out of the dark. Have a Happy All Souls or Treats and Tricks were the most common. Most of it seemed silly or corny to her. Yet, the knowledge that she never saw a single missing girl poster for her, that fact alone bothered her and kept her from truly enjoying the moment.

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Her eyes drifted from her surroundings to William. Despite the fact that her parents clearly didn’t want her, and the Necromancer remained hidden, he stayed by her side. He kept her company and showed her new places. The fortune teller, the club, and now the costumes they got a few minutes ago. He was there, every day. He didn’t notice her sadness, but it wasn’t necessary, not this time.

They walked until they reached the Deuda line, the long street that divided the city into two. The large buildings of glass reflected the low buildings in a dark, murky reflection. The mirror of the line held so perfectly flat that from where they stood, it was like the entire city could be low, broken, and sprawling out of need.

When they looked up, the mirror bled into the sky, becoming one with the sky that surrounds the planet. Down, where they stood, the street was plain and dirty, save for the decorations on either side and the concrete walls that rose from the ground to meet the glass. Pumpkins, orange bulbs, skulls, and more were hung on the businesses on the Deuda side of the street.

They walked down the entire length of the street. People jogged on the side of the mirror, the side with light. Elena wanted to go there and explore El Viajar proper, but each time she brought it up, just like today, he made a good point, “we’d just stand out.”

And each time, she replied with, “You wouldn’t, not with your clean and nearly new clothes.”

Each time she brought this up, he replied, “I need to get dirty again.”

They continued walking, talking about the festival, how large it would be, and what to expect. “I heard that the festival takes up the entire street. There used to be a parade, but having booths, and keeping the street clear for walking was more lucrative,” William said.

“They can’t have it in the Deuda, or the other side?” Elena asked, genuinely curious.

“Well, I heard that if there were a parade, then people wouldn’t stay with the booths. Or, they’d stay with the booths and miss the parade. They had to choose one.” William replied matter-of-factly, inspecting a small inlet in the street, one of many places they thought someone could hide.

Many lanes or alleys, led into the Deuda. If someone were to start deeper in, they could run and be on the main street quickly, if they knew the way. “It’d be hard to stop anyone from running,” Elena said, noting William’s frustration. Every street they saw led quickly, easily into the Deuda’s winding streets and alleys.

“It’s hard to say how it’ll go,” he began after looking into another alleyway. “If there are booths here, then it’d be difficult for anyone to get in or out. I’m not sure what to expect. If they start from the Deuda, they’d be able to get her easily, but leaving is hard.” He pointed to an alleyway, and after a time, Elena’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, and saw the end of the short road.

“If someone were in a hurry, they’d end up here. Not much of a hiding place, but it’s easy to get caught.”

“Yeah, so I don’t think he’ll be hiding in here, he’ll probably show up the day of the festival, from much further in the Deuda.”

On their side of the street stood large businesses, nothing like the grand wall of glass, but each building created an alleyway. They inspected each one, noting any potential hiding places, but, still, there were none that the Necromancer could reasonably use. Elena smiled, glad to have that piece of information ready for later. “Wherever the Necromancer is coming from, it’ll be from further in, and it’ll be sudden.” William nodded in agreement.

They continued walking, all the way to the other end of the street, to the other end of the stone wall that surrounds the city. They looked up and stared at the wall. While the glass wall melted into the sky, becoming one with it, this stone wall stood as an imperious figure, unmoving, uncaring, godlike in its dereliction. Recent repairs were nowhere to be found, but it was clear that whoever had made it, or repaired it, had done it well.

They turn at the street end and begin their trek back to the university.