Chapter 1.1: ‘Friends of the city’

Year: 2483 Month: May 26th

Kai opens his eyes to his alarm. He picks up his phone and turns it off, a message grabs his attention. It’s from Nyx. It read; ‘Help’. Kai furrows his brow and gets up in a hurry. He slips on his trainers and sneaks into the kitchen. Kent is asleep on the sofa, perfect. Kai grabs his keys and exits the apartment. He locks the door and heads towards the subway. Using what little change he had left; he takes the tube to south-west London. Hoping Nyx is safe.

He arrives at the abandoned flat and enters. A faint sobbing echoes from upstairs. Kai hurries up the stairs. His heart pounding in his ears he reaches the third floor and sprints down the hallway to Nyx’s room. The sobbing gets louder. He bursts into her room to see Nyx kneeling on the floor in front of a man. The man is stood completely still. Confused, Kai hurries over to Nyx and grabs her shoulder, she was ice cold to the touch. She turns around, her eyes were a pale blue, and she had a red liquid on her cheeks. The tears she cried froze as they left her face. She had activated her power. Kai’s stomach dropped. He slowly raises his head to the man. The man’s eyes were bloodshot and blood dripped from his lips, his arms and legs were completely frozen and a knife lay on the ground next to his foot. Nyx grabs kai’s trouser leg and tilts her head down.

‘’I didn’t mean to’’ she starts to cry more, the tears now becoming small icicles on her face ‘’ he…he had a knife, a-and-’’ kai kneels down in front of Nyx and cups her face.

‘’its ok, it wasn’t your fault’’ he embraces her and takes a deep breath. ‘’I’ll take care of it from here, you go and lie down. Get your ice under control, ok?’’

Nyx nods and stumbles over to a mattress inside an old cupboard. Kai rubs his eyes and checks his phone, it was only 7:30. He stands up and grabs the man’s arms, with some effort, he breaks the ice and drags the man outside. He had no idea what to do with the body or the blood trail it was leaving. How did this man find Nyx anyway? Was it coincidence or do more people know? Either way Nyx might have to move, he didn’t want anything to happen to her. Kai dumps the body into an empty room a few floors up. He puts an old armchair in front of the door and returns to Nyx. She is sat on the mattress picking at the icicles on her face. Her eyes had changed back to the a greeny-brown and she seemed to have calmed down a little bit. That man is now the third person Nyx has killed by accident, her power is too strong for her to control and when put under stress she can’t help but retaliate. Kai asked if she could come stay at his apartment, but Kent refused, so she has to stay out here in this run down building. There were holes in almost every wall and the windows didn’t even have frames on them. Kai thought about staying with her out here but that would put all Kent’s hard work to waste. He walks over to the mattress and sits down next to her. He wraps his arm around her shoulder and closes his eyes. Nyx leans her head onto Kai’s chest and starts humming a soft lullaby. They sit there for hours, enjoying each other’s company and attempting to escape this horrific reality they live in. Kai’s phone startles them both as it starts ringing. It was Kent. Kai curses and declines the call. Nyx sits back up and puts her hands on her lap.

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‘’You have to go?’’ she mutters.

‘’Unfortunately, but I’ll be back tomorrow. Promise’’ he stands up and rubs her head. With a grin he walks towards her door and opens it.

‘’Good morning sir’’ A man in a blue outfit with a grey vest greets kai with a puzzled look. ‘’I am officer Cameron Davis, what are you doing in this building?’’

Kai stutters and fails to understand why this officer was here, he hadn’t seen or heard any cars. Did he come here by foot? But why would he? This building is at the very edge of London and the nearest police station was 20 blocks away. None of it made sense. He starts to back away with his hands up. The officer responds by placing one hand on his gun and walking slowly towards him whilst blurting out questions.

‘’Why are you here? Are you here alone? What’s your name?’’

The officer gets interrupted by Nyx standing up and running behind kai. The officer squints and gestures towards her.

‘’So, who’s that?’’

Kai stays silent.

‘’Answer me kid, come on!’’

Kai flinches and looks around for somewhere he and Nyx could escape. The officer Unholsters the pistol and aims it at Kai.

‘’ Look at me! What’s wrong? Got something to hide?’’

Kai stays silent.

‘’I’m going to give you ten seconds to answer me before I perform an arrest on both you and your friend you hear me?’’

Kai tilts his head slightly downwards,

‘’Shut up’’.

The officer halts and tightens his grip on the gun.

‘’Pardon?’’

Kai shouts, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists,

‘’SHUT UP’’

Kai’s eyes suddenly flash purple and his hands get enveloped with a dark flame. The officer curses and fires, the bullet misses and kai lunges forward grabbing the officer by the throat and slamming him against the wall. The pistol gets flung out his hand and Nyx grabs it. Kai tightens the grip on the officer’s throat and the flames around his hands grow in size. The officer struggles at kai’s grasp but the dark flames take all the strength out of him. Soon the officer becomes motionless, and kai lets him fall to the floor. The officer didn’t die, but now its clear Nyx had to move. He motions to her and they sprint out of the building. He deactivates the flames and checks around for any other officers; they were in the clear. For now.