Chapter seven

We pulled up somewhere among the maze of stone, I’d never really appreciated the term concrete jungle but now I finally realised what it meant. We all piled out of the car, Ebony slumped over the least spiky part of my shoulder she could find. The others were almost unrecognisable except for Mist who had nothing to hide, Stitch wore a balaclava to cover her face and neck, a pair of gloves to try and hide her wrists and a long sleeve shirt. Trapper had kept his black jacket and trousers, he must have decided the hat was a bit too noticeable however and had left it inside.
“This is a stealth mission, we just want to grab whoever this is and run like bunnies out of here” Trapper said, rubbing his previously unseen blond hair “Let’s go, and try not to look too suspicious and for the love of God don’t try and hide. They’ll be looking for people to hide.”
“They can bring it” Mist said firmly. Ebony mewed which surprisingly made Mist smile “Looks like your cat’s got more of a fighting spirit than I thought.”

Hoping that Ebony wasn’t going to try and eat anyone tonight we started to move, heading towards the fading glow of the fire. Some people must be trying to put it out; to steal from the rubble or protect their own houses I didn’t know and frankly I wasn’t going to stop and ask. My heart was thumping so hard it felt as if it was going to leap up my throat and run away itself. I tried to keep my cool though, not wanting to seem scared in front of the others. Mist looked like she always did; calm and disdainful, Stitch was looking strangely serious for her, Trapper was back to being slightly nervous and Bud just walked along happily, gazing at the buildings as if she was happy to be back somewhere. I rubbed my slitted nose in an attempt to get the smell of smoke out of it; we were getting closer to the burning building.

We turned a corner and almost ran into a crowd of people. They were all gazing up towards the licking flames that were slowly dying down as if hypnotised by the flickering light. I pulled my hat down automatically, though the fire was sending strange shadows everywhere and it was hard to make out anyone’s face if they weren’t staring into the fire.
“Ahem, excuse me?” I heard from right beside me. What the hell was Trapper trying to do, get us caught? I shrank back slightly as a few heads turned to our direction; most people seemed too interested by the flames to bother to turn.
“Yes dear?” an old lady right at the back asked, smiling at Trapper’s dress sense. She must have thought he’d just come from a posh party. I wondered if she’d been here when they’d started torching this unfortunate person’s home.
“I was wondering if they have found the person who lived here yet?” Trapper asked. A few more heads turned towards us as people heard Trapper talk. I shifted uncomfortably, hot, confining clothes this close to a fire was not a good idea. Ebony gave a annoyed mew right in my ear as she squirmed on my shoulder, she didn’t like the heat either.
“No dear” the lady said “but we’ll find him soon. I live just other the road you know, should have known he was a freak. He never left the house except for shopping and even then he was dressed up like a snowman.” Maybe I was more noticeable than I first thought... I thought to myself, staring at the old lady and deciding that she really needed to get a life.
“Thank you ma’am” Trapper said, flashing a small smile before walking off again. A few more heads followed us suspiciously but soon lost interest.

Once we made sure we were out of eyesight on the other side of the house everyone began to crack open the sticky seals on their thick clothing and let the icy wind blow into sweaty crevices.
“So they’re still out there” Stitch sighed, rubbing her balaclava clothed head “At least that means they’re not dead.”
“As far as we know” Mist said coldly.
Trapper sighed and rubbed his own head “As much as I don’t want to say it, I agree with Mist. We need to find them, no matter what state they’re in.” He looked up at the burning building which gave an ominous creak, held out one hand with his thumb pointing skywards. He frowned and walked a few feet to the left, staring past his thumb at the building and scenery.
“What are you doing?” I finally asked, voicing everyone’s unasked question.
“The video on the news was taken from here” Trapper answered, staring down the street and past the burning house “Whoever lived here disappeared down that road there.” He pointed at a dark alley in the distance that seemed deserted. He really was the smart one.

We all began to walk towards the cavernous entrance of the alley, but taking Trapper’s lead we went on a winding path that made it look like we were just randomly searching around. When we reached the alley we walked in calmly, even though we had no idea what waited on the far end of the dark passage. It was Mist’s turn now, she charged in as if the darkness was an enemy challenging her to a contest of chicken. They met, they fought and the darkness folded first. We soon followed after her, looking around at the walls for any signs of a fight. This smelt like all other dark back alleys, a mixture of urine, sweat and the faint hint of blood. We walked in silence; the complete stillness around us made it feel like any noise would break the moment of peace like a glass window. Ebony seemed totally non-plus of this however and the moment fell to the floor in pieces as she let out a louder disgruntled meow.

After several more tension filled moments of utter silence we came into a fork, two ways to go.
“Which way is it Lizard boy; left or right?” Mist asked “Can you smell where they went?” I took a careful sniff and sighed.
“People followed and split up here too, even if I knew what the person we’re after smelt like a hundred smoke covered pursuers have run over their scent” I explained.
“We need to split up then” Trapper sighed “Mist, you go with... we still need a name for you, and Ebony. Stitch, you and Bud will go with me.” Stitch nodded and they took the path to the right, leaving me and Ebony with Mist. I tried smiling at Mist but decided not to try that again at the stare she gave me. We took off down the left path without another word.

The next few moments became more and more uncomfortable, not only the silence between me and Mist, which I’m sure was because she got stuck with the newbie, but the very air seemed to get thick with tension. Ebony felt it too, she was still slumped over me but her ears were perked right up to the slightest sound. We followed the winding paths until another split.
“Want to split up again?” Mist said hopefully, she really wanted to leave me behind and search herself.
“No need” I gulped, sniffing hard at the air “They’re down here.” I walked off down the right one this time.
“How do you know?” Mist said at once, questioning my ability to make any large decisions by myself.
“Because” I sighed, stopping a few meters into the new path “I can smell burnt flesh. And terror.” I hurried off into the darkness quickly, I didn’t know if Mist was following and I didn’t care. This person was scared and hurt and I was going to do something unlike her.

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Maybe I should leave weakends free and not write then... also! Ebony and Ivory chapter eight