Flames and Starlight
FIVE

Hannah walked through the empty street, the only noise was the sound of her footsteps as they echoed eerily in the cool air. The silence disturbed her to her core and she wondered where everyone else was. A busy street like this was never completely silent.

Suddenly, something small and dark fell in front of her. She jumped back and let out a startled scream. Where the hell did that come from?

She frowned down at the dark mass, trying to figure out what it was. She peered down at it for a second. She could make out feathers and a beak and she assumed it was either a crow or a raven. Its body was smashed and broken in a clump of feathers on the pavement before her.

She started to turn away when she saw it start to move. She shrieked when the dead crow started transforming into a man who had blood caked all over his clothes and stared up into the sky with soulless eyes. Bile rose inside of her and she turned to throw up as the horrifying realization dawned on her.

That man was a shapeshifter. She’d seen a shapeshifter die in front of her.

She let out another scream when other crows started falling from the sky, some of them falling on her, and they were also shifting into people as well. Dead shapeshifters were falling from the sky and were everywhere. She covered her head with her arms and ran into a nearby store, having to jump over bodies and have blood splatter on her as the bodies busted on the pavement.

“Help!” She screamed when she ran in. “People are dying out there!”

She came up short when she was met with silence and realized there was no one else in the store. It was empty.

“Hello?” she tentatively called out.

No response.

She ran her hand through her hair in agitation as she tried to figure out what was going on and what to do. No one was here and shapeshifters were dying out there and she was powerless to stop it.

“Hannah Nicole Marie Carson.”

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of the dark, gravelly voice behind her. She spun around and came up short at what she saw.

A tall, hunched hooded figure stood only a few feet away from her. The hood was pulled completely over their face but she knew they were staring right at her. What terrified her was the air of evil around them. She didn’t know how to describe it other than she knew this entity was pure evil and meant serious harm.

The hooded figure lifted a steady figure toward her. “If you know what is good for yourself and the ones you care about, then you will return to the human realm.”

Suddenly the figure lunged at her and -

Hannah gasped and jolted up in her bed, panting. Her heart was racing rapidly, sweat soaking her skin and clothes.

It took several minutes for her to calm down. That vision had felt so real. It was even more realistic than all the others she’d ever had and the most terrifying. She closed her eyes and tried to force it out of her head but it was carved into her memory.

She glanced over at Katie and saw she was still asleep. Hannah quietly climbed out of her bed, trying not to wake Katie, grabbed her backpack and phone, tiptoed out of the room, and silently closed the door behind her. There was no way she was going back to sleep and figured she might as well draw the vision out since it was so fresh in her mind.

She walked into the common room, the area where the other people living there could sit on the couches, watch TV, read, and relax, which was a lot better than the homeless shelters they had back in the human realm.

It was empty due to the late hour though the light was still in case anyone wanted to come in there. The TV was off though and she wished something was playing since the silence reminded her too much of her vision.

She sat down on one of the couches and pulled her sketchpad and pencils out of her backpack and started to draw out what she saw. She skipped drawing the part about the shapeshifters dying, it was too much for her at the moment and she barely got through drawing the hooded figure in the store.

When she was done, she looked down at her sketchbook and shuddered. She’d drawn out when the hooded figure was pointing to her and she closed it, feeling uneasy. She wondered if this person or being or whatever it was was behind what was happening in the Eternal World.

To take her mind off of it, she turned on her phone which she’d charged and powered on earlier. As she’d expected, her family had left devastating calls and texts. They were filled with her family pleading with her to come home, pleading with her to change her mind, apologizing for not being there and promising things would be different. Her sister had left a couple of angry calls and texts calling her selfish and a terrible sister and she hoped she never saw her again.

Hannah thought about messaging them back and explaining her decision was final and couldn’t be undone anyway, but it would only cause more heartbreak. She turned her phone back off and decided she wasn’t going to turn it on again. She was closing that part of her life.

Raven City University was going to be closed for the rest of the week following the incident at the cafeteria so all of the students were going to continue their lessons at home. They were going to pick up their assignments from the front desk and listen to lectures online.

Laura impatiently waited in line in the RCU lobby to get her assignments. She didn’t want to be in the building after what happened and she was in a terrible mood after yet another fight with her mom and sister.

Her mom and Alison had another nasty fight this morning about who knows what and somehow, despite having nothing to do with whatever was going on with them, she’d gotten roped into it and she’d had a terrible start to the day.

It did make her come to her senses and realize it was time to move in with Ruben. There was no trying to bring her family back together now. It was better to out of that toxic environment and move on with her life.

After what felt like forever, she reached the front desk and got her assignments, and wasted no time getting the hell out of there.

She walked to the bus stop and saw Hannah was there. She hadn’t seen the other girl since they’d left Peter’s apartment.

Hannah looked up and spotted her. “Laura? What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for the bus.”

Hannah rolled her eyes. “Right. Duh. We are at a bus stop.”

There was a brief, awkward pause.

“So how’ve you been?” Laura asked her.

“So far okay. I have a roommate at the shelter who refuses to talk and I have to wait almost thirty minutes in line to go to the bathroom but it could be worse. I’m on my way to apply for some jobs.” She held up a map in front of her where places were marked. “I have to go to these places since the shelter said I have to have a job to stay there but I don’t know where I’m going.”

“Can I see?”

“Sure.”

Hannah handed Laura the map. She looked it over for a second. “One of these places is close to where I live and I’m heading home now. I can show you if you want.”

Hannah’s face lit up. “That would be great, thanks.”

The bus pulled up and they quickly got on. They found a seat and once the other passengers were on the bus took off.

“I appreciate you doing this,” Hannah said. “I’ve been - Aah!”

Hannah screamed in Laura’s ear as a gargoyle flew by their window. Everyone on the bus turned to look at them.

Laura winced and rubbed her ear. “Calm down. It’s just a gargoyle.”

“Why’s it flying by the bus?”

Laura gave her a weird look. “Because they fly. It’s what they do. He’s not going to hurt you, he’s just flying. A lot of gargoyles fly through the street. And if you think that’s weird, then you’ve got a lot to learn. Around this time is when giants pass by too.”

“Giants?”

“Yeah. Giants will come through to get their stuff from the city. See the huge walkways over there? That’s where they walk. Oh, and pixies fly by too. You have to watch out for them. Sometimes they get in your hair and they’re a pain to get out.”

“Oh. Sorry, I never saw one before.” Hannah’s face turned red with embarrassment.

“Well, you’ll see a lot from now on.” Laura winced and rubbed her ear again which was still ringing. “Jeez, you almost made me deaf.”

“Sorry.”

Laura changed the subject. “Are you going to RCU?”

“Yeah. Another part of my stay there is going to RCU. I didn’t know the shelter made you do that.”

“The shelter doesn’t just house homeless sups, they help sups as you come and integrate into the Eternal World to learn about here and to make sure you’re going to be successful. As well as sups going through a rough time, if they’ve lost their home or got kicked out. They help them get back on their feet and have a job and an education to help them get back out there.”

“That sounds fair. I overheard some people -”

“Sups.”

“Pardon?”

“The correct term around here is sups.”

“Oh, sorry. Well, at breakfast I overheard them talking about the incident at RCU.”

Laura shuddered. “Don’t remind me. I was there.”

“You were?”

“Yeah, it was terrible.”

Their conversation halted when the bus rolled to a stop at the bus stop. They got off and moved to the side to let the other passengers get on.

As they were moving away, Hannah tripped over an edge in the sidewalk and nearly lost her footing, her backpack and its contents falling to the ground.

“You okay?” Laura asked and helped Hannah regain her footing.

“Yeah, thanks.”

Laura bent down and helped Hannah pick her stuff up. She picked up a sketchbook that had been opened to a page. Not meaning to, she looked at the sketch and froze. It was a detailed drawing of her, Ruben, Peter, and Hannah. Unable to stop herself, she flipped through the rest of the pages and saw more sketches of herself, Ruben, and Peter with dates on them that were long before Hannah ever met them. And there were also sketches of the hooded figure that made her blood turn to ice.

She looked up and found Hannah watching her with a scared expression on her face.

“What the hell is this?” Laura demanded in a sharp voice.

“What’s going on?” Ruben appeared from behind her. He was meeting her at her house after he got done with work and had just arrived now. She didn’t look at him, keeping her gaze on Hannah.

“They’re sketches from my visions,” Hannah said so softly Laura almost didn’t hear her.

“Visions?” Laura pressed.

“Yes. I’ve had them about you. And the hooded figure.”

Laura threw the sketchbook at Hannah and said, “Come with me, now.”

Hannah didn’t protest as Laura and Ruben led her to Laura’s house. Laura wanted answers and she wanted them now.