Hello my readers, haha I finally finished this chapter! It's Friday! I'll be sure to update some more on the weekend. So leave a comment, and don't worry, the heavily armed girl will show up again, she just wasn't needed in this chapter. lol
Ani POV
"One… two… Three!" I jumped through the trod, yanking him through behind me, the air around us shimmered and the world went white for a second. A wave of nausea hit me hard as I stepped through into the mortal world. It was dark, dank, and stunk worse that a festering Fogpod fruit. My eyes adjusted to the gloom and I looked around. We appeared to be underground. I looked around. The girl from earlier was nowhere in sight.
Puck stepped next to me. "Right, that's why I stopped using this trod. We're down in what the mortals call the sewers."
I looked around. "What are sewers?"
Puck took my hand and started leading me along behind him, he stepped out of the water and up onto a small pathway. "You really don't want to know."
I stepped onto the narrow platform and walked along behind him. "How do we get out of here?"
Puck flicked a hand at me. "Leave it to me. Sadly, I've been down here many times over the years." We walked in silence for what seemed like a long time until I saw a round panel over our heads. Puck looked at me. "This is one of the few covers that are fey friendly and isn't made of iron." He grabbed hold of an unnervingly metal ladder and started to climb it. Once at the top, he pushed up on the round thing and light flooded the man made cave. He looked back at me with a grin that stretched completely across his face.
"Welcome to Boston, city of traffic, iron, and other nasty things."
As he said this, he climbed out and I followed him. Once We were both out, I looked around. There were large steel buildings and cars all over the place. As I was walking, he pulled me out of the way of a mortal man who gave me a dirty look as he passed.
Puck looked at me with a cute smirk. "You aren't glamoured, the mortals will walk into you unless you avoid them."
I nodded and he looked around with a sigh. "I don't know where we are."
I stared at him. "You mean this isn't Boston?"
He laughed. "Don't worry, Frosty, I know that this is Boston, I just don't know the street name."
I looked around at the chaotic city. "What's a street?"
Puck pointed to a rather large stretch of stone that marred the land around us. "That's a street, just think of it as a path." He looked around. "Well, I guess we should look for a place that mortals are afraid of."
I smirked at him before he could start walking. "Clothes. You said that we could get new ones."
He laughed. "You're really stubborn, you know that? Okay, clothes. Let's find a store."
After walking around for a short time, we came to stop in a plaza. Puck looked around and pointed to a store that said "You want clothes? Come Here!" on the sign that was taped below the Open sign on the door. As we approached, I saw that the building was much smaller than the surrounding ones, and the "Open" sign had the words "Fifty Percent Off Sale!" crossed out below it.
Puck looked at the building. "This seems good enough, do you have any paper on you?"
I blinked. "No, why would I have paper?"
He walked over to the door and ripped the sign off it. Tearing in half, he grinned. "Nevermind, I found some."
He glamoured it, and it now had a picture of him on it. He waved it towards me. "Credit card," He grinned wickedly. "easy to make, and mortals will take it for anything." He looked back at the beat up little store. "Come on, before this thrift shop goes out of business and we have to find a different store."
He gently took my hand and we walked side by side through the doors. The door was made of old cracked wood and it opened with a squeak. A bell rang as we entered and I followed Puck down a few aisles. We stopped in front of a rack that had girl clothing on it and he turned to me with a grin. "Go through this rack." He pointed around at three other ones. "Those also have girl clothes, I'll be right back."
He disappeared behind some other racks and I was now alone. I turned back to the clothes and started going through it.
"Hi there sweetie!" Said a chirpy voice behind me.
I jumped and spun around. There was an elderly woman smiling warmly at me. "Need any help with finding something?" She looked at me closely. "What size are you? I might be able to find something that will look nice on you."
I blinked in confusion at the woman. "Size?"
She laughed. "Why of course! You can't wear it if it doesn't fit you, silly!" She continued to smile at me. "What size is the shirt that you're wearing now?"
I smiled back, though I was still somewhat confused. "I don't know, my mother always picked out what I wore." That wasn't a lie, Mab always did have things fitted for me.
The woman looked at me in confusion, but didn't comment. She turned to a shelf and picked up some dark blue jeans. "Go try these on, the fitting room is right this way…" She started walking across the store and I scrambled to follow her. She was surprisingly fast for her years. The woman stopped. "Try your clothes on in here, sweetie." and then she walked away to go help another customer standing nearby.
After I tried on the pants, I found that they fit me fine. Now I needed a shirt. I went back to the racks that Puck showed me earlier and found an emerald green lightweight hoodie, I grinned and picked it up. It reminded me of a certain redhead who was currently across the store pretending not to watch me. I rolled my eyes and smiled. I had to get this.
I threw it on over my current shirt and it was the perfect length, the sleeves were even slightly long- just the way I liked them. I took it back off and headed back towards Puck. I didn't know the mortal customs for purchasing something with currency. Those two words were just present in my vocabulary. I didn't understand how they worked.
I rounded the rack of clothes and came face to face with Puck- who had on an evergreen hoodie that looked just like his last one, but was a different shade of green. He glanced at my clothes that I was holding and grinned as if he didn't know I chose them. "Nice colors, I wonder where they came from."
I shrugged. "They look good together."
Just as he was about to respond, the elderly woman appeared from behind a rack. "Ah, there you are sweetie. I was checking up on you to make sure you found something." She glanced at Puck and grinned at us. "Oh, I see you have help." She smiled at Puck and walked away saying something about cute kids.
Puck obviously heard her, because he laughed.
We watched her disappear out of our sight, then he turned back to me. "Are you ready?"
I nodded and he led me to the front of the store. We stopped at a counter, and Puck showed the woman his "credit card", she swiped it through a strange machine, then she put our clothes in a bag. After telling us to come again, the woman walked away and we left.
We walked out into the bustling streets of Boston and weaved through the crowd until we stepped into an alley between two buildings. Puck looked around. "Okay, so we have to find a place that mortals don't like to be near. That's easy." He started listing off places and I looked at him.
"Puck, I somehow get the impression that the Key of Death won't be found in a courtroom, or in a high school for that matter." I paused. "Are there any haunted places or cemeteries?"
He sighed. "Yeah, theres this small cemetery at the edge of the city. Supposedly it's really creepy and mortals think it's haunted." He flicked his hand. "They always think it's a haunting. Why aren't there any rumors that a place is cursed? That's much more likely." He crossed his arms and looked at me. "So I take it that the creepy graveyard is our first choice?"
I nodded. "Yeah, that's as good a place as any for someone to hide a cursed token."
He looked at the ground. "Why does that cat always make someone else do his dirty work?"
"I don't know, so let's get going already."
We started out again, and decided to glamour ourselves invisible- we would get through crowds faster, and no one would give us trouble unless they were fey.
After walking for what felt like a long time, we finally came to a wrought iron fence that was rusting. I looked at it, the gate was closed and locked, and the top had spikes- not that I'd actually climb up that metallic hell, but it was still good to know.
Puck inspected it with distaste, then turned back to me. "I hope that the fence doesn't go deep underground, we have to tunnel our way through."
I blinked at him. "Won't that attract a grim?"
He laughed in amusement. "Let's worry about that once we're on the other side."
I blinked at him. He actually looked forward to being chased by the grim, I, for one wasn't though.
"Okay, I guess you're right." I glanced at the ground below the fence. "Let's get digging, the faster we're in, the faster we can get out again."
Puck bent down and started scratching at the ground. "That's the spirit, Frosty! No let's go!"
I laughed and got down on my hands and knees beside him.
After digging, cursing, and having Puck laugh at me for awhile, we finally had a crawl space big enough to get through. I wriggled through it on my stomach, then stood on the other side. "It's big enough, come through." I turned but Puck wasn't there anymore. Just as I was whipping my head around to look for the trickster, a large raven landed on my shoulder, it had emerald green eyes.
I blinked at it. "Puck?"
He bobbed his head, hopped to the ground, and shifted back to his normal form.
He sat there laughing. "You panicked."
I scowled to hide my burning cheeks. "I did no-" The lie wouldn't come and he laughed even harder, I glowered at him. "Fine, I was worried."
He got up with a smug smirk and brushed off his pants. "Let's find a grave to rob." Then he turned around and started walking towards the head stones.
I ran to stop him. "Wait! Shouldn't we think this through more? We can't search every tomb while playing keep away with the grim."
Puck paused. "Okay, how about we search for the place with the most negative glamour. The token sounds like it's powerful, so it should be easy to find."
I nodded and stepped up beside him, I didn't need him opening the first grave he saw.
Before we continued, I took one last look at him, our bag from earlier was gone. I sighed. New clothes just weren't meant to be.
"Well, let's go!" I started walking through the dreary landscape and came to the conclusion that there was obviously a curse of some sort on this place because unlike the rest of Boston, this place was mucky, moldy, and fog hung in wisps all around us.
We passed many graves, and each time I felt different emotions coming from them. One had happiness, another, sadness, and we finally found one that may match what we were looking for.
A shiver ran down my back. Death, anger, sadness… all of them in one. I looked at Puck, he felt it too.
He shook himself. "I think we found it, let's go tomb raiding." He tried to grin, but I could tell that it was fake.
We slowly approached the tomb and looked at it. It was as big as a shed, and there were decorative crosses and flowers carved into it. I looked at the door, I could practically see the darkness trying to escape from what lie within.
Puck swallowed, even the usually spunky crimson haired faery was affected by all the negative glamour that was present. "Should I open the door, or do you want to?"
I put my hand on it. "I'll do it." I gave a hard push, nothing. I leaned into it as hard as I could, the door wouldn't budge. I gave one last shove, a snarl tearing itself from my lips, and the door flew open, I lost my balance and fell inside. I cursed and stood. Puck was it the doorway with his hand on the door.
"Maybe I should've warned you that I was going to help."
Before I could respond, a blood chilling howl split the eery silence of the cemetery. Puck went wide eyed and quickly stepped inside, closing the door behind him.
"We have to find the key, and get out of here before that thing has a chance to eat us for dinner." As if to prove his point, a loud thump came from the door, the whole crypt shook and some loose stones fell from the ceiling.
I looked around madly for the key, only to find a pair of skeletons holding hands with each other. I cursed as another forceful crash came from the door.
"Frosty…" I heard Puck warn. "Anytime today would be great…"
"Hold on a second!" I snapped back in annoyance. "I can't find it!" I looked at the long dead couple, then finally found the key. It was tied to a nasty looking string around the neck of the skeleton to the right of me. I lunged and snatched it just as the door busted open with a deafening crash. I turned just in time to see Puck dive out of the way of the grim. I flung myself to my side as the monster came crashing towards me.
"Princess! We have to go now!" Puck yelled over the sounds of chaos.
"I'm right behind you!" And I was. I nearly trampled him when we ran out of the crypt.
I sprinted after Puck, and when I finally caught up with him, we ran side by side. He laughed. "So, how do you like the mortal world so far?"
I glanced at him sharply. He was cracking jokes. While running for his life from a very ticked off grim. I looked back in front of me. "Puck,"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. 'Don't tell jokes while running away from grims.'" He mimicked as if that was actually a rule. "Believe me, Frosty, I of all people know that."
I shook my head and fought down a smile. "So how are we going to get out of here?"
Puck looked around. "I think I have an idea." Then he stopped in his tracks.
I whipped my head over my shoulder. "What are you doing, you idiot?! Run!" I watched as the grim closed in on him, I was sure he was going to be killed… then he wasn't. He jumped straight up into the air at the last second, and landed on top of the grim. He whooped while throwing his fist into the air/.
"Come on Frosty, hop on!" He grabbed onto its fur and started riding it rodeo style. I stared at him, dumbfounded until it occurred to me that they were heading right towards me. And they weren't stopping.
"Jump!"
I listened to Puck's command and jumped as high as I could. He caught me with a muffled wump as we connected. The wind was knocked from my lungs, and I gasped for air. That felt like I was just hit in the stomach with a club.
After I was able to breath again, I looked out ahead of us.
We were rushing the fence at speeds where iron burns would be the least of our problems.
A strained voice. "Okay Icegirl, I need you to let go of me, and try to jump over the fence."
I blinked and realized that I had Puck in a death grip, I released him and looked back at the fence. It was much closer already.
"But-"
"Jump!" He shoved me off the grim's back, and for a moment, I had a strange weightless sensation. Until gravity caught up with me and I fell like a ton of bricks. I hit the ground hard and pain flared up from my ribs. I bit down a pain filled yelp and looked up just as Puck hit the ground next to me. He tucked into a roll and ended up sitting next to me, laughing.
"Well that was fun, let's do it again."
I tried to sit up, but the pain was too excruciating. I gasped and flopped back down on the ground.
I broke a rib.
I clamped my eyes shut, trying to ignore the pain as I had learned to do many years ago. When I opened them again, Puck was leaning over me with a concerned expression.
"You okay, Frosty?"
I nodded weakly and forced myself to sit, grinding my teeth as I did so.
He looked at me in faint annoyance, though I could sense that it was mostly concern. "Don't be like Iceboy. I swear, that whole 'Nothing hurts me' thing drove me nuts!" He looked at me. "Besides, you're in obvious pain."
I forced myself to my feet and the world turned yellow and started spinning from the pain. Puck caught me- I never even notice that he stood.
"Hey." His voice was soft in my ear. "We can take a break, you probably broke something." He lowered me to the ground and held me. "That annoying furball can wait awhile."
