Jack came the next morning unannounced while Amelija was still sleeping, and after tipping his hat to Alina went straight to Erik, who blinked a little trying to clear his head as he was drinking his coffee. He'd managed to get a whole few hours of sleep last night, but it didn't make him feel that much better.

"Well, I've found a way to get you your papers", Jack sat across the table from Erik, sliding him a considerable bunch of paperwork. "Had to pull some favours, but with the information you've provided me from France and your so-far spotless record in this community it won't be too much of a problem."

"Mhm", Erik put his coffee down and reached for the papers. As he looked down, Jack noticed dark circles in the small area of skin that could be seen under Erik's eyes. "I've spent so much time worrying about what separated men from beasts, wondering how I could get myself on the right side of that distinction. I'm delighted to hear that all I was missing was some incredibly ugly papers with meaningless information and stamps that can be easily forged. I'm growing increasingly convinced you could falsify my way into Heaven after I die with some sketchy friends and fake passports."

"Well, I'm glad you've learned you can count on me", Jack winked back.

"Thank you, and I suppose these are not finished?" Erik shifted through the first few documents, pausing at one of them.

"Which ones? The ones you need to fill in for citizenship are not finished. The top ones are documentation I've, uh, generated in place of the stuff you were missing."

"I assume this is to be my birth certificate?" Erik waved his hand, looking at the piece of paper with slight annoyance.

"Aren't you the one who speaks French?" Jack shrugged. "It's given me quite a headache, you know? I had to find another French birth certificate from thirty years ago so I could get my uh, friend, to make it look believably similar. If you look at the date, you'll see that you will be turning twenty-nine this July, in case you want to celebrate - "

"Jack, you spelled my name wrong." Erik said slowly, shifting his gaze to him.

Jack closed his eyes and reclined in his chair, letting out a long, drawn-out, dramatic sigh. "Have I? Which of the four letters in the word "Giry" have I managed to omit?"

Alina shifted behind Erik to look at the paper, then laughed slightly bringing her hand to her forehead. "None." Before Jack could breathe with relief, she added, "You spelled his first name wrong. It's not a common English spelling, it's Erik with a k."

Jack clasped his hands together as if in a prayer. "I assume that's not so very important, is it, after all the trouble I've been through?"

Erik looked at the paper. "I- I suppose-" by the frowning of his eyes, it was very obvious he was holding back a storm, and barely.

"You won't be able to let it go, will you?" Jack mumbled into his hands. During his somewhat tempestuous twenties, Jack had changed and faked his name more than once, though it always remained similar enough that the people who knew him as a child kept calling him the same without anybody noticing. He had very little emotional connection to his name in its current form. "I mean, you've picked out the last name, the year and place of birth, everything else here-"

"Because it's my name", Erik blurted out slightly too loud and with earnest sadness in his voice that surprised all three of them. He pointed at the certificate again. "It's the only true thing on this damned paper, and it's wrong!"

Jack nodded with resignation. "Fair enough. I can understand that." not that it made him any more eager to go through all that trouble again.

"But, Jack", Alina chimed in, "I assume this paper is the original? This information isn't copied anywhere else yet until he submits the whole application, right?"

"Right", Jack said. "And I'd advise you to send a copy to Antoinette Giry, just in case anybody writes to her for proof."

"Right, and before we do that, I imagine it wouldn't be very hard for someone resourceful to turn that "c" into a "k" and have it all done and over with without any additional fuss on your account?" Alina said. "I mean, it's literally that one letter. I could forge it by now, after all the kids whose names I, uh, spelled wrong and had to correct later."

Erik shrugged. "If that is true - if this is the only copy - then it won't be a problem. Nobody will know I changed it, not from looking at it."

Jack unclasped his hands, waving them in a peaceful gesture. "If it's important to you, go ahead. And what about the other papers?"

"I'd say we'll have to repeat the process with the ones that are allegedly from France", Alina pushed Erik slightly to the side, sifting through the papers. "They have to match each other. As for the American records, I would leave those - those are probably not originals. It makes more sense if some American officer in border control spelled his name wrong and everybody followed suit, than if half of them were right and the other half wrong."

"To be fair, I don't think anybody would notice it either way", Jack chimed in.

"In any case, whatever you write on the application, that's how they'll keep it from now on, right?" Alina asked Jack, holding the empty form in her hand.

"Keep what from now on?" Amelija yawned as she came out of the room behind her, still sleepy in a housedress with her hair down. She threw herself into the chair next to Erik's, then blinked a few times until she noticed Jack, and gasped audibly much to Alina's delight.

"I'm sorry, miss, if I've woken you up", Jack said with genuine concern at Amelija's obvious panic. "We were just talking about some-"

"Some boring paperwork, nothing you want to hear about, I assure you", Erik said nonchalantly as he gathered the forged papers and stacked them neatly out of the way. He was not eager to find out how far Amelija's newfound trust went. Luckily for him, she was too busy being embarrassed to notice anything.

"I, uh", Amelija started. "I didn't know anybody would be here, or I would have dressed properly-"

"Coffee?" Alina said cheerfully as she passed her a cup. "You know, you'd better get used to it. This house is practically a train station, with how often people just barge in unannounced."

"Seventy percent of time people means Jack", Erik mumbled.

Alina looked over at Amelija whose face had "please barge in more often" practically written on it and coughed slightly, then turned to her darling. "I just remembered. I need you to come with me to Yana's house, she asked for our help with something."

"Now?" he frowned slightly under the mask.

"Yes, now. It can't wait, it's actually very important to her. We'll be back in a minute", she added at Amelija who was now staring at her looking bewildered and embarrassed for the first time in about ten years. Oh, to be a fly on this wall when they're left alone, Alina thought to herself with amusement as she closed the door behind her. I'd give a kingdom just to witness Amelija fumbling with the horrible realization that she does indeed have a heart.

As silence spread for a second, Amelija's mind started racing. However terribly Amelija struggled with her own mortality, she would not let anyone see it for too long.

"You all must be really good friends, seeing as how you're treating one another's houses as your own", she smiled slightly, stirring her coffee. Amelija was used to having her pretty dresses and elaborate ringlets of hair perfectly tousled around her face, but she was doing quite well improvising in Alina's housedress with her hair resembling a bird's nest- at least, judging by Jack's half-amused, half-enchanted expression.

"Well, I guess we are. You might have to get used to seeing me around", he flashed her a smile. "I'm sure I can make it enjoyable for you."

Amelija rolled her eyes. "Sir, you might have to cover up your mouth. Your audacity is showing."

"I apologize with utmost sincerity, my lady Amelija", Jack drawled in an atrociously bad British accent, amusement wrinkling his eyes, "I would never dare to presume you'd like my company in the slightest, in fact, I am mortified by my own presumptuousness when I said I might be interesting to you. Of course, I am interesting to a great many people, but perhaps your tastes are a little more refined."

Amelija wrinkled her nose slightly. "My tastes are more aligned with people who show me a little more respect."

"Sure", Jack said, getting up and taking his hat to leave, tipping it slightly before he put it on. "Respect is usually mutual, Miss, at least for people who respect themselves, and those of us who do rarely like to be crawling to get it from others. Maybe we'll be able to find some middle ground here, but for now, I won't be troubling you any longer. Please do not take my jokes to heart; I mean no offense by assuming you might enjoy my brash and unrefined company as I happened to enjoy yours until now."

After that, he left with a smile, politely closing the door with barely a sound and leaving Amelija to wonder what in the world just happened.

Meanwhile, as Alina was trying to get Piotr to finish his breakfast so Yana could get ready for work, she caught a glimpse of Erik looking at her from the corner.

"Hm?" she blinked at him. Piotr momentarily seized the opportunity and slid swiftly from the chair under the table where he kept his box of colorful wooden blocks. Alina sighed - she hated forcing children to do anything; perhaps it would be better if she tried again when he was hungrier.

"I'm just curious. Where did you learn how to forge a birth certificate?"

"I don't know how to forge birth certificates specifically", she admitted, "but I do know how to slightly change the wording on a document so that, for example, it might seem as if I'm old enough not to need my father's signature on my work contracts. And if said signature was needed, well, I couldn't travel from London to Zagreb every single time, could I?"

"No, I suppose you could not", he covered his mouth with his hand not to laugh.

"And sometimes, some children arrive at orphanages and tell you some stories that make you wish they never, ever go back to where they came from, you know?" she glanced at Piotr carefully, picking her words so he wouldn't hear something that might traumatize him later. "And so, a few of us would sometimes go the extra step to make those children harder to find for whoever might be looking for them again." she shrugged. "All you need is a steady hand and someone to confirm your story, and soon the child has a new name and a chance to start again."

"You faked their documents so they couldn't be found?" Erik asked, frowning with surprise at that confession. "What if somebody had found out? You took a huge risk there, for someone in your situation."

"Somebody had to do something", she scoffed furiously. "Children from lower classes get bought and sold and used on a daily basis, was I supposed to just sit and let it happen? The other caretakers were thinking about it too, I was simply the one who came up with the plan. We didn't do it often enough to get noticed. Nobody ever found out; nobody ever talked about it, no child ever wanted to go back. We just made sure they couldn't be forced back."

"Nobody?" he bit his lip in thought. "Nobody talked? That's… unexpected."

As Erik was slowly pulling himself out of his moping, Amelija was coming dangerously close to falling into a pit of her own. She spent the rest of the day grumpy and as much as she pretended to maintain a calm exterior, it was very obvious to Alina that she was going through something as she grumpily picked at her food, grumpily refused to engage in conversation and grumpily stared out the window in grumpy silence.

She was used to having people chase her, and she'd never really taken it as anything other than the natural order of things - she was young, beautiful and wealthy; not to mention her charm and intelligence rarely left people indifferent. Since she was a teenager, potential suitors, lovers and all kinds of suck-ups were drawn to her in droves; her usual tactic was to let them chase her and wait, biding her time until the feeble, the pretenders and the sycophants tired out and the only ones remaining would be people patient enough to actually want to be her friends. Which wasn't that often - so Amelija lived that way for nearly ten years now, playing an endless game that kept her occupied and brought her passing entertainment, but never really made her feel connected to people the way she felt all those years ago, when her sister and her cousins were by her side.

Bored in her little ice tower and surrounded by politeness and pretend, Amelija never really got herself into a situation where someone wanted her to put the same amount of effort - it would have been a huge embarrassment, in her traditionalist home, to show any kind of interest in a man too early, especially one of lower status who might have been just out to get her money and privileges. Amelija was never one to fall head over heels for the first person who showed her a little bit of attention. She was much smarter than that, and proud of it.

That was before, and unfortunately the strategy was failing her completely now, as she realized staring at the same page of a novel for an hour without reading a single sentence. Jack was either playing with her a much more sophisticated game of manipulation than she was able to handle, judging by how quickly he got into her head - either that, or he was simply sincerely interested in her and felt offended when she tried to play hard to get.

She would have preferred the first option; the second one was terrifying. She wondered if she could ask Alina about her opinion on Jack, but decided against it for now. Every time she wanted to say something, pride would bite her tongue and she'd revert her gaze stubbornly back to her book.

Introspection was always a very tiring passtime for Amelija, so by night-time she was already at her wits' end and desperate for a distraction when she noticed Alina had suddenly changed into a different set of clothes while she was deep in her own thoughts, and was seemingly discussing something quietly with Erik. Alina spoke in a hushed voice, words passing too quickly for Amelija to understand; Erik looked at her with sort of indecisive annoyance, only saying a word or two here and there. He then rubbed his temples, scratched his jaw, and gave a long sigh, nodding once. Amelija caught his gaze across the room and raised her eyebrows in question.

Erik gave Alina a long look, then switched his gaze over to Amelija again.

"We're going out. Would you like to come with us?" he asked flatly.

Amelija had already grabbed her hat and bag when she asked, "Come with you where?"

Erik gave a slow sigh. "I'll tell you on the way."

"You might want to change into something else", Alina pointed out. "This is not a proper dress to go out marauding at night."

"Excuse me, to go doing what now?"

"Just change. Take something of mine, as simple as you can find. And tie your hair." Alina spread her arms to show her own simple dark grey blouse and something that resembled a grey cotton skirt, but what was, upon closer inspection, a pair of very loose-fitting pants, similar to attire women sometimes wore while riding horses. Underneath them, Amelija could see the tips of sensible sturdy shoes.

"I'm getting a sort of feeling about this", she remarked. "Do you have any more of these trousers?"

Amelija had never changed her clothes with such alarming speed in her life - with Alina's help it took around ten minutes until they were done. Alina did have one more of those trousers, and even though they were a little too long and a little too tight on Amelija after she got used to having all her clothes sewn exactly for her, they were still practical enough. Amelija put her hair up in a bun and secured it with a tasteful, dainty net.

"I'm dying of curiosity now", she announced. Erik nodded at them, putting on his own coat - a black hooded one, still almost ankle-length but much more breathable than a winter coat - and silently led the way across New York City.

"Where are we going, if it's not a surprise?" Alina asked curiously as they walked down from the ferry and across Manhattan. Much to Amelija's relief, at least her two companions were not insane enough to attempt walking all across New York; Amelija found it hard to keep up with their pace - she was not quite as fond of walking as Alina or Erik, and this was tiring her out.

"To church", he replied with a slight hint of mischief in his voice.

"Isn't this sort of a strange time to go?" Amelija asked.

"Don't you hate churches anyway?" Alina asked right after her.

"First of all, nobody is forcing you to go, and nobody will stop you if you want to go back", he narrowed his eyes at Amelija before turning to Alina. "We're not going to the mass. There's an abandoned church on a hill in the suburbs, and I wanted to see it from the inside."

"I have some questions about this", Amelija interrupted again, and Erik sighed.

"Amelija", Alina chimed in gently, "maybe let him tell the story from the beginning, yes?"

Amelija put her finger up to her mouth and crossed it twice, looking at Erik with angelic innocence.

"The church has been abandoned because that part of the suburb has been re-located, so to speak. They moved the people out to the new buildings in Lower Manhattan, because it was cheaper than to install electricity, railroads and plumbing over there, and make the settlement into a proper neighborhood", he explained. "The houses are also old, and a real fire hazard, because they were built sporadically by immigrants. The city is going to tear them down and build some factories; it's far enough that the fumes won't be as much of a problem for the city as they are now. Really, nobody should have been living there in the first place."

"And the church?"

"The church is currently locked down, with everything of value taken out. At least, everything that wasn't nailed to the floor. I don't know if they'll actually completely tear it down yet."

"Ah", Alina said. "It sounds interesting. I don't think I've ever seen an abandoned church from the inside."

"Will your God mind if you trespass into his house?" Erik asked with a tinge of sarcasm.

"I doubt it", Alina laughed. "There's more to this, isn't there? What are you not telling me?"

"There's something in the church that interests me."

"Wasn't everything of value taken out?" Amelija asked, finally breaking. "Are we going to steal those little postcards of the Virgin Mary?"

"We're not going to steal anything", Erik hissed before resuming his composure. "Besides, I didn't say everything was taken out. I said everything that wasn't nailed to the floor."

"Oh", Alina gasped. "Oh my God!"

Amelija blinked, then suddenly understood.

"We're stealing the church organ!"

"Absolutely not", Erik replied cheerfully. "I have no desire to personally peel every single pipe off the wall, and besides, how would we possibly take it home? When would I play it without attracting attention? It's the most impractical thing to steal in the world."

"So you have considered it", Alina laughed.

"Perhaps. In any case, I just wanted to try playing it, not steal it. I've played some keyboard instruments, including a pipe organ", he said. "Palais Garnier has one, but it's incredibly loud and it would have been too much of a risk to play it too often, so I only did it a few times altogether. I can play piano, but I haven't had a chance to play any keyboard instruments lately, aside from that piano we found the basement of that Brooklyn theatre, and… and I've missed it." he turned to Alina carefully. "I've been meaning to ask. You've already gotten used to violin, so you wouldn't mind the sound of piano, do you?"

"No, of course. I'd love to hear you play the piano", Alina replied. "Personally, I'm not very good at it. I only know the songs I play for the school kids. But Amelija can play it quite well, as a proper accomplished lady", she looked over to Amelija, who looked at Erik with interest, who in turn looked straight ahead.

"I don't think I could fit a piano in our house, but I was considering saving up for a clavecin."

"A harpsichord. Or čembalo", Amelija chimed in helpfully. "That's lovely. I hear they're becoming fashionable again."

"I would be absolutely delighted if you did that", Alina smiled.

He looked at her with a slight glint in his eye. "I can be loud, you know. Even on a clavecin."

"By all means, please, rattle the stars. The more, the better."

"Can't say I haven't warned you", he smiled. "If that's true, your eternal hunger for chaos will be well-fed tonight. Whether I'm right about being able to play the organ or not, it's going to be loud."

"If I understood correctly, you are actually writing something to be performed here, in New York", Amelija said, trying to stir up some more conversation so she wouldn't think about how much she actually disliked walking long distances.

"I am", Erik replied, pulling up his collar. "I'm finishing it up."

"What's it like?" Amelija raised her eyebrows curiously.

"It's a symphony", he looked at her with slight annoyance. "As for what it's like, I don't know. It's what I felt like writing at that particular time. I have no idea if it's actually good, other than the fact someone might offer to perform it. If it's good enough once it's finished, that is."

"As if that's of any importance", Amelija scoffed. "Has every piece of music you've ever heard been incredibly good?"

"Well no-"

"Me neither. Some of it is boring, some of it is somewhat good, and only the very few are in any way remarkable. But they all have in common that I heard them. Obviously, not everything has to be a work of genius in order to reach people. Art is, among other things, a job like any other. And I don't always do my job perfectly, so I'd hardly expect the musicians, composers, stage managers and critics to do the same."

Erik looked at her thoughtfully. "Since when are you so nonjudgmental? And, sorry, what is your job anyway?" The habit of asking basic things too bluntly and too long after getting to know someone wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

"I'm still extremely judgmental, thank you very much." Amelija grinned. "I actually manage our estate and finances in our father's name, while he plays a politician and idealist. I'm surprised you didn't know already."

"And you're saying you don't always do it well?"

"No, as you can see, this summer I haven't been doing it at all."

"In any case", Erik shrugged his shoulders, careful not to move the hand Alina was holding too much (so she wouldn't think he wants to wiggle free and let go), "it's not the critics I'm too worried about. Everyone can be a critic, it's quite easy. I'm worried what I myself will think about it when I finally hear it."

"Ah", Alina said next to him, "that's an interesting point. You might find that you've changed since it's been written." she paused for a second, looking at the evening star. "Still. I think it'll be worth it, if only to pay tribute to the person you once were. We all could benefit from showing a little compassion to our past selves."

Alina could feel Erik squeeze her hand gently - she knew she'd struck a chord with something he needed to talk about, but there was no way he'd discuss it any further with someone else present. "Other than that, the only other thing that bothers me", he chuckled slightly, "have any of you ever seen professional musicians practicing a piece?"

Alina and Amelija both shook their heads in frighteningly coordinated unison.

"You can tell when they like what they're doing", Erik said. "You can definitely hear it, too. I just - I'll lose my mind if I see them rehearsing and they have that dead, bored look in their eyes when they're doing something just to get paid."

The houses were getting sparse now, and as the road continued it started elevating slightly - indeed, they were on a gentle uphill climb to their destination. The suburb was more resembling a sparsely populated village, showing very few signs of still being populated. Some of the little houses had lights inside, and the road was still lit by street lamps - but it seemed that most of its residents had either moved, or were planning to do so soon. It was somehow too quiet.

The church that started coming out of the darkness ahead of them was small, old-looking and covered in thick ivy vines and branches. It looked slightly eerie in the light of streetlamps - it was obviously used until not long ago, but now it was locked, dark, and still as if waiting for something. The gate to the churchyard and the low stone wall around it still looked clean and untouched, and as they looked through the wide iron bars of the gate they were greeted with a somewhat strange sight.

The yard around it also had the feeling of something that was carefully kept until recently - the trees in the yard and the bushes were still neat and healthy; however tall summer grass had started to grow over the once-manicured lawn, leaving only the cobblestone paths untouched. It reached up to Alina's knees, but she could easily imagine it growing to her waist by the end of summer.

Amelija shivered a little at the sight of it. Alina looked at the wild overgrowth dominating over the once-pristine and proper lawn with a sort of satisfied smile that amused Erik greatly as he glanced her way.

"Is it to your liking, Alina?" he asked, biting down a smile.

"I like places that look alive", she looked at him with a spark in her eyes as her hands firmly held onto the bars of the iron gate. "Besides, isn't it much less intimidating this way? I'm sure it was pretty before, but it looks more genuine this way. I wouldn't mind if all places of worship looked a little more… you know."

"Hm", he shrugged. "Am I safe to assume, then, you're not afraid to go inside?"

"Hah!" she turned to Amelija. "Are you scared?"

Amelija gave her an annoyed look and a long sigh. "It looks creepier than I expected, I'll admit."

"You don't have to go inside", Erik offered with almost no mockery in his tone - almost.

"Really, Amelija, we'll go together", Alina said cheerfully. "Like when we were kids. So nothing can happen to us."

"Things did happen to us", Amelija waved an annoyed finger at her. "Dad got very angry with you, mom got very angry with me, we destroyed a lot of clothes, I still have a scar where I scraped my arm on a jagged plank, once you sprained your ankle, not to mention -"

"We're still alive, aren't we?"

"God protects children and fools", Amelija rolled her eyes. "Good thing we're still at least one of those things. Let's go before I change my mind."

Alina nodded, took a pin out of her pocket and passed it to Erik, who unlocked the gate soundlessly. The two of them in front of Amelija moved so quietly that the only thing breaking the silence was a faint, barely-there rustling of tall grass against their jackets and trousers. Erik stopped in front of the church door, unlocking it just as carefully and opening it slightly in one slow and gentle motion so as to minimize the creaking. Alina entered the church first and Amelija followed suit as Erik closed the door behind her. It was suddenly clear why Alina insisted on bringing flat-toed shoes on this trip - not only would her heels have made it much easier to trip in the dark, but they would probably have made the characteristic clack-clack sound on the marble floor.

The church was barely lit by moonlight and street lights outside passing through stained-glass windows in mellow rays that ended on the stone floor. It was just enough to see their way through it without tripping or knocking something over. Most of the valuables were gone - the church still had piers and an altar but not much else; a bowl here or candleholder there, but it was clear by the muddy-looking metal that none of it was worth stealing. Alina turned around - some of the windows were broken from the outside with rocks that now lay on the floor, though not the painted ones - whoever threw the rocks was apparently still too afraid to ruin the saints and virgin Mary that looked at her with seeming amusement from afar. The vines that covered the outside of the church had just barely started to expand their growth to the inside of the walls, and the sight of it gave Alina a strangely eerie feeling she couldn't quite describe.

Alina looked up behind her and realized that the pipe organ on the balcony across the altar was, indeed, still in place.

"Wow", she said, and her voice echoed against the stone walls of the now-empty church. "Are we… certain that this can go unnoticed?"

"No", Erik said, looking up as well. "Not at all. What we need to focus on, this time, is how to not get caught."

"Do you have a plan?"

"Sort of." he looked at her. "I can't hear anything while I'm playing, so I'll have to stop every once in a while to check if somebody's coming. I know how we can exit without being seen, but we'll have to move quickly and you'll have to follow my instructions carefully. And", he turned to Amelija, "don't panic. Keep calm. Panic will make you louder and more prone to mistakes. Just focus on what I tell you, if somebody comes, and we'll be fine."

"Alright", Alina said. "We'll trust you. Now, would you like to try your hand at a real church organ?"

"Yes", Erik said, then jumped up, caught one of the balusters with his hands and climbed directly onto the low balcony, completely ignoring perfectly usable stairs not five feet from him.

"Show-off", Alina said behind him as he stood on the balustrade.

He turned around, smiled at her, then disappeared in the shadows.

Alina took the perfectly usable stairs and climbed onto the balcony, leaning on the wall to see Erik playing; Amelija thought for a moment and sat on one of the piers, deciding to give them some privacy.

Erik wiped the dust of the stool and the keys and sat down soundlessly. After a moment's thought, he decided to keep his gloves on.

"Here it goes", he said with slight hesitation. "I might have to warm up a bit first - I know some etudes and variations I could play - I haven't had many chances to play in the past year and a half."

"Whatever you'd like" Alina said, looking away to make him less nervous. "We have all night, if need be."

"Right. Well." he sighed and cracked his fingers, and started.

The first chord was incredibly loud in the silent abandoned church, and all three of them jumped up immediately.

"Oops", he said. "I might have to adjust some things. Give me a minute." Alina couldn't see what he was doing, but when he started again, it sounded much gentler and softer than the first time. Erik played some plain, boring etudes just to get his fingers used to the feeling of keys again, and paused when he finally felt confident enough to really start.

"Lovely", Alina chirped from her corner. "You really do know how to make even scales sound lovely. Don't stop."

"Alright, let's see what I can do here." his mind registered her praise, but he was focused on playing now. The organ had massive potential; he was pleasantly surprised to find such an instrument in this small abandoned church in the outskirts. Unfortunately, he couldn't exactly do whatever he wanted from fear of attracting too much attention, so he settled for a few soft, soothing improvisations that resembled old gregorian chants. Alina and Amelija sat silently and unmovingly while he played, careful not to disturb him.

"Hmm", he commented. "Not bad."

"It sounds so haunting", Alina commented. "I like it very much."

"Gregorian chants are usually like that. They don't follow the form we know in modern music - so it sounds a lot more unpredictable, and slightly unreal - like a stream of water running through a cave, so to speak. They're usually performed by acapella choirs - but I thought, organ is a woodwind instrument after all, it was worth experimenting", he remarked, not looking up.

"You said it better than I could", Alina smiled.

"It's still not exactly what I wanted to do here", he frowned slightly. "I'm running out of inspiration."

Trying again, he played a sweet little melody he thought Alina might like; it was what he usually did when he couldn't think of anything to play but felt he had to practice. It wasn't particularly good - this organ was not meant to be played for sweet and soft romantic tunes, and Erik in particular was playing it for the first time, so the effect was not quite satisfying to him.

As he finished, a pebble flew from behind him and hit the pipe a few feet from his head, making an annoying clank sound - not close enough to startle him, but close enough to annoy him.

"Boring!" Amelija remarked behind him. "I didn't come all the way here to take a nap!"

Erik turned around to face her with an expression so furious she could see it even through the mask, and she grinned a sharp defiant grin back at him.

"You'd like to be entertained?" he asked flatly. Amelija had heard that tone of voice before, but this time his hands weren't twitching. She wasn't afraid.

"God, I would" she sighed prettily. "Alina said you should rattle the stars, and I don't feel any kind of rattling!"

Erik kept his gaze fixed to Amelija as he slammed his fingers on the keys to the first chords to Toccata and Fugue. The effect was instantaneous - dust flew off the pipes, the whole church vibrated and walls shook, and Amelija stumbled in surprise, almost falling down.

"Yes!" she raised her arms. "Exactly!"

He shot her one more look with the piercing yellow of his eyes, reminding Amelija of lightning that broke out of the sky with summer storms, and turned around. He played a few more bars, right until the short pause, and stopped again.

"Are you having second thoughts?" Amelija yelled at him as she walked down the aisle toward him with her arms spread wide. "I'm not afraid. Why are you afraid?"

"I don't remember the whole thing by heart", he laughed a deep, uncharacteristically confident laugh as he looked over at Alina who could barely stifle her laughter at the scene unfolding in front of her. "This is somewhat embarrassing."

"I don't care, play whatever you want! Just spare me of this silly shyness!" Amelija yelled again from behind him. "You're the last person playing this organ before they take it apart! Give it a proper requiem before it dies, or don't bother at all!"

Erik took off his gloves and threw them furiously on the ground next to him as he yelled back, "Fine!"

Alina barely had time to stand up from the stool she had been sitting on as he started - if she had waited a moment more, he would have probably accidentally knocked her over; he suddenly threw his arms wholeheartedly at the keyboards playing another impossible chord that rattled the entire church. Alina felt the very ribs vibrating in her chest as she stumbled away, laughing, and down from the balcony to evade the thunderously loud music.

Behind her, she could barely make out Amelija laughing again as well.

"Great!" Amelija exclaimed, walking towards them with her eyes sparkling. The old organ roared as Erik played it, paying no mind to the dissonance or the volume. The thundering, aggressive chords he held for a second too long would give way to a dark, enchanting melody before resuming their rage once again.

Amelija laughed, running up to Alina who stared in enchanted, bewitched, entranced silence. Alina shook as Amelija took her hands, breaking the spell, and twirled her around.

"Dance!" Amelija yelled, barely audible against the organ. But Erik seemed to have heard her, and he changed the rhythm to a more bearable one, something that would have been a waltz if it wasn't so close to a funeral march. Alina laughed back, accepting Amelija's hands; she put her arm around Amelija's waist and intertwined their remaining hands, spinning around the aisle in some dark, morbid version of a ballroom dance.

Erik would probably have been amused at the scene if he wasn't completely, singularly focused on what he was doing. The old, forgotten organ strained to match the fury he put into his playing, giving its final swan song before it was left for good. Erik modulated the key and focused inward again - felt the old instrument's pain as it thundered through the church, its anger at being left behind to rot and taken into pieces that no longer held its spirit and power. He thought he could hear the ghosts from the cemetery rise up to listen, see their pale forms in the corner of his eye as they awoke and slowly joined in to listen. He eased up the tempo, quieted down a bit, careful not to upset them.

You are not forgotten.

I'm here, and I hear you.

He brushed over the keys gently while rays of moonlight spilled through the clouds and the stained glass windows illuminating his long, pale fingers. Alina and Amelija stood still behind him on the stairs, unable to see the ghosts but nevertheless somehow aware of their presence. Alina's gaze fixed at the flying strands of his black hair and his narrow shoulders that moved with every note, and as Amelija turned to look at her, she could see such ardent and sincere adoration she hadn't seen on a human being before.

You should rest.

Wherever you're going, be at peace.

The song slowed down to a mellow, melancholic weep that promised to carry the old church's memories long after it was over, drawing out the last few notes in some strange harmony that human ears were not meant to hear. Erik stopped playing and sat still, deep in thought for a moment.

He then turned to Alina and Amelija, looking at Alina for a moment with the same adoring expression that matched her own.

Then his eyes widened, and he stood up immediately grabbing his gloves. Before the women could say anything, he had already crossed over to them and put a finger to his lips, signaling for them to keep silent.

"Someone's found us", he whispered. "Follow me, and be as quiet as you can."

Erik grabbed Alina's hand, and Alina grabbed Amelija, as they stumbled through the church. He opened a door to a small passage behind the altar and urged them both inside, following close behind. He crouched to look through the dusty keyhole at the scene unfolding.

Outside, they could hear confused and irritated voices of people - police, most likely - who searched around for the source of the noise. They would surely come and search this room too, but for now they were doing the obvious thing - approaching the shallow pit where the organ was, arguing as they held their candles high.

Good.

Erik turned to them, talking almost inaudibly. "When I tell you, you both run out and continue running until you reach the back entrance, then get out and meet me at the back of the yard next to the tree where we came in. No matter who calls you, don't look back and don't stop. Understood?"

They both nodded in unison. Alina whispered, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to create a little diversion." he smiled. "Don't worry. They can't catch me, they won't even see me."

"Alright."

He looked through the keyhole again. "Now", he whispered, opening the door and shoving them outside. Alina ran, quickly and quietly, like she was already used to this sort of thing while dragging Amelija by the hand - and Amelija followed as best as she could, not at all used to this sort of thing. They reached the back entrance in absolute panic as Alina opened the door quickly, then continued running through the churchyard, jumping over smaller bushes and stumbling through the unkempt grass. Amelija let out a little chuckle - she was scared out of her mind, but something about this made her blood boil and as she reached the tree she was halfway through a state of euphoria. She joined Alina, leaning on the tree and heaving as they waited for Erik to come.

Inside the church, as soon as Alina and Amelija had run out of the room, Erik ran in the opposite direction, knocking over a candle holder that clanked loudly and distracted the policemen. He kept to the shadows as he made his way along the walls, only occasionally stepping into the light to indicate his position.

The policemen tried following him, but they could barely process what they were seeing in the dim light. Erik stood in front of one of the elevated balconies that looked at the altar, then jumped in a moment of inspiration and scaled the wall, holding himself up on the bannister. His face was buried deep in his collar and hood - nobody would be able to see that he was wearing a mask under this low light - and so, as he stood balancing on the edge of the bannister, he turned around and looked the four large men directly in the eye. All they could see was a tall hooded shadow looming over them bathed in pale moonlight that barely passed through the dusty windows.

The policemen froze, expecting an attack, but he only stood for a second before he turned around again. He climbed higher along the wall until he reached one of the broken windows. Wrapping his arm and hand in the lapel of his cloak, he smashed the remaining glass to widen the hole, then quickly pushed himself through the opening. The large growth of vines on the other side partly supported his weight - barely, but it did - as he climbed down stepping into cracks and bumps on the wall. It wasn't particularly high in the first place, only a few meters above the ground; but he didn't know what would be waiting on the ground and didn't really want to risk breaking his leg if he slipped or fell into a hole. The policemen were just starting to exit through the main entrance when he jumped down and started running towards the tall tree in the back.

Alina and Amelija had only been waiting a minute, and they shot up immediately as they saw him. He waved his hand for them to start climbing - Alina grabbed the nearest branch and was over the wall in mere seconds. Amelija was so tired from the physical strain that her hands were already shaking. She struggled more and nearly fell, unable to grip the branches properly.

With adrenaline pulsing through his veins, Erik jumped and gripped the flat top of the wall, bouncing off and propping himself up on his elbows. He stood on the wall, then jumped over onto the tree and grabbed both of Amelija's arms, pulling her up instantly. She took the hint and helped him, scratching the trunk with her feet. Before she could really process what happened, he had somehow carried her over and pushed her down the wall, where she landed with a little more rattle in her bones than she would have liked.

Alina watched the scene in panic and as Erik followed down, she immediately pointed silently at the nearest building with a fire escape - they climbed up some more, up the stairs to the top, then finally collapsed on the empty roof terrace, breathing heavily.

"That was exciting", Amelija remarked as they all lay on their backs looking at the stars. "I'll admit, you two are not boring at all."

"Is everyone alright?" Alina propped herself up on her elbow.

"I scratched my knees, and your pants are ruined, but otherwise yes", Amelija shrugged.

"Erik?"

"Well, don't panic now", he drew out lazily. "I'm bleeding."

"What-"

"I decided for a more, ah, dramatic escape route, but it was worth it. I just picked up a few pieces of glass on my way", he said as he plucked the glass out of his coat. "I nicked my knuckles a little. I didn't notice it until now."

"Are you-"

"I'm alright. Don't worry", he looked over at her gently, holding his hand up. "Look, they're just scratches. I've had worse back when we renovated the house. Don't be upset."

"Whatever you say", Alina replied, slightly upset. His hand was more than a little scratched, but seeing that it didn't look dangerous, she didn't feel like arguing. Erik's reckless abandon when it came to his own physical body was more than a little tiring at times.

"Amelija", he looked over to her, calling her by her name for the first time. "I have to say, you're not boring either."

"Thank you", Amelija raised her eyebrows. They frowned at each other for a moment before Amelija finally broke into laughter.

"Alina, by God, fine", she said. "He's great. You have my blessing."

"I knew that already", Alina purred with satisfaction. Sun was starting to rise behind her, illuminating the wisps of brown hair floating around her head. If Erik was to be completely honest, he'd say it looked a little bit like a halo.

END OF CHAPTER 29

A/N: Hi everyone! I just wanted to say I really appreciate all the lovely comments I've gotten so far. I generally try to reply to everyone, so if I've forgotten someone, I'm really sorry! I've noticed that some people have questions about the plot or characters, so if you do, don't hesitate to ask. If some questions are repeated, I can always address them in the next chapter.

It'll soon be 3 years since I started writing this story (I think it was somewhere in October or November of 2017), which is a little strange of a thought. I was the same age as Alina when I started and now I'm a year older than her. It took me a whole year to gather the courage and start publishing, but I'm really glad I did. I'm glad this story, which I wrote to cheer myself up during a strange time in my life, has reached people and made them happy. That was the whole point, really, to share with people a vision of a world where people try to understand each other and heal.