I always thought this might happen to me. Being left out on the streets. Scavenging through bins looking for something reasonable to eat. Well that's how it started, but then I was begging. Most people ignored or looked at me with mild disdain but one. She was different. Whenever she came past she would drop a note or two. Normally only five or ten dollars but it was more money than I had seen in ages and it was more than enough to get me through. She was always heading in the same direction. Always to the same place. At first I respected her privacy. Denying my curious mind the information of where she was going but then it got too much. What could be so interesting about one place that she feels the need to constantly visit it every single day?
So I followed her, down the main street, through the crowds of shoppers and workers and then veering off into a small side street and then off into an alleyway. The alley was filled with street art. Splashes of colour, patterned across the walls. Small things are written next to them, they look like names but with my ADHD I can't tell. I look over all the art before looking into the alley way and realise where we are heading.
Up ahead a large wall covered in colour and patterns looms up above me. A dead end. And the girl is standing in front of it. I look her over for the first time and am shocked to find that she looks about the same age as me. Long blonde hair settled at her shoulders and her deep blue eyes stared me down as if challenging me. She is wearing a checked shirt of red and white, denim jeans and tall brown riding boots.
"You were following me," She states. It's not a question, she knows it.
I nod anyway.
"Why?"
I shrug.
"You're the boy off the streets that I give money too aren't you?"
I nod again.
She leans back on the wall, sighing. Her hands unconsciously tapping a rhythm against the wall. That's when the wall starts grinding and shifting. A small wooden door pops through the wall, a symbol engraved on it. The symbol is an eye within a triangle with the letters K and I set in it. She groans and puts her head in her hands.
"Is that a door," I ask speaking for the first time.
She looks at me in shock.
"You…you sound…" She cuts off, " You can see it?"
I nod.
"Do you know who your parents are?' She asks taking a step towards me and I step back.
"I knew my mum but she's dead now. I don't know my dad," I say trying to keep away from her.
"Di immortals," She curses, or at least that's what it sounds like.
She runs back to the door and places her hand over the symbol. She murmurs something under her breath before the door slides open. She turns to me as if about to say something but a deep ringing sound issues from her hand. She groans again.
"I know. I know," She says as if talking to someone, " I have to go," She says to me and I don't know why this should bother me, "You need to go through that door and tell them Celeste sent you. I'll come and find you later."
I shake my head. I'm not going through that door. If there is one thing I've learnt being on the streets it's don't trust people being who they say they are.
In seconds she is on me and pushing me through the door. As the door slams closed behind me I hear her say, "I'm sorry," before it goes dark.
I lie on the cold ground. It's hard, like stone but also softer like moss. I just lie there and listen, waiting for something to happen. Some where I can here footsteps but I don't move. A light is bobbing down whatever this is towards me. I stop breathing pressing myself against the ground. I'm dead. I'm dead. The person walks towards me and gasps when they see me. The person squats next to me and I can see their face. She has dark hair and skin and is wearing a black dress with a thin belt of intertwining strings tied around it. She leans over me and places a hand on my neck and I stop myself from flinching. She presses to fingers into my neck and laughs. She freaking laughs. Another bob of light rushes towards us and a girl that looks like the first girl but slightly younger drops beside me.
"What is it Thea," The younger one asks.
"Someone is trying to play dead," The girl Thea smiles, to me she says, "We're not going to hurt you. Have you been here before? I don't recognise you."
"Celeste sent me," I mumble out before I drift into unconscious.