Chapter 2: Night Stroll

The two both had planned to collect books and papers from a the same home, different nights. Having the time, Ezyl and Eva teamed up to do the mission that night.

"Which house is it?" Ezyl asked, following closely behind Eva.

"Just a few blocks ahead. It's pretty big and hard not to notice. He keeps his books and papers in the basement though... it might be a little hard." Eva watched around for people on the streets, but it was dead silent.

Not that either of them could see in the dark night, Ezyl made a surprised face. It shifted into a smirk of underestimation, for he didn't expect her to know so much. As she looked back, it changed back to neutral.

"Right there." she stopped to point.

The house, was not much of a house but more like a small apartment building. It was pretty much a rectangular block sticking out of the ground with windows. The fencing was a 6-foot brick wall with a fancy black barred gate in the front. There was no grass or any shrubbery in the huge front lawn, just a strange shaped tree in the corner.

"Let's go."

As they climbed the black gates carefully, they didn't notice the man walking around the corner who just happened to see them. His insomnia kept him walking the streets at night, but this was his first night in town, arriving just that evening.

He lowered his sunglasses and peered at them to see if he saw what he really saw. Arching his eyebrow, he pushed his sunglasses up and quietly walked towards the house.

"How are you planning to get inside?" Ezyl asked as they walked to the back of the house.

Eva didn't answer but she did look through the backdoor window before grabbed the knob and opened it. He tilted his head, a little confused. As she opened it further and stepped inside, a furry animal appeared at her ankles.

"What is that!" he nearly said loudly.

"Shh, it's a raccoon. His name's Inks." she replied without looking back at him. Her complete focus was on the mission, looking around if the owner was awake. "He helps me out quite a bit... especially getting me inside."

"What a smart animal." he chuckled.

"You have no idea..." she turned right and in the corner was a door. Ezyl assumed it led to the basement, and he was right. She opened the door, which made a quiet creaking noise. She paused for a moment for any other noise, but all she could hear was their breathing.

She continued and down the concrete stairs. The stairway curved and seemed almost endless, especially in the dark. She suddenly stopped, Ezyl bumping into her lightly.

"Huh?" he seemed puzzled. He heard rustling.

"I'm looking for a light." the noise stopped and suddenly there was a beam of light on the wall. He could faintly see her holding a flashlight. "We're almost there."

And soon, while continuing, they came to a flat area. It was a gray stone flooring, and against the walls were bookshelves, except for a space for a desk where papers were pinned up on a tack board and files were everywhere.

"Let's get started." she whispered, turning on the lamp on the desk. "Only two of the bookshelves contain alchemy books... those two." she pointed them out, which were both on one wall, considering the room was probably the size of a small hotel room. It made no sense to Ezyl... a deep basement, but a small room, only half the books were on alchemy, and there was no lock on the door. He shrugged it off.

He began packing the books into his first bag (a backpack) while Eva packed the files into her bag. It took a while, but when she was done clearing out the desk she turned to help Ezyl. Just as she turned, she saw a tall, broad man enter the room. She nearly screamed, but her heart jumped instead and she squealed.

"Shit." Ezyl's eyes widened.

"Who're you?" Eva hissed.

The man turned to her and arched an eyebrow.

"I was about to ask the same thing." his deep voice said quietly, as if he couldn't whisper.

"Wait, he isn't the guy who lives here?" Ezyl looked puzzled.

"No, I don't know him." she scowled.

"What are you doing?" the man asked again. He stared at Eva from behind his sunglasses. He wore a strange cape-cloak looking thing that only covered the right half of his body.

"What does it look like?" Eva smirked. "We're stealing and going to burn this guy's alchemy stuff."

The guy's expression changed suddenly into a very surprised look. It seemed like he was about to say something, but Eva interrupted him.

"Ha, good thing you came around!" her smirk shifted into a grin. "We need a third hand to carry all these books, y'know?"

"Wha-" the man and Ezyl both said an once.

"Here," she handed the man three bags, assuming he was strong from his appearance. Ezyl and him both looked puzzled.

"Let's go, the guy might wake up." she pushed the guy up the stairs.

"But-wait-" he stuttered as Ezyl turned the lamp off on his desk.

Without a word or question, the man was pushed outside and they all ran for it into the alley. It was hard climbing over the gate, but luckily the bags fit through the gate bars... of course, if you squished it thin enough that is.

After the climb, they walked a little outside of town and made a fire. To Eva's interest, the man hadn't questioned or spoken a word since they left. She turned to him, smiling. Both their faces were glowing orange from the fire.

"Do you dislike alchemy too?" she asked.

He shrugged. He mumbled something she couldn't hear... "it's in...ood" is all she heard.

"What?"

"Err... yes... it's not a good thing to have in this world, is it?" he smiled in a polite way. Just as a stranger would. She smirked at him.

"I'm Eva." she nodded her head towards Ezyl. "That's Ezyl."

"Hi." Ezyl raised a hand for a split second.

"My name's Daerial Iven..." the man said, drifting his eyes towards the fire. Ezyl tossed in a couple more books.

"Only if we had something to cook..." he sighed. Then turned to Inks. The raccoon stared at him and blinked blankly, then squeaked and curled up into a ball on the dusty ground.

"What're you doing in town... Daeren, that's what I'm gunna call you." Eva grinned.

"I don't know." from his toneless voice, he seemed to be hypnotized by the flames of the fire. "I never thought about it-"

"What!" Eva laughed as if he was joking. "How can you not know? And why're you wearing sunglasses during the night?"

"I don't know." he said.

"Hiding something?" Ezyl asked.

Daeren turned to him.

"No." he seemed to be holding back a scowl.

"Anyway," Eva noticed this and changed the subject. "I think I'm going to head back to the inn." she said while standing up.

"That certainly would be nice... are you staying anywhere in town?" Ezyl asked Daeren.

"No." he said, standing up as well.

"You can stay with me then." Eva said. "I got the last room, which happened to have two beds."

"It is okay with you?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah." she made a face that said "don't worry about it".

They headed back to the inn, leaving the fire burning. They didn't worry too much since there were no plant life nearby... just a bunch of dirt.

"Bothersome thing." Eva pulled her long dark hair off her head.

Daeren was looking around the room when he saw that. In a shocked responce, he stared at her with his jaw dropped, but quickly recovered.

She started removing hair pins from her head. She actually had hair... a light sandy colored hair. It was a little choppy and messy, especially in the back which was just a bunch of short hair. Her front part was longer and neater.

"You disguise yourself?" he asked, a little too calmly.

"Yeah... kinda a hobby, kinda for my own freedom..." she sighed as she poked her eyes. She took out her blue contacts... her real eye color was a golden yellow.

He watched her until she started to undress. Then he turned around torwards the window and stared out blankly. He wasn't sure why she just started to take her clothes off infront of him... had she forgotten he was ther-

"Don't worry about it, I know you wouldn't look." Eva chuckled, slipping on a long shirt and shorts. "From your behavior, you seemed polite enough."

Daeren didn't reply. He pulled a chair up to the window and stared out into the night sky.

"Arn't you gunna sleep?" she asked. "It's past midnight."

"I'm not tired." he replied.

"What?" she chuckled. "You an insomniac 'er something?"

He didn't reply. She frowned and crawled into bed, falling asleep a few minutes later.

Daeren stood up to take his sunglasses off and set them down on the window sill. He took off his cloak and hung it on the back of the chair. He didn't sit back down, but continued to stare blankly out the window.

-End-