Vigil awoke with a start. He scanned the darkness for the disturbance that awoke him. He was in a small room of one of the houses. Vigil felt warmth behind him. Abbey lay there, with Sarah sleeping beside him.
But she was awake. "Sarah?" He inquired.
She jumped lightly, and looked towards Vigil. "What?"
"Are you ok?" he asked, taking a step towards her. She looked scared. Her eyes were wide, and she was breathing unevenly.
"I thought I heard a sound outside…" She glanced back at the open doorway, and pulled her way backwards into Abbey's side. The lioness shifted in her sleep.
Vigil nodded, and rose from his spot. He stepped into the next room and looked outside. He had a hard time seeing in the dark. But as he looked around the open street, he froze.
There, lurking outside the house was one of the shadowy beings. He could not see the burning white eyes, which meant that it was turned away. He retreated behind the doorframe and glanced about the entryway. A quick look through the house would calm his nerves, and reassure him that the ghosts could not enter the house. He hoped they could not, even if they saw the group.
When he entered into one of the bedrooms of the house, he stopped. The decorations of the room had fallen apart and crumbled to dust many years prior, leaving the room empty. Only the stone frame of a bed survived.
Vigil stared in awe at the spectacle he saw. In the middle of the room stood a large red cloud, ebbing and flowing with red energy, reaching out with cloud-like tentacles. It burned a deep red color, similar to that of blood. A small sphere of Unown spun around it every which way. Their shapes were silhouetted against the red cloud. Their eyes burned with the same intense glow that the cloud held.
Vigil retreated carefully back to the room his group was sleeping in. He nudged Abbey until she awoke. "We need to move." He urged.
"I give the orders, not you. It's still dark, which means, we will sleep as much as we can so we'll be prepared for what we will face." She glared at the insect.
"No!" Vigil chittered quietly, passing a glance at the doorway. "This house is not safe! The Unown are here! Ghosts lurk outside this house!"
Abbey's ears perked now. He had her attention. Her eyes glowed with a strange energy. "You're right. There is some sort of anomaly in one of the other rooms. But only a small number of Unown." She turned her head towards the street. "It is hard for me to tell, but I think I see three ghosts lurking outside the front door." She rose, picking up Sarah and placing the mouse on her back. "We need to move. Get on." She ordered. Vigil complied, climbing onto the lioness' back, and clutching her fur, just as Sarah did.
Abbey stretched, and spun around, crouching down as she watched the window. With a powerful movement, Abbey pounced onto the window, and quietly dropped to the ground outside.
"Finally, I can see." She commented. Indeed, the cavern was brighter than the rooms inside the houses. With quick, nimble steps, she darted into the street, away from the ghosts.
A horrid wail sounded behind them, echoing across the cavern walls. Vigil stole a look back, and prompted the lioness faster. The ghosts were quickly approaching.
Abbey surged forward with more haste, and turned a sharp corner into another street. The path sloped downward towards the water. She nimbly left upon broken statues and shallow walls, seeking dry surfaces above the water.
But the road continued further into the water, they found, and Abbey decided instead to seek the broken rooftops of the city. Climbing carefully up the cracked face of a old blacksmith's shop, she hauled herself atop, and looked around.
Red lights dotted the city streets. Vigil stared with disbelief. Sarah's eyes widened. "There's so many."
"There. Big structure to the right. Head there." Vigil pulled Abbey's fur until she saw the structure. She nodded, glancing back at the street where the ghosts were drifting up to their level.
Abbey leapt from rooftop to rooftop, making a path to the vast stepped temple in the middle of the city. The structure grew larger and larger in their field of vision as they came closer to its walls. More wailing sounded from left and right, across parts of the city. Vigil suspected the ghosts of the city had noticed them. Or maybe they had found other prey?
It did not matter so much as long as they reached the temple. And in a few moments, they would. With graceful leaps, Abbey reached the courtyard of the temple, and seemingly flew into its open doors, plunging the group into darkness.
The ghosts did not follow them. The trio was safe. Slowly, the hallway grew brighter. The sun was up, and had risen high enough to pierce into the cavern. Leaning against a wall, Abbey sought a break from their maddening adventure. Sarah and Vigil slipped off her back, with Vigil guiding the injured mouse to a wall.
They would take a moment to breathe before moving into the temple, and further into the insanity that now surrounded them.