"We can't wait out here forever." Sheik shrugged after a long silence. I held my breath. The old wooden sign hanging from the ceiling did look interesting and wicked at the same time. It may be my misreckoning, but the "NECRO" carved next to "Polis 3" seemed almost new compared to the condition of the sign.

As I still stared, Sheik unclipped a candle lamp from the wall and pushed us to go down the slope of the tunnel. Kirby floated off the ground to settle himself on my head. I felt a little shiver from the guy and I patted his feet to calm him. I took the lamp from Sheik and volunteered to lead us down.

The tunnel was long and featureless. I almost forgot what it lead to. Wooden columns were hammered together to support the roof alike to the study room with the tents. However, the columns were aligned in a arch with smaller pieces that supported the roof to the beginning of the wall. There was an arch every five feet or so and it felt like we were going through some gates.

"Is that the end?" Kirby mumbled from atop my head. Indeed it was hard to see with dim light, but the end of the tunnel was adorned with a wide entrance and complicated structures of metal and wood to prevent crumbling. It was the entrance to the city.

Well, more to the station of the city. The tracks have lead us to an open roof station, long abandoned and the concrete on the walls were crumbling in the large cracks. The stationmaster's office had posters of the previous flourishing city. Most had a vintage taste you'd see in old parts of a downtown, but these posters had that "cave" tint in them. Some posters read: "Always have a light and extras! A light for a life.", "Crystal Hunting in Polis 4 Excavating Area, Help Wanted."

"A station with no train. Perhaps everybody left." Lucario said as he was walking down the track to the end of the station. Only the tracks were left behind. We couldn't even find a single crate. Strange vine-like plants started to make their way through the concrete and began to infest the floor, slowly reaching the walls. I was impressed by their adamant nature and determination of covering the entire station with its faint green color.

Sheik was kneeling and studying the vines. I didn't really see anything out of the ordinary. I remember seeing these kinds of vines before. "Anything interesting?" I asked. Sheik narrowed his eyes.

"Just wondering why the leaves are green."

"Huh, aren't leaves always green?"

"The green color in leaves is called chlorophyll, which is used to absorb sunlight and make nutrients to help them grow."

I was wondering why Sheik was giving me a lesson about the plants. But then I noticed. There is no sunlight. The roof was tall, but not tall enough to peek any sun through. How did these plants survive after being abandoned?

"I've been wondering about that for a while. Too much sunlight is bad for your skin, but that doesn't mean none is better. So why did the people here decide to make such a big deal to live underground...?" Sheik mused.

The long hallway had many windows. Most were intact, with the occasional cracks going through the glass. A thin sheet of pebbles and sand covered the floor and each step we took was a deafening, splitting 'crunch' that echoed and rang in my ears. We passed by a simple row of ticket booths and a wide staircase down to the city.

Once we exited the station, the city revealed itself and its former glory. Although it wasn't the city that appeared in my dream, this "Polis 3" was equally stunning. An entire town was built on a storm drain. All the houses seemed to hang on the wall for their dear life, but concrete platforms supported the neighborhoods as a mere consolation. Bridges and various walkways connected one patch of neighborhoods to another. Above us, a colossal chandelier-like candle lamp hung from the darkness. There must be a ceiling to hang such stunning chandelier but the thick metal chains disappeared above our heads. I tried to picture how it was like when the chandelier was lit up. Did it take place of a sun, or did it feed the purpose of a hearth and a central symbol of the city?

Just below the chandelier, was a grand elevator that made access to the neighborhoods below. The elevator itself was the size of a good house. Three stories high and spacious, the elevator provided transport to many people and supplies at once. There were long staircases that traced along the walls for those who wanted to visit friends or the station without the wait of the elevator.

The architecture was beautiful. I've never seen anything like it. But there was the one aspect of it that made it all empty. The lack of people.

Kirby hopped off my head and started venturing in the abandoned houses. A couple of candle lamps were clipped to the walls so I lit some of them with mine as we went on our way. Most houses were preserved with furniture and household products. The people seemed to leave their homes in a hurry. As the poster in the station said, there were little lighting supplies left in the houses along with the people.

"There might have been an emergency where the residents had to leave their homes." Lucario mumbled. In his hands was a dusty photograph of a family of five. The mother held a baby in her arms.

"Sure, there was an emergency. But the fact that none of them came back bothers me." I said.

"We may see some residents... The city is big." Lucario said as he put down the photo gently. I shrugged. If we did see some people, I hoped they were stable.

Kirby was in the living room where a small black piano stood in a corner near a window. There was a music piece on the stand. The ink was faint and fading, but I was able to make out the title: "Green Bird". Kirby struggled with the cover on the piano keys so I pulled them open. My heart skipped a beat to see the ivory was smothered with a deep maroon color. Some of the keys that were stained were red and wet. Blood dripped and oozed off of the keys. I pulled Kirby away from the bloody piano keys before he could touch at them. I called out to Sheik and Lucario.

"What's wrong?" Kirby asked. He looked up with such innocence; I was persuaded that he has never seen human blood before. I pursed my lips and held him tight. My other friends rushed into the living room and immediately saw the blood on the piano keys. Lucario sniffed lightly at the fresh blood and pulled back. "It's human blood. Judging the color, it hasn't been an hour since it was transferred here."

All of us fell silent for a short while. Sheik stood up and called out, "If anyone is here, please show yourself!"

We waited for a good minute in silence. During that time, I couldn't look at the piano. I had a feeling I was going to picture the individual that played this piano, even when their fingers were starting to bleed. Lucario scratched his cheek and called with a friendlier tone, "We mean no harm."

I almost jumped out of my skin when the little girl materialized from under the piano. She crawled out on fours with incredible speed and stood to brush the dust from her dress. She was the same girl I saw in my dream of the city and when we chased her to reach here. All of us stood still, afraid to make the next move. I may have held my breath because my head throbbed with the same timing of the old analog clock in the kitchen.

She turned towards me very, very slowly. "Am I saved?"

The little girl stared at me with great intensity. Her sky blue eyes seemed to peer into everything I hid inside me. I was confused, but I couldn't take my eyes off of her. I squeezed Kirby's cheeks for comfort and he giggled. He didn't seem intimidated by the girl at all. My throat choked back before I could make any noise from my vocal chords. "Wh-What do you mean by saved?"

"Your wings. Will they take me to he-heav-heav... above?" Her voice skipped around on one word like a broken CD.

"Oh. I-um, I'm not that kind of angel. I'm sorry."

Her sky blue eyes squinted and she looked down. I was sorry I said that. A long uncomfortable silence followed. I made a brief glance at Sheik and Lucario for guidance but they shrugged. Kirby reached his arms and tugged at her dress. He asked with a soft, friendly voice, "Were you lonely?" And the girl nodded once.

"...Nobody took me. Nobody remembered to take me. They remembered my big brother and little brother. But not me. They all left. Daddy didn't even take my hand. Daddy was too busy saving everyone else. Daddy forgot about me." The little girl said, cupping her hands. Her fingertips were stained with old blood. Thoughts continued to pour from her trembling lips and I wondered how long she has kept these feelings to herself. When I kneeled to meet her eye level, the little girl towered over and threw her arms around me. She wailed horribly for what seemed like forever.

While I helped her wash her fingers and puffy eyes, she turned back and curved her lips into a fraction of a smile. I tried to smile back big.

Without the blood, I was able to see that the girl had burst blisters on all of her fingertips. I liked playing instruments back in the day but I can't imagine how committed you need to be to have bloody blisters from playing the piano. I found a pack of bandages in the cabinet under the sink. She refused the treatment first, but I didn't want the blisters to get infected or them to bleed again. I took my time to wrap the bandages around all of her fingers.

The little girl flexed and curled her taped fingers with a frown. "They feel weird."

"At least they don't hurt as much. Now, don't take them off, okay?" I said.

"...I will if you say please." The little girl mumbled as she puckered her lips.

"Please."

Her face lit up immediately. "Okay."

A chuckle escaped from me. I couldn't believe I was actually terrified of her earlier. She seemed like such a normal kid for a society that lived in a cave.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Priscilla." She lifted her chest to show she was proud of her name.

"That's a pretty name."

"Thank you. And what's yours?"

When I went to respond, my lips shut first. I was about to say something. I was about to say my name and the momentum stopped. I was so close. I shut my lips first. Did my name start with a "M" or a "B"? It may be a "P" also. Priscilla tilted her head and waited for my response patiently.

"I can't remember. Ever since I woke up here."

"Oh..." Priscilla frowned. "Can I call you 'Angel', then?"

"Yes, you may."

Priscilla mouthed the word 'angel', said it out loud for a second time, and giggled.

When Priscilla and I returned to the living room, Kirby and Zelda (transformed from Sheik) were cleaning around. Zelda had a wet cloth in hand, and Kirby rolled around on the countertops, perfectly taking the dust with him. Once he was covered with dust, he went to the sink to wash down and roll away again.

Zelda laughed when I was staring at Kirby's unique cleaning. "This is quicker than using his arms."

"I guess so." I shrugged. Priscilla giggled and Kirby grinned back.

Lucario was in the living room wiping the piano down. The ivory keys were milky white without the presence of blood. Priscilla came up on her toes to grab the music from the stand. She held the papers tightly with two hands.

"Is that your favorite piece?" Lucario asked. She nodded curtly.

"I used to play and sing this with my friends. It's about someone's pet bird and how she got lost in the darkness. W-We sing it so it would scare the clickers away." Priscilla explained.

"Um, hmm, what do the darkness and clickers mean?" I asked. All of this sounded like a folktale but something about it was disturbing.

Priscilla pursed her lips and patted her mouth to make the words. She described the "darkness" as it is, getting lost when one ventures too far without a light. The darkness devours lost people and animals and keeps them. The "clickers" were monsters that manifest in the darkness and they are controlled to capture the lost when the darkness cannot reach them.

"Hmm, okay. But why are they called clickers?"

"They go 'click clickety clack' when they talk to each other."

"Oh. That's easy to remember."

"You should be careful, Angel. They like things that are pretty."

I blushed. Did she call me pretty? I cleared my throat and told her I'll be careful of these clickers, whatever they are. I did agree with the fact that the monsters liked me. I always happen to run into them.

Priscilla carefully placed the "Green Bird" in a chest with other piano pieces. While we all cleaned the house, we shared stories and had a few laughs in between. It reminded me of the first time we all came together to clean up the big house we all lived in. Some of us worked harder than others, some of us got into trouble for slacking off, but nonetheless, everyone was together and we were all laughing when nighttime came. I've never felt so much at home.

But nothing lasts forever. And I'm slowly starting to understand the importance of it.

Author's Note: Priscilla is a key character but she won't be sticking around for too long. I'd like to thank those who has stopped by to read this far, those who gave me kind reviews, those who added this story into their Alerts/Favorite Stories, and those who added me to their Favorite Authors. I hope you won't get sick of it because the story is still in the beginning phase.