Julian Vital sat on its fence waiting for his friends to show up. He had spent the last half hour swinging his legs back and forth while sitting on the wooden beam in an attempt to keep himself from being bored. Needless to say, it didn't help in the slightest. His mum usually would have told him off for fidgeting, saying that it wasn't how people acted. But he was free for the time being. During Summer Holidays it was perfectly fine for him to be out for hours during the day as long as he got back before dark.

He looked around his surroundings for the umpteenth time. Looking back over the sunlit trees and the bright clear sky. The oval was usually where he enjoyed lying down as there were no trees covering it, giving him an open sky to look at. He always thought looking up in that position made everything seem different somehow. Today, he couldn't pass the time that way cause of the cricketers. He was wondering why he didn't just leave the house later when a voice spoke.

'Wow, you look bored.'

Julian turned to see Hannah, a girl his age with dark hair and green eyes. Apart from when she was with Julian and his friend John she normally kept to herself at school.

'Thanks.' Julian said sarcastically. He normally didn't like being called out on messing up but with Hannah it was alright, he decided he might as well be honest. 'Really though, I got here way too early.'

'True.' Hannah jumped onto the fence and slid up next to him when she asked, 'So you said you got something planned for today?'

'Yep.' Julian replied. He did have something special planned for today, something that was going to end their holidays on a high note.

'I figured.' She mocked putting a phone up to her ear. 'Get there earlier tomorrow I've got something to tell you guys.' She teased. But was shortly interrupted by a new arrival.

'Pretty funny.' John agreed leaning in between the two. John was a shorter boy with sandy hair, his extremely friendly personality allowing him to get along with everyone he met. 'What are we laughing about?' he asked.

'How easy it is to know how Julian thinks.' Hannah remarked, turning to wave to John.

Julian hopped off the fence. Now that all three of them were there now he could tell them what he had in mind. 'Alright,' he began. 'I reckon you were wondering why I called you guys yesterday.'

'I was also wondering why you wanted our cards,' Hannah interrupted now jumping off the fence and moved next to the other two so they stood in a circle. 'You thinking of going somewhere far?' All the while being glared at by Julian, in response Hannah stuck her tongue out at him.

'Anyway', he continued. 'We've been having a good time these holidays, right? I was thinking since we're going back to school soon, we could try something new.'

'Like what?' John asked.

'Like going to the city for the day.' Julian finished. At this John grinned as if was happy to go along with exactly what Julian wanted to do there even though he'd hadn't told him why. However, Hannah reacted the opposite way with a grimace. Departing from her cheerful attitude moments earlier.

'You want to go looking for them again don't you?' John asked

'Them?' Hannah wondered, hearing this Julian raised an eyebrow.

'Those weird people.' John answered her. 'Did you forget when he went on about what he saw?'

'Right.' Hannah trailed off.

Julian could have sworn he had told Hannah about those people. The strange robed people who he would only see in the city. One time when he was catching a tram down Swanston Street he saw a woman step off a tram and walk into a corridor in between two shops that no one else noticed. Another time he peeked into a laneway and noticed a stall that was selling what was said to be Frog hearts. He had never had the chance to look closer at the time as his mum dragged him off before he could explore. Every other chance he had to look at those places he either hadn't found anything or he didn't have enough time to look. Before the holidays started Julian thought he would have enough time to look around, but before he knew it there was only a week or two left in the holidays. He also knew that he wanted his friends to be there to help him out, he figured even if they didn't find anything today they would at least have enough time left in the holidays to go back.

'I kept seeing weird people in the city, there was too much there for it to be your usual weirdos' Julian explained to Hannah.

'And you want us to look around?' John asked.

Julian nodded.

What Julian had never told his friends or anyone else, was his suspicions about those people. He had seen a robed man once, except this time when he went closer to talk to him the man had completely vanished. For the life of him, Julian had never been able to find out a reason how that possible. There was no real answer and so he had to be the one to find out the truth. However, he didn't think his friends would believe him, especially Hannah. He could imagine her laughing at how stupid it was that he believed that there were people who had magic powers.

'Anyway,' he announced. 'I reckon we can head over to the city and look around for the day, that's why I asked you guys to get cards for the train, it's not like we can drive there.'

'Obviously.' John interrupted. 'By the way you're leading us, my parents don't take me.'

'Alright' Julian grinned, mirroring John's own, glad that John was on board. The last part unnerved him however, for some reason throughout these holidays John had been way too willing to listen to what Julian said. His statement just now was the latest in a series of events in which John would listen to whatever Julian would tell him, somehow it managed to set him on edge. He would just have to deal with it somehow.

It was at this moment that he realised that Hannah hadn't spoken. The entire time Julian had been talking to John, Hannah had been staring at the ground. Every once in a while, she would take a small glance at him. He didn't know what to make of this however, but figured he'd better press on.

'Oi.' He called to her, she jerked her head back up.

After a pause, she mumbled. 'Do we have to?'

'You getting cold feet?' He teased. He figured he'd try keeping it light. It didn't seem to work however as her expression stayed the same, it fact she seemed to look sadder if that was even possible.

'No!' She exclaimed, as if she wanted to continue but stopped herself. She took a deep breath and continued. 'Do you even know if we can find anything?'

'Course we can, there's gotta be something there.' Julian reasoned. He had been worried about that, but knew he couldn't let that stop him from trying.

Hannah paused again before asking. 'Why can't we just hang out by the creek again?'

Julian upon hearing this felt frustration rising in his gut. Why wasn't she going along with it. Why couldn't she decide whether she wanted to do it or not. All you had to do was say yes or no, didn't you?

'No way,' he countered, hoping his frustration wasn't showing. 'That's all we ever do, don't you want to do something different for once?'

'Yeah, but-' She trailed off, staring at the ground.

'But what?' He continued. 'Think about it, if those people are there, there could be more. Who knows what they have? Wouldn't that ten times better than what we've been doing all holidays?'

Upon hearing this she lifted her head and stared at Julian. For the life of him he couldn't tell what she was thinking. But it didn't matter, he had tried doing his best to convince here, explained how he saw the situation. If she didn't want to be a part of it then that was her problem.

'Fine, you know what. You can stay. I'm sure you can find something to do on your own.' He shot out. 'Come on, John.' He called as he walked to the footpath completely frustrated.

John was looking back and forth between them, after a pause he apologised to Hannah and jogged after Julian. The two of them walked in silence, with Julian proudly striding ahead of John. Wondering if maybe he had gone a little too far with what he said to Hannah. They continued like this for a minute until a voice called:

'Hang on, wait.' Hannah was running to catch up to them. 'Guys, I'll come.' She did her best to hide that she wasn't pleased with the outcome, but Julian didn't question it, knowing it would probably start a fight.

'Glad to have you.' Julian said. He felt uneasy, he knew what he said had gone too far, and was just glad to have her with them, he knew he couldn't really do it without either of them.

They started walking up the road, eventually Hannah caught up to Julian. He felt now would be a good a time as any. 'Sorry.'

'It's fine.' She muttered. They continued walking silence with her words hanging in the air. Julian felt that she might not be too happy about the situation, but he knew he would have to leave it for now.

For Julian, going to the city was always a treat, there was just something about the buildings and the environment that was calming to him. He couldn't help but turn his head and admire the old-style facade of Flinders Street Station once they had exited and moved onto the main thoroughfare: Swanston Street. The building they exited from being the exception to the rest of the modern style buildings. The three of them walked up the intersection waiting to cross the road.

'So, where do you want to look?' Asked John as they waited for the lights, Hannah looking at Julian expectantly.

'I reckon we start right here, you see there?' Julian pointed to a street a few shops down as started walking across the road. John and Hannah following behind him, as soon as Hannah saw the street itself she looked nervous.

'So how will we know we found it?' Hannah asked anxiously as they turned into the street.

'Found what?' he asked. She wasn't making sense, they were looking for people or rather anything strange really, not a place.

'Nothing really, I figured we were looking for a place where those people went right?' She fired out, looking around wildly, after finally settling by staring straight ahead she suggested. 'How about we check some of those smaller lanes?'

The three of them walked into a small alley, graffiti lining the walls with the kind of smell you could only find in a city, as much as Julian enjoyed the city this was definitely one of the low points of it. Eventually they found the dead end, crouching down to look at the walls and corners.

'This is so gross, why this?' Hannah complained standing with John who stood with her blankly.

'There might be a panel for a code or something. I saw it in a movie once.' Julian said still looking at the wall. 'Besides, people use passwords for everything, why would these guys be different?'

'In a movie.' She said disbelievingly. 'Fine, I'll look.' She said. obviously not enthused.

After a few minutes Julian noticed finally did notice something strange. John hadn't done anything since they found the dead end.

'John! You planning on doing something?' Julian called.

John now looked as if he had just woken up. 'What do you need me to do?'

'Look around, will you?' Julian asked. As he watched John start looking around as if he had been the whole time he wondered to himself. How come he didn't listen to him the first time? He thought John was basically just listening to him no questions asked, why did that change now?

However, as it turned out John helping out didn't change much, it seemed there really was nothing to be found.

The three headed out of the alley frustrated at both having found nothing and smelling worse off than when they went in. Julian didn't expect to find anything straight away but wasn't sure how successful they would be with Hannah looking like she'd rather be anywhere else and John acting strange. Still he had to keep going, even if his friends weren't helping as much as he had expected.

'How about we check some of the other lanes?' Julian pointed down the street to a nicer lane with restaurants lining the walls.

And they did. They checked the one after that too and a bunch more after that. But the result was all the same. As time passed it dawned on Julian that the maze of laneways hid their goal too well. There was just too much to search. Each main road had tonnes of lanes crossing over to the next one, and even then there were other lanes coming off of each of those. It got to the point where Julian wasn't even sure just how many lanes they had searched through. Every alley and lane they went to was the same whether it was crowded or dirty. After many hours Julian, Hannah and John found themselves at a square between buildings with a food court nearby. The three had collapsed there to rest after walking around all day.

Julian sat in silence watching his friends, wondering whether to call it a day, Hannah's absent-minded picking at the synthetic grass betraying how tired she felt. John however kept staring at the clear sky directly above him, whether this was a sign that he was tired or not Julian didn't know.

'So how much have we looked around so far?' Julian asked, hoping to pool information if he missed anything.

Hannah was first to reply. 'I'm too tired to think about it' she said as she laid on her back. John finally spoke up to agree. 'Same, I'm happy to go.'

Julian was tired too but felt he didn't want to go just yet, even though he planned to come back on other days he felt he was missing something, like they hadn't gone everywhere they could have.

'Hang on guys, I reckon there's a bit more we can do.' He announced to the other two, hoping they'd keep on going.

At once John spoke up. 'Yep, can't agree more.'

Hannah tilted her head up from the ground, an eyebrow raised. At seeing this, Julian found it at least comforting that someone else noticed John being strange for once.

'Sure.' Julian responded not sure how to continue. 'Uh... What changed, John?'

John didn't look fazed 'I just felt like it was a good point.'

'You just said you wanted to go home.'

'Oh…' he slowed down. 'I'm sure we can fit more in.'

Julian had no idea what was going on with him, if he was honest with himself it was creeping him a little. Why would someone just switch like that? Something wasn't right with him. But he did want to keep going, at least for one more.

'Let's go down one more lane, I'm feeling lucky.' He announced amidst Hannah's groans.

They arrived at the last lane that came out of the street they were on, it wasn't particularly nice. While there was a shop closer to the entrance, the end of the lane was as empty as all the rest. All the same Julian and John had been looking all around it. Julian had taken up the wall on the left and John looked at the corner of lane, Hannah had decided to hang back near the shop, muttering about being tired.

After arriving at the lane, Julian wasn't feeling very lucky, he had moved on from the ground and was looking at the walls and windows hoping to find something. He thought he saw movement in a window up higher, before stopping himself realising he was grasping at straws. It was painfully clear to Julian there was nothing here. Not only had he wasted his time but his friends' time too.

'Look, let's just call it a day.' He called turning back to the entrance to where Hannah was. 'John, let's go.'

'Sure thing.' John replied from behind him.

Hannah sat leaning against a bollard as Julian got close to her. 'You done?'

'Yeah' he replied disappointment showing in his voice as he reached a hand out to help her up. Hannah took it stifling a yawn as she stood.

'We'll find it someday' She said attempting to cheer him up. There it was again, as far as he knew there was no it, just people to find.

'It still sucks. We spent all day here and have nothing to show for it.'

'There's always next time, right?' She said with a smile. At this Julian noticed her eyes flitted over to the café behind him. Now that he thought about it, she'd been acting weird about the city since they got there. Julian mentally hit himself, John was the one acting weird today besides she seemed tired after today maybe she just wanted something-

'Did you want a drink or something?' He asked, pointing at the café.

Hannah went quiet, her eyes widening as she looked. She opened her mouth about to say something-

'Alright guys want to head off?' John asked, pushing the two of them out of the lane.

'Hey wai-', Julian started, but John wouldn't stop talking from behind the two of them as he pushed them along out of the lane and to the main road.

'Don't you want to check again?' He asked quickly practically begging them to say yes.

'Nah we said we'd go so we are.' Of course, now he decided not to listen to him.

Julian's thoughts ran wild, what was with the café, Hannah had looked like he had just caught her stealing. Julian wanted to ask Hannah what she wanted to say but she had completely shut herself off from conversation moving too far ahead to talk to. With no one to ask about he turned to the one he wanted to turn to the least.

'John, did Hannah seem interested in that café back there?' he questioned.

John looked puzzled. 'What café?'

Now Julian was the one who was shocked. 'Hannah was right next to it the whole time. You didn't miss it did you?'

'I didn't see anything.' He shrugged.

Now that was strange. As they walked he stared ahead at the station across the road, thinking over the facts. There was no way he could miss it, it was the only thing in that alley and Hannah had seen it. But now that he thought on it, they had walked past that lane once or twice, and every time Hannah had looked particularly nervous. Did she know something about it? She did act strange whenever he had brought up the ones he was looking for. He felt a rush, there must be something there or at least close by.

But there was still the question of how John hadn't seen it. How could he not have, did he just ignore it? No, his reaction meant that to him there wasn't anything there. Which could only mean that the café was the closest thing he had to a lead.

The lights went green.

Julian turned and ran in the opposite direction, running as fast as he could back to that café, ignoring the yells of his friends, Hannah especially. He knew that no matter what was back there, she wanted to stop him at all costs. He didn't want to think about John either, his behaviour making Julian question who he felt more apart from at that moment. He ran into the lane his eyes fixed on the café, he noticed its appearance was average to the point it felt designed, taking it upon himself to remember its name: Gilded Arch. He ran into the café, not paying any attention to its customers. Directly ahead of him a back door led outside, he figured it was as good a place as any. He ran through it the afternoon sun blinding him briefly as he ran into another laneway.

However, this one was different. Gone were the dirty narrow ones he had walked through earlier, this one was as wide as a regular street, easily able fit two cars side by side. It was more open to the sky than what he would expect in the main city. But that didn't hold his attention for long, for the little details of the street were far more interesting. The people wore different clothes, the shops and stalls of the shops advertised strange ingredients and products.

He had found exactly what he was looking for, but what he did find was more than he could have imagined.