We darted out of the forest and went into a narrow alley. I didn't know where we were but was glad that arrows of fire were no longer directed at us. I leaned against the brick wall inhaling the stench of old garbage and dried urine. It made my stomach churn.

To busy myself I got up off the wall to see what kind of place we were in.

It was a city. A very crowded city at that. Cars cluttered the streets and people were scattered across the sidewalk. How lucky they are, I thought. Those people didn't have a ton of things to worry about. At the end of the day, most of their actions wouldn't affect all of humanity and the like. The whole world depended on me even if they weren't aware of it.

I glanced at Gabriel, there were dark circles around his eyes and color drained from his skin.

"Are you going to be alright?" I asked him and gave him a sympathetic look.

He swallowed and looked at something in the distance. "I don't even know." He replied quietly.

I held my arms out in a hug and he accepted it.  I didn't know what exactly happened but whatever it was it seemed to hurt him a lot.

"How about we go walk around a bit?" I suggested. He seemed dismal and I wanted to distract him from his thoughts.

He cleared his throat and ran his hands through his hair. "Okay," he replied softly.

I slung my arm around his shoulder and we strolled around the city. Gabriel seemed lost in his own world so I made sure to keep an eye out for potential threats. Somebody had it out for us and I was confident they would not stop until they got wanted. Either me or the cup.

As we crossed the noisy, busy street I heard a voice whisper in my head.

The mysterious voice was wispy and left buzzing in my ears. It said

"Ashes to ashes
Dust to Dust
Always be careful whom you trust.

The item that you seek
Is where all shall weep
Innocent victims of
Greed ran too deep.

A diamond always emerges from coal
May peace come to their burnt up souls."

I was less worried about the fact that I was hearing voices and more concerned about what that voice meant. Everything was a big puzzle and I was determined to solve it. I figured that the riddle was about the cup of existence. After all, it was the item that I sought. The rest of it didn't make sense. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" what did that have to do with anything?

I was so captured by my thoughts that I didn't notice that we weren't in the bustling side of town anymore. Everything was quiet, too quiet. I never knew that silence could be unsettling. It was more unsettling than words could ever be.

Instead of skyscrapers surrounding us, they were replaced by broken down buildings. The once well-maintained sidewalks had developed cracks where weeds sprouted out of them. I didn't know the city well but I felt in my gut it wasn't the place I wanted to be. It all seemed shady.

I felt that we should have turned around and gone somewhere else but against my better judgment I kept on walking. I glanced Gabriel and his face didn't give any concern for the area we were in. He looked lost, like a little child looking their mommy.

Wherever we were it was a dead end. At the end of the street, there was a tall metal fence with barbed wires on top of it. It looked like the kind of thing you would expect to see in prison. It had a tarp so you couldn't see what was behind it. The sky looked grim and I had the unexplainable itch to climb the fence. I shook my head to the idea of it but continued stalking towards it none the less.

Gabriel ran up from behind me and turned me around to face him.

"What are you doing? You are going to get yourself hurt!" he shouted.

I blinked my eyes several times to attempt to get myself out of it. "Sorry" I mumbled.

"Okay, let's leave," he said and pushed me to go the next way.

Just as we started walking back I heard a scream pierce through my ears. It sounded like a little girl.

"Did you hear that?" I asked Gabriel. I had been hearing things lately so I wanted to make sure.

He looked around squinting his eyes "Yeah, let's go check it out."

That desperate scream came from the tall, daunting fence Gabriel moved me away from. I climbed the fence with ease to see who was in trouble. I felt that something was off, I couldn't shake it the feeling.

We carefully climbed over the fence, to go see what was happening. What I saw behind that fence made me sick to my stomach.

There was a large plot of bare land. A piles of ashes skulls and bones were scattered across the property. What the hell is this, I wondered. Some part of me knew that all those human parts were not fake. Why would someone do such a thing? How could people be so evil?

I glanced at Gabriel and he blankly stared at the ground. "Bloody loggers," he said under his breath. A lone tear fell from his eyes.

"What happened?" I asked. I didn't want to upset him so kept my voice steady and soft.

"My friends." he said choking on his tears.

"Where?"

He pointed at a skull. "Right there."

My mouth fell open and I gasped. "How could you be sure?"

He took in a deep breath and wiped the wetness from his face. "You know the empty village that we came across?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah"

"Well, that was where they lived. I knew something was wrong when I didn't see them there. They would never leave the place like that. I hoped they had to leave because of an emergency.  You see that-" He pointed at a colorful, feathered headrest partially covered by ashes "-that was theirs."

I sucked in a breath. "You can't be sure that it's their skulls all over the ground. They could have been burning something."

He scoffed, "They don't know how to start a fire and they would never be here. That is them, I don't want it to be but it is!" He shouted.

I was taken aback. He never raised his voice at me until then. I decided that I should cut him some slack. He lost some people close to him and that was hard. I held out my arms for a hug. He almost squeezed the death out of me and his tears trickled down my back.

"Sorry" he mumbled.

When hugging him I saw something shiny glimmer in the sunlight. I was lured in by the unknown item. I gently pried him off my body and went over to try to see where it was, avoiding the ashes. I pulled it out and brushed it off. I held my breath when I saw what it was.

A/N: I would like to thank @LavenderLily02 for making the beautiful cover I have for this book. Its awesome.  What do you think Lilianna found?