When I look at Dale, my throat holds back the contents of my stomach.

Blue feathers stuck to his face, transparent and spiky but all stubbed to barely a fingernail length. Black colored the tips only slightly, but overall, each carried the very same fluffy texture. The feathers even reached down to the fabric of his long trench, twitching in and out of sight with every ripple the wind made.

Each time he looked up, his eyes caught the thin streams of moonlight but instead of giving the pale green a normal white glisten, they were night black. Those tar pools mimicked the sky that was half-lit by the low-hanging moon.

Every human feature on the man was starting to be challenged by bird-like aspects that shifted in the dim light. Even his mouth took on a dark yellow color, enlarging before fading away. I don't want to say her name but without a doubt, I know what this means.

That man must die.

I have to be the one to kill him if I want to protect-

I close my eyes but I see the person I sold my soul for everytime, his empathy-filled eyes blazing behind my eyelids and shoulder-length rivers of dirty blond hair. The man who was once a shivering boy clutching to an acoustic had grown to protect me over and over.

"But Ash, I know that man. He always takes main and greets me on his way home-" My eyes are torn open by the desperation in the boy's repressed voice, each word followed with a shudder of tone.

Ash pushed a finger to Cole's lips, attempting to stay strong even if the tears collecting in the corners of his eyes were one moment from breaking into streams. His lips opened twice but both times nothing escaped but muffed starts of the words.

"Please stop, Cole." I say it just before Ash slips down to the floor, soft breaths breaking into shallow whimpers accompanied by soft sobbing. His knees come chest high, face buried in palms behind a curtain of rugged hair that only revival fingertips.

Ash's stillness turned into a gentle rocking to calm himself, panic wafering off his shrunken shape. Cole's bright eyes filled with pure sick guilt, enough to numb his pain to nothing but a few stings that he gnashed his teeth at twice before slipping down beside his best friend.

"Ash? Everything's gonna be fine and we'll all be out of here soon. Okay?" Cole patted his back with gentle beats, each one softer than the next until they turned into shoulder rubs.

I glimpsed back out the window to see the two men heading down towards the other side of the buildings, speaking in hushed tones with each other. The quiet chatter exchanged faded and was replaced with the pounding heart in Ash's chest. Even the feathers had subsided from Dale's pale cheeks.

Lace was telling me something. I'm almost sure that it means that his blood is the next thing to spill if I want to move on to the next without paying a price. Her dark eyes smeared in eyeliner taunt me no matter where I go. In them are so much darkness, sadness, and hollow pain.

I push her from my mind for as long as possible, sighing and smothering the nervousness filling my stomach to the rim like an overflowing glass of wine. Take one thing at a time.

My arms slip around Ash's midsection, holding him as close as his arms would allow. I know just what I'm doing and have been doing everytime his panic attacks rush in without warning. A soft tingling explodes at my command as our skin touches and we both pull away for a moment before moving back.

Our auras are left dim and colorless but I feel the rushing flow that dips down my wrist like water and runs back again to my chest, staying there for a while. Cole keeps whispering sweet little encouragements in his ear while the trembling slows but doesn't falter.

My heart is nearly torn from my chest, his aura rejecting mine for the first time in nearly five years. I held back a scream as the searing pain settled in my chest, racing through my veins. Ash throws his head back, locks of hair thrown back in Cole's face, both grumbling at the same time. Tears streaked his face, cheeks painted a warm red tint and lips trembling. But it wasn't of fear.

Anger.

The look in his eyes is distant, dark, and almost mirrors Lace's. It isn't him, the blue that was normally either choked with kindness or plain fear was extinct. Even the normally relaxed muscles in his face are tense to create a grimace that is so evil I fear it. Teeth expose themselves from the lifted part of his lip, eyes stay empty and eerie while lips speak soundless whispers.

I squeeze him tighter, shaking as tears fall onto the back of my hand from his face but to no avail. He stays as hard as a rock while leaving my heart in a gentle throb, slowly breaking as his mask stays. Stray tears burst forward from my eyes, soft begging that falls from my throat before I even have the chance to stop it turns his attention away from the empty window.

"Ash, are you upset?" A gentle hand holds on to Ash's wrist, still wet from the tears that had the opportunity to gain freedom. It's Cole, gentle and worried all at the same time. Sometimes it's as if he's the thing that keeps us from burning the city down and collapsing in our own jumble of problems.

The muscles in his jaws fall suddenly as Cole and him meet eyes. The younger boy seemed to be just what he needed, the warm love for his older brother flooding like a broken dam. The darkness that held him captive disappeared into nothing, fading without a trace of the hate that had once been there.

If the deities were real, I would have wholeheartedly believed that the one around his neck had shared wisdom with him or at least given him his best and worst traits. A smile threatens to come but retreats as soon as I remember the circumstances that claw at my neck.

"No?" Ash looked around the room, placing a hand on his cheek to feel the steady falling tears, "Why? All I remember was feeling something latch onto my back and I fell to the floor."

His soft blue gaze starts to grow distant as he looks at me, "I panicked but it was almost as if part of it was forced before I blanked out completely. Everything was so dark and void. I could hear you but every emotion was foreign."

Ash used one arm to hug Cole, who seemed more happy that Ash was okay than the facts about the strangeness of the blanking out. I felt a pinch of guilt in my stomach that my mind kept wandering away to places that only lead to rabbit holes with one way in and a million ways to get stuck.

Cole pulled away, looking at some of the unbandaged scars and wounds that had mostly been covered with scalps. Wolf seemed like the man who would do any vile thing by the way he spoke to anyone with the same blunt ignorance. It's the bravery that man has that makes me think twice about picking my fights.

"Where's the royalleaf?" I ask the rhetorical question in hope that I don't have to share my accusations about the moments previous.

I'm sure ninety-five percent of them have something to do with Lace and her devious control. For a minute, I would have sworn that he was slowly becoming her just as Dale had, a symbol of something I have to change, omens that aren't that pleasant.

Happiness fades when I remember the work I have cut out for me. The death blow that I have to deal with. The monster I'll become. Just as the symbols come and go, scarlet liquid laces through my fingers, staining my palms but disappears as soon as my fingers reach for it.

A finger lifts my chin up, Ash's dread for the events to come holding on tight and shifting the entire scene. Back to running and more blood. Death. The pocket knife tucked in my shoe nearly gains life, holding tight to my skin.

"Anne, we don't have much time left. Now, I have a plan but the only way that it will work if you can do what you did to the preacher's son earlier-"

My eyes widened at the complex stupidity of his plan, telling the royalleaf all he needed to know about us if the power gave signs but even if I failed, it would have been for nothing but lost time.

"No, too risky of a try."

And I could kill him if royalleaves were effected by tricks that needed mastering rather than born abilities. But still, failure is looming too high over that, only a weak-minded royalleaf would be a victim to that type of work.

That was my only taught ability, sadly and most of the time, it's the only one a fireleaf will educate themselves in and master. The rest are born abilities. Royalleaves come with one or two powers while fireleaves on the hand can adapt because it's all we've done through our existence. Spirits breaking, new bodies, change of goals and priorities. Most of all, the validity that I was once human.

That both me and Ash have their savvy nature and feeds off that same power we used in the past life. Royalleaves dismiss human power but we hold tight to the lives that made us.

Ash took a deep breath, still recovering from his anxiety. He didn't speak, only nodded, and waited for me to come up with a better idea. A gruff cough came next, shaking his body a bit but he seems more stable than before. I draw a breath and weigh the consequence of the next thing I say.

That man needs to die but I can't bring myself to kill him. Even with Ash's life on the line, my fear of going against mortality and losing the band is crushing me too. For the first time, I can't tell him anything or anyone else. I'm alone and isolated among two people I trust more than anyone because I'm a coward who didn't challenge Lace on my own.

And I'm still terrified of her influence and heavy presence. I know who it was watching me in the alley.

Her.

That means she has the power to rise from her alley but not go any farther than that if it makes any sense and still, even then I'm just making a barely educated guess. Her presence still sent shivers down my back, unapologetic and deadly. That still leaves room for more questions like how she took Storm's life miles from here and with the ability of a fireleaf who lost control of themselves.

I close my eyes and hope to see Lace, to scream at her, or calmly ask if she would rather take his life herself than put the blood on my hands. No report and no way possible for the blame to be placed on either of us. Still, the guilt doesn't leave but worsens. I would just be giving the knife to the killer. Enabling her.

"Do you have a scheme, Anne?" Cole reached to his pocket for the first time, grabbing hold of something that was made in a strange shape, poking through the thin fabric of his jeans.

Ash watched carefully as a silver chain with a golden lock on the end weighed down on his palm. Before I can say her name, Ash's hand reaches for the necklace. The necklace had left a permanent image in my mind like a tattoo in pitch-black ink.

His fingers caressed the metal, turning it over and over. The paint that colored the cheap metal fell in his hand like glitter, lining the pinkish crease in his palm. A darker layer of color lay under it, black and speckled with a rustic brownish-red. The name Storm rings stagnant bells, even though it's only the voice in my head that calls it.

Her locks of bright red curls that resembled canine pepper was the first memory associated with the locked charm. The way the pendent stood out on her chest, moving along with her body as she sang along in unique sync. It was almost as if the music we played wasn't moving her but some magical tune in her head that only she was able to hear.

The crowd below roared like lions, trying to imitate every dip, flip and high note even though they all failed miserably. Some kept dancing, laughing through trial and error but I never will forget the scowl on Ash's face, a deep-set thin line for lips settling in as his icy glare practically killed her.

I remember it. But it was nowhere as cold as the glare he gained tonight. It was almost as if Lace had gave him part of her soul, as if they had become the same person for only a few passing moments.

It was like swallowing arsenic. The terror that the poison would stop your heart but hope that it wasn't strong enough.

"That belonged to Storm." I breathed.

Ash nodded, his lips slowly losing color the longer he looked at it. His warm breath danced on the lock, dusting it with a grey haze. The necklace lacked any traces of her, leaving just an empty hunk of metal.

I don't quite remember if she was wearing it on the day of her death but I just need to know how Cole got hold of her most prized possession. Especially when it was a huge part of her signature look.

"The old man in the alleyway abandoned his cart, I didn't know that it belonged to anyone- honest!" Cole spat out, his copper eyes widening up like two new pennies.

Ash screwed his face up, planting a palm over his eyes, "How many times have I told you not to dig in carts or make shifts no matter how abandoned they look!"

Cole shrunk in the shadow of Ash's slumped shape and disappointment, "I apologize, Ash. Guess I paid the price, huh?"

"Yeah, by nearly getting killed. Wolf is a mean brute who hates rapscallions and more than that, kids who bother him." Ash retorts, speaking with his eyes raised like Wolf was more than a crazy lunatic who attempted to run kids over with shopping carts.

"Hush, Ash!" I snap, killing his useless argument.

Cole still had an unwavering admiration for Ash and in a way, he was only lovingly giving Cole advice that he had to learn the hard way. Wolf was far from the worst man onthis side of the city and with Lace lurking around, staying clear was best for a royalleaf like him.

Ash blinked slowly, "I'm not mad at Cole, Anne. You and I both know that this place isn't safe and that royalleaf that could be coming back soon is proof of that!"

"So what!"

"This is what!" Ash motioned to the bandages on Cole that, by now only held onto to dried scabs and skin discolorations where marks had once been.

"They don't come close to the ones that you got from all those adventures we risked our lives to be a part of as kids!"

Ash shook his head, hair flanking both sides of his face, "I think that's the point I'm coming on with. Our mistakes shouldn't be reflected on Cole or any of the other kiddos at the orphanage."

I agreed with him for only a moment before the words stung me harder than a speeding tractor trailer. He said it with a soft but gruff tone, but it was the words that made me bleed silently.

"Mistake?" I echoed.

A wave of humiliation sunk the patronizing ship that had once stood as a bold sign, "That's not what I meant, Anne. You understand-."

My gaze floated to Cole, his eyes scanning the floor as if it was a magazine.

"No, I don't! Everything we did was stupid, immature and yet I could never bring myself to utter such words. How dare you?" A pulse of bitterness rushed under my skin, dismissing the honesty in every word of his.

The hotness stinging my body from the tips of my fingers to my scalp hidden under thick tangled curls that only tamed under the heat of a old as time straightening comb and hair gel.

I felt as if I could punch him in the nose and feel no remorse or pain for doing so but he meant too much to me. On top of that note, I could already tell that Cole was ready to break between us with his songlike voice and comfort pats on the shoulder.

Ash pressed his lips together, turning his head ever so slightly to hide his face, "Not now, Anne. I said I was sorry but it isn't more than that I can actually do."

My teeth gnash but I wedge the fury with a fake smirk. Ash pressed his lips to my cheek, apologizing again, then returned to the necklace. "I would ask why Wolf would have such a thing in his possession-"

Clasping my hands together, the sound of mixed voices jumbled together in one large chatter tore my mind from the necklace at last. Ash stuffed the necklace into his pocket, pulling his cardigan over the bulge in his pocket. Cole tested his left leg, seeing that running would be his best advantage no matter the plan.

"Dale can't live. If he does, even if we get away from him and Mr. Robocop, " I pat my foot with nervousness, "our names will be cashed into the police department and everything we know and love will be put in jeopardy."

Cole stares at me like I grew another eye in the middle of my forehead, "Do you mean that we kill him?"

When he says it, it sounds worst than it really is.

My first move is to look at Ash to answer but he stays silent, curious.

"Allow the fallen tunnels to swallow him. It won't be a easy job-"

Cole started to talk but was cut off by Ash, "No shit, Sherlock! First we risk our necks in tunnels that almost took my life and then kill a man who is probably beloved by those snobs in the high-class royalleaf society."

I pause, deciding just weapon of a word to use against him when it was he I was protecting.

"Anne, you would never kill him, you just can't." Cole bristled, his copper eyes glowing like two stars brightened by the moonlight's halo. His nails dug into the wood planks, slowly changing the wood creves into black pathways.

He wasn't fighting for his kind, rather what was right and just. That was Cole being the good boy that his mother would have wanted him to be. By the blazing flare in Ash's voice, he was sticking to the boy's side like glue. I was one against two in this fight.

A scowl broke the neutral expression that I once held on tight to. Darkness fogged my eyes, turning my sight into a night colored veil where my hands gripped the floor but my body was free in a restricted place. Anger clawed at my heart.

The thing was that none of these feelings were mine. Waves of warm air shot past my face the more I trembled. My chest tightened as if all the air in my lungs had been snatched away, leaving me as a empty vessel suspended in a space of silky black. Not a flicker of a candle's flame or something to free me from this horrific torrent.

My screams fell short, staying in my mind and not leaving my lips once. It's like a prison and the walls are unreachable. My shoulder smashed into the towering walls of nothing, causing me to fall to a icy floor that felt as if it was made of a large iron sheet.

The voices from the outside my body sound like echos in a arena, bouncing off the walls over and over until I was to fall into insanity.

"Lace? We have to get out of here and now! I mean now! Ash's voice rang ten times louder than normal. My body trembled against it's force, both in this strange form and my outside body.

I pushed my panic down, swallowing down the terror in two gulps before vomiting the feeling back up in two heavy coughs. It splattered against the floor, a clear heap that disappeared into the surface in a matter of seconds.

A female voice that is so much like my own answers, but it doesn't echo as loud. "You will both do as I say or there will be consequences."

"Please! That isn't me, Ash! Ash! Cole!" My pleads hit the wall but came right back to me like a dog fetching a bone. I yell to the top of my lungs but the only thing that happens is my voice reduces to nothing but a high-pitched cry.

Echo of a steady clicking makes me turn my head back to the end of the tunnel of darkness. A short figure appeared from out of the pitch black, a child of everything that comes from nightmares, that would slay any childhood hero with a glare and the command of her death hounds.

Two dogs walked by her side, stopping to perk their ears up and look ahead. Their once silky black and bright tan pelts had been turned into patches of pink and hardened spots of black. The lighter parts of fur under the animal's throat and on the larger one's neck had been turned into charred skin.

They both gained awkward gaits, hobbling forward. In the slanted light that followed Lace, her heavy mane of tangled hair made her look like a lion with skinny sides. Each time she breathes, I swear that someone dies just by the life force that keeps her eyes open.

"I can't say that I've ever been prouder of you, my friend and dearest." I cringe just hearing her voice. "It's been less than two hours and look at you, living up to my every expectation."

The dogs sat down, pressing their large bodies to the floor of black. They seemed more like they were resting from the burns and bites than focused on me.

Cole's voice became hollow, "Anne. This isn't you. I can feel it."

"Damnit!" Lace cursed, her dark eyes glimmering with anger. "I hate that kid."

I sigh in relief, happy that he believes the truth.

My voice in Lace's hand comes answers back, "I am Anne."

"How do you do this but can't fight your own battles?" Astonished and terrified, I reach out to touch her but she only ducked away.

"Shapeshifting has always been a strong suit of mine, being whatever I need to be so that the job gets done but in death, those forms limit just how much I can do at a time. My tunnel is where I kill and those I trap can't fight back."

A wicked grin follows and she picks up once she knows that she stunned me. Her teeth look like that of a skeleton's. "You think I look like a big kitty, don't ya?"

I shook my head but I don't understand why this submissive side is coming free from my hard shell just for her. It's was as if she could read my mind and taunt me in the most disturbing ways. The way she says the word "Kitty" comes off as the way my mother would talk about the large tabby cat that always sat on the rails of the neighbor's balcony.

She always loved cats but with our budget, she couldn't afford to take care of it. Even off leftovers and table scraps. I loved them too, but with my bastard of father's fascination with fur, it was a good thing our budget wouldn't allow.

In a flash of bright white and foggy grey, her face shifts like a zombie starting to lose flesh. Her skin fades away into nothing but grey fog and her eyes roll back in her to nothing but pure white balls slowly shrinking. The silence from the outside world halts in the time of her change.

The fur of a tawny color spread to her neck and stopped when her fingers closed into a tight fist. All of her hair became nothing but a once was. Face turned into a muzzled remake of her original form with the same sinister eyes. A lioness head on the body of a dead girl. 

The dogs didn't give her a second glance. The gleam in her eye makes me want to bow down and worship her like a god but even the made-up figures by some idiot with too much power or a vintage crackhead can't hold a candle to something I can touch. I can hold. Kiss even. She's freaking beautiful and that's all I can see.

All her wishes are mine and my wish is for her. My hands are numb and so is my mind. Her eyes hold something that no boy or girl I've ever met lips with ever had in them. Not even Ash. Her pupils are ebony skies while the amber rings quickly became pools of darkened honey. She's human again and I'm thankful that the stupid facade is gone.

The gleam in her eye disappears and I'm back to ordinary, the bitter hate bubbling back through my veins like fire.

"Lead the chick to the tunnels and I'll put that same light in Ash's eyes." At first, she seemed vibrant but her voice dropped, "Or I'll rip all signs of life from his body."

Her hand extended for me to shake, a weak smile crawling upon her face like death itself had become her best friend. I feel empty. Distance. A claw of residency throws evil chills down my soul that fights to throw my body at her, punch her and kill her with a flick of my knife.

My hands shake as the light yellow light broke through the window of our crappy apartment and lit the knife that my mother always kept on her side comes to mind.

"Even a pleasant rose of a woman should protect herself." I remember those words that rolled off her tongue as she gazed at the empty space between the couch and the old tv set. That day was horrible.

Bruises lined her arms like trees on a forest floor, plentiful and all hiding something. They hid the person behind scars, the strong woman who didn't bend to anyone and most of all, wanted the best for us. For me. I heard her swear that Dad wouldn't place her hands on another defenseless woman again.

Or child. Or man. Or animal. Or anyone.

He would die.

He would have to die because she said he had to die.

But God said no and saw no bad in that man's soul. My father was just another man walking in the image of men from the days of the good book. Men who had many wives, concubines, and harlots. Men who could treat women like items and get away with it because it was okay. Because God let them get away with it. No one speaks against holy men or they die.

Holy men equal men with special rights.

Special rights equal no respect for others.

That's God's love at work.

Women are inferior to men and the Bible said that it was true. So she didn't place that knife in his black heart, instead allowed the preacher to hold her hand and speak the word of God to her and my father. The word of God is empty words that sliced me like knives. I was young but now I understand everything.

I don't blame Mom.

Don't blame the preacher or his followers.

I blame the good book and God.

They disarmed my mother back into the good housewife. They told her that hell was to await her if she thought different. Everyone who followed them was wrong, was blind, and was scared.

Like me.

Lace is a God. Maybe not by sovereignty and worldwide influence but she has the potential to strike fear me. Anyone can be a god. You just need a little bit of intimidation and a whole lot of persuasion.

Ash and Cole are both statues while I am their commander.

I open my eyes with teeth clenched in pain, jagged sliced of discomfort slipping in and out of my body like angry raptors cutting my body from the outside. My guts twist in an angry knot that begs for freedom but even with the release of my mind, I'm left powerlessly dangling on to Lace's control.

I am Moses while Lace is God. Who am I to say how Moses felt being God's little good boy who carried out his will, if that be good or bad. Lace feels just as horrible as I do because she too was a victim of the the art of puppeteering. We both know what it feel like to be in the strings.

My fingers shake as I lift them to Ash's cheek, the soft skin chilled like iced coffee. He trembled softly but from the deep look in his enlarged eyes that had been sparked with panic gave away how empty he was at the moment. How dark his world is.

Just like the boy with bird. It was much more to the imagery than the surface image. The boy had become a god too, slaying the bird and forcing it's offspring to pay the price. Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why!

The question turns into a bitter knowing, a painful explanation that hardens the blow. The reason why is a answer that only few are open to except while others would rather drown in pity and allow a man with the face of a deity to guide them like sheep. They are not sheep.

They are people who are afraid of what turning down the wrong road would do for them instead of thinking. Or they thought and are so confident that they enslave their children and family to the very same fear.

The world doesn't run on money. It runs on fear. The fear of disappointment, religion, poverty and scars. Fear of hate, honestly, rejection and death. The fear of the Devil and God. Fear of everything.

A strong grip of guilt takes me down as soon as my eyes move to the rigid body of Cole, clouds of terror like poison dripping from a caramel candy apple and mouth gaped open in an awkward gawk. A hint of gold sparked at the edges of his pupils, frozen in time like the trapped air of the atmosphere.

Water of a tear caught glow from the horizon which was slowly climbing in the sky, sending a arch of orange and red against the rooftops but fighting a predictable battle against the black sky. The hints of red flecked off his ebony sky, sending spirals down his face to the goddess at his throat. He believes because his mother believed and it's his choice. Not mine.

The moonstone stayed dim at the hollow of his throat, beautifully carved and staying close to his skin as a protection. Even the proven facts couldn't break his faith in the royalleaf deity. I could respect their deities honor to females but that was just a view from afar. But even if I wanted to give their religion a chance, I wasn't allowed because of my blood.

I clasp my hands together, mimicking the voices outside the window and even the sound of one of the other buildings being shut after a nice check and ramshackle. The click matched the sound of my nails tapping against each other with the footsteps kinda sounded a lot like my sweaty palms slapping against each other. I swear that "The lights went out in Georgia" could be heard playing silently from the police car.

Two muddy sneakers lay in the white and black shoe tray near the door, not mine but better than the worn-down ones on my feet as of now. Mud streaked the sides of the flanking blue fabric under the new balance symbol. Holes wormed themselves in the front but as long as they didn't fall apart before I could make it outside of the step, I would be fine.

I'm always less than fine but I make it and that's all that matters in this day in time. That I protect the pact and most of all my family. In the end, I remember that's all that matters. If I couldn't abolish a religion for my mother and save her all those years ago, I'll start small.

Take down the bad and then watch as the good make something beautiful blossom. I really believe that my mother could have done that for the church. It's something that still haunts my dreams like the way that Lace crashed in my head. Except I invited it.

The scent of turkey and cabbage wafting from the kitchen doors and her singing along to The 5th Dimension or The Temptations or talking with her friend, Lady Michelle who sadly passed away from unknown causes. Most would argue that I was too young to remember but it's hard to forget the peak of happiness in your life. It was for me anyway.

My hand tightened against the cool metal of the doorknob but tears strained my eyes sight in a gold haze from my aura begging me to think. I've done way too much of that, too much thinking is what led me here. The haze of gold is what locks both of my friends to the building and my teeth ache as it tries to control me too.

I'm not free. Even the bracelets on my arms resemble handcuffs for a moment. The silver bangles holding on tight to my skin, turned warm with cold that had once been stuck to the metal lost into forever. They remind me of everything I'm stuck to. A tall standing checklist of who I am and the life I should live up to.

Heat rips through my skin, starting at my wrists and stopping right at the bracelets that scream at the heat. The start to curl and either with cracks fading into the fake silver. The scent of ash and heat makes me sick to the stomach but a sense of relief comes as they both snap as black hunks of silver on the welcome mat.

A coward with my face stares back from the metal part of the bracelet that isn't chared with ash. Tears streak her makeup and she shakes softly with terror and anger. Her stomach hurts with guilt for the pain she's causing everyone. The look in Ash's eyes and the silent tear falling down Cole's cheek. It's driving her mad.

It's driving me mad.

I sit down, taking off my old shoes and placing on the racked ones, using my time to gain some bit of sanity before I make the final decision. The final shoelace seems to take an eternity but when I finish it, the choice is still left open like the crack in the door.

"Better safe than sorry," Dale says to his fellow policeman who I guess wishes that he'd avoided the call.

"Fine." The officer huffed.

Dale's soft pats on the lawn stop for a moment and I hear him sputter into a raging cough that echoes off the windows like a horrid song that only one in pain could achieve. My hand grips the door wood, threatening to pull away as splitters open way for wounds for blood to gush on the brown.

I hunch down, pressing my face to the oak and allowing the cold, semi-wet surface to embrace my cheeks. Warm breath crossed the wood, as soft voices hit the door and bounced off.

"What's wrong with you? Got into some packed back dust or is the sun killing you, vampire?" It's a laugh in the back of Teddy's throat that is only bridged by the fading hacking that follows his friend's coughing fit.

"It's nothing, I reassure you of that." Dale does it again, strained by a more liquidated cry. I hear the thick blood gathering his words in one bundle.

Teddy sounded worried in an instant response, "No you aren't."

"Yes, I am! You don't understand the reason why this case is important to me, you just don't!" Dale snapped back, eyes blazing and fueled with unfailing enthusiasm. Or just dumb idiotic energy.

Teddy blinked once with a sympathetic glare in his pupils. A hand reached over and patted Dale on his broad shoulders, slowing to a gentle rub between his shoulder blades. Dale seemed unbothered by the affection, wiping away scarlet liquid from his lips.

Both men staggered upwards, allowing the scarlet rays to douce both friends in pale yellow and orange that scattered their shadows about like ghost. Shades of pink and red bounced off the metal truck and shifted to the side of the fence. Dale leaned over on the shoulder of Teddy just before steading his jacket and gaining a somewhat independence.

"The next building is the best place to start, with any luck-." Dale starts but shoots a look of worry back at Teddy who followed with a wary gait.

"We won't find anything worth questioning to bring in. I don't understand the concern about those two kids when the team on night shift questioned them and found nothing but innocence."

Dale pushed his palm to his forehead in a instant, "They asked them five questions and let them go with nothing but a pat on the back and pity party. I doubt any tear fell down their cheeks."

Bitter hate races through his words, haunting the deadly dagger that is his hateful dialogue. If he was as kind as Cole had made him out to be, his fear had melted that side of him into a giant pot of flames. I wish for the same anger, the gnashing teeth and thoughts at war.

Only if I could feel the same pain for being the target of blame for the death of Storm Jones, the girl with the blazing ginger locks and fierce personality. I just feel empty, simply just another Monday with royalleaves. Blamed for blood and powers that aren't different, just stronger.

They hate what they fear, not for a valid reason besides that and I find it disgusting. Teddy drops his head with recognition that the argument would fall flat. Arguing with a person with such persistent anger was like fighting fire, you'll get burned but the flame with still keep going.

Dale walked forward but the squeaking of the door was faster that his approach. The rusty metal sung a song both sinister and joyous, a ballad that announced my coming. I felt like a king for only a moment, the crickets ending their calls on low notes as a cheering audience. Just before a nice beheading.

The pocket knife that had been hidden away from sight in the side of my old shoes pushed on the edge of the carpet was now up my sleeve, pinching the soft skin of my wrist. One flick right and the small weapon would fall into my palm, flipped open and ready to jab at the nearest opponent. Or just wave until the policeman threatened me or blood was pooling out a wound.

I only allow little room for the dim dawn light to fill the room behind me, the fresh air tugging at the strings wound up by Lace that keeps me connected to Ash and Cole. Keeps them locked in space for a short duration and allowing me painful freedom. The dawn heat brushes down the bridge of my nose and on my cheeks, I pushed out a sigh and step on the smooth cement porch.

The umbrella over my head hides me in a thin grey silhouette but it isn't enough to keep me as the ghost I had hoped to be. My breath captures the air with each step I take towards the wide-open, closing the door back with a small clank. A smirk of satisfaction came to my face, leaving both Ash and Cole in their deep trance, hidden.

"Hey, you! Ma'am!" I do my best not to shrink back at Teddy's hostile attempt at stopping my calm walk forward. It was something more in his voice though, a bit of terror that came in a soft and smothered tone under the bark.

"Ma'am, do you happen to be Anne-" Teddy took one step forward, tapping is foot on the cement for a sense of authority.

"Yes." I say.

I meet Teddy's eyes for a moment, a look of shock deep behind his strange expression. He takes a moment to strengthen himself, lost for words and confused by the fact that he'd accomplished his goal with no threat to his life so far. That's because he thinks I'm human.

Dale presses his lips tight enough to make them become invisible lines on his face but he finally forces a smile that is so fake that I feel even more nervous than before I walked into the open. I don't return the smile as I might have in the city to a person of authority.

"Hello, Ms. Anne. It's a pleasure to finally meet you after all that has happened in the last week and a half. Do you happen to know where I would be able to find Ash Grimms?"

"Nah. He's a party animal type of kid, spends most of his time on the road with his cousins and few cases of beers, been like that since he hit eighteen." The lie sounded much better in my head than it did out in the open.

Dale seemed suddenly annoyed by my answer but at least he wasn't being intrusive on me. Still, the rules are laid out for me no matter how he changes the narrative to be a kind man just doing his job, it can't work or I'll pay a bigger price.

"Well, while I'm here, I might as well-" Dale started with an anxious pant, still rubbing the liquid from his lip onto the back of his hand, slightly tanned.

"Cut to the chase? But haven't you just gotten here, I've been dealing with quite a situation myself and I thought that maybe you could lend me a hand?" I scowled from the inside but a neutral expression stayed on the outside.

Teddy's eyes widened with the addition of a timely glare at Dale, "I wouldn't trust her, just listen to that smug-"

Dale interrupted with a throaty cough, "Care to elaborate, Ma'am? I'm not sure I understand."

"Did you take the right alley, the one near the Main Street turnoff that spirals out near concove avenue? Well, I heard some voices coming from down that way just before Ash dropped me off here for solo practice." My voice becomes stronger, more serious as look out towards the place near the hollows.

A pale grey beam of light hung near the wall of the picket fence, going from one end to the other in a frantic motion. Lace. Her eyes faded into a dim bland mix of black and static grey with no clear pigments in the pools of white that blanket them. My gaze fixed on her for a moment before brushing back to Dale.

Her body made of transparent haze seemed weak and fading in the dawn light, missing big chunks of spirit in her sides and hands that had become strange ghostly nubs. Her mouth moved and each time her lips pried open, I felt the same urge to speak words I don't have time to pick apart.

"Voices? How about we speak first and then check out the voices a bit later? That might be more convenient for my friend here who has a shift soon."

Teddy stiffed a yawn, following my eyes whenever they moved from Dale's face, "Yes, thanks for the consideration. I'm sure that soon or a later, sleep will greet me with open arms and kiss."

"Sounds like a plan, but I'm guessing that it'll be best if we make our meeting on both ends of the situation short. You see, I want to figure out who those conversations belong to, you need explanations to some questions and Teddy here wants to sleep."

Lace's clever words seem to hit home, for the most part anyway. Being her vessel for words doesn't feel right or pleasing but it's something better than nothing, all the same watching her start to fade into a fog. I almost wish that she'd disappear into nothing but it's something that keeps her from dying. Probably the same thing that keeps her soul walking and talking.

Teddy snapped his head up, cheeks brimming red with embarrassment. The sleep gathering his eyes seemed to make him groggy and confused. If I wanted to control him, it really wouldn't be the biggest challenge. But not now when he knows who I am.

"It's Officer Mags to you, Ms. Anne." Teddy straightened his jacket, pulling the grey fur collar tight under his double chin.

"Please, Teddy, I can't deal with any bickering. Trust me, I deal with enough of that at home, let's act like what our title implies." Dale glared at his friend and partner but not in a hateful way, rather just in a quiet worry.

He looked back at me, emptiness filling the depts of his eyes yet again like the vision from the window. Feathers, this time flanked the crinkled at his lips and eyes, pointing out in thin, wispy and young feathers. They add a defining flaw to his skin, like a name tag. Blue and light grey blended into the soft downy and start of thicker vanes.

More transparent patches clumped his knuckles in a weird and skin-crawling way that nearly makes me want to scratch myself all over and remove invisible feathers from my wrist and arms. I force the feeling away with tiny curses to myself, biting my lip with fury.

"I guess we ought to get started."

I muster up a smile and nod slightly, "I'm sure that the voices won't wait on us, especially the kid one that keeps-."

Lace stops speaking through me, manipulating my words into the perfect mold that settles like a clump of melting butter. I don't fully understand the context of her words, but they flow like magic. My trust in her is weak and strong because 1.) She needs me and 2.) How hard would it be for her to get another?

A strong pain of anxiety fluttered in eyes, but it disappeared into furrowed eyebrows and a heavy sigh, "I want to ask you about the case dealing with the death of Storm Jones. Do you remember where you were at the time, maybe Ash as well?"

"Ash was handling the destruction of some old tickets in the vendors, now don't ask me why, he does it at almost every solo concert we play," I said with a nod.

"Right. That's the same thing that was on his record." Dale gave me a side glance. "You two were in separate room, am I correct."

A smirk climbed on my face, "Well, I would at least think that you would have some faith in your own coworkers but-."

"Just answer the question!" Teddy snarled, pushing himself toward, flanking Dale once again. His dark brown eyes resembled dim lights on a slowly dying battery-operated lamp.

"No. Actually, he was interrogated first, then me. So much for the ladies go first rule." The joke sounded way more snarky than rich with charm.

"And you?"

"Packing up the truck. We were planning on just taking out guitars and speakers first then coming back for the drum set later. We had a week until "Breaking Benjamin" had their gig." My head rested on my shoulder, enjoying the seeping warmth from the weather.

"Yeah, my daughter wanted to go but I couldn't take her because of work. Guess it kinda worked out after the concert was canceled." Dale pulled out a pen and notebook.

"You mean, you wouldn't have taken off for the sake of your daughter? I mean, not prying but let's be honest, how often does Breaking Benjamin do a performance around here?" My own words overturned the raspy words of Lace.

I could feel her heat of anger for pushing her away but I genuinely wanted to confront this man, even if these were his last moments of life.

"I don't think you understand just how much my job means to this city and the people in. They depend on me and my team." Dale held his pen tight between two fingers, clearly out of ink.

"Hopefully, I would guess that those precious moments you're lucky enough to have with her would be more important than one night of a job." A yawn left the depts of my stomach as I turned my back to Lace who was slowly losing her cool. A permanent scowl marked her face.

Teddy stayed silent, his eyes going straight to the ground. It was almost like he was feeling a sort of embarrassment. I clapped my hands together, pulling Dale back to reality. Our eyes met, two sets of lasers gazing into neutral pools of mixed emotions.

Royalleaf.

Fireleaf.

"My daughter is my responsibility." Cold flesh touched my exposed throat, clamping down with fingers brushing my throat.

A forced grin manipulated by Lace fell into place. Even with the space between us closed off, he seemed to hold a common fear that both he and me had to graces to feel. That we could both kill each other with the right strength, right persecution and everything in between.

"Stop acting like you're here to handle business because I know the real reason why you came , trying to mask it with some stupid story about your worry about the city. You. Selfish. Bastard." I leaned in over the man's collar, pulsed with Lace's forceful push.

"Ah, because you live in a forbidden danger zone, rent free? That could get your ass in jail but I choose to be a kind man and leave you be." Dale let go of me, ashamed for a moment but standing with his chin held high with authority.

"That's right!" Teddy said with a twinkle of proudness.

"Hush, Kiss ass." Lace's true personality was slipping more and more into a vicious snap at the two.

"If I were you-."

My aura snatched away from the coils next to my heart. I was stunned by the speed that my mind, already holding on to Ash and Cole could take control of the gold flare in my chest. Tears bubbled up at the rim of my eyelids in response to the pain.

Teddy's eyes widened to quarter-sized balls of brown, black, and white, jaw slack with both terror and awe. Lace moved at a quicker pace, body gaining back fragments of flashing colors that built back her statue. This time though, she was no longer chained by shadow of the fence, not fading into a shell.

The sunlight shimmered off her pecan skin like a shade of bronze, a pale, ghosty color dancing off her clothing. The words, "Green Day" on her shirt didn't give off the band's normal punk edge but rather a gloomy gleam. Everything from her shoes carried a wake of death and the past while her body was nearly angelic.

My aura seemed to rise from her body rather than mine, leaving a empty hole next to where the sparks of gold would have exploded from my body. It was that moment that I felt more apprehension towards the tunnel ghost.

She had every defense in my body in the palm of her hand, twisting me like a piece of foil with no backbone. My voice, abilities and dreams even belong to her. The personal harmony I held with my mind and memories was now broken into like a shattered glass vase.

I hate Lace.

The hundredth time I say it and I still feel the same way. It doesn't change and I wholeheartedly believe it never will. Never. Not even her past can justify what she's doing.

Teddy doesn't move, he just stays locked in place. His trance is close to that of Ash's but his body is paler like a dead man. His eyes lost all life, just empty, soulless marbles holding no light, pits of glossy tar churned tight with mud. His muscles locked in place with no signs of movement or breath sliding through his lips.

"Now that Barney Fife is taken care of." Lace mutters through my body, a weak chuckle torn away from my heart like taking a toy from a child.

I try not to let my emotions take over, allow me to become a hazard for my own body and everyone who depend on me to be strong for their sake. Still, the rage turns from fire to a warm pool of hot lava sinking to my toes.

"What did you do to Teddy!" Flashes of orange and white blinded me through the angry scream from the lungs of Dale.

Nothing.

Nothing at all.