Silence Falls (Sequel to Promise the Sky)

Chapter 7

Capter 7

Ben

When viewed from a distance, only the topside of the Mirror City can be seen, gently glowing in the remains of the sunlight. That is, until the lower side burns. Now, ghostly fingers of firelight can be seen clawing at the sky, appearing to coil harmlessly over the faces of pristine limestone buildings when in reality they devour the hidden streets below. Smoke billows upwards in great, sooty clouds, and even from the vantage point we have, three miles away, we can smell it on the wind.

Strangely, sitting here and watching it all from the outside, I feel nothing.

“Should we do something?” Melissa asks.

I turn to look at where she sits, leaning into my shoulder. Salty sea wind pulls at her dark hair and she keeps having to brush it away from her face. Without even thinking, I shift the breeze slightly, pulling the flow away from her face so the silken strands stream out behind her instead. She doesn’t notice.

“No,” I say, “we already gave them too much of ourselves.”

The terrible thing is that I know there are a hundred different ways I could stop it. Air was always my firmest friend but water is malleable too. I can’t even see the sea from here but, just to make sure my suspicions are correct, I flick out a wrist and pull up swells in the surface of the ocean. It would cost me nothing to wash water across the foundations of every burning building and, what’s more, I wouldn’t even need to. I could simply will the fire to die and it would happen.

“But if we can fix it, perhaps we owe it to them.” She doesn’t sound convinced but the words still grate on me.

“It’s not a case of putting out a few fires,” I snap and have to force myself back down to calm again. “Someone will simply set them again,” I say. “We owe them nothing, you already gave them your body, did you not? And I… I gave them my soul. I’ve killed men for those people and what good did it do for anyone?”

“Don’t say that,” she pouts angrily. “We did what we had to do. My body’s just a body, after all, I can do with it what I want.” She looks away, throwing her gaze out to sea. I have insulted her. “You didn’t enjoy what you did, it wasn’t easy for you, so stop all this nonsense about your soul. This melodrama is so unnecessary.”

“It wasn’t easy?!” I exclaim, standing. She falls away from my shoulder and it causes her to turn, to look at me again. She folds her arms, eyes burning. “Melissa, at the beginning, I never even realised I was doing it until it was over,” I say. “And at the end? Do you know how many ways I know how to kill now? You remember Jeklin, the man with the compulsions. The man I chose to kill myself.”

“I remember that you made me stand outside the door and wait,” she says.

“And that angers you? It was protection. Why would you want to see that?”

“Because we’re supposed to be in this together, Ben. I wanted to be there so we wouldn’t have to go through exactly this, what’s happening right now. I wanted to be there so you wouldn’t carry it all on your own shoulders.”