The Chronicles of Phoenix Bloodheart I: Turning Red

Chapter XIII: The sinking night

The alley is about two elves' high and wide enough for about four people to walk through beside one another. It is completely ensconced in shadow, making it difficult for Phoenix to see beyond the first few metres. Ivy has aggressively claimed the left-hand side of the alley, covering the edge of most of the buildings, and has stretched over towards the right, where it is overshadowed by trees. The leaves blanket the alley, brushing softly in a breeze. This creates some kind of natural tunnel, pooling the darkness further and making the alley more foreboding.

Phoenix takes a deep breath and saunters into the alley, starting her long shift. With the sun having disappeared over the horizon for good, a thicker black shadow blankets the alley. Trixie has impeccable timing, Phoenix thinks to herself, as her night watch - or night sitting, whatever it is - begins. As she steps into the shadow, the tights over her feet blanket her footsteps and the sounds of the tavern are mostly swallowed up by the mouth of the alley. Feeling a little nervous, she moves forward a few more metres, further into the blackness, and stops to look behind. She feels her almost-bare feet pick up some dirt and foliage from the cold stony floor at the left-hand edge of the alley and starts to think that leaving her boots behind was a bad idea.

The light from the tavern gives her vision of the village road some ten metres away, as does a street lamp on the other side of the road, off to one side. From within the alley, looking back at the road, she feels as if she's another person. Instead of looking from a place of uncertainty to safety like she should, she feels somehow as if she's in a place of relative comfort now, hidden from the world, looking at the danger of the inn's light - and the potential of being spotted. The roles have been reversed somehow.

Phoenix leans back against the wall of ivy behind her, and waits.

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At the other end of the alley, a dark figure climbs the building beside it. They reach the top of the building and walk along, until they have a view of almost the entire length of the alley, give or take some of its curves. The figure leans down onto their front, on top of the flat roof, and peers down into the alley, out of sight and out of mind. It's difficult for them to see anything - or anyone - in the darkest areas, or through the alley's winding roof of ivy but in the gaps they think they spot a slim figure leaning against the wall near the entrance by the tavern.

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It's barely been ten minutes since starting her task, and Phoenix's mind starts to wander, her thoughts blocking out the mild sounds from the inn. What if she has a blackout? What would she do if someone approaches her? What if Alexandra walks down the alley right this instance?

Her heartbeat thuds harder for a few seconds and Phoenix darts her head towards her left, into the thick darkness of the alley, and to the right, the light of the road. She closes her eyes and tries to calm herself.

Another thought pops into her mind. She grabs the old coin from her pocket in her right hand and has to bring it closer to her face to make out the markings on it. She runs her left forefinger around the details of the coin, following the spiral on one side and, after turning it over, the bird on the other. She keeps the coin clenched in her right fist and pulls out the pocket watch with her left hand, looking down at it. 6.20pm.

'Come on Phoe, play a game or something, keep yourself occupied,' she thinks to herself.

She checks the pocket watch again and counts the seconds in her mind. She places it to her left ear, the quiet ticking giving her some kind of calm.

Voices echo from the depths of the alley. Phoenix retains her composure, keeping the pocket watch out, showing others that she is actually doing something, not just loitering in a pitch-black alley alone in the early evening, like some kind of weirdo.