I N V A D E R S **also being trashed and rewritten soon**

||04 - Ashes, Ashes||

  "Silver can't save my soul,Riches aren't always gold. 

City lights won't make me whole,Only one thing can save me. 

They say that I'm too far gone,Every step I take feels so wrong. 

Caught up trying to belong,Only one thing can save me. " 

-XXI

"...Happy birthday....to you...." They all sang loudly as Richie and Liliana blew out the candles. 

A cheer went up in the crowd, one I did not join. It had been well over a half an hour and Richie was drowning more punch...and now cake.  

I elbowed Winston. "Psst. Hey, I'm going to go down to LLTF4... with or without you." 

"Wait, what?! Why?" He hissed in an undertone. 

"I think it will help me remember. Maybe we can find out what actually happened, you know, not a 'course malfunction'." 

His gaze was dragged back to Lilliana, she was smiling and laughing while opening presents. I sensed his hesitation instantly. 

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Don't worry, we'll be back in time for you to give your true love a kiss goodnight." 

He blushed and looked at the ground. "Preposterous! Let's just go!" He lead the way, feathers ruffled.

We started to push through the crowd. "You remember how to get there?" I asked as we reached the exit. 

"Four flights down, on the right." 

Four flights of stairs later, we were at the landing with a door frame blocked off by yellow tape. The glass was blown out and the door was hanging off it's hinges. The scent of smoke hung in the air, scraping down my throat like rough sandpaper as my feet slid around in at least an inch of gritty ashes that pooled around the entrance. 

I peeked past the busted glass, finding only darkness. 

"You can't go in, the ledge is collapsed.... but do you remember anything from here?"

I shook my head. "No. Nothing... Just give me a minute."

I stared into the darkness and tried to focus. There was still a black void where my memories should have been.

Focus.

Something deep inside my brain gave a twinge. That was something. A thread of a memory that I scrambled after. It was the wriggling worm on the hook, dangling just out of my reach, as my hungry little fish body swam after it. 

But I couldn't remember. It was an impenetrable void.   

I sighed heavily. "There's nothing there. Like it never even happened..." 

My eyes turned back to Winston, taking in the the blackened cement walls all around us. 

But one wall was different. Chilling words were scrawled across the wall right behind Winston's head.  I froze. 

"Winston." I breathed, "Turn around." 

He whipped around. "What?! What is it, what--" He stopped and stared, mouth agape. 

Read between the lines. It read. 

And the dots connected like they were written across Winston's forehead.