The Night Children

Chapter 17

Taking this as a sign to move, Aleena crouched under the low hanging window panes and balanced on the outside of the windowsill. She steadied herself with outstretching hands, her eyebrows drawing in concentration. I could tell she was calculating the drop below. Unlike me, however, she had done this multiple times before.

With a graceful movement, she jumped, falling for a few suspending moments before wrapping her arms around the hand railing of the fire escape stairs below. She twisted, pushing her upper body to slide along the railing, ice caking at her fingers before landing several feet down on one of the stairs.

I swallowed, and hampered onto the windowsill in a very inelegant manner. Aleena moved her head to look up to me, a proud beam smearing across her face. I nearly called out to her and accuse her of being a cocky bastard, but she pressed her fingers to her bluing lips and motioned to the windows around us. I clamped my mouth shut. She was right. Patients would surely look out their windows at the sound of such crude language coming from outside.

With slightly shaky hands, I looked down. The stairwell loomed far below, and then beyond that, an alleyway. I didn't want to think about what would happen if I missed, or the way Aleena would have to scrap off my remains from the pebbled pavement.

So, I defied what my mind was screaming at me to do.

I jumped.

There was a second of falling, nothing but the dropping of my stomach and the whistling air to support me. But then my palms smashed against the hand railing, and I only just remembered to clamp my fingers around the icy. My body swung from the momentum, and a small, strangled noise of fear escaped me. I heard Aleena swear colourfully before running for me. She was several flights lower than me. My fingers would've loosened by the time to reached my petrified form.

You cannot die. I will single handily never forgive myself if after all this I die from falling off a fire escape. I gritted my teeth and twisted my body sidewards, the movement causing my arm muscles to scream. With a burst of energy, I slotted my leg in-between one of the thin railings to then use my other foot to propel myself upwards. I launched forwards, rolling over the top of the railing to land with a rattle onto one of the steps.

I breathed hard, looking at the stars that glittered from the sky above. Someone once told me they were the echo of fallen soldiers, and I was sure at this point in time, they were mocking me.

A voice sounded from beside me. "It's been three minutes Renee. Can you at least try not to die for another seventy?"

I stared at her double chinned head peeking from above. "No promises," I grumbled.

She snorted and turned away to bound down the stairwell. I forced myself to get up, my heart continuing to pound against my ribs from my near death experience. My shoulder ached from where I had taken my weight, but I was alive. That's all that matters. I'm breathing.

Picking our way down the slippery steps, we finally made it to the alleyway. Aleena didn't pause to wait for me to catch up to her, she instead trailed off to cross the road. I followed after her, her blonde hair like a flame underwater.

Her strides were lengthy, the noise of her boots clicking along the pebbles to ricochet around us. She didn't seem to mind, however her eyes darted to every shadow, taking them in with a calculating gaze. Her hands were in her pockets, and I was almost certain the kitchen knife was embedded in one, her fingers brushing against the blade almost in reassurance.

Aleena paused for a few moments at the main street, taking in the silence with a frown. The street lights barely lit a path, competing against the dying sun. No movement. No sound. No one. It was eerily petrifying. Goosebumps rose on my arms, not just from the cold, but also from fear. An occasional car drifted through the street although I didn't recognise any of the drivers.