Immortali: The Rising

Chapter 22: City of Demons

Raina and Pyra emerged from the rune door at the edge of some trees, overlooking a basketball court. Ahead, a group of kids were playing, yelling and laughing amongst one another, in spite of it being obviously quite late in the evening.

Raina noticed that Pyra's expression immediately soured.

"Nice. They look about our age, right? And while they get to play basketball, we've got to save the bloody world. How is that fair?"

Raina rolled her eyes. "Do you even like playing basketball?"

She heard Pyra huff. "No, but I'm just saying, doing normal, non-stressful things would be nice every once in a while, you know what I'm saying?"

Raina thought about. "Yeah... I suppose so."

"Good, we agree. Now, where were we?"

"Saving the world."

"Saving the world... right... save the blue-haired girl."

"Save the blue haired girl."

Raina pulled out a sharpie and began to trace the rune perthro, but was rudely interrupted when she was bowled over by someone who'd been running at a precariously fast speed.

Slightly winded, she opened her eyes to see a girl—the one who'd run into her—sitting up, looking very flighty, but also apologetic.

But Raina ignored that, and focused on something more interesting, like the fact that the girl had blue hair.

"Uh... sorry..." she muttered looking over her shoulder and fiddling with her thumbs nervously. "I wasn't looking where I was going, and I'm really sorry, I am, but I've really gotta go—"

"Like hell you are!" Pyra shouted, grabbing the girl's wrist.

Raina rolled her eyes as she sat up. Way to go Pyra, make the already terrified girl have kittens. That'll go down swimmingly.

The girl frowned at Pyra's hand on her wrist, then looked over her shoulder again, hopping from one foot to the other. "Uh... can you please let me go?" she asked, her voice pleading with Pyra to do just that.

"Nuh-ah. No way. We've been looking for you. We hear you've got a demon problem, so we're here to help."

At this, the blue-haired girl physically recoiled, roughly pulling her hand away from Pyra with an unprecedented strength. "You know... about those... things?"

Raina saw Pyra put her hands on her hips. "If by things you mean bony dog looking buggers, then yeah, sure, we're your girls. Seen any?"

"Uh, yeah! An unfortunate amount!" the blue haired girl snapped.

Rain sighed. "Well, we're in the right place. Where are they?"

She saw how the girl nervously looked over her shoulder again. "Well... um.... They were just right behind me."

Raina nodded. "Ok, and why are they chasing you?"

The girl shook her head, and Raina didn't miss the way her eyes began to water. "I don't know. I don't know anything at the moment. One moment, I'm just a homeless kid, and then I get shot, and—"

"Wait, hold up, you were shot?" Pyra asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yes! I know it sounds crazy, but I was shot... and I swear I died, but... I just... woke up, and there was blood, plenty of blood, and there was a bullet hole in my clothes, but my skin was fine," she explained, pointing to a red hole in her faded denim overalls. Raina stared at the hole and then back at the girl, a feeling of pity weighing her down.