What was the worst thing I'd ever done in life?
There were the growing stacks of embarrassingly overdue library books that I'd never returned. And there was that one time I stole the that frog from my high school biology lab; my one and only act of rebellion in school.
And then there was that one time my parents and I had fought. We'd never done that before, not as far as I recalled. My decision to move across the county with, as Mom had put it, "some guy I'd only known for barely a year," had changed that. They'd yelled, and I'd yelled back. I was an adult and was taking control of my damn own life, and I'd told them so as I'd slammed the front door behind me and left.
I'd spent a whole day crying under a comforter at Dominic's place after that one.
No matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn't unearth any other moments with my parents after that. Had that been my last conversation with them?
My heart sank.
Yeah. That was probably the worst thing I'd done.
Until now.
Ignoring the vulgar graffiti on the wall I hugged, I peered around a corner. Blackburne's lit up before me. Breaking into someone else's home was completely unlike me. But, like Blackburne himself said, I wasn't human. I wasn't Skye. I was something else.
Throngs of hollows passed the backstreet I hid in, and they left armfuls of scavenged offerings and lux in the palace courtyard that was encircled by an imposing wrought iron fence. It appeared that inside the domed palace was forbidden to the public, and guards armed to the teeth stood on either side of the doorway. No getting in that way.
I pulled my scarf over my head and moved to leave the alley and join the crowd. For once, my small size came in useful. So long as no one noticed the Light in my eyes, I could just blend right in...
Someone grabbed me from behind and clapped a hand over my mouth. "Whatever you're thinking of doing," Webb hissed into my ear, "stop thinking it."
I shrugged him off me, then jabbed a finger in his face. "You followed me again!"
"Yeah, I do that." He put his hands on his hips. "Skye, what are you trying to do? This isn't about that stone you found, is it?"
"Blackburne has to know something about what it means and where it came from. I—" I almost spilled my suspicions about Crow and the Light. "I'm going to find out exactly what."
"Aaand you're going to do that by breaking into the palace?"
"He and his cronies are outside the wall! I just want to...You know..." I sheepishly toed a piece of gravel, "poke around for a few minutes. In and out. That's it."
Webb's eyes grew huge. "Oh, my God." He slapped a palm to his forehead. "Anchored ghosts really are insane!"
"Yeah. You should probably go tell Vale on me. I'll be here." I hadn't expected company. I glanced over my shoulder at After's red citadel. The king could return any minute.
The other ghost fixed me with a stabbing glare as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his old hoodie. The pommel of the sword strapped to his back caught the light as he loomed over me. "Nah," he said after sucking his teeth. "I choose option B, where I drag your scrawny ass back home. Let's go."
He reached for me. I slapped his hand away and leaped free from the alley. Webb shrank back from the curious gazes that turned to us. We were drawing attention—something neither of us wanted. I highly doubted any of these hollows would take too kindly to an anchored soul wandering too close to their king's palace.
"Skye..." the other ghost said to me, hushed and urgent.
But I backed into the crowd. "Bye, Webb!"
"Shit. Alright!" I heard him cry behind me. "I'll come with you!"
I stopped dead in my tracks. The other hollow caught up to me. "Vale'll throw me down the Pit herself if I let you get killed."
There came the distant sound of cheering. Somewhere, more crows were being slaughtered.
Webb just rolled his eyes up at the starless sky before pulling his hood over his head. Together, we followed the queue of hollows through the iron gates.
The palace was so much more immaculate up close, and it was a stark contrast to the rest of After—like a ruby amongst rot. It would've been a breath-taking architectural feat even on Earth. Black Corinthian columns, thick and tall as redwoods, circled the building. Growing mountains of offerings lay at the base of the polished stone steps that lead up to the front wing. A pair of grotesque gargoyles, so huge that if they had been alive, a single beat of their wings could've leveled any of After's hovels, guarded the several stories tall double doors. At the apex of the building was the dome of stained glass, each intricate panel a different shade of red, much like the blades of the hollow men and women that observed the crowd.
Webb and I steered clear of the main wing, detaching from the crowd and slinking along the outside wall, searching for alternate entry. I held my hand along the curving wall we followed, unable to feel the metal reliefs of hollow armies battling valiantly against monstrous shadows.
"First things first," I whispered to my friend once we were out of earshot of anyone else. "How are we getting inside?"
The ghost beside me flubbed. "Wasn't this your idea? Oh! Over here!" He hurried ahead a few steps, then stopped just below a window too high for either of us to reach. He crouched and held out his hands—palms up with fingers locked together—offering me a boost. Webb flashed his characteristic grin at me.
I obliged and stepped into his hands. With an effortful "Hup!" he hoisted me up onto the window ledge. I returned the favor by pulling him up beside me.
I pressed my face to the window. The textured rouge glass made it difficult to see inside, but I didn't see any movement. I tried to pull open the window. It didn't budge. "Locked. Go figure," I huffed, taking notice—too late—of the aged padlock holding it shut. "I don't suppose we can brute force our way in? See any bricks lying around?"
Webb had been examining the lock with pursed lips. He prodded me in the ribs, saying, "Scoot," before shuffling up close to the lock when I made room for him. Then he selected a needle-thin piece of metal from amongst the array of debris scattered around us. I watched as he slid it into the keyhole. Webb's eyes were scrunched and his tongue slightly stuck out in concentration as he maneuvered his makeshift lock pick—more focused than I'd thought he could ever be capable of.
The lock clicked, and the window creaked open as if inviting us inside. I slowly pivoted my head from the window to gape at Webb, who seemed just as surprised as I was.
"Huh," he said. "Didn't know I could do that." He nonchalantly flicked the pick away over his shoulder. "Neat."
I elbowed him playfully. "Wow, Webb! Were you a world-class criminal in life or something?"
"I don't know."
"Right."
"Well, then." Webb used a single finger to push the window open all the way. "Ladies first." He shoved past me and slid inside, dropping to the floor below in a crouch, hand gripping the hilt of his sword. It was so easy to forget that the easygoing guy was a seasoned scavenger with years of monster-fighting experience behind him.
I stumbled in behind him, much less gracefully.
There was no containing my gasp of awe at the palace's interior. The people of After had nothing unless they were scavengers, or bartered with scavengers. The king's home, however, was nearly filled floor to ceiling with treasures. Webb and I crept past mountains of sparkling gems and marble statues. The king was a hoarder of all things beautiful, and everything glittered in the red glow cast from the stained glass canopy above. I could see now that the veins of metal supporting the uncountable panels of rose-hued glass were cast in the shape of twirling and twisting thorny vines.
All the winding vines met at the eye of the glass canopy, from which hung an enormous chandelier of lux. I stood in its shadow, gaping up at the snarl of twisting and curling vermillion spires. It was like a supernova, forever frozen at the point of explosion. The chain that held it from the canopy creaked as if barely able to hold its weight.
Our boots squeaked on the mosaic tile floor that was bathed in the ambient light of the artificial sun. Webb gawked at the fruits of centuries of scavenging the Dark. The other ghost's hand fell from his weapon and the two of us exchanged grins.
"Let's go scavenging, Webbington," I told him.
"Great. Let's make this quick." Webb rubbed his hands together. "In and out, right?"
We wandered into an entire city constructed of nothing but colossal bookshelves sagging under the weight of more books than any person could ever read in several hundred lifetimes. I supposed that with Blackburne being the first ghost and all, of course, he'd probably read them all cover to cover. Twice even. "This could be a good place to start."
Webb fanned through pages of of a tome before tossing away over his shoulder, looking bored. "Nah. Nothing interesting here. Not like Vale's emo poetry. Remind me to show you where she hides it. It's haunting stuff."
"Yeah...Vale." My stomach lurched. "We're going to keep this between us, right?"
"Absolutely," Webb said. "This is coming to the second grave with me because she will definitely kill us for this."
I pulled a book from the shelf, revealing a gap—an eyehole to the other side of the shelf. I went still as one of the marble statues when someone else shuffled past the gap on the other side. The person paused, back turned to me and head swiveling as if he'd heard the breath I let out. I immediately ducked for cover and hissed, "Shit!" I yanked a confused Webb down to the floor beside me.
The other hollow turned into the cluttered alleyway of shelves we hid in. A shadow passed over us as a man, tall and rail thin and with a bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to his back, prowled by our hiding place. I recognized him as one of Blackburne's echelon. A few paces away, another much larger hollow man patrolled the chamber.
Good news, Vale probably wouldn't kill us. Bad news, these guys would surely do it for her.
"Crap," Webb whispered to me when the hollows were out of earshot. "Looks like Inky and Blinky aren't out scavenging with the rest of the fan club."
"Who?"
"Oh. Yeah." Webb wrapped a coil of hair around a finger as he explained. "So, excluding Reynard, Blackburne's second-in-command and number one ass-kissing fanboy, Blackburne's personal echelon has a high turnover rate."
"Crow?"
"Crow. Vale and I never bother to learn their names. We call the current line-up Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde."
"Cute."
"Right? So, Inky's quick, but he's kinda scrawny. I think we could take him if we had to. But Blinky is, um..."
Webb and I shrank down even farther behind the statue as the larger of the two hollows lumbered past. The hulking monster of a hollow whistled a jaunty tune as he listlessly swung a flanged mace that was almost as large as I was without a care. Webb sucked air through his teeth. "Well, let's not get caught by Blinky."
Beyond the brutish hollow and his vicious mace, I noticed a doorway on the far side of the atrium. I gave Webb a nudge and gestured to our escape. He nodded, and we both waited, not breathing, until both ghosts had their backs turned and were a good enough distance away on the other side of the alley. I led the way with Webb close behind. We cleared the slum of bookshelves. Now we were out in the open. There were fewer treasures to hide behind at this side of the atrium. Should Inky or Blinky spy us, we had no place to hide.
There was a clatter of falling debris behind us. Then the flutter of wings. I looked backward into the shelves and saw a crow take flight, startled out of hiding by the other two ghosts.
"Goddamned crows!" Inky called out. Within a heartbeat, he nocked an arrow in his bow and loosed it. A streak of red shot through the air. The crow screamed when the lux-tipped arrow pierced clean through its chest. It crashed to the floor in a burst of feathers and dust.
Right in front of Webb and me.
Inky and Blinky stammered at the sight of us. Blinky charged with a bellow, weapon at the ready. Inky nocked another arrow.
I grabbed Webb by the sleeve and gunned for the doorway. There was a whistle of wind. We yelled and ducked as an arrow shot by.
I was just about to cross the threshold when the hollow behind me dug his heels into the floor, forcing us both to a sudden stop. I turned back to him. Webb drew his sword.
I tugged on his sleeve. "Webb, don't fight them!"
The hollow boy blew a strand of hair out of his face in exasperation. "Duh. I'm not that stupid." He scowled at the charging ghosts and raised his sword. "This better be worth it, Skye." He brought his sword down on a cable affixed to the wall beside the doorway and severed it. The freed cable snaked up the length of the wall, all the way to the final tether at the ceiling's apex.
My heart rose to my throat.
The massive chandelier fell from the canopy, dropping several stories in a matter of heartbeats, about to crush us all.
I wait in intermission
I remove inhibition
I don't speak, nobody's listenin'
It's not safe to seek the attention
I won't sink, I won't wallow
In this dream that I have borrowed
So don't lead, I won't follow
There's no sense in waiting for tomorrow
'Cause I'm hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow
Hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow