The Colors And The Deal With Death - Chapter III: Bright Day, Darker Shadows

The next morning, I wake up to the sight of a rogue ray from the sun, bleeding through a crack in the curtains right by my head, so I do what I always do in this situation, and pull the curtain all the way, leaving me once again in the dark. I don’t know why, but I often tend to sleep for like two more hours than I intend to, which more than often got me into big trouble with school when I was growing up. I just feel safe in the sheets, finding sanctuary in my deepest dreams. I never dreamt of being a queen of my own castle, or a rider of unicorns with horns of pure fire. I just dream of things that most people have as realities... a family to confide in, a best friend to depend on... maybe finding love won’t be too terrible either. Anyway, I shouldn’t dwell on this for too long, it makes me feel cold inside.

Too lost in my head to get back to sleep, I kick off the sheets, not before realising that my one nightgown is in the wash, and I had to sleep in my underwear. Even though I am by myself, I get embarrassed to walk around so undressed, so I wrap the sheets around me, like a big warm coat. After getting dressed and ready, I open up the curtains, letting the light from outside pour into the room, like a beam fired directly from heaven. My eyes are unable to adjust, so I just move away from the window, hissing like a vampire, like in the books.

As I get ready to leave, I feel two vibrations from my phone around the same time. I open up my phone and see two messages. One from Poppy, and one from an unrecognised number. I open Poppy’s first.

Poppy - “Just got my stuff ready. Using the last of it for food. Living life on the edge, right? ;p”

“How can a human being be so happy and jolly all the time?” I ask myself, letting out a small chuckle as I open the next message.

??? - “So, you’re one of the new kids? I expect great things from you.”

This message confuses me, especially since the number has been withdrawn and doesn’t show up, just leaving a “(redacted)” in its wake. I don’t normally reply to these messages, but my curiosity gets the better of me.

Lizzie - “Sorry, who is this?”

Mailer - “Message cannot be sent. (Redacted) does not exist.”

A little bit freaked out, I put the phone back in my pocket. Who else outside of the six of us and Salvador know about our task? And how do they know my number to begin with? Regardless, I open the front door and make my way outside, my mind swimming with questions about that message.

After a hefty walk around the city, I find the shopping district, a colourful row of buildings of all shapes and sizes. The row goes around into a full circle with just a small gap for the entrance, where all the shops are attached like terraced houses. Lots of people are hustling and bustling around here, like little drones swarming around their nest. There is lots of greenery around, including potted plants and a rainbow of flowers scattered across the middle of two individual walkways.

I go into a weapon shop, where I am greeted by two security guards, built like houses and probably as sturdy, and without a second thought, I choose my new weapon. A black revolver, two in fact, as well as a small katana. I take it to the counter, where he puts them all into boxes, fitted with a security tag on it. I’m assuming that’s to make sure I don’t use it to attack civilians with it. Fair enough. While I am here, I also buy a hefty load of bullets to use. After all that, I get everything I really need for this mission, but I still have about 1000 currents left. Might as well keep the rest handy.

In the corner of my eye, I see Andy and Blanche, also shopping here. They seem to be having an argument of some kind. I’m assuming they know I’m here, since they point to me as if I wasn’t completely aware of their presence. After a little while, they notice me staring at them, surprising them a little. The two come over, as Blanche looks awkwardly away, rubbing her shoulder.

“Hey Lizzie. Blanche, wasn’t there something you were going to say to her?” Andy says, giving her a quick shove in the arm.

“Alright, fine. I’m sorry, okay? There, happy now?” Blanche asks, a little louder than normal, so a few people look at us as they pass.

“There, was that so hard? Sorry Lizzie, if this wasn’t brought out in the open, it would only get worse and worse. She thought you were someone else.” Andy says, eyeing up the shops, hoping that no one will notice.

“Someone else?” I ask her, honestly not all that curious about it, but anything to bring her on my side, I suppose.

“Andy, why don’t you go do your shopping? Let Lizzie and I have a little girl talk?” Blanche asks, sending Andy away.

We watch as he quickly walks into the weapon shop, as eagerly as a child would into a candy store. Blanche and I turn back around to face each other.

“Anyway. I am sorry for being a little off. Shall we walk and talk? I’ll explain myself to you.” Blanche asks, almost sounding like a different person entirely to what I was envisioning.

We walk aimlessly around the row together, looking at all of the shops and the assortment of goods they keep in the windows. For her, it seems ordinary, but for me, this is all brand new.

“You see, I don’t know if Reeve told you or not while you were with us, but our parents were pretty special. They basically became the guardians of this place after that Arc legend became popular. They were so big, that they were given jobs on the outside too. The money was amazing, and while they wanted Andy and I to take over one day, the whole hero thing didn’t really appeal to me. Andy was all for it, but I really wanted to be a singer. Something I have been doing for some time now. Anyway, before my mother left on her last job, she gave me her special necklace and told me that it would bring me the best of luck, and then I never saw her again after that. I kept it safe for a couple of years, but as I was waiting for a train somewhere in Capita, a young girl came to me, looking weirdly at me. She then grabbed for the necklace and ran away into the night. I was so distraught that night, that I just never forgot it years later. That girl looks exactly like you, in a way.” Blanche says, reliving the moment in her mind, making her well up with tears.

“Oh. I had no idea. Sorry to hear that. Well, I promise you that if I ever find the girl, I will get your necklace back.” I say, holding a special hatred in my heart for people who take special possessions. Though I may have stolen money sometimes for food in my darker days, nothing is worse than stealing something most important to someone.

“You will? Thanks. You’ll have to wait your turn though, because I will be first to kick her butt.” Blanche says, giggling a little.

She looks at me, smiling as she examines my chest, most likely looking for the necklace.

“Say, how about I do something to make it up to you?” Blanche asks, pulling out a compact mirror to casually check herself.

“Oh no, that’s fine. You don’t have to. Really.” I say, just grateful and surprised that she came out and was honest with me.

“Oooh, how about a makeover? We have a few hours to kill, and not to sound mean, but you are totally due for one. Come on.” Blanche says, gasping and clapping with excitement before taking my hand and walking with me.

“A makeover? That’s not really me.” I say, never having had one before in my life.

“Oh come on, it’ll be fun. Come with me, I know the perfect place.” Blanche says, getting excited, even if it isn’t for her. She must be really into this sort of thing.

“Hey, shouldn’t we tell Andy where we are?” I ask her, but she just shrugs her shoulders and continues.

Then again, thinking about it, it would be a nice little experience. Alright, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I’ll trust her with it for now. We walk into a fashionable salon, with more noise than a construction site, and lots of pictures of models on the walls, just reminding me that I’ll probably never even come close to that good looking.

After about an hour and a half, I finally finish up in there. I take a look at myself in a small mirror and I look... actually pretty nice. I was given a new shorter shoulder length hairstyle, though the fringe is a lot thicker, my pink and purple were touched up and I was given a cartoon cat pin for my hair, though I have already put it on my beret. I finally have makeup on, mostly black around the eyes and lips. I start to smile, as I notice that the demon from before is nowhere to be seen... for now anyway.

“Thanks Blanche. I owe you big time.” I say, still a little shocked.

“Don’t sweat it. I just messaged the others. We’re meeting at my place so we can make some final preparations. If you want to finish up here, and get your... stuff, then meet us there, that will be great.” Blanche says, as we leave the salon. Thankfully, not many people are around to hear our conversation.

“Oh, sure thing. See you then.” I say to her, a little nervous about what we have to do later tonight.

I do a bit more shopping, buying some clothes for myself, including nightwear and other little essentials like an actual toothbrush I didn’t have to steal from a store or something. After everything is done, I decide to return home, as the sun starts to fall from the sky, and the moon rises from the ashes. I quickly get back to the house, and drop off the multiple bags, dropping them just outside the door. I quickly run up the stairs, as the floorboards creak like crazy. I put my new costume on, and prepare my new weapons in my...

“Crap. I forgot the damn holsters.” I say to myself in a silent panic, my eyes widening as the reality sinks in.

Looking around for something to use instead, I decide to empty out the shopping tote bag from earlier and put the weapons in there. It’s stupid, but it’ll have to do for tonight. I hate myself. As I leave the house, I notice that the moon is almost at its peak, and the sun is very nearly down for the night. Luckily, the spring weather is starting to kick in, so it’s not really cold out here anymore. I check my phone and see that it has just turned 8:00pm, an hour before we have to meet Salvador at the gates, but it suddenly dawns on me that I was supposed to meet the others way before.

I start to run, hoping that no one on the streets bring too much attention to my costume, when I look at the buildings and the way they are positioned, and I get a dangerous but exciting idea to get there faster.

Without a second thought, I run towards the fire escape of a building, running all the way up to the roof, as I jump from building to building, knocking many precious seconds off my time and keeping out of the crowd’s way. As I camouflage myself into the night pretty well in this costume, no one can even see me up here. I take one last big jump over a large gap, only narrowly making it. Stopping to catch my breath, I see the house on the other side of the horizon, though they have no neighbours, so I’ll have to continue the rest on the ground. I slide down the fire escape and run as fast as I can towards the house, weaving through all of the big plants in the garden. Once I get to the big house, I knock on the door, once again fighting for breath. This time, Andy comes to the door, dressed in a red suit of armour with a huge sword and shield at his back.

“Hey, you could finally show- Woah. Lizzie? Is that you?” Andy asks me, a little stunned to see my costume, like the last person to arrive at a costume party.

“You could say that. Nice armour.” I say, as I walk by him, walking towards the stairs again.

“Oh, thank you. Hey, can I offer you a drink?” Andy asks, following behind me like a cautious puppy.

We climb the stairs together, and open the next door, going back outside to the rooftop. The others are already there to greet us, all sitting in the usual circle of chairs. I take my chair, as Andy sits in his. I notice the cooler in the middle of us, filled with cans of cola. I also see that there are few more lights up here than there was yesterday. Probably would be a bad idea to serve alcohol before a job. I take a quick glance at everyone’s costumes, all of which look pretty cool, better than I actually anticipated. Probably not winning any fashion contests, but would be intimidating to see on a street corner or something.

“Alright, now that we’re all here, we can at least have a little quiet moment before we get going.” Andy says, pulling a can out of the cooler.

“Yes. I did have some ideas concerning our team. First of which, I couldn’t help but notice that our costumes all reflect different colours, and we probably shouldn’t call each other by our names when we’re finding those rings. So I thought a nice nickname for each of us would be the best bet.” Roxy says, rocking a blue set of goggles and a metallic blue jumpsuit with lots of little compartments with little gadgets in them, like a robot from a cheesy sci-fi movie.

“For example. You, Lizzie. Your garments can walk freely in the night. So your name is Black.” Roxy says to me, looking me up and down.

“I can live with that.” I reply to her, just happy to have a nickname that isn’t derogatory towards me.

“Next, we have Andrew here. With armour as red as fire, I think we have a Red.” Roxy says to Andy, noticing his red armour, and his sword and shield.

“My dear friend, Nuko. There’s no doubt in mind that you are Green.” Roxy says to Nuko, as he wears a green camouflaged gas mask, a green protective coat and patchy trousers. He seems to have a bag filled with minor explosives.

“Alright, fine. You’re lucky that green is my favourite colour.” Nuko says, pulling up his mask for a swig of cola, before pulling it back down.

“Blanche, you will be White.” Roxy says, looking at Blanche, who wears a pure white traditional exotic dancer’s garb with long tassels around her arms, hanging from wristbands. She also wears a white face mask, decorated in glitter and a thinly weaved sheet over her mouth. She is sharpening a pair of daggers.

“You think?” Blanche says, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“Next, we have little Poppy, the other new girl to our fair city. You are now Yellow.” Roxy says, noticing Poppy’s yellow sunhat and a little yellow face mask. She is also wearing an almost heavenly yellow angel attire. She is holding a bow with a quiver of arrows behind her back.

“Oh, yeah, that sounds nice.” Poppy says, smiling quietly to herself.

“And last but not least, I will be Blue.” Roxy says, opening one of her many compartment on her right arm, pulling out a leather whip.

Something about that whip makes my blood boil, and leaves me a little breathless. I try my best to contain myself, not wanting to show my concerns and bring down another evening.

“Okay. Now that we all have our names, shall we head off soon?” I ask the others, after taking a deep breath, swallowing my fears, knowing that she will not hurt me... I hope.

A few minutes later, we all walk together towards the entrance to Watcher Central. The sun is completely gone, leaving the sky under a blanket of stars. I know I didn’t want that drink from before, but now that I’m here, my throat is actually dry as a bone. Suddenly, Blanche puts out her arms to stop us in our tracks.

“Blanche? What’s up?” Andy asks, preparing his weapon, looking around the area like a watchdog.

Blanche points ahead of her, at a man in a purple ceremonial garb, like he is part of some kind of religion or something.

“There’s a guy over there handing out something. Don’t get too close, he’ll try to get you to sign up for something, I know it.” Blanche says, talking as if from experience.

“Oh Blanche, don’t do that. You scared me half to death. Come on.” Andy says, pushing Blanche onwards.

“Don’t worry, we’ll just walk right past him. Just don’t stop for anything.” Roxy says, picking up her pace ever so slightly.

We all walk towards the entrance, which is just behind the man in purple. Silently, we walk past him, as he keeps his gaze on us with a huge smile on his face.

“Hey guys, a moment of your time?” The man asks, with a jovial tone.

“Oh, sure.” Andy says, walking back to... huh?

Andy runs back to the man, willing to hear him out, as we all groan. So we do the only thing that seems right. We continue walking and leave him to his mistake.

“We’ll be over here. Good luck, dumbass.” Blanche says, as we all continue on to see Salvador, standing by the elevator, between two bright lights.

“Ahh, there you all are. Right on time, and I see you all like the new threads. Head into the elevator, I will explain everything once we’re inside.” Salvador says, pressing the button just behind him.

“Hang on a sec, we’re down one guy.” Nuko says, pointing towards Andy, who is still talking to the man, before coming back with a white paper cup.

“Sorry about that. He tried to invite me up to some party being held over at Moore Fields in a couple of days. Says he’s part of some group called The Founders. I turned him down, but he gave me this cup of wine as an offering.” Andy says, walking back to us.

“The Founders? They’re a strange breed. Unable to pick a side, they worship four patron deities. I wouldn’t worry about those kooks. Anyway, we should be heading off.” Salvador says, as the doors swing open with a mechanical screech, followed by a tiny beep.

We all walk into the elevator as we begin our descent back down to the world below. We all look down from the window, looking upon the majesty of this beautiful world.

“So let us get down to brass tacks, there have been a few weird things going on around here for the past few days. We have been receiving sightings of a strange bird-like creature that has been circling the city like a vulture. At first, I wrote it off as a hoax, but then it reportedly killed three people by dropping them off the edge. It has happened for the past two weeks running, though we have heard from some reliable sources. They say that the bird is on its way back now. For your first job, we need you to take down that bird.” Salvador explains, looking out of the window with us.

“All this for just a little birdy? You’ve got to be kidding-“ Blanche says, laughing to herself.

Suddenly, a huge bird slams itself into the elevator, smashing the glass. The bird is missing quite a lot of its feathers and flesh, and looks like it is connected to wires from a strange machine on its back. It lets out a huge ear-piercing screech, like a banshee. Blanche screams and starts to cry to herself.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. What is that?” Blanche asks, panicking to the point of hysteria.

We make it to the bottom, as the bird slams itself into the elevator again, damaging it even further.

Poppy and I use our bullets and arrows to fire at the bird, but it is much too quick, as it flies up into the night sky. Without a warning, it comes down and swipes Roxy from the ground, taking her up into the air. My stomach feels queasy for her, so no idea how she is feeling right now. The bird suddenly starts to take a nosedive, with Roxy’s whip around its neck. Roxy jumps off the bird just as it slams to the ground. Andy jumps in her way to catch her. She starts to sob to herself, shaking uncontrollably.

“Th- th- thank you. That was so sca- sca- scary.” Roxy says, burrowing her head into Andy’s chest, too jittery to likely even think to herself.

“No problem. I’m just glad you’re safe.” Andy says, setting her down by the elevator.

As the bird still recovers on the floor, the five of us take our opportunity to use our weapons against it. Blow after blow, swing after swing, arrows and bullets, we are still unable to do any real damage to it, like our weapons just bounce right off it. After firing a few more bullets at it, the bird recovers and retreats back over the clouds, letting out one last screech. We all put away our weapons, as Andy helps Roxy back onto her feet, still shaking uncontrollably.

“Did we win?” Poppy asks, excitedly.

“I doubt it. It probably didn’t have any reason to stay. It’s a shame, we didn’t get to try out our new weapons to the fullest.” Andy says, casually putting aside the fact that we barely even made a scratch on it.

“What do we do now? Without the elevator, we’ll stuck down here.” Nuko asks, starting to panic.

Unfortunately, he has a point. The elevator, our only way of getting back into the city, is missing its glass, most of it in pieces on the floor. The control panel is starting to spark a little, and it looks like it’s going to rai-

Urrrrrgh!

For some reason, my stomach starts to burn up, getting worse and worse until I start to vomit. Although, I don’t know whether it’s the way there are no bright lights here or not, but the puddle looks black. Without a warning, I start to feel myself growing faint, as my vision fades more and more to black.

“Lizzie!” Poppy shouts, running towards me as I see her come into view.

After a moment, the others crowd around me, like a pack of vultures around the dead.

“What happened to her? Someone do something.” Blanche says, pushing Poppy towards me, having seen her power in action before.

“I’ll see what I can do. Hang on.” Poppy says, putting on a brave voice, as she kneels down to me and places her hands on me, emitting a warm glow.

The last thing I hear before I completely black out are a choir of screams from above us, and Salvador shouting to the others... “Watcher Central! What is going on up there?”

I start to open my eyes again, and see that it is now daytime. My vision starts to come back, as I wake up in my new room, still warm in my bed. Was everything before just a dream? I open the sheets and notice that I am wearing my new nightie, so I couldn’t have been dreaming up the whole thing. Last thing I remember, I was in great pain, and now, nothing. With lots of questions that needed to be answered, I get myself ready and walk out of the front door. Everything looks fine, though there it seems like nobody is around.

I start walking down the road, hoping to find someone to tell me about what the hell is going on. I continue walking, my heart in my throat and a cold chill going down my spine, no thanks to the strong winds. The road seems a lot longer than I can remember from before, though I’m sure I’m probably letting my imagination get the better of me. My phone suddenly starts to vibrate in my pocket, as I jump out of my skin. I quickly take my phone out and see that it is from Poppy. Thank god.

Poppy: “You left us down there to rot. Why? I thought we were friends :(“

All of my breath leaves me when I read the message. I quickly close my phone and start to run towards Andy’s and Blanche’s house, hoping to find someone there, but to my surprise, I see that the whole building has been demolished, the flames still freshly lit. My phone starts to vibrate like crazy now.

Blanche: “You will pay for what you did to us.”

Andy: “We helped you so much, and this is how you repay us?”

Nuko: Going on a rampage and blowing up stuff? If I were you, I’d probably hide somewhere. Good luck.”

Roxy: “You left us when we needed you the most. We couldn’t hold them all off. I’m sorry.”

I quickly run towards the elevator, I have to find out what the hell-

Suddenly, a hooded figure appears in front of me. All I can see is a dreadful toothy grin, as it beckons me to follow it. It walks into the park, disappearing into darkness. I follow it in there, and the sun starts to quickly descend, leaving me completely alone in the darkness. I suddenly find the hooded figure, staring at me from between two trees, still with the insane grin of its face. It starts to talk to me in a cold whisper.

“VHdvIGJlaW5ncy4gT25lIG9mIGxpZ2h0LCBvbmUgb2YgZGFyay4gQSBib25kIHRocm91Z2ggbW9ydGFsIGNoYWlucywgYnJva2VuIHRvbyBzb29uIGJ5IGZhdGUgdW5mb3Jlc2Vlbi4gVGhyb3VnaCB3YXlzIG91dHNpZGUgb2YgbmF0dXJl4oCZcyBsYXcsIHRoZXkgc2VhcmNoIGZvciB0aGUgb3RoZXIsIHRoZSByZXVuaW9uIHVwb24gdGhlIGZhY2Ugb2YgcnVpbi4gVGhlcmUgd2FzIG5vIGVuZCwgb25seSBiZWdpbm5pbmdzLiA=“

She then vanishes, as lightning strikes. I start to scream, but end up passing out again. When I wake up the second time, I seem to be in a hospital bed, my stomach feeling like it is going to explode at any given moment. Is this a dream? I actually hope so. My costume is completely gone, as I look down and see a hospital gown. I wonder where it went, and I hope no one saw us there.

From the other side of the door, I can hear a group of voices, a crowd forming just outside the door.

“Calm down, everyone. We have everybody on duty today, working around the clock to find a solution to the problem.” Poppy says, in the loudest and most assertive voice I didn’t know she was capable of, but with that high voice and interesting accent, she still isn’t all that intimidating.

Poppy comes into my room, wearing her nurse’s outfit. She looks upset as she walks towards me.

“Ohh, you’re awake. Thank god. I’m so glad.” Poppy says, though she looks strangely sad about it.

“You don’t look so glad. What’s been going on?” I ask, grasping at my stomach, hoping to at least know where this pain came from.

“Well, about that. You’ve been asleep for about a day now. Don’t worry, no one knows about the costumes. I hope you don’t mind, but I... had to remove it for you. I sent that Nuko to your house to pick up your clothes for you. Then we all got changed too.” Poppy says, as if that sentence was completely natural.

“Breach of privacy and feel violated aside, what did the doctors say?” I ask, just realising that I just rephrased the past question.

Poppy starts to cry at the edge of my pristine white bed.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. There was nothing I could do. We have everybody on duty, all trying to figure out more about this. It seems like you have got this toxin slowly working its way through your veins. Quite a lot of people got it too. Right now, it is affecting your stomach. Your antibodies are fighting it back, but it can only last for so long. I’m afraid that once it hits your heart...” Poppy explains, but sobbing again.

“How long do I have before that happens?” I ask, my heart falling down to my feet with shock.

“One... One week. I’m so sorry, Lizzie.” Poppy says, whimpering to me.

“Oh.” The only word I can muster up right now.

Time starts to slow down like the few seconds before disaster. Is this another dream? Please let it be. To be honest, I have not thought about the possibilities of death in a long time. Though often did I crave an easy escape, I always backed out before it was too late. My fear not only consumed me, but it was the only thing in my pathetic life that gave me any reason to continue. I am not a woman of many fears, but as my lips start to quiver and my hands start to shake, of one thing I can be sure. The harsh reality of death, that’s what I fear above all else. For the first time in years, I feel... scared.