Snippet #2411283

Sagira Massari

It was a fun exercise, imagining what the city was like when people still lived there. Sagira would climb old fire escapes, when she had the time, to the highest points she could get to and check out the view. The shadows avoided the higher up places, mostly, preferring the ground for its cover and victims. The dream-walkers never thought to climb, never thought to look around when there was a different world waiting for them just beyond the trees. And the shadows didn’t go anywhere the humans didn’t. They didn’t care about anything like a view.

Supply trips had become less about goals and more about keeping her sanity, now that her mother was gone. What once took two days now took five, just because a person could only stay alone in a house for so long before even the bright colors of the walls became suffocating. She knew she couldn’t stay there forever, on her own like that. But the prospect of abandoning what her mother had so gingerly cared for was… not something she wanted to worry on just yet.

So when she found everything she was going to find, Sagira would stash it away in the secret places only she knew, and she would climb. She would feel the wind in her hair, listen to the tinkering of her jewelry as the only real sound around her, and imagine people on those empty streets. Talking to one another, getting dinner together, even ignoring each other, but no less present. No less a part of something greater. A humanity that existed together, for better or for worse. The girl craved to be part of something like that. At the very least, she wanted to know what the world had looked like when people actually cared about one another. She could hardly imagine it. She barely even knew what other people were like, barely having talked to any outside of her mom. An understanding of humanity eluded her, but oh if she didn’t want to learn.

It was during one of these trips to the various perches she had deemed as safe that she saw them. At first, Sagira had actually thought she’d lost it. Heart pounding in her chest, she hastened her climb to get to the top, using empty window frames for purchase to haul herself up when the fire escape became too rusted for safe travel. She practically threw herself over the edge of the wall on the roof, landing with a thud against the cement, and wasted no time in picking herself up and rushing to a better place to get a good look. And they were still there.

She nearly dropped her binoculars in her haste to pull them out of her backpack. People. Actual people, in living color. Sagira knew immediately they were dream-walkers, they all had a look about them that the people of Earth didn’t, but they didn’t appear as dazed, as apathetic as the usual. They looked like they were wandering, searching, even. And she’d never in her entire life seen so many of them at one time. She practically started bouncing in place she was so excited.

Then, faintly, she heard one of them shout to the other smaller group. ”Library! Books!” Sagira’s excitement faded a bit. The Library? That’s where they were headed? So, they were leaving after all, simply headed for another fantasy world. Still, this was the biggest group she’d ever seen, and they would be too good for the shadows to resist.

Getting to the library from the rooftops wasn’t hard, but you couldn’t get inside it that way, and anyway she could see even from far away that not all the people in the group would be strong enough to climb up the buildings without help. So that wasn’t an option for them. If ever there was a time to activate her “safety protocols”, it was now. With decisive nod to herself, Sagira snapped her binoculars together and put them away, securing her bag for another trip.

Making her way across the buildings, either via connected rooftops or rigs she’d built herself, she finally arrived at what she’d fondly dubbed her “Master Genius HQ”, the roof just behind the library. She had to pause for a moment and catch her breath when she got there after climbing so damn fast, then she rushed to check on her little party, as she already considered them to be. Still all alive, and still heading for the library. Awesome.

She rushed back over to check her crude-but-hopefully-effective-invention. They didn’t look like much to the casual outsider; a series of chords that stretched from various points on the roof, over to two worn looking stone pots next to the doors of the library. It had been a bitch setting it all up, and she’d nearly been swallowed by the shadows twice in the process. This was only going to work once, and after that it was doubtful she’d ever get a chance to set it up again without dying, let alone find all the supplies she’d need. She was sure she was crazy for doing this for strangers. But this was seven whole people, and even if they were dream-walkers, she couldn’t let the shadows take them. She wouldn’t.

She pulled her lighter out of her pocket and grinned at the thing. “Alright Kiara, it’s our time to shine,” she told it seriously, and with that she either did the dumbest or the coolest thing she’d ever done. Probably both. She liked to think it was both.
Running quickly to make sure they all lit up relatively close to one another, Sagira held the flame to the chords and watched them burn. The spread of the fire along the length of them was rapid, aided by accelerator, and reached the end before they burned through and snapped, one by one chords raining down onto the ground. One of them snapped prematurely and she had to grab it before it fell, burning her hand in the process, but it was a small price to pray.

The moment the fire touched the stone pots, they erupted into bright flame. She’d filled them with tons of burn-y stuff, during one of the few days of the year when the sun was bright enough the shadows slunk back to the darker places. She’d had to wait for days, but she just knew something like that would come in handy someday, considering the library was their favorite hangout spot. She’d been right.

Nothing freaked shadows worse than fire. It was light, and warmth, and beauty, three things they hated. It wouldn’t kill them, anymore than anything else, but it did send them running for a small amount of time. And the moment those stone basins lit, emanating the most light the city had to offer all in one place at one moment, the little buggers fled like the ethereal scum-suckers they were. Better yet, she was sure her little party could see it even from their distance, considering how dark the city was. Even just flickers, but she had to believe they could see them and know that, even for a moment, they were safe. Maybe then they’d believe Earth wasn’t always so bad, and that would be a great bonus.

The group didn’t have a lot of time. It wasn’t a permanent fix, and Sagira knew a storm was coming. The moment the rain started, her little setup would wash away. Luckily the city was a quiet place, and her voice echoed. So, leaning against the wall of the roof, she cupped her hands to her mouth, took a breath and screamed in the loudest voice she could muster, “THAT’S YOUR CUE TO RUN!”

She knew it was stupid, but if they all made it the library, she’d be so happy she wouldn’t know what to do with herself. She didn’t have time to dwell on it, though. She’d just drawn attention to herself. The shadows were brainless creatures, so they’d forget eventually, but for the moment her rooftops were no longer safe places. She turned away to make her descent and do some running herself, but she couldn’t stop the grin on her face that not only had her contraption work, it had been useful. It was the best she’d felt in months.