Deception: The World is Unfair

Did you know that jogging in the early morning is the best way to start a day? That early sunrise, that calm atmosphere, and vitamin D. I began my day lacing my running shoes after a quick meal of eggs and two toasts. Typically what I make when Hiko chooses to be an asshole and engulf himself in his 'writing'.

I looked at my current setup before running out; running shoes, check. Favourite white hoodie, check. Two and a half litres of water in a backpack filled with rocks and junk, check. I ran into the empty roads, too empty in fact. Mr Jerloid was not outside to water his plants. That guy would be dead and still come back to water his garden. And not even Ms Tiflite sitting on the front porch with her creepy wide eyed cat? Yeah this is a bad dream for sure, looking around only made a whistle sound of the wind, the trees blowing north, some leaves falling here and other, and no one in the horizon.

I continued running, house after house, there was nobody to greet or smile at, as if everyone just vanished, or maybe went to a big party. I found myself in Southland's Central Plaza. Green tall trees filled the corners and the narrowed walking pavements, working as a complete shelter of the sunrays. The walking pavements were white, some grey, and some black. The brown clothed shacks all around gave a distant scent of fresh baked bread and smoked meat, while the clothing shacks had a tint of empty and naked naked oak wood.

The plaza's market opens everyday except Fridays, and last I checked, today was Sunday. I walked into the market, looking for anyone in sight, the only thing that stared back was the huge marble statue of the miracle 'Buralious' erected in the middle of the plaza, his armour was itched with fine care to details. The breastplate was carved with arcane runes, almost similar to the shapes Hiko uses, a spiked flag, a circle with a dot, a trident that had sex with dotted circles.

The gauntlets had eyes that eerily followed you wherever you looked at them. His helmet rested at his left side. It was shaped with pointed features, its open visor in a big T shape showed nothing but air. And finally, the spear he held in the air, the shaft was wrapped in interlocking scales and sculpted with thorny vines and sigils, leading to a butt spike, near the spear head, it had vines rising around like a tornado, almost like a bloom and the head was tall and pointy, enough to impale four people at once. His figure was surrounded by fountains like stairs. It was as you would not expect… Empty. I began tracing my steps back when three scholars ran towards me from where the entrance. I lifted my hands to my face waving, "whow whow, peaceful peaceful,"

"you should not be here… Go home and lock the doors," one of them said, with a gruff monotone voice.

"Why, what's going on?" I asked, looking around. But he just ran back to his spot, with the other scholars, in hundreds, marching somewhere.

***

"So let me get this straight, everyone vanished?" Hiko asked. "Yeah dude, even the birds and animals vanished, it was weiiiiiird," I said. "Ahuh, and let me guess. The trees were dancing too?" "No, they were flying in the air." Hiko's jaw visually ticked as he glared, "what kind of crack are you on?"

I rested on the sofa in the living room, fully extended on my back, hands behind my head and Nakumi sitting to my right on the coffee table, "am telling you dude, it was weiiiiiird. I think I saw a bird lifting one of the trees up." "Okay quit the bullshit, why did you gather us in the living room?" He said. His angry face was way too funny, the furrowed brows almost stabbed his eyes.

"Okay okay, jeez," I couldn't help laughing all over my words, "the scholars are all over the place. They did not tell me much except I should just sit at home and lock the doors." Nakumi was hiding her giggles while holding her mouth. "To put it simply, a lot of scholars are in Autumn streets… I would wager some of them are from the north and west lands too, never that much before," I said.

"Think they know about her?" He said, making eye contact with the big rounded crimson eyes of Nakumi.

"I don't know man, if that was the case wouldn't they evacuate the entire neighbourhood from the 'existential threat'?" I said and he nodded. I just turned on the TV, looking at the news, "maybe the news has something?"

"EMERGENCY || EMERGENCY|| EMERGENCY"

The buzzing sound of the TV emergency broadcast pierced my ears, almost bleeding me out, I turned it down quickly.

"A group of demons have migrated from Eastland to Southland. This is not a drill. Stay indoors and lock your windows and doors. This is not a drill." It proceeds to repeat over and over, prompting me to just turn it off sighing.

Bang! We heard the front door slam open, knives in hand, and we jumped at different blindspots at the entrance of the living room. As the rapid steps neared in, the smell of wood perfume with the crispness of cedarwood, sandalwood, and vetiver… Giving off wood spirits.

"Dude wait" I said to Hiko as the intruder ran in. As I had guessed, Kimrol was huffing a lot, her hands on her knees.

"Bad news…" She said, trying to recite whatever was in her mind while wheezing. Visibly anxious, I walked her over to the sofa, and went to bring a glass of water.

"Thanks… Ha…" She gulped it in one go before taking a deep breath, "my informant was killed in the east just now,"

If there is anything I understood about informants and the east, is that they don't stay alive for long. "Isn't that normal to happen?" Hiko said, bumping off the wall, arms crossed.

"It is… But before that he told me three demons were coming to Autumn Streets fast." She continued, her hands pressing against each other. The room got chilly all of a sudden.

"Makes sense… But why the sudden hurry here? Besides, won't these scholars take care of it before they reach here?" Hiko asked.

"He heard something about finding the gift in Southland." Kimrol said, looking at Nakumi, and that is when our throats dropped. As if suddenly unable to breathe we both looked at Nakumi, who was making pop sounds with her mouth. I am almost glad she does not fully understand the situation.

"Look, I know, she is a demon with crimson hair but there is something you are not telling me about her, why is she called a gift, why is everyone looking for her?" She continued, looking at the oblivious redhead.

"...welllllll, let's just say she is capable of-"

"Kan!" Hiko yelled, his eyes popping out as near to kill me.

"Relax dude, at this point she has to know," I said.

"Know what?" Kimrol replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Tsk... Nakumi is a crimson royal blood. She is the last of her kind that can open portals to and from hell." I said, and Kimrol gulped the last of the water cup. "But she didn't mature yet, she doesn't have her wings, or her powers, she is effectively a child demon."

"Do all child demons look like humans?" Kimrol said, her brows narrowing slightly as she looks down at the empty cup.

"Yes... Until they mature." I said, looking at Nakumi.

"But this is strange, her blood did not escape her body once, and even if a couple of drops did, its scent wouldn't travel far enough to the east…" Hiko said, while his index and middle finger massaging his forehead. Nakumi stood off the table looking up at us, it seemed as if she wanted to say something but ended up just walking up the stairs.

Hiko and Kimrol jumped into a thinking fest, 'who can figure it out first' competition. As for me, I followed Nakumi. At the second floor, she jumped up at the attic's pull cord, her hair flying everywhere with each jump. I stood behind her before jumping and pulling it down, as she quickly began climbing the stairs to the attic, I simply followed, into the dark griddy attic.

A familiar smell of pungent crude…blood, but in a way it was sweet too, like honey. Where her old shell was, there were black roses all around it, making a beautiful black bed. Nakumi walked to it and sat down, leaving me to choose between being in awe or being absolutely terrified. I picked up one of the flowers off the bed, but it grew back. "We have to leave," I said, picking Nakumi off the flower bed and as I turn around, Hiko and Kimrol stood right in front of me.

"I knew I smelled something," he said, balling his fists as he pushed me to the side before stabbing his knife through and pulling the roses out, more and more coming out in the process.

"NOO!!" Nakumi fought against my hold, like a child witnessing their toys being destroyed, her eyes began bleeding… When the monster finished his attempts, he turned around, fangs showing and eyes wide. A psychopath of a demon.

"Whow whow whow, relax dude" I said, standing between him, Nakumi and Kimrol.

"Relax? We're gonna die in this shithole, where are we evacuating to? The entire land is surrounded by scholars, the roads are blocked. If we survive, you best believe they purge the fuck out of us." He yelled. It takes a while to calm down an angry demon, usually including a punctured heart. But with Hiko, killing him is not enough.

"Look, be angry all you want, but let's figure something out first," I said, holding his biceps off. He glares at poor Nakumi, then pushes my arms off, walking to the dimly lit circular window of the attic. I walked to Nakumi and wrapped my arms around her loaf head patting her back,

"there there, let's clown his face again when he sleeps." I whispered, and she nodded on my shirt, staining it with her tears. No matter how you look at it, she is just a child, and a confused one at that.

"I may have a solution," kimrol said with a smirk, "I have a friend who works at the port, she can help you migrate, and I know just the place in Westland."

"And the catch?" Hiko said. "...You will see yourself when we reach there, deal?" She said,

"I will have to depart with my beautiful TV but… deal" I said, "Deal!" And the red-head yelled, "Hmph," he looked back at the window, staring at the collecting clouds in the air, "I have no choice… deal,"

***

Clothes and necessities, check, demonic infused rifle, check, military grade vest made from skinned demons, check. I was emptying my weaponry locker into black plastic bags while Hiko was gathering as much of his books as he could, meanwhile Kimrol was helping Nakumi order her clothes, teaching her how to tie the bags too. "A quick revision for the plan." Kimrol said, as we all gathered in the living room, "I informed Galia of the situation, we have an hour before departure to Westland's waste plants."

Nakumi walked next to her, wearing a pink dress shirt with a messy bow. "Since the roads are off we will have to travel from the sewer systems. If we are fast enough, we should reach there in time," she continued, turning to the exit.

"And how are we supposed to know the path to get there?" Hiko said, holding his huge bag of books in one hand over his back.

"Don't worry, the sewers are my second home."

***

Beautiful smells of sewage, shit and rotten flesh filled up my nostrils, like someone baked moulded bread and put a rotten pig in it, the slouching wasted water gave me a cold shiver for every step. There were no sidewalks to save us from the distaste, only plastic bags wrapped around our feet and up to the knees. I had the crimson kiddo on my back, while Hiko and Kimrol were checking the drap corners. The walls were filled with previous flushing, as if a huge wave of water have passed by recently, yet not high enough to reach the flickering lights that begged for services..

"And here it is," Kimrol said, looking up at a manhole in the middle of the path. She jumped up, sticking her fingertips to the and feet to the cylindrical path upwards, like a lizard she spiralled around the clearing, all the way to the gate. "Cool!" Nakumi said, looking up at the brunette. Her arms extended wanting to try it, but I held her firmly, not allowing her to move a lot.

Kimrol pushed the metallic manhole to the side jumping upwards, and yup you guessed it, heavy rain tapped and tapped, some of it escaping into the sewer, almost hitting Nakumi. We had anticipated it, which led Hiko to put a brown darkish robe around me and Nakumi, while he wore one himself before we jumped upwards into the container depots. The sound of our footsteps, or anything for that matter would be deafened against the crazy rain. I almost couldn't make out my hand features if it wasn't for the old big lamps here and there.

Kimrol began moving quickly behind containers, then signaling us to move, then again and again. There were the occasional guards here and there but in this storm, I could walk in front of one and they wouldn't notice me. Eventually we see it. The big black scow filled with piles of garbage, although covered with a sheet of metal above it, looked cheap and old. Someone in a white uniform stood on the deck with a dixie cup, head down. Suddenly, they snapped their fingers twice, making the brunette Kimrol finally relax her figure, as begins walking normally to them. "Kept ya' waiting, Galia?" Kimrol said, almost letting a chuckle escape her words. We followed behind, our faces and bodies completely masked.

"Hop on in Statke," the petite lass said, as she walked off to the front of the scow's cabin, into a well-lit room. If I knew my westlandish dialect, I would assume she just called her sister. The South has no dialects like the West does. Guess the rumours were true, there is a lot of mixing between demons and humans in Westland. Hiko ran in after Kimrol jumped in, walking into the scow room, and then I jumped in too. We stood under one of the scow's covers from the rain, taking off the covering clothes, finally breathing air instead of shit.

It did not take long for the scow to begin moving off the harbour. The garbage mixed with the rain made me cover my face a bit, although much better than the sewers. I couldn't help but sense as if the port moved out of its place as we departed further. By just a centimetre, as if the earth around us shifted an angle from the correct place, like a piece of paper wrinkling. I must be really tired to even think. Hiko was looking at the cockpit of the scow, yet not moving towards it, as if anticipating an explosion in any second. I sighed and walked in.

"See, we didn't just explode suddenly," I said, shrugging at his blank tired look. He walked in, not replying, and just placing his bag on a corner in the cockpit. The room wasn't small, but it wasn't big, and it wasn't big because this could as well be someone's room. Aside from the control panel with the fancy buttons, levers and sonar, it had fastened oak wooden tables on the sides, a beautiful set of curtains with patterns of green and yellow covering the side windows of the cockpit. A metallic bunker bed fastened to the ground with rails to ensure you don't fly off while sleeping, and literally a carpet on the ground with beautiful symmetric patterns, how the fuck did she manage to have a carpet that didn't keep flying from it's place is beyond me. But those beautiful sets of lamps reminded me of ol' home. They complimented the curtains, spewing bright blue light with a pinch of yellow. And you guessed it, these lamps were heavy enough to withstand the wave attacks.

"Ya like the place?" Galia said, her hands on her hips. For a girl who lives in a scow, she looked like could live worse. Her mackinaw jacket rested around her hips with a stained tank top and oversized pants. Her short hair messed with her vision, seemingly trying to challenge Hiko's eye covering style, "errrke yer'self at home, gentles, this will be one long trip" she said with a rolling r, and that we did.