Four: Stones and Statues

The road to Sitorra was not what Lilith expected.

Granted, everything she'd been previously told about the city of Stories was just that, stories, but still.....

 

Dry leaves crumbled to the ground and specks of dust and debris rolled with the wind. Mid morning it was and the sun had yet to appear. Dark clouds littered the sky, and Lilith stopped where she was.

 

"Are you sure this is the right way?" she questioned, pulling at the pack strapped to her back. It was considerably lighter than the monstrous sack Dee tortured her with on their first few hours of traveling, and for that she was thankful. She didn't think she'd be able to carry a load like that ever again. "And besides, I thought we were going to Tressar Colony? That up there," she placed one hand on her waist and pointed forwards to the empty horizon, "ain't Tressar. I ain't no map genius, but last time I saw that green glow torch you're carrying around, it said Sitorra."

 

Dee sighed and fisted his hair, inhaling and exhaling exponentially slowly. He threw a withering glance Lilith's way, biting his lip as he dug his hands into his pockets after a moment's notice. "Would you, like to take point then? Want to lead since you know so much?" he asked. His voice was soft, his tone mocking.

 

"No." Lilith muttered, "I was just saying. You don't look like you know where you're going is all."

 

"And how many times have you been outside?" he asked rather harshly.

Lilith choose not to answer, but instead looked down to kick at a stray pebble awfully close to her foot. Lulu looked from the teen to Dee, confusion clearly written on her face and voiced her confusion. "What's going on?"

 

Dee spared her a quick glance, returning his attention to their surroundings without answering her. Lulu blinked at the man, anger quickly rising to her face as he ignored her question in favor of scoping out the atmosphere. She turned to Lilith and nudged her gently, motioning to Dee.

 

"What's his problem?"

Lilith shrugged her shoulders, but eyed the blond curiously for a moment or two before leaning into Lulu. "I don't know. I think something's wrong." she said, and they both turned to watch the blond as he narrowed his gaze at the surrounding bushes. Lilith left Lulu's side with the intention of questioning Dee and getting to the bottom of his so called problem, but rustling from the bushes quickly drew her attention away from the blond.

 

She stopped mid trek and blinked innocently at the decolored greenery. She darted quick glances to Dee and Lulu, only to see that they too were watching the bushes quite intently, it was as if they could see something that she couldn't.

 

She frowned.

 

"What is it?" she asked no one in particular. Dee made no move to open his mouth, so immediately she turned to Lulu, expecting the older woman to clue her in since Dee wasn't making any sort of attempt. But Lulu's lips were sealed and her eyes narrowed, it was as if she hadn't heard one word Lilith just said.

 

What the? Why aren't they listening to me? Anger was quickly traveling the length of her body with each passing second both adults continued to ignore her. Lilith didn't think that such an innocent question warranted for such behavior from them both, she saw nothing wrong with asking what was happening, after all, this quest, was first and foremost, her idea. It was her journey, she called some of the shots(at least she thought she did), and they were both only together because of her. That made her pretty important, didn't it? So why then did they continue to ignore her, the most--dare she say it--vital, central figure of this journey? Shaking her head to be rid of such thoughts, she clenched her fists and was more than determined to sock Dee real good behind the head for his antics. She stalked up to his unmoving, glittering blue eyed form and raised her fists, ready to tackle him in a moment's notice, when the strangest thing caught her eye.

 

Dee's long, unbidden trench coat flew carelessly with the small breeze that whisked by, yet his hands were still tightly woven to his pockets. His stance was tall, shoulders tensed, and the skin close to his mouth bunched together in a heavy set frown. His eyes, blue and unblinking, were glazed and shinning, and as she unclenched her fists, she reached out a tentative hand to touch him.

 

She extended her index finger, feeling quite silly for what she was doing, but barely touched the man's arm before pulling back as if she were burned. Her breath hitched in her throat and she pulled that finger to her heart, walking around Dee to stand directly in front of him.

 

"Dee?"

 

No answer. She swallowed and unglued her hand from her chest and reached up on her tippy toes, this time spreading her palm on his face.

 

Coldness. Ice. The man she wanted to pummel not ten minutes earlier was now frigid, his skin hard like rock and cold as ice. She shut her eyes and bit her lip as she allowed her fingers to travel farther along his face, ghosting them over his nose and the frown painted on his lips. No movement. Nothing. It was as if he were a statue. Lilith chewed her bottom lip and trailed her fingers down his neck, scared out of her wits that he would break out of whatever trance he was in and reprimand her for touching him so familiarly, whipping the gun out from the holster on his hips to point it directly at her face. She would hear the click of the trigger as he pulled it and see the cocky smirk he would direct to her a split second before she fell to her doom. Yeah, that sounded like Dee alright.

 

Except that he was still unmoving, still in that statue like state. She tiptoed until she couldn't go any further, feeling as if she would soon climb up the man just to sate her curiosity, and prodded his neck with her fingers, stopping as a sharp, needle was embedded deeply into the side of Dee's neck, a piece as long as her index finger sticking out. She furrowed her brows and raked her fingers over it gently before wrapping her hand around it to tug and try to pull it out.

 

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

 

Lilith pushed away from Dee in her haste to turn and see who was there, and fell, landing on the ground flat on her rear. She winced as the stones and pebbles gritted into her bottom, and stood slowly while rubbing her sore body.

 

A chuckled met her ears, and she snapped her gaze towards the noise, confusion immediately etching unto her features when she caught sight of the young boy standing in front of the bushes. Lilith stood up fully, taking in his appearance.

 

He was taller than her, but only by a couple of inches, she average, and had medium dark brown skin that stretched the surface of his body. Light brown eyes stared back at her in amusement, and she instantly disliked the boy when he smirked at her suddenly. Dark, wavy hair framed the sides of his face, and a strange suit of armor, similar to the one that v.o.i.c.e official from Mar Pol was wearing, adorned his lithe frame. One hand was perched on his armored hip, the other holding a long, silver colored flute?

Lilith looked at him strangely as he approached her. "Who are you? And what do you want? Did you do this?" she inched back to Dee and hid herself behind him, her hackles rising the closer he came.

 

"Don't come any closer! Stop where you are and answer me!" she shouted, and prayed that this kid didn't detect the small hints of fear in her voice.

 

He did as she asked and held his hands up in the air. "I won't hurt you." he said gently, but Lilith didn't believe him. Instead, her attention was focused solely on the contraption held firmly in his hand. She was waiting for him to answer her previous questions before she fired up another round to keep him busy.

 

He saw her eyeing the object in his hand, and held it away from him. "Really, I won't hurt you." He spoke again.

"Yeah? Then what's that?" she pointed to the strange looking contraption in his hand, "And what did you do to my companions?" she asked hotly, sneaking peeks at Dee and Lulu when her eyes weren't trained on the boy.

 

"My job." came his simple reply. He raked his eyes over Lilith, switching them to Dee and finally to Lulu after mere seconds of perusing their forms, and frowned heavily at her.

Lilith looked at him strangely. "What do you mean you're job? You're not even old enough to have one!" she shouted, "And what sort of job requires you to kill adults?"

"They aren't dead." he said slowly.

 

"They aren't? So, why do they feel cold? And not moving?" she asked curiously.

"Because it is a type of....serum that, when injected, paralyzes the target for an unprecedented amount of time, or at least until the antidote is procured." Another voice, decidedly male and aged, answered from behind the boy. Both Lilith and the unknown boy jumped at the new voice, and Lilith switched her gaze from the boy to this newcomer, shrinking back further behind the unmoving Dee.

 

The boy's face twisted into fear the moment he spotted the new man, and he hunched over, his grip on the contraption slackening. The man approached the boy and sneered, gazing from the male teen to Lilith who, was still trying desperately to hide herself from everyone.

 

His face lifted as he looked on inquisitively at her. "You missed that one." he stated, wrenching the object out the boy's hand. He inspected it closely, oddly reminding Lilith of the way Dee would check his gun every time he used it, and smiled widely, proudly sporting his pearly whites. "No matter, I shall take care of this one for you." he stated and made his way closer to Lilith.

 

"NO!" the boy shouted, stopping the man in his tracks.

The man stopped and turned, "No?" he questioned. "You want to leave this one," he motioned to Lilith, "conscious?"

 

The boy grimaced and kicked the dirt, sparing Lilith a glance before answering the elder man. "No, I just...I want to do it myself." He said timidly, and shifted from foot to foot. "I took out the adults, I wanted to take her out too and finish the job." he said firmer this time, straightening his shoulders and turning to glare at Lilith quite coldly, that she had to hug herself to keep from shivering.

 

The man chuckled, the sound dark, with a strange undertone that more than creeped Lilith out. She started to back away slowly as the boy walked the small distance towards the older man and held out his hand for the gun-like object. The man smirked, the action quick, disappearing only after being presented on the man's face for a second and a half, and carted the oddly colored item to the younger male.

 

"Make it quick. We haven't gotten all day." Lilith heard before two pairs of eyes locked unto her form like a predator eyed it's prey, the boy holding the object in front of him.

Lilith pushed away from Dee as it soon registered within her mind what the boy was about to do, but one step backwards and a sudden sharp pain to her neck caused her to stiffen, before darkness overtook her vision.