“Run.” Rift’s voice was calm way too calm for the face she was making a mix of concern, fear, and anger. I on the other hand was frozen like a deer in head lights when Rift realized I was not running as she had told me to she grabbed arm, and dragged me in to a full on sprint as she cursed under her breath. It was dark and I couldn’t see the things that were chasing us but I could hear them. My head had so many questions running through it number one was what in hell was happening. I had just seen my best friend shoot a man with a gun and not a normal looking gun either this one was silver and almost glowing as if it was made of some special medal, and the sound was off there was a bang when the gun went off but it was soft, there was also a ringing from the gun its self.

As I listen to the sounds of barking, hissing, and growling get farther and farther from us my brain seemed to start working again as I process that my friend shot a man seemingly in cold blood. When I was sure we where far enough away from the things chasing us I pulled my arm from Rifts hand and stopped Rift had stopped a few feet away once she realized what I had done. “What are you doing?” She asked in a slight panic and panted for air. “We need to run…we have to get out of here and back to the bookstore!” She took a step towards me and I took one back. She paused and looked at me eyes searching and questioning.

“You…,” I took a breath trying to calm my racing heart and burning lungs. “You shot a man,” my mind was reeling “you shot a man in cold blood?” The sounds where still far but where getting closer. “And…and what are those sounds? What is chasing us?” My eyes locked on to Rift and with the look on her face I knew she could see me. She could see the shock, the confusion, the slight anger for being dragged in to something that I have no clue about, and the fear pure and raw like a wild animal forced in to a corner. It was the type of fear that you calmly approach it was so powerful that fight was more likely to happen the flight if pushed far enough into my corner. I was scared. Scared of what was happening and of the creatures that were slowly getting closer, most of all I was scared of her. If asked why I was scared of her I would not be able to tell anyone why. It was just off everything felt off even Rift and I didn’t know why.

“Pyra Please,” Rift’s voice was soft and calming , but also pleading at the same time. “I can’t explain this now not here there is no time. We-“ she took a deep breath no doubt to calm her own nerves seemed almost as scared as me. “We don’t have time for this.”

“Make time!” I demanded a little louder then I was planing to. I watched as the loudness of my demand cause a flinch in the taller woman which gave me more confidence to speak. “You want me to trust you I can see in you face and I get that. We have been friends for 10 years Rift 10 years! Yet in these past few month I feel like I don’t know you at all…hell you just shoot a man right in front of me with out any hesitation what so ever in your eyes.”

“Pyra…” Rift started to cut me off but trailed off as in lost in thought.

“I want to trust in you. To trust that I’m safe with you but I can’t,” Taking a deep breath and sighing it out I shook my head. “My mind is reeling, everything is off this town, that man, those… those things, even you…you feel off to me and I can’t explain why I don’t know why. So make time if you really are Rift then make time.” The fear in my body starts to take over every emotion running through me and I can’t move from my spot I know we should run I feel it in my bones as the growls get louder still but I can’t. The only thing my body is willing to do is let my knees hit the cold concrete in the alleyway we are standing in as tears start to run down my face.

Rift’s hand comes into my vision as she bends down to my level. “It’s hard I know and I can’t prove it to you right now that I am the Rift you know and I shouldn’t ask you to trust me when I haven’t been fully honest with you, but I am.” There was not anger in her voice, no panic, no hurt. Only calming and almost loving level tones when I looked up at her face there was worry and alertness. “You have every right to want to know what’s going on and to want to understand it all. Please Pyra I will make time to tell you every thing but it’s a lot of information and now is not the right time to explain… I need to get you to Safe Haven Its safe there and I need to keep you safe.” She gave me a small reassuring smile though the worry was still clear in her eyes. “Can you trust me long enough to get you back to our favorite Bookstore?”

For a moment I look between Rift and her hand seeing my best friend for the first time in weeks and nod grabbing her hand. With a firm grasp on my hand Rift pulls me to my feet her golden orbs scanning the area as if to find an outing out of the alleyway that didn’t lead us in to the mouths of the creatures drawing ever closer. I knew where we were. I knew this alley was a shortcut from my apartment to the bookstore called ‘Safe Haven’. “I know how to get out of here.” I muttered causing Rift to look back at me. “Follow.” Was the last thing I managed to get out before I started a full sprint again Rift following close behind.

— — —

She was scared, she was angry, and to be fair she had ever right to be. These shadows lurking in the alleyways the hounds chasing us the unexplained, things that humans would normally just see out of the corner of their eye and not give a passing glance to. All this was her world it was her parents world the world she was born in to, and yet she knew nothing about it nothing at all. I her so called best friend should have told her everything from the begin when I found her again grown up and not a helpless new born. We should have kept her with us even back then, but Noura, Jewel, and Reed let the higher ups talk them in to handing her over to humans all because they feared that the darkness that took over her parents would take over you soul too. So in fear and agents every ones will the higher ups hid her powers to pass her off as human and left her at an orphanage and didn’t tell anyone where they had put her. This action of theirs has now put us here both of us Running for our lives, three of the five elder dead, Fae folk of all kind in disarray because some High Fae Lords and Ladies have gone missing, and the keepers…my people turning on us just because the owner of these damned hounds has promised them nothing but empty lies. As I follow Pyra out of the alleyway the anger of having to hide all this from her for so long builds at my very core; however every thing starts to fade every so slight as we reach the end of the alley and I see my beloved bookstore across the street. A sigh of relief nearly escaped my lips until I saw the hounds come from both sides of the road and behind us. “Shit.” I muttered under my breath as a grabbed Pyra and made a mad dash for the door of the store.

Pushing Pyra into the open door I pant slamming the door behind me and locking it and using my will to shut every curtain in the build as I hear and feel the hound hit my barrier around the outside of the Safe Haven co Bookstore. Soon, the darkness shrouded us, hiding us from the hungry gazes of our predators, as all we could do was collapse onto our knees out of exhaustion looking at each other hoping we where both okay.