Dystopia's Demigods follows Valentine and Valentina, two different, yet similar, people.

On the day of their birth, they were automatically sectioned out for an experiment.

No one, especially the parents, are told of what these experiments do, specifically.

Fortunately for them, they were switched at birth for non-experimental children.

Free in a world of suppressed people and a corrupt government, these two stand as demigods among humans.

A war looms on the horizon between the people and the government.

These two may be the difference between success and failure.

The young woman hefted her bag of books with an annoyed expression. Why did she have to like reading so darn much? Valentina shook her head and used her free hand to shove aside stray locks of strawberry blonde hair from her face. A little nervously, she crept across the street. It was hard not to be afraid of being found out when anything could trigger her abilities. A child screaming for help, or even an apple rolling across the street.

Suddenly the books she treasured fell to the ground as a wave of nausea slipped trough the young woman. Oh no, not again, and not here! She was in the middle of the road, clutching her head as visions of a bank robbery filled her mind. This wasn't a happy future, and it might end up with her dead and unable to do anything about. Though she wouldn't actually have done so anyway. The blue eyed woman had learned early on what her visions might bring about if she acted on them.

Trouble, and much worse then that. As it faded, she lifted her eyes to see cars honking at her. Sheepishly Valentina gathered her things and sauntered off unharmed, glad to have been spared. Luck had been with her this time, like it usually was. On the other side of the street the slightly plump nineteen year old settled down on a stone bench in the park. After such a narrow escape she wanted to read, and that's exactly what she did under the sunlight.

Valentine hadn’t left his dwelling since early in the morning. All the better, too, this morning had been very rough. He awoke bothered, annoyed, borderline angry at the world. And when he was angry, he did things he didn’t mean to do. More specifically, his telekinetic system shorted and he drew in power from his surroundings, mainly, static in the air. It made his red hair stand on end, his fingertips crackle with blue sparks. But he stayed away from others and allowed his emotions to settle, relax, and eventually, dull. Now he rested on an old cot in the corner of the old, gray room, one arm under his head so he could see the room and the book on the empty milk crate against the opposite wall, underneath the window.

With his free hand, Valentine pointed at the book. As though it had been touched, it flipped onto the floor and dragged across the paint chips and old wallpaper along the wooden base. When he raised his hand, palm-up, it lifted into the air and opened in front of him. It was an old book, the cover nearly ripped off and scuffed so badly he couldn’t read the author or title. Without touching the pages, he turned them one at a time to various pages. It had been an interesting story until it turned into a romance, then it annoyed him and he stopped reading a third of the way through. Love stories bothered him. They just weren’t real, especially now, where marriages were arranged by the government.

With a sigh, Valentine flattened his hand and it fell to the floor again. In the slight quiet, save for the rattling vehicles and voices on the street below, he heard thunder. It was far off in the distance, most likely, because his maroon eyes could see sunlight through the window. It was almost peaceful, in this particular apartment, the noise far enough away to be nearly soothing while still present. But when he heard something thumping rapidly outside the door, which stood ajar at the foot of the cot, he shot up and stared for an instant. The thumping was a few floors below, but also on the stairwell leading up to him. His keen ears caught four sets, overlapping, and in the moment before he looked away, he caught several shadows between the door and the jamb.

He leapt off the cot and to the window, making it in time for the door to be slammed in. Without thinking twice, he heaved his thin frame out the window and leapt to the sidewalk eight stories below. Valentine’s bones were borderline indestructible, yet another effect of his date of birth. He landed on his feet, the only result of the fall being an immediate ache in his feet, and spun around, diving into the alley just nearby. Valentine thought he’d escaped the gang’s bloodhounds, but apparently not. However, they never attacked in public, but he couldn’t put that past them anymore. They were getting much bolder. Pausing halfway down the alley, he huffed angrily. In that immediate reaction, a metal trash can flew across the alley to smash into the other apartment’s brick wall.
With a sigh, Valentine forced himself to move, leaving the alley. The park was pretty public, if sub-par in comparison to cities under stricter government control. With a sigh, he leveled out his emotions and stepped onto the prickly grass.

The young woman was immersed in her book. She flipped trough the pages with a rapt expression as the story unfolded before her eyes and in her mind. Every word brought a fresh image into being until the next followed to build upon it. A cool breeze wafted trough the park, but did nothing to make Valentina shiver. For some reason the cold had never truly bothered her like it did everyone else. When winter came around she usually ended up roasting because of how warm all the extra layers of clothing made her.

It was just one of many things that made her so strange. Another was the sounds of everyone's minds pushing against her own. If not for her imagination and love of reading Valentina would never have figured out how to block them out. People had already written about the subject so much, whether in fiction or not, that finding information about how to control this ability was readily available. At the moment only an uncertain sense of urgency pressed against her mind.

Lifting her blue eyes, Valentina tried to find the source. There was something ... different about this mind, as if there was an echo of herself in it. Hesitantly the woman poked lightly at the other mind, reaching out in a way she hadn't done since she was very young. As she did so, Valentina returned her eyes to her book and pretended to read. A twinge of hope flared within her heart at the thought that maybe there was someone else out there who might understand these strange things she was able to do. It would be such a relief to talk with another like her, without fear of being pushed away and shunned or hunted down! So far the last hadn't happened often, not since she'd moved away from her old hometown to this large city where it was easy to hide amongst the masses.

Valentine had taken to walking along the old path through the semi-dreary park. It didn’t seem to be kept up well, and as clouds began approaching from far above the highest buildings of the center of the city, it would become ever darker and more depressing. However, Valentine didn’t mind. His eyes had always been sensitive to the light, even indoors they stung a bit. The graying of the sky would eventually be a relief.

He couldn’t clear his mind. Regardless of how he concentrated, something plagued Valentine’s head as though something foreign were trying to dig its way into it, like a worm through the soil. He knew that feeling, it’d entered his mind several times in the past. Often it was trying to locate him, other times, it wanted to know his thoughts. This combined with a distant group’s talk on war, strategy, and the weakness of the government’s buildings and bases.

He froze, putting a hand to his head and willing the feeling to go away. He hadn’t yet practiced this, however, and it was especially difficult. Pain shot from the base of his skull to prickle at the back of his closed eyes, creating bursts of light and stars to swim in his vision. “Go away...” He growled, holding his head with both hands now. “Go... Get out of my head, damn it! Out! Oh...” He took off, behind the tree he’d started passing and across the road, into the alley just ahead of him. It was rare that he’d felt that. Usually it was a delusion, something he’d been told comes and goes in varying degrees of strength, but this seemed very out of place. It was real. Worriedly, Valentine leaned against the wall behind him with a sigh.

As the light faded Valentina gave up the pretense of reading and put her book aside. Frowning, she tried to locate that other mind whilst wondering if there was a way to tell whoever it was that she meant no harm at all. I just want to know if there's someone else out there like me, Maybe sending out a thought like that was dangerous. The government had trained people who could tell when these kinds of things were happening, or so her parents had always said when they had found their daughter poking around in people's minds.

Grabbing her books, the long haired woman began walking with great care on the sidewalk. Crowds of people did just that, but she knew none of them was the person she was trying to find. A strange feeling was growing in her heart, one she'd never thought to encounter. Hope. There might just be another like her!

Crossing the street as if pulled by some unseen force, Valentina looked around cautiously. This was a darker side of the neighborhood. If anything happened ... Shivering, she shook her head and hoped that no one would decide to try and prey upon her. They would get a nasty surprise, while she would have to run as fast as she could to reach her home without getting caught. Admittedly that wasn't all that far, though now it seemed like worlds away.

Valentine sat himself down on the ground between a trashcan and dumpster, leaning back and drawing his knees up. If it rained, he wouldn’t mind. In fact, his internal temperature seemed to have risen, some cool rain would feel good. The feeling of being drilled into was mostly gone, but a single thought lingered. It wasn’t necessarily his, though. I just want to know if there's someone else out there like me. It certainly wasn’t his. He hadn’t heard of anyone like him roaming the streets. Most of the time they were kept under observation in a very large facility that simulated different parts of the world, inside or out, depending on the person’s preference, but otherwise they were kept trapped like prisoners so their oddities were watched and recorded.

Can’t figure out why anyone would want to know. It wouldn’t be any easier. His mind ran without him, speaking what his lips wouldn’t. He didn’t care of someone else was around who managed to escape or avoid that prison of an observation facility. Even so, if someone else were around like him, why would they want to find him? He didn’t easily control his emotions, anything could happen around him. And anything usually did happen. He sighed at that reminder just as thunder exploded above the city. It would certainly be a heavy storm.

She stopped in her tracks in shock. Though it began drizzling, Valentina didn't even think of her books for once. Instead she held on tightly to the slender thread that connected her with that other person. Someone else did exist! Of course she'd heard about the government facilities ... But most people thought they were just urban myth. Though her own abilities said otherwise, Valentina liked to think that not all the rumors about horrible testing were true.

Sneakered feet moved without conscious thought as Valentina pondered over the statement. We could learn from each other, and talk about the things you can't with anyone else. I remember picking up a car to get a cat from under it... Needless to say that got me into quite some trouble. Amusement and hope mingled together with what she sent as she ambled along trying to look like she knew exactly where she was going.

Valentina would usually have been able to know people were following her, but this internal conversation engrossed all her attention. There were four of them, three men and a woman, with predatory looks in their eyes as they followed the unassuming young woman. Her clothing actually looked new, or at least well taken care of, and the flash of golden earrings caught their attention.

Valentine stood. These weren’t his usual delusions. He knew how to understand and disregard those false voices, sights, smells, and thoughts as nonexistent and a foreign body created by his diagnosed schizophrenia. This was a person. An actual person. It was starting to rain already, and most would want to find shelter rather than stay in a downpour. You didn’t run afterward? He couldn’t tell specifically if this person were a man or a woman, young or old, but regardless, there was certainly someone else around like him. What if they were in danger? I spend my life running from these powers, but they’re always one step ahead of me. He got onto the street and turned. The more he walked, the stronger he felt the connection become. I can’t really control them, either. I’m pretty sure this problem comes from mental issues, but it’d be nice to even be able to feign normality every now and then.

He sighed inwardly, gaze fixated on the sky through the falling water that had begun falling more rapidly, drops becoming large and more frequent. True, these thoughts brought back some less-than-happy memories, but they helped form who he was. Valentine couldn’t consider being anyone or anything else.

He managed to tear his eyes away from the sky to focus more readily on where he was walking. But for some reason he decided to glance across the street. Something was over there, just as the tie between his thoughts and those of this stranger became extremely potent. A young woman was walking along the other side, in-step with him but a bit ahead, seemingly unaware of her surroundings. It was odd to him; usually people in this part of town were wary.

A smile tugged up her lips at the question. Thinking back to the incident, Valentina let herself remember how glad she'd been no one had seen her. No, it was night time and the car was at the back of the house." In the shadows the predators watched quietly and waited for their moment.

This was the strangest conversation she'd ever had. This was pleasant though, and warmed her heart. Hopefully this other person with powers might want to be friends. I had to learn how to control my powers, otherwise my family could have gotten into really big trouble. Sometimes I slip ... Then I need to move again. The thoughts brought back a longing for friendship she'd been ignoring for a very long time.

That was when the group of people struck. One moment no one stood before her, the next she was surrounded. Blue eyes widening, Valentina let her senses fly to find out what her assailants wanted. With a sigh, she dropped her books. "Looks like ya lost your way,"

The woman took up after that. "Just give us all your money and we'll let you go."

Valentina knew very well that wasn't exactly what they had planned. Usually she tried to suppress her powers, but just this once she'd make an exception. Moving at an incredible speed the young woman slipped passed the two blocking her way with ease. Her legs carried her to the other side of the street where a man seemed to be watching what was going on. Valentina didn't dare stop, but kept running until she ended up on a street a few blocks away with the realization that she was now quite lost.

Valentine contemplated his reply. His family had called him a demon and devil, some kind of spawn of Hell because of what he could do, and what he couldn’t control. He had left. It wasn’t as noble as the other person’s reason, though. He felt a rise of humiliation for not facing the problem. He’d ran from it. Just like he ran from everything.

He didn’t respond. It wasn’t worth bothering this person. Perhaps they were just bored and wanted to pass the time. Perhaps they were leading him on and trying to give him a false sense of hope for the future. Even if it wasn’t directly seen, the fact that they’d accomplished something that would eventually crush the soul of someone else gave these anonymous beings a fiendish delight. He jammed his hands into his pockets and glared at the ground, almost defeated.

Someone went by. This wasn’t a normal movement, a running or walking speed. It was instantaneous. He jerked his head up and looked about, finding the girl with the bag running down the sidewalk having crossed the street. A few others had called her, looking almost demonic, as though they’d missed an opportunity and were ready to go after it again. The link between his thoughts and this stranger’s was lessening every moment the girl ahead of him ran, and a leap in his chest made him realize that this was whom he had been communicating with. He raised a hand, drawing the magnetism of two overflowing public trash cans into his outstretched hand and throwing it as hard as he could across the street, directly at the leeches. One slammed into the girl, the other catching two of the men, throwing them down.

Without a moment to spare Valentine flew into a sprint much like the one possessed by the runner that had passed only a moment before. Not only did he have to get away from that scene, but he had to find out if this young lady was really the one speaking with him through merely the power of thought.

He passed several blocks, pausing only moments at a time to see where he was. Each place had been branded onto his memory by just one visit. This entire city was his, more than anyone else’s. However, Valentine paused halfway down another sidewalk, this one rather deserted save for a few stragglers trying to get out of the rain that had started falling a bit harder. He had given up trying to find the link until he felt its pull, stronger than ever, just several yards away. Glancing up, he found the source. She stood not far off, with an obviously lost look on her face.

The warren of unknown streets confused Valentina beyond reason. She might have had a thousand abnormal abilities but she had absolutely no sense of direction. As the rain began to fall even harder, she looked for some sort of shelter. From what thoughts she could catch everyone else was thinking the same thing. That was when that same mind, that same pull from earlier, made Valentina look up.

Her breath caught in her throat as she watched the man from earlier with hope filled eyes. Is there a young woman with strawberry blonde hair standing right in front of you? If so ... That's me. Speaking aloud right now seemed like it might bring down disaster. It could dash the hopes she'd been building silently without even realizing it.

But how else could he have followed her? Valentina knew how fast her feet could carry her when fear and a need to escape filled her heart. It was better then using her abnormal strength to harm someone, especially when backed up with all the martial arts she'd memorized from books and movies. Somehow, she could take whatever she read or saw and translate it into movement.

She wanted to believe this was real, and yet what this implied was staggering. Though she wished for this, Valentina dreaded this encounter too. What happened if the one she'd been talking with didn't like her?

Valentine didn’t try to look at the source of the pull, as though he were a fish on the end of a line, or vice-versa. But the words confirmed the character not far in front of him was the one speaking to him. A young woman. If you’re seeing a red-headed man who looks like a giant, you’re looking at the right person. I know I am.

He feared the verbal encounter. Most of the time others judged him before they knew he wasn’t a convict that had just escaped a maximum-security prison. This girl he saw, who had confirmed herself as the one on the other end of the line, was smaller than he was. Younger as well, if only by a few years. And she had more control over her power. He could try to control it, but it just made him irritable and more of a pain to be around.

However, curiosity burned as to why she even wanted to talk to him. Regardless of how their communication was held, she seemed much more keen on knowing who she was talking to. It boggled his mind. It didn’t seem natural.

His words brought a smile to her lips despite the pouring rain. Shaking strands of hair from her features the young woman took a few hesitant steps forward towards him. Sure he was intimidating but at the same time he was the only other person she knew who shared even an ounce of her abilities. This was worth the risk. If nothing else she'd found out there were others like her out there, not just rumors and flights of fancy.

"Um, hi ... My name's Valentina." Stopping before him, she looked up to try and see how he would react to her being so close. All thoughts of how wet she was getting had fallen from her mind. This was probably the only chance she would ever have of meeting another like her. It was hard to draw her mind away from that simple fact as she reluctantly pulled away from his. Even so, Valentina could still feel his presence in the back of her thoughts. It was comforting in a way.

She wanted to ask so many things! Yet she knew that it would be rude to do so. After all, they had just met.

Automatically he stepped backward at her approach. Valentine didn’t particularly enjoy others too near him. It brought about the sense of more than that of physical closeness, and she had already been within his mind. Then again, he had done the same.

“Valentina?” He raised a brow. “Well, Valentina, I’m Valentine.” He bowed in greeting. “I stunned your would-be attackers before they could attack you, but somehow, the line connecting our minds wouldn’t let me stay and watch you run off.” He admitted it calmly. “But I just want to know... Why you were so intent on speaking to me?”

He slouched a bit, uncomfortable with his size compared to her. Often he bent himself over, losing a few inches in height but still standing high above the heads of most others. He didn’t want to be intimidating, but that often failed miserably when others watched their tongues or gave him a wide stance.

She was rather surprised as she noticed him backing away. It was strange, but maybe he didn't like being so close to another person. It was the sense Valentina got from the slight brush of mind against mind. Apparently they were still connected in a way that was difficult to sever.

Upon hearing Valentine's name, a giggled escaped her lips before she could stop it. Valentina tilted her head to the side with a slight frown as she tried to figure out a way to make sure they didn't get mixed up. "Maybe you should call me Tina, just to make things a little easier..." As he went on, her eyebrows rose up. Maybe he knew things she didn't, or perhaps they had different abilities?

Valentina knew that she'd only begun to scratch the surface of what she could do. "Because I'm tired of having to hide what I can do from everyone, and because ... maybe I thought you could be my friend ..." Finishing rather lamely, Valentina turned her head away to hide the turmoil she felt. This was the first time in her life she actually felt safe stating her wish like that. Moving frequently made it hard to develop any kind of friendship with anyone.

Not even family could be considered friends when they feared angering you. They'd not said anything, but Valentina had known. Yes, they loved the strange young woman as much as they could ... But that hadn't changed the way they'd treated her. Different, it was hard always being different.

Valentine let himself smile. It wasn’t often someone could allow themselves even a laugh around him. It was odd change he didn’t quite know how to react to, so he just stood a bit awkwardly. Tina would be easier than Valentina. The chance of meeting someone whose name was one letter off, combined with their similar power, was so thin, it made Valentine a bit light-headed even trying to consider it.

He was lost on that thought until the young woman spoke the word ‘friend’. He let out a laugh. “Friend!?”

In truth, when Valentine looked back on his response, it was probably taken wrong. Even to him it sounded a bit harsh, and he cringed inwardly with the wish that he could take it back and regroup. Regardless, he went with it. “Er... I’m sorry. It’s just that I’ve never been good with friends.” He put his hands in his pockets again, turning to look at the building before him. It was empty, having once been a little drugstore. “I had a few, through a certain time, and eventually they fell away because I’m so unpredictable. I’d been diagnosed with a delusional schizophrenia my family thought was the cause of this... inability to control my power when a certain emotion took over. And everyone considered me too dangerous to be friendly with.”

He chuckled. The rain had reached its peak, falling like a shower. His hair was plastered to his forehead and bare shoulders, but it cooled him. But he was at a loss of words, and didn’t want to just leave her in a torrential downpour in a part of town she probably didn’t even know. “Erm... D-do you need help getting out of here?” He asked awkwardly. “I-I mean...” He shook his head, clearing his thoughts and calming himself. “Look, I haven’t even got a shadow of a clue why you’d want me to be your friend, other than our similar power and abilities. But... I don’t see why not.” He shrugged with a sigh. “Best to get out of the rain, eh?” He added quickly, glancing up.

Rain poured down, splattering against the ground to make a music all its own. Valentina concentrated on that, instead of on the minds of people as they tried to find shelter.

For a moment she felt a strange thudding in her heart at how her prospective friend reacted. It sounded like he was ready to push her away without even trying to know her. Luckily Valentina remained silent until the end of Valentine's nervous speech. "Well no matter what everyone else thinks, I still want to be your friend. Besides, who better to understand your abilities and be able to cope with them then me?" It seemed like a well thought out friendship to her anyway.

Grinning she moved away a little and lifted her face to the sky. Laughter filled the air as she danced in the rain. Jumping into puddle after puddle without care, the young woman was doing her best to enjoy herself. "What and miss the chance to dance like this?" Rain didn't fall often enough to her mind. It was so soothing, and eased away any tension that might have been in the air. Every smell seemed fresher somehow after the water began to pour down from the sky.

Valentine didn’t reply. He didn’t even look back at her until she splashed in a puddle nearest him, flooding his already-ruined shoes. He didn’t mention it, though, the girl seemed to be lost in her own little world, oblivious to the fact that she could easily have been lost. But rain, especially rain that was safe and free of acid, was indeed a rare thing to behold. He let himself smile at what he considered didn’t happen very often.

A vehicle passed slowly, having turned onto the street a moment ago. It was sleek and black, rather low to the ground, with tinted windows that didn’t easily let anyone see who was inside. The headlights were on and clear, like sunbeams. Most of the time vehicles, the ones that could run, were old, decimated, nearly falling apart, or a hundred years out of date. It was an omen that Valentine didn’t appreciate. He grabbed Valentina’s arm and pulled her back, into the dark of the old drug store. “Watch it.” He muttered. “Look.” In the quiet, he pointed. “That doesn’t look normal, does it?” He asked.

His mind was racing quietly with ideas. It could be a rich man or woman, but they wouldn’t be in this part of town. It could be someone from one of those government facilities. Perhaps they were searching for something, or a new guinea pig. Valentine narrowed his eyes. Perhaps they had discovered that varying years ago, he and the young one beside him had been switched and given to the wrong parents, allowed to live outside the testing facilities as though they were normal. He didn’t want to bother finding out, though.

A small yell of surprise escaped Valentina as she was tugged to the side. Upon hearing Valentine's words the anger she'd been ready to unleash faded away to be replaced with a determined frown. Quickly she sent out tendrils of questing thoughts to see what these people's intentions might be. They boded nothing well for the pair.

In fact these people could spell disaster. One of their number actually noticed the alien mind probing theirs oh so gently. This one was untrained, while those in the car were experts at their craft. Retreating with a gasp Valentina shot a panicked glance Valentine's way. "They're here for us! And now they know we're nearby." She didn't know this place and had no idea where to hide. Just when things were beginning to look up, these government agents had to make an unexpected appearance.

Unconsciously the young woman huddled closer to her newest acquaintance. Though she had many abilities, most unknown, she still felt like a regular person caught up amidst a very strange situation. Unknowingly, her need to hide caused her to shimmer out of sight briefly. This was a power she'd no idea she posed. It was strange that it had not manifested before. Perhaps being so close to another like her made Valentina more willing to accept what she could do.

Valentine placed himself in the center of the room, bringing Valentina along with him. “Stay still for a moment.” He muttered. He’d noticed her seem to dissipate for half a second, but the power he felt was rather uncertain. However, he’d already perfected a camouflage ability. The outside world melted away when he raised his hands, forcing a thin veil up and out of the floor. It surrounded both he and Valentina, blocking out every noise and prying mind, and canceling any links between them and the outside world.

“This renders us invisible to even the most powerful outer connections.” He muttered. “No one will see, hear, or even sense us. It’ll give us the chance to get out of here without their even knowing where we went.” He stepped forward, taking Valentina by one hand to lead her. The world beyond was extremely distorted, and images and forms seemed very out of place. The sidewalk looked to move below their feet like water, but was actually very solid. It had often disoriented Valentine when he used this ability, making him dizzy and often ill.

“Keep your eyes up or closed.” He said. “It’ll be easier to move without becoming unsteady.” He didn’t quite look around to Valentina. It was already difficult to concentrate on keeping the barrier up while talking, and if he moved his head too much, that old sensation of spinning and disorientation would return.

With relief she let Valentine take the lead on this. It wasn't that the young woman wasn't able to figure things out for herself, not at all. This was just so much easier then trying to runaway by herself without any aid at all. As they became invisible, Valentina gripped her friend's hand tightly with her own. Her blue eyes closed as she put her trust in Valentine.

Though it was difficult, there was no other choice. The dizzying effect when she had her eyes open made the young woman want to be sick, and if she looked up that would make her neck more then sore. Either condition would be horrible if any fighting ensued.

His head spun, as though he’d breathed in lungfuls of helium and the effects were still working on him. Neither of them had any way to tell whether they were still being followed, or who was near. But Valentine had memorized the layout of the entire crumbling city, from the shortest, most narrow alley to the largest of main streets. “Where do you live?” He asked. It may have been hard to work to keep the veil up and walk and talk at the same time, but it would keep things generally light. “I’ll be able to get you out of this area so you can find your way back.”

He lifted his foot automatically onto the sidewalk across the road. He didn’t quite understand the outer workings of the veil, but when it was up and he was moving, people tended to avoid the place around him. It wasn’t something he tried to understand, he was just glad no one ran into him under these situations.

Blindly following the man, Valentina had to fish the address out of her mind. There were so many different ones floating around in her mind that finding the most recent was an arduous task. "It's on Queen street. I don't think it's too far from here ... A twenty minute walk at regular speed." If they ran it would be easy to find the apartment building, but there was a chance someone could find them. The thought frightened her even more now then it ever had before. She didn't want to endanger Valentine.

Stumbling a little as they stepped onto the sidewalk, the young woman clutched her guide's hand tightly in her own. Questions suddenly popped into her mind now that the danger didn't seem quite as close. Somethings he'd mentioned before returned to the forefront of her mind. She doubted Valentine would want anyone prying about that kind of thing ...

The surroundings became enclosed. Valentine felt the veil’s walls push against them a bit tightly, so he stopped. “I don’t think we’re in immediate danger now.” He said, letting his other hand fall. “Queen Street.” He repeated, taking his other hand back for himself and rubbing his palms together. “I know that place.” Glancing around, he found a fire escape ladder lying against the wall to reach the first level. “From here I’ve discovered a linking between each building roof, and we’ll be able to get to your street from up there.”

He went to the ladder. “I don’t know what’s happening, but it’s probably because of our linked power. There must be something we can’t particularly control emanating from this bridged power.” He sighed, rolling his eyes to the water falling from the sky. “Well, ladies first.” He nodded to the ladder and stood aside.