[Silver]

This was, by far, the most mysterious mystery Darla had ever encountered. Even as someone who did a lot of investigating for some really, really fucked up shit, she felt out of her depth with this one. From what she was able to gather from her contacts outside the city, the whole world had changed overnight. Surely whatever caused it was beyond the level of power she was used to dealing with.

She felt like she had to do something. If there was anyone who could find someone who knew something, it was her. Right? She kept telling herself that she would be able to figure it out if she could just find the right being to ask.

[Color Harvested]

[Silver]

Darla started with something easy. Someone easy, for that matter. There was a run down little bar in the seediest part of town where anyone looking for answers could find a thing or two with the right technique. She happened to be good friends with one of the bartenders there.

“Sorry,” said the bouncer as she approached the back door. “We’re closed.”

“Bullshit you’re closed,” Darla grumbled.

She attempted to walk past him as though he wasn’t even there. He stepped back into her path and physically pushed her back. The look on his face was serious.

[Silver]

“Are you new? You look new. I don’t have time for this. Get me Lucien!” Darla looked like she was about to start a fist fight with the bouncer even though he was three times her size.

“Look, kid, he ain’t even here. Nobody’s seen him in days. Part of why I’m here. You best be going if you know what’s good for you.”

Darla took a step back and studied the face of the bouncer. She sighed and scrunched her face into a frown. Without Lucien, she would have a lot harder time getting started, though it wasn’t impossible.

[Silver]

She also had to wonder what he was up to and if he actually had anything to do with all of this. Lucien was a troublemaker, but she didn’t think him the type to be mixed up in something this big. It was just her luck that he got himself in trouble right when she needed him. If she ever saw him again, she’d have to have a word about that.

Her shadow began to flicker under her feet, as if the lights were moving around her. For a second it looked like it was about to envelop them both, but she pulled it back at the last second. It wasn’t worth it.

“I don’t have time for you,” she said, pointing at him dramatically. “But don’t think that’s the end of this.”

[Silver]

As she stomped away from the sad little bar, she tried to think about where she was going next. There wasn’t an easy answer to that question. It’s not like she was on a first name basis with any being strong enough to affect the whole world like this.

“There’s always the twitchy guy,” Darla supposed to herself. It was as good a place as any to start, and he happened to live nearby. That may be closer to the reason why he came to mind, but she pretended like it wasn’t.

[Silver]

Darla pulled the edges of her jacked up closer to her face and hurried off in the direction of his apartment. He was just a lap dog to the bigger baddies, but he often knew something worth knowing, and it was pretty easy to get it out of him.

She let herself into the building and slipped up the stairs and down the hallway. She wasted no time in knocking on the door like she was ready to kick it down. She heard a thud and some scrambling. She couldn’t help but smile at the thought of him frantically making his way to the door.

[Silver]

Jeremiah pulled the door open so that just a bit of his face was visible from the crack. He glared into the hallway and tried to make out who was standing there. He sighed when he realized who it was.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“Oh, you know, the usual…” Darla said, trying to sound charming yet coy.

“Look, I don’t have anything for you and I think you should leave.”

“You think I should leave? That doesn’t sound very convincing to me.”

“Every time you come here, Diane gets really pissed! I am not dealing with that right now. I have enough going on.”

[Silver]

“Oh I very much would like to hear about what is going on,” Darla said. She chuckled at the thought of Diane taking her rage out on him. He probably deserved it.

Jeremiah tried to shove the door closed, but he stopped short. He saw Darla’s shadow creeping across the cracks and slowly coming to envelop his own. He had come across her more than once before, so he knew this little trick.

“Oh come on,” he said. He already felt like he had lost.

“If you can tell me something that would entice me to leave, I’d love to hear it.”

[Silver]

It had taken her far too long not to find out anything that was even remotely helpful. She shook her head as she stepped back out onto the street and tried to think up another plan. The two easiest paths were dead ends, and the night couldn’t be any darker.

Whatever this was, it was way bigger than lowly Jeremiah or crafty Lucien. She was going to have to look for something bigger and inevitably more dangerous. She looked down at her shadow and the way it flickered with the dying streetlights. They were in for a big one.

[Silver]

Something about that streetlight didn’t seem natural, come to think of it. She looked up and it was blindingly white. She squinted until her eyes were barely open. She felt drawn toward it, comforted by it. There was more here than just the brightness of a light against the lack of color.

There was something to this. Something important. She just had to get closer. Every step she took toward the light felt heavy, like she was wading through thick mud. Her shadow thinned and stretched itself out as far as it could so that it could hardly be seen, but she didn’t care. Everything in her instincts told her to walk away, yet she couldn’t.

She had to touch the bright white light.