Through the bones of the City
1517 Words
The city hummed beneath Liam’s feet like a living thing, angry and restless. From the top of the pedestrian bridge, he could still see the glow of the burning safehouse — flames clawing upward like the city itself was trying to devour the evidence.
Sirens wailed in the distance. Police? Maybe. Or maybe the Black Lanterns pretending to be police. In Eastbridge, those lines blended so easily it scared him.
Taye leaned heavily on the rails, his breath sharp and shallow. Blood slid down his arm, dripping onto the rusted grates below.
“We need to move,” Nia said, her eyes scanning the rooftops. “If the Rooftop is anywhere up there, we’re already dead.”
Liam glanced up.
Dark shapes stood still on apartment roofs. Antennas. Chimneys. Vents. Anything could be him. Everything felt like him.
A shiver crawled down Liam’s spine.
“Where are we going?” Liam asked.
“A clinic,” Nia said. “But not the kind you’re thinking of.”
“You mean… illegal?”
She ignored that. Instead, she grabbed Taye’s uninjured arm and slung it over her shoulder. “Stay awake. If you pass out on me, I’m leaving you here.”
Taye smirked weakly. “You say that every time.”
“This time, I mean it.”
They moved.
Down the steps. Through the alley. Into the maze.
Eastbridge at night was dangerous even without assassins on your back. The air smelled of sewage, old rain, and the fear people never admitted to having.
As they ran, fog rolled across the asphalt in waves, rising from manholes like ghosts escaping the underground.
Every streetlamp flickered — just for a moment — and Liam winced every time it happened.
Like the city was warning him.
Like the Lanterns were already adjusting their aim.
Nia stopped at a broken fence behind a row of apartments. Through the gap, Liam could see a dimly lit courtyard, laundry lines swaying like hanging bodies.
“We cut through here,” Nia said.
They squeezed through.
Somewhere behind them, a bottle shattered.
Liam spun. “What was that?”
Nia raised her finger to her lips. Quiet.
They listened.
Nothing.
But silence was worse.
They moved again.
After three blocks, they reached an old butcher shop. Or what used to be a butcher shop. The windows were boarded. The paint stripped. The sign hanging crooked with only half the letters left.
Nia knocked three times. Pause. Two more.
A metal panel slid open. A single eye peered out.
“Password?” the voice asked.
Nia hesitated. “Wolfshadow.”
The door unlocked.
Liam blinked. “Wolfshadow? That’s the password?”
“Shut up and get inside.”
The interior was nothing like he expected.
It wasn’t a clinic.
It looked like a morgue.
Stainless steel tables. Surgical lights hanging low. Cabinets stacked with tools that did not belong in any legal medical facility.
A woman in a dark green apron approached them. She looked mid-40s, stern, and unamused — like she’d seen every version of hell and charged rent for staying there.
“Nia,” she said. “You look terrible.”
“It’s been that kind of night,” Nia replied.
“What happened to him?” the woman asked, pointing at Taye.
“Shot by a professional,” Nia answered. "Through-and-through, upper shoulder. Likely suppressed handgun."
The woman nodded. “Put him on table three.”
Liam helped Taye onto the table. Taye groaned, teeth clenched.
The woman snapped on gloves. “My name is Dr. Kess. Don’t talk unless I ask. Don’t faint. And don’t throw up.”
Liam opened his mouth to protest—then closed it immediately when she glared at him.
She pulled the bullet fragment out with a pair of forceps. Taye screamed, gripping Liam’s arm so hard it felt like bones were grinding.
Blood splattered the floor.
“You’re doing great,” Liam whispered, even though Taye clearly wasn’t.
Dr. Kess worked fast. Too fast. It felt like she’d done this thousands of times.
When she finished bandaging his shoulder, she said without looking up:
“So, who’s hunting you?”
Nia exhaled. “Black Lanterns.”
Dr. Kess froze for half a second. Only half. Then she resumed cleaning Taye’s wound.
“You brought the Lanterns to my door,” she said, voice flat.
“We had no choice.”
“You always have a choice, Nia.”
“They would’ve killed him,” she said, pointing at Liam.
Dr. Kess finally looked at him. “Why? What did you do?”
Liam swallowed. “I… I picked up the wrong case.”
Dr. Kess stared like she was reading his soul. “Nobody gets hunted by the Lanterns for a wrong pickup.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying!” Liam snapped. “I don’t even know what’s inside.”
“You haven’t opened it?” Nia asked, surprised.
“No! I didn’t think—”
“You didn’t think,” Nia echoed. “Exactly.”
Dr. Kess sighed. “Open it.”
Liam hesitated. “Here?”
“Better here than on the street,” she said. “If it’s a bomb, at least my building is old enough not to matter.”
That did not comfort him.
He placed the black case on the nearest table.
The room felt colder instantly.
Nia stepped closer. Dr. Kess put on protective goggles. Even Taye, half-conscious, cracked one eye open.
Liam unlatched the metal locks.
One click.
Two.
He lifted the lid slowly.
Inside… was something he didn’t understand.
A single item.
Wrapped in a metallic cloth.
Nia lifted it with the barrel of her gun, revealing—
A black glass cylinder.
Cold. Smooth. Engineered.
Inside, swirling faint particles of blue light, moving like trapped fireflies.
“What… what is that?” Liam whispered.
Dr. Kess stepped back, her face draining of color.
“Oh no,” she said softly. “No, no, no. Not that.”
“You know it?” Nia asked.
Dr. Kess nodded, horrified. “Everyone who’s lived long enough knows it.”
“What is it?” Liam demanded.
Dr. Kess looked directly at him.
“It’s called the Sable Core.”
Liam frowned. “Sable what?”
Dr. Kess spoke slowly, carefully:
“It’s the Lanterns’ most protected technology. A power source. A weapon. A key. Nobody outside their top circle is supposed to touch it.”
Nia stared. “Why the hell would Liam have it?”
“That’s the part that terrifies me,” Dr. Kess said. “Because the Lanterns don’t lose the Sable Core. Ever.”
Liam’s stomach churned. “So what does that mean?”
Dr. Kess removed her gloves and wiped her hands.
“It means, Liam…”
Her voice lowered to a whisper.
“…you weren’t unlucky. You were chosen.”
A sudden loud thump shook the back entrance.
Then another.
Then—
BOOM.
The lights flickered.
Nia pulled her gun. “We’re out of time.”
Dr. Kess locked the Sable Core back in the case and shoved it into Liam’s arms.
“Run.”
“Who is it?” Liam whispered.
Dr. Kess didn’t blink. “Who do you think?”
Another explosion rocked the building.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
A shadow moved past the window — sleek, tall, patient.
Nia’s grip tightened on her gun.
“The Rooftop,” she whispered.
“He found us.”
Dr. Kess shoved Liam toward the side corridor. “Go! There’s a maintenance tunnel under the morgue drawer. It leads to the old sewer system. It’s your only chance.”
Taye staggered to his feet. “I’m not leaving without—”
“You’re leaving,” Dr. Kess snapped.
Glass shattered behind them.
Nia pulled Taye. Liam grabbed the case. They ran.
As they reached the end of the corridor, Liam glanced back.
For a fraction of a second, he saw him —
The Rooftop.
Standing in the broken window.
Silent. Unmoving.
Like a shadow carved from the night itself.
Then Nia shoved Liam through the trapdoor.
They descended into darkness.
The hatch slammed above them.
Gunfire erupted.
Screams.
Then silence.
Liam breathed hard, gripping the Sable Core.
Nia switched on a small flashlight.
Cold sewer water dripped from the ancient pipes above them.
“This tunnel,” she said, “is the city’s skeleton.”
Taye coughed. “Where does it lead?”
Nia’s eyes flicked to Liam.
“To the one place the Lanterns don’t control.”
“And that is?” Liam asked.
Nia took a deep breath.
“The Graveyard District.”
Liam frowned. “Isn’t that abandoned?”
Nia shook her head.
“No. That’s where their enemies live.”
Liam swallowed.
Enemies of the Black Lanterns.
The kind of people who would kill them just for arriving.
But right now?
They were the only chance.
Nia pointed down the dark tunnel.
“Run. Because if the Rooftop comes down here…”
Her voice tightened.
“…none of us are making it out alive.”
- Writer
