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The dust was still raised after the explosion, the roof of the building was collapsing and a wall had crushed several people to the ground. It was all destroyed, a tree trunk had been broken, the garden fountain submerged by broken statues, and lifeless bodies could be glimpsed among the rubble. The statues in the garden, however, were for the most part still intact, and the more Evergreen looked at them, the more nausea rose and the urge to vomit grew. She tried to get away from there but the effort she had made so far made her fall to her knees. She put her hands on the grass and threw up.
“It’s all over. We’re leaving,” Freed said, the boy she had come to know inside that prison. Evergreen had never looked at him for long for fear of killing him too, she only knew he had long green hair. She nodded but threw up again.
“Let’s go” the other boy said.
“Wait, she’s sick,” Freed said.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Bickslow exclaimed again. Evergreen looked up confused, she didn’t look Bickslow directly in his eyes, but she didn’t need to do it to know he was sobbing. He held his hands to his ears and shook his head. “I can’t take it anymore, I can’t stand them. Let’s go quickly”.
What was he referring to? There were only them there. They had destroyed the building and killed all the wizards who had captured them. They made sure they didn’t leave anyone alive, because they didn’t want to be caught again. They didn’t want to be used for their magic again. None of them three wanted to experience again what they had endured in those months, killing people and enduring the experiments that had been done on them. Forced to use magic all the time, just for experimentation.
“What are you talking about?” Freed asked.
“Them, fuck. All of them… damn, I have to leave.” Bickslow growled as he turned and walked away. Evergreen looked at his figure, the boy was limping, blood was running down his leg and he kept holding his hands over his ears almost trying to run away. If only he hadn’t been hurt, Evergreen was sure he would.
“I want to get out of here too. Can you walk?” Freed asked. Evergreen nodded and stood up. She was just tired but luckily, she didn’t have leg injuries. She threw one last look at the statues and her eyes filled with tears. She couldn’t believe she killed all those people. Now that she saw all the statues one behind the other, she realized the number of times she had used her magic and she felt like throwing up even more. She was a monster.
A yank on her arm made her turn around. “Don’t look. Just walk,” Freed ordered.
Evergreen obeyed, despite the pain in her shoulder. She walked off following Bickslow, who kept yelling at something invisible to leave and sobbing as if something was hurting him. Evergreen then understood: the souls he had stolen from people. Bickslow had been used like her, he had killed innocent people so that those wizards would study their power and probably those souls were still there. Evergreen had no idea how that magic worked and she barely understood the concept of soul, but if they were still there, they had to hurt Bickslow. Maybe it was worse than she had to endure, because Bickslow could still hear their voices.
She turned to Freed and glanced at him. The boy had a tired expression and his face was covered with blood and dust. His hair more red than green and Evergreen wanted to puke again. However, he didn’t seem as upset as they were at the idea of having killed so many people. Maybe because he didn’t have to look at statues or souls, maybe not seeing the corpses he didn’t realize how many people he had killed and tortured.
“Where are we going to go?” Evergreen asked as they walked.
“I don’t know,” Freed replied. “But we will figure it out”.
***
Evergreen felt a little better. Thanks to the help of Bickslow who had grown up on the streets, they were able to steal some food and find some blankets. They also found a warehouse to hide in, so they didn’t have to be on the street. She squeezed into the blanket as she watched Freed eat a piece of bread, his hands were shaking and there seemed to be something dark coming from him. She was pretty sure his eye behind the bangs was throbbing. Freed lifted his head and she quickly shifted her gaze before losing control of her magic.
“Are you still hungry?”.
“No,” Evergreen said hugging the blanket. Instead, she looked at Bickslow, who was talking to himself. Or maybe with some souls. He did this often but she could never see anything. Maybe he was just crazy.
“Okay, I found it,” Bickslow said turning to them. He didn’t look either of them in the eye, instead he stared at the wall behind them. “Pappa told me that there’s an abandoned house not far from here. Tomorrow morning, we go there”.
“Will we live there?” Freed asked.
“For a while’. Unless you have somewhere else to go. If you wanna go back to your parents…”.
“No,” Freed said right away. Evergreen looked at him sympathetically, Freed’s parents had sold him to those wizards as soon as they discovered his demonic power. From what little he had told her it must have been a situation similar to hers.
“You wanna go back to your parents?” Bickslow asked turning to her. Evergreen didn’t know what to answer. She loved her father but… he had let her wife sell her. He hadn’t objected and Evergreen knew she wasn’t going to be accepted at home. Not after what she had done to her sister. And her father had never chosen her, he had always chosen her wife, for whatever. No matter how much he said he loved her, he never chose her.
“No” she decided after a while.
“Then we’ll go there. Life on the street isn’t easy but you’ll get used to it,” Bickslow said.
“Wouldn’t it be better to get a job? Or a place that hosts children?” Freed asked.
“Like the wizards who captured us?” Bickslow asked with a hint of irony.
“Of course not,” Freed said.
“You may not have understood how things work on the street, but it’s not easy. Especially here, children are being taken as slaves all the time. I spent years running away from those wizards before they got me, and it’s not just them. There are many enemies everywhere,” Bickslow said with some irritation.
“Maybe we should get out of Bosco,” Freed proposed.
“And where would you like to go?” Bickslow asked, arching an eyebrow.
“We could go to Fiore”.
“What would change?” Bickslow asked. “There or here things are always difficult for us”.
“But the slave trade is forbidden in Fiore,” Evergreen said, recalling a lesson she had had. Freed nodded in agreement with her as Bickslow frowned.
“And so?”
“So, we’ll be in less danger,” Freed said.
“We could take the train, by stealing some money we will be able to buy tickets” Evergreen said. The possibility of escaping from that country gave her some hope. The fact that she was not alone also helped her, she felt safer with the two boys. Even if they were as desperate as she was. “At least we won’t risk being sold to other wizards,” she reasoned.
“I don’t wanna get on the trains, there are controllers everywhere and once I lost control of the magic” Bickslow retorted crossing his arms. “And not even my friends agree”. Evergreen arched an eyebrow still thinking that having invisible friends was weird but she didn’t say anything. Freed spoke instead.
“Why don’t you put them inside some object?”.
“Eh?”
“Your friends,” Freed explained. “You said that those wizards made you control souls and that they made you insert them into objects. If you did, we could see them and talk to them too,” he explained. Maybe he too, like her, was a bit perplexed to see Bickslow talking to the void.
“Why you wanna talk to them?” Bickslow grunted. “No, I don’t. I don’t wanna force them to stay inside stupid objects. They’re my friends, I don’t control them,” he growled. Freed didn’t insist.
“Anyway, we should take the train. If you’re afraid of losing control of the magic use glasses,” Freed said. “In fact, we’ll get it for her too,” he said pointing to Evergreen.
“I’m not sure I wanna get out of here anyway,” Bickslow muttered.
“Well, we’re two against one, so that’s the final decision,” Freed decided.
“Right, and then life is better in Fiore,” Evergreen agreed. She actually didn’t know, but from what she had studied and from the stories she had heard it seemed so. There were no slaves and the children weren’t in danger of being kidnapped. Indeed, she had also heard that there were guilds that welcomed orphans. Evergreen just hoped they weren’t like the last guild they were sold to.
“What you know about it? Anyway, there are six of us,” Bickslow retorted.
“We’re not counting your friends, as we don’t see them,” Freed muttered.
“Are you saying they don’t exist?” Bickslow snapped with suddenly bright eyes. Evergreen could see the green light even without looking him in the face, his whole body was surrounded by a disquieting halo.
“Can you stop?” Evergreen exclaimed and before Bickslow got mad she changed the subject. “What’s your problem in going to Fiore? Do you have something that binds you to this place?” she asked. Bickslow snorted and crossed his arms.
“No”.
“Then it’s settled, we’ll go to Fiore,” Evergreen said firmly, and then softened her voice. “You will see, you too will be happy when we are there”. Bickslow didn’t reply, instead he lay down on the ground.
“You better sleep, because we wake up early tomorrow,” he said before closing his eyes. Evergreen followed his advice and curled up in the blanket, seeking as much warmth as possible. Before closing her eyes, she thought she saw strange green lights around Bickslow, and she wondered if those were the souls of his friends.
***
They had made it. Thanks to Bickslow’s help they had stolen some money and had taken three train tickets. Evergreen almost didn’t believe it, she felt a little agitated because she was afraid that someone would discover them or that some wizards would capture them, but they were almost at their destination. A few hours and they would leave Bosco forever.
“Evergreen, you’re glowing,” Freed said.
“Heck, you’re really glowing,” Bickslow commented. Evergreen looked down at her hands and realized that her skin did indeed emanate magical light. It wasn’t the first time this happened, every time she was agitated, she lost control. It usually only happened to her eyes but when she was exaggeratedly agitated to her whole body, it began to glow with its own light and if at first Evergreen had adored it -because it was just like the magic of a fairy- then she realized that it wasn’t a good thing. Especially when the light became so blinding that no one could look at her.
“You will attract attention, calm down. And you hurt me too. It’s impossible to look at you,” Freed complained, covering his right eye with the hand. Evergreen glared at him, it wasn’t her fault that she was shining and Freed really had too sensitive eyes. Bickslow watched her smoothly from behind the glasses.
“Give her your cloak,” Bickslow said.
“No, the sun bothers me,” Freed replied.
“What the fuck are you, a vampire?” Bickslow snapped. “Give her this cloak or she’ll attract attention,” he said. Freed snorted and let the hood slide off his head. He handed it to Evergreen who made sure to cover herself up, while Freed narrowed his eyes in annoyance and turned away so as not to have to look at the sun. Neither she nor Bickslow had ever figured out what his problem was, but it seemed Freed was pretty bothered by the light. That was why he always had the bangs in front of his eyes, even though at first Evergreen had thought it was to hide his black eye.
“Come on, let’s get on,” Freed said as he walked towards the train.
“Are you sure this is the right train?” Bickslow asked.
“Yes, don’t you see the writing?”. Bickslow followed Freed’s finger to a sign but his gaze was blank.
“I cannot read”.
“You cannot... really?” Freed asked surprised.
“I grew up on the street, how you think I could’ve learned?”.
“Oh right,” Freed muttered. “If you want, I can teach you”.
“I don’t need it” Bickslow retorted, but before Freed could answer Evergreen cut them off.
“Stop talking, let’s get on before the train leaves,” she said walking quickly. She couldn’t wait to set foot outside Bosco and breathe a little safety. And honestly, she didn’t care if Bickslow could read or not. The three got on the train and sat in their seats. Freed quickly closed the window curtains, while Bickslow muttered something to his invisible friends. Evergreen looked down at her still glowing hands and hurried to hide them under the cloak before anyone saw them. When the train left, she felt a little better, she just hoped that the journey would lead to something good.