The moon rose high in the night sky. I had the only room with a skylight. I could look at the stars without worrying as to who may see me, because no one could. The underworking’s of a lot of these dilapidated buildings held floors within floors. The workshop was one of them. From that open space under the manhole cover, a door led to a short tunnel which opened into Jasper’s shop.

The walls were covered in steel, and wooden pallets lined the walls with hooks fastened to them along with shelves carved into their bases. Each pallet held a different set of tools and equipment. Chains and hooks were suspended from the ceiling to either haul something up, or anchor something down. A large drain sat in the center of the circular room. There was another hallway toward the left that led toward the station’s living quarters. To the right was another door that opened to a bathroom and a short flight of stairs that led me into my room, my room with the skylight.

It wasn’t much; just a bed, a few blankets, and a chest full of clothes. We used L.E.D lanterns to light up our space, and I got to have two in mine. Everyone hated how much Jasper spoiled me, but he’d found the space and made it habitable. I was under his care, and while that presented some challenges when I wanted to go off on my own, I wouldn’t have it any other way. He’s loosened the reins a bit after I turned 20, but that still didn’t mean he stopped watching over me completely.

With thoughts of my future roaming around my head endlessly, I zoned out only to be interrupted by the voices of people I wasn’t too fond of. That’s one of the things I didn’t think Jasper planned for ... me being able to listen to whatever was going on in his shop and right now he was arguing.

Abigail and Charlotte were twin sisters who followed Jasper around like dark clouds. While they were beautiful in comparison to most, their lives scavenging for survival had done very little for their personalities. They despise me for whatever reason, but Jasper wouldn’t let them or anyone else get close enough to harm me, nor could they convince him to abandon me. However on this night, with a Scaler’s motorcycle in the shop, it sounded like they were closer than ever.

“You should just break it down, Jasper,” Abigail demanded with a flutter of fear in her voice, “Break it down and send one of the frail ones out to sell each piece at a different station, see what we can get. Who knows? We might be able to furnish this place like The Tombs.”

“That’s all you care about isn’t it?” Charlotte replied snidely, “Trying to be like those uppity dragon ball suckers! Who cares about the damn thing?! We just need to get it out of here before Ashton comes looking for it. Or if he does, we give him his bike and Whisper! She’s brought enough trouble down here as it is! She’s old enough to fend for herself now!”

“Relax, and she ain’t bringing any more trouble than I reckon any of you two ever have,” Jasper countered. I loved how he stood up for me.

The sisters reminded me of the story he used to tell me about a young girl whose father married an evil woman. She brought along her two daughters who hated the young girl and wanted nothing more than to see their new step-sister killed. They worked her like a pet. There was a party where she met a prince while she was disguised as a princess, but then the Scalers came and torched everything, leaving the two stepsisters and their awful mother in charge. Yeah, Jasper didn’t like to tell stories with happily ever afters. He said they weren’t real.

I crept out of my room to hide behind the door, desperately trying to keep myself hidden.

Abigail pouted. Her full lips and bright red hair was streaked with white and grey. Charlotte looked the same, but her hair was more white than red. You could barely tell they were twins until you looked into their eyes.

“Well, we ain’t ever antagonized a Black Sapphire and an Onyx Skull at the same time,” Abigail charged. “Word’s getting around that both Finch Skinner and Ashton Cane want her. We already know what Finch is capable of.”

She pulled down the collar of her tattered coat revealing a hideously long scar. It practically matched Jasper’s. He turned away rubbing the side of his own neck. The only thing I knew about either of those scars, was that I hadn’t been the only ward in Jasper’s care. They refused to speak about it.

“Which is why I’m going to take this thing out of here and be done with it all!” Jasper told them with finality.

“You need to take her with you and leave them both out in the dark,” Charlotte hissed. “You know what a battle in here will do! Ashton and Finch will tear this place apart looking for her! She’s done nothing but…”

Jasper walked away during her tirade, forcing the women to follow him out of the shop. Charlotte’s voice trailed off right behind him. I hated seeing Jasper having to defend me, when all I wanted to do was live like we weren’t constantly being hunted. Now that I wanted to do something nice for him, he couldn’t even enjoy it. If they wanted me gone so badly, I wouldn’t fight them on it anymore.

I did them an even bigger favor and started wheeling the bike out of there too. I’d nearly made it back to the entrance when I heard the sound of small footsteps behind me. Turning around, the only thing I saw in the darkness of the tunnel was a pair of eyes drifting toward me.

They were soft and on the brink of tears. The tiny voice that came with them called out to me, “Whisper! Where are you going?! Don’t go back outside! It’s night time now, right?”

“Yes, it’s night time, Raven,” I told the little one. She had to be six or seven years old, jet black hair, and the biggest button eyes I had ever seen. She belonged to one of the women staying with us. I had a feeling this young one was a Scaler, but no one had the heart to tell her mother. Rumor had it she was the pet of an Imperial but escaped. I don’t know. Everyone’s backstory had a hint of weirdness to it. But this little one, she was curious, and smart, and clingy.

I let the bike rest against the wall, giving myself a break before kneeling down to talk to her.

“You, you shouldn’t go out in the dark time,” she said with a whimper in her voice.

“I’m coming right back,” I lied. I just wanted her to get away from me long enough to get out of here before Jasper spotted me and tried to keep me inside.

“But the dragons,” she whispered, “They want to chain you up. I know that because that’s what Momma says about you. She says they want to hold you and keep you away from your family, but that’s not nice.”

“I know it isn’t,” I tried to console her, “But I promise I’m going to come back here as soon as I can.”

At least that didn’t sound like a lie.

“Okay,” she conceded. Turning around to head back toward the living quarters, she stuck her thumb in her mouth and dragged her feet the entire way back. I waited until silence returned before I made my way toward the dead end of the tunnel. It only looked that way, but after pushing a button masked as a brick, the square space overhead dropped down.

The angle was a lot steeper going up than I remember it from coming down. Suddenly, as the moonlight cast its beam down onto the chrome accents of the motorcycle, a wonderful idea popped into my head. With a smile beaming across my face, I tossed one leg over the side. Turning the key in the ignition and feeling it roar to life under me sent a chill down my body that I’d never felt before. I threw the kickstand back, revved the engine, shifted into gear and took off into the night.

The wind whipped through my hair faster than it ever had before. There was something different about riding into the night. I could hear the sound of wings slicing through the air behind me, but I told myself I could outride them. How fast could a Scaler fly? I hadn’t any idea but tonight wasn’t the night I wanted to find out.

I leaned to the left, banking around a large cement boulder. I was certain a building was attached to it at some point. I would give anything to see Black Harbor in its glory, before the fires, before they took over.

Turning to the right, I headed towards the outskirts of the city hoping that I could ride freely without being tracked or stopped. Unfortunately for me, that was wishful thinking. The more I rode around, the closer the sound got. The whirring noise of wings flapping through the air, but the scent of smoke was absent. My heart raced with the sound of the gravel and asphalt tripping under the wheels of the bike. I wanted to turn around, but I was exposed. There was no way I’d make it back to The Gears now.

Hell, if I was going to get taken out by one of those ugly, scaly, fire-breathing beasts, then I’d at least do it riding with their flames at my back. Catch me if you can...