Colour Kid's Arc

Chapter 5 of 11

The barricaded booth held for now. Colour Kid could still hear the blinded creature scraping at the door, claws raking metal, the toolbox wedged tight under the handle. Behind him, the golden chant grew faint as the chant-bearers led the thing the other way. He grabbed Alec's wrist and ran for the rusted car on the dead siding. The subway car sagged on its wheels, doors bent open, every window starred with cracks. Old paint splatters bled down its sides in pink and orange tongues. They climbed inside. Alec sat on a torn seat and set his small bundle between his knees. From the bundle, Alec drew a heavy can of searing white paint. He held it like a thing he had carried a long time. "For a door," he said. "When I find one that's mine." He did not look up. Colour Kid swallowed. He had used the boy's secret can already, back at the booth, to blind the creature. Alec knew. Alec had handed it over anyway. Down the tunnel, the chant cut off. A single shriek answered it, then silence. Colour Kid pressed his face to the cracked window. The glowing stripes he had painted flickered. Something was moving along them, fast. The bait had worked. The bait had also ended. He turned to Alec. "We can't stay in the tunnel." Alec nodded once, already lacing his boots. The hideout was a hideout no longer. It was a starting point.