The Fourth Zaldizko 30 Dolls Lane

We stepped through the gazebo metal grill-gla.s.s doors and stepped out onto a bustling sw.a.n.ky city street of the Second District.

Gla.s.s fairy b.a.l.l.s of white light whizzed and weaved through our s.p.a.ces as we stood before a redwood door, which formed a side entrance to a large marble-stone building with rows of stone columns that balanced a triangular roof with a winged lizard gargoyle perched on the roof's apex.

"What the?" I glanced about the elaborate fas.h.i.+on parade of sorts strutting past me.

Crowds of stylish men, common workers and fas.h.i.+onable women strutted past us or came and went through the swinging gla.s.s doors at the top of the building's grand steps and front porch.

My eyes caught sight of the bank's name glowing with silver light against the white stone.

"Oberon Bank." I causally noted. My eyes went wide. "Hey Jensen, this bank."

"Yep. It's run by Gavin's family. His situation is similar to Saku's." Jensen answered my question.

His voice rambled on with more knowledge about Gavin's family and town businesses that ended up in War and Death's ears.

My attention was diverted to the vrumming sounds from top-down breezers and less impressive flivvers automobiles that drove up and down the cobblestone road.

The smell of fuel and musk mingled with a concoction of pa.s.sing perfumes made me slightly dizzy.

"Um, is there somewhere we need to go?" I prompted Jensen back to the reason of being here.

"Delicate Ethel." Jensen grumbled under his breath that made War give him a stern look.

"Whatever. Princess, follow."

"Four-eyes Prat." I answered to Jensen's name calling, which made the guy chuckle.

We weaved our way through the pa.s.sing crowds, navigating our way to the end of the street and across the road to the start of a narrow lane. Two tall cast-iron pillar posts, with frosty gla.s.s lanterns at their heads, were stationed on either side of the lane's dubious entrance. The lane's silence and coldness from its shadowy path unnerved me.

No one moved in and out of the lane. People pa.s.sed the lamp posts and lane like they weren't there.

"Um, we're not going there right?" I gulped.

Jensen answered my question when he stopped before an eerie looking lamp posts.

"h.e.l.l no!" I blurted that scored some disapproving frowns from people pa.s.sing by.

"Sorry."

This seemed to appease the frowns, slightly as they moved on.

"Sergeant Ashdown. Are we truly entering this lane?" Death cordially asked.

He frowned with concern, his eyes moved about the lane and lamp posts.

"Yes." Jensen sighed.

He focused on the s.p.a.ce between the lamp posts. We did the same.

I noticed a haziness of the air between the posts. A feeling of static energy made my fingertips tingle with warmth.

"Open the way to a heart's desire. Close the way to love." Jensen recited a poem before the lamp posts.

The s.p.a.ce between the lamp posts became cloudy and swirly with an intense unnatural blue-green light. It parted and rolled back to reveal a new image of the lane.

We stepped through the parted s.p.a.ce, into a crowd of shabbily dressed youths who looked they hadn't bathed or eaten for days. Some of them quietly eyed us with suspicion as we walked by, others boldly approached our sides to sell us wares.

"Ignore them." Jensen soberly advised us. "Keep walking and looking ahead."

I gulped and heeded his advice.

We manoeuvred our way through more miscreants and neglected children who were grouped on steps like discarded animals.

My heart raced with pain at the sight of richly dressed men picking out a dejected kid from a group and leading them away into a private corner. The noise of children crying somewhere with pain and confusion amongst crude whispers and sleazy coaxing from adults made my hands clench into fists and face contort with a frown filled with disgust.

"Famine. This is life for an orphan of Apocalypse. If you want to live, you either become a rich man's s.e.x toy or something else." Jensen carefully warned me. "Now you see how it is. Don't wander from my side. All of you."

We kept our thoughts and voices to ourselves as we followed Jensen's lead through more neglected souls loitering about derelict stone paths and brick buildings of the lane.

Our way turned a corner into a new image of monstrosity.

"Dolls Lane." Jensen's soberly labelled the white-washed lane we faced.
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It was a pristine contrast to the lane at our backs. The buildings were white, clean, marble elaborated with vine leaf patterns. The white cobblestone paths glistened with silver flecks with subdue moving fairy b.a.l.l.s supplementing the impression of cleanliness.

Trailing richly dressed men in suits or women in glitzy line dresses and stiletto heels were sad-faced children or youths about my age. They were pristinely dressed in clothing to match the adults impressions.

"Slaves," Jensen said in my mind and showed me an image of thin neckband of bronze-silver.

I saw this band was around necks of the children following their masters or mistresses heels.

Jensen showed me what those bands were capable of doing if slaves disobeyed their owners in my head. I gasped at the sensation of choking I felt as a result.

"I get it." I rubbed feeling back into my neck.

"Stick to the left. Make sure you don't cross paths with an owner and need I remind you, don't leave my side." He instructed us.

We kept our focus and firm strides on Jensen's lead towards a common looking white building at the end of the lane.

My heart raced at the creepy sight of a shop bay window showcasing human-like dolls in smart suits or frilly lace and satin dresses. The faces were made with acute realism, set with the same sober expression.

I paused before the window when I saw a richly dressed gentleman inside the store. He pointed to a doll on a back shelf of the window display to a shopkeeper. The doll was a beautiful image of a girl in a glitzy sequence line dress. The shopkeeper nodded and accepted wads of daro from the man. He handed the man the doll.

I gasped when moments later the richly dressed man walked out of the shop with a real life version of the girl doll. Her eyes looked lost and apathetic. I glimpsed back in the window and saw the spot the doll had sat on was vacant.

"What did I tell you?!" Jensen hissed angrily as he grabbed my arm and yanked me forward.

We hurried our walk to the common building and entered through the building's gold-silver doors.