Another One Bites the Dust

[ℛeesa ℒuna]

What happens when life is like a nightmare? When there’s no relief in sight and the hardened criminals are probably a better help for you then the police chief? What happens when you’re stuck in a world of perpetual night…with no way out.

You learn how to deal.

Nightmaren was a town full of criminals and decay. The town was literally named after the creeps and shadows that hid in the dark. Once upon a time it had been a prosperous place, full of gold and new hope. There was hope and there was…so much opportunity. People had flooded in from everywhere to try and get a piece of that new action. Jobs were scarce elsewhere so this new town, who’s old name was lost to time, seemed like a godsend. How could they not flee to these streets of gold?

But then it grew over populated. There wasn’t enough jobs to go around, and people turned soon enough to the mobs, the gangs, and prostitution when they could. It was a corrupt life with no end of sight. Once you dug yourself into a hole here, you better get used to that hole because there was no way out. No end in sight. No help. No hope.

There was never enough food to go around but there was always more than enough shadows and heartache to share. A time came when people stopped taking notice when someone jumped off the top of buildings and bridges. They took it as a normal occurrence. Sometimes people just couldn’t handle it anymore and figured that life was better off not being lived. The city was rotten to the core, and no one knew it better then the common folk who scuttled by on the dregs the city had to off. So that was what they became known as to the city, the Dregs. The bottom tier of society. No better than the dirt below their feet. No one cared when they died, no one blinked when they were murdered…It didn’t matter anymore it happened every day.

The Mayor stuffed himself and became fat off the labor of the city, while his citizens rotted away below him, some so thin that every bone showed. People got in gang fights over a loaf of bread, last one standing got the food. It was a harsh life, but soon people just got harder to deal with it and move on. That’s what people do after all, they adapt. Like cockroaches.

And then there were the demons. No one had noticed at first that all the sorrow and death that the city had produced had attracted them until it was too late. Now getting possessed was something that just…happened. It wasn’t anything you could do something about neither. It just happened. And the lower class demons, the deformed and twisted beasts, littered the alleys. And if you didn’t stay out of their way well then…you just deserved to die, didn’t ya?

One crew did their best to make it all just a little better. Though most of the business men said they were just in it to help themselves, but they didn’t know anything. But they were just sore because the Shadowz more often then not stole from the rich. Sometimes just for the fun of it. Why shouldn’t they? They did the work cleaning up the city, shouldn’t they get paid for it too?

Each grew up in the slums. Each were found one by one to assemble the crew. And each had a score to settle.

And each intended to settle it. In any way possible.

*****************


Sephora Tarz, better known as the Shadow herself, leaned over her desk, planting her hands firmly on the firm wooden surface. Her epee that hung from low on her waist on an expensive leather belt and sheath clattered against the desk as she moved in such a way. It called attention to the fact that she was armed which was why she had done it in the first place. She could have easily made sure that she made no noise at all, she was just that good. Her usually closed off sapphire blue eyes were obviously pissed off and she made no moves to push back her long curtain of ebony hair from her face where it slid forward. She was obviously annoyed, but not for the reason one would think. Obviously she was displeased with her company, a balding, paunchy old man who had no business in the Dregs land. The nervous Suit was busy fiddling with the gold chain that connected to the probably antique watch. And trying to avoid the Shadow’s gaze. She was one pissed off captain. Because, although she had never gotten her official stars and stripes, she was as much a captain as anyone in the police force out there. Because she had to deal with her rowdy crew. She’d like to see some stuck up police captain try that and come out with all his extremities. “Get the fuck out,” she spat, annoyed.

“I can’t do that,” was her nervous answer, and she arched a brow, clearly asking why the fuck he couldn’t do that. She was pretty positive it was a simple matter of putting one foot in front of the other and leaving out the fucking door and letting her get back to trying to make ends meet to get their house a new roof. There were holes all over the fucking place. They did need a new job so that maybe they could get another room added in so that way not everyone would be squished together, but Sephora had no intention of accepting this offer.

No fucking way. She didn’t accept jobs from Suits. The Shadowz only took jobs from Dregs who really needed it, sometimes a Middle here or there, but never a Suit. They took from suits, they didn’t give to them. No fucking way. Besides, the job he was offering was a simple fucking pick up. Nothing to kill, no one to fight, no demons to contend with. Just a pick up. It was boring and she knew her crew well enough to know they wouldn’t go for it. They were a rowdy bunch, they liked their fun.

He looked like he was digging around for an answer that he thought could catch her attention. And finally he did find one. The perfect one in fact, not that Sephora would tell him that. It was obvious anyway from the way all the furniture in the room was sad and old. The couch in the corner sagged, the desk that Sephora was still leaning on was dented and time warped. And then there was the ceiling which was letting in a constant drip of water from the rain outside into a tin bucket. “I can pay you more than you make in a month.”

Now that caught Sephora’s attention. But she didn’t give away nothing. They weren’t getting anything outta her. She would see how far she could push this…how much she could get. “Me…or my crew?” she asked warily, arching an eyebrow in question, the only time her face had moved at all.

“Your whole crew,” came the answer. Now that stopped Sephora in her tracks for a moment. Her whole crew. That was alotta chits, and they could use that. This place they lived in needed help after all. But she was a proud woman and wouldn’t bend just because she was being offered a little gold. Besides, she felt like he was underestimating her. Just trying to get everything outta her and then give her nothing back in return. Sephora was pretty badass when it came to this, she never got cheated.

“So you can afford 5,000 gold chits over a little necklace?” She asked disbelieving this entirely. It was way more than her crew made in a month. If they were lucky they saw five hundred silver chits. But the suit didn’t need to know that, and besides…he had said more, he didn’t say how much more. If Sephora had her way, her crew would get a new roof, a new room and eat well for a month. No one knew how little the Shadowz actually made and Sephora intended to keep it that way. Hey, it helped her in situations like this, didn’t it?

“I can afford 10,000 gold chits over a little necklace,” he said, his arrogance showing through the earlier bluster now that he thought he had won.

It pissed Sephora off.

She looked over him for a solid minute, enough to make him sweat and get nervous, before standing up straight and running her hands along her shirt as if to straighten it out, not that it needed it. Sephora tended to dress more grungy than her crew, she liked comfort and the ability to kick someones ass without the need to look all primped up. Either way she looked down at him with sarcastic attitude all over her face. He was even shorter than Sephora’s 5’8 build which was sad for the poor suit but good for her. Ass. He could suck it up. She turned on her heel then and called over her shoulder to him in a bored manner. “Not interested, sorry. Come back another day.”

She heard him panic and the beginnings of a smirk found its way onto her face. She counted to three slowly in her head, listened to the rain fall into the tin bucket once…twice…three times, but didn’t halt her progress towards the door that lead deeper into their little hideout.

“20,000!” he called at her.

Damn, he must really want this fucking thing. Seph rolled her eyes at the thought. It was just a stupid fucking necklace. He had probably gambled away his fat wife’s favorite trinket and now he was trying anything he could think up to get it back before she noticed. It was usually the same story every time when it came to the Suits. They were so stuck up… Either way she turned, considerance in her face even though in her mind she had already taken the deal. 20,000 was more then they would see in half a year if they were lucky. And they fucking needed that gold. Who the hell had that much anymore? Spoiled rich man had way too much. She made a small mental note inside her head to steal from him later when this job was done. The Twins would have fun with that at least. “I think you have a deal, Suit Boy. Now….gimme the deets.” She said, her smirk fully in place.

Another one bites the dust.

[ℛeesa ℒuna]

Her mother had called it being an acrobat.

Yeah, acrobat her pretty round ass. What type of acrobat wore the skimpy costumes her mother laid out for her? What kind of acrobat also had a pole as a prop in their routine?

What kind of acrobat lost their virginity at fourteen because their mother had sold it to the highest bidder and walked away a thousand gold chits richer, ignoring their daughter’s cries for the man to Get the fuck off!. Her mother was too busy counting her money to hear her daughter screaming.

The next morning she understood. The next morning she got it. And the next morning she stole that man’s gun while he slept, like a fat pig, in the bed next to her. She had slid it out of his pocket and felt the satisfying click of cocking back the hammer. It felt like so much weight in her little hands but there was no doubt in her mind.

She shot the fat pig in the head. The loud bang and the force of it threw her back against the wall, a couple of steps behind her. She let her hand fall but she couldn’t drop it. She couldn’t drop the gun. It was heavy in her hands. But she couldn’t pry her fingers off it. Instead she slid down the walls, eyes tearing heavily, so bad she couldn’t even see, but she kept her ice blue eyes fixated on the body, the dead body, that had taken her virginity. Lying before her. She had taken a life.

She had expected people to come after her. She had expected people to come running at the gun shot. But she should have known better, in her fair city…no one gave a damn anymore. Gun shots were as common as thunder in a rainy city. They happened. No one cared.

It was a loss of innocence and it wasn’t all that uncommon. In fact…it happened a good three times every day and often in the same manner that hers was lost. And she knew all that, everyone knew that. But there was something different about knowing…and experiencing it yourself. And as she sat there, too shell shocked about what she had done and what had happened to move, she lost her innocence.

The door slammed open and a scared boy about her age burst in. Still innocent. Still innocent. She knew that. How could she not? Seeing as he was so wide eyed at the sight of the body on the bed. Shrieking, she had finally moved to gather up a sheet and clutch it to herself, finally dropping the gun with a heavy thud. She held it to herself, eyes wide and body trembling. It would be the last time she would be self conscious of her body.

He looked at the scene with wide eyes and eventually he had turned back to her. Hey…you okay? he would ask her. Those words still rang clear in her mind even though they were the simplest of words, simplest of questions. But she had managed to crumple down crying. Again. Shocked the boy managed not to move for a while, but eventually he had given up and tried to make her laugh, smile. Eventually it worked.

Her mother called it being an acrobat.

She soon called it being a performer.

That night she performed, did her tricks, knowing what she was and what she was supposed to be. She smiled pretty. And she teased. And she was only fourteen but she knew what these men wanted now when they stared at her graceful body, kept well fed by her mother’s greed.

That night her mother got the second bullet in that gun.

Two years later, Sephora would save her from putting the last bullet in that gun through her own skull.

**********************


Cris Pandora put her prized antique gun down as a bet in the middle of the poker game among the gems and jewels and chits. And she smirked wickedly at them all, one bare foot propped up against the table. She placed her elbow down on her elevated knee and leaned in close, giving them a wicked look and her ice blue eyes were so damn amused. “So what’s it gonna be boys?” she asked with a laugh to her voice. At her angle that she was leaning, she knew they were looking at her chest, barely hidden behind the thick black straps that covered her top half, and not their cards. And that would be the damn plan.

And one by one they folded, knowing that there was no damn way that Cris would put her gun up for grabs if she didn’t mean to keep it. As far as they knew she never shot the damn thing. It just hung from her waist among her many blades, and the same bullet that almost went through her skull that night sat in the barrel still. Hell it was probably rusty. She never fired it, never touched it, but for reasons that no one knew she treasured
the thing. It didn’t matter to them, but it mattered to her.

With a joyous whoop she collected her chits. Fuck yes. She slid her gun back in his holster and stood, knowing she had to get back to the hide out, they were heading out the next morning on a bogus trip for some bogus necklace. She had just wanted one more night of fun before she had to work. She laid her cards flat then and revealed she had…absolutely nothing.

And damn if looks could kill. She merely laughed it off though, knowing they couldn’t touch her, and pocketed her chits into her purse before slipping outta the damn bar in the middle of no where.

Well, not the middle of no where per se. it was in the dregs, which was really close enough to no where that it didn’t matter. She wasn’t scared though. While most people in this town never headed out at night, and if they did they were always wary, Cris didn’t give a shit. She walked with her head high, old bulky goggles keeping blue bangs out of her way as she walked so that she could actually see the world around her. Getting stopped didn’t bother her. Usually it was just males who thought they could over power her and get what they wanted, seeing as no one cared if girls screamed. She had learned that lesson a long time ago. Either way it didn’t matter.

She hadn’t been expecting a damn wire like appendage to wrap around her waist and drag her bodily into an alley. She had been shocked enough for a moment to not do anything until the dark of the alley enclosed her and she realized she should move. She slid her sword out of it’s sheathe and sliced the offending appendage clean off. Disgusted she flung the still squirming thing off of her as a roar filled the alley. Well that was lovely. She had expected it to be a demon that dragged her in and now it was an angry demon. Well, that was what happened when you chucked off it’s arms.

She held her sword in a defensive posision, her other hand on the hilt of a second sword just in case she’d need it in a minute which she had a feeling that she would. Craaap.

Bright yellow cat eyes shined in the shadows, narrowing at her and she couldn’t make out the rest of the ugly things body. But she knew it was ugly. Lower demons always were. “Sorry bub I don’t intend to be dinner!” She called with a growl to her voice. Usually if you put up a fight you could escape. Besides, her and Ki had defeated more Lower Demons then she could count when they got bored. She wasn’t scared.

“I was simply sent to warn, bitch” the demon’s gravely voice spat back at her.

Well damn. They had never spoken before. Hell, Cris was pretty positive they didn’t speak. But this one did. Now that was new. And it was just going to warn…and it was sent to warn? The fact that it called her a bitch didn’t even register. She was so used to that it didn’t even bother her in the least.

“Warn about what?” she asked warily, never lowering her guard for a second.

“Don’t do the job, or it’ll be your deaths. The thing is more than it seems, beware,” the thing ground out at her before disappearing and leaving Cris alone in the alley.

Great. She got stuck with the cryptic demon. A cryptic demon that said beware like some sort of cheezy B movie actor. Why her?

She hated cryptic.

The “performer” groaned. Dammit why her? Why couldn’t she get the kick ass demon that wanted to fight and someone else could get Mr. Cryptic Suddenly I Know How To Speak Even Though I’m A Lower Demon Demon? It wasn’t fair, it really wasn’t. Either way, she didn’t slide her sword back into it’s sheathe until she was firmly back in the, still dark but a little less so, streets. And even then it took her a moment to sheathe it. It was more out of a wistful hoping then a scared need. She wanted the damn thing to come back and try to kill her!

And then she looked down and saw the damn thing had oozed green blood all over her nice torn up black jeans. The fucker!

She growled and stomped all the way back home. Where Sephora was sitting in her usual desk and arched a brow at Cris’s appearance.

Before she could ask, Cris spoke. “Lower demon. Apparently they can talk.” She said, her voice pissed. She wanted a fight dammit.

Sephora simply turned and called up the stairs then for the rest of the gang. “Meeting. Now. Spill it,” was all the captain said, to which Cris gave a lazy salute.

She still went up the stairs anyway, despite the warning look. What? She wasn’t gonna fucking sit through this meeting with Demon Blood on her pants. That shit stained!

[ℛeesa ℒuna]

She had been a daughter of a Suit. Don’t ask her how she had ended up here. She had been the prized daughter, the only daughter. She had never wanted for anything because her daddy was a high enough ranking official that it didn’t matter. He was a doctor. And considering how little of those there were…safe to say that she had grown up in a house in the Center of the City, rather then a slump in the middle of the Dregs like most of the city. But she had never been stuck up. So that was what drew him to her, that was most certainly what drew him to her.

He had been a Suit himself. A well polished learned boy, young for a Suit but he was one either way. And she fell in love. She was only sixteen but it didn’t matter in those days and it still didn’t. If you found something good, you took it. Chances were if you waited a few years it would be gone. So they got married, her and this Suit boy.

Her father approved.

The Chief of Police didn’t.

With the Doctor distracted, it was bad for business. He was too focused on the happiness of his daughter, so the Chief made sure to remove that happiness. In those days…people were supposed to be sad and scared. It was easier to control people that way. So much easier. When people were afraid they bent uunder pressure. When people were mourning they would do anything to forget their pain. So that was the plan. To make the good Doctor mourn.

Her husband was bringing her home. They had had a wonderful time at an actual restaurant, one of the few left. Her husband loved to spoil her rotten and give her sweet things and make suure she was happy. He doted on her often and they had only been married a year. Still in the Honeymoon phase where everything was perfect and sweet.

She had been holding his hand and strolling along, wearing a dress made of soft satin. It was only safe to wear these things around the Center, because it was they only part of the city that the police patrolled. Besides, her husband vowed to walk with her and protect her. He would never let anyone touch a hair on her head.

So with her arm linked through his they headed back to their modest house that was near her father’s. And she had a surprise to tell that she couldn’t wait to share. So she pulled him to a stop and he gave her that smile she loved so much, because it was more in his deep blue eyes than his mouth and she couldn’t wait to tell him. What is it, love? he asked of her with a soft chuckle.

She was beaming, so happy to tell him, to tell him that there was a new life growing inside her and it was theirs. It was so precious to her. It was so rare in a city full of shadows and death for women to be able to perform this miracle anymore. She was about to tell him when a loud crack went off.

And her husband fell. A red rose blooming over his heart.

She never got to tell him.

But soon that ceased to matter when another crack filled the air and she realized that she was being shot at still. They were trying to kill her!

She ran. And she got away. And time, along with bribery would reveal that it was the Police Chief that had killed the only man she would ever love, for she had sworn off it after this.

A year later would find her in a tavern.

She had walked in ragged, in the Dregs, a tiny bundle held close in her arms. She sat at the bar, just needing to rest her weary feet. She would give no real notice to the performing girl who did her tricks on stage except to note that she seemed so in control of all those before her and to be jealous of this fact. To be in control of her life. That was what she wanted. She wanted security for the bundle in her arms that was her only joy in this world any more. She wanted to hunt down all that had taken her husband from her.

She couldn’t do it though. She didn’t have the strength to anymore.

Hours later the performer would leave her stage and another hour later she would walk back into the bar, chits jingling in her purse and a satisfied smirk on her face. She had caught the girl’s eye, and slid down in the chair next to her. The performer had slid her purse up on the bar and ordered them both drinks, and would talk to her.

By morning she was a member of the ever growing crew.

**********************

Raea Osiris caught her four year old daughter around the waist and hauled the little rugrat back over to her before kissing her squarly on the cheek. She had inherited her father’s flair for needing to know everything. And as much as Raea loved the reminder of her love that was now lost to her, it got exhausting to constantly have to keep tabs on where Luna was and make sure she hadn’t gotten into the weapons. “Hey you, get back here. Its bed time” she said with a laugh as she tried again to get the blue eyed terror back in bed.

And failed again.

The girl pouted at her mother. “I’ll sleep when everyone’s home!” That was their usual deal anyway. Luna had to sleep when everyone was back in the Hideout. If she wasn’t asleep by then she was in trouble. But tonight was a night before they were going out on a boring mission, so Raea knew there was very little chance of Cris or Ki coming in at a reasonable time. They would probably show up an hour before they had to head out. But Raea was patient with her daughter, she always was. The gentle girl was a good mother. Something that she got teased about by her fellow Shadowz. But then she threatened to put a hole through one of them with her arrows, jokingly, and they tended to laugh and let it go.

Which was good, because Raea didn’t know anymore whether she was the mild, calm daughter of a suit…or an easily angered Dreg like the rest of the Shadowz anymore, and as of yet she hadn’t had to find out. She still needed to take down the Police Chief, but other than that…no moves towards revenge had found their way to the surface as of yet. She’d been kept too busy, and she was starting to get restless, she needed to take them down for what they did to her Daniel. But as of yet…she had to content herself with being the brains of the operation, usually. Raea was the most patient Shadowz and often was the one to calmly assess the situation. She also was the only one with any knowledge of the Suit world and who was who. And who was usually where and when.

She was glad her father couldn’t see her now.

Clomping on the stairs alerted her that someone was coming up. And movement in the room next to her solidified it. “Well, would you look at that? Someone’s home. Means bed time.” She said this smiling, thought Luna groaned and pouted.

But a new face peaked its head into the room and their performer showed her face. “Listen to your mom, shrimp” Cris teased Luna before coming in to ruffle the four year old’s hair affectionately. Raea smiled at Cris. Her “big sister” was the one to introduce her to Sephora and make sure her daughter grew up with a roof over her head after all.

Pouting, the little girl finally complied.

And Raea took one look at Cris and noticed that those weren’t the pants she had left here in. Not that it wasn’t common for it to happen, but she was told no boys the night before a mission. So what the hell? She looked at one of her closest friends in askance and got a shake of the head and a gesture to come down the stairs.

Huh, now Raea was really curious. What was goiong on here? She wasn’t a detective like her ex-husband…but she had picked up a thing or two from watching him. And it seemed to her that there was something interesting going on here…

[ℛeesa ℒuna]

She hadn’t been born in this city.

She hadn’t grown up among it’s shadows and demons. But she might as well have. Her life had just as many shadows as anyone else’s. But she had grown up in a town near to that instead. In a town that was just as poor and with less food if that was possible. It was a poor town, though her father ran one of the biggest mobs that terrorized the town and she learned from his knee the art of violence. And she took well to it. Too well. He wished she would be more lady like, like her sister. But she wasn’t her sister, though she adored the girl.

The lack of food in the town caused a stunt in the girls already tiny growth, and she found herself one very short child, seeing as she gave all her food to her triplet siblings because they meant the world to the violent little child and were the only people that actually mattered to her.

On her fifteenth birthday, her father sent her out on a mission for his mafia of sorts. It was her job to make a certain member realize that it was a bad idea to displease her father, and the slightly sadistic child was fine with this. It didn’t faze her in the least to be able to do this. She wanted to do it to prove herself and help out her family…because helping them meant helping her siblings as well.

It was a simple task, though it took her out of the town she was born in. The subject had fled the town in order to get out of her father’s influence, but she wasn’t bound by rules. Which was why she had been sent after all.

She came back to her town with the blood still fresh on her hands and the joy of the kill still fresh on her face. She was happy to have done what she was told to do, but because she had enjoyed it, not because she knew she would have pleased her father.

To say she got a surprise when she finally made it home would be an understatement.

Longing for more land of their own, a land where they didn’t have to worry about who to possess because these people didn’t know how to defend themselves, the demons had taken over. The bodies of the dead, both in her own family and people that she knew growing up, littered the streets. Frantic she picked up her pace, needing to get to her house and check on her family.

She wished she hadn’t seen anything. Blood pooled on the floor, bodies of aunts and uncles slumped against the hall. Her father sat at his usual desk chair with a knife in his heart. It was appalling. It was shocking.

But it didn’t stop her.

She needed to find her siblings. She carried on, and searched their house extensively, even looking in the little secret compartments that her sisters had found over the years and shown the girl. A week worth of digging through the town and going through the grueling work of burying her dead revealed no signs of them. She was out of luck, and she was running out of hope. And it hardened the young girl much more than anything her uncle ever did.

Finally she picked up the trail.

It lead her to Nightmarren.

She would scour the town for two years before she had any luck. Before she found her sister. But it wasn’t a happy discovery. Not that she thought about that anymore.

After two more years of searching, a child would come across her sitting on a bench. A child with dark blue eyes, only a year and a half old. Perhaps it was the fact that a child stumbled upon her, or perhaps it was the way that the child’s mother reminded the girl of her sister, but either way it allowed her to be much kinder than usual. The girl had always loved children after all, and this little beautiful child standing there, staring up at her and offering her a cherry sucker was too much. She couldn’t turn the little one away, or the little one’s mother. The girl was nearly emotionless after all, convinced she needed no one and not sure why she was still carrying on. She needed help to find her brother, though she would never admit it.

The young mother would see that. The mother of the child would offer her a place to stay and get her act together so that way she could regather herself before going back to her search.

An offer from the leader for help on her search in return for help on their missions would lead the girl to stay.

*******************

“Ugh, okay do you really have to stain my pretty blades?” Ki would ask the dead demon as she pulled her throwing knife out of it’s skull. Time had turned the young girl into a demon hunter. At first it had just been to try and get news out of them to find her brother. But now it was just fun in all honesty. She had always enjoyed the thrill of a hunt and the feeling of triumph when she came out on top. But she liked best when it was a challenge.

The lower demons never were a challenge.

It didn’t matter anyway because they couldn’t talk back even if they were alive. But that didn’t stop Ki from talking to them as she sat upon the high pile of bodies beneath her. All her kills. And the pile was taller then the tiny girl was. Not that that was all that hard. Lower demons were so boring, but there hadn’t been any higher demons that she had come across that night, so lower demons it was.

Ki easily bent down with the same knife she had earlier been trying to clean to sheer the heads off each of the lower demon bodies. Sadly, bounty hunters needed proof if they wanted to get paid. It was the hazard of the job. More often then not, Ki had gotten a little trigger happy and mangled the poor sucker too much for her to bring in any sign of proof because they didn’t look like the target. Lower demons didn’t bring in much, but the green blood oozing from them was usually more than enough proof.

She was trying to get in her action before she got stuck in the boring retrieval mission later on. She got that Sephora thought they needed the extra gold. And she agreed that they did. But really? She’d rather take a dozen harder missions for less pay then a mission like this. It was just boring.

So she had gotten in a kill or ten tonight. It wasn’t like it was entirely her fault that this particular alley had been so full. It wasn’t like she had lured them here with fresh blood or anything.

Idiots.

Ki hopped down off the pile of her kills and her heavy heeled boots made a loud clomping noise as she did. She smoothed out her hands over her outfit, one of her usual funky outfits of course. Ki could always be noticed by her outfits, they were always out of this world. Funny what you could do given the small resources the Shadowz had and a pair of scissors. It worked.

She headed out of the alley, debating trashing the knife because the gross green gunk that was their blood wouldn’t come out. It was so nasty, her teammates was right this shit stained. Huh, teammates. Weird word for Ki to think, she had never thought that she would ever have team mates, she usually worked alone so well. But she had gotten slightly…attached to them all.

Happily Ki walked. Dragging her proof along behind her. She had tied them all to a rope she kept on her and was now dragging it along behind her like a little kid with a wagon.

She made her way down to the post where she got her compensation for her kills and presented her string of proof…and soon was rewarded with a pretty purse full of silver chits. Sadly, that was all she could get for Lower Demons, but it was okay. Weighing the purse in her hands, she decided it was enough for her to provide dinner for her crew.

An hour later, due to having to walk all around the city to gather everything she wanted and the fact that the Shadowz hide out wasn’t exactly easy to get to, she barged back in to the hide out to find everyone was in the meeting room talking about…something. She barged in to find Cris lamenting about the fact that she got a boring Lower Demon as opposed to some demon whose ass she could kick instead. Ki just grinned and set the pizza box she had been balancing on her head down in the middle and watched the chaos insue as her friends and crew fought over the pizza. She snagged a good piece for her and Raea, passing it to the mama. “So what the hell did I miss?” she asked when everyone finally had their mouths stuffed with food.

Cris spoke around her pizza in her mouth which gained her a disapproving look from Raea so she stopped and chewed before bothering to speak. “Lower Demon spoke after ruining my jeans,” Cris said before taking another way too big for her mouth bite.

Ki was entirely confused. Hadn’t she just been thinking about the fact that the Lower Demon’s didn’t speak? This was not even possible. “It spoke?” she said, entirely skeptical. Cris may be her closest friend, but she didn’t believe what the girl had just said for the life of her.

“It spoke. Hells yes. Sounded like a bad actor too.”

“Apparently it warned us off the mission,” Sephora said, her eyes distracted because her mind was obviously elsewhere.

Ki fully agreed with the damn demon. Stupid boring missions were no fun. Good pay or not.

[Crissatha Pandora]

She was the city’s most important bull shit artist.

Not that many people knew that. She got it right enough times that people actually thought that she was magical. And if she was wrong, well they figured it was their own fault and not hers. How else could most people get proper predictions and theirs turned out wrong? Offically she was The Matchmaker. And she put together the city’s most happy couples. It was her job. And sometimes she actually liked doing it when she got to see that rare emotion light on people’s face when they came back to thank her for what she did.

Happiness was something that most people would happily pay for in those days. And she saw so many gold chits over this job that she didn’t know there were any other type. She had been doing it since she was young and her talent was discovered by an ambitious Middle who just wanted to make chits. The fact that she was always right was no coincidence.

Her grandfather had been a Lower Demon, and her grandmother had been the unwilling recipient of his affections. It was uncommon for this to happen. Well, actually it was sadly common, but it was uncommon for the poor person who was raped to escape alive. If that was what it could have been called. Her great-grandmother had been the one to raise her mother after her grandmother died of the wounds she had sustained that night. His magic passed down into her, letting her see the ties that bound people together. The red string of fate if you will.

Not that she knew this. For all she knew she was just as much a bullshit artist as the man who took care of her claimed.

Though she received enough food to keep her happy, and enough new clothes to keep her distracted, she was not free. The door to her room was locked each night and there were bars on her windows. For all intents and purposes, she was a virtual slave. Not that that stopped her from constantly insulting this man. He bothered her and she saw nothing wrong with tearing him down whenever possible. Secretly, she had fallen for him. But she had a thing about secretly controlling people when they didn’t know it, so she would never admit to this.

As was eventually bound to happen, word of her skills made it all the way to the suits.

The Chief sent his best cops to go and pick her up, he had sent enough golden chits to buy an army. And he sent these men to the Middle. It was enough to make him into a Suit. He was in negotiations with these men when a certain Bounty Hunter found her way into the Matchmaker’s living room, where she was trying to over hear the deal that was going on. While trying to figure out how to escape. Going from one man’s possession to another’s wasn’t something she agreed with.

The Bounty Hunter had been sent to take her out for her Demon blood. But hearing her story made her think different. Besides, the Bounty Hunter decided she could help the crew that was ever growing. So the Bounty Hunter made a deal with her. She would help her escape and not kill her if she agreed to join the Bounty Hunter’s crew.

Honestly, was it even a question?

She agreed and the Bounty Hunter broke her shackles easily. They escaped before the Suits even knew they were gone.

The Matchmaker has been with them ever since.

*****************************

Red Blaze was grumbling under her breath for the entire journey. She just didn’t understand why the hell they had to take a job that took them somewhere out of their city. She liked their city. Sure it was a shit hole and it was rare to make it to old age without getting shot or possessed or worse, but she knew how to deal with it. She knew how to live that way. She knew how to survive in their shit hole. She wasn’t comfortable figuring out how to survive in someone else’s shit hole. That was what she was grumbling about the entire damn way they made their way to the next town over in their “borrowed” caravan.

It was just so inconvenient.

She had to smile though to see Little Luna skipping alongside the cart they had commandeered. She had been riding in the wooden thing, but had wanted to stretch her legs and no one had seen the harm as long as Raea walked along side her. The little girl had been brought just because Raea wouldn’t leave without her but it took Raea out of the action. It meant she would just be providing the intel that they needed and then staying at the hotel they’d be crashing at to keep an eye on the four year old. But that was okay. Though Red knew that The Mother of their group was tougher than her innocent appearance gave her credit for, it still made her nervous when her close friend was with them. She felt the need to protect her.

Red stifled another yawn with her hand and came to a serious realization that in all reality she had come to a few hours ago. She was really just annoyed because they had woken her up early for a bullshit mission. Not that Red couldn’t appreciate the finer things in life, but still. It was a bullshit mission.

The Matchmaker looked up to where The Shadow, their fearless leader, walked leading the caravan and walking all on her own, apparently lost in thought. She always distanced herself from them all that way. Made her wonder what Sephora’s story was. Either way, she wondered why she had taken this mission for them. She never took simple ones like this and especially from a Suit. It made Red wonder if there was a deeper reason besides the money that she had taken this one. Huh. Well, time would tell that one she guessed.

Looking to the right, Ki and Cris were walking close, heads bowed together, which was their usual position when they were plotting someone or something’s death. The bond that tied those together nearly blinded Red, it was strong and deep, though she knew the two had only known each other a short time. All of them were bound though they were a new crew, newly put together. Red could see the ties that bound them all together as easily as breathing. It had only gotten better as she trained what she could do now that she knew it wasn’t a fluke.

Now she knew it was a skill, and one that had been given to her by her demon blood. Which she resented but if it worked…it worked. She figured she balanced out the demon in her with the “good” she did with the crew. She was grateful to the Bounty Hunter for alluminating her heritage to herself. But part of her wished she was still ignorant.

Still. She was keeping her new ability to herself for now until she knew how to work it. The one that allowed her to see auras.

The rest of their crew was in the caravan, going over the info that they had gathered last night and probably mulling over the info Cris had brought in last night. A lower demon had talked. It had kinda sent them all reeling to learn this. How bizarre was that? If that one thing that they had thought to be true was false…what else was?

Red shook her head.

Life was easier when she was just a bullshit artist.

[Crissatha Pandora]

He loved the sound of the rain. Though it caused the sewage to run through the streets like a rancid river, he couldn’t help but love it. It was almost like it cleansed the city, seeing as everyone ran for cover when the storm clouds threatened. He still liked the rain, it was calming.

It had been raining the day that he left, after all.

His mother had meant well, but he knew that she couldn’t support him as well as herself. So the little six year old had taken it upon himself to leave all on his own. He didn’t want his mother to continue not eating simply to feed her son. Simply to try and afford to leave when his father was no where in sight. So he had left, and taken to the streets. It wasn’t all that uncommon sadly. In those days, street children were more common then those with homes. It hadn’t been all that hard for him to find a gang to take him in. He had been accepted immediately, not because of his skill, no. But there was strength in numbers. Soo they had taken him in to get an advantage over other crew that ran wild all around him.

They had taught him what to do, they had taught him how to tell who had what. Who had things that were ripe for the picking and who was just as poor as they were. He was taught how to hold a knife and how to defend himself. He accelled in this way of life, better then he would have at home.

But he left his merry little band when he hit about ten or so to take up a new way of life. Hotel living. He could pick locks like no one’s business, it wasn’t hard to convince the often uncaring people behind the desks that he had a room. From there he could pick locks while people were out and rob them blind…or he could stay in an empty room himself to keep out of the way and have somewhere warm to stay, if only for one night.

He kept himself well fed on this life, better than he had on the streets, because no one suspected him. It was hard to suspect a boy who seemed so innocent and happy, even when that was so rare in Nightmaren.

Around the time he was a teenager, a certain…incident, however, caused him to think that maybe hotel living wasn’t for him. It was too hectic and you never knew what you would bump in to in there. Besides, he had a better idea.

He had enough money saved up from robbing the hotel people blind that he could carry out his better idea too. He bought better clothes…and proceeded to walk among the Suits. Being that the Suits were often happier people because they lived better off then those that lived in the Dregs, no one even looked at his cheery smile weird. He was a happy child, what could he say. Either way, he would pick a person and walk by them, and before they knew it, they’d be robbed blind and the nice boy would be long gone.

The Pickpocket liked this new lifestyle very much so.

Until one day, he didn’t think it was the best thing in the world. Being that he had picked the wrong person to rob. Was it his fault that he hadn’t recognized the Police Chief? It wasan’t his fault that the man was in disguise…maybe if he had recognized this he would have steered clear, because he got caught.

The Chief didn’t need to beat him to a bloody pulp and leave him in an alley though, that was just very uncalled for if you asked the Pickpocket.

He woke up, groggy and beaten, to a girl with long red hair leaning over him. He didn’t get a chance to ask how she had found him however, because soon after seeing her he passed out once more.

He woke up again in a bed a few hours later, with The Matchmaker tending to his wounds carefully. She pushed him back down forcefully when he tried to sit up though, and wouldn’t even answer when he asked where he was. She said it wasn’t important just then, but asked what had happened to him.

And bitterly he told her of getting beaten by the Chief’s men. The Matchmaker froze and informed him that there were many people in the very house that they were staying in at that moment who had serious reason to hate him as well. She asked him if he wanted to stay.

And he never left.

****************************

Justin Flyte bounced down on one of the hotel beds, in the room that he had provided for them. It wasn’t his fault that the person behind the desk had believed that they really had a room here! Seemed even outside Nightmaren people were corrupt enough not to question things such as this. He had gotten them two rooms, and of course he was in the same one as a certain Performer who kicked him when he jostled her on the bed by flopping onto it even as she grinned at him and he had to grin right back.

Justin was a happy camper right then. Happy that their mission took them out of Nightmaren. Because this meant that Cris couldn’t work, and Cris not being able to work meant no more jealous fits for Justin. That often lead to Ki taking him out on one of her Bounty Hunter hunts and him getting covered in gross things. Like last time when Ki had discovered that mushrooms stuck to Lower Demon blood….while the demon blood was on him. Justin shuddered at that memory. He had maybe freaked out. Just a little. You couldn’t blame him! Mushrooms were freaky things that didn’t deserve to exist. He pushed that thought from his mind and turned his attention back to the room.

They were having a meeting.

Kinda.

Well, Sephora was trying to get them to have a meeting, but everyone was a little distracted. Raea was busy with Luna, who refused to settle down and go into the other room to sleep with everyone else awake and in here. Cris and Ki, behind him, were plotting the demise of…something. No shocker there in all reality, he was used to the two of them plotting away happily, as long as he got to watch the end result. He liked when he got to see someone besides him the receiver of their pranks.

Sephora looked like she was about to growl and tear someone’s head off though from the way she was looking at them all. No shocker there either, she often got frustrated with her crew because they were so hard to control. Bt she did it better than anyone else really could. No one else probably had a chance at controlling this bunch like she did.

Sephora spoke up then though. “I swear guys, if I can’t get in one little meeting so I can make sure none of you die in this mission, I won’t let any of you kill anything”

And that seemed to get people’s attention, though Red snickered from where she was sitting. “Like this one’s gonna kill any of us. Its simple. Snatch up the necklace and get gone.”

Ki grinned, and her expression would have seen cute if they didn’t all know what she could do. There was a reason her nickname was also the Killer Doll along with being called the Bounty Hunter. “Yeah, boring as shit. Nothing’s gonna happen Seph. Only thing dying is anything that gets in the way of our utter boredom with this one.”

“Right, so we’re going to pretend that Cris didn’t have a Lower Demon talk to her then?” Seph said in response, an eyebrow arched and her hand resting on the hilt of her rapier.

Justin hadn’t realized that Cris had shifted to actually sit by him until her head was on his shoulder. He smiled a little bit down at the familiarity of it. He may not like what she did, what her job was, but he knew in the end that he could have her come back and do this. Not like that stopped him from having a jealous spaz every time he knew she was off doing it. He couldn’t help it, he was just a jealous type of person. He put an arm around her without really thinking about it, and tried not to smile at the way she was muttering, for the millionth time, about how she just had to get the demon that talked instead of the one that wanted a fight. It was her favorite thing to mutter about since it had happened. He had to admit, it did unnerve him though. He wasn’t used to the idea that Lower Demons could talk. It wasn’t supposed to happen!

“It was nothin’ Seph,” Cris said, not moving from where she was now comfortable. She was trying to push it off to get out of a meeting, and everyone in the room knew it. Ki and Cris loved to plot all day long and would immediately start doing it if no one else stopped them…but they both seemed to detest all official meetings.

Raea had finally managed to wrangle Luna into her lap at least, and she spoke up. The voice of reason as always. “I’m not so sure about that, Cris. It has never happened before and he did warn you. It couldn’t help to at least be cautious.” She said this smiling apologetically at her “big sister”

Seph nodded at that, smiling her thanks at the black sheep of their little group. They new they had to plan really, being that a simple mission like this shouldn’t have come with a warning to stay away. There was most likely something more to the necklace than they knew about…and none of them like the idea about being kept in the dark very much.

They would soon find out what it could do, however.

And they would come to wish they hadn’t.

[Crissatha Pandora]

The demons took over when no one had expected it to happen. This was what happened when too much despair gathered in one place. This was what happened when humans didn’t know how to control themselves or what they built. It was the Police Chief who started it. He had ripped the final hole with what he did. He did it, he started it. Though no one knew but his daughter. The poor girl kept the secret with her until she died, ten years after giving birth to another girl. Another girl was born to the Chief’s daughter, who was raised by her father and mother and never knew of who her grandfather was. All for the best, that was.

Either way, the Chief was still the cause of all this. He touched the demon realm when he spilt the border, which turned him dark and mangled. Which started all of this. What do you do when something like this happens? You learn how to deal. The Police Chief rose in power to be a direct advisor to the Mayor. And it is because of him that the Mayor is as corrupt as he is. Well, not that that’s the Mayor anymore. It’s a Demon in his skin.

Speaking of how the Chief did this…it’s a very complicated tale. The man wanted power. He wanted to twist the world and make himself in charge of it all, rather than those that currently had that control. So he did what any man would do if they wanted something. He sought the means to take it for himself. His search lead him, of course, to the library. And further than that, it lead him to the basement of said library.

The basement was where they kept books that should have never seen the light of day ever again. They should have been hidden away, deep away, where no one could find them. Instead, they were found. Books on how to summon a demon. He had intended to summon the creature for himself, he had intended to use this creature as his slave and get higher up in the world with it’s help. He had set up all the preparations just perfect. The nanny was supposed to be watching his daughter as he set up the circle in his room with all the black candles. He had the book in hand and he waited until the clock struck midnight to start speaking the complicated Latin that made up the incantation.

It was going well. Saisarilian, Sai, had come as he had called, just as he was supposed to. They had made the deal as he had lined it out and he figured that nothing could possibly go wrong. But he was wrong about that, so wrong.

His daughter had escaped the notice of her nanny and had run upstairs, and bolted into the room…and broke the circle. Sai was free…as were all of demon kind because this little incident would rip open the barrier. How is this the Chief’s fault rather than his daughters? Can you really blame a five year old girl who simply wanted to see her father? I didn’t think so. If the Chief hadn’t been doing it in the first place, this would have never happened. So the Chief is to blame for the demon infestation. He tried to close it but failed, and this touch served to only darken his heart even further.

The worse part was that his daughter became possessed by a low level Higher Demon, frail and fragile thing was too scared of the Chief to do anything even tho she was stronger. Instead she did as the Chief demanded and acted as his daughter…and in time the Daughter and the Demon meshed as they grew older and came to find a common purpose. The hate of their father.

She raised her daughter to believe in justice and to hate the Police Chief. And to this day, she still follows her mother’s decree to take him down.

He will pay for his crimes.

***********************

Sephora Tarz pinched the bridge of her nose. She loved her crew but some days she swore that she wanted to hit them all for frustrating her. She loved this odd ball bunch too much to do this of course, but she threatened to often enough. They were a rowdy bunch who would rather cause mischief than do anything that vaguely resembled settling down. She loved this normally, but sometimes she would get tired because she was the only one that this crew would listen to well enough to actually function. The Shadow got frustrated sometimes because, aside from Raea, she wondered if she was the only sane one around here.

“The Necklace guys. It’s worth a new roof. Can we all shut up and listen while The Shadow talks?” she said, trying to hide the exasperation.

Cris nudged Justin with her shoulder and whispered something in his ear that made the boy turn bright red. Seph rolled her eyes and turned her attention. Ki was cleaning off one of her wicked blades, obviously bored. Raea was trying to calm Luna down enough to get her to sleep. Red was looking out the window, unimpressed. So this was her crew. “I swear, I’ll keep us on missions like this if this keeps up.” Now that got their attention.

Seph grinned and plopped herself back down in the last remaining chair, resituating her rapier so it didn’t sit on her uncomfortably. “So what’s the plan than, Boss Lady?” Ki asked, still on her blade, but now she was paying attention. She hated the boring missions more than anyone else, well, her and Cris hated them most at least.

WIP TIL I STOP BEING FRUSTRATED WITH THIS PART.