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I arrive at the door,

It is closed of course, but there are causes that go beneath all calluses.

A pleasurable four-storied townhouse not too far from the center of town, also, undesirably findable in the midst of fading light. It has no adornments nor marks of trade. Blue lights strobe through the windowpanes. They are cold and mesmerizing.

*KNOCK KNOCK*

They kill the lights and my sister tastes like ashes on my lips.


Fish-eye lens looks at me longingly as if to... before the kiss that obliterates. The luminence I have just unleashed melts a chunk of the door and the hulking shadow-bouncer.

The second one runs away vanishing quickly through a wall into the dark before my gaze.

None of the occupants of this place dare to stop me.


One, two, three steps upwards to the main room.


I carry Its head to the counter, lobbing it down more messily than intended.

“This one called for my light, how will you fare?” “If at all…”


This is not a standoff, by any meaning of the word. Take my word for it. I'm the one telling this fable.


The feeblebloods shrink out of view. Scrambling for exits. Pitiful appetites will be unsatisfied.

Three of them in the corner with their scared prey; carrying the Shadow in their teeth, snarling, but sedated with a withering look.


Languidly, I turn my head back to the purveyor of this fetid shithole.


“You here to be fucked or be fucked up?” the smug smooth-faced twigling says, throwing a nod at the hulking body of a minotaur next to him.

He doesn’t have the time to close the money box before I grap him by the lapels and throw him across the floor. He breaks a couple of tables on his way to la-la-land.

And with one step, I stand up to the Beast.

“Tonight?” I breathe into its nostrils. "You wanna go?"

“No, missus, please…” a moment’s hesitation. “ She is Herewhere… it is a trap.”


All is dark but the sound.

My aura is the only thing keeping me afloat.

Nótt emerges wagging her hoof. “You should have come; may we talk, before I devour you?"

____________________________________________

"Your back, just look at it!"

PART 4