With a weary body and cold hands, Merit took a sip from the warm drink the owner of a small restaurant in the city's slums gave her; he was also kind enough to lend her a blanket. The alley where she decided to spend her night was cold and dark, rats found comfort in such places, but she held no fear towards them, darkness wasn't a fearful thing for her, her heart was a strong one.

Living in the streets for so long, her eyes already possessed the cruel reflection of the unfairness of the underground society, what a nine year old child experienced could bring down a forty-year -old gentleman in the higher ups society. The purity of the adventurous hearts the children acquired from their daydreaming is what kept her awake through the misty slums of Ilusia, that warm drink poured down a bit of happiness into her heart, and that camera did too.

She closed her eyes, finally surrendering to the night's luring call, her hand slowly let go of the warm drink she barely finished as the warmth finally ignited her cold body, the streets were never safe, and so, she held her belongings tightly as she lied in the alley among the rubbish and unpleasant creatures. Another day lied ahead. Merit's aim was to visit The Steamhall market.

The sky hid itself in shame from one particular land, the underground hell. Down there, the sky was a metallic one. Thick darkness below it. The sunlight could never sneak in into the long streets, into the steamy factories, into the crowded market or into the tiny little houses that fell over each other. Those who lived there were called the children of darkness. The ones who wholeheartedly chose to hide from the upper society's fulfillment, hiding from their ticking clocks and never-ending quest for industrial revolution and the bloody consequences it brought.

The neckties had no place within the underground world. There, you could find the rarest machine parts to ever exist, old antiques for those who have a longing for the lost age and even robots that serve you loyally till death without keeping an eye on you to satisfy the government. It was a heaven, for some.

//The quest//

It was already daybreak when the sound of chirping of birds broke out of an old tree resting on the two-story long building in front of her. She opened her eyes and yawned. As soon as she was aware of what time it is, she rubbed her eyes and made sure her bag was still there.

She folded the blanket the restaurant's owner gave her and put it into her bag, from it; she grabbed a train ticket to The Steamhall market. Merit stole the ticket from a gentleman's jacket thinking that he could easily get another one. Her hands were light, she was able to sneak into any place and steal whatever she desires, and it's a gift.

In the broad daylight the thief walked freely. Towards the station, she marched whistling happily. Even in the sunniest day she would never hesitate to snatch anything from the crowds. She believed that they owed her something. Merit never accepted those 'factory invitations' she received. Work opportunities for minors that granted them a shelter and two meals daily in exchange for exposure to dangerous machinery and deadly gases.

As Merit walked past the street, her eyes' begun to catch the degeneration of the passers-by. From clean white suits to worn out ones, and from worn out ones to coal and grease tainted overalls and an unbearable smell of sweat and garlic soup. In Merit's mind it was degeneration, but it was the core of the real world.

After she had finally found the station, Merit felt a buzzing in her bag that made her jump in fright. "What was that?!" She said, opening her bag. She found the camera strangely turned on.

"I can't buy a new battery..." She sighed, Merit browsed through the pictures as if she were looking for a certain image, and as she finally came across the last picture she took, her curiosity was still not satisfied. She put her finger on the swiping button, ready to press it again but then, the train honked announcing its arrival.

"Better keep going!" She said as she closed the camera which had stopped buzzing, put it in her bag and ran across the street to get into the station.

The sign indicated the presence of a train station, however, once you step a foot in, you could see how the workers slept over each other as if this was their bedroom. The station was a shelter for the homeless and the exhausted workers who have nowhere else to stay in their breaks or holidays. They brought in the blankets they have and whatever food they could eat without wasting their money. To get over that carpet of exhausted men and women sleeping across the station, Merit had to do the 'tip-toe' dance.

Although Merit would naturally gag at the terrible smell, she was very calm and felt nothing different. "I haven't showered in ages too." She laughed miserably. The generous owner of the restaurant she slept next too would let her take a shower occasionally, but she would only stay clean for hours before she would look like a cave woman.

The speakers in the station played calm music. The beautiful voice of that woman singing would flood the workers' ears as a medicine. Their ears were stained with the sound of plumbing and explosions, such beauty was strange to their ears and so, some workers would drown in the tranquility of that tone. The other workers chit-chats were high enough to drown that music away. As Merit held her ticket in a tight grip and jumped all the way to the train's pavement she stood suddenly before she almost fell off the stairs. A man laid there with his legs spread in front of him, almost tackling whoever decided to go down the stairs.

"Sir, move your legs, please." Merit politely said, avoiding eye contact with the man but gently tapped on his legs. She received no response.

"Do we really need to use force?" She sighed, violently kicking the man's leg out of her way as her eyes accidentally fell on his face.

A sight that would always be engraved in her memory.

He was alone, wrapped in a blanket. There were flies all around his face. His mouth with wide opened, dripping saliva. His eyes were opened, starring into nothingness. Dark and empty. Merit understood that this man was indeed dead, but how could that child comprehend the concept of death?

Merit looked away, feeling her leg go numb. Quickly, she handed the conductor her ticket and jumped upon the empty train feeling nauseous and uneasy.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

//The encounter//

The train was a joy ride for her, it wasn't a normal one. The train moved through the buildings like worm and then moved down till it reached the underground station, through her window she can see the neckties drowning in their paperwork, the gigantic Milasic industries robot that was stationed in the liberation square appeared in screens throughout the entire ride. Milasic was a war robot that was still in development but makes appearances from time to time to comfort the public, Merit loved him. She loved how he was colored in red and black, how he reassured the nation that was in an imminent danger of war that they'd be safe under his protection, she was a child after all.

"Beautiful scenery, isn't it?" the passenger said yet Merit didn't pay attention to him. He sighed as if he was frustrated then Merit's ears picked up what seemed to be the clinking of coins from his pocket.

Slowly, she smirked and turned around her head to see him only to be met with a face that made her disturbed and uneasy.

"That's the only way that I can get your attention with, right? Pathetic." He said with a smug grin on his pale face. Merit's smirk faded as she begun to realize that this could be a police officer chasing her. Her breathing got more heavier as she took a deep look into this man's face.

"Many kids like you are dying in the allies of each street, unable to get a penny for a crumb of bread yet you have a ticket to the underground city?" The passenger mocked Merit by looking at her torn clothes and mud-smudged shoes.

Merit didn't reply. She was taught to keep her mouth shut when pursued by either police or creepy old men picking on children. She starred at him in silence, secretly flashing her anger and contempt through her wide golden eyes.

"Alright, I'll get into business." He said, wrapping his strangely heavy arm around her shoulder and leaning towards her ear. Merit sunk into her chair, stress-fully looking around her as she realized she had fallen into the hands of a predator, but no one looked, no one noticed.

"That necklace is very expensive. I'd say its worth a thousand Euller, now, why do you, a street scum, wear it?" The passenger whispered into Merit's ears as she struggled to gently push his arm off her. She felt it was abnormally heavy but she didn't surrender.

As the passenger eyes' fell into her bag, Merit realized that she was in a deadly situation. That was not a police officer, it was certainly a strange person who she felt an unexplained familiarity towards. Merit was saved by the sudden stop of the train which pushed all of the passengers forward, knocking his hands off her shoulder. Merit took her bag in tears and ran, "Creepy old shit!" She cried as the strange man didn't move an inch from his seat, muttering few words Merit deciphered and felt her heart sink through her chest.

"It's not my job anyway." He spoke.

The eerie encounter kept Merit's heart beating rapidly. She covered the necklace with a shaky hand, and the farther away she walked, the calmer she was. This man was most definitely one of the many creeps she had encountered, but his last sentence was a mystery too. In fact, his whole appearance and that unsettling face along with his intention of taking away her bag and also not chasing her was an indication of a bigger chain of events she hadn't understood, yet.

//Discovery//

Lost between the white lights of the industrial districts with only a small package of biscuits and a half empty water bottle, wandering between each street vendor where parts of steel heroes were hanged on display as puppets. Her mind went so far away, swimming in memories brought by the scent of fuel and warm garlic soup, thinking that maybe she'd stumble upon what she came for this time, an old friend, a tutor and almost father figure, Mr. Forger.

Many shops went by. So many people and so many heavy metals, where could that man be? Although it has been almost Two years, he couldn't have died and he couldn't have gone out of his shell either. She thought that each time she came here, Mr. Forger would find her, he'd take her in as an apprentice as she always asked him, but her dreams were so naive. Mr. Forger would never let her into the world of steel, that's what she can never forget.

Her camera, the precious stolen one she had in her bag suddenly started vibrating violently. Merit felt scared and unable to act, she knew that if she took the camera out it probably will be snatched right out of her hand, and so, she went deeper into a small street and leaned to a wall, slowly held her bag and opened it and as she looked, her camera was shaking and flashing inside the bag as if it was about to explode. Merit didn't know what could trigger it in that place, she just took it out and held it between her tiny hands, she finally got a hold of it steadily and turned it on, and as she did, the camera opened to reveal the last picture she had viewed before the battery died. She crossed her eyebrows, "How was it recharged?" She wondered as she remembered the last image she hadn't checked. The mystery of the camera was unraveling itself.

There it was, a sequence of blurry images that slowly turned her heart into a beating drum. A man in a black hat, he was clapping and grinning like a maniac, his hat covered most of his face and a small bot stood by him watching a scene that was revealed in the second picture. It was a scene that looked straight out of a nightmare, red lights flashing in the sunless sky, horrified faces of people as they stumbled upon each other running from the inevitable destiny that the sky cursed them with.

"Who took these?" Merit asked herself in fright. She cannot remember how can such horrendous images appear out of the nowhere on the camera she hold on tightly even in her sleep. Forger slipped out of her head, fright and confusion made her as fragile as the biscuits in her bag. A child's mind cannot comprehend the idea of fearful ignorance. There was no boundaries between reality and fantasy for her, and most importantly, there was no one to explain anything to her.

She put the camera in her bag again, breathed deeply and decided to go back into the upper ground. Her aimless strolling ended and so was the serenity she had found after the man she encountered left. She moved, eyes fixed on the ground, confused and somehow curious, even her heart wouldn't let her take a second look, she knew that some shattered feelings are attached to those images, but her mind cannot put the puzzle together. She fetched for memories that recall such events, but found none.

And as she finally found herself in the station, she had her return ticket in a hand and the necklace she just took off in another hand, she then stood by a gutter by the station looking at her beautiful necklace that made her eyes teary yet and her face frowned, her breath let out anger and sadness, it was a complicated feeling, a memory she held on that slowly drowned her in melancholy, her reflection in the water showed her the face she hardly sees. Merit spread her hand in the free wind and threw it, she looked away, "I can't hold on to you anymore..." she sighed, leaving the precious silver locket behind, a locket that had a small picture of a lady, "A stray cannot hold on to such a precious necklace." She sighed and walked away.

She decided not to show the world what images this camera took, instead, she decided to search for an old friend called Ross, an expert in such devices as she can remember, he is in the upper ground area. Merit knew he is a man she can trust, that man in the picture, the one with the black hat, was familiar, Merit knew she saw a glimpse of him somewhere before, maybe Ross could figure out who is he, or how such images appeared out of nowhere on her camera.

From hitting a dead man's leg to being attacked by a mad one, the written script was in motion and the young child slowly got a hold of the mystery she was the center of. As the camera became her window to another world she didn't remember, the man in the black hat watched silently in thrill.

"It will be fun chasing you."