"Oh shit!" Alira mumbled.

She hastily crouched below a wooden desk in an attempt to hide herself, as footsteps not far from her got louder by the second.

Soon, orders could be heard.

"The seal was triggered! We have an intruder here! Find him! He absolutely must not leave this place!"

She almost grinned. Why was it, that men always thought only other men could be at fault? Not that it mattered. If she was caught, she was done for.

Geez. How did it come to this? She thought.

Well, she knew exactly how. A few days ago, she was hired for "a safe and easy job".

"We just need you to break into one of the storage facilities of the Sorcerer's Guild.."

As soon as she heard that sentence, she should've known it was a bad idea. Very bad. But she needed the payout. Okay, she needed it desperately. With but a few crumbs of bread gained through begging, her stomach had nothing to show for these days.

Hence, her risk tolerance rose to dwindling heights, leading her to accept what others might call a suicide mission.

"Yeah, sure. What do you want me to steal?"

That sentence now rang in her head.

Why, just why, am i so fucking retarded sometimes? She reeled over the decision that led her here. What good was a decent meal, if she was dead? The dead can't eat. Well at least they don't eat in the conventional sense.

All of a sudden, a faint glow brought her back to the present. At first, she thought she was made, but then Alira realized the glow came from her own pocket, like a fucking beacon, broadcasting "Here is the thief, guys, arrest me".

What the fuck?

She hastily reached into her pocket, pulling out one of the things she recently acquired, but didn't buy.

Okay, okay. Stole. Happy?

The fist sized, perfectly even gem radiated in a brilliant blue hue.

She tried to cover it with her hands, but that bastard stone just shone through, painting ghostly shadows of her fingers' bone structure onto the surrounding stuff, almost mesmerizing.

"Guys, there is something here!"

Alira woke from her momentary daze.

Shit.. Shit shit!

She was tempted to throw away the stone and make a run for it.

But if she ran anyway, she might as well reap the rewards for that shiny gem later. Otherwise this would just be a pointless screw up, wouldn't it? She convinced herself and prepared to run for the door where the voices did NOT come from.

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The moment a heavily robed (AN: Warrior => heavily armed, Wizard => heavily robed Very Happy [https://forum.royalroadl.com/images/smilies/biggrin.png])  guard peaked inside the room, she dashed out of her obvious hiding spot.

"Stop, or we will apprehend you by force!" The exact moment the wizard shouted, she felt scorching heat enveloping her back and a loud explosion consumed part of the shelves next to her.

Fuck you! Why the fuck shout a warning if you are gonna fireball me anyway? Bastards everywhere. Please let me reach the exit, if i get hit head (or back) on by one of these, i'm gone bye bye.

Thoughts like that were the only ones she was capable of, right now. As more fireballs brought down hell behind her (Isn't he unnecessarily destroying a lot of inventory?) she reached her target, a simple wooden door.

Yes! Freedom!

She pulled it open quickly. It was a closet.

FUCK. No, seriously, who designed this shit? The entrance door and the closet door look exactly alike. Fuck that architect, i hope he burns on a pile of doors!

In the split seconds she had left un-parched, hope was fleeting and despair forced its way into her head.

She could almost see her sad, useless life pass in front of her eyes, like in the stories, when the main character was about to die. Not that she was anywhere near main character material, but still.

Somehow, she was relieved. The struggle, that is the life of an orphan girl in an unforgiving world, was about to be over.

She ran into the closet, and closed the door. Call it a last stand, born from the innate unwillingness of every living thing, to go without a fight, even though she knew she was doomed.

Alira turned around, and waited for the door to be blown away. Or maybe opened, she didn't care. This or that, it was the end of her anyway. Slowly, she walked backwards in an attempt to lean on the back wall in a comfortable pose to die in.

As she walked backwards ten meters or so, she realized something. Behind her was no wall, it should have been there. The closet was maybe two meters deep, if at all. Also, she now observed that the walls to her left and right had faded into absolute blackness near the entrance.

What the hell?

The only thing illuminating the closet in the first place was that ridiculous gem, that's why she hadn't realized immediately. Now that she did, she was taken aback. Not only did this wardrobe defy common sense, but furthermore the guard, or guards, who should have long reached this room by now, didn't seem to care coming in, or even bother to knock. Very odd indeed.

Hesitantly, she turned around, eyes closed.

Please no creepy shit.

Please no creepy shit.

All of a sudden, she remembered the stories the older orphans had told her about weird closets, and the monsters inhabiting them.

Please, just no!

Slowly, Alira opened one eye, then both. What greeted her was more of the perfect darkness all around. Not a monster, but certainly not comforting either.

Behind (now in front of) her, even the gem didn't reveal anything more than darkness. Its light just seemed to be swallowed up in a borderless, starless, empty space.

Great. She had already made peace with her demise and yet now, she was given a choice again. What kind of choice, she didn't know. Maybe, she could escape through the darkness. Or she could be captured by creatures commonly found in nightmares, and tortured for a century or two, before finally laying down her life in a dark place.

But, and that was a really tiny, yet annoying but, her death was almost guaranteed was she to surrender to the Sorcerer's Guild. They used to either slay you outright, or make an example on a burning stake.

On the other hand, the darkness might, just MIGHT, not be an epicly bad, suicidal decision.

Go me, she bitterly grinned to herself, because she already knew that she would go anyway. She just didn't have to like it very much, did she?