AN: Well, if you've come this far, I probably won't be able to deter you by use of normal means...

Hah, time to get out the machines, huh?

You asked for it...

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-Uncles' larger shed, district 14-

Thick, razor-sharp pinpricks of light shot into my eyes.

"Haha! Good morning, Stem!" Yelled my uncle in an annoyingly loud and close voice. I accelerated my hand, heard the satisfying smack, and sat up while rubbing my eyes. When I felt that the time to open my eyes was appropriate, I looked over at the upside-down mess of an uncle who had somehow become my guardian. I hopped off the bed, stretched to the fullest extent, and then put on my day-face.

By day face, I don't mean I literally took out a human face and glued it over my own, nor that I just have a blank surface and I have a night face as well...or that I go around stealing other peoples' faces and use those as disguises, though that would be interesting, and somewhat useful...maybe I could-

No! Talking about myself in the third person is already bad enough! Lilea won't add psychopathic-face-stealing to my long list of reasons people want to do me bodily harm! I mean, I've already stolen from half of the richest and most influential nobility, and about a tenth of those saw me do it, which is one-ninth too many!

It's not my fault that I take things! Lilea just can't stand letting shiny, metallic, and extremely valuable objects that don't seem to serve any purpose, mar the beautiful image of those majestic nobles! Especially when the majestic nobles aren't looking!

...plus the local pawnshop enjoys giving Lilea heavy bags of other shiny stuff in exchange...

Lilea will stop now. Moving on!

After Lileas' intense inner-monologue, which lasted around a minute in real-time, (That somehow forgot to mention the obvious mistake of the author, who forgo-purposefully didn't refer to Lilea in the third-person in the last chapte-day, because of reasons unimportant to the reader) Uncle had managed to climb back onto his feet.

Anyone who saw Uncle for the first time,(including Lilea, when she was still innocent and naive) would get this impression: "Damn, that guy must workout." in the case of males and Lil-ahem, no one, and in the case of females, "Blush I wonder what he'd look like with his shirt off...pant, pant."

Lilea is included in the female-category. Obviously. Stupid.

Still, he was tall,(6'1) broad-shouldered, very muscular, tan, dirty-blonde, blue-eyed, had sharp cheek-bones, a strong jaw, and always seemed to be dignified, like a king. He was enough to turn any woman into a dirty fantasizing-pervert.

Sadly, he could out-dazzle a sexually-frustrated rabbit, at least when it came to drive. When it came to actually, sealing the deal, he somehow managed to make anyone who knew him for more than one second(long enough to hear his first words)would immediately know that he was a no-good peeping-tom, who should be rightfully chased out with a frying pan, or a broom, or a stick, or a sword, if possible.

I'd heard more than one of the waitresses at the inn say that he was, "The cruelest thing the Dark One could do to womankind."

Moving on, Lilea decided that she was not very happy with her Uncle, and proceeded to approach him with a menacing grin. She'd once used the smile her Uncle used when he was about to embark on an especially frisky endeavor, but after much begging and bribing, her Uncle had persuaded her to never, ever use it ever again. Now she just used her instinctive, "You have ten seconds to live, beg me for mercy, so that I can take pleasure in denying you."

You know, just doing what comes naturally.

After taking five steps toward her Uncle, and having seen him mentally count off five seconds, he started to sweat. "S-stem, I k-know you don't like being woken up, b-but if you just let me explain-!"

All of a sudden, last night rushed to the front of my mind, and I forgot about my Uncles' transgressions. For now.

Lilea sat down hard on her bed, and let her head hang between her knees. Uncle stopped sputtering and looked over, not sure what exactly was happening. He had, after all, just had a near-death experience.

Lilea put her left-hand over her left-eye, making sure that the eye-patch was still in place. After confirming its' presence, Lilea let out a shaking breath. The shadow-in-a-hat flashed through her head, and she shivered a little.

She'd done it. After seven years of thievery, someone higher than the cobbler had noticed her. Hah! She should be grateful that it had taken seven years for her abnormal abilities and appearance to catch on and alert someone who could order around more than a couple thugs. Now what? Someone knew about her, and if she did anything besides what they said...

The shadows' words echoed through her head. "The kinds that can have you tortured until you kill your own family and bring their still beating hearts to them on a silver platter."

Could she...to her Uncle...? No! No, no matter how much they...she would never-!

An arm that was thick with muscle, yet soft with care, circled around her shoulders and squeezed her against the unyielding wall of muscle that was her Uncles' torso. Even though it was hard, it was comforting. My uncle said nothing, just held me up when I let myself go limp.

Closing my eye, I could hear the rhythmic thump that was a universal sign of life. The smooth, even beat made me think of music, and dancing, and-

-how it would look, pulsating on a silver platter, sitting in a pool of its' own liquid.

I tensed my shoulders, and put force into my feet, until I could stand on my own. My uncle still said nothing, but obligingly released his grasp on my shoulder and let me take a couple steps away from him and towards the door.

On the way out, I turned around to look at my Uncle. "I'm sorry, but I-and I can't-I have to-"

"Shhh, it's alright. When you're ready to talk about it, I'll be here."

For a second, I felt a warm fluttering in my chest.

Then it died. I turned my face away, and somehow choked out the words, "A-actually, I won't be coming back for a while...you see, I found some...long-term employment, and I don't think I'll be able to see you for a while, so..." While walking out the door, Lilea set a sack filled with "liberated" objects on the ground, and stood back up. "Stay safe, Uncle. I don't want to come back and have to dig a grave as my first act of coming home, eh?" She said, while adjusting her cloak and scarf.

He chuckled at the inside-joke, and gave a thumbs-up that Lilea didn't see as she closed the door behind her. It slowly swung closed, and she hesitated...

Thu-thump, thu-thump.

The door went click and she walked down the road to the square, pulling on her gloves. She didn't look back.

But she did listen to the rhythmic beats that echoed in her head, the ones that could stop at any time. Perhaps because of her.

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-Thoroughfare square, in front of the inn, District 14-

It was the seventh hour in the day when the shadow appeared behind me and whispered in my ear to follow it. Without a word, I fell into step with it, as we headed toward the center of the city.

Since Abalon was laid out in the shape of a tiered-cake, with the slices making up the districts and the tiers separated by walls, it was inevitable that something as important as this would require walking towards the inner city. Only fools and crazies stayed out in the slums, where the Emperors guards couldn't stop agitated citizens from tearing overbearing nobles limb-from-limb.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I say "Couldn't," but in reality, Lilea thinks the guards would help out the citizens if not for the secret police. The only difference between the slums and the inner tiers was how many guard-officers walked around who could report to their superiors.

So, when it was well-known that important people stayed in the inner tiers, Lilea was a little surprised when the shadow stopped in front of a chapel just outside the outer walls. I was starting to question whether the shadow had gotten lost, when he stepped up to the chapel doors and took the black-skull knocker and banged it against the doors three times in quick succession. Within five seconds, the menacing wooden doors, carved in the likeness of a wall made of bones, opened with a screeching howl, not unlike a woman going through childbirth.

Inside, a black-robed ghoul with a grey face forever frozen in the expression of sorrow greeted us, and silently waved for us to come in, after noting the shadow-in-a-hat.

I slowly walked up the steps made of black-marble, wondering why the shadow had taken me to the chapel. Perhaps my employer was a pious individual? If so, that was bad news...

The shadow led me through a path in between long pews lovingly carved to resemble emancipated men and women forced onto their knees and bound with ropes and chains, with faces frozen in howls and screams, their hands raised in repentance, begging for mercy and deliverance, and others who simply looked hopeless, and begged for release...from the bonds of mortality, to be clear.

The carvings got more and more detailed and realistic the farther we got into the chapel, and I had to force myself to take steps toward the altar, while it was getting more and more difficult the better I could make out what the altar depicted.

Then I felt a cold, vise-like grip on my shoulder, and I turned to look into the shadowed cowl of the ghoul, its' screaming mouth inches from my face.

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-My larger shed, District 14-

I sat for a long while after Lilea had left. I thought about everything she had been through, and how it had felt when she stiffened beside me, so hard I was scared she might break.

I remembered a time, ten years ago, when I had first met her. At that point, she had just been some girl. She had looked at me with determined eyes, and a spark of fire had been raging in her, the way she folded her arms and looked at me, a complete stranger, with the quiet confidence that she could bend me over her knee if she wished.

A year after that, the fire had dimmed, and she didn't seem quite so sure of herself. A year after that, she finally opened up to me and told me her name. A year after that, the fire died, and she stopped walking with her head up, chin forward, hair tied back. That's when she started hunching her shoulders, ducking her chin, and cut her hair, doing her best to make herself invisible.

Even a soldier gets tired of fighting after three-years of non-stop action, with no chance for relief. For a child of six to stand the way she did, I can't hope to ever hold my chin up and say with pride that I'm half as brave. Now...

Now she didn't stand, she crouched. She didn't walk, she stalked. She was never relaxed, no matter how big her smile was. You could tell because her left-pinky would always twitch, itching to see if her eye-patch was on.

I looked around, took the board with fifty-seven marks on it, and walked around to my smaller shed, where I lived. There, I had placed a hammock to one side with a chest under it, and a dress/wardrobe against the wall. Dominating the rest of the room was a cloth sheet, which I pulled aside to reveal one wall covered in marked boards. I took a second to hang the one in my hand in a waiting space before looking at the left wall.

That small, ratty cloak that she used before she got her brown one. The mismatched gloves that were slightly too big and too small at he time. The seven different eye-patches, all worn out from use.

I didn't look at the right wall, but retreated behind the sheet and sat down on the ground to think for a minute. Or an hour. or maybe a few days.

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-Chapel of the Dark One, District 12-

Lileas' heart stopped, and her breathe froze in her throat, choking her.

I leapt back, tightening my gloved fingers, and wrapping the cloak closer around myself. I tripped over a pew, fell in-between two pews, and looked directly into a hopeless face begging for the sweet, sweet release of painful death. I jumped up as fast as I could, looking over at he ghoul that had cocked its' head at me. I slowly rose myself onto the balls of my feet...

"Oi! Novice, take off the mask, will you? You're scaring the little mouse." Said the shadow. In answer, the ghoul reached up one hand and tore its' own face off, revealing a young, regular-looking boy. He turned to the shadow and bowed, saying,

"My apologies, Master. I did not realize that you would be coming, and after wearing the mask for so long you forget you're wearing it." said the boy, while looking repentant.

The shadow waved his hand in irritation. "Enough with that "master" crap. I left the brotherhood three years ago, so my rank naturally means nothing." He explained in a pained voice, as if he had explained it many times.

The boy shook his head, and said, "Not so. Master, you of all people should know that one cannot leave the brotherhood. sure, you've taken up an occupation...but one cannot conduct surgery by simply peeling the skin. What you've done does not come off so easily, Master."

The shadow laughed, "Hah! I wouldn't expect anything less from a novice nearing his Ascension Ceremony. Fine, call me what you will. Oi! Mouse! Over here!"

I hurried over to where he was shaking his head at a boy who was unsuccessfully trying to hide a satisfied smile, and gestured to the altar. I nearly threw up at the sight.

"Now, little mouse, I want you to know that from here on, you are to speak of nothing you see. Not that it won't haunt your nightmares..."

I must have had some doubt in my eyes, for he smiled at me. I said, "Scarier than a ghoul?"

His smile half-melted. He supported himself by leaning against the altar, and spoke without a shred of mockery. "Believe me, if a ghoul was the scariest thing in the chapels, I would have achieved the rank of Master in a month, and not twenty years. What I'm about to show you has broken the minds of countless novices...and they were given five years of preparation and training. I'm not going to hold your hand as you descend into madness, got it?"

I gulped. The Lilea nodded.

Now he smiled like a demon, and pushed his fingers into the altar, and a grinding, grating sound followed by a section of floor behind the altar broke and slid, until it formed a spiral staircase. The he made a bow, gesturing with grand motions. "Ladies first."

I took cautious steps down, feeling the weight of the chapel crush my shoulders as I descended into utter darkness.

In the dim light left from the hole up above, two orange orbs followed a solitary green one down the steps into hell.

Then the light was snuffed out, and the true hell started.

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AN: Well, I don't want to leave you on a cliffhanger, but i have to change location as the cops have tracked me down. So for now, this is where I leave you! Goodnight!