The streets were alive and vibrant, filled with people coming and going about their business. Touji saw a group of children playing a game of kickball in the street. He felt a tinge of sadness as a picture of his younger sibling passed through his mind.

Suddenly a girl passed by. Her face flashed as it merged into a familiar face. The long pink hair and thickly woven dress that flowed in the wind were the same. Touji's body tensed up.

He had to be imagining things, right? It couldn't possibly be her...

Touji watched as she walked away. He reached out his hand but his legs wouldn't move. She walked farther and farther, growing smaller as she left him behind.

"Wait," he called out to the girl. She stopped in the middle of the road, looking back at him confused.

Touji quickly lowered his hand, it was not her. Trying to ignore the presence of the girl, he turned away when another girl passed by, her face switching with that of Claria's like a light flickering. Touji began to become self-conscious of the people around him. He saw every glance and stare that was directed at him and he interpreted it as murderous intent. He flipped his hoodie up over his head and began to walk cautiously moving to the far side of the street. As he did he began to hear voices whispering around.

"He did it, didn't he? That's him isn't it."

-Stop looking at me.

"You murdered her. You murdered Claria."

The voices got louder as the glares bared down on him. His knees began to shake.

-No I didn't. I know, I didn't.

"Yes, you did! Murderer!"

The voices were now shouting, screaming, accusing him. Touji looked up and saw dozens of eyes glaring at him. He began to walk faster, then run. The voices followed him as he ran down the street, turning the heads of the crowd. He couldn't get away.

"MURDERER!"

-NO! I'M SORRY, PLEASE!

He ran and ran. The crowd became a blur as he weaved through the streets. Touji squeezed his hands onto his ears and dashed off into an alleyway.

"I'm telling you, I didn't!! I didn't." he sobbed. "just get me home."

He stopped and sat down on the ground. He put his arms over his face, shaking from head to foot.

***

The voices finally subsided, leaving Touji left alone to sit in the dark. He huddled over himself, rocking back and forth. The streets had become quiet and the sky darkened. He traced his finger across the ground, drawing repeatedly the words 'not me'. When finally he had run out of space in front of him. Touji let his hands fall limp on the soil. His eyes wandered up at the sky, the moon shone brightly above him.

"Ah, I've been here for hours," he murmured to himself. "I should probably find a place to stay for the night."

He stood up, brushing the sand and dirt from his clothes. As he began to leave the alleyway, he heard the sound of laughter echoing from somewhere nearby. It made him feel sick, yet it conjured a certain amount of curiosity in him, for this voice was not in his head.

He crept towards the source of the noise, making his way down the alley. The laughter had turned into a voice full of mockery and ridicule.

Finally, when he reached the end, he found himself staring down the center of a dimly lit intersection. There was a squeak and then a hissing noise.

Touji's heart stopped as two glistening eyes of a woman glared at him from the road. A person was hanging a few feet off the ground, gripping helplessly at the attacker's hands that were wrapped tightly around her neck.

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The man laughed. "I want to know. Were you one?"

The attacker hardened his grip, squeezing until the woman's eyes bulged in her head. His long white coat and gold hair gleamed in the darkness.

"Oi, don't die on me yet young woman. We have the whole night ahead of us. Let's take our time?!"

Touji watched in shock as the white figure let go of the woman's neck, letting her motionless body fall to the ground.

"Aw, come on. Why did you people die so fast, huh?" he burst out laughing once more. "Killing, killing, killing! Oh, why did you leave me? This was for!" He knelt and began to carve the woman's intestines out with his sword, singing and laughing all the while.

"Should I paint my initials on the wall?" He asked as he shoved his hands under her skin and started to feel around, then began to pull out organs and placed them neatly beside the desecrated corpse.

Then he heard a noise to his left and quickly reacted by swinging his sword to strike an assailant. As his blade slipped through the air and no person came into sight, the man sighed and sat down on the ground, continuing his dissection.

Touji, struggled as he tried to remove the hand which had a tight grip on his mouth. He had been unexpectedly dragged back into the alley by an unknown person and now he was being forced to watch a man butchering a young woman in the middle of the street.

"Ah, how wonderful!" The golden-haired man grinned wickedly. "Now this is what I call a good start to the night."

As Touji's struggle became less and less effective, the person who held him captive brought his mouth close to Touji's ear and whispered, "Calm down. I don't mean any harm. Nod your head and promise that you won't make a sound and I'll let you go."

Touji nodded his head in agreement and the man released his grip.

"Now, come with me and don't utter a word or we'll both be painted across the streets."

Touji once again nodded in compliance and followed the man, his black cloak and hooded head made him seem like a phantom. The dark figure led him into a narrow corridor between two buildings so small that only one person could pass through at a time.

"Where are we going?" Touji whispered back.

"I said don't talk."

"Hey, you two!" the voice echoed from behind them. "I don't remember saying you could leave yet."

Touji felt a tug at his arm as the dark figure pulled him farther into the corridor, "Run!"

He didn't need to be told twice.

The white-coated man stood right behind them, his eyes gleaming in the darkness.

They both bolted, running down the street, dodging the occasional lamppost. Touji stumbled as he ran, his legs burning from the exertion and his chest causing a terrible hollow pain.

"Oh, you guys wanna play tag, huh?! Well, I'm up?" the man giggled to himself.

"Hurry!" The stranger yelled back to Touji. "Getting to ring five is our top priority if you want to live."

"I don't mean to be rude, but what the hell is ring five?" Touji yelled back.

"The slums."

-That's our safe zone?

The cloaked man grabbed Touji's hand and yanked him to a sharp left. As Touji stumbled into the alley, the man threw himself into a building, kicking the door open, and dragging Touji along with him. He shut the door with his foot and locked it.

"Get on the floor and keep quiet." The man hissed in Touji's ear.

He complied, lying down on the floor. They lay there holding their breaths, waiting for the sound of the doorknob turning. After a few minutes of silence, the strange man's grip began to loosen off of Touji's back. His hand slowly slid off and into his coat. It reemerged with a small flask of a clear liquid.

"Here take some. It will regain your energy."

Touji nodded and drank the contents of the flask.

"Thanks."

The man did not respond.

"Excuse me. Mind if I ask what and who that man is?"

"He's a guard."

"And?"

The figure turned as he removed the hood from his head, revealing a man of thin stature, somewhere in his early forties. He had straight black hair split in the middle of his head and a lightly shaved beard around his chin. The pale man's face in the dim light from the window gave off an eerie, ghost-like feel.

"Now that I get a better look at you, I guess I can understand why you ask. You're not from here, are you?"

"No. I am not." Touji responded

"I see. Well then, this will be good to know. Don't ever come out at night. Never."

A brief pause ensued. "Also you should leave tomorrow morning. This is no place for the likes of you."

"Ok, but who was that guard?" Touji insisted.

"His name is Oberon. A former heir to the Khishma family, a prestigious cult of manslayers. He was recently disowned and now wanders the streets at night as a regular guard."

"That's not what I'm asking, I mean I did, but there's no way what he's doing in legal."

"The night in the city is referred to as the twilight hours. I'll spare you the details. A curfew has been placed over the whole city. If you are out past the designated time, you are to be executed on the spot. Of course, every guard on night patrols is assigned are some sort of lustful killer."

"Why? Why would they make a law like that?" Touji asked.

"Because they corrupt and disgusting maggots, that's why. And I'm going to kill every last one of them-"

The man's face shifted to shock as a shadow reared in the moonlit window. There on the windowsill sat the head of the woman, an agonized and contorted expression upon her face. Blood dropped from her mouth and her eyes were rolled back.

"Found you!"