The wind howled between the skeleton arrangement of rotting wood and metal pipes barely holding together the various signs placed upon the roof of the mall. A strong smell of rust mixed with odours of mould and old concrete completed the amalgam of urban decay the old shopping centre was a prime example of. There was a certain edge of decadent beauty to it, especially with the sun was slowly creeping below the horizon, casting an eerie gloom around the place. Unamazed by the sight, Azucena cursed under her breath.

I hate hunting undead in the dark.

It wasn't fear. A ragtag group of animated skeletons was nothing to be afraid of. They didn't need light to observe their surroundings, sure, that would be a slight disadvantage, but they didn't perceive light either, so there was nothing stopping her of using some illuminative magic to alleviate her disadvantage. It was the cliché of it. The children of the night, the nocturnal hunters of every horror movie, game and book. What made the zombies and the skeletons scary, in her rather educated opinion, was the context in which they appeared. After you take down a group of the risen dead causing havoc in a brightly lit fast food joint right around noon, your images of them rather changes. And it did send the greedy asswipe selling burger mixed with brain bits a bloody good message.

She took her time crossing the empty parking lot. Well, empty of people and cars, not of wrecked shopping carts, a collection of broken furniture and a curious, almost totem-like construction over two meters in height towering in the middle of the lot. It was built out of similar wreckage that surrounded it, with an ice cream machine topping a pile of chairs, racks, and a rather grotesque assortment of mannequins. The skeletons possessed neither desire nor ability to make such an elaborate construction, and despite its pieces being old, it looked relatively recent.

There was someone else here.

No ordinary squatter would live in a neighbourhood of the living dead, which meant the person must be one acquainted with magic and possibly even capable of controlling the undead. That made this clean-up job multitudes more dangerous. Azucena considered retreating, but in truth, disposing of the skeletons was even more imperative now that there was a risk they were being used for whatever shenanigans their new-found master was planning. She could try to arrange some backup, but that would take hours, if not days. She sighed.

If someone intelligent, for a given value of intelligence higher than one of animated bones, was around, that meant the main entrance was no longer an option. They would be trapped or guarded to protect against other potential squatters. Azucena could feel her heart pounding a little faster and little droplets of sweat oozing out of her skin. It felt surprisingly good. It wasn't like when she had faced the Necromancer, but any opposition above that of mindless undead brought with it a sense of excitement. A sense of adventure.

She circled the abandoned mall, looking for a possible entrance. There was an overabundance of options, with one side lined with loading docks, several fire exits and doors the workers used. The question on her mind was, where was the person hiding? She had not come prepared, so she had no idea what to expect inside the building. She knew malls, of course, and this one seemed like a pretty run-of-the-mill one with a couple of large department stores, a restaurant area and too many shops that used to sell clothing that rotted faster than a ghoul's finger. The would also be facilities for the staff and the guards, which would, in all probability, make the most ideal places to set up shop in.

After some consideration, Azucena decided on a shadowy locked door on the side. It being locked, they would not be guarding it. It was, what, a dozen skeletons at most, nowhere near enough to man all the possible entrances. But, she reminded herself, it did not pay to get cocky. She was a treasure hunter, an adventurer, not a mercenary, even if her life did end resembling an all-out war in the wake of the Necromancer's emergence.

She pulled on the door to make sure she was correct, and it was, indeed, locked. She took a deep breath and summoned a small mote of magic, which she carefully guided through her finger into the door. The metaphysical string wound up around the bolt of the door, and she thought of pulling. The string tightened. The bolt pulled in and the door opened, almost silently. Azucena let out the breath and waited.

Silence.

It was most likely that she had not been detected as of yet. That worked to her advantage. She entered into a small hallway that had clearly been inaccessible to the public and had a liminal feel to it – or possibly would have if the normalness of the mall had not been all but destroyed by the rot and decay. It smelled of pee. Animals sheltering here? She thought and shook her head. It had a clear humanlike quality to it. It could have been the current resident or any of the previous ones.

Beyond the short corridor a larger hallway opened up. The door between the public and the private space had been torn down years ago, possibly to let the squatter relieve themselves. Slowly and quietly she stepped into the larger area, which still had the resemblance of luxury the mall had tried to impose on its clientele. There were the faux-marble pillars and the glossy stone floors, the fancy decorations, and the sense of space. There was, also, a skeleton looking as surprised as a skeleton can. She knew she had to act fast, so Azucena bolted into action.

Magic would not work here. Too slow, too noticeable. She was going to trust her first instincts: decades of training in the art of rumi maki.

Even though there was a space of several meters separating them, her bony target had no time to react. The undead, not big on reflexes. Her fist smashed on the jawbone and sent the whole skull flying across the hallway. She was on autopilot. Her elbow connected with the ribs, cracking them into pieces. She piroutted and knocked down the skeleton and sent down a finishing kick. The bones fell to the floor. Inanimate. Dead again.

Azucena was panting. Had it really been so long?

The skull fell down to the floor noisily, the echoes emanating through the hallway. At this point, it was more than likely her presence had been noticed. Unlike the Necromancer, whoever was in charge now didn't have a personal connection to the undead, and could not sense their demise. They would also need to control their subjects with vocal commands, and these particular ones didn't have the thaumaturgical oomph to perform more than a couple of simple tasks at a time. That meant that even if the person was aware that their stronghold had been breached, they could not swarm her with a bone squad with the power of their thought. If she was quick, she could take down several of them individually before their master had time to reorganise their troops.

She exploded to a run and quickly found one of the bigger plazas of the mall, surrounded by a cavalcade of meat carnivals, now as dead as their produce, that once sought to entice their customers with the lowest prices on bits of cattle they probably had never heard of.

There was another skeleton cleaning a table. The table was in worse shape than its undead tenant, with half of it fallen of and the rest covered in mould. The undead, completely unaware repeated in a soft bony voice with an arcane clang: "Would you like fries with your order?"

They had no lungs or throat, of course, but the magic used to create these restless dead strived to grant them a modicum of humanity, a shadow of their past life, as the lifeless skeletons sought to resemble a living being. They were not, but the bone remembers.

Azucena pushed the rotting table through the skeletons spine, cutting it in half. "This week's special! This week's special!" the poor being cried as it fell to the floor. Really, this was a mercy. Even if no soul was presented in these wretched cadavers, there was a sad mockery of life that was better stubbed.

That was two. Ten more left, at most.

She found another skeleton tending the racks at a deceased fast fashion store. "Like and subscribe!" cried another in the main hall as it perished under Azucena's practised martial art. An especially sad sight was the one selling new phones in the middle of the hallway, where presumable a small podium had once stood.

They're not even under orders, she realised and shook her head. They bastard didn't even have the decency to give them orders, instead letting them hallucinate a life that they once had, covered in skin and life. It was clear that she had overestimated the person leading this sad little undead empire. They had no idea what they were doing.

After taking down six skeletons, Azucena decided it was time to head for the main prize. But where? She had assumed they would be in some kind of a command centre, but after having seen the undead disarray, she was beginning to doubt her first theory. This was not some necromantic mastermind, this was someone who had contracted magic by accident and stumbled onto the skeletons. She headed for the grandest, biggest store she could find.

It was, of course, a store that sold pretty much everything, on the cheaper side, but strived for a feeling of deluxe, of exclusivity, even if it was the one store pretty much everyone could afford. The plastic faux-luxury that would certainly attract the kind of person she was after. Big, flashy and ultimately disposable.

As an aside, she would be surprised how right she was.

The glass facade of the store was little more than a splattering of shards littered by walkways where the recent tenants of the mall had made their paths. Careless. Azucena steeled herself. The way everything was so haphazard was almost too comforting, lulling her into a sense of security and confidence. She had made that mistake… too many times now.

Inside, she found a skeleton dressed in a costume of a Japanese popular culture creature. Fluffy, colourful, still an undead who could rip your limbs off if you were not careful. But as she studied the post-deceased cosplayer, she realised that there were, again, no sensible instructions. The creature just… stood there.

Azucena wasn't sure what to make of this. A kid finding out they had been cursed with the old epidemica magica, and just making what they could of it? She genuinely felt sorry for them. She had busted into the mall to… what?

Obviously, it was inadvisable, to say the least, to play around with the undead. But this was no Necromancer, with malicious plans spanning decades and continents. This might very well be a confused kid. She had come in prepared to fight this person – not be their therapist or, ugh, mentor.

The further she advanced into the store, the more convinced she got that whoever was residing here was making the best out of it. It was, in many ways, like infiltrating a pillow fort. Everything was very makeshift, but in a way, playful.

Please don't let it be a child.

It was not hard to find the heart of this impromptu empire. It was as if she was led there. For better or worse.

* * *

Laura was shaking. This had to be like her fifth attempt at escaping. José Ignasio wasn't even using his undead minions. Undead minions. That sounded so stupid. Like something out of her cringe little brother's games. How the hell did she end up in this situation?

She knew perfectly well. It had been Maria's idea. Abandoned mall, some boys, a lot of fun. A party of the lifetime before the school is over and everyone goes their separate ways. Well, not everyone, not Laura. But no-one knew about that little bit of failure in her life. She hadn't even wanted to go. Everyone else was so excited about their potential futures she felt like a second-class citizen – and in her world, the gap between the first and second class was as big as the distance between heaven and hell.

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Well, now Maria was dead for disobeying some megalomaniac idiot with – with magic powers?! – and Laura was, most probably, as good as dead too. And laughably, laughably, not even because of the fucking undead, but because that asshole seemed to always be a step ahead of her.

But she was nothing if not stubborn.

He let them free range, sort of. Inside the store, the girls, and it was always girls, befitting the asshole he was, could roam around freely. Yet, whenever they dared to plan an escape… it was if he was able to read their minds. She'd say it was crazy, but, hey, she was surrounded by some horror-movie grade undead wearing Pokémon costumes, so her threshold of crazy had shifted a tad bit.

And that was when she saw her.

She wasn't a teenager like her. Not one of his usual targets. She was, well, she looked kind of pissed. Like Laura did when she had to deal with a waitress who had clearly got her order wrong but was too high and mighty to admit it. Like her mother when she had to deal with an unruly servant. Like… like something unexpected.

"Hey", she said, with a deliberate balance between a sneaky hush and a shout of warning, as to alert only the attention of this one person. Please, just this one person.

The woman turned to face her. Her face was emotionless, unreadable.

Or, as she realised just a moment too late, a face someone makes when they encounter something completely unexpected.

Well, at least Laura could tell what the strange woman mouthed at her.

"What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Warning you", said Laura, not entirely even knowing why. It seemed apt.

"About what?"

Laura had not even considered that. She knew nothing about the person or her intentions. She just blurted out what first came to her mind.

"He has the sixth sense!"

The woman blinked and then, literally, rolled her eyes. Like, who rolls their eyes like that? Everything was crazy now!

"That's impossible," the woman mouthed.

"Haven't you seen the undead?!" Laura responded, possibly a tad bit too loudly.

The woman threw her hand around angrily, but Laura wasn't exactly sure what she said. It was probably something along the lines of:

"Well, yeah! What a normal thing to have, for me! I am seeing undead every day!"

Honestly, Laura didn't know how to respond at that point.

She… She really wanted to run right now. She had, before, but it seemed like she always picked the wrong way, he was there, every time, waiting for her. But maybe not this time, not with this strange lady distracting him. Hopefully, distracting him.

* * *

So it wasn't just some weird kid trying to kid with their nascent powers. His, she quickly corrected. It was a he. Why the fuck was it always a he? What did they teach the boys these days? Ever. It was, probably, another ever-issue.

But now, Azucena knew she couldn't just storm in. If there was one prisoner, who knew how many others there were? Undead were one thing, the still actually living were completely another.

Fuck.

The rather leisurely business of hunting down some errant skeletons had turned out to be a delicate mission of extracting potential hostages. That was no fun.

Not that fun was what she had been looking for, but…

She recognised his face. He had not known she was here. That gave her an advantage. A first shot. But that face. He was one of the apprentices of the Necromancer. Not even one of the gifted ones, well, that tracked, but one of those better-than-thou assholes who followed the culero grande just because they thought he was giving them what they deserved.

She started to formulate a plan as quickly as she could. First, inventory. What powers could she expect one of the apprentices to have? Command of the undead, for sure, but this one did not seem to be very good at it. The skeletons were scattered around the mall, in any case. There was little to fear from his army of the dead.

Other skills? The Necromancer must have taught him something. Had he learned? She had faced some of the apprentices before, and not all of them had paid too much attention. Rich kids, mostly, cocky and generally just looking for some excitement. Studying was not their strong suit. This one did not seem all too bright, so she doubted he would have memorised the Rite of Garbulin to cast at will. But he seemed confident enough to know something.

Threat level: minor. She could take a small risk to handle this as quickly as possible.

Azucena sprung into a run. The boy turned as she emerged from behind the shelves. It was a matter of seconds before she'd reach him. She pumped magical energy into her fists. One or two hits and the asshole would be down.

He pulled a gun. A fucking gun!

She had barely time to turn. Bullets shot by next to her as she somersaulted to the side. A table. She knocked it over and two dents appeared on its other side.

The Corrupted didn't use guns. That – that was how it was. It was a rule. As ironclad as the gravity. Well, fine, gravity was flexible at best. It was a fact as true as the rising sun.

"Surprised?!" the young man croaked. "I know, I know. No guns! How fucking stupid is that shit?"

"Bringing a gun to a mage fight?" Azucena quipped. "I guess someone didn't pay attention in class."

"Shut the fuck up!" the guy roared and three more bullets sunk into the heavy wood. It wasn't going to hold for long.

It wasn't, of course, a rule of courtesy to not use guns. There was very little courtesy between the infected. The reason was that guns weren't all that useful in a fight where magic was involved. They were made of metal, after all, and metal, well, that was quite a strong conduit.

Azucena took a deep breath. She could feel the magic emanate around her. In general, it would be useless to just let the magical power to just aimlessly fill the air. Ambient magic was next to powerless in most cases, it needed to be concentrated to have any meaningful effect. But as said, metal was a strong conduit and reacted powerfully with even a small magical current. She pushed mentally and felt the aura grow around her, reaching the ends of the room.

"What the f–" the apprentice yelled.

Azucena did not, exactly, know what had happened with the pistol. It might have just gotten hot. It might have shapeshifted into a rat. It might have melted in his hands. Unconcentrated magic was unpredictable.

She stood up, certain that whatever had happened, the gun was no longer operable.

"Oh, that's new!" she exclaimed, seeing the man trying to lift the gun off the ground.

He looked panicked. "I– I didn't–" he started and then his eyes grew wide as Azucena advanced toward him, fists illuminated in a green glow.

"Fuck", said the young necromancer-wannabe and ran.

Azucena could not help but grin. From now on, it would be a simple game of cat and mouse. Sure, if he was able to find any of his skeletons, they might slow her down a bit, but at this point, she had no reason to hold back.

She started to jog.

* * *

Laura turned the corner and almost crashed into José Ignasio - she hated how he insisted everyone use his full name, but could somehow not resist – but this time something was different. For one, he was clearly on the run. That mysterious lady had clearly done more than just distracted him. But even more importantly, he was absolutely terrified. She hadn't seen him like that before, and she enjoyed the hell out of it.

"L-laura", he started. There was something going on in that conceited head of his.

"We've been attacked! A – a monster!"

Laura could not resist rolling her eyes. "Really, asshole?" she spat. "After all you've done, you really expect me to believe that grade of bullshit? I don't care if she's Dracula herself, she's on my side."

At that moment, he realised she had already met the woman. She grinned.

"Where's the boy?" he asked in panic.

"Luca? I haven't seen him."

He couldn't be far. Unlike José Ignasio's other "guests", Luca had never expressed any desire to escape. She doubted the kid liked their captor any more than anyone else did. He just preferred him to whatever he had run from. A toxic family? Probably.

She could hear footsteps. Hurried, but not too quick, like a patient hunter running after their prey, knowing they would exhaust them sooner or later.

"Uh-uh, sounds like your comeuppance is catching up!" she beamed.

José Ignasio groaned and bolted off.

"He went that way," Laura said happily as the woman appeared from behind the corner. "He's looking for Luca, so probably near the kids section. He's like twelve. Likes the toys."

The woman nodded but did not look happy.

* * *

Kids too? Azucena was not too amused about these new bits of information. Helpful? Certainly. But a kid – and the apprentice was looking for him? Surely, he did not think a 12-year-old could protect him against an experienced mage. A human shield, then? Again, useless in a magical fight, but, granted, he did not seem too acquainted with the life of the Corrupted.

It was not long after when she caught up with her prey. The guy was indeed in the company of a child. The kid didn't look local, but probably South American of at least partially native descent. He was wearing plain clothes, and his hair was short, probably clean-shaven, not too long ago. He whispered something to the apprentice. The man grinned. Azucena started to suspect something was going on.

She didn't think too much of her next move. She sent a wave of magic toward the apprentice, seeking to deprive him of air. A classic, she'd say. Easy way to take out someone, without causing any damage to the surroundings, or collateral damage.

The apprentice gasped. Shocked. But it was more than just the lack of oxygen. He looked… betrayed.

It took some time for him to pass out. It was the downside of this type of an attack. A more formidable opponent could have launched a flurry of counterattacks in that time. But this guy was… not good.

Azucena approached the child as his captor sunk into unconsciousness.

"What are you going to do with him?" the child asked.

She stopped. She had not thought this far. She had expected something else. A fight to death, perhaps. Not such an easy and clean victory. There wasn't exactly a prison for her kind. Usually, these kinds of spouts ended in death.

"What would you like me to do?"

The child considered this.

"Leave him", he said, eventually.

Azucena shook her head slowly. "I can't. He'll go on like this, causing trouble, kidnapping people. I'll need to do something."

Did he say he wasn't kidnapped?

"Are you going to kill him then?"

Azucena considered this. She had killed before, but this was different. Her opponent was unconscious. It didn't seem right.

"I think we have a problem on our hands," she said.

The child nodded, knowingly.