“What the fuck!” Leo shouted as he saw a miniature woman with grey skin and raven black hair floating in front of him. She was scantily clad and the little she wore had the clear intent of accentuating her curves. A pair of dark curved horns adorned her head while deep red eyes gazed into Leo.

She stood extremely close to Leo’s face, and despite being shorter than his own head, Leo couldn’t help but instinctively try to swat her away. To his surprise however, she phased out as his hands passed through where she stood. A deep chill entered his palm and coursed through his arm. The unnatural cold made his body tremble and shiver for a brief moment. The sensation jolted Leo’s sense and amplified the strangeness of the situation.

“That was impolite.” The floating woman spoke.

“Leo?” Cassandra asked with a mix of concern and expectation. “Is it the guide? Are you seeing your guide?”

“I… think so.” Leo told Cassandra with a quick glance from the corner of his eyes before turning back his attention to the guide. “Are you really the guide?”

“Yes… I am the guide.” It sighed dramatically. “Don’t make me regret showing myself. You are not dull, are you?”

“What is it saying?” Cassandra asked enthusiastically, but between the screeching creatures below and having his attention fought over by Cassandra and the guide, Leo felt genuinely dizzy.

“Why are you only showing yourself now?” Leo decided it was better to focus on the guide and ignore Cassandra for the moment.

“Because I didn’t want to before, and I want now.” The guide crossed its tiny arms. “If you are going to continue with such stupid questions, I might as well leave.”

“Alright, alright.” Leo acquiesced. “Just give me a second, will ya?”

The guide harrumphed but didn’t disappear, which Leo took as a good sign. Cassandra quietly waited beside Leo as he organized his thoughts to ask the right questions.

“What is this?” Leo asked as he pulled his torn left sleeve and presented his arm.

A moving, glowing tattoo was quite a sight, even if just only a line. Cassandra couldn’t help, but oooh beside Leo as the guide grinned at him.

“This is an iron class filament.” The guide answered.

“Why do I have this?” Leo asked, but thought of a better question before the guide could answer. “What is it for?”

“That’s a smarter question.” The guide smiled. “You can create a sigil with it.”

“This?” Leo asked as he rolled up the right sleeve of his suit. The guide simply nodded.

“So, you are telling me that I can use this single filament to create another sigil?”

“No.”

“No?” Leo shot back. “But you just told me that I can use the filament to create a sigil!”

“I said no such thing.” The guide said as the smile started to fade from her face.

“What do you mean you said no such thing?” Leo raised his voice. “I have no time for riddles and jokes. I almost died on that alley, can’t you just be fucking clear!”

Leo’s outburst was met with silence as the guide kept hovering in front of him. The smile on her face was gone and an impassive expression had replaced it.

“How do I form a sigil?” Leo asked through clenched teeth after taking a deep breath.

The guide’s red eyes stared deep into Leo’s, but she said nothing further. As his patience started running thin again, he felt a hand gently holding his shoulder.

“Leo, maybe I can help.” Cassandra spoke softly from beside him. “I heard your part of the conversation, so I got the gist of it. If you can tell me what it said word for word, we might be able to figure out its meaning.”

“Right…” Leo said somewhat dejected. “Sorry for ignoring you earlier. I just thought I couldn’t get distracted.”

“I understand, I would have probably done the same.” Cassandra said with a faint smile. “Anyway, before we dive into all that, maybe we should head inside? I don’t think us standing here in their eyesight is a good idea.” Cassandra finished with her finger pointing downward.

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Beneath them, the number of creatures seemed to grow without stop. They already occupied most of the alley and the ones directly beneath them were starting to fight for space.

“You are right.” Leo said as he grunted and stood up. “They are some relentless little fuckers.”

“I would say that is an accurate description.” Cassandra chuckled. “Shall we go inside? There is an unlocked window here.”

The platform of the fire exit was small, maybe six paces long with three paces wide. On the end opposite of where they got up a metal staircase lead further up, while a window leading inside had been placed in between. It was large enough that Leo could fit through when it was opened.

They moved towards the window. Cassandra worked on opening it while Leo glanced at the guide still floating around, now outside the reach of the platform. She seemed to be interested in something among the crowd, but Leo couldn’t hope to divine what caught her interest.

Cassandra opened the well oiled window and hopped inside, Leo followed a moment later. The weak red light filtered through the windows, and although it didn’t do much to light up the room, it allowed Leo to see the dark silhouettes of furniture.

“There must be a light switch here somewhere.” Cassandra whispered beside Leo as she moved deeper in the room. “Help me find it.”

They both spent some time carefully walking the room while feeling their way around the walls. Leo bumped a couple times on knee high furniture, but soon found the light switch. The light came on with an audible click and once again, Leo had to shield his eyes from the sudden glare of the bright white light.

Blinking away stars as he got used to the new level of illumination, Leo saw that he and Cassandra were inside an apartment, sort of. All the furniture was tightly packed in a single room and there was only one door, right beside Leo and the light switch.

“This is strange, isn’t it?” Cassandra said as she pointed to a toilet bowl beside a single bed. “It feels like a prison cell. Although the furniture is nice.”

Leo nodded as the strangeness of the room dawned on him. A cupboard beside a small, hanging showerhead. There was no curtain or glass to surround the bathing area, with only a tiny depression on the floor to help the water flow away. A center table with two chairs was placed in the middle of the room, but a much shorter coffee table sat beside it with a couch some distant away against a wall.

“This doesn’t make any sense.” Leo muttered. “Who would build something like this?”

“No one from where I am from, for sure.” Cassandra said as she tested the bed’s softness. “Maybe this is a new asian concept? I heard they had some crazy space issues in the big cities.”

“Maybe.” Leo said absentmindedly. “I doubt it though.”

“Well, that’s not what is important right now.” Cassandra asserted as she moved towards the door. “We need to find a way to reconnect with the people in the janitor’s room and explore the rest of the building.”

Leo moved towards the window with the intention of closing it before they left the room. The ruckus in the alley seemed to be far from over, but as he closed the window the noise died down significantly. He peaked out, looking for the guide, but she was nowhere to be seen. Leo sighed, feeling a little defeated by the encounter.

“Don’t worry.” Cassandra said from behind him. “We are going to figure out what it meant and how to make use of it. One thing at a time.”

“It’s just…” Leo stopped as he realized he didn’t know what to say about their situation. “You are right. One thing at a time.”

“Exactly.” Cassandra smiled. “How are you feeling? I see you are not limping anymore.”

“It’s still painful.” Leo said as he unconsciously massaged his right thigh. “But I can walk slowly without problem. I don’t think I can do any fighting though.”

“We wouldn’t want that anyway.” Cassandra said as she moved towards a pair of kitchen cabinets above a metal sink. “Although we can’t discount the possibility that there could be some of them inside.” She paused before adding hastily. “I don’t think so, though.”

“Why don't you think so?” Leo asked with a slightly furrowed brow.

“Honestly? I just want to stay positive this time.” She answered as she opened the mostly empty cupboards. “But let’s not lower our guards, we can’t become complacent.”

Cassandra’s rummaging continued as Leo silently watched her go about the cupboards.

“Aha!” She exclaimed with triumph. “I had a feeling we would find something useful here.”

From a waist high drawer Cassandra pulled two medium sized cooking knives. They had tipped ends and seemed to have a sharp edge. She smiled as she offered one of them to Leo.

“Now we won’t be so defenseless anymore.” She quickly added.

“It’s something. Better than nothing I suppose.”

“Really?” Cassandra said with a raised eyebrow. “That’s considered an actual weapon in most countries, you know?”

Leo clenched his fists as he stared at the edge of the knife in his hands. The weight of what had just happened was starting to sink on his shoulders and he was feeling his mood darkening with every passing moment.

Cassandra inclined against the metal sink and placed her knife on the counter. With her arms crossed she looked at Leo and then his tattered clothes and wounds. Despite the uncomfortable silence he held her gaze without faltering.

“I don’t want to pretend I understand what you just went through, but I…” Cassandra faltered as she looked away and bit her lips. “Someone taught me to always be positive, no matter how bad things are. Everything is already fucked, we should make it even worse by being negative, right?”

“I…” Leo started and took a deep breath. “You are right. I don’t have time to wallow in it while our lives are still in danger.”

They both exchanged a look and Cassandra’s smile was filled with anxiety as she watched the struggle in Leo’s eyes. Eventually, Leo nodded silently as they both prepared mentally to leave the relative safety of the room.

Without exchange anymore words Cassandra grabbed her knife and moved toward the door while Leo followed closely behind.

“Ready?” Cassandra asked without looking at Leo. Her hand rested on the door handle waiting for his confirmation.

“Yeah.” Leo said with balled fists.