//------------------------------// // The Slums. // Story: The Four Broken Souls Of Atera. // by Sylif Daring Doo //------------------------------// ______*The city of Atera, 12:00 AM*______ Storm....commonly known as Karak, was currently at work with Seth, they hadn't said a word about what happened earlier to anyone, but everyone could feel the awkward silence between the two. Shade was curious about what was going on with his roommates, but he wasn't going to ask them at work, he figured it would be best to wait until later, but as he watched them work silently yet efficiently, his curiosity grew by the minute. Soon enough though, when the orders stopped for a moment, and they were cooking the only orders left, Seth spoke. "Has Syrin found work yet Shade?" She asked curiously. Shade shrugged. "Yes and no, she found a place that needed a mechanic, but she hasn't gotten a reply yet from them." He replied. "Where is it?" Seth asked. Shade took a paper from a waitress and read the order off to the two, before he replied. "Somewhere here in the Slums, someplace called Fords." He answered, Seth immdediately looked at Shade with a serious glare. "Tell her to avoid that place like a plague, every mechanic that goes to work there disappears." She stated. Shade sighed and crossed his arms. "How do you know that?" He asked curiously. "I know everyone in the Slums, and that bastard is crooked, Ren investigated him for months and found out he's in the illegal slave trade." She replied before focusing on her work. "Why hasn't he been arrested then?" Karak asked. Seth said nothing as she worked, her silence served to disturb her roommates greatly. A few minutes later, Seth finally spoke. "Let's just say the police used to have three times as many officers." She muttered. Shade immediately walked out of the room without saying a word, and Karak sighed. "Stay here, I'll make sure he doesn't do something stupid." He said as he walked out. Seth blinked and then groaned, but instead of going after them, she continued her work with frustration. _______*Apartment 192, 20 minutes ago.*_______ Syrin was alone in the apartment as she watched the television, according to the police, several of the escaped criminals from the docks were captured, and we're currently on their way to prison. While it was good that more criminals were gone, Syrin still had concerns, she hadn't said a word, but she wasn't able to sleep well at all last night and kept waking up, she had overheard Seth and Karak's conversation and was still processing things. 'I hope he knows what he's doing, the last time he dealt with demon blood wasn't very pleasant-' She was pulled out of her thoughts as the sound of the front door lock being picked caught her attention. Syrin immediately teleported to her room and went silent as the door opened. "You sure no ones here?" A male voice asked. "I'm certain, the only people living here are at that new restaurant, and that damn fox is busy with our dummy case, we won't be caught." Another male voice said, this one was more gruff sounding. Syrin was quiet as the door to Seth's room opened. "This room is already suspicious enough without our help, let's just hide this thing and go." The first voice said. "Hurry up you idiots! before someone sees us!" A third voice, a female said. The door to Seth's room closed. "Yeah yeah we're done here Alice, let's get out of here." The gruff voice replied. "Don't say my name you dumbass!" The female, Alice snapped angrily before the front door closed and a click could be heard. 'Alice? isn't that the name of Seth's sister?' She wondered. Syrin waited for twenty three minutes before peeking out of the room cautiously, seeing no one, she proceeded to search the apartment room by room, thankfully there was no one around in the bathroom or Shade and Karak's room. Syrin was about to enter Seth's room to search before the front door was unlocked, it opened and Shade entered, followed by Karak, both looked exhausted. "Um......guys?" She asked out of confusion. "Um, you know that mechanic shop you applied at?.......Seth said the owner is in the Slave trade." Shade panted as he closed the door. Syrin blinked. "Oh.......but what about work? you just ditched it." She stated. While Karak went to grab a water, Shade spoke. "Denol will understand once I explain, we need to head back now." He replied. "I uh....need to tell you guys something." Syrin began. Karak took a drink and threw a bottle of water to Shade. "Whatever it is, it needs to wait, we'll be back in an hour or two." He said as he walked to the front door and opened it. Once Shade and Karak left to go back to work, Syrin locked the door and went to search Seth's room, she felt bad for invading her friends privacy like this, but she was willing to make an exception under these circumstances. Syrin took a breath and opened the door, it was dark and a hard to see, she lit her horn for light and the room was illuminated, with that done, Syrin set about searching the room, but since she didn't know what did and didn't belong, she eventually just left, deciding that everyone should learn about this at the same time. ______*An hour and a half later, Apartment 192*_______ Seth walked inside and stretched as she yawned tiredly, elsewhere in the room, Ren chuckled. "How was your day sleeping beauty?" She asked teasingly. With barely any energy, Seth simply walked to her chair and collapsed in it, seeking to get some sleep. Karak was sitting in one of the chairs and looked at Syrin who sat across from him. "So what did you need to tell me and Shade?" He asked. Raising her voice so that it reached the other side of the room. "Some people broke in earlier." She said. Seth's eyed snapped open and she stared at Syrin. "What?" Ren stood up from the couch and looked at the unicorn. "Did they take anything?" She asked. Syrin shook her head. "Not that I know of, but they apparently left something in your room, I don't know what or where it is, but I didn't like their tone." She replied. Seth stood up and walked to her room, she opened the door and everyone waited outside as Seth turned her lights on. "I don't envy the people who did this." Ren muttered. While Seth searched, everyone looked at Ren with curiosity, she sighed. "This apartment building, especially this apartment, is forbidden, as a self made rule, no gang member or gang boss can operate out of this building, whoever did this didn't know this rule-" she was cut off as Seth growled. "What is it?" Ren asked. Seth looked at the fox and the others. "That bitch is so dead.......I knew I should have beat the shit out her in the park!" She snapped angrily. "Why? who are you talking about?" Shade asked. Seth turned around and showed her roommates what she was holding, it was a bloodstained knife that was identical to the wounds discovered on Philip Kail. "How did THAT get here?" Ren wondered. "It doesn't matter, this was planted here to frame me, and I know exactly who planned it." Seth said as she walked out of the room, bloody knife in hand. "Where are you going?" Shade asked. Seth threw the knife with deadly precision and it embedded itself into an already existing hole in the kitchen counter. "Like I said, I'm going to beat the shit out of that bitch." She stated with anger. Karak blocked the door and crossed his arms. "No you are not, if she did plan this, she's waiting for you to be arrested for the murder of her husband, but if the evidence doesn't exist, they won't be able to do so." He said calmly. Seth growled and then huffed. "Fine, we'll do it your way, but if this fails and i get sent to prison, I WILL harm you." She stated. Karak looked at Shade. "Hey, can you bring me that knife?" He asked. Shade blinked in confusion but grabbed the knife anyway, he walked it over to Karak who took it. "What are you going to do with it?" He wondered. Karak took the blade of the knife in one hand, and the handle in the other, and in a moment the knife was turned into dust with no trace of blood anywhere. "That." He answered. Rather than question it, Seth walked to her chair and sat down. "Did you happen to catch any of the intruders names?" She wondered. Syrin nodded and sat down on the couch. "Yea, there were two male voices and one female, they didn't say any of the males names, but they said the females name.....Alice." She stated. In an instant, Seth's face fell and the rest of the room went silent, no one said a word as they processed this information. "Is it possible it was a different Alice? it's a common name." Shade asked. Seth sighed and leaned back in her chair. "That's all I needed, now my own sister is working with that bitch to frame me, fuck this, I need some air." She said before standing up and walking to the door. Karak didn't stop her this time, instead he walked out with her and Ren followed, leaving Shade and Syrin inside. "Did she not hear me? or did she completely ignore me?" Shade wondered as walked to the small bookcase and grabbed a book to read. _____*outside.*_____ Seth paced back and forth angrily as the trio stood by a bench just outside the apartment building, Ren and Karak were simply trying to stop her from doing something stupid. However, this didn't stop her from muttering different methods of killing. "Decapitation, incineration, crushed and drowned, stabbed, suffocation, bleeding out, hung." She continued on as Karak sighed. "Seth, you need to calm down, your only making this worse." He said. Ren sat down on the bench and looked at her girlfriend. "At the very least, stop listing that stuff off, it's making me uneasy." She added. Seth looked at Ren. "Your uneasy?" She scoffed. "My own sister tried to frame me for murder, my whole life is changing around me, i lost one of my best friends, AND I'm dealing with demon blood on top of that!" She snapped. "So yes, I'm very uneasy." She finished before going back to pacing. Karak sighed and leaned on the nearby wall. "Well all of that anger your building up is only serving to feed the blood, it'll start messing with your head soon enough if you keep this up." He stated. Seth looked at Karak and sighed, she sat down next to Ren and rubbed her eyes. "I swear, if this keeps up, I'm going to lose my mind." She said quietly. "I think you need a day to blow off some steam, all this stress is bound to make anyone insane." Ren suggested. Seth nodded and looked at Karak with tired eyes. "Want to go to the Watering Hole?" She asked. Karak shrugged. "Might as well, want me to bring the others?" He asked. "The more the merrier I suppose." Seth replied. _______*ten minutes later.*_______ Seth led the group inside the Watering Hole and were greeted by a welcoming atmosphere, the bar was very busy today. The group of five walked over to the only available table that would fit them all, after finding out what drinks they all wanted, Seth walked over to the bar and spoke with Jack. "So what's this about demon blood?" Ren asked quietly. Karak sighed and leaned into the table, Shade and Syrin listened in. "Did you know that Seth uses Darket?" He asked. Ren blinked and looked at the rabbit for a moment. "I.....didn't know that, how long?" She asked. "Between the time you were attacked and her beating up the dock gang." Karak replied. "And since its infused with demon blood, she has to deal with the drawbacks as well as the upsides." He stated. "What are the downsides?" Shade asked curiously. Karak said nothing at first, but did answer him. "I'll tell you all when I tell Seth, I don't want to go over it here." He replied. Soon enough, Seth came back with three drinks. "I'll be right back." She said. Ren sat back in her seat and took a sip from her drink. "We should go over this stuff when we get home, the sooner we know about this stuff the better." She stated calmly. "How about we just enjoy this little outing?" Shade suggested. With everyone in agreement, they enjoyed their drinks when Seth brought the rest over, and they forgot their troubles for a time. By the time they left the bar, the stress from before had faded away, Seth seemed to be alright now, but they were unsure as to how long that would last. _______*Apartment 192, ten minutes later.*_______ Syrin headed for the bathroom immediately, and the others sat down, Karak pulled a chair over. "Do you think we should wait for Syrin?" Seth asked. Karak sat down. "I've already told her all of this." He said. Once everyone was situated, Karak spoke. "To understand demon blood, you have to understand the Demons themselves, we are a cursed race, as in only the demon gene gets passed down generation to generation." He started. "For instance, if a demon who is half griffon had a kid with a Minotaur, the kid would be half demon and half Minotaur, this isn't so bad to most, as they understand that only the body is affected by the non demon parent." Karak continued. After taking a quick breath. "Now, the true curse comes in the form of immortality, a demon will live forever until they have a child, once a demon has a child, the immortality fades away, but otherwise they will remain the age of a young adult once they reach it." He explained. "That doesn't sound too bad actually." Shade pointed out. Karak looked at Shade. "Except for the fact that most demons are born feral, mindless and savage, willing to kill anyone they see, along with the fact that their demon blood intensifies their emotions, and like what Seth experienced, causes them to lose control and go on a rampage." He explained. "That does beg the question, why not just cut the demon blood out? the answer is simple, the blood reproduces quickly, the magical property of it forces the blood to replicate when bleeding." He looked at Seth who seemed horrified. "Thankfully, the blood that is used for Darket is impure, it won't cause immortality, it can't replace itself as quickly as regular demon blood, and it won't get rid of your natural genes." He shrugged. "The only danger your in is.......well it's not important." Karak stated as he stood up and put the chair back. Seth looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "What danger?" She asked with worry. Karak grinned. "It isn't important, if I feel your in danger of it, I'll let you know." He stated, he then crossed his arms. "As for the upsides?" He started, changing the subject. "Your injuries heal faster than normal, sickness tends to be lessened drastically and you can sense someone's intent." He stated. Seth blinked. "How exactly do I do that?" She asked. "Focus, I'm certain that if your emotions weren't all over the place, you would have noticed that." Karak replied. Seth sighed and leaned back. "What all can I sense?" She asked. "You can sense if someone means to do harm or not, truth and lies, compassion and hatred." Karak listed off. "You won't even notice it at first, it's more like a gut feeling, or instinct." He added. A knock at the door made them all quiet, Karak walked over to the door and opened it, on the other side were some police officers. "Excuse me sir, are you a resident of this apartment?" The male tiger officer asked. "Yes? what's this about?" Karak asked. Another officer, a minotaur spoke up. "We have a search warrant to search the apartment." He said, handing the warrant over. Karak took the warrant and read it over. "A combat knife?" He wondered as he stepped aside. The officers walked inside. "They have a warrant." Karak stated as he walked over to the others. "Someone's in the bathroom, so don't go in there." Ren said. The minotaur officer remained in the main room to keep an eye on them while the other three searched. After six minutes of searching, the officers returned. "There's nothing in the rooms." The tiger stated. The Minotaur nodded. "We need to search this area then." He replied. Seth stood up first and moved to the center of the room, Ren and Shade followed her and Karak leaned against the wall next to the door. The officers searched the living room, even going as far as to search in and under the furniture after they found nothing, they searched the area around the television as Syrin exited the bathroom. "Um.....what's going on?" She asked curiously. Karak looked at her. "They have a warrant to search for a combat knife." He explained. One of the officers went to the bathroom to search before the others were done. A few minutes later, the officers were done, the Minotaur took the warrant back and looked at the roommates. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience." He stated. "Why were you searching this place anyway?" Seth asked curiously. The Minotaur sighed. "It was an anonymous tip we received, whoever sent it seemed to believe that you were involved, I can't say any more." He replied before walking out. The five waited for about ten minutes before, Karak peeked outside, he closed the door and locked it. "So, did that seem convenient to anyone else?" Ren asked. Seth nodded and sat down in her chair. "It would seem that I was right, Jean wants to frame me for Philip's murder, which means she was either the killer or was behind it." She replied, confident in her accusation. "The wife doesn't always kill the husband you know." Syrin stated. Karak sat down on the floor next to the living room table. "In this case?.......the evidence seems to point to it." He said. Ren sat down on the couch and leaned back. "Look, regardless, none of us are in jail, so let's just be glad about that." She stated. Shade sighed and looked around at the group. "So, what do we do now?" He asked. "Nothing." Karak said. "We can't touch Jean, she probably has personal bodyguards and if she did plan this, she probably has a gang in her pocket." He stated. Seth took a breath and looked at the ceiling. "There.......is one thing I could do, but I really hope I'm wrong." She muttered. ______*A few days later, 9:00 PM, the city of Atera.*______ Seth stood in a small room that Karak and Syrin had soundproofed, she waited patiently with her arms crossed, she wore her dark red shirt and black sweatpants, as well as a brown jacket. The room had little in it, it was an abandoned tailors shop, there were tables, mannequin stands and small rolls of leftover cloth on the ground, the room was once used to make or display outfits, but not anymore. Soon enough, the door to the room opened and a figure wearing a black hoodie and black jeans entered. "You can lose the hood Alice." Seth stated calmly. The figure grabbed the hood and lowered it, revealing a brown furred rabbit almost identical to Seth, the only differences were that she didn't have the burn mark and her eyes were blue instead of green, she also looked a lot younger. "Hey sis." She said. "Why did you want to talk to me?" She asked. Seth uncrossed her arms. "I was almost arrested because someone planted a bloody knife in my room." She stated. "And then cops shows up looking for it." She added. Alice looked surprised. "Are.....you alright?" She asked. Seth nodded. "Yea, thankfully I was able to convince them that the blood was red paint, and that I used it for Nightmare Night but never got around to throwing it away." She replied. "That's good I guess.....but why did they search your place?" Alice asked. Seth shrugged. "Basically an anonymous tip told them I was the killer, but you know me Alice, I couldn't kill anyone." She replied. "How are you holding up?" Seth asked. Alice huffed. "Could be a lot worse, money has been tight since security stepped up so much, I've had to do some pretty despicable things just to stay afloat." She replied. "You mean like allow people to frame your sister?" Seth asked in a serious tone. Alice stiffened for a split second before answered. "I did no such thing! how can you accuse your own sister of that?" She denied. Seth felt her anger bubble and she slammed her fist on the table. "STOP LYING TO ME!" She snapped angrily, she then took a breath. "You took a job to break into my home and plant evidence that I killed Philip Kail." Seth stated. "Tell me the truth Alice, or I stop protecting you." She warned. Alice sighed and rubbed her eyes, she took a deep breath and spoke. "I don't know who's in charge, I only spoke to the middleman, his name is Fergus, came to me with an offer I couldn't refuse." She said. "I....I am sorry Seth." She said quietly. Seth grunted and crossed her arms. "Get out of Atera, go home, this city isn't safe anymore." She said. Alice looked to the ground and grabbed her right arm. "Seth......I can help." She pleaded quietly. "You've done enough." Seth replied harshly. Alice bit her lip as tears began to form in her eyes. "I......can't go home." She whispered. Seth sighed. "As fucking harsh as they are, they are still our parents Alice." She replied. Alice looked at her sister, she slowly shook her head. "They.......they died a couple of days ago." She said before walking to the wall, she slid down and buried her face in her lap as she cried. Seth blinked in surprise, she was honestly surprised by the news. 'I never really loved them, but still, they were family.' She took a breath and walked over to Alice, she sat down next to her and gently rubbed her head. "We'll be alright, I may be angry at you right now, but I still love you." She said quietly, her tone was a reassuring one. After a few minutes, Seth spoke again. "Do you have anywhere to stay?" She asked. Alice mumbled something about nosey siblings but answered anyway. "No." She said. Seth sighed and stopped rubbing her sisters head. "I'll talk to Jack, he can set you up with a place tomorrow, you can crash on my couch tonight." She said. Alice took a shaky breath. "Don't stop......please." She muttered. Seth chuckled and went back to rubbing her sisters head gently. "You have to stop being the Maniac, I might be able to move on from our parents death at some point, but I'm not ready to see you in prison." She said. "You know I'm a kleptomaniac, I can't help it." Alice replied. Seth looked up at the ceiling. "I know sis, I know......" She whispered. ______*that night, 1:30 AM*______ Seth and Karak stood in the kitchen, Alice was fast asleep on the couch, covered in a throw blanket. "Will she be alright?" He asked quietly. With a nod, Seth looked at her sleeping sister. "She needs time, our parents weren't the best people, but they were family, she just needs to be able to mourn." She replied. "And you? how are you handling things?" Karak asked. Seth looked at him. "Well, sensing someone's intent is weird, it's a strange thing to be able to do......as for my parents? I don't care, to me they died when I moved here, I've moved on." She whispered. Karak leaned on the counter. "Well, no point worrying about it now I suppose, we have to find a way to prove your innocence to the authorities before more false evidence shows up." He stated. "As far as I know, I was with you guys most of the time, and when I wasn't I was at the Watering Hole, the main problem is that since I know everyone, the authorities can't trust any statements given by the people of the slums." She replied. Karak looked at Alice, he sighed. "She feels guilt from what she did." He then looked at Seth. "This Fergus must have made a ridiculously generous offer to make her break in." He pointed out. "Which means that whoever we're dealing with has very deep pockets." She sighed. "I'm going to bed, night Storm." She said. Karak nodded. "Night Seth." He replied, he shook his head a little before walking to his room.