PenN's NaNoWriMo Journal for 2006

Entry #8

2006-11-09T07:55:33Z

Aya and Nadia exited the local pub. Aya was thrilled, Gladys the town gossip had actually been a great help. Usually she couldn't stand the woman, she was always looking for a way to spin a story or make the facts no longer the truth. But this time she didn't have to, the facts were impressive enough.

According to Gladys, a local thug was recently bragging about a super powerful weapon they had found. Apparently, he had it stashed in some of the abandon buildings down in the southern part of town, which was considered the run down part of town. He had also said that once he got it to full power, he would be the boss of this town.

For an hour worth of work that included drinks, this was a very productive day. Aya couldn't wait to get back and report this to Collin, so he could go destroy the weapon and they would be rich. She looked over at Nadia, expecting to see the same expression as hers, but she was surprised when her face looked rather serious.

"Kitty, whats wrong?"

"I dunno," Nadia said, looking down. "Its just, that was too easy."

"What did you mean?" Aya didn't get how easy that was. After all, she had spent the past 24 hours searching for a lead. And they finally had one. She didn't see what was too easy about that one, she saw it as a lucky break.

"I could be wrong, but I don't remember information retrieving ever being that easy." Nadia slowly said, as if she was thinking about her words as she said them. "Something smells off about this, I'm just not sure what."

Aya stopped walking. "What could be off? We already know the dangers." If it was a trap, surely they wouldn't tell them how powerful the weapon was. To her that just didn't make sense. It would of made sense if they told them the mission would be easy, but not this.

Besides, who would want to set a trap for them? As far as she knew, they didn't have enemies.

"Yeah I know. I don't know, its just, it doesn't seem like a good idea to do this." She pushed the front strands of her hair behind her furry ears nervously and looked away from Aya. Suddenly it became all too clear what was going on with Nadia's sudden hesitation from the job.

"Oh I know what this about. This is about Collin isn't it?" Aya stated and Nadia turned red from embarrassment. Yep she was right. Sometimes Nadia was so transparent. "You're worried that he'll get hurt or killed."

"Well Patrick did say that Fumei was very dangerous. I'm just not sure sending Collin in is a very good plan." Nadia was twisting her hands out of nerves. "He's not exactly careful all the time."

"Yeah, but dude, he's been doing this stuff for six years. I think he knows what is too much to handle." Aya said comfortingly. She placed her hand on Nadia's arm. She adored Nadia, but she worried too much about all of them. But that was probably just part of what made her so love-able. "We won't lose him, and we'll be rich. Well, less poor."

Nadia nodded. "Yeah, you're right." She smiled a little bit. "I just worry too much. Don't mind me."

Aya pulled Nadia into a hug. It was amazing how sometimes, she would remind Aya so much of her sister. They both had the same kind and gentle personality that cared about everyone they knew. That was probably what drew Aya to the group in the first place. How much this girl acted like her beloved sister. "I don't mind you Kitty. I never mind you." She said softly, hoping that Nadia couldn't see the tears that were forming in her eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When they entered the old abandon building, the first thing that Preston heard was singing. A voice of a young boy; singing in a language that he couldn’t understand. The voice echoed in the empty building, making it sound louder than it was probably being sung. All in all, Preston found it eerie and haunting.

“You sure it won’t be able to sense us?” Preston asked Patrick, feeling uneasy about this. He wasn’t a fan of magic, too many tricks and illusions involved to make him comfortable. The entire premise of it was to deceive others the way he saw it.

“I told you before, I had my top witches make these charms,” Patrick said coolly, fingering the small charm that he wore around his neck. “Even if it was looking for us, it would be very difficult for it to locate us.”

“Yeah I know you said that. But what about that enhance smell thing?” This Fumei was supposed to have a sense of smell as good as a bloodhound’s according to this guy. What if the hiding charm didn’t cover the smell? I mean who would think of doing that to hide from a person? Preston certainly couldn’t recall the last time he tracked someone using his sense of smell.

“Well hopefully you took a shower this morning." Patrick chuckled at his own joke. It was a hoarse laugh, that Preston always hated. And as the time he spent with Patrick went on, he found that he was hating this man's habits and traits more and more. Instead of replying with words that the man would surely mock, he simply shoved his gloved hands into his pockets and gave Patrick an annoyed look which the man just smirked at.

He followed Patrick deeper into the building. The charm must of been working, because the singing didn't stop once despite the noise those two were causing. Part of him wished the song would stop though, it would calm his nerves about what was soon to take place. It was hard to feel okay with using this experiment as a tool of vengeance if it kept singing like it had a voice of a sad young boy. It only got worse as he got nearer to the source of the sound. Little by little, he could hear the voice clearer, and the emotions that were behind it. They were sad, lonely, and scared.

When the source of the voice came into view, Preston felt as though a knife went into his stomach.

Fumei, the biological weapon that was designed to be a killer, couldn't of been older than fifteen years of age. He was tiny in size, and looked more like a lost, innocent child than a killer. He sat on the floor, wrapped in a jacket that was far too big for him like a blanket. The expression on his face showed a boy who felt exactly like his song sounded like. Scared and lonely.

Preston looked quickly over at Patrick, horrified at what he was realizing. Patrick showed no remorse or sadness towards the boy. Instead, he looked at the boy as if he was just yet another impressive lab rat. He could feel himself getting sick to his stomach, he dropped to his knees. The project he had been guarding, the one he believed in, were scientific experiments on an innocent child.

"What? Did you expect something different Preston?" Patrick said coldly, looking down at Preston. "Were you hoping that Fumei would look like a horrible monster? One that you would feel okay about us performing experiments on?" He made a noise that sounded like he was disgusted at Preston's naive thinking. "Life doesn't work that way. You should know that."

Preston didn't want this to be. He knew life wasn't fair, he knew that innocent people got hurt. But not like this. Not when he had stood idly by, letting this happen. "But that is a child Patrick. A child! Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"I created something that would save lives, finally fight off the Lost Ones from killing off so many people." Patrick said bitterly. "If sacrificing the humanity of a few is what it took to obtain that goal, I would do it again and again."

"But what about that child? What about his feelings?" Preston choked out. He wanted to wake up, for this nightmare to be over.

"That thing doesn't have feelings anymore. It may act like like a normal boy, but the moment it senses a Lost One it will lose any sense of innocence in him and he will do nothing but destroy his target. That is it's purpose in life" Preston couldn't believe how he kept saying this without any feeling in his voice. He was cold, as if he felt nothing about this child than just a tool. "I guess accepting the boy as a killer, is the price you must pay for your revenge."

"What do you mean?" Preston asked even though he knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Don't play stupid kid. You know why we are here." Patrick said in a mocking tone. "We're here to kill that monster that gave you those scars. By setting Fumei on him, an opponent nearly impossible to defeat. Thereby finally making you feel justice for what was done for you." He could feel Patrick's cold eyes glaring at him cruelly. "Though I would call it more vengeance than justice myself. But did you think it would come freely?"

This was the price he had to pay. In order to see the man that destroy his life finally receive the payment he deserves, he had to watch a small child lose any chance for innocence he may have. He would have to let this boy become a killer. By accepting that Patrick was right, the war needs to be fought with any means necessary. Morals had no place on the battlefield.

A long time pass. The boy's song continued on. He watched as Fumei's eyes were near tears from fright. Whoever this child once was, his life would never be the same. Was that what was upsetting him so much? That he would never be a normal boy again, never do the things other kids got the chance to do. Instead, he would be a killer, and a savior to the world; hiding out in an abandoned building in a strange land, unaware of what was going on around him.

"So? Whats your choice?" Patrick said, breaking the silence.

Preston closed his eyes. He knew what he needed to do. It was the thing that kept him going after all, the force that drove him for all these years. He said a silent apology to the boy. This had to be done.

"How do you activate him?"

Word Count: 1788
Total Word Count: 12369/50000

Entry #7

2006-11-07T23:49:06Z

He could hear voices as long as he could remember. Voices that no one else could hear no matter how hard they try to listen. They weren't inside his head, he heard them as though there was someone else present, but they couldn't be seen. The voices would speak to him a lot, and when he was younger, he enjoyed it. It was like having friends that were all his, ones that he didn't have to share. And he knew at one time, the voices, whoever they were, loved him. To them, he was special. A gift for being able to hear them.

"You make us so very happy Collin. You being here makes us so happy" they would tell him many times when he was young. They would whisper it into his ear as he drifted off to sleep. Even though they were incorporeal, he thought those words were as wonderful as when a parent would hug him.

They would tell him about his parents. Not about his adoptive parents, but his birth parents. They would talk about the father he never met, and the mother he only had very dim memories of. They knew things about them that no one knew, since no one in the community he grew up in knew about them. Every piece of information they gave him, he cherished like a priceless diamond.

"Your father loved chocolate covered strawberries," the voices told him one day when he was picking strawberries for his family. The ranch had a whole bush of strawberries because his adoptive mother loved them so, so his adoptive father planted it for her birthday.

"Really? I love those too!" He smiled and laughed at that bit of news. No matter how small that piece of information was, Collin loved that he had something in common with his father. It made him feel closer to him, even if he was gone.

Sometimes when he was scared or couldn't sleep at night, the voices would sing to him. It was always the same song. They told him that it was a song from his father's childhood, and that it was a very old song. It was simple and yet a beautiful song. Sung in a language that Collin never heard outside the song, yet for some reason he knew what it meant perfectly. Every time they sung the song, it made him feel happy and at peace with himself.

Just like every time they spoke when he was a child.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He let Aya sleep in his guest bedroom. Like the rest of the apartment, it was far from clean. But it was better than sending her out in the middle night to her own place. They had stayed up for a few more hours, discussing what they would do with so much money. Finally Aya, who was not used to the late night life, feel asleep at the table, nearly knocking over her drink. She also refused to wake up, being so worn out from the long day. Collin was finally resorted to carrying her to the guest room like a parent would for a small child. Like his parents used to do.

He watched her sleep for awhile, envying her how peaceful she seemed to look. It was easy for her to enter the world of dreams. Sure she had the occasional nightmare, like earlier tonight. But they were her nightmares, and hers alone. No one else could affect them, or change them.

He didn't get that luxury.

Collin looked over at the clock on the nightstand in the guest bedroom. It was nearly four in the morning, only a few more hours to go before the sun rose. Then he could finally get to sleep. Whatever it was that affected his dreams, they always seem to have less power when the sun was up. Or at least, it was harder to believe what they say during the day, unlike the night that is known for its share of secrets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When was it that the voices stopped being a gift, but a curse? When did their relationship become from of love into one of hatred and contempt? Maybe it was when people started to think he was crazy, for hearing voices that weren't there. He knew it made his parents worry. At first they figured the voices he would respond to were just an imaginary friend that Collin created out of his active imagination. A friend that would eventually fade when he grew older.

But they didn't fade when he got older, which made them begin to worry even more. They thought that Collin was ill with a disease that makes you hear and see things that weren't there. Unfortunately, since he was born demon and living in the Outer Lands, it was hard to find anyone who could or would help him. He watched as his parents worry over him being ill, the worry lines that formed on their faces. It was bad enough their son was the only demon in the community, but one that could hear voices.

Sometimes, even though he loved the voices, he wished that he was born a normal boy so they wouldn't worry so much about him. He didn't like to see his kind human parents worry so much.

Maybe his hatred for the voices started when he was nine years old. When he was being picked on by some of the other kids for being the only demon. It was normal for him to be teased, but that day they were doing it more extreme than usual. They were hitting him, screaming at him that he was a filthy demon. They hit so hard he fell to the ground, his vision blackening around the edges.

The voices told him to defend himself, to fight off the bullies. That they would help him. He agreed to it, he just wanted the pain to stop. He trusted the voices not to help him, they loved him after all. He felt the pain from the hitting fade away, and felt himself getting stronger. He opened his eyes to see his hands forming giant claws out of his finger tips. A wave of horror went through him as he witness this transformation to his body. He felt himself lose control of his own body, as something that felt so old and primal took over his body. Whatever had control, got up and attacked one of the children, not for any reason besides they were the closest.

Collin remembered trying to scream, begging whatever it was to stop, but no sound would come out of his throat. He didn’t want this; he didn’t want to hurt anyone. He just wanted the pain to stop, not to cause more. But when he tried to resist the primal force, it hurt; like he was being pulled apart into pieces. Part of him wanted to give into whatever it was, but he knew if he did, something terrible would happen. So he kept fighting the force, until he manage to gain a little control of his body and pull himself away from the boy that he had attacked. He barely managed to see who it was before he blacked out, collapsing onto the school grounds next to the boy he had nearly killed.

He awoke to the sound of the voices, angry that he had stood up against them. They were trying to help him, and he was completely ungrateful to them. At the same time he heard his parents, demanding to know what happened out there. They were upset, angry, worried, and scared at what had happened. They knew that raising a demon would be difficult, but they could never imagine something like this happening. He couldn’t explain that it wasn’t his fault, that the voices did it, he was trying to stop them. As much as he loved his parents, they just refused to believe their son could hear voices. And they already worried about his sanity; he didn’t want to make it worse.

So, instead of answering either group of people, he just cried. He didn’t know what else to do with himself, except for cry.

Word Count: 1369
Total Word Count: 10581/50000

Entry #6

2006-11-06T05:44:19Z

Her sister always said that she loved her hair. The way it was so soft and the color of the night sky. It worked easily with almost any style you wanted to have. Every morning, her sister and her would get up early so she could put Aya's hair in a new and interesting way. This was their time together, they would spend it laughing and talking to one another. Aya loved these mornings, it was her favorite part of the day. She would not even argue about her bedtime being early because she knew the sooner she went to sleep, the sooner the time with her sister would come.

These mornings lasted until she was about ten years old. When she was ten years old, her sister Keiko got married. He was a man that went to her college, two years her senior. She remember him being a kind man, one who she thought well of. She also remembered the day of the wedding, how her sister sat young Aya down to do her hair once more, even though it was her day. Keiko told her that she wanted to do her baby sister's hair again. Aya loved Keiko more than anyone else in the world, for she was the kindest and sweetest soul that she had ever known.

Aya was twelve years old when she got the news of her sister's death. She was on an expedition, in the Outer Lands. She was a botanist, and they wanted her to see a rare type of plant they had discovered near the southern mountain ranges. Keiko agreed to go because she wanted to see more of the world, get a chance that others didn't.

Her party got attacked by a horde of Lost Ones. No one survived. A seeker discovered the remains of them three weeks later, when a concerned family of one of the members sent them out to discovered what happened to their love ones.

When she received the news, she was devastated. She remembered locking herself up in her room and crying for several days. One day, she looked in the mirror to see her long black hair, unmanaged and no longer kept. She couldn't bare to look at it, it reminded her how her sister could no longer brush it, could no longer run her fingers through it and tell Aya how she loved it. That thought made her want to scream and hate the world. She threw something at the mirror, smashing it into shards. Then she grabbed the sharpest shard and started slicing at her hair, watching as the longs strands of hair fell to the ground into a pile with her tears.

"Aya, wake up." She felt someone shaking her shoulder, bringing her into the present. Opening her eyes, she saw that she fell asleep at the desk in their office. It was dark out the windows, the only light in the room was the small lamp on the desk. Collin had his hand on her shoulder, looking down at her in concern.

"What time is it?" She asked groggily. It was unlike her to fall asleep while at work. Especially at the office, she usually managed to make it home before she crashed. Then again, she had never been offered a hundred grand before.

"Its two in the morning, I came down here to get some more work done and I found you down here." He said as he sat down on the desk. Aya noticed that he was still wearing the clothes from the daytime.

"Two in the morning?" Aya sighed, how could she fall asleep so late? Walking back to her apartment in the middle of the night was not her idea of a good plan. A thought occurred to her. "Why are you doing work at this hour of the night?"

He chuckled. "I'm an insomniac. I have a hard time sleeping at night so I might as well get some work done, and then I sleep when the sun comes up." That makes sense, she thought to herself. She never knew that he stayed up all night, she just figured he was a kind of person that liked sleeping 15 hours a day. Yet again, another piece of information he never revealed to her. "Do you want some cocoa?"

"Um sure I guess." she replied, still not really sure what to think of this.

"Come on, its upstairs in my kitchen." He got up and on gestured her to follow. She slowly got up out of the chair, feeling the pain from sleeping in a weird position, and followed him up the stairs to his apartment.

Aya had only been in Collin's upstairs apartment a couple times. Usually she never went past the doorway of it, just waited for Nadia to retrieve Collin from within it. He never saw her apartment that was half a mile away, so she didn't feel right going into his. Just like the office, it was cluttered and full of stuff. Every corner of the place was full of books or furniture or kink-knack. Aya was surprised that he was able to move around so nimbly in here, while her who was much shorter and smaller than him, could barely move a few feet without bumping into something.

The kitchen was like the rest of the apartment, filled with objects and clutter. The fridge was covered with magnets that held up photos and notes scrawled out in his sloppy handwriting, most of them dated months back. He smiled and scratched the back of his head when she inspected it. "Oh yeah, that was my attempt to get organized a few months back. It didn't work so well." He clapped his hands together. "Sorry about the mess, try to make yourself comfortable! I'll try to find some cocoa."

Nodding, she sat down on an empty chair that was next to the dining table in the middle of the room. She wasn't quite sure why he had chairs in here, for the table had absolutely no room on it for eating. The table was packed with files from the business along with some of his personal papers. One of the pieces caught her eye. It was a photograph that looked like it had been shoved into the bottom of one of the piles, yet a good part of it could still be seen. She looked to see if his back was still turned, and then took the photo out from under the pile.

It was a photo of a woman, one who looked to be in her only a little bit older than Aya. The photo looked as if it had been at one point torn, and then taped back together. She was amazed at how beautiful the woman was. She looked to be a noble, or someone of great class. Whoever she was, she looked very rich from the elegant clothing she wore. She had long dark hair that was put up in a very fancy style, yet still flowed down over her shoulders and down pass where the photograph ended. Her expression was very kind, yet at the same time, very sad and lonely.

"Whose Keiko?" Collin suddenly asked, making Aya jumped. She had been so absorbed in the photo, she had forgotten where she was.

"Huh?" How did he know that name? Did she ever mentioned it to him before? She didn't think so, her and Collin never talked about things that weren't work related.

"Keiko, you said that name in your sleep. Is she someone important to you?" He asked quietly. She was embarrassed that she had talked in her sleep. She had done that as a kid sometimes, but she thought she had grown out of it.

"She was my sister. She died six years ago." Aya said quietly, looking at Collin. "Some Lost Ones killed her." His face gained a look of sympathy and sadness. She knew that look very well, that was the look she got from most people ever since she lost Keiko.

"I'm sorry," he said that in a tone that made her feel like he truly was sorry. "If you ever want to talk about it..." he started, and she knew what the next line would be.

"Thanks, but its okay," she interrupted. She didn't think she could handle having a heart to heart with him about her dead sister. "It was just a bad dream, I'd rather focus on my work."

"Okay, if you say so," he said in a tone that said he wasn't convinced but wouldn't push. He continued to make the cocoa that he had located. "Any luck on locating our jackpot yet?"

"No not yet. Nadia and I are going to go into town tomorrow morning to ask around. See if anyone heard anything." She said, glad that they were getting off that subject. "You are free to come if you want."

He smiled and shook his head. "I don't do mornings, but thanks." he set down a cup of cocoa with marshmallows in front of her and took a sip from his own mug. "I just hope you guys find something soon. Not sure I'm a huge fan of what I've heard so far."

"You mean how its suppose to be a weapon powerful enough to destroy a horde of Lost Ones? Yeah, not exactly what I call comforting." Though she didn't have to worry, all she had to do was locate it. However Collin would probably be the one to destroy it, so she could understand why he might be worried. "Don't worry, we'll get it." she sipped her drink, which was warm and delightful to her taste buds. "No way there's been no gossip about a weapon that strong."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of all the games in the world he could of challenged Preston to, why did it have to pool?

It was bad enough when he only had his gloves to worry about, how he could not make fine shots very easily. But to top it off, he had a broken hand that was still in a cast underneath one of his gloves. Patrick still knew this, yet he still demanded to play a round of pool.

Sometimes Patrick was a jackass.

"Come on kid, can't you make a better shot than that? I'm ahead of you by six balls!" Patrick laughed at how badly Preston was losing. Preston on the other hand, did not find it amusing.

"Sure, its easy to win when your opponent has a broken hand," he muttered as he attempted in vain to aim for a shot at the number seven ball. "Why are we here anyway?" He couldn't see how playing pool in some seedy bar in the middle of nowhere could be work related like Patrick said it was.

"This is the place to be for gossips and rumors kid," Preston hated when Patrick called him a kid. He was nearly twenty-two after all. "This is one of the top spots that local mercenaries look if they want find information about new events or people in town."

"So what, are we going to see if anyone knows anything about Fumei's whereabouts?"

"Nope, no point in that. No one knows anything," Patrick took the cigarette butt out of his mouth and smoothed the end into the ash tray on the pool table's side. "We're going to be the ones telling where it is."

"What?" Preston looked up surprised, his carefully planned shot went nuts and he ended up hitting the four ball instead of the cue ball. "But we don't know where he is." Thats why they decided to hire that mercenary in the first place. So he could find Fumei, and then die. That was the plan that Preston knew.

"You don't know where Fumei is," Patrick said smugly. "I, on the other hand, have made it part of my profession to always know where my experiments are at all time."

"So why the game with Collin?" Preston demanded. He wanted to see justice be carried out on that monster, but he didn't understand Patrick's point of why he did this. Everyone had an agenda, he knew Patrick was up to something. "If you know where your experiment is, then why not just send in a squad to destroy it?"

"Because from what you told me about this Collin, I was intrigued." Patrick said simply. "What he did doesn't seem like something a normal demon could physically do at that age. I mean I never heard of a demon that could develop that sharp of claws at the age of seven, much less claws that could disappear entirely from their hand." He took aim of his shot, and shot yet another ball perfectly into a hole. "I thought this to be the perfect opportunity to test not only my experiment's capabilities, but your little demon's as well."

Preston watched Patrick quietly for a moment. He wasn't sure what to think of this. To Patrick, all of this was one giant science experiment. Lives, even if they were demon lives that deserved to be put down, were at stake and all he could think about it was his experiments. Was that how he viewed life? Was bringing Preston along with him also part of his experiment?

It was then Patrick turned away from the game. He looked over at an older woman who was at the bar jabbering away with one of the bartenders. He smiled, amused at his own plan. "See that woman over there?" He gestured towards her. "She's suppose to be the town gossip. Let her hear anything and the whole town will hear about it by the following nightfall." He set down his cue and stretched his arms, grinning at Preston "Time for me to get to work. Feel free to come and watch."

At that, he walked away and headed towards the bar, leaving Preston behind. Unsure if he should follow.

Word Count: 2338
Total Word Count: 9212/50000

Entry #5

2006-11-05T22:22:49Z

"My name is Patrick." The man stated as Aya recorded the conversation on this thing she called a laptop computer. Nadia was always fascinated when she used this thing. According to Aya, it was thing that you used to get information about anything that has been recorded by the different countries of the world. It could also be used for a number of other things that Aya promised Nadia she would show her when she was ready for it.

She also said that it was more expensive than everything they owned put together, and she was still putting payments on it. So Nadia was not allowed to touch it without Aya's consent and presence. Collin, after a near catastrophe with a cup of coffee and the keyboard, was just not allowed to touch it and had to stay at least four feet away from it at all times.

"So you say that you want us to locate and recover a weapon?" Aya asked Patrick. He had said earilier that there was a weapon that needed to be found.

"This weapon doesn't need to be recovered, it needs to be destroyed." Patrick wrung his hands nervously. "Its very important that it gets destroyed before it has a chance to be activated."

"Could you tell us a bit about this weapon?" Nadia asked. She had the definite impression that this man was hiding something. He kept glancing around, and wringing his hands. But then again, that was the same with most of their clients.

Patrick sighed and leaned forward in his chair. "It is called Fumei. Not much is known about it, but its suppose to a weapon powerful enough to destroy hordes of Lost Ones when activated. Unfortunately someone got a hold of it before anyone else could, and now I believe he's looking into using its power again people for his own good."

"And you think we would be able to take it down?" Nadia said in disbelief. If something was created to destroy the monsters that wander the Outer Lands, there was no way they could be able to destroy it on their own. "What about when its deactivated?"

He shrugged. "Essentially its harmless. It would be easy to destroy since its impossible for it to activate on its own." For a man who doesn't know much about it, he sure knows how to destroy it, Nadia thought to herself. She wondered if Aya noticed anything, if she was already planning on how to locate this Fumei weapon. "I know that this sounds like a difficult job, but it is extremely important to me. I will pay you very well for it."

"How much is very well?" Aya chimed in. Count on her to be interested in the money. Afterall, all she would have to do is locate the weapon and her part of the job is done.

Patrick smirked, he seemed amused by her love for money. "How does a hundred grand sound for you?"

Nadia gasped. A hundred grand was a lot of money, they had never had a single job pull in that much money before. They wouldn't have to worry about bills even if they didn't have another client for three months at least. Or she could finally afford the training courses she needed for her certification test, finally be someone worthwhile in the world like she always wanted.

The bell on the door chimed, signaling that someone from outside had entered the office. Nadia looked up to see Collin closing the door behind him. He looked dirty and worn, as if he fell on to the dirt roads during his walk. He gave Nadia a surprised and apologetic look, obviously he wasn't expecting a client to be here when he looked like a mess. Patrick turned around in his chair to see Collin, and one of his eyebrows raised in intrigue.

"Patrick, this is Collin. He's the Seeker in our operations." Nadia said. "Collin, this is Patrick. He's our new client."

"So you're Collin Firch." Patrick said. "I've heard a lot about you. Though I must admit, I'm a bit surprised. I expected something different."

Collin gave him a dirty look. "If the next words out of your mouth are about me being a demon, you can always show yourself out." he said pointedly, gesturing at the door. "I've had a long day and don't feel like doing that conversation again." Nadia sighed, she knew Collin wasn't in a good mood, but he shouldn't take it out on clients. Especially the well paying ones.

To Nadia's surprised, Patrick laughed. "No I already knew you were a demon. The first demon to gain mercenary status if I'm not mistaken. You are somewhat of a legend back where I come from, revered by demons and hated by human officials. Its exactly why I came to your services for this job."

Collin kept a very cool expression, but you could tell that he was impressed that people had actually heard of him. "So what did you expect to be different about me?"

Patrick stood up, showing that he was taller than Collin by at least a head. "Honestly I expected you to be taller." he patted Collin on the shoulder. "I should be going now. I wish you the best of luck on my job for you. I left my contact information with Miss Aya for when you have the job accomplished. Good day." He swept out of the office, leaving those three behind.

"What was that about?" Was all Collin could think to say.

"Well, you might wanna sit down." Aya started. "Because once you hear how rich we'll be? You might faint."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Patrick continued walking for two blocks before he turned into an alleyway. He knew exactly where he was going. He walked for a little while, searching for where his companion might of gone. He paused by a large patch of shadows, and smiled to himself.

"Of course, you always choose the darkness to hide in." He looked over to the shadows to see his partner, standing quietly among them. Almost all of him was covered in dark clothing, even his hands. The only part of his body that was uncovered was his head. Long dark brown bangs were on the man face, a pathetic attempt to hide the five long scars that ran on the left side of his face.

"I'm not hiding," Preston stated, shaking his head. "Its just damn hot out here." It had been a long time since he had been in the Outer Lands. He had forgotten how hot the sun was out here.

"It would be a lot less hot if you wore less of that clothing," Patrick mused. He saw Preston give him a dirty look, he knew that wasn't an option. Not as long as those scars covered his entire body. To wear less clothing would cause even more stares and attention that Preston didn't want.

"Did you find him?" Preston demanded. Patrick sighed, this boy certainly had a one track mind.

"Yeah I found him. Gave him and his sidekicks the job." Patrick pulled out a cigarette, and lit it with his lighter. Something about Preston made his cravings so much worse. "Its just like they said, pay a man enough money and they will walk barefoot into hell."

"Are you sure this plan will work?"

"Preston, the only thing I was sure of was that Fumei should of never been taken out of the laboratory. But you managed to fuck that one up." He took a long drag of his cigarette as he saw Preston flinch. He knew he had failed, and that he was lucky to not have been fired or killed. "The way I see it, this could go three ways."

"Three? What are the three ways?" Preston looked curious. He was determined to know if he was going to get his vengeance for his scars.

"Well one is that they find Fumei, and it kills Collin and company. That solves your vendetta, but not my problems. Two, Collin is as strong as you claim he is, and he destroys Fumei. That solves my problems, but not yours but I can live with that."

"And whats the final way?"

Patrick opened his mouth a tiny bit and let the smoke out of his mouth. "Its an equal match, They beat each other into weaken bloody pulps. If they don't kill each other, we kill both of them. We both win." Patrick could see Preston get a look of menacing glee in his eyes. "Any way it goes, it could be entertaining to watch."

They were quiet for a moment. Preston was savoring the idea of what Patrick had said, while Patrick was enjoying his cigarette. Both had their own addictions they lived with, Patrick thought amusedly.

"Hey Patrick?" Count on Preston to break a good moment like that.

"Yeah?"

"Did you tell them? That Fumei was born human?" Preston had only learned the truth about what Fumei was recently, after it was stolen. Even though Preston was usually fine with doing whatever it took to get a job done, Patrick could tell that it bothered him a little. That maybe somewhere deep inside of Preston, under the hatred and the obsession for vengeance, was a man with a few morals left. Patrick found it funny and ironic at the same time.

"You know, I believe I forgot to say that detail." Patrick said casually. "Didn't want them to get cold feet before the battle with any morals they might have."

Where be the fun in that?

Word Count: 1604
Total Word Count: 6874/50000

Entry #4

2006-11-05T07:00:10Z

Collin didn’t really think as to where he was going. All he knew was that the office was getting too crowded for him, almost suffocating him with feelings of anger and hopelessness. He had to escape, even if it confused or worried his partners. It was better this way for everyone.

He barely noticed the people around him as he passed them. When he had to go through a crowd of people, he murmured an apology but didn’t even slow down. Around him he could hear people remark about being rude for a demon, but he didn’t care. He was not in the mood to humor people’s ideals of how demons should be submissive to them. He was too tired of being submissive and taking the insults.

More people seem to be out here each year, he thought as he passed through yet another crowd. The edges of society kept expanding, slowly consuming the Outer Lands that he considered his home. And along with society came their old fashion views on demons. He didn't like it, he didn't want society and countries coming into the lands that were suppose to be free of all that. Because once society came in, it was only a matter of time before the laws that would cripple him came.

That was a thought he didn't even want to think about.

He continued walking, absorbed in his own thoughts. This morning wasn't the first time he had heard remarks made about him for what he was. He had heard a good amount of them in the twenty one years of his life. But, this was the Outer Lands. The frontier, the place where society had no grip, where demons had a chance at a good life. Yet this woman clung to the ideas of the old society, where demons were nothing but lowly muscle and the lowest of people. So why was she out here? Was it a sign that not even the Outer Lands were safe anymore from the discrimination that society brought?

This thought troubled him a lot, so much that he didn't even noticed the person he walked straight into until he fell to the ground, and the person gave a small yelp as they did the same.

"oh! Excuse me I'm sorry!" he said quickly as he looked over to see who he hit. Whoever they were, they were small, probably no taller than five foot two when they stood up as well as very thin. They were looking down as well, Collin couldn't see who they were. But from the pale white hair covering their face and head, he assumed they were old. Oh man, i was so busy sulking I knocked over an old person, he thought, now I've done it. "Um are you okay?"

The person looked up in one fast motion, revealing their face. He was surprised to see that this person was not old at all. In fact, it was a boy who couldn't be older than fifteen from his face, possibly younger. Instantly the boy's bright blue eyes widen at Collin in surprise.

"Brother? Is that you big brother?" before he could respond the boy jumped onto Collin, and started examining him very closely. "You seem different." he tilted his head with a confused look on his face. "I wonder."

Yeah, okay, this kid is weird, Collin thought to himself. Who was he? "Uh no, I'm not your brother. Sorry."

"You sure? You smell like him." the boy poked Collin's nose with his index finger curiously. "You also have a nose like his, with two nostrils." with his other hand, he held up two fingers to indicate that he did mean two.

Maybe this kid was on drugs, Collin hoped.

"Sorry kid, I'm positive I'm not your brother. I've never seen you before in my life." he started to push the kid off of him and found that the boy was extremely light. He also now wore an expression of confusion, disappointment, and frustration.

"Darn. I was so sure you were." he sat back, and looked to be thinking hard. "I was really hoping to find him. There was something I wanted to tell him."

Collin felt a surge of sympathy for the boy. No matter how strange he was, he looked so young to be wandering the streets looking for his brother. "Well what does he look like? Maybe i can help you look."

It took a moment for the kid to answer. He got an expression that he was thinking hard, and then it was replaced with a glazed look in his eye. "Ah, I don't remember." He bit his lip and then said "oh! He had two of these things." he pointed his own ear.

"Well, that narrows it down." Collin remarked, going back on his theory that this kid could be drugs. How could he forget what his own brother looked like, and mistake him for a demon? Besides the white hair that could just be a dye job, he looked very much human. His brother was probably the same. "Well do you remember his name?"

The boy shook his head quickly.

"What about what you wanted to tell him?"

The boy gave him a blank stare. Collin took that for a no. He sighed, this boy had to be insane.

"Kid, are you sure you have a brother?"

The boy nodded just as quickly as he shook his head, and with even more enthusiasm. "Yes. He told me to wait in a spot for him until he came back. But then he didn't come back so I went looking for him."

"How long did you wait for him?" He couldn't blame the brother for not coming back.

"Three days." the boy hesitated. "Or was it two? Four? One hour? Six?" his eyes glazed over and got the blank look on his face again. "uh, I don't remember."

Collin was starting to sense a pattern here. "So you are looking for your brother, who you don't remember what he looks like, whats his name, what you want to say to him, or how long ago you last saw him?" This boy was hurting his head.

"Yes. Its quite hard." The boy bite his lip, and gave Collin a confused look. "Are you him?"

"No, I'm not." Yep. Insane.

"Oh. Darn."

Collin sighed. He wish he could walk away from this, he had other things he could be doing. "Okay, whats your name then? Maybe I can ask around for you. I know a lot of people who might know where he's at."

His eyes lit up again and he smiled, making him look even younger. "That's very nice of you. I'm F-" suddenly he stopped and looked horrified. He suddenly jumped up. "Sorry I can't tell you!"

Well this was certainly a twist, Collin was expecting if anything, he wouldn't remember. Not for him to get upset about giving out his name to a man he thought was his brother. "What? Why can't you?"

"Because brother said I can't! No talking to strangers or giving out my name!" The boy started to flail with his arms when he realized he had been talking to a stranger. "oh no. This is bad. If you aren't brother, then you are a stranger!" He quickly bowed at Collin, said "I gotta go."

Then he took off running. He was a very quick runner, for by the time Collin fully reacted he was completely out of sight. Collin thought about going after the boy, but he wasn't sure what way he went. Besides, the kid was a full fledge headache on legs.

He almost pitied the brother, who ever he was.

Word Count: 1286
Total Word Count: 5270/50000

Entry #3

2006-11-04T05:15:08Z

Aya knew something was wrong the moment she entered the office of Spero Services. Her two partners were acting like they did whenever something went wrong. Nadia was cleaning the office in a fury, scrubbing the floor and trying to sort everything in vain. Meanwhile Collin was sitting in the ragged office chair behind the old desk, staring at the desk in a sulking manner. Beyond the soft swearing that could be heard from Nadia as she scrubbed at the hard floor.

She sighed and put down her bags of supplies onto a small clear space on one of the tables near the entrance of the small office. "Ok, what happened?"

"Asshole of a client." Nadia said as she continued scrubbing at the floor.

"Can't really call them a client if they refuse to let us work for them, can we?" Collin chimed in, still sulking from his desk.

She sighed again. She really hated when these two got like this. It would take hours to calm Nadia down from her frenzy. And she always organized things wrong, even if it wasn't her fault that she didn't know any better. But she could not afford to have all her records be out of order again. There were better things to do with her time than resort them. It wasn't like a Hacker had hours of time to waste on pointless things like reorganizing. "Another racist pig huh?"

"In a nutshell yeah." Nadia threw her washrag across the floor. It landed against a cluttered bookshelf in a small, pathetic heap. "You're a human Aya, so tell me. What is it about demons that make humans think they can treat us like dirt?"

Aya held up her hands in defense. "I have no idea Kitty. I told you before, I was raised to treat demons well. Mommy and Daddy were all about the equal rights between all sentient creatures." She didn't like it when they associated her with the jerks of her species. But Kitty was upset, so she let it slide. Nadia would apologize later for that remark. "Look, so we got a loss of a client. Their loss. We'll get one soon, just you wait-"

"Wait until what? We get an eviction notice?" Collin interrupted with anger in his voice. Great, she thought to herself, just what we need. One of Collin's temper tantrum. It amazed her how delayed they always were, not occurring until hours, sometimes days, after the offending incident took place. She didn't understand why it took so long for him to do it. Then again, there were a lot of things she didn't understand about him.

Probably one of the reasons she was never comfortable enough to call him a friend.

"You won't get an eviction notice," she said, trying to calm him down. "If we really need it, I'll use the money I get from my side jobs to pay the rent." There was a benefit to being a certified hacker. People paid you quite a lot just to find the easiest information.

"I didn't work my ass off to get approved by the mercenary guild to live off your side money. I did it to get some respect, not to be considered another idiotic demon," he slammed one of the desk drawers shut so loud it made Aya jump. He got out of his chair in one swift motion. "I'm going for a walk."

"Do you want anyone to go with you?" Aya asked, more out of a feeling of obligation of being polite than the wanting to go with him. When Collin lost his temper, she preferred to stay clear of him. He was unpredictable enough for her when he wasn't throwing a fit.

"No. Just wanna clear my head" he didn't even turn around as he spoke, just walked straight out the door and slammed the door behind him. Aya took a breath in relief, feeling the air in the room grow less tense. She looked over at Nadia, who was looking at the door with a concerned expression on her face.

"Oh don't worry Kitty. He does this a lot, remember? He'll fume for a few hours and then he'll be good again." Aya said, she didn't like it when Nadia was worried about Collin. It wasn't like Collin would say anything to ease her worries. He never said anything that would give away too much about himself. He was always hiding things about him, then going off and reacting worse to things than he should. No matter who he hurt in the process. Aya didn't like that, Nadia deserved better treatment than that.

Nadia nodded, pushing the loose strands of her ginger hair behind the cat ears on the side of her head. "I just don't like it when he gets like this. That's all." She quickly got up and started sorting papers on the desk nervously. Aya quickly went over to her and places her hands on Nadia's arm, pulling her away from the desk.

"Forget about him Na. He gets mad sometimes, nothing more. It wasn't your fault." Aya smiled at her, trying to make her calm down. She knew Nadia, despite her cool attitude towards him, looked up to Collin, and it made her upset whenever he would get mad. It was like watching a small child getting scared every time their parent got upset. "Come on, lets go do something fun to get your mind off things." Nadia gave a nervous small smile. "I'll show you some hacker tricks, ones that will for sure get you extra points when you test for that mercenary certification of yours."

"But I'm testing to be a Seeker, hacker skills won't help me." Nadia said, shaking her head. Aya sighed, knowing that if she left Nadia alone in this state, she would clean the entire office and they would never find anything ever again.

"You say that, but do you really want to be a glorified thief? I mean thats like a step above delivery boy. Hackers? We're cooler." she took Nadia's hand and started leading her away from the desk. "Besides, it wouldn't hurt to know this stuff no matter what you decide to become."

Nadia hesitated, but finally nodded a little. "Okay, if its not a hassle for you."

"Teaching you is never a hassle. Don't think that for a moment" Aya said in a serious voice, shaking her head so hard her short black hair got into her face. "Okay come on, the first hacker trick? Is the right type of coffee to drink on the job. Lets go." She ran over to the coat hanger and grabbed Nadia's jacket and brought it back to her.

"Are you sure we should leave the office alone? What if a clien-" Nadia started to say but Aya cut her off.

"We will be gone fifteen minutes at most. I think its safe to say we won't miss anyone."

At that moment, the door of the office opened, and the bell on the door chimed. Both of them turned to see a tall man standing in the doorway. He was an older man, with flecks of gray in his burnt red hair that was cropped short to his head. "Excuse me, is this Spero Services?"

Thank you irony for stepping in, Aya thought, just when she about to make Nadia feel good. "Yes, that's us. how can we help you?"

Word Count: 1240
Total Word Count: 3984/50000

Entry #2

2006-11-02T07:32:51Z

"I don't care what you say Nadia. I’m not waking up. Go away."

Collin pulled the blanket back over his head. It was too early to be up. He could never understand the fixation she had on this whole morning concept. He personally found it overrated and absurd that anyone would to take part in it. He shut his eyes, attempting to go back to sleep, but he could feel Nadia looming over the bed. She wasn’t giving up yet.

“Go away or I’ll fire you.”

“Oh please, try threatening something new sometime.” Nadia said as she started to pull the covers off of him. He struggled to hold on. “It’s ten in the morning. I’ve been up for hours, and I need you to wake up to get work done.”

“That’s because you’re a freak. Work can get done in the afternoon too.” He pulled the blanket out of her hands and covered his head yet again. Work that came before noon was never pleasant anyway. He found that fact to be true again and again in the years of his profession.

“So I should just go tell that client downstairs to go somewhere else with their money huh?”

She had said the magic words. Collin’s eyes snapped open, and he sat up in bed. “Client? We have a client?”

Nadia’s face formed a smirk. Her cat like ears wiggled slightly in amusement. “Yeah, it’s a typical search and recover job. I would of sealed the deal myself, but they wanted to talk to the boss.” Her tone was slightly bitter. She tried to hide it, but Collin knew it annoyed her when the clients refused to do business with her because she wasn’t officially the leader. Even though she didn’t have the official certification, she did just as much work as everyone else, if not more.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes as he got out of bed. It was too early for him to be out of bed, but a client meant money for the bills. He couldn’t tell them to come back later just so he could get a few extra minutes of sleep. Walking over to his dresser, he pulled a pair of dress pants and a white dress shirt off the top. He really should put his clothes in his dresser sometime, try to be organized, he thought to himself like he did every morning. Pulling on the pair of pants over his boxers, he winced slightly and swore as he realized that he had forgotten to tailor these new pants for his tail yet again. He could hear Nadia chuckle softly to herself. “Glad to know you’re enjoying yourself over there Na”

“Hey, it’s not my fault you forget to do this every time you buy clothes. You really need to work on organizing yourself you know.” She remarked as she handed him an older pair of pants. Collin gave her a dirty look as he grabbed them out of her hands. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t remember these little things. Okay, maybe it was, but it was too early to point it out. He quickly got dressed, thinking that the client is probably getting impatient by now. Focus on the money he told himself, you’re good at getting money. He finished buttoning his shirt so only the top two buttons were undone and then faced Nadia. She raised one of her eyebrows, and her green cat eyes glinted with annoyance. “Have you ever even heard of an iron?”

“What? Its fine!” He looked down at the shirt. Okay, maybe it was a little wrinkled. He made a mental note that he should really consider hanging up his clothing from now on. “Well at least its clean, that’s something.”

“Yeah that is something for you,” Nadia said amused. “I’m going to go make sure the client hasn’t left yet. Hurry up and get downstairs when you’re ready. And wear a tie!” She walked out of the room, and Collin could hear her muttering about how she couldn’t understand how he was the boss. He sighed again, he hated wearing ties. The idea of wearing a noose around his neck just gave him the creeps. But he would or otherwise he would have to listen to Nadia give him yet another lecture on running a proper business people can trust. And the last time with all the visual aids just felt condescending.

He looked over at the mirror hung on the wall. His brown hair was a mess from sleeping, sticking out in all sorts of directions. With his hands he attempted to make it look somewhat decent. He also needed to buy a new comb once he had money, since the last one broke when he stepped on it a week ago. Except for his hair, he felt like he looked pretty decent, he didn’t even need to shave. He grabbed the tie that on the top of the pile of ties on his dresser, slipped into his old dress shoes that were already tied, and headed downstairs. “Maybe this morning will be a good one” he told himself.

He finished tying his tie as he walked down the old oak stairs to the office, the wood creaking beneath his feet in an old familiar way. At the bottom of the stairs, he could hear the muffled voices of Nadia and another female voice. That must be the client, he thought to himself. Collin paused, taking a deep breath before opening the door of the office.

The two women in the room turned their heads to note his presence. Nadia gave him a grateful look that he showed up in a short amount of time. Obviously this client had irritated her in some way. The other woman was sitting in a chair in front of their cluttered desk. She was a small adult human, with her light brown hair tied up in the back. She looked surprised, even displeased at his entrance.

He didn’t like the look of that.

“Ms. Porter, this is Collin Firch. He’s the certified seeker of our company.” Nadia said very patiently “He will be the one helping you recover your lost jewelry.” Ms. Porter continued to looked displeased at Collin. He was getting a bad feeling about this one. Ms. Porter stood up and walked over to Collin, as if she was inspecting him.

“You’re a demon. In the photo I saw of you, you looked human.” She said this with a tone as if it was insult. He knew he was right about his bad feeling now.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that I look human a bit before, but don’t worry. Human or demon, I can still recover your jewelry like a true professional.” He said, trying very hard to stay calm. He should be used to having this treatment. It wasn’t the first time this had happened.

“Why do you have a human name then? That is very deceiving. What’s your demon name?” He hated when people did this to him, demanding for his demon name the closest government gave him for their records. That was no name, it was a label meant to keep a demon from getting anywhere in life.

“Saru. But out here where there is no real government, I prefer to use the name my parents gave me.” Collin was starting to lose his patience with this woman. Was she just trying to antagonize him? "I'm sorry, but is me being a demon a problem for you ma'am?"

"My problem is with the Mercenary guild actually accepting one of you, and acting as though you're an equal. Its repulsive." She started to walk away. Collin could see the look of pure fury appear on Nadia's face. Part of him worried about her doing something rash that could get them an angry mob, while another part of him wished she would. When she reached the door, Ms. Porter spun around and scowled at Collin. "Your cat and your claws will not destroy a single thing of mine." And with that, she left office, slamming the door behind her.

The second the door was shut, Nadia started shouting. "What kind of nerve! Can we go and rip her a new one? I mean seriously, it was bad enough she kept calling me your secretary while you were upstairs, but that was horrible!" She threw her arms up in the air. "What do you say?"

"We don't want any trouble Na, you know that. Its her loss," Collin said quietly. He was shaken by the last thing the woman said. Nadia kept on shouting and ranting about what a horrid woman she was. Collin barely heard her, he was busy staring at his hands. His normal, human hands that were now shaking. It had been a long time since they were claws. A long time since they had harmed anyone.

He quickly hid his shaking hands before Nadia could notice. Sighing, he looked at the clock. Still morning, just like he predicted. Nothing good comes before noon.

Word Count: 1513
Total Word Count: 2654/50000

Entry #1

2006-11-01T07:02:17Z

Preston couldn't stand demons.

To him, they were nothing but monsters that resemble humans. Their inhumanly features seemed like nothing but a mockery to mankind as far as he was concerned. He felt disgusted every time he saw a person with a tail of any sort, or eyes that resembled a cat with slits as the pupils. His hatred towards the demons was no secret either, everyone who knew him was familiar with his hatred for demons. It wasn't uncommon for people to call him a bad person for hating demons the way he did. They would tell him that demons are not monsters, that he was hating a group of people that were harmless members of society.

He knew better than that. Demons were far from harmless. He had the scars to prove it.

His face was disfigured by five parallel scars that went across his left eye and cheek. The rest of his body was covered in similar scars. Some which still ached to this day, over a decade after the attack. He had grown used to people recoiling at the sight of his face, at the children in the street staring at him in awe and fear. Most days he could even pretend to ignore the whispering that went on around him. The rumors that spread as to how he received those scars were colorful and numerous. Some said that he was attacked by a large animal while in the wilderness, while others whispered that maybe it was a bar fight from a troubled youth. The most dramatic ones said that maybe he was one of the rare survivors of a Lost One attack, a feat that was near impossible.

The rumors amused him, for they were nowhere near the the truth. His scars didn't come from a giant foe, animal or man or beast. Instead they had come from a demon classmate when he was merely seven years old. A demon who was smaller than him in size, possibly the smallest boy in the class. But all it took was for this demon child to lose his temper, and Preston became severally scarred for life. Harmless, yeah right. There was no such thing as a demon that is harmless. As far as Preston could see with his one good eye, it was only a matter of time before demons decided to show their true side and rip humans to shreds.

Maybe that is why he ended up at his current job as a night watchman at a government lab. Sure the pay was great, good enough to finally get the scars removed from his appearance and live like a person again. But it was more than that, much more. He remembered coming in for an interview several months before, and discovering that their mission in this laboratory. It was to protect mankind from any danger, whether it be Lost ones or any other foe. Mankind, not demons or half-demons, but humans. He felt as though they also knew the threat that those monsters were.

He wasn't sure the specifics of that this branch of the government did. Preston knew they were researching the Lost Ones, the people who lost any sense of humanity due to a disease, and a way to neutralize their threat. It was also known that they did some sort of experiments that were locked behind thick steel doors at night. He was never allowed to open these doors, only to guard the outside in case of disturbance. Sometimes he would hear noises through the door, noises that sound almost human, but he told himself he was just imagining it. Though there were nights he got the feeling that he was to keep whatever was inside in, instead of protecting against intruders. But he was fine with that, if it was for the good for the mission.

His shifts were quiet, nothing really happened that he could call interesting, or even noteworthy. He had gotten used to any of the odd noises that happened at night. It had been a long time since he had been startled by any odd noise that occurred. So when he heard a noise that sounded like something opening, he hardly moved a muscle. He just figured it was one of those night-staff scientists opening yet another door or cabinet. Possibly one of the janitors searching for the mop again.

He didn't expect a tall figure covered in black to drop down in front of him. Preston barely had time to react before the figure went to attack. By pure luck he manage to block the blows, and managed to grab the attacker's dominant arm. Preston sneer, it was time for him to finally do something useful for the cause. "You aren't allowed here." Preston told the man.

When he said this, the man looked down into Preston's eyes. Preston was startled to see that the man's eyes were the only thing uncovered on his face. The eyes were an intense mix of orange and red with the slightest touch of green. The pupils themselves were slit like a snake. Who ever this man was, he was not human.

Preston could feel the rage build up in him. He knew the demons would attempt something like this someday. And here this one was, trying to disturb the way to stop the murderous hordes of Lost ones. He grabbed his nightstick with his free hand and raised it to kill this intruder. "Evil demon scum!" he could hear himself shout as the nightstick came swinging down.

It never hit the man, for the intruder manage to grab the nightstick with his free arm and twist it out of Preston's hand, breaking the bones in his hand in the process. Preston screamed in pain at his hand being broken, falling against the wall for support. As he did this, the intruder grabbed the nightstick, and stood over Preston's cowering body.

"Its a lot more complicated than that." the man said softly. "Isn't everything?" At this, Preston glared up at him, feeling nothing but hatred towards the man and his words. He was so full of it, that he was paralyzed as the nightstick came down onto his head, knocking him unconscious.

He awoke several hours later, surrounded by security and scientists. Someone was tending to his broken hand, but other than that no one paid attention to his presence. They were distracted by something else, something that was of a much greater concern than an injured night watchmen.

The door he had been guarding for all these months had been ripped open. Whatever had been inside was gone. He had failed at his crucial job, to a demon.

His life once again was being destroyed by those monsters. And this time, the world itself could be in peril.

Word Count: 1141
Total Word Count: 1141/50000

Notes on the Verse

2006-10-31T08:28:51Z

World
A world that contains magic, and sentient species that share the planet with humans. Species that have been classified as “demons” by humans. They are hybrids, people whose ancestors were once human, but got crossed with animals or infused with magic to the point they lost human appearance. There are many races and types of demons, all varying in their appearance and special powers. Some of the races are evil monsters who have lost their humanity, but most are just people with the same moral judgment as anyone else.

Unfortunately, it only takes a few bad seeds to ruin it for everyone else.

Demons are highly discriminated against. In most nations, all demons must be registered and are given an official name to make it instantly clear that they are a demon. Demons must live in demon-designated ghettos, and finding a job that isn't manual labor or servitude that accepts demons is near impossible. To violate any laws that are meant to discriminate against demons can be punishable by a life in prison, or death by an angry mob.

The technology of this world varies due to the magic in the verse and the history. The high classes of society are usually very talented with magic, or have connections to people with powerful magic. Combined with the latest technology that science has invented, and the best parts of the world lives in cities that people say rivals the Garden of Eden in beauty. The most advanced of which would be New Atlantis, a city that floats over the Atlantic Ocean over the old sunken Atlantis. The city itself is said to be a paradise, with gardens and waterfalls all along the city.

Other parts of the world, on the other hand, are not so fortunate. A lot of cities and areas lack both the technology and the magical power to make a city that perfect. In fact, many of the cities are ones that resemble the days of our old west.

The Outer Lands
Outer Lands is a name given to lands that due to historical circumstances, are not currently occupied by any countries. The largest portion of habitable Outer Lands can be found on the western continent. Due to a lack of an official government, the Outer Lands are the lawless areas of the world. Some view it as a place full of outlaws, savages, and immense danger. Others view it as a chance for freedom, a safe haven from the laws of society.

The War of the Old
A war that took place sixty years before the events of the story and had devastating effects on the world. Not much is known about the war, legends tell that it was a war between humans, demons, and something referred to only as "the old ones", creatures with such immense powers, they were once considered gods. The war lasted for several decades, and ended when a weapon with ultimate power was releashed. The weapon in one night nearly wiped society into oblivion. Afterwards, the old ones were nowhere to be found, assumed to have been wiped out by this ultimate weapon.

The name of the weapon, who fired it, and what happened to it still remains a mystery. Some believe that it was the old ones, others believe it was humans or demons, and some believe that it was the act of a true god.

Lost Ones
One of the main dangers of the Outer Lands and another result of the War. A disease that was created for biological warfare gone horribly wrong. Lost Syndrome is an incurable disease that turns the victim an insane, vicious killer. Not much is known about the syndrome or the Lost ones. What is known is that raiding parties of Lost Ones wander the Outer Lands attacking travelers and settlements. They will kill most, but leave a few alive infected with the syndrome that will eventually transform the victim into one of them.
Studies on the Lost Ones and how to defeat them are some of the top priorities for most nations.

Callers
Mostly a creature of legend. Long ago, these were the most devote followers of the Old Ones. According to the legends, these people were born with the ability to use the power of the Old Ones. Incredibly powerful, they were the footsoldiers for the Old ones during the war. The Callers were believed to be completely wiped out during the years of the war by humans and demons. While rumors speculate that they may not be completely gone, there is no solid evidence.

More to come later