I walked swiftly and silently down the damp alleyway. The sun set hours ago, so I couldn't distinctly tell what time it was.

I reached home. I couldn't see any light coming from beneath the door, so the other person inside should be asleep. I should move quietly so I don't wake him, he's not going to like this... not at all. I sneaked inside, the floor boards creaked ever so quietly.

I looked to check the clock. It was tick, tick, ticking away on the wall of pealing paint to my right, above the small kitchen with tiled flooring and a brown countertop filled with old, mis-matched appliances.

'3:00 am'. The clock read.

How did it get that late, it felt like I was out for barely an hour. Oh how time was such a funny thing. Whatever, I desperately needed to have a shower, I smelled horribly of blood, sweat and dirt.

Instead of going to the bathroom closest the small bedroom, I went to the guest bathroom. I just couldn't risk him waking up to see me covered head to toe in blood. I don't know how there is enough room for more than one bathroom in this house, maybe a wall could be knocked down to make more space, we didn't need the extra bathroom anyhow.

I entered the bathroom and stripped down, putting the dirty clothes on the sink to wash them separately so he wouldn't see them. I turned the shower on full power, though this shower couldn't possibly deliver the amount of pressure I needed to was away all of this dirtiness. I waited for the temperature to balance before stepping in. Steam fogged up the small panel of glass that overlooked the sink and the small bathtub that were packed tightly together so they would both fit.

I pumped a bit of soap into the palm of my left hand, I used my right hand to lather up me body. The soap had a sort of opal effect, just like my eyes, and it made me remember little bits of home.

The opal kingdom it was called. 

The best thing about being short and skinny is that you have less of a body to clean, therefor you need to buy soap less often which I'd say is good because going outside where the civilisation resides is dangerous, especially for us.

I looked down at the floor of the shower. I washed my hair that was usually black, but is now tinted a slightly brown colour from the built up blood and dirt. As I let the water rinse out my hair I let the soap get into my eyes, hoping it could erase every bad thing I've seen from the past few hours.

A beautiful woman, a mother whom was adored by her children. A mother, left out to die wearing clothes soaked in her own blood. She lay inside of a freezing, flooding house. I couldn't save her, I tried. I couldn't because she was already dead by the time I got to her, leaving this cruel world in a way that was just as cruel. Her last dying thoughts lied with her children. The children she'd never get to see again.

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The screaming grew increasingly louder as I climbed up the drenched stairs.

If only I can get there in time, I can save them.

The top of the stairs seemed to be miles away, and I felt alarmingly weighed down as I ran. Finally, after what felt like hours of flat out running I made it to the top. I ran to the door that was placed just a few metres away and reached out to grab the handle. The handle didn't budge and the screaming continued.

It was locked.

I pounded on the door. The screaming was making my ears ring, this noise couldn't be coming out of the children, it was too animalistic to belong to them. The freezing air around me was making me dizzy, my limbs were stiff that made them move slow. The smell of blood was making me sick. Smoke wafted from beneath the stairs, the house couldn't be on fire as well?

I collapsed to the ground and gagged, though nothing came out as I havn't eaten today. I can't save these kids. I've let them down. They're going to die, and all that I will have to remember them is the sounds of their shrieking cries.

I heard a sudden noise coming from ahead of me, my head jolted up to meet the sight of a slightly ajar door. I stumbled over myself to get to my feet and open it fully, but when I did there was an explosion of black. I got thrown into the wall next to the stairs. It was just a black void, all that I could see was covered in a shadow of darkness. I felt my body throb in pain , maybe from the impact of hitting the wall, maybe from the freezing cold.

And then...

I felt nothing.

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I woke up with a jolt, my eyes widened and I took a look around, but I wasn't in that house anymore. I sat up in my hard bed, in my dingy apartment. 

I could hear a man's deep voice, smooth and calming.

'Archer must be up already' I thought and yawned as a scratched my head.

The moment of calmness blew over when I remembered the events that had occurred in my sleep. I thought about the screaming, and the fire that started during a flood, and finally I thought about the blanket of darkness.

'The children...? They were taken to one of those group homes.' I remembered.

'The woman...? Her body was recovered and went through the process of re-naturing. A ceremony  is going to be held in the forest, far away from this town.' I smiled sadly. It's what she deserves, after so much pain.

'And that bastard...?' The frown I was wearing deepened. 'The knights will deal with it, they have all the information. They know the right thing to do.'

Someone burst through the door "Oh, you're awake I see?" I glanced over to the door. He was stood there with his arms crossed, he was pinching the skin on his right arm, a nervous habit of his. He looked quite mad, his eyebrows were furrowed leaving worry lines in his skin.

Shit.

I'm in trouble.