The halls had always been that way –not too clean, blood and scratches on the wall – but that is to be expected in what people called a help house. The walls seemed to go on & on, grey on white on grey on red on blue. Ghost of the past patients  called to you in the halls of the dead. Cold wind whirled around you, the coldness eclipsing you in it unlike some of the young girls here, She could feel the past coldness but she could do that with anyone there ora ,their thoughts, not in a magic harry  potter way though. Her plain blackboots clicked in a morse code pattern as sometimes her leg would go numb and she would drag it slightly. It mostly happened to her darn right leg.  God, she hated how far classes were from each other. Miss Carshena was going to kill her if the ghost patients of the WW2 psych ward did not do it first. Last month she had to wear a scarf around her neck. She had woken up with red marks in a choking pattern around her thin bone neck. At the thought, her vampire pale hand went to her neck. It had healed, but she had a bad habit of checking her neck.

Her puffed sleeves flattened as she passed through the doors. They had been open a little bit and were so rusted that they would not open anymore.Her leg rubbed against the table edges leaving a rust mark on her black paints and the dust that came of a white ginger brown layed on her high heel boots. The room was quiet as she put her books down. There was a quiet squeak of the chair as it was moved by her high heel boots that collided with the metal leg of this stiff stole. There were no teachers, no students, just a kit in front of her. It sat there, with the smell of chemicals that could have killed you if you weren't this girl dressed in victoria style.   Her ungloved hands flipped the notebook open as it opened to an equation filed page. The quill fell to the side as it hit the table with a clink and the liquid boiled or it started to form bubbles on this rusted and old table. She looked down at it, her evergreen right eye looked at the light mint green liquid as it started to shine. Her dark green eyes looked to the left. There sat still an apple. The green of it’s thin paper skin, the sour juice under it not yet poisoned by a small bit of liquid. It was so tempting to take a bite of it. But that is why next to it sat a silver old ornate dagger. 

One piece for the scientist and the whole other half to an unexpecting criminal. This time a young girl called a witch. Really they did not care how it was or if the rumors were true. Science is death and discovery. But she honestly  thought the motto should be if you think about being a chemist don't  you will end up dying. She hummed “scars to your beautiful” as she leaned against the table behind her watching the mint green turn lighter and lighter.  She heard the steps behind her, men's shoes. She knew these soft taps. They were from a young person who in her opinion could not fight. “Why might I be pleased with your acquaintance River Styx?” she did not turn her head but simply played with her hands a small scar sat  on top  that looked like roots crossing over her hand. 

“Ugh you know I don't like that nickname” said a boy with light brown hair as he stood next to her a few feet away, nothing in his hands except a small thin needle like a dagger.  

“Oh come on it’s funny. you work with poison and you could possibly get killed if you step into the River Styx.” She said as her evergreen eyes looked down at the ground still, her hums echoed through the room.  

“I will never get your logic,” River said as the glass shined on his black rimed glasses. He looked at the liquid, and it was almost a clear color. It was a pale white green right now as it moved slightly in the small bulb. She smiled looking down at the dirt and blood splattered floor.  

“Is it ready, Nightshade” River said as he approached it but then stopped. He could not breath in the full smell of the toxins. If he did that, in about an hour he would drop to the floor and his heart would stop slowly.  

“I see your final decided on a nickname. I was so devastated my nickname was going to be Ivy It reminds me of  an IV too much. Those things disturb me. Anyone could put anything in the water like substance.”  Nightshade stepped forward, placing her hand on the top of the stem, picking it up by the end, moving quickly to dip it all the way into the liquid. Its green outer shell went into the liquid and the shiny liquid collapsed around it. Pulling it out as the liquid hit the air, it stopped dripping dryed as Nightshade's other hand went to the silver knife gripping it with her hand. Nightshade swiftly stuck the dagger to the core of the apple it went in easily with a sickening crunch. 

River looked straight ahead; he hated this part. He always had even if it never killed her. It still scared him. As soon as he heard the sliding of the knife into the apple, he opened his opack lips. Wanting to say don't do it , but instead he simply put “Why do you always think the worst of people?” 

“And you think the best of them River Styx.”  Nightshade slid the knife farther into the apple. As she felt these cold winds, as she always did at this part, a voice echoed into her ear. Don't do it. Don’t. Don't cause death to another innocent.  But she simply let go of the other half of the apple & the apple fell lightly on the table next to her. The knife edges shined as the juices from the green apple hit the table with a light tap tap. 

River came around Nightshade pulling some brown gloves out of his jean pocket. He slide them over his delicate not scared hands, tightening the straps tight so the apple, if it did drip, would not get onto his skin. He carefully placed his hands around the apple. “ No, I don't but I also think we are doing wrong here” he said that last part quietly as he walked behind her and started towards the door slowly. “you coming, Alchemist, ready to kill an innocent young girl.” His glasses fell halfway down his noses as he looked at her. 

“Yes River Styx” Nightshade walked around, past the boiling clear poison that started to thicken. Nightshade went past her notes, looking down at them as she came closer to her partner in crime. Her lips met the poisonous green apple slice. It tasted bitter as the cold knife cut her lips. They both went through the rusted door and strided out, walking down the hall slowly. The walls had an eerie feeling to them. Once there had probably been a young girl declared crazy , how would have helded onto the wall for any closer to get out , even if that girl would not. Nightshade’s hair bounced on her shoulders lightly  as  she chewed the apple between her teeth, her hands still on the silver dagger with a sticky poison on it. “ So why did they pick this unlucky girl?”  She knew this would do no difference for the girl, but still she thought she would ask. Nightshade always did. She gripped the knife and slid it between her thin white shirt & the fabric of her high waisted black buttoned pants. The hilt showed out of the top of her pants as  the sharp end dug into her skin causing a little blood. 

“ You know the usual. Someone saw her in the unruly herds shop at the end of town” River looks straight ahead, not worried about the poison in his hands. He thought he saw a lady in a black veil, a misery  look to her all black clothed body. But by passing  it to the hallucination  he had every time the poison was in his hands. They were coming up onto the door 103, the one that the young prisoner was in , a viewing room high above the poor little thing.  He saw the number and stopped, as so did Nightshade next to him. The mood between them had changed. They both stiffened up as he took one of his gloved hands to the door and pulled the iron door open quickly. The room was a small one, all dark. You could only make out a small limp body and the viewing window high above. The person in the corner moved as the door shut with a bang. Nightshade’s head turned to look at the guard in a white old suite standing by the door. Half of her hair was over her right eye. She could have sworn he was smiling. Weird. The poison did not usually have an effect on her, but it would be offically weird if the guard was smiling about one of our population's few younger ones dying. 

The cult usually only used the poison for testing on younger people not the older ones. Always a young teenager, so many of the pollution stopped having children, which made testing hard on the heads of the cault. But smart of the community  of their town, many of them had enough money or were smart enough to get into school and would be out of the hands of the deadly poison. But often they just went to school to become testers or weapon makers. She was just one of the lucky girls who had been in the same such situation as this young and probably innocent girl last year, but for her it had not worked. The poison went into her system and she sat there as the guards and Chemist where god struck. Nightshade held her hand out so the apple could be placed in her hand, waiting for River to toss it to her or put it down in her hand. It took longer this time. Every time it got slower & slower with him so consumed with if he really should do this. After what felt maybe five minutes later a heaviness came to her left hand. Nightshade looked down at the green apple & stepped forward only to be stopped by a guard in white. Smiling, she was right. He had been smiling. Why in god's name was he smiling? 

“Dear pass it back to River, will you , the young girl will not be living today. But neither will your young friend here, River could not  leave  his younger sister alone.”  the guard said in an out-right stered voice.

Nightshade was shocked, her breath caught. They never killed their own. River had a sister. when had that happened! Why had he needed to save her? Was she last week's poison girl or was supposed to be but somehow the girl last week had gone missing from her cell? Oh God, river. why? why? Here she was again deciding between life and death of someone she loved.  A tear trickled down her cheek as she turned towards River. Her arm swang back & the apple went flying in the air towards River.