Rogue Madness

I. The Troubled Ones

**AUTHORS NOTE**

Welcome! This is my first published story, so I would love feedback on anything so that I can keep improving! Let me know how I'm doing, or let me know how I can make the story more enjoyable for you! <3

**TRIGGER WARNINGS** For this chapter, there is SELF-HARM AND REFERENCING UNALIVING (SUICIDE), TALK OF TORTURE AND R*PE, MURDER DETAILS, MENTIONS OF DEATH AND DECAY, MENTIONS OF SEX WORK, AND REFERENCES OF MENTAL ILLNESS AND ABUSE. (If I miss a trigger please let me know asap!!) You have been warned, please enjoy!!

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*CHAPTER I*

Thanasis sat atop the brothel's roof, looking out through the mist to the darkened cobbled streets below him. There was a surprising amount of humans out for how late it was. Normally around midnight, there were a few stragglers here and there, and Thanasis would be providing security for the girls downstairs. But tonight, Victoria had decided to close down for the night to deal with some personal business. Victoria Oudston owned the Velvet Fang, a brothel deemed "exotic" because even though the workers were always referred to as 'the girls', most of them were anything but. The workers hated the name, but it was deemed good for marketing and they kept it.

Thanasis had found this place accidentally while attempting to track down another Elysian on this side of the realm. He'd taken the name quite literally. Although the workers were all variants of humans, they treated Thanasis with kindness he had only experienced once before. This led to him trading his services as a glorified security guard for a small apartment on the roof.

The apartment was the size of a small bedroom but it had been better than the alleyways Thanasis previously wandered, allowed him to have his own space, and was lockable from the inside and completely secured during the day. It was perfect.

Nas took another drag from the cigarette loosely hanging from his lips and laid back against the angled roof. From here, the smog from the city almost completely blotted out the night sky. Combined with the rain clouds and fog, the sky was just a dark gray abyss. The air smelled like chimney smoke, rain, and the same old mortal stench.

Nas blew smoke in the air and watched it dance upwards to blend into the various shades of gray. He chuckled at the thought of Victoria lecturing him about 'unhealthy habits. For as much as he was enjoying the scene, he was frankly bored out of his fucking mind. He supposed he could focus on his only real hobby, which was sketching, but he couldn't work on anything in the rain. He had never really settled in one place long enough to try new things.

Regardless, it had been a while since Thanasis had felt peace like this, but there was something in the air that was keeping him on edge and unable to fully relax. He wasn't a particularly superstitious man but he trusted his gut when something felt wrong and the tension had been there since the beginning of the night.

He wasn't sure if it had something to do with the fact that Victoria had only ever closed the brothel down on a work night once before, and that had been when her parents had passed away, or if it was just general paranoia caused by his constant pursuers. It had been a while since the last hunter or mercenary had given him any trouble but he knew better than to let his guard down.

Suddenly feeling very exposed perched up on top of the roofs, Nas slipped through the skylight connected to his room and locked it behind him. He had made his own lockable, wooden blinds that he installed for day use and he shut that as tight as could be. He breathed out a sigh of relief and took to lighting the various candles throughout his small room.