The Birth of Madness

Chapter 3 - Escape

She retrieved her scabbard from the hall, and went into her bedroom. She wiped the rapier clean on the bedspread – already ruined beyond repair – before sheathing it and putting it all back on her hip. That was step one.

Next, she went to the closet and got her gray backpack. Looking it over, it would probably hold everything she wanted to keep. She took off her jacket and, carefully folding it so only the bloodless inner side would touch the backpack walls, placed it inside. Next, she grabbed some of her near identical gray shirts and pants, and put them in as well. Finally, she took from the closet her older black jacket, which was a little tighter but still fit well enough. She slipped it on, grateful that the familiar weight would be staying with her even now.

Leaving from the bedroom she went to the kitchen, stepping over the two bodies in the hallway. Unfortunately, she'd been putting off shopping, so she didn't have much of anything. A few cans of corn were all she had. Why had she even bought these? Hopefully they were edible without warming. She put them into her pack, nestled among the clothes so they wouldn't roll around and make noise.

Finally, the step she'd been dreading. She went over to the bathroom and looked at herself.

Despite the relatively normal look she could force onto most of her face, her eyes still looked wide, her pupil now being uncharacteristically large. Still, there was little she could do about it, and instead worked on getting as much blood off as possible. The blood on the face was easy enough, as was the bit on her hands, but her hair proved distressingly stubborn in keeping the few dots of blood that had landed across it. Knowing time was too limited for this, she just tried to ruffle her hair around slightly so it was less obvious.

As her last step, she looked through the stabbed hole in the cloth to see the wound in her arm, only to be met with a pleasant surprise: though it was red and angry, it was barely bleeding. She contemplated that for a moment, before deciding it could wait.

With that, she was done. Not only with her preparations, but, it seemed, with her life in Jipon. She realized she wouldn't miss it, and that almost made her sad.

Nothing for it, though. She opened her bedroom window and boosted herself out of the house, before making her way down the alleyways at a quick pace. Just as she suspected, she now no longer made noise when her feet impacted the dirt, no matter how hard she landed – though the boots constantly shaking around her feet wasn't the most pleasant. She'd really need to get an insole.

As she began moving in earnest, between houses she saw some police moving towards her home at a brisk run. She began moving faster. If she wasn't quick, they'd probably manage to lock down the city, and then she'd be stuck. And now that she had begun running away, getting caught wasn't an option.

The early hour didn't help disguise her, since the city was just waking up, and most people were eating breakfast. Meaning the streets were largely empty except for the occasional gaggle of late-night clubbers who had accidentally clubbed too long and too hard.

She ran with purpose. Statistically, it was likely that wherever Indigo were located was to the north, as there's more space in that direction. With that in mind, she ran south, hoping if there were any immediate attempts to get her they'd assume she was heading north instead. Unless, she reflected, if they actually were to the south. Then she'd be going the way they'd probably expect, right into any trap they might lay. She wished again that she'd paid more attention to geography. Though all of this supposed that they'd assume she would run towards them. If they assumed otherwise, them being to the south would be more convenient for her. She briefly considered going west instead, straight inland, but that was the biggest gate with the most eyes. And to go north now would lead her back past her home, which seemed unwise. She continued south.