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The shadows were relentless, and Nia had a building suspicion that they were holding themselves back, like cats playing with mice right before eating them. Nia hated mice. Especially the ones on Ferin Street who hid in muddy corners and behind cobwebs and skittered over your feet.
They jumped another roof, her body already accustomed to the feeling of bile rising up each time they left, and the thudding impact of landing on her ankles. Acelius kept up, but she could tell he wasn't faring any better than her. This couldn't go on long, before she broke her ankles and also, there were only three more roofs left before the path gave way to the street below.
She turned around, her wet hair lashing across her face, to see that only two of them followed now, both running in a fluid grace that came from practice. She dimly remembered when she used to be able to run that way, and then immediately abandoned the thought when other things started to bloom, memories of what she had run from.
She crouched and leapt and landed.
Frantically, she whipped her head side to side to see where the other two shadows had gone but they were nowhere to be seen.
She ran.
Great. Now, if she were to die she'd die not knowing where they went.
She crouched and leapt and landed.
Rain fell like unfired bullets.
She crouched and leapt, but she didn't land. She fell, instead.
Crack her ribs went.
"Fuck," Acelius went.
Everything went black and came back in full focus, as lighting striked overhead arching across the sky in searing bolts of brilliant white. Walls of an alley stood behind and before her.
Right above her head, something flashed, but it wasn't lightning. It was the glint of a knife aiming for her head, just as she rolled to the side, narrowly missing her death.
And then she kept rolling, until she hit another body.
Another blade swung down on them and she leapt up.
"Enough," she murmured, dazily standing up.
A man stood over Acelius, another blade rising.
Seriously, how many blades did they have?
She crouched down, and pulled a dagger free from her boot and let it fly. It had been a while since she'd thrown daggers, and it was evident as her mark flew to his calf instead of his heart. The man staggered, buying Acelius enough time to stand up. A dark gash ran across his eyebrow and glass shimmered in the wound, and his nose was oddly misshapen.
The woman walked towards her, and then switched directions heading istead for the shadowed man. He watched her, "What are you doing?" His voice was muffled, but not enough to hide the fear from it.
"I don't like sharing gifts," the shadow replied. The man grunted and fell as she drove a blade into his heart.
Nia's eyes widened, and she debated whether to try to mask her confusion or not since she was already, and quite probably about to die. But apparently, it wasn't a question as her body automatically shifted her features to feign mild interest.
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unraveled
Fantasía"I've seen rats with better attention spans than you," she said onto his face. And then the boy was there pulling her onto her feet and off of him. "But have you seen them with such beautiful faces?" he asked, standing up, brushing off th...
