Episode 6

Milky blue eyes, large and looming over her, their face otherwise shrouded in shadow. She could do nothing but watch as those hungry eyes transformed into the glinting and just as hungry eyes of a scavenger. It lunged at her, causing her to recoil, her body falling back onto a pile of half-eaten corpses. When her body hit them, they burst into the air around her, limbs and bones floating about her. She could do nothing but float there with them.

A bright light shone far above her, but she couldn't reach it. Below her lay the darkest of abysses that felt like it could swallow all life, but she was not sinking into it. She was trapped in between, floating with the dead. It was a place of no beginning and no end.

Suddenly, all her veins began to show bright red through her skin as her blood began to burn within her. Her shrill normally would have devoured the air but seemed to be stolen away by her very surroundings. Her body trembled uncontrollably as she watched her blood begin to leak from her through her skin. It spilled out into the air and floated like little bubbles. Her skin began to split along the back of her hands, starting at her fingertips, falling away from the bone. Her bare-boned fingers bending slightly.

"This isn't real. This isn't real," she told herself. "You just have to wake yourself up."

Then she heard a chilling voice, almost like a whisper. "Oh, but this is real, and you're going to be so much more."

Her heart seemed to stop, and at once, she heard a gunshot.

---

She flung herself from the bed and hit the floor harshly. She didn't even try to pick herself up. She merely laid there trying to catch her breath. She could hear all matter of people yelling for someone to shut up.

"Hey, girl, are you alright?" She then heard a male voice ask. It was the black-headed man. She gave a slight jump upon hearing it. "Easy, easy. If I wanted to hurt you, I would have already."

A great bang came through one of the walls of the room. "Why don't you tape that mouth shut if you can't keep quiet!"

"Next time you have a five-dollar whore in there, why don't you tape your own mouth shut!" the black-headed man shouted back.

Looking down at her hands, she could see that all the veins in them showed bright red through her skin, just like in her dream. Her hands began to shake and she could feel a lump in her throat, keeping her from being able to swallow or speak.

'What is going on with me? What did that man do to me before he brought me back to life?'

She watched as the red slowly faded and her veins began to look normal.

"Were all those people shouting at me?" she finally managed to ask.

"Yeah." The man shook his head.

"Why?" Her brow crinkled up.

"You were screaming like someone was killing you."

"How did you…?"

"I jumped the balcony and came in that way."

"That sounds very heroic."

He smiled. "I don't like to brag..."

"Then don't."

He gave out a laugh as he rose to his feet and went into the bathroom. When he emerged, he tossed her pants to her.

"Thanks," she said as she stood and began to put them on. She noticed his eyes divert and then find their way back to her.

"So, what was going on with your veins, and what's up with this?" he asked as he signaled to her chest where her incisions showed.

"What are we, best friends now?" she asked to deflect.

"No, I was just curious."

"Right. Well, you can have your room back. I'm heading out." she stated as she put on her jacket.

"By yourself? Where are you heading?" he continued to query.

"Lygredd's Belly."

"That's a long way from Junker's Brim."

"Yup."

"Not to mention, very difficult given their latest security measures intended to keep the filth down here."

"I'm sure I'll manage," she stated as she picked up her pack.

"I'm sure you can. But if you come with me, things needn't be so difficult for you," he said as he slipped in front of her, a key card in his hand.

Her eyes narrowed. 'What's his game?'

"As I recall, you already have two companions."

He shook his head. "I'm not taking them with me, just needed them to help me get in and out of the Scavenger Lands."

"So, why take me?" she questioned.

"Let's just say you owe me for stealing my room," he smirked.

She pressed her lips together. She didn't much like traveling with others. She knew this guy had to have an agenda behind letting her come with him. But if he could easily get into Lygredd's Belly, she couldn't pass up such an opportunity.

"Fine. After you," she remarked.

With that, an unsettling smile widened across the man's face. "By the way, my name's Moshu Shi."

"Everyone just calls me Scarlet…"