Chapter Thirty: Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Hidden in Abster's shadowy nook, Ronin and his team found an entire apartment building's worth of rooms tucked away behind several darkened hallways.

Past the darkness, the bottom floor was completely lit, with not even a single shadow present, though floors above it seemed so dark as to be impossible to see. It was disconcerting, how well lit the floor was, depriving Ronin and his team of depth perception without the shadows present.

Silent within the light, there seemed to be something teeming at the darkness from the stairwell going up, as though it were scratching at the very air to reach them. From further above, possibly all the way up to the top, there seemed to be sounds, roaring and sounds of fighting, that filled Ronin with some sort of primal terror, trying to claw its way out of some place in his heart he didn't know he had.

In the four years they'd fought together, Ronin and his team had faced down certain death at the hands of Deviants, Bandits, Alchemists and the kind of things that people told their children scary stories about to make them behave. The world was massive, and filled with things that, even with all its advances, science was no closer to explaining than the day they had first crawled into mankind's vision.

Azue shuddered and stood by the bottom stairwell, staring into the darkness and listening to the creatures scrabble for attention and blood.

Ronin went to try and move her when she dropped to her knees, began mumbling and a wall of ice slowly began to appear, manifesting from the air itself, so cold that even several feet away from it, he could feel its icy embrace.

"How," Ronin started before she cut him off, saying, "I have no idea. I've been able to do things like this since I was young...it caused my parents no end of trouble."

Silas went to her, ignoring the freezing cold, and held her shoulders saying, "I believe it. The government's stance on deviance in humans is staunch and unmoving, even after I submitted my research to the contrary...I can only imagine they wanted you to disappear."

Azue nodded and responded, "They tried killing me, but failed...despite multiple attempts. In the end, they decided to simply stuff my family away in a hole and pretend we didn't exist. They forbade us from working or even socializing with anyone in the town, fearing my family would reveal something about me."

Silas pulled her away from the wall and asked, "Can you control this deviation?"

 Nodding, Azue said, "They told me not to use it, but I learned how to...I have much more control now than I used to."

Ronin watched the rest of his team, in a room off the main hall, shifting and impatient to move on and said, "Everyone, we've got to wait for Scalpel to get back…"

 Silas said, "She's strong, Ronin, but it's been almost an hour...maybe we should go looking for her."

Appearing behind her and grabbing Silas's chest, Scalpel said, "Go looking for little old me? Silly Silas, you DO care."

 Screaming in shock, Silas jumped away to reveal Scalpel still standing there, her hands squeezing the air.

Abster stood by the door nearest the dark hallways leading into the apartment rooms and removed his metal helmet, revealing a pair of brown eyes and a face that was scarred and hard looking.

Waving at him, Scalpel said, "He's fine...a little harsh I think, but I don't think he wants to hurt us."

Walking over to Ronin, Abster shook his hand and said, "The girl's in good hands. The Suns were happy to take her, so I think she'll receive decent care."

Scalpel nodded and said, "They're a little...behind on medical tech, but they should have the stuff they need to make sure the girl lives...though whether or not she recovers from the psychological shock of it all is in the air."

Abster agreed and said, "She's been through a lot already...I think she'll need more help beyond just her healing."

Clapping his hands together, Abster said, "So, are you guys hungry? I know I am."

Watching him carefully, Ronin said, "I could eat…"

Walking to a door close to the stairwell, Abster noticed the wall of ice and said, "Bout time somebody blocked that up. Those things give me a case of the weirds."

He continued into the room and came back a few moments later with slices of bread on a piece of broken metal.

"Sorry, I don't have any plates...times are hard," he said sheepishly, his scarred face turned up into a crooked smile.

Ronin smiled back and said, "No worries. I think I understand."

As Abster walked to Ronin, the lights began to flicker on and off, rapidly flickering faster and faster until the lights went out entirely.

In the darkness, inky and black, Ronin heard the creatures beginning to smash on the ice wall, the only thing keeping them out, and he said, "Everyone get into the room!"

The group ran into the room where the rest of his team was sitting, now seeming much smaller in the darkness. From the hallway, they could hear the ice wall begin to crack and fracture, roaring sounds beginning to make their way into the room.

It held for a few minutes, but under sustained assault it was soon destroyed and Azue moved to the door, shaking in fear, preparing to make another to protect them.

Ronin tapped into his inventory and pulled out a lamp he'd designed to run on the Aether in the air and it flickered to life.

Silas, her voice tinged with panic, yelled, "What are those things!"

Abster sat in the darkness and said, "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

As Azue froze the door, Ronin turned to him and said, "Try us."

Watching Azue finish the ice, Abster said, "It started about a month ago…Things were already hard here, but then one day, these...things started climbing out of dark spots. They killed thousands here in this part of Guildless territory.

 "Ok, but what are they?" Silas yelled as the creatures began slamming on the door.

Abster stood and walked closer to Ronin's lamp and said, "They're dead people."