~10 minutes left

Just like that, it was time to get moving once again.

A few of the former mage-slaves waved them off as they went, thankful for their crucial assistance in staving off the Gentleman's Club. While both Henry and Layla were polite in their responses, they were in enough of a rush to keep the interactions brief.

No time to wait around any longer, now that the barricade was disassembled enough for them to pass. With a quick, final wave, Henry stepped out into the… mostly cleared stairwell where his partner was busy carefully treading around a handful of corpses that had been too far away from the breach to bother.

One particular corpse loomed ominously in the corner of the stairs. Taunting him with empty eye sockets as he passed, even though he knew deep down that the person on the other end had been just as bad as him, if not worse.

But then again, he wouldn't have made it five meters if he tried doing even the first stunt you pulled, now would he? If you really think about it, he's just another victim-

No.

He couldn't afford to beat himself up over past events, not now. That sort of thinking would only lead him spiraling back down the path he'd just been on, and he'd already wasted enough time moping about as it was. People were counting on him to win. He could sort out the aftermath in the… well, the aftermath.

Let the memories haunt him after he was done here, if they had to. Wasn't like it would be anything new, after all.

...I'm not going to be getting good sleep anytime soon, am I…

< -|- -|- >

-stir craziness didn't take long to set in. Even if you ignored the dwindling rations and the miserable living conditions inside the dilapidated apartment building, there was still one glaring issue big enough to put everyone on edge.

Nobody had any idea what was going on.

It had been nearly a full week since they'd made the decision to hunker down. Nearly a full week of cramped living, night watches full of jumping at shadows, fitful dreamless sleep and slowly driving each other up the wall.

Elias kept insisting there was something out there, despite multiple searches and perimeter checks indicating to the contrary. Guy would disappear for hours on end with no notice, only to show up out of nowhere again and not say a word about it. Grace had been shy at first, but when it was accidentally let slip who Layla's parents were the mousy teenager started following her around like a lost puppy, constantly bombarding her with questions and slowly wearing down her nerves.

So, on the seventh day, despite the fog still being mostly opaque outside, not much convincing had needed to be done for them to all finally try and brave the rooftop in hopes of scrounging the little bit they needed to tide them over for just a bit longer.

Everyone agreed it was a necessary risk. But the consequences-

< -|- -|- >

-It wasn't until they'd reached the top of the first flight of stairs that Henry realized he'd been on autopilot the whole time.

Layla shut the door behind him, jolting him back to being… awake, was the closest word he could think of to describe it. She wasn't being overly cautious, and just from a brief assessment of the interchange floor, and after his eyes properly adjusted to the sudden glare of functional artificial lighting, the reason was plain to see.

Squinting a bit as he was now, it wasn't hard for one to imagine that this place would have been a model example of a neat, orderly workplace. The near-ubiquitous panels of fluorescent lights, the dull grey, rectangular grid-pattern ceiling, the thin, scratchy carpet that barely disguised the hard tile laid out underneath… if you'd ever seen one, then you'd seen them all.

Of course, this was Hallow London they were dealing with. Time here had a way of warping even the most normal, familiar-looking location into a scene straight out of a nightmare.

He really shouldn't be getting used to these sorts of images, and yet here he was. Bodies lie piled like cordwood. Closest to the door, most of them were Knights, heavy steel armor punctured by some of the more serious firepower the Gentleman's Club had squirreled away from months of raiding, looting and aftermarket jury-rigging. One particularly unlucky-looking body had what appeared to be a bloody cannonball lodged in his sternum, stuck so that only about half of it was sticking out. The metal around the heavy cast-iron sphere was crumpled like an aluminum can, complete with a slight hump in the backplate where the projectile had nearly punched through.

And somehow, cases like those were still in the minority. Most of them – Club and Knight alike – were either ran through with assorted melee weapons, or more typically… dismembered.

Not in the sloppy fashion of the handiwork of werewolves, either. Their howls still permeated the night air outside, albeit much more distantly than before on account of them being more than a dozen stories off the ground. No, these cuts were too clean for those beasts. And it wasn't much of a mystery as to who was responsible.

"Evelyn's been this way, it looks like," Henry noted as he sidestepped a particularly ill-fated thug who'd been literally quartered. "Damn, I hope she's okay…"

"You're worried about her?", Layla asked curiously. "Don't get me wrong, I want to make sure she's fine as much as you do, but… It looks to me like she's been rather busy in the last half hour… and not slowing down…"

"She is ridiculously strong, I'll give her that," he admitted. "But, take it from me: try being a one man army for long enough, and eventually you'll reach a number you can't handle."

"You seemed to handle it just fine earlier."

"That was different. And… please, let's not talk about that for now."

Layla realized belatedly that she'd put her foot in her mouth. "…Sorry," she apologized.

Henry shrugged. "It's okay. Let's just hurry up and find her."

Leaving the awkward conversation there, they quickly picked their way through the ruined fortifications. A bit of a generous term to call haphazardly stacked cement bags, broken furniture and the odd repurposed body, but apt nonetheless. Especially since the enchanted steel the Knights typically wore was rated to deflect bullets with shocking regularity.

Can't imagine how they manage to wear it for days on end, though… it's all bulky, claustrophobic, and not the least bit lightweight… Hell, even just the idea of having to use Day enchantments just to see through the faceplate is bad enough for me…

Miraculously, they made it to the other side of the checkpoint while managing to only step in the offal puddles a few times. Normally, such a feat would have impressed Henry… if he hadn't soaked through his sock in one bad misstep.

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"Ugh…" he grimaced as he found he had to shake loose bits of… detritus off of the sole of his sneaker. "If my sense of smell hadn't died already, It's most definitely on its way there now…"

"You think you have it bad," Layla grumbled in response. "Some of these people I sort of knew, in passing."

"You can tell the Knights apart?"

"A little bit? Some of them don't have their faceplates down, and it's not like I… you know, was good friends with any of them, but…"

"…It's weird, seeing the dead face of someone you know, even a little bit."

"Yeah! How'd you know?"

"Experience," Henry said bluntly, recalling the myriad times when that stranger's face had been his own.

"What do you mean, experi-...oh. I… I see…"

The conversation died quicker than a stroke victim after that.

Way to go, Henry… he chastised himself. Charismatic as usual.

In silence, they hurried to the far side of the building. The second flight of stairs and elevators, in direct contrast to the set that had stymied them so much previously, seemed downright pristine in comparison. The lights in the stairwell were regular fluorescent white instead of emergency red, the elevator buttons glowed softly indicating it was still operational, and despite the bloody fingerprints tinting the handles and buttons varying shades of scarlet, it seemed like reaching the roof wouldn't be such a hassle as they'd initially expected.

"What do you think," Henry asked. "Stairs or elevator?"

"Hmmm… If the elevator works, I think we should take it. Might be a bit riskier, but we're pressed for time as is and the last thing we want to be going into a fight is tired from doing a whole bunch of cardio."

"Works for me. Less I have to tire myself out, the better."

He jammed his index finger onto the up key, and the winch somewhere far above them rumbled to life.

Time for a classic game of 'hurry up and wait', he thought to himself.

The crystal in his chest flashed a bit, and he swayed slightly on his feet. It was still looking mostly green at the edges. But, on the bright side… there at least seemed to be a bit of the original blue creeping in at the core now.

Maybe. It was hard to say for certain. It could just be a trick of the light, but to him it looked like the color might be shifting a bit. Instead of pale green, Whenever he craned his neck back to get a better look at it, he could almost swear that it was just a bit closer to aqua now.

"You okay?", Layla asked, noticing his slightly-odd behavior as they waited.

"Um…" Realizing he looked a bit silly, he straightened up and cleared his throat. "Yeah, I'll be fine… I think. It... seems like it might be getting close to normal, now. Don't know exactly when this'll all be over, but… it doesn't really pay to stop the effects from happening, either."

"You can do that?"

"If I focus a bit… kind of? It depends, sometimes I'm just stuck with it. Although, I have to admit, this seems to be clearing up leagues faster than what I'm used to, which is… concerning… considering the variables involved."

"...Huh," she replied, slowly absorbing the new information. "Sorry, that sounded dismissive. It's just… well, this is all new to me, and, um… a lot to unpack. A lot of questions on my mind, I guess."

"Hey, I get it. I've got my fair share of things I don't know about myself, either. And I'll probably ask you a bunch of questions myself when I get the chance to. Just… right now, I need to sort this myself as much of this as I can, while I can."

"Does that mean I need to, like… drag you along while you do that?"

"I don't… think so? I'll probably be looking like a zombie for a bit though, fair warning."

"Hey, don't say that word!", Layla exclaimed suddenly.

"What, zombie?"

She let out a strangled noise of exasperation. "You're going to jinx us at this rate! Do you really want to be dealing with werewolves, vampires and… and…" She struggled to find a word to replace it for a moment. "-Zeds, all in one place?!"

To emphasize her point, she gestured towards the pile of carcasses they'd just waded through.

"...Huh. You know, it's a bit superstitious, but when you put it like that… I wouldn't want zombies to be a thing either."

"Quit it!"

"Sure, sure…"

As the elevator dinged, he didn't quite chuckle, but there was a faint smirk on his lips as he pressed the roof button and closed his eyes to focus inward.

< -|- -|- >

-Bodies had begun turning up. The first, some nameless member of the Gentleman's Club, apparently stowed away in a random locked apartment on the lower floors. The second, what appeared to be a common housecat, which had miraculously managed to live this long without the wolves pouncing on it.

And the last… the last was Guy.

He'd done his usual disappearing act, and by now they'd learned to think nothing of it. Bigger things to worry about, they'd all thought at the time. However, now this was a very, very big problem to worry about.

Because all three of them had died in the exact same way. And to top it all off, unlike a regular werewolf mauling, these corpses were intact.

"So, let's go over what we've found out," Cecil reiterated, pacing in front of them as they all stood lined up against the wall. "We've got three bodies here, each one of which seems to have been completely and perfectly exsanguinated. At a guess, the first two have been gone for a couple days, but whatever got Guy did so… very recently."

The elf let out a weary sigh. Ex-combat medic who benefited from a bit of Day magic he might be, death was still death. No curing that, unfortunately. Just dealing with the aftermath. While he wasn't unshakable, there was a hint of jadedness that allowed him to take charge in this instance.

"Add to that the fact that we found a pile of empty blood bags in the supply crate as we worked to unload it, and… Jesus Christ, I can't believe I'm actually saying this…"

He stared directly into the eyes of all of them, one by one. Analyzing them all individually. Looking for some sort of tell in their expressions. His scrutinizing gaze was most unnerving, in Henry's opinion.

"There's something out there that's killing people by draining their blood."

William paused a beat. "What, like a vampire?"

"…If that's what you want to call it, sure," he replied tersely, lips pressed into a thin line as he spoke in short, clipped syllables.

Grace's eyes were practically glued to the pale corpse of their fellow survivor, her gaze filled with renewed terror.

Elias growled. "I told you there was something out there!" In one practiced motion, the paranoid old man's longbow was in his hands and strung for battle faster than any of them could react. "But did any of you listen? No. Now we need to go out there and FIND the damn beast before-

< -|- -|- >

-Ding.

When Henry was forcefully yanked back to reality by the elevator doors sliding open. A lot had happened in the meantime.

He awoke to find himself practically blind on his feet. While they'd been slowly rising to the roof, Layla had been gradually filling the cabin with heavy obscuring mist, in preparation for what might lie on the other side. As the elevator doors made way, the roiling cloud spilled forth onto the slightly damp asphalt of the roof, hiding both the outside world and themselves from view.

Smart thinking, now that they were entering the truly dangerous areas. Already he could make out the sound of gunfire and spellshot, not too far from where they were standing.

"Stay close," Henry whispered as he grabbed her hand. "I don't know how much my Domain can keep Guillaume from trying anything on you, but I'm not taking any chances I don't have to. Got it?"

She nodded, and the two of them stepped through the misty portal together.

Into an active warzone.

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