The Demon Legend
Countless men, possessed by the powers of the underworld, worshiped the power of the demons. In their desire to possess it for their own, they erected a great tower — a tower to join the world of demons and the world of men.
And these men, possessed by demonic power, climbed it on a journey to make their way to the world of demons.
There has never been a deed more evil than this.
In this time of need, Sparda, a Demon Swordsman and hero among heroes, arose and turning on his brethren, finally struck down the demon empire that ruled over all things evil. Then greatly fearing his own accursed power, Sparda sought to seal himself away forever with the demons.
The key to that seal was the great tower.
Sparda, in the depths of the tower, let flow his own blood and the blood of a pure maiden, and in doing so, he sealed away the demons — and his own power — forever.
The tower thus sunk deep into the earth, and time stopped for the world of demons.
—Taken from the Demon Sword Texts (date unknown), Vatican Library Restricted Text Housing
A Game of Cat and Mouse is played often by the Fearful and the Brave, never by the Good and the Bad
Chapter 1
Bianca was always the frightened little mouse of every situation, cowering in the shadows of the brave, weak and defenseless. And she knew it. She knew she was a coward. She couldn't do anything but hide or run away, stay quiet, shrink into the darkness and stay out of the way, out of sight and out of mind. No one has use for a coward, right? So, she runs and she ducks for cover, ass over tea-kettle every time, just to provide an illusion that told her she was safe. But it was an illusion. She was never safe, so she keeps running. Running and running and running.
By now, running had become instinct. There was no 'fight or flight', just flight. She runs at the smallest hint of danger, refusing to have any part of it. She moves from town to town, looking for some place safe to hide, always turning up empty handed. Having to go home to her mother every time. And then she'd run away again, seek refuge in the most dangerous yet safest place in town (if only for a short time), the vacant space on Devil's Corner. Nothing ever thrived there that wasn't a weird mystical shop or a bar. There were a lot of rumors about it, too. Rumors of rapes, murders, thefts, and sightings of ghosts and other such nonsense. Bianca never believed them. That was her safe place.
She drew in the toxic smoke of her cigarette and exhaled, staring down the rubble of her home. But it wasn't really her home. It was her mother's, the cause of her cowardice. The woman was... unkind, to say the least, and left much to be desired concerning the quality of a person. Bianca could do no right, no matter how hard she tried, constantly getting beaten and put down. She was afraid, now, to meet new people (not that you could trust any in this day and age, anyway), to go to job interviews, to explore new places. Terrified, even, because no matter what she did, she was worthless in her mother's eyes. She never wanted to meet the woman's expectations. She wanted to be her own person. And she was penalized greatly for it.
She wrinkled her nose, eyeballing the wood nestled in the metal and glass. Broken picture frames, burnt fabrics, snapped electrical cords, and water spouts freckled the ruins. Blood splotches here and there, too, and just the mere glimpse of it made her skin crawl. Another drag on her cancer stick. She hated blood. Not because it was disgusting and could possibly give a person AIDS, but because she knew exactly what happened to the people who used to have those very same splotches of blood coursing through their veins. She knew who and what did it, and she didn't care.
A tower, ruined and broken by age and constant rising and falling, shot up from the earth in one fell swoop. It seemed to be more like an earthquake that came, because it shook the town to its stone foundations. But, mostly, the suburban areas were left in wretched disarray. There were no big city towers anymore, just the big one taking over the heart. Hardly any people here, now. Either dead or evacuated. What was left would be unoccupied, survivors relocated.
'Had the apocalypse come already?' Bianca wondered indifferently. This was perhaps one of the only moments in her life she would feel no fear, no pressure, no sense of tomorrow or even the now. In one way or another, the tower had liberated her. The caged mouse was now a free one, released into the wild by an otherwise unknown force, much like God did to his followers. Wound them up and watched them go, only to be disappointed and ruin their loves when they didn't follow his 'master plan'. Also, similar to now. One moment of freedom and right into the next set of chains of entrapment. It was like never having had freedom to begin with.
She'd lived her life without it all this time. What difference does it make of she doesn't have it now?
She blinked her almond eyes and closed them, taking a last hit off her cigarette and flicking the butt into the water pooling in the wreckage of her old home. Exhale. As the smoke left her lungs, the blonde spun on her heels and looked ahead, eyes falling on the street sign leading to the only place she ever felt safe - Devil's Corner.
