Okay, the story isn't officially starting yet, but I wanted to get this uploaded so you can at least get a little taste of what's going on in Volterra.

Prologue

Beneath a dark and cloudy grey sky, Ames sucked in the damp autumn air. "Breathe it in, boys," he said. "Breathe it all in. What do yuh smell?" He looked to his left and to his right and saw nothing but blank stares and dripping wet faces. "What do yuh smell?"

Garred took a few sniffs for himself. "Rain. Shit. Garbage. Cum. The Gutter, that's what I smell, the stench of the Gutter, and the rain brings it all bubbling to the surface. You step through puddles of it when you walk. It sticks to your shoes and clings to your clothes and follows you all over 'til you reek of it, too. You never escape the smell of it. It's in your blood."

"Exactly," said Ames, "and everyone can smell it on yuh. Gutter rats, they call us. They sneer at us and spit at us like we're nothin'. And yet they come here when the sun goes down. All of them come down here to the Gutter, to the shit and the garbage, and we fuck them all! Truth is, boys, they need us. They need us, and yuh know why? Because every day their city gets a little smaller, a little dirtier, a little poorer ... But the Gutter, it grows. Soon, there will only be the Gutter, and we'll rule it like kings."

A dozen mouths smiled to reveal rotten, yellow teeth, and then they all dispersed at their leader's command. To the brothels and drug houses went some. Into the city went others, to beg for money and food. They loitered around shops and cafes, always careful to avoid the patrolling policemen, and if the opportunity presented itself they might try to lift a wallet or two. A quick snatch and they were gone and on to the next victim. If they weren't fast enough, they would quickly find themselves in a jail cell. That was the game they played.

As for Ames, he strolled the streets of Volterra with a few of his men. His black boots splashed through puddles of brown, muddy water; it seeped in through the holes in his soles and soaked his socks. Cold and wet, his ten toes wiggled and flexed to keep warm. He drew up his hood and stared around the market square. Empty. It had been empty for months. If he looked long enough in any direction, he could see at least three bright red 'For Sale' signs.

"The tourists are leavin'," he said, "and they're takin' all the businesses with them. A year ago, yuh could barely walk through here without smackin' into some fat tourist. Now, look around. Not a foreigner in sight. There's a 'For Sale' sign on that door right there, and another just over there. Four businesses closed this month, I heard. More will follow. The city can't support them anymore."

"Why've they gone?" asked Dalan from far behind.

Ames shrugged. "Who knows? Some say they got scared 'cause of what happened. Every reporter in the country was talkin' about it, sayin' how dangerous the city was, how the mayor wasn't tellin' the truth. Do yuh really believe wolves attacked the city, and that all those people died of rabies? I smell bullshit and so does everyone else. He's coverin' up somethin', if yuh ask me. And now he's sufferin' for it. His city is quickly goin' bankrupt, and he's strugglin' to save it."

"Speaking of," said Garred when he spotted a familiar face walking out of the cafe. "There goes our proud mayor now."

The men watched Mayor Distefano walk down the street with his hands shoved in the pockets of his long black coat. His salt-and-pepper hair glistened in the rain. His eyes were red and puffy and marked with brown circles from all the long, sleepless nights. A disheveled wreck he was, and everyone could see it.

"Every day his hair gets a little more grey, I swear. I wonder if the stress is getting to him."

"Certainly hasn't affected his spendin' habits, though. Did yuh see the new car he bought? He drives it around the city and takes vacations in Milan 'n Paris, and he wonders why everyone's so angry. Where's all the money comin' from? That's what they wanna know."

"His daughter was spotted in the Gutter, I heard."

Ames looked back at Dalan. "Says who?"

Dalan shrugged. "Lotsa people. They say she's been comin' around almost every night since her brother went 'n shot himself. No mistakin' that face. She's been goin' to see Oskar, and yuh only go to Oskar for one thing."

Ames laughed. "The mayor's daughter visitin' a known drug dealer? Now that's a scandal if I ever heard one."

They followed the mayor through the mud and through the rain, climbing up alleyways and bending around street corners. They followed him all the way to the city hall and saw the protesters gathered with their picket signs. "Tell us the truth!" they kept shouting. "We want the truth!" A bold woman approached the mayor herself and begged to know what happened to her sick daughter, but he brushed her away and hurried inside before the hoard could get him.

Ames set his hungry eyes upon the old stone building. "For years this place has been tauntin' me. Every day, I pass by and it just glares at me like it's challengin' me. Everyone wonders what's in there, what's down in the deep, the way deep that nobody has ever seen. Riches, they say: gold, silver, jewels of all colors. It's full of riches, and the mayor is hoardin' it all for himself. He keeps it all down there while everyone else is strugglin'."

"I heard it's haunted," said Dalan, "or cursed. Demons live down there in the deep, and they have the faces of angels. Deceivers, they are. They lure yuh down there with their sweet words and beautiful faces. And once yer down there, yuh never come out. Nobody comes out."

"Then who tells the stories? If everyone's dead, where do the stories come from?"

"I ... I ..." Dalan's mouth hung open as he thought it over. "Well, I don't know. It's just what I heard."

"Yuh always believe what yuh hear?" Ames shook his head. "I don't care what's down there: demons, monsters, ghosts. The mayor's hidin' somethin' down there, and I wanna see what it is. Tonight. We'll hit this place tonight while the city sleeps. And then we'll see what he's hidin' down there in the deep ..."