Disclaimer: I do not own Inkheart, or any of it's characters, Cornelia Funke does. I won Kat, her mother, the man and woman in the hotel lobby, and the manager of the hotel. I came up with the name Southern Italy Making History Foundation, somewhere out there it might be real, though I doubt it. :) but just in case if its real I dont own it, if its not real I do own it.

A/N: I haven't given up on the Inkspell Story Im writing, I have a huge writer's block on that one. I got this idea so for right now Im working on this one, but the other one will be updated I promise!! This story takes place in middle of Basta's Pride and Joy when Mo, Meggie, and Eleanor are in the village. Hope you all like.

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Twenty three year old Katherine 'Kat' Levingston parked her small green car on top of the hill, sighing she pushed her raven black hair into a pony tail as her emerald green eyes scanned the village below. She unbuckled her seat belt and turned around, she grabbed her camera case that held her camera, four extra batteries, and a memory stick holder in it from the back seat. She slung it over her shoulder then grabbed her 'photographer purse,' as she called it, and it put it around her neck and left shoulder. The purse had a small first aid kit in it; a sandwich with a lunch box cooler in a plastic bag; two small bottles of water; a small bottle of advil; some tums; extra hair bands; two bandanas and an extra battery and one more memory stick for her camera.

"Okay, I think that does it," she muttered to herself, her mother was the president of Southern Italy's Making History Foundation. Her mother had been eyeing the abandoned village for nearly five years now, and finally convinced the board it would be an excellent place to fix up and restore; she convinced them she could turn it into a reinactment village of Midevial Italy. Kat had been working for her mother since she was sixteen, she loved photography and put all her heart into it. The board obviously liked her pictures as much as her mother did since she became their main photographer, she had even been employee of the month two years ago.

She climbed out of her car and pressed the button on the car key to lock it after she had shut her door. Walking over towards the end of the hill she took her Sony Cybershot camera out of the bag and started it, it took only a few seconds for the camera to turn on. "This will be a great aerial view," she muttered as she held the camera and took a picture of the village. After she took the picture she went to preview and looked at the picture; the picture had turned out well she could see the entire village, as well as the small pond on the edge of the forest behind it.

Before she started walking down the hill she wondered for a moment if she should go back and get her tripod, she decided against it; she wasn't photographing people today, since the village was abandoned. Kat made her way down the hill, she paused only once to tie her ankle lengthed brown boots, make sure her tan cargo pants' pockets were filled with everything she had put in them from a spare set of contacts down to a camera lens cleaning kit. She tugged down a little on her grey scoop-neck t-shirt and pulled the tan vest back into place, the vest pockets were suprisingly empty. Anyone who knew Kat knew she loved to fill pockets with what most considered junk.

"Well, for an abandoned village there sure are a lot of cars here," Kat muttered when she saw nearly twenty cars parked at the far left hand corner of the parking lot along with a large white delivery van. Grabbing her cell phone from her right hip pocket she dialed her mother's number. It rang ten times.

"Hi, this is Amanda Levingston, president of the Making History Foundation, please leave your name, number, and message and I will call you back. Thank you." Exclaimed her mother's light but heavily itilian accented voice from the recorded message. Kat was only half itilian, her father had been Native American; he had died when she was thirteen, still everything he had taught her she kept close to her.

"Hi ma, it's me," Kat exclaimed into the answering machine figuring her mother was in a meeting, "I know that property search engine we looked the village up on said this village was abandoned, but I'm not so sure. It's in really, really bad shape, the village I mean. The parking lot has about twenty cars parked in it along with a large white delivery van. I'm going to see if I can find someone who could tell me if someones already bought the village or what; while I'm looking I will take pictures though incase the person who owns the village is intrested in selling. Love ya, mom. Bye." She hung up and made her way into the village, she snapped pictures as she promised she would. As she neared houses that looked lived in, she knocked on their doors, no answer.

Nearly three hours later Kat had taken pictures of the entire village, including the large house in center of the village that resembled a castle's wing. She paused realizing she hadn't taken pictures of the church yet, walking towards it she froze, her eyebrows knitted.

"Where's the book, Silvertounge?!" Growled a cat like voice.

What the Hell? Please God tell me I haven't stumbled into a mobster's secret city or something! Kat thought to herself in terror.

"I don't know," a man's voice replied, the voice sounded weary and miserable. "I've told you all before. I don't know. I just do not know. I thought the book I gave Basta was the right book, it must have been switched by someone-"

"By who your little daughter?" Growled the cat like voice again, "I think I'm going to make my mark on your face, you're face will match Dustfinger's."

Oh shit. Oh Shit. Oh shit. I have soooo stumbled into a criminal's village, whoever you are in that church buddy, I feel bad for. I'll call the police first thing when I get in my car, right now I'm haulin' my itilian-indian butt outta here! Kat thought to herself as she quietly made her way away from the church. She didn't notice the flat faced man reading her liscence plate number as she drove off.

Once Kat was twenty minutes away from the village and away from the road with the devil's village! Signs, and the detour sign blocking the road, and far enough away from the major pot holes in the road, she dialed the police.

"E...O...S...ar...ent...G...t...zo...sp...king...llo?"

Kat cursed, all the trees were blocking the reception causing her phone to break up badly. She remembered how her mother handled times like these though, she spoke each word long, loud, slow, and clear.

"Hello...Officer," Kat exclaimed loudly, "Can you hear me?"

"es."

"I was taking pictures of an older village, the one at the end of..." She paused as she slowed her car down to read the name of the road she was on, "Bueno Antonio Highway, and I was told the village was abandoned. There are cars in the parking lot, and in an old church in the village...There's trouble in that village," she exclaimed, knowing she was babbling, she took a deep breath and calmed down, she could never help the man if she were a nervous wreck, "in the village's old church I heard a man threatning to kill another man."

"Wh...t? M...m...yo...r...ea...k...ng...p..."

Kat cursed again, she slowly and loudly told him the road name, the village at the end of the road, and about two men who were in a one sided fight, one was trying to kill the other.

"Othing...c.n...do...so...y..."

"What?!" Kat shouted, "Officer please, speak slower."

"Nothing...e...ca...do...no..evi...d...nce..."

"NO EVIDENCE? I took a video and it captured the sound, officer please!" Kat exclaimed before her phone beeped she cursed and hit the steering wheel at seeing the screen flash, call failed. She took a deep breath, it had been a three day drive from the village she and her mother lived in to this village. "Oh thank God," she muttered when she drove out of the trees and into a village. She pulled over for gas and filled up her car, then drove for nearly another three hours until she was convinced she was far enough away from that village, her heart tugged in her chest as if to yell at her for not helping that man. "Well it was either I stopped to help him and get killed myself, or get my butt out of there and call the police!" She mumbled to herself as she climbed out of her car and slammed the door shut. She tried the police again, and got the same line: not enough evidence.

Yeah. Sure. By just her luck the police officer who had answered was probably on that cat-man's pay roll. She opened her car's trunk and slung her backpack over her shoulder, closed the trunk, and pressed the button on her key to lock her car up again. She walked into the hotel, paid for a room for overnight.

She stood in her hotel room for a moment, as if afraid someone was going to come out at her with a knife, she shook her head and walked in, then shut the door behind her, she slid the chain into place, the lock above the handle, she felt a little safer. She dropped her back pack on the floor near the bed side table and sat down with a sigh. She grabbed her phone and dialed her mother, "please pick up, mom," she whispered.

"Hello?" Her mother asked after nearly five rings.

"Mom, it's me, the village isn't abandoned," Kat exclaimed, her heart pounding as the terror came back to her. Keeping calm wasn't one of her best qualities, she could cover her fear for a few hours, but after that...

"Kat, what happened?" Her mother's worried voice asked.

"I was finishing up taking pictures and small videos of the village," Kat replied, "and...I got near the old church and...There were voices of a raspy cat like man's voice threatning to kill another man simply over a dumb book."

"Kat...Sweetie..."

"Mom, I swear to you, I swear on the soul of dad, I am NOT exaggerating, please mom!" Kat begged.

"Kat...I believe you," her mother replied softly, "I can hear how scared you are. Calm down, sweetie, calm down. Did you try calling the police? Most importantly where are you?"

"Nearly five or six hours away from that village, Im in a hotel in larger village. The hotels nearly booked full, that's why I chose it, I didn't feel like being an empty hotel tonight." She paused, "I called the police twice, the first time the call dropped, the second time they said the video and what was on it wasn't enough evidence. They didn't even ask to see it ma!"

"Alright, Kat, honey, calm down. Do you need me to fly down there and get you?"

"No.." Kat replied, lying on the bed, "I'll drive back, I just needed to hear your voice I was really scared."

"I can see why, do you still have the pocket knife your father gave you a few years ago, and the mace I gave you before you left?"

"Yea," Kat replied, the pocket knife her father had made himself. One side of the handle had a carving of Chief Sitting Bull's face on it, the other side showed the Thunder Bird, not the car, the actual bird from Lakota stories.

"Keep them close," her mother replied, "Kat, honey, I hate to leave you like this but Mr. Antonzio wants to speak with me. Are you sure you'll be alright?"

"I'm sure," Kat replied, "I'm gonna get a shower, go down to the first floor there's a resteraunt down there, grab some dinner, come back up here and go to sleep."

"Kat...Say your rosary tonight, and...I never thought I'd be saying this...Wear that Thunder Bird necklace your father gave you close, ok?" Her mother asked.

"I will, and I am," Kat replied, "bye mom, love you."

"Love you."

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Tink. Click. Tink.

Kat's green eyes flew open as she sat up and stared at the door, click, click, tink, tink, click...There was someone trying to pick the lock! She paused, making sur she wasn't just imanging things or middle of a vivid dream from what she heard earlier that day. She swallowed as she pinched herself, no she was quiet awake, she dialed the front desk, then frowned when noone answer.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Exclaimed a man's voice from the hallway, "you can't pick that lock."

"My wife's asleep she forgot to give me the extra key," rasped the man who sounded like a rasping cat's voice.

"Oh really, then whose that with you? Her fiancee?" The other man's voice asked.

"Her brother."

Kat's heart pounded, she was about to say, I'm not married, but quickly covered her mouth. How had these men found her? They must have seen her car leaving the village, but how did they find her so quickly, or at all?! Fear caused her heart to race and her stomach to go into her throat in terror. She got up and slowly walked over to the windows, and opened the heavy crimson red curtains, praying her room had a balcony which...It didn't.

"Well, alright then, I'm the manager, I have the master key-card," the manager's voice exclaimed.

Kat rushed into the bathroom and locked the door. Panting she started pulling on the bathroom window, open! Open NOW damn it! She screamed at it in her mind.

"Thanks," Exclaimed a nasaly man's voice.

"Alright, she's gotta be in here," growled the cat like voice, "the bathroom."

PLEASE...PLEASE...PLEASE OPEN... She begged the window in her mind, still it didn't budge.

"Oi! The doors locked!"

"Then knock it down you idiot!" The cat like voice growled.

Kat grabbed a small bottle of shampoo and opened it, when the door crashed open the flat faced man lunged at her, she opened the cap quickly and spurted the shampoo in his eyes.

"OW! YOU DAMNED LITTLE WITCH!" The flat faced man howled as he rubbed shampoo from his eyes.

Kat ran, she didnt see the other man anywhere, she didnt stop to grab her phone, purse, back pack, camera, nothing, she just ran. She made it into an elevator right as the doors were closing, she looked around it in terror. Except for her in her night gown it was empty. She sighed and leaned against the corner, her heart pounding as tears flowed down her cheeks, she wiped them out of her eyes.

No, hold it together Kat you need to get help. She told herself. She listened to the soft elevator music, at least it was a little comforting, not by much though. Her took long breaths in and slowly exhaled, anything to keep herself from completely losing it. She felt so..so...vulnerable...so alone..so helple- NO! She snapped at herself, you just need to get around people. You'll be fine. She stroked her finger on her car key she had grabbed before darting into the bathroom, she was surprised she wasn't bleeding by now from holding the key so tightly in her hand.

When the elevator doors opened she peeked out into the lobby, a man and a woman were watching the late night news on a big screen tv in the lobby; the news caster's voice from the speakers echoed around the lobby...It was a comforting sound. She walked over to the front desk and froze when she saw the clerk had been knocked out, she swallowed a curse and checked on the man and woman, they were busy watching tv.

"Sir? I'm in trouble, could I borrow your phone, please?" Kat asked as she walked over to the balding man.

He turned to her, then shrugged and handed his phone to her, "keep close to me though, I want that phone back."

Kat nodded and dialed the police, she blinked when the same officer she had talked to earlier hung up on her. What was this? The Twilight Zone 2: The Curse of the Gangster Village?! She dialed her mother's number, the answering machine left the same message.

"Mom, its me, two men were just in my room, and I---I left my phone everything in there and just ran its a long story. Im driving home, straight through-"

"In your night gown?" Questioned the blonde woman who looked to be about in her mid fifites.

"Yes, in my night gown, I'll buy clothes on the way!" Kat snapped, "Sorry, sorry, I'm just-"

"Scared," the man replied, "yes I know the two men you are speaking of."

"Mom, I think I just found help, love you, please...please...keep your phone around more? ok.." Then hung up and handed the man back his phone. "You know them?"

"Very well," the woman nodded, "that village at the end of the road there, its owned by a man named Capricorn, he's very, very cruel. You have to pay protection payments to him every month. What did you do to get in trouble with him?"

"I...I work for Southern Italy's Making History Foundation, they sent me out to take some pictures because they were intrested in purchasing the village. I um...heard something...and left...I guess one of them saw my car leaving."

The man looked to her, "you're in trouble then, big trouble," he frowned, "they tracked our neighbor all the way back to his home country, Asia, and we haven't heard from him since."

Kat's breath was shaky and long, she felt like she was going to pass out. She was going to die. Just over some guy refusing to give some other guy a damned book!

"Now...That's not true, Casey and Indiana Jones visited that village and they were seen and their just fine." Argued the woman, her blue eyes looking into Kat's.

"They're just kids, that's why," the man replied, rolling his eyes, he tugged down his light blue polo shirt.

"Wait, they were seen...But got away?"

The woman nodded, "maybe they just wanted to ask you what you heard and explain it was a misunderstanding? I've heard of that happening before."

"Really, Mallerie, since when?" The man scoffed.

"OI! Where could she have gone Basta?" The flat faced man asked as he stepped out of the elevator.

Kat darted and ran out the door.

"There she goes! Get her you idiot, get her!"

Kat ran as fast as she could, she winced as she ran across sharp stones on the parking lot's asphalt, she pressed the unlock button on the car and opened door, climbed in, shut the door and locked it just in time. The flat faced man smacked against her closed door, stepped back then tried to yank the handle open.

"Oi! Open this handle ye lil' witch!" he growled.

Kat didn't look at him to closely, she shielded the side of her face with one hand, the other started up the car, she couldn't give him a good look on what she looked like. She was about to pull the shifter into drive when the passenger door opened and a short man with dark brown hair, a foxy face, dark brown eyes, climbed in, a knife pointed at her throat.

"I don't think so," he smiled at her, "now why don't you be a good girl and get out of the car?"

"How.."

The man smiled, "I love my knife," he growled.

"Alright, alright," Kat replied leaning back, "I just need to move around a bit, Im hurting," she said softly. Before moving around in the seat enough she lifted her leg and kicked the sole of her foot into his face, knocking him out of the car, she pulled down the shifter and drove, the car door slammed shut on it's own, she locked it.

It hadn't been five minutes when a dark blue car came up behind her and rear ended her. The last thing she remembered before her head hit the steering wheel was a scraping sound from her door. The door opening. And the foxy faced man sneering down at her, then nothing...

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Something cool was on her forehead, "ooh..."

"Heavens, I think she's waking up," exclaimed the voice of an older woman.

"Thankfully so," exclaimed a man's voice, it sounded familiar, "miss, are you ok?"

Kat slowly opened her eyes to find a light brown haired man leaning over her, his blue eyes stared down at her in concern. An older woman was standing up and slightly hunched down to see her better; then there was a little girl, maybe around twelve.

"Where...Where am I?"

"You're in Capricorn's village," frowned the little girl, "why were brought here?"

"I...I was taking pictures, thought the village was abandoned..." Kat replied softly, "is today still Thursday?"

"Well, friday now, its four in the morning," the man frowned.

"Where...what is this?" Kat asked, trying to sit up, she yelped and grabbed her head.

"Lay back down," the man replied, "you have one nasty bump on your head. It's some kind of holding room."

"It had better not be that knife holder!" The older woman hissed.

The man stood up, Kat looked over to the door, a small red headed woman walked in, with blankets, and a bag filled with cold ice. Kat looked at the woman she looked jumpy and when the little girl hugged her, the woman hugged her back.

"I see you're awake," the woman said softly, kneeling down, "When did she wake up?"

"Just a minute ago," the man replied.

"It's ok," the woman said softly when Kat lurched back. Kat looked at the red head, she was dressed as the foxy faced man had been, only with a skirt. "It's alright, I'm a friend, my names Joy. I'm here to help you."

"She is," the man replied, "you can trust her."

Joy nodded, "I saw my husband carry you in here about four hours ago. You're the photographer aren't you? You really had my husband and other men going crazy there for a while trying to find you."

"Wait," Kat winced, "whose your husband? The flat faced man, or the foxy faced man?"

"The foxy faced man," Joy replied, "not by choice either," she added softly. Kat leaned back as the woman wiped a cool cloth over her forhead and set the bag of ice on it, "hold that."

Kat held it, she found herself exhausted all the sudden.

"What's your name?" Joy asked.

"Katherine Levingston, my friends call me Kat though, some of my friends are supersticious and call me black kat."

"Why black cat?" Questioned the little girl.

Kat bit her lip, because when the Powers That Be choose for me to have visions I do. She thought to herself, wishing she had visions of what this cursed village really was so she could have turned around and left. "Um...my hairs black..whats your name?"

"I'm Meggie, this is my father, Mo, and my Aunt Eleanor..."

Kat didn't hear any more than that she fell back to sleep utterly exhausted.