Hey! I know there are a few of you out there who've started reading this. Hopefully I've held your interest enough to get to this second chapter.

Please let me know what you think. I'd appreciate any feedback. I feel a little unsure of this story, but I was holding back posting for months and couldn't keep myself any longer.

Speaking of long... this chapter is super long. I hope to keep them shorter but hope it's ok for right now since everyone's getting acquainted :)

Let's go!

Chapter Two - Demons

"... All of your demons will wither away

Ecstasy comes and they cannot stay

You'll understand when you come my way

'Cause all of my demons have withered away…"

- Fatboy Slim ft. Macy Gray

Boon had been having a good day at work.

'Well, night technically…' He corrected himself as he made note of the fact that it was one in the morning.

He'd made a killing in tips and his bitchy little boss had agreed to meet with him to talk about a raise and job title change.

Aside from the headache that had been squeezing his brain for the past twelve hours, Boon was feeling fairly happy with himself.

"Boony baby. We gotta go out tonight!" Aat slung his thin arm over Boon's broad shoulders as they made their way through busy, spice filled streets of Taipei.

Boon felt his empty stomach clench. The street meats smelt so good but if he was drinking tonight then he couldn't afford to eat the fatty foods he was craving.

"I don't know." He spared a thought for the waft of pork sizzling on a nearby street cart.

"Girl!" Aat exclaimed fanning himself elegantly with a pink paper fan and tsking at Boon, "We haven't been out in ages!"

"We went out last night."

"That's what I mean." Aat casually brushed off as he moved to examine a pair of earrings hanging in a stall jammed up against one of the buildings lining the crowded street.

Boon had wanted to respond with something clever but he couldn't.

Air that he was breathing changed.

His light brown eyes roamed the plaza that suddenly surrounded him.

The sunset cast a kind of natural light that Boon had never seen before, the smell of clean air, free of diesel exhaust and free of the scent of sweat overwhelmed him.

'Air…' He inhaled deeply, being taken back to his childhood village.

Boon couldn't explain how but it felt so real. He looked down at his sandals and could actually sense the hard stones that were laid out in a curved pattern under them. He looked up and saw a fountain with a man in black and woman in red dancing what looked like the flamenco if he was remembering the videos he'd seen online correctly.

'What is happening?' His wide eyes looked to the small crowd of people watching the couple perform.

Most of them looked like tanned Europeans and many were wearing bright colours.

'Where am I?'

Confused expression still on his face, Boon hypnotically raised his hands to clap as the dancers finished.

"Hey!" All at once Aat's pale snapping fingers appeared in front of Boon's face. "What are you clapping at?" His short friend asked, flicking Boon's chin with his fan prompting Boon to close his mouth.

The inside of Boon's tongue was dry and as he shifted his gaze downward to see his hands mid-clap in front of him, all he could do was shake his head in disbelief.

It had felt so real.

Ofelia had not meant to stop but she had been enraptured.

She was supposed to have been home and entertaining her mother's guests right now but she had opted to stay later at the café than necessary.

At least that guaranteed her a reasonable excuse for having missed out on time with her family and the mystery boy who was sure to have shown up.

But the extended detour had caused her to be later than she had intended.

Ofelia had watched, her dark brown eyes unable to move from the sight of the dancers who had been drawing a crowd in front of Plaça de Catalunya.

As she raced home, she tried not to think of the dancers.

The female dancer in particular. The gentle curve of her back. The look of passionate longing in her dark eyes. The smooth skin of her thigh that showed when she wrapped her leg around her partner's body.

Ofelia felt a weight resting on her chest. Her headache from earlier in the day returning in full force.

She looked down at her own long legs and thought of the power coiled in them.

Her mother had always bemoaned the fact that Ofelia hadn't ever tried to pursue modelling and whatsmore that Ofelia hadn't carried on with her promising gymnastics career.

And Ofelia couldn't blame her.

'You should be seen, Cara mia.' Her mother would say.

She knew her mother only wanted what was best for her.

Ofelia tried to remember this as she faced her mother's too tight smile when she finally arrived at their apartment.

"Ophé!" She heard the chorus of her whole family sloppily greeting her from the living room of their spacious apartment.

She could see her brother, her uncles, her aunts and cousins sprawled out on various pieces of furniture just over her mother's head, which as per usual had not single hair out of place.

"You're late, mi amor." Her mother spoke through her perfect white teeth.

"I'm sorry, mama. I texted." Ofelia mumbled, dipping her head slightly. A strange smell filled her nose. 'Is that…?'

"Still," Her mouth barely moved as she sighed, putting pressure on Ofelia's arm as she drew her into the cozily furnished living room. "You almost missed Rodrigo."

Ofelia didn't have time to respond before her mother practically shoved her into the chest of the man who had stood up to greet her in front of her family. He towered over her which was an achievement considering she was 5' 11'' herself.

In an easy yet expensive looking dress shirt, with his hair perfectly coiffed back, he was the exact definition of tall, dark, suave and handsome.

Ofelia could just see her friends drooling all over him.

But she wasn't her friends.

And he wasn't for her.

"Hello." She said awkwardly, her mind more engaged with figuring out why their pristine living room suddenly smelt like marijuana.

"Hello," he flashed her a charming smile and held out his hand in greeting. "Your mother's been telling me a lot about you at…"

"At church." Ofelia finished the familiar statement for him. She had meant for the phrasing to come across lightly but the scent in her nose was causing her face to pinch.

Rodrigo frowned. "Is something wrong?"

Ofelia felt her mother's fingers discreetly pinch her elbow, "Ah…" her large brown eyes went from the man's frown to her mother's fake smile to her older brother's teasing smirk and then back up to Rodrigo's face. "I'm just a bit worn out from work. Just give me a second to freshen up." She spoke quickly, prying her arm away from her mother and rushing to her bedroom.

Shutting the door and pressing her back against it to keep it closed, Ofelia inhaled deeply. It only took that breath for her to register that the smell hadn't left her nose.

Irie groaned.

She rolled over on to her back. Her arm felt heavy as she blindly searched over her mattress for her phone. Her temples were throbbing. She did not want to be waking up at all.

Rubbing the sleep dust from her eyes, Irie checked her phone to see that it was well past noon.

She wasn't surprised.

Every weekday Irie found she got no more than five hours of sleep.

Weekends she'd was in bed for anywhere between ten to twelve hours but her sleep was just as fitful and her rest was almost always interrupted.

"Irie, girl!" A burst of energy busted into her dark room, flooding it with muggy tropical daylight.

Mildly annoyed Irie covered her dark brown eyes with her forearm, as her younger brother pushed open her bedroom curtains.

He pulled on a small lever next to the window to cause the slanted panes of glass to open and let air into her humid room.

"Roje! Why are you in here?" The young woman exclaimed sitting up in her bed, she made sure to pull her sheets up to cover up her underwear and tank top.

"Because, dear sister," he smiled that smile that usually got him what he wanted. "I missed you…" he took a long drag of the spliff that Irie hadn't noticed him holding before now.

"Please don't smoke that in here. You're gonna make all my stuff smell." She exclaimed in irritation as her brother chose to ignore her request in favour of flopping down on to the bed to sit by her.

He took another puff and blew the smoke towards her as he spoke, "You sleeping so late probably isn't good for your health."

"Thank you for the advice little brother." Irie rolled her eyes.

"You're welcome." He grinned for a moment, allowing a silence to fall between them. Roje took her hand in his, entwining his fingers with hers. She turned her head to read the expression on his face, but he refused to meet her gaze. "I mean it Irie."

She watched his eyes, a softer brown than her own, move down to where their hands were clasped together.

Her own gaze drifted down to follow his. Her darker brown starkly contrasting his lighter chocolate coloured skin tone.

Irie's heart thumped in her chest.

Roje squeezed her hand. "Are you taking care of yourself?"

"Of course I am." She tried to smile convincingly, nudging her nose playfully against his shoulder. "And I'm your big sister. Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"

"Maybe…" he allowed himself a small chuckle, giving her hand another squeeze, growing quiet once again before speaking softly. "But it's getting worse isn't it."

Irie wanted to yank her hand out of his and tell him she was fine, but her heart was pounding far too loudly in her ears in a strange rhythm, it almost sounded like…

'Clacking?' She frowned, shaking her head to try to clear it of the noise. 'Where is that coming from?' Irie twisted her body around slightly to search her small room for the source of the sound.

"Irie?" Roje asked, prodding gently for her attention back. "What happened last night?"

With the mysterious clacks still in her head, Irie responded to her brother. "It'll be fine Roje." She tried to hold back the flood of nerves she felt at the events of the previous night. "I promise." She gave him a soft smile, however evidently a smile wasn't going to deter him this time around.

"Mommy said…"

That was enough to make Irie pull her hand away from her brother. "You didn't tell her did you?" She breathed in an angry whisper.

The sound of the clacking raised in volume.

"I promised I wouldn't Irie." Her brother's countenance became more serious. "But I don't know why you won't tell her about you carrying on with it. She'd understand."

Her brow knit together. The clacking grew even louder. She couldn't think with the clatter in her mind.

"Do you hear that?" She questioned him with frustration her voice.

"Hear what?" Roje asked with confusion written in his dark eyes.

"Tha…" in the space of second the noise stopped and she was left with the sound of the wind and the rain beginning to patter on the open panes of her window.

Rian was happy.

He loved the smell of rain.

His skin felt sticky in the heat and outside the window he could see the grey skies and dense green foliage surrounding the house.

Someone… a woman was talking to herself.

"Hello?" He attempted to see where the voice was coming from, but whoever it was hidden just past the edge of the doorway to the room he was in.

"Rian!" A hand slapped down on his shoulder.

He woke with a jolt. Jerking his head, Rian tried to catch his bearings.

The young black-haired man, took in where he was seated at the small kitchen table in his flat with his laptop open in front of him.

Glancing up to his left he saw that it was his flatmate, who was incidentally also his best friend, that had woken him up so abruptly.

"Jesus, Jaime! You tryin' to give me a fuckin' heart attack or somethin'?" Rian stared up angrily at his blond friend. Noticing with some added annoyance that the headache that had been bothering him all day still hadn't faded.

"Sorry mate, but you were talkin' in yer sleep." Jaime offered in explanation, giving Rian's shoulder a squeeze before walking towards the kettle on their kitchen counter, "An' you were droolin' on yerself."

"What?" Rian frowned, doing a double take down at the dark, damp patch that had formed on the front of the grey t-shirt he was wearing.

"An' what was that you were talkin' in?" Jaime asked.

"Huh?" Rian was only half paying attention.

He'd checked the time on his laptop and realized that he had dozed off for about half an hour… probably due to his interrupted sleep the night before. He yawned as stood up and took off his shirt on his way to his bedroom. It was almost time to get going.

"You were sayin' something."

"I dunno, I was probably jus' babblin' a whole lot of nothin'." Rian replied, brushing a hand through his short messy hair.

His dream playing on the fringes of his mind. He could still practically taste the salt air from the sea on his tongue.

Licking his lips, Rian dug a cleanish grey undershirt and a white dress shirt out of his closet.

He watched as the white sleeves covered up the series of tattoos that ran up both of his muscular arms. It never gave him much joy to hide them but he had to present himself in a certain light tonight.

Adjusting the cuffs of the dress shirt his lips twitched with a smile.

While he could cover the images on his arms the ones on his hands and knuckles couldn't be helped.

Tattoos were a big part of his dad's culture and the fact that his father had wanted Rian to be distanced from that side of the family had only driven Rian to pursue any avenue to put more of that banned culture in his world, especially when he had been in that pissed off teenage phase of his life.

Rian still remembered that day that he and his father had gone from fighting about the tattoos to laughing about them.

'Weird day.' He thought with the odd scent of sweet rain and the sensation of warm wind suddenly hitting him.

He shook it off as he watched himself failing to knot a tie at his throat in his bedroom mirror for a few minutes.

'Why do I even bother?' Eventually giving up he returned to the kitchen.

"You mind?" He held the black tie out to his flatmate, who was now sitting at the kitchen table, scrolling through the code Rian had been writing before he'd fallen asleep.

"You goin' then?" Jaime put down the cup of tea he'd been nursing and took the tie from Rian.

"Looks like it." The dark haired man sighed, on his way towards the bathroom. He quickly brushed his teeth and bent his knees to try to tame his untidy hair.

'I really need to get this fixed.' They had been promised that the bathroom mirror would be replaced right away. That was five years ago when they'd first started renting the place but Danny, their friendly and bumbling landlord, had yet to follow through.

Rian was only 6' 0'' but the 'temporary' solution was hanging way too low for any reasonable person to put up with for this long.

But there was no point complaining to Danny. Their landlord had good intentions but no follow through, besides the rent was a godsend and Jaime had nothing to make fuss over as he was several inches shorter than Rian. So they'd just dealt with it.

After deciding to give up on his hair as well, Rian found Jaime with the tie perfectly knotted around his throat and his blue eyes glued to the computer screen again.

"Damn man…" Jaime muttered. "I forget how good you are sometimes." He lolled his head back to eye Rian was some awe tinged sadness. "You shouldn't be wasting this…" Jaime indicated to the screen. "Commissions for discount clothing apps and security processing… such a shame." Rian watched as his best friend shook his head mournfully in front of him.

"I've heard it before, Jaime." Rian did all he could to keep his voice level, he presented Jaime with his open hand, "If you've nothing new to add, I'll be takin' my tie back now."

Jaime's blue gaze stuck on him for a breath longer before he relented and gave Rian the tie back.

"Why are you even going to this sham?"

"Because Ma's goin' and Da tends to be a total twat at these things." Rian swallowed thickly, thinking of how his father would get when someone started in on Rian's mother.

And someone always seemed to be starting in on his mother.

"Fair enough." Jaime shrugged, "Just sayin' it's yer funeral."

"Thanks for the input mate." Rian bit through the pounding in his head, instead trying focus tightening the tie around his neck and the calming sound of soft rain drops falling against the windows of the flat.

"I always got your back, mo chara." **my friend**

Rian paused in his distracted movements to look down to give Jaime a genuine grin. "I know. Mise freisin." **me too**

In the dull quiet that followed it only took a brief moment longer for it to dawn on Rian that there were no clouds in the evening sky and that there was not a single drop of rain to be seen or heard falling outside.

Yuka had been walking through the snow for a couple of hours.

The sunlight reflecting off the surface the icy landscape had always helped to clear her thoughts.

Fishing with her older sister had not gone particularly well.

Una had evidently taken it upon herself to 'reign' Yuka in on behalf of the counsel and 'for her own good' according to Una.

Gritting her teeth Yuka moved as smoothly as she was able with snowshoes attached to her feet.

Today's walk was not helping, especially with building pressure that had not left her head since the previous night.

Yuka had simply chalked the strange occurrence to one too many beers and the lateness of the hour. But she couldn't get over how her head was aching and how she felt at odds with herself.

At times she wondered if she should have even bothered coming back.

Most of her family didn't seem to believe that her cause was worth the trouble.

'Most…'

A small smile flickered over her lips as she thought of her father. He had been a strong figure in the community. Yuka still remembered how their village had thrived when he had been providing counsel to the chief of their people decades before.

But when his health had started declining twelve years ago, a slow slide into corruption and disillusion had taken place in her home.

A blistering wind blew past, burning her cheeks with its harshness.

Yuka a reveled in it. Taking it in deeply.

Her moment of tranquility was disrupted however as her lungs suddenly filled with smoke that caused Yuka to begin hacking.

Gasping for a breath, Yuka lifted her watering light brown eyes to see a dark room filled with people who were watching a brightly lit stage with a drag queen performing on it.

She turned her head to see if there was a trace of where she had been before, but she couldn't find any sight of it.

Yuka blinked and she was back on her frozen trail.

Her breath fogged in front of her and she swallowed down the clean air.

'What is happening to me?' A panicked string of thoughts ran through her mind.

Her eyes watered for a new reason as she searched the barren landscape around her.

She was alone with the burn of cigarette smoke still in her mouth.

Hondo's head was buzzing with the thrum of the city around him.

For some it may have been considered early in the morning but these vendors and people milling about him had been up for hours.

At times he almost would forget that this was the same country that had lived in poverty for so long.

Hondo knew that much of the area he lived in was a tourist trap. Designed and filled with vendors who looked happy so that they could make a sale to fill the empty stomachs of their babies.

So many changes had been promised and yet… He thought of what they said in American movies. 'The rich get richer...' his light brown eyes wandered to the alleys hiding the true colours of the city. 'Poor get poorer.'

Hondo rolled his shoulders when his phone vibrated in his hand. 'Speaking of which…'

Ms. Ziza, the woman who had hired him had texted him for the third time that day.

"Time to get to work Hon." He mumbled to himself, as he ducked into a sunlit alley.

Hondo held the phone up to his ear, inside the relatively quiet alleyway.

"Hello?" He asked into the receiver, his gaze weary eying the alley for any potential eavesdroppers or people who were willing stab someone over a cellphone. "Ms. Ziza?"

"Hondo?" Her trembling voice crackled over the phone. "Is that you?"

"It is Ms. Ziza."

"I've been trying to reach you all morning."

"I know. I haven't had a chance to even rest Ms. Ziza. If I told you the night I had…" He sighed with some put on emphasis.

"What?" She asked barely bothering to hide her panic. "Did you find something?"

"I'm very close, but…" Hondo trialed off deliberately trying to draw her out.

"But what?"

"There's this security guard who…"

"Whatever it is he wants give it to him."

"He wants money Ms. Ziza. I would have paid him myself but this case has been difficult and my funds have been depleted."

"I'll advance you whatever you need!" She shrieked, Hondo could practically see frantically pacing the floor of her shiny, white mansion.

'Some women love their husbands, Hondo.'

He'd barely had the thought before Ms. Ziza's sharp voice cut through again, "Just please find out what he's doing."

"It'll be quite expensive."

"I'll pay."

"If you insist Ms. Ziza." He smiled to himself in the quiet street, feeling fairly proud of his achievement.

Until he felt something brush against his side. Looking down he wondered if a young pickpocket had just run past him while he'd been distracted.

'I spoke too loudly…' Hondo's mind wandered back to think if he missed signs of someone following him. He checked his pockets and found nothing to be out of place.

Then he felt it again, this time there was the sound of childlike laughter as well.

His head felt hot.

He felt small arms wind their way around his hips.

"I love you Mummy." The voice that had laughed only moments ago, was now speaking up at him.

'What?' Hondo ducked away from whatever spirit was taunting him.

His light eyes stuck to the vacated spot he had only just been standing in.

There was no one in sight.

'Am I going mad?' He asked, his thoughts returning to the old man he had seen in his mirror when he had woken up.

"Hondo?" Ms. Ziza's concerned voice penetrated his troubling thoughts.

"M-Ms. Ziza. I'll have to call you back."

"What happened? Is it my…"

"I'll have to call you back." Hondo said quickly, hanging up the call as he backed away from where he had felt what could only have been a ghost hug him.

Kylie was exhausted.

The day had been a particularly annoying one.

Especially with the migraine that had taken a hold of her head.

"Mummy!"

Cracking her neck Kylie, picked herself up out of the lounge chair that she had only just settled into.

'This is what you signed up for.' She thought to herself, shaking her blonde head as she made her way off the outdoor deck, away from her long awaited glass of wine and back into her little bungalow towards her daughter's bedroom.

"What is it darling?" Kylie called out, as she neared the slightly ajar bedroom door.

Her daughter was sitting up in her bed with a tangle of fairy lights on her bed frame that were surrounding her with a gentle glow.

Kylie felt her heart stop at that beautiful sight.

'This is what you signed up for.' She smiled her brown-haired little girl.

"I kicked Harry under the bed." Astrid indicated down near to the sheets that had come untucked at the foot of her bed.

With a small sigh, Kylie made her way to the edge of her daughter's bed to pick up the platypus stuffie she'd had since she was three years old, moving to sit on the bed once she had.

"You're a little bit grown up to be scared to look under the bed now, aren't you?" Kylie gave her daughter a grin and batted her nose with the teddy bear before handing the soft toy over.

Astrid giggled, hugging Harry close to her chest.

"I don't get scared all the time… just sometimes."

"That's ok, sweetheart. I was just teasing." She held the top of the duvet so that Astrid could wriggle down and get comfortable under the covers. "Your brother had me checking his closet until he was twelve." Kylie said with a grin, "Sometimes I still do." Added in a whisper, causing Astrid to chuckle, over the sound of a guitar strumming through the open bedroom door.

"Speak of the devil. He's getting good isn't he?"

Astrid's eyes brown eyes were already falling closed, as she yawned a half response. "Wha…?"

"Nevermind." Kylie leaned forward to kiss her daughter's forehead. "Sweet dreams, darling. I love you."

By the time Kylie had made it back to the hallway, Astrid was snoring and she could hear Finn playing guitar down the hall.

'That's really sweet sounding.' Kylie thought to herself, ordinarily their home was filled with the sound of thrashing or screeching chords. He rarely played softer music which was Kylie's preference, though she enjoyed his rougher material. 'He's so gifted.'

Kylie found herself drifting down the hall towards her son's room.

She yearned for the days where her baby would let her tuck him in. Lately it seemed like everything she did was wrong.

Kylie tapped on his door.

"Yeah?"

Taking that as invitation Kylie opened the door to her son's room.

Her light brow furrowed when she was met with the sight of him sitting at his desk hunched over a textbook. Her green eyes found both of his guitars clearly resting in their stands on the other end of the room.

"Did you want something?" Finn's annoyed voice broke over the sound of the strumming that was still playing somewhere.

"I…" Kylie took in the frustrated look on her son's face. He had her green eyes and her dirty blonde hair but everything else about him was just like his father. By the looks of it Astrid was going to be short like her, but already at 6' 4'' Finn was a full foot taller than Kylie. "I just wanted to say good night." She decided that telling her already pissed off teenaged son about phantom guitars playing her head would not be the brightest idea.

"Well… good night." He brushed her off as per usual, turning his head back to the homework sitting under the light of his desk lamp.

"Is…" Kylie swallowed thickly, gathering her courage as she stepped further into the room. "Is that your Chem homework… sweetheart?"

"Yes." He gritted out, without looking at her.

"Do you need a hand?"

"If I did, I'd ask." He said his voice sharp against her ears.

Kylie felt her courage wilt. "Ok." She swallowed, moving back to the door. "G-" Kylie was cut off by a sudden shiver that overtook her. She had never felt so cold in her life, she swore she could see the blinding white ice that had caused her body to shudder.

"Are you ok?" Her son's voice pulled her back, the guitar she had heard early had grown louder.

Kylie looked to see that he had turned to face her, there was worry in his expression.

Taking a deep breath, Kylie steadied herself. "I'm ok. Just someone walking over my grave."

Finn gave her simple nod in response and swivelled back to his homework.

'Ok.'

"Well, good night then…" Kylie dawdled by the door, "I love you."

"Night." He tossed nonchalantly over his shoulder. "You mind closing the door?"

The guitar stopped.

Kylie gave a weak smile that he obviously didn't care to see, "Sure."

Ilya's head had been filled with the hard thump of electronic music blasting out of his home speakers for the last half hour.

And even that hadn't been enough.

This headache was driving him insane.

"Fuck." His blue eyes searched clean modern lines of his kitchen's marble countertops for a bottle of anything to help soothe the constant jabbing in his brain.

Whatever it was that Andrei had given him at the club had not worked as advertised. Andrei had sworn that within an hour Ilya's troubles would be far away and that his mind would essentially be sailing off to another planet.

But that hadn't been the case. They had gotten to the nightclub early because Andrei had wanted to see some opening act for the night.

It had not gone successfully, there had been no point in Ilya even bothering to go out.

At only half an hour past midnight, he was already home.

'This is pathetic.'

It took a moment for his woozy brain to realize that his phone had been ringing. It was probably Bianca. He was meant to be heading up to the estate the day after next. And right on schedule his big sister had decided to start gathering allies for the upcoming skirmish with their father by telling Ilya 'what had really happened'.

'Or it could be Lola….' He considered his fiancé for a moment. He was supposed to have met her at the club at midnight. 'Serves her right for going out.' He measured Lola against what the appropriate conduct for a fiancé to a man of his stature should have been.

Ilya poured himself a glass of water and left his phone buzzing in the kitchen. As he moved into his darkened lounge towards the floor to ceiling windows in his penthouse loft.

Despite her shortcomings Ilya had to admit that he did like Lola's company. Aside from Andrei she was his closest friend.

'I'll call her.' The sound of his phone vibrating behind him stopped. 'Tomorrow.'

Looking out at the twinkling city lights below, just beyond the patio outside the panes of thick glass, Ilya tried to think of the last time he had felt this strange way.

The light from the kitchen was reflecting off of the window before him. Ilya could see the confusion in his dark blue eyes. Drawing a weary hand over the godsend of scruff covering his chin, he thought of the sinking feeling in his stomach and what it reminded him of.

Without much of an idea of what he was doing Ilya made his way upstairs, past a second sitting area and into a his relatively small and sparsely decorated bedroom. He could see the city lights just as bright through the wall of windows on the opposite end of the dark room.

Ilya turned up the dimmer to cast a warm glow on the contents of the room. There was very little in his grey sleeping space, besides a king bed, and a metal nightstand with a lamp and a coaster on it.

Cleanliness and organization had been an attitude he had carried with him from childhood.

A small twinge struck him in his stomach as he looked around his meticulous room, urging him to open the safe he had installed the back of his closet.

He placed his glass down to the coaster atop his nightstand before pushing aside the pressed shirts hanging according to colour and pattern in his walk in wardrobe. Ilya knelt down to spin the tumbler with sure, steady fingers.

As the door to the safe fell open with a metallic sigh, Ilya eyed the contents with some weariness. A few thousand dollars in American cash, his passport, the West German Sig P220 his father had given him on his thirteenth birthday and an old tape recorder with single cassette tape sitting next to it.

He felt slowed down and woozy as he lifted the cassette and recorder out of the safe. 'Maybe they're working...' Ilya thought of the pills Andrei had given him earlier. He made his way to sit on the edge of his pristinely made bed.

Carefully, due to the sudden clumsiness of his fingers, Ilya pulled the cassette out of its case. He popped the recorder open, hands trembling, his eyelids drugged and heavy as he placed the tape into the machine.

Closing it, he let go of a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

Ilya's mouth ticked, as he willed himself to push down on the play button that his left thumb was hovering over.

'Come Iylusha…' he heard in his head, causing his eyes to squeeze shut tighter. He raised arm to press the edge of the recorder hard against his forehead in frustration.

"Argh!" Ilya fell back to lie on his bed. Eyes still closed and fist still clenched around the recorder. He wanted to scream.

But just as he was about to open his mouth, he heard it.

Something soothed the tension that had built in his muscles.

Ilya felt his expression change as in the dark behind his closed eyes he heard the sound of singing. Sweet and soft, like a lullaby gently rocking him.

'Jesus. These drugs are good.' He thought to himself, though it did not take him long to recognize that this was not how any high he'd ever been on before had felt. And he had been on a lot.

This felt strange. Real. As though somehow the person… the woman singing had known he had needed it.

He shook his drowsy head, too tired to make sense of much anymore. The darkness that had been edging around his mind was beginning to overtake him now.

Ilya allowed the tape recorder to slip out of his hand as he breathed out the words, "Thank you" to the empty room.

Lila had realized that this was probably her own fault. She had been patching up the holes in her father's socks in the dim lamplight of the room she shared with Zahra hours ago when she had heard it.

Zahra had been peacefully snoring on their thin mattress, in the quiet night there was nothing more than that but the sound of her father belching in his sleep from the only other room in their home and crickets whistling outside their barred windows.

It had been frightening to hear the sudden thumping and loud crashing of music out of nowhere. Lila had stuck her finger with a needle in surprise.

She'd had blinked her hazel eyes at the room surrounding her to make sure that she and her niece were still the lone occupants.

The noise was deafening, she could feel the beat pounding from her feet and into her chest.

It reminded her of too many things… bad things.

Normally Lila would not have bothered anyone with her troubles, especially Zahra, but the thought of the old man with slanted eyes that no one else seemed to have seen and now the noise in her head made her beyond anxious. She had to know.

Ignoring the stress on her limbs Lila had crawled over to her niece and shaken her awake. As soon as the little girl had opened her bleary eyes to look up at Lila's uncovered face the noise stopped.

"Did you hear it?" Lila had asked peering around once more.

Zahra been confused and stated that she hadn't heard anything.

Lila had hoped this would mean that Zahra would drift off back to sleep. But the damage was done for Lila now had to spend the next few hours trying to lull her young niece back to sleep.

This had been extremely difficult as Zahra seemed to be hearing 'something' in the distance and growing frightened every 15 minutes of some shadow she saw.

"Shh…" Lila had finally managed to get Zahra to lay against her as they both rested atop their mattress. "There's nothing out there. Aunty Lili was just being a bit silly."

"Hmmm…" Zahra nodded with a yawn, though her eyes were still stuck on the doorway of the room.

"Do not worry my love." Lila whispered into her niece's light brown hair. "Nika and I won't let anything happen to you."

Zahra simply cuddled in closer to her Aunt's side.

Lila readjusted her position and began to hum as she stroked Zahra's feather soft hair. Hair that was so much easier to manage than her own thick, hip length mane.

She thought of the dark reddish brown locks that were all that she had left of what little beauty she'd ever had. It was an uncommon colour and that might have impressed her husband if she'd had ever gotten married.

'But all that's gone now…'

Zahra eyes began to fall close as Lila sung her a lullaby from when she had been a baby. "Asleep you're a beautiful child…"

As she sang, Lila felt a pang of guilt at being so vain and selfish in her thoughts.

'I ought to just cut it off.' She bit the inside of her lips, as she hummed the next verse. Her cheeks felt damp as she went on singing. Lila let her eyes fall closed as well, hoping that sleep would come for her soon as well.

Her fingers continued passing over Zahra long hair…

Except… the hair wasn't long now. Lila's face creased in confusion.

The hair beneath her fingertips was coarser than Zahra's, it smelt of something musky that she had never smelt before. It wasn't short but it certainly was not as long as Zahra's hair.

Daring herself to open her eyes Lila was relieved and oddly troubled to find her niece's sleeping head still under her hand.

Lifting her hand to her face, Lila frowned, 'What is happening to me?'

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