Helle stared at Alexis. He bowed once more.

"He's…he's a holy man, my dear," explained Athanasios a little nervously. He hovered awkwardly in the doorway, one hand resting on the handle as he gawped at what was once his daughter. Her yellowish eyes, always so disconcerting, were even more so set against her new dusky skin.

Helle stared vaguely up at the two men standing over her, and frowned slightly. "Who is this?"

"I…just said. He's called Alexis. Remember? We used to attend his church. Your…your mothe - I mean…well, Ionna thinks he can help you."

"Oh, really?" she sneered, a slight grin curling her lips. "How…amusing."

There was a silence, filled only by Athanasios' awkward coughing. "Well…Alexis, I have to go meet my lawyer. I hope you don't mind…"

Alexis nodded stiffly, his eyes remaining empty and blank. "Perfectly all right."

"Good…" Athanasios teetered tensely on the balls of his feet for a few more anxious seconds, his eyes flicking rapidly between his daughter and the priest. "I…Helle…"

She raised one eyebrow. "Yes?"

" - nothing…" The door swung closed behind him with a gentle click.

Helle moved her gaze to Alexis, and narrowed her eyes at him. He stared dully back, and then took a shaky step forwards.

"So. Where do you think you can succeed where so many have failed?"

Alexis shrugged, with a slow, listless movement.

Scowling at him, Helle raised her hand and pointed commandingly at him. "Answer me!"

Immediately Alexis spoke up. "I do not understand the question, Lady Helle."

She sat up straighter. "What did you call me?"

"Nothing, my Lady."

Frowning, Helle bit her lip and tapped her chin contemplatively. "I seem to remember you disappearing last year. Weren't you ill for a while?"

Alexis was silent.

"Answer me!"

"I do not understand the question, Lady Helle."

"And stop saying that!" she snapped, folding her arms.

"I apologise," he said, in that same odd monotonous voice, bowing stiffly. When he straightened up once more, he stood with his paper-skinned hands hanging limply by his sides, staring vacantly down at her. She frowned up at him, scrutinizing his empty eyes.

"Why does Athanasios think you can help me?"

He said nothing.

Helle threw the bedcovers back and swung her legs round to sit on the edge of the bed, bare grey feet swinging above the splintered wooden floorboards. "All right." She clasped her delicate hands on her knees and ran her tongue over her top lip, her scowl deepening. "All right. Fine then."

Alexis was silent.

"Easy question first." Assuming a rather thoughtful expression, she rested her chin in her hands and tilted her head to one side. "Why are you calling me 'Lady'?"

"I am showing respect, Lady Helle."

"And why is that?"

"No reason."

Helle sat up once more. "I want you to tell me the truth."

Alexis blinked for the first time, and bowed once more. "Very well."

"So I ask you again. Why are you showing me such respect?"

"I must be respectful of all Noah, my Lady."

Something squirmed in Helle's stomach at this, and she flinched slightly. There was that word again. "What's a Noah?"

"An apostle of the True God."

Taking a deep breath, Helle extended her hands before her and wiggled her fingers, staring at the smooth grey skin. Slowly she touched her own nose, and then abruptly lunged for a small hand mirror lying on the bedside table. Snatching it up, she thrust her face into it and took in her new complexion, running her trembling fingers over her cheeks. Her hair, now severely untidy and in need of a serious wash, hung limply either side of her face, baring her forehead to the world.

She shot a glance at Alexis. "What are these?" As she spoke, she indicated the crosses across her brow with the mirror.

"Stigmata, Lady Helle."

"Hm." Slowly she turned back to the mirror and stared at them hard for a good few minutes. "I recognise them. Is…is that…strange?"

"Not at all, my Lady."

Sighing, Helle laid the mirror aside and glowered once more at Alexis. She was beginning to get a little tired of this oddly empty man and his cryptic comments. "Who are you?"

"Alexis, my Lady."

"Is that your full name?" she enquired dryly, tossing her head irritably. Her plaits danced madly around her head. "Just Alexis?"

"Yes, my Lady."

"Oh don't be silly," she snapped, in the sort of tone one might expect from a frustrated schoolmistress. "You must have a surname."

"No."

"Wife?"

Alexis flinched, and a small animalistic whine escaped his lips as his eyes rolled back in their sockets and he swayed slightly. "E..Eh…Elisavet…"

Helle watched him closely for a few minutes, and then sighed heavily. "I can see I'm getting nowhere."

"Uh…" Alexis' odd moans subsided and he lowered his head slightly, dropping his empty gaze to the bare floor. "I must go, my Lady."

"Why?" she demanded immediately, leaping to her feet. "I need to know more!"

"I must got, my Lady."

"No!" Angrily she stamped one foot, her eyes darkening with childish rage. "Tell me! Tell me who I am!"

"Ahhh…" Alexis clutched helplessly at his face as the skin began to sag before Helle's horrified eyes, a strange purplish star forming on his wrinkled brow. She stepped backwards, and pointed at it with a trembling finger.

"What's that? What's happening?"

"I - must - go…" With surprising speed and agility for one so aged, Alexis spun on one heel and careened out of the door, his footsteps thundering down the corridor as he dashed away.

"No!" Furiously Helle charged after him, her bare feet slapping on the splintered floorboards and plaits flying behind her. Alexis reached the stairs and hurtled downwards, stumbling occasionally on the steps, until he reached the polished marble floor and the front door to freedom.

Athanasios was there, giving his farewells to the family lawyer, a smooth faced and dark haired young man wearing a neat linen suit. He looked up in shock as Alexis tore towards him, hands outstretched.

"A - Alexis? What the - " Athanasios stumbled backwards as the old man threw the lawyer into him with surprising force. He disappeared through the door, clutching his face in his withered hands.

Helle skidded to a halt on the doorstep and stared after him, the autumn air whipping through her hair. She clenched her jaw angrily and suddenly slammed the door shut so hard that its glass panes rattled in their frames.

Athanasios extended a trembling hand towards her nervously, and then withdrew. "Helle? What…what happened?"

She was silent for a moment, and then spun to face her once-father. "What's wrong with you?" she wailed into his face, brandishing her grey fists. "Why didn't you stop him?"

"What are you talking about?" blustered Athanasios, shock making him defensive. "What did you do to him?"

"He was my chance to find out what was happening!" wailed Helle, clutching her head and shaking it from side to side in anguish. "He knew, Athanasios! He knew!"

"Uh…" Behind Athanasios, his lawyer nervously raised a hand. "Mr. Anatolia? May I…uh…I think was leaving?"

"Yes, you were. I do apologise." Athanasios stepped aside and gestured to the door. He cast a faintly disgusted glance at his daughter, who had sunk to her knees and was moaning angrily to herself. "Helle, pull yourself together and get back into bed, now. I don't know what you did to Alexis, but I'm not standing for it! Do you hear me? I am not!"

Nervously the lawyer attempted to sidle past Helle so as to open the door, but she had chosen to kneel right on the doormat and showed now sign of moving. He coughed politely. "Miss? You…uh, I'd like to…leave, if I may?"

"He could have…told me…everything!" Helle screamed the last word at her father, her head shooting up to glare at him. As she did so, she staggered to her feet and pointed accusingly at him with a trembling finger. Somewhere in her heart she knew that none of this was Athanasios' fault, that no one could have prevented Alexis from escaping, but she nonetheless felt the need for a scapegoat, and it felt good to blame someone.

"Helle! You are making a scene! Get back upstairs!" bellowed Athanasios, pointing firmly to the ceiling. "I am not putting up with this any more! I don't believe you're sick! You stopped being ill a long time ago, didn't you? This is just…just bad behaviour!"

Helle laughed, with a high, mad laugh that caused her eyes to roll upwards madly. She tossed her head once more. "You humans really are so stupid! When are you going to understand, you silly little man? I'm not you daughter! Understand? Not any more!"

"I'll…just be going now…" The lawyer attempted to slip past Helle once more, but she shot an arm out, slamming into his chest with a powerful, commanding motion unbefitting a thirteen year-old girl. "Don't move! You are not to go anywhere until I am finished!"

"Be quiet, Helle! You are embarrassing me!" yelled Athanasios. "And stop being ridiculous! However much you may want to deny it, you are my daughter, and will behave as such!"

"Maybe once I was your daughter," she snarled. "But that was long ago. She's gone, Athanasios. And I'm ready to take what is now my body!"

The lawyer cast a frightened glance at Athanasios, and signalled frantically that he wanted the door open. Athanasios didn't see; he was too busy glaring down at what he still believed to be his daughter.

Eventually the young lawyer's courage broke and he lunged forwards, briefcase swinging from one hand, and yanking furiously at the door lock with the other. Helle's arm shot out and she pointed at him. "I told you to not move!"

"What the - " He staggered backwards, staring down in horror as the tiny dark hole of the keyhole squirmed, and suddenly spewed a long thin skewer of black straight at him. It twisted like a thin snake and constricted around his forearm, crushing the sleeve of his suit and drawing his arm tight against the door, bending his wrist and crushing the back of his hand flat against the wooden surface. His mouth stretched wide in a horrified scream and his briefcase tumbled noisily to the floor as he thumped his other fist desperately against the door in an attempt to get it to release him. "What the hell is this? Get it off me!"

Athanasios' frightened gaze flicked between his fearful lawyer and the smiling, grey-skinned, golden-eyed girl that was no longer his daughter. She put her head to one side and grinned through the untidier chunks of hair that hung either side of her face.

"Helle! What are you doing? Stop it!" cried Athanasios, waving his arms in a panic as he tried to make sense of what was going on. "Helle!"

She ignored him completely, and merely raised on finger, watching the lawyer carefully. "What's interesting about becoming Enochi is that I'm now able to see right into the depths of your souls. I can see every shameful sin you've ever committed…"

The lawyer turned a frightened and bloodless face to her, whimpering as his wrist emitted a nasty crack, sending tremors all up his arm. "It hurts…"

"Let's see…if I'm not mistaken, first there was that woman you testified against in court, am I right?" She tapped her chin, clearly enjoying herself hugely. "Allowing her husband to win full custody of the house and children, despite the fact that he was responsible for all their monetary problems…" The shadow engorged and swelled, forming the grotesque silhouette of a long-haired woman, her mouth stretched wide in a howl of pain. The form surged upwards from the dark tendrils of shadow encircling the lawyer's arm and raised its hands high above his head.

"No!"

Helle raised a second finger. "Second. An old man, wasn't it? He wasn't very happy when you failed to win justice for his poor daughter. And all because you took that bribe…" A second shadow exploded from the keyhole, and again mutated horribly into a cruel imitation of a human profile. It too surged upwards to join the first, where they writhed and twisted in a cruel mockery of a tango.

"Stop it!" shrilled the lawyer desperately. "I didn't!"

"And the poor girl who couldn't afford to pay for the last few weeks of trial…you just left her, alone and helpless, didn't you?" A third raised finger, and a third screaming shadow. Helle sighed and rolled her eyes. "I could go on and on. You lawyers…such terrible crimes."

Athanasios took a trembling step back, his eyes wide and bulging as he fixed them on the bizarre sight unfolding before his eyes. The lawyer had collapsed weakly on the floor, one arm suspended comically above his head by the hand that was still held to the door, and the three vengeful shadows loomed over him, reaching towards his face with outstretched hands.

As the man screamed in terror, Athanasios threw away any more pretence of bravery and dived out of the hall into his study, slamming the door behind him and sinking to the floor, closing his eyes as he tried to pretend he hadn't seen anything.

Outside, Helle continued to watch, thoughtfully. "The thing about guilt, you see," she explained gently, as though trying to make the concept of 2+2 simple for a confused child. "Is that it never really leaves you. It gets under your skin - " The three silhouettes surged forward and congregated over the man's sweaty face, swarming over his mouth and eyes, disappearing under the eyelids, squirming up his nose and down his throat. "And stays there, eating away at you from the inside…"

Now that the shadows had taken refuge inside of him, the man's arm was finally released from the door, and he let it fall with a gasp of pain, the wrist now twisted and broken. He barely had time to reflect on this, however, before he was suddenly violently jerked backwards, and lay there whining, froth oozing from between his pallid lips.

"Until one day, you just can't contain it any more, and it just…consumes you whole." With this sentence, blood suddenly exploded from every orifice in the man's face - his eyes, his ears, his nose and mouth - and sprayed several feet in front of him. He pitched forward, screaming and pleading for help.

Coldly Helle watched him writhe and thrash in agony, his face muscles now appearing to try and fight each other for dominion, his cheeks squirming and his eyelids bulging. Eventually his skin could stand up to the pressure no longer, and the shadows burst forth once more in a horrific spray of gore and blood.

A warm red droplet flung itself at Helle's grey cheek, and its hot touch appeared to snap her out of her reverie. In silence she raised a trembling finger to touch her face and stared at the red smeared all over the tip, blinking rapidly. In her preoccupation she did not see the shadows of the deceased lawyer's guilt, leaking from his ruined body to slink across the floor to her bare ankles. They gathered themselves around them, encasing her feet in black, and curling up her calves. She glanced down, and nodded at them. "I know killing him wasn't the best way to satisfy you, but sometimes that all you can do."

The shadows of guilt paused, and then shrank down from her legs once more. She squatted down, and watched them curiously. "And what do I do with you now?"

They remained where they were, twisting and mutating in an agitated circle on the floor, the occasional brief form of the woman, or the old man, appearing for a second. Helle smiled and stretched both hands out to them, palms bent forward and wrists bared towards the shadows.

Athanasios peeked around the door of his study just in time to see the long tendrils of darkness disappear with a slithering, whip-like movement, into - he rubbed his eyes and blinked several times. Two identical, sharp-toothed mouths had appeared on Helle's thin little wrists, both hanging open and slathering all over her palms as the shadows were swallowed up. In a horrified trance Athanasios watched as the last of the darkness vanished into her wrists, and she stood up once more, staring down at the mouths.

He flung the door wide and started forward. "Helle! Oh my god, Helle! What's - what happened to - "

He caught sight of the lawyer.

He staggered back, clutching his chest. "Oh god…Helle! Did you…Did you - "

She turned to face him, and extended her wrists forward. In appalled disgust he stared down as the left mouth extended a long, pink tongue and swept it over Helle's palm, much like someone would lick their lips.

As he stared, she smiled. "Look at what I can do now, Athanasios! Look!"

"Get away from me…" he whispered, taking a shaky step backwards. "Get away! You…you murdered him! You're a monster!"

"But I'm learning, father!" she giggled, lowering her arms. "I'm getting much better at this! Watch!"

Despite his revulsion, Athanasios couldn't help but stare as Helle suddenly convulsed and clapped her hands to her head, a second set of mouths forcing themselves open on her upper arms. A fifth, larger mouth forced the skin of her neck open, grinning madly under her chin. She let her hands fall and flung her head back, screaming. As she did so, her hair suddenly appeared to explode from her skull, writhing outwards as though trying to escape. After a second the frantic movement calmed down and she turned her head back down to her father, her plaits drifting vaguely above her shoulders. What Athanasios had first taken for loose strands of hair were actually the shadows of guilt, he realised, moving through Helle's hair to hide themselves in the twists of her braids.

"See?" she shouted suddenly. "See what I can do now? Are you proud of me, father? Are you?"

"What the hell are you?" he screamed, backing into his study door and scrabbling wildly for the handle.

"I'm Guilt," she cried. "All-consuming, never-ending, life-destroying Guilt!" She pointed above her father's head. "And look what else I can do!"

"What the - " Athanasios tore his gaze away from Helle to stare at the door behind him as it shuddered and vibrated in its frame, the wood rippling impossible. Before his horrified eyes the wood gave a terrific splintering creak, and wrenched in two across the middle as - as another mouth, far bigger than anything he'd seen on Helle, spread its teeth wide and lolled its tongue over him.

"I don't know if you heard me, as you were cowering in your study like a little boy," she said, stopping in front of him. "But I mentioned that guilt can be very dangerous. It's a terribly hungry emotion." The door fastened its jaws around Athanasios' left arm and he screamed as it crunched down hard, crushing bone and muscle. "It simply…eats you all up."

Athanasios had time to cast one terrified look over his shoulder at his awaiting fate, and found himself face-to-face with a seemingly endless tunnel of darkness that extended improbably beyond the waiting jaws of his study door. He let out one last desperate scream, and the jaws pulled him.

Helle closed her eyes and listened to the sucking and cracking of bone as the mouth devoured him whole.

***

Ionna lifted her head from the pillow and glanced nervously at the bedroom door. She wasn't quite sure but, she could have sworn she'd just heard a scream.

Now that the family no longer owned multiple houses, and Athanasios' company was failing rapidly due to the need to fulfil Helle's medical bills, there was little reason for them to become a target of thieves and criminals. But Ionna was by nature a fretful person, and she flung the covers back, sliding out of bed with a vaguely worried expression.

Sliding her house slippers on, Ionna tiptoed to the top of the stairs and cocked her head to one side, listening intently. "Athanasios? Is everything okay?"

"Mama?"

Ionna's heart skipped a beat. She descended onto the fist step. "Helle?"

"Where are you, mama?"

"I - I was taking an afternoon nap, Helle…What's going on?"

As Ionna stepped off the bottom step, she drew her shawl more firmly around herself and stared ahead at Helle, who was standing all alone by the closed front door. The hall was otherwise completely empty and still.

"Helle! You're…you - " Tears of joy began streaming down Ionna's face. "You're all right! You're out of bed!" She ran forward, her dress streaming out behind her, hands outstretched to her daughter. Helle smiled faintly at her mother, her skin pale against her dark, limp hair. "Yes…"

Ionna clasped Helle to her, stroking the top of her head and crying gently. After a moment, she raised her face and stared around. "Where's your father?"

"I don't know," she murmured, smiling under Ionna's arm. "He must have gone out…"

Finally Ionna released her daughter and passed a worried hand through her greying hair. "But he would have told me."

"I don't know," said Helle, taking her mother's hand. "I'm hungry. Let's go have something to eat."

"No darling, wait," said Ionna softly, taking a step towards the study door. "I want to speak to your father."

Something flashed in Helle's dark eyes, and she scowled very slightly. "I'm hungry, mother," she said with a bite of impatience. "Forget Athanasios."

Ionna turned back to Helle and stared down at her in some surprise. "Did you just call your father by his first name?"

Helle coughed and assumed a broad smile. "I'm sorry, mother. I spoke out of turn. Father's fine."

"Then where is he?"

"Oh for goodness' sake!" she snarled, shoving Ionna away and placing her hands on her hips. "You humans are so irritating!"

Ionna swallowed. "Helle, what…"

"I killed him, all right?" she snapped, spinning around to face Ionna. Before her mother's frightened eyes, her skin darkened several shades, her eyes flashed gold and her slender plaits slowly curved upwards.

"No…"

"Yes, I did," she sighed, touching her forehead briefly. "A pity…he was a clever man. You married well, Ionna."

"Stop being silly, Helle!" cried Ionna, pressing her hands to her breast. "Where is he?"

Ignoring her, Helle pushed past to a small closet standing just off the hallway, and wrenched the door open. As Ionna watched, she thrust her arm in and yanked out an expensive-looking jacket. She pulled it on with a flourish and then bend down to lace a delicate pair of white shoes.

"H-Helle?" asked Ionna shakily. "What…what are you doing?"

"I'm leaving," she snapped irritably, straightening up and looking Ionna straight in the eye. "I'm tired of waiting here, waiting for what I want to come to me. I'm going to find my family."

"But…we're your family," whispered Ionna, watching Helle pull the front door open.

She turned around, and fixed her mother with her golden eyes. "You were. Not any more."

"Helle…no…Helle!" Ionna cried out her daughter's name and charged forward, hands outstretched. "Don't leave me!"

"You can't come with me, Ionna," muttered Helle, glancing over her shoulder. "You've got too many regrets festering in that house of yours…"

Ionna stumbled, and fell flat on her face. She cast a frightened look over her shoulder to see several long snakes of shadow entwined around her calves, and still more were creeping across the darkening floor, searching hungrily for her feet.

"Your guilt doesn't want you leaving," called Helle as she walked away.

"Helle! No!" Ionna clutched desperately at the doorstep, scrabbling for a hold as the shadows dragged her back, back, back into the house.

The door slammed shut behind her, blocking her white, horrified face out of Helle's life forever.

Smiling to herself as she walked, Helle ran a finger over her smooth neck, remembering with satisfaction the look of horror plastered over Athanasios' face.

As she walked, the shadows of the street gathered about her feet, staining the white of her shoes black.

Helle Anatolia walked away from her old life as the guilts of ordinary people clung to her ankles, suddenly unaware as to what do now that they suddenly found themselves sentient and capable of movement. Emotions were not supposed to exist outside of the brain; they belonged inside a person's head, locked away beneath their impenetrable skull, but Helle had a way of tapping into a person's innermost guilty feelings, of drawing them out and making them real.

And of course, with guilt there always came the terrible hunger. The desire to consume everything, as shame was wont to do. As she lifted her feet with every step, the shadows remained briefly, clinging to the cobbled street in a dark imitation of a footprint. Then the stone would split open in a widely grinning mouth, and the shadow was swallowed whole.

When the last of them was finally gone, Helle smiled to herself and quickened her pace. "Now I can finally get a bit of a break…"

She walked on, alone.

High, high above, the enormous bloated form of an akuma hovered just under the crescent moon, its cannons shining in the light.

Tyki Mikk stood on its shoulders, his face fresh and young once more, his hair swept back tidily and his suit crisp and impeccable. Thoughtfully he watched the ant-like figure of Helle as she strode down the road, easily discernable against the dark stone by her white dress. With one deft movement he flipped his top hat from one hand to the other and then placed it over his dark hair.

He rapped his gloved knuckles smartly on the akuma's head. "Let's go home."

It sighed slightly and turned heavily in the air. Tyki closed his eyes as the wind whipped over his face. "Better let the Earl know that Helle's on her way."