Wow. I really had a lot of grammatical errors that last chapter and all because I was eager to update as soon as possible! Hopefully you guys will forgive me for that and the way things will happen between Lyra and Slenderm- um…err…Colin.

Anyways ignore my silly rant and enjoy the chapter! xD

Chapter 11- Lyra's Fight Back

"What took you so long?" Fausto yelled at her as soon as she had appeared, "I was beginning think you had run off!"

"Of course not," she said stonily back.

"Well, good because it would, be too hard think of the correct way to kill your-what was her name?-Aunt Rose? It would sure be a bitch." He smiled showing all his yellow teeth.

It took all of Lyra's self-control to not retort back or land a punch his stupid face so that teeth would come falling out. Instead, she preferred to go over a plan in her head-the plan to tip them off, so she replied as coldly as possible.

"Bring me to her first."

Fausto looked at her with an outraged expression, "You just said-

"I'm not consenting to anything unless I see her for myself. I'm not about to save somebody without seeing her first!"

Fausto looked murderous. "You dare-

"Yes I dare! You can have the stupid fortune, but I need to see her first!"

"FINE-YOU WIN!" yelled Fausto loudly so that several birds in the nearby tree flew away, "FINE! BUT MARK MY WORDS: YOU BETTER DO WHAT WE SAY!"

Lyra cringed inwardly at the words but nodded. After all, a nod was as good as a wink to a blind horse, "Lead me to her then."

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

It was noontime when they had arrived at the city where Lyra was. The familiar hazy town greeted her in a melancholy state. She had almost forgotten about it from being in the forest for so long. It looked dead-all in the color gray like she had remembered. She forced herself to walk slowly on next to Fausto who prodded her further.

A timid child with scraggly blond hair that was in rags, looked at her curiously, peeking through the doorway of his pitiful home to watch the procession. She gave a small smile to him that was not returned, because he disappeared so fast, that she thought he could have teleported. Then the thought of teleportation made her remember Slenderman-Colin; she reached from a hidden pocket to finger a sharp object she had taken from the mansion-a red crusted dagger about one foot long-then she quickly drew back her hand as though worried that Fausto would see. The plan was a reckless one-but she had a chance: she would try to kill-or at least disarm as many of the men as she could.

He led her into a secret alleyway that seemed to be on the outskirts of town. The smell was damp and the walls just like every other part of the city seemed to be twice as filthy here.

"Get up in front, it's here!" he said. There was a house that looked like it had once been pretty but was now in ruins. The house had a rooftop set with bricks that were missing in some places and the windows looked to be boarded up from the inside. For obvious reasons.

Fausto knocked on the door three times and was met with a disheveled bearded man with a slash on one eye.

"Did ye get her?"

"I sure did, Brutus. That girl was stupid at first, but she agreed to it."

They were let inside where it seemed to be in fairly good condition. Stairs that lead to rooms upstairs, a sitting room and-

Lyra's heart stopped in her throat: sitting on the bench surrounded by three men who banded her with ropes was-her aunt.

"Lyra? Lyra is that you…!" said the woman from the picture. She had dishwater blond hair and pale skin. And most of all, she had green eyes just like her.

Lyra immediately crossed over to the room in one bound into her aunt's welcoming arms.

"I…I th…thought…y…you had d…died," she sobbed uncontrollably as she brought a kiss to her niece. "Everybody told me t…that you had died and…and…" she could say no more.

"It's ok Aunt Rose, I'm fine now," she said soothingly, yet she started to feel tears come out of her own eyes. Glancing sideways at the henchmen to find them rolling their eyes irritably, she whispered in her aunt's ear.

"Aunt, have they told you what they want me to do?"

"Yes…

"I have a little plan…" at this moment, Lyra began fumbling with the knots on her without anybody looking. "I'm freeing you at this moment. What you're going to do is get up really fast and run straight to the door." Lyra slowly drew the dagger she had kept from her hidden pocket…

Without warning, Lyra thrust it out to stab it to the nearest man. She caught him in the chest, and he staggered blindly, clutching his chest.

"What the-

But in a flash, she came to the next person while her aunt got out of the way in a hurry to reach the exit. Unfortunately some men seemed to know that in the midst of confusion, she was trying to escape.

"NO!" Lyra yelled, and suddenly the most curious thing happened to her: The moment she yelled out, something out of her back came whizzing towards the men who had barred the way.

Then men were thrown out of the way by the strange thing as Lyra slowly registered what had happened. The something black that was somehow protruding from her back and sending a tingle feeling near her heart was-a tentacle! Bewildered and nonplussed she stared wide eyed at it before a memory the Slenderman had come to her:

"That was called the Proxy's Kiss; I have given you some of my power to help you fight them…"

A cry of fury had broken from someone, making her turn around: Fausto, with a gash on his cheek that must have come from falling wrenched open the door to sprint outside. Lyra wanted to go after him, but she already had men coming at her from all directions after looking perplexedly at the tentacle protruding wave-like from her back. She gave her flummoxed aunt a curt nod to tell her to go upstairs which she did.

"Here ye little girly…we won't hurt ya…we just want to have a little fun with you!"

"You can all rot in hell and have the birds eat your entrails for all I care!" she yelled at them. They were circling her, waiting for the right moment to grab her...

The door burst open to show more of the henchmen-twenty of them. Lyra took the initiative of their distraction to side-sweep more of her opponents. The men that had just appeared had knives and they backed her farther into the corner so she would have nowhere to escape. Fausto was nowhere to be seen. He probably had disappeared.

There was a cry from upstairs, startling all of them. A pot flew towards one of the men, hitting its mark with a dull thunk. The man howled and pressed his hands together on the spot.

"You bitch, now we're really gonna kill you!" yelled the man Lamar.

Something from the men came whizzing towards her: a heavy metal cup-she was too late to duck, and it hit her squarely on the face. For a moment, her head spun with the pain.

"Great job, Crowley,"

The men drew slowly near her, trapping her more. There would be too many of them to fend off, even with the tentacle when her head was spinning and things in her vision were slightly disoriented.

She had nowhere to run. She was trapped now…