CH10: Innocent

"Anyways," She said as the flashlight turned off, "any last requests? And by the way, if you scream or tell your friends about me, I'll be forced to kill you immediately, then pick off the rest of your friends slowly." She put a lot of emphasis on the last word, which made Mog tremble and whimper slightly.

"Anything to say, nothing at all?" She said to him.

"Wh- who the hell are you?!? And turn the lights back on!" Mog finally said.

"I'm not going to tell you, unless you return the statue."

"Is that a threat? And who are you? What are you?" Mog asked her extremely nervously.

"I'm Praxis' daughter… and unbeknownst to anyone else… I'm on the KG's 'most wanted' list. But they don't know what they're up against or even looking for… quite sad really." She said back to him. She released her grip on him completely, knowing he wouldn't go anywhere without any lighting and all of the info he heard, and so she started to circle him slowly.

"You win. But I only tagged along with these guys for the pay." Mog said truthfully.

"Innocent? It'll take me a while to believe you."

"It'll take me a while to believe you."

Ashelin's vision started to blur in and out, and the room seemed to darken and lighten every few random seconds.

She grabbed the flashlight before her vision went back to normal and held it firmly in her hand. She kept banging it, trying to get it to turn on, but it wouldn't turn on.

"Damn it." She said as she threw the flashlight on the ground, and it started to flicker, but then died. "Worthless piece of crap. You got another flashlight?" She asked Mog demandingly.

"Nope. What were ya tryin' to do?"

"Turn on the flashlight I removed from your possession." She responded agitated.

"It seems you can see in the dark, right?" Mog asked suspiciously.

"Better than you can… just let me find the flashlight again…ah, here it is!" She said after searching the ground by waving her hands lowly over it for a few minutes. She picked it up and tried turning it on several more times, but it didn't work. Then, when she didn't want it to turn back on, it finally did.

"Nice hair." Mog said, as the flashlight illuminated Ashelin's face and she growled. "But uh, where's the guard uniform? I don' see no red, except your hair, which doesn't count. Does the KG really let you wear tank-tops and denim capris now? And thank Mar you're not the dark eco freak."

Ashelin wiped her hand down her face, and replied with part of the truth.

"This is a private mission and I won't tell you more… Except it's not nice to use the term 'freak'. Try using a synonym such as 'different' or 'normally challenged', thank you."

She tried turning the flashlight off, but then it wouldn't go off. She growled in frustration and tossed the flashlight back to Mog, who actually caught it.

"Go back to your little friends and tell them to put the statue back. You know what I'll do if you don't."

"How will you get out if you can't see?"

"Very carefully." She replied, unsure of herself.

"Alrighty then! Going…" Mog said as he trailed off to where the other bandits went. Ashelin followed silently behind him, and every few times Mog asked whether she was there or not, she didn't reply, which made Mog really nervous.

"I know you're watching me somewhere." He said, shaking. "Oh, here are the guys." He said enthusiastically, and ran up to them.

"GUYS! GUYS! We need to take the statue back to Haven Museum. We can't fit it through the pi-"

"We already found another way to get it though the pipes after a bit of navigating." Said a skinny, but muscular man in the group. "Why should we return the statue when we've come this far?"

"BECAUSE SOMEONE IS GOING TO KILL US IF WE DON'T!" He yelled at them.

"Who? Who told you we needed to return the statue?" Another bandit asked as he turned around pointed his flashlight at Mog's face.

"Oh, I know! The Baron's daughter!" Said the skinny man mockingly. "Or even better! The dark eco freak is coming to kill us! Oh, I'm scared!"

They all laughed at Mog, who turned a pink color in frustration of trying to explain, and then realized that Ashelin told him not to tell them about her.

They heard a slight thud, like someone landing softly on a metal floor.

"Hey, I heard that sound before…" The skinny guy said as he swung around with his flashlight, pointing it horizontally in every direction. There was a slight patting noise that was hardly detectable.

"You hear that?" He said again. "What the-?!?"

His flashlight was grabbed right from his hands and turned off.

"Who did that? Give me back my flashlight!" He yelled again but heard no response from anyone, except Mog.

Mog whimpered. The other two men had their flashlights taken quickly from them too. The room went darker, and the only person with a flashlight now was Mog. It was quiet for a while, until they heard a few splashes.

"Was that the sound of your flashlights being dropped into the waterline?" Mog said. It was quiet, then Mog felt a cold hand on his throat as he was put in a headlock… it felt all too familiar. He yelped.

"I'm sorry!" He said, but then felt something familiar and as sharp as a knife slide on to the nape of his neck.

"You should be. We had a deal… remember?" She said to him slowly. "But I've taken the time to realize that yes, you are innocent. So I'm just going to let you go. Now take your time to head back the way you came and forget everything you've seen down here."

"Th- thank you… but what about the other four?" Mog asked her.

"Oh don't worry about them… That's my problem now. Not yours."

Her quiet voice echoed slightly in the sewers for a while. She saw Mog, obviously taking advantage of the offer, with his flashlight run in the opposite direction and out of view.

"Who are you? What do you want? And what just happened?" Said one of bandits.

"I'm sure you know by now who I am… but what I'd like to know, is who your boss is." She asked them politely.

"His name's Krew! He owns the Hip Hog Heaven Saloon! And he's involved in the black market." Said the skinny one. "Just don't kill us!"

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you. You see, you know too much already. And if I don't kill you, someone else will."

She walked over to the skinny one and started circling around him, just as she did with Mog earlier.

"Let's not waste time now, shall we? I only have about five minutes to kill you, so let's make it quick. By the way, I like your hair… brown with blonde highlights… how original."

"How do you know what color my hair is when I can't even see anything?!?" He responded.

"We're wasting time again… and I think you mean you can't see anything. Don't imply that if you can't see something, others can't either. Now, who should I pick off first?"

She saw the two other men run in the direction Jinx was hiding, and he was ready to ambush them. Jinx jumped out from behind the wall and grabbed the guy on the right and pulled him back behind, while the other guy continued to run.

There was a loud yelp and a thump and then the only sound heard was the small fast pattering of the other bandit's feet.

"What did you do to him?!?" the skinny guy asked her.

"I didn't do anything. That was a friend of mine. I guess I have no choice but to start off with you."

The man tried running in the direction Mog went, but Ashelin did a low swipe-kick to trip him. He hit the floor hard and couldn't get up. Ashelin rested her boot on his chest.

"What's this?" She reached for a cylindrical object strapped to his belt. "An extra flashlight? You won't be needing this."

She took the flashlight away from him and kept it in one hand. The man still trembled in fear, since the situation was getting really unusual. Ashelin turned the flashlight on and pointed it at his face.