A/N: Hello everyone. Look, an update. We may also have another timely one sometime later this week. Doesn't make everyone feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

Cheers,

The Nightrunners

The Ruined Carpet

Soundtrack: Everybody's Fool ( Evanescence)

perfect by nature
icons of self-indulgence
just what we all need
more lies about a world that

never was and never will be
have you no shame don't you see me
you know you've got everybody fooled

look here she comes now
bow down and stare in wonder
oh how we love you
no flaws when you're pretending
but now I know she

never was and never will be
you don't know how you've betrayed me
and somehow you've got everybody fooled

without the mask where will you hide
can't find yourself lost in your lie

I know the truth now
I know who you are
and I don't love you anymore

it never was and never will be
you're not real and you can't save me
somehow now you're everybody's fool

Darryl Stuart was angry.

Someone was probably going to die soon.

He allowed himself a brief flight of imagination, of reaching and grabbing the little snot and choking her until her eyes popped and she gagged and died. In actuality, the tiny brat smiled at him and swung her legs, her hands crossed demurely in her lap.

Too bad she could blast him across the room if he so much as twitched. It was tempting, though.

The Witch Queen had walked into his office, bold freak that she was, and had sat in the chair across from his desk. Two more of the bitches had followed her in, a huge black woman with long braids and a hard-faced old hag with iron-grey hair. They flanked her, dissecting him with their eyes.

Darryl could see the secretary lying on her back behind them in the outer office. Her limbs were slack, her blond hair tangled over her face. There was a red stain slowly creeping across the expensive carpet.

Garrett came through the side door and darted towards them. He was fast, but the old woman picked him up and held him at arm's length without even flinching.

Darryl ignored the choking sounds and fixed his glare on Trish. "What do you want?"

She smiled, but the expression looked completely out of place on her pointed little face. "You haven't kept up you end of the bargain, Mr. Stuart. My lord is getting rather annoyed with your lack of cooperation."

Darryl kept his gaze level, and willed his hands to stay flat on the desktop. "Put my aide down and we'll talk."

Trish nodded, and the hag threw Garrett across the room. He slid down the wall, holding his throat and wheezing.

Darryl put a hand to his chin. "Everything is progressing the way I've planned it. You can tell your lord that I'll get him the Seer, but I'm going to do it my way, not yours."

"Careful, Mister Stuart." Trish's voice was deceptively pleasant. "As long as you remain useful, you remain alive. I could kill you today-" Trish's face flashed with desire at the prospect. "- but my lord most explicitly stated that you were to remain alive. You live by our grace. Remember that."

She stood and smoothed her skirt, and the two Nazgul moved to follow her. She paused at the threshold of the door and smiled sweetly. "Cross us, and your ass is grass." She giggled, and it was an awful sound. "I think this body is starting to rub off on me." Then they left.

Garrett crawled to the chair and pulled himself to his feet. Darryl glared at him. "Get out of here. Call security and get them to clean up that mess. Then get someone in to replace the carpet."

Garrett left. No one in their right mind would spend time with Darryl in his current frame of mind. The heavy oak door swung shut, and Darryl went over to the bar, opened the fridge and poured a glass from the half-empty bottle.

He took a sip, and discovered that his hands were shaking. Impeccably manicured and spotted. Old.

"Fucking Elves can't store their wine." he muttered to the empty room.