Ok, to set the record straight, I'm not dead. My computer was for a while which is virtually the same thing (awful puns, just awful). But my time offline has not been spent doing nothing. Using that old-fashioned method of pen and paper (they do still exist!) I began to plan and write out my new story, standalone sequel to The Rahovart Saga called The Lucifer Saga which features Dante and Lucia again as well as Lady, Vergil and a brief cameo from Trish. It's got little to do with this story which is, incidentally, on it's final chapter but, hey, it's my space so I thought I'd advertise.

Speaking thus, my customary and ever grateful thanks to the now renamed Nxy, Lucia, Lani Lenore and newcomers Veronica and The Tyrant Hamster. It wouldn't have been completed at all without this great response. Actually now you come to mention hamsters, i used to have two Russians, adorable little white things until one ate the other...

Back to the point and back to the story, always, Skaye.

A man's voice was talking to her, had been for a few minutes now. She looked up into the bright lights of the small bar and saw a short but kind-looking man in a greasy apron looking down at her concerned.

"You all right, honey?" he asked, lifting the plate of cold pizza from in front of her. "I told you quite a few times already it's closing time and I know you speak English 'cos you ordered this meal from Dan over there. Do you want me to call someone to pick you up? A cab or something?"

Mary shot back to where she was and shook her head;

"I have my bike outside. I'm, uh, sorry. It's been a long trip."

The man smiled and handed her a flat cardboard box which was faintly warm at the bottom.

"One for the road. Get some sleep, honey, you look exhausted."

Mary's turn to smile. She took the box from him and thanked him before leaving the bar and heading back to her motel room checking on her precious bike en route. Safe and sound. She stretched out on the narrow creaky bed and opened the box. Another pizza, this one warm. She realized as soon as she saw it that she was starving and bolted the whole thing, blessing the bar man for his thoughtfulness. When she was finished, she lay out on her back and began to think again. Tomorrow she'd reach the city. Tomorrow she'd find out what all of this was about. Tomorrow she'd find her mother's murderer and, if possible, save her father from the same fate. Then they could go home and, who knows? Maybe start to live again.

She switched off the light and closed her eyes, loving the sudden dark and the rest. She folded her hands around her guns which she'd earlier removed from her backpack and laid on the bed. Big day for both of us tomorrow, she thought. She'd never shot to kill before but knew without a trace of doubt that she'd kill to avenge her mother a thousand times over and then twice as much again for her father. She fell asleep thinking of them. Her family, her life was gone now.

She woke the next day later than she meant to but washed, ate and got moving quickly. She thought over the words her mother's body had spoken and wondered if she was crazy. Perhaps the shock of her mother's death had driven her mad and none of that prediction stuff really hapened at all. It was tempting to think but the message rang too clear in her head while she tried to make a meaning fit. There were many different possible interpretations to a message like that and none made any more sense than the others. Tunnels, stairways and mountains. Princes, princesses and priestesses. Snakes, masters and fools. Reminded her of the Black Sabbath lyrics she used to listen to. Didn't make a bit of sense though. Perhaps it would make more sense when she arrived.

Just approaching the city through the lunchtime traffic, she felt the ground shake and that odd charged feeling she recognised with dread filled the air. She pulled over, loaded her guns and armed herself. The ground shook more violently and there was a sudden rush of people fleeing the city in panic. She hit the road once more conscious that she was hte only person driving down the inward lane of the freeway. Everyone else was trying to get as far away from whatever it was as possible. Maybe they were the smart ones.As she accelerated over the bridge into the city proper, shesaw the reason for the tremors; a colossal tower protruding from seemingly a random set of city blocks.

The monstrous thing had ploughed up the buildings and cracked the ground for miles, it rocketed up into the clouds and dripped shattered masonry. She revved her bike, clasping her guns for courage and drove towards it stopping only when she couldn't takethe bike any further. She felt for the energy in the air and smiled in grim and apprehensive satisfaction.

"So," she said to no-one but herself, "I've found it."

And there it ends.