Well, I hope this update got to you sooner. I really want to thank those of you who have been patient enough to wait for my updates. It really means a lot.

I don't own Sly, the lawyers made sure of that.

Chapter 10 Painful Hope

Sly ran through the narrow hallway leading out of the catacombs (or at least he assumed it led out, why else would he be there?) glancing back as flakes of dried sand fell from his clothes. He did not know how long the guard would stall Robert. Who knows what strength a man gets when he can possess people?

Sly kept running, or staggering in his current state, down the hall. He wound up in another room of traps. Steps that shot darts, steps that collapsed, swinging scythes, and boulders waiting to fall on the heads of the intruders. Sly stopped; there was no way he could make it through this.

WHOOSH!

Sly's thoughts were cut short by the iron sword flying by his ears. It clanged off the far wall and fell to the ground, where it was incinerated by a whoosh of flames from the wall. Sly had a choice, room of traps, or vicious killer.

He chose the traps.

Sly ran through, trying desperately to dodge the darts, scythes, and other obstacles that suddenly presented themselves in his way. He ended up with a dart in his arm, but there could have been worse.

Robert charged in after him. Sly had activated most of the traps, but Robert still wasn't watching them. This wasn't his body after all. He wound up with three darts, one in the arm, two in his left leg. He growled as he blindly stumbled after Sly.

Sly ran into a narrow hallway. He was almost a sitting duck in the straight line he was traveling. He slowed his pace from exhaustion. He couldn't keep up this sprint. He was injured and tired, not to mention thirsty and covered with a few pounds of sand dried in his clothes. Conditions were certainly not in his favor.

Sly still moved on, but he knew he was being gained upon. He tripped, but only just in time to avoid a scythe that began swinging above him. "Luck" he thought, "I was almost sure I had run out of it." He crawled on the ground, which was dusty and much reminded him of an air vent.

He stopped and hissed as he cut his hand on something. Looking into the darkness that only a thief can love, he faintly made out many small knives, similar to the shape a first grader uses to draw water. You know, kind of like talons. Anyway, he really knew only one way across. It was a move he had practiced only once or twice, as he never really found it all that important. It was the spike bed. It was what those people in Arabia do, where they lie on beds with spikes coming out of them. His ancestor had only added one twist, he could crawl on it. It took expert precision and patience, but it was do-able.

Sly slowly raised himself, brought himself over the "waves" and lowered himself onto them. He then proceeded to slowly begin moving, focusing on where his fingers were. He crawled for a long time, and then he found ground. He slowly brought himself off the knives and looked back. Robert appeared, trying desperately to thrash his way through. He was tearing Dirk's body to shreds. Sly couldn't stand it. He knew it was Robert, but it was Dirk's body. He moved on, only to be shot in the shoulder when he had his back turned.

Robert half-laughed half-screamed as he jumped out off the knife-bed. He slowly came towards Sly, but he was injured, too injured to keep up with Sly, even though Sly was injured. Sly ran away, only to collide head-first with a door. He opened it and rushed through. He was back in the second room. He ran to the first one as Robert removed his blood-stained hand from the door. Sly ran into the room with the spears, to find that it had changed. The spears were now retreating into the floor and bursting out with their gleaming iron heads reflecting the sun in Sly's eyes. It was dusk, and the light shown directly into the cave.

Sly peered past the spears to see Carmelita at the ledge. Her hair was flowing in the wind, and she looked as though she was praying to god for Sly's safety. That feeling in the quicksand returned to him, and he was soon spire-jumping his way across the field of spears.

He passed through as Robert staggered into the room. Dirk's body was covered in blood, which seemed to rain onto the floor from all of the open cuts in it Robert tried his usual slightly acrobatic way through the spears, but he could not in this tattered rag of a body. He fell, and Sly jerked his head away as Dirk's body was impaled on the spears. He sobbed once before continuing outside.

Meanwhile, Robert's fiery specter emerged, and glared at Sly as he planned his next move.

Sly came forth from the cave, to be greeted by one word from Carmelita's lips, "Amen". Their gaze locked for a moment, and both felt the pain and cold leave them. They both took one deep breathe before Carmelita yelled, "Oh, Sly!" She began to run towards him.

Suddenly, Robert ran between them, and uttered that spine-chilling laugh that struck terror in both aching hearts. He gave one smirk to Sly before running up to Carmelita. Once more, a whirl of flame consumed Robert and his victim and he took possession of Carmelita's body.

"I bid you adieu, Cooper!" Robert yelled as he flung his knew body off the ledge nearby. Sly was stunned, but managed to dive to the edge of the ledge and grab at his love's ankles.

Robert fell below, and landed on his feet before running off into the wilderness, and out of Sly's vision.

"NOOOOOOOOO! CARMELITAAAAAAAA!"

And the sobs of a broken heart filled the air.

Yeah, it got a bit graphic, a bit tragic and a bit dramatic. But you haven't seen anything yet!