They wouldn't believe you

Disclamer: I don't own it, I would like to but I don't, such is life. ;)

... /pokes hit counter/ Come on people! I know you are reading this... -/pokes hit counter again/- o.o -/hit counter resets itself/- 0.o eh? -/glares at hit counter/- Evil thing... '-.- ... Honestly, it did go mental on me, anyone else had that? Think it happened around the time I uploaded one of the previous chapters, is that normal?

Warning, please read: It gets a little gruesome towards the end of this chapter. There is some description though it is short. I still don't think this deserves an M rating yet but if you disagree let me know and I will consider increasing the rating early. It may be approaching borderline but since rating/content has never realy bothered me, my perception of what should be 'for mature readers only' may be a little out of sync with the majority, I don't know, im not the majority, I'm me. Still a chance of finding the odd swear word or two, no idea how many or how few, really cant be bothered with counting them.

Chapter 4: Back Down to Earth

The dark images flashed through her mind. Things she wouldn't have considered plausible before, now didn't seem so unlikely. If the impossible could be standing in front of her, clear as day, than what's to say the rest of it couldn't happen? She could see them in her minds eye, bound and helpless, drugged and stuck full of wires, monitoring them. She could see the labs, the test tubes containing a blood sample here, a tissue sample there, the different charts showing chemical composition and reaction results. She could see the physical tests, watched as they cut again and again. The wouldn't use anaesthetic, they needed to see how they would respond naturally, didn't know how they would respond to pain killers. In her mind she could hear them scream.

"Brianne?" She blinked up at Raziel, the images in her head retreating slowly, too slowly, into the shadowy places in her mind. Raziel was crouched next to her, his hand resting gently on her shoulder, he looked worried. Unwittingly she brought her hand up to rest over the his. Distantly, she could feel tears running down her cheeks. A small voice in the back of her mind mocked her, 'Again? You are really going to have to do something about this girl, cos this is getting ridiculous.' She blinked furiously, trying to clear her eyes.

"What is it?" Kain said from next to the door. He sounded almost as concerned as Raziel did but Brianne couldn't bring herself to tear her eyes off the Lieutenant.

"Brianne, snap out of it. Talk to us. Do you think all the games have changed, is that what this is about?" Raziel prompted. That did it. Brianne made a strangled cry in her throat and serged to her feet, wobbled a bit, then started pacing the room, trying to think. First thing that popped into her head was that she needed a drink so she went into the bathroom and got a cup water. And another one. She returned to the bedroom carrying a third with her and began pacing next to the window in one half of the room while Kain and Raziel watched from the other half by the door. She muttered under her breath as she paced, taking sips from her drink regularly. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't see when she spilled small amounts, Kain did and took a subtle step back to his original spot right in front of the door. Brianne didn't notice but Raziel did and sent him a look that could have been a smirk. Kain glared right back at him.

"Ah!" Kain and Raziel both snapped to attention as Brianne stoped her pacing and nearly leaped at one of her bags, fumbling with the fastenings and rummaging around inside it until she pulled out her mobile phone. She sat down on her bed, the phone trembling in her hands as she took some deep breaths to try to calm herself. Kain and Raziel watched her intently.

Finally she lifted the phone, pressed some of the buttons and brought it up to her ear.

"Come on... come on Kai, please, please pick up... come on... Yes! Ah, hi Kai. Its me Anne. Look I know its late and all with work and that but could you do me a favour? I left my Soul Reaver 2 manual at a friends house and need the notes from the back. Could you read yours out for me?... Yeah...Yeah that's it, thanks." Brianne muffled a deep sigh and glanced at Kain and Raziel. She shuffled in her seat, nerves and mounting tension made the seconds drag by. Finally a voice sounded on the other end of the phone and Brianne perked up. "Yes. Did you get it? Excellent. Thanks. Uh hm..." Brianne looked at Kain and Raziel, allowing a small smile to grace her face as she began to relax. "Yep... right, got that. Thanks. Hay, business aside haven't seen you in a while. You doing ok?... yeah I'm fine thanks, a little stressed but nothing serious." She laughed. "Yeah cool... Really?...What?... He never!... Ha! That'll teach 'im!... Ah, same old," her eyes fixed on Kain and Raziel, the thrill of the little subterfuge shining clear in her eyes. "Me, mom, collage and the same old gang. Yeah kinda pathetic..." She laughed again then sighed. "Thanks a bunch Kai. Look I'd love to chat some more but I've got things to do. Talk to you again... See ya." She brought the phone down and set it on the bed beside her before promptly falling back on to the bed herself, stress forcing a rather un dignified giggle from her. "His games aren't affected, I would have known if they were. Honestly, Kai is one of the biggest gossips I know, no way would he be able to keep something like that quite."

Brianne felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders, or at least that someone had given her some shoulder pads to make the burden a little easer to bear. The haunting images still rattled around her brain, and she knew things could still go badly if they were caught. The trick therefor, was don't get caught. Such a pity that there was a world of difference between theory and practice.

"That's good news. Hopefully this means that all the copies are unaffected, not that merely some of them are." Kain said as he looked through he open door to the bathroom cupboard where Brianne's games were hidden.

"Well if others are affected we will just have to deal with that if we ever have to face it." Brianne mumbled still flopped down on the bed, looking up at the roof.

"I don't think it will be a matter of if but when, should that be the case." He countered darkly.

"Hmm, I guess..." Brianne just couldn't muster the energy to be overly worried any more, with Kai's unwitting reassurance she just felt like she was ready to call it quits for the day now that particular concern was taken care of. She had been on tender hooks all day, ever since she had first beheld the state of her transformed games and enough was enough, at least for tonight. Pulling herself back up she looked at her visitors. Raziel had taken up his new favoured spot by the window but was watching her instead of looking outside. Kain was still next to the door, his eyes slowly wondering round the room but Brianne doubted that he was paying much attention to what was going on outside his own head. "You had fun today?" She asked him.

His eyes flickered to her, "Meaning?"

"Well, the whole house has been buzzing with talk of poltergeist activity, flashes of white light, moving mist... You honestly expect me to believe that had nothing to do with you?"

Kain sighed, "Subtlety is an art, one you seemed surprised I have some skill in." Brianne had the grace to blush. "I chose to put my time today to some use instead of sitting around, hiding in a damp cellar." He almost growled his distaste, "And as for me having fun? Well if ducking around corners and hiding in storerooms is fun then yes, I had wonderful time." His tone of voice said quite clearly that he had not. Of course, thought Brianne sarcastically, all he has managed to smash up today has been a couple of pots and a table, hardly worth writing home about. She didn't dare say that out loud though.

"Can't you just go?" She said, completely unexcepted and unrehearsed. This earned her some rather surprised looks from her guests. Well Kain looked surprised and a little affronted, Raziel almost seemed shocked, but it was harder to tell with him. "What I mean," She hastily tried to amend, "is that I'm tired, I have been on edge all day, cant I just have tonight to myself? Surely you have found a place where you can bunk down for the night, I just- I just think I need a little more time..." As she spoke she became increasingly more uncomfortable as she began to think how badly they could take this, how she might sound to them, until by the time she trailed off at the end she was looking nervously at the floor, her hands fidgeting in her lap.

She was right to be nervous, Kain had gone from affronted to borderline outrage, "You think-" He cut off suddenly, but it still made Brianne flinch. With her frightened gaze fixed on the floor she didn't see how his head snapped up to turn his rather fierce gaze on Raziel. She could guess what had happened though and was determined to stay out of it and not put her foot in her mouth again tonight. Just out of the corner of her eye she watched Kain stride away from the door and over towards the window. After an uncomfortable and rather tense stretch of time for Brianne she heard a muttered "Fine." and a flash of white light, the signature sign of Kain's teleport ability. That left only Raziel still in the room with her and she was much more comfortable dealing with him than Kain and although something about that still seemed a little odd, she wasn't going to knock it.

"Guess I over stepped my mark a bit there, huh?" She mumbled to fill in sudden silence.

Raziel walked over from where had been by the window and into her field of view, "Kain has barely the patience to deal with vampire fledglings, let alone a- young human."

"And you do?"

"I have my moments." She looked up at him properly then, he could almost have been smiling.

She couldn't quite summon up the energy to smile back, didn't know if it would be appropriate. "Sorry." She said turning back to look at the floor.

"It is a lot to ask, we both see that. Kain just cant stand all this siting around right now, neither can I to be honest but-" He cut off with a sigh and a slight shake of his head.

"But? But what?"

"Nothing, it doesn't matter." He walked over to the wall and turning back to face her asked "What was going on last night? It looked like there was some kind of celebration and I presume a costume party. What was the occasion?"

"Oh, um, Halloween." She said, then doubting they had Halloween in Nosgoth decided to explain. "It's a holiday where people dress up, usually as… um, well, what we would consider monsters and such. Most people round here just use it as a good excuse for a party without paying any attention to any of the concepts behind it. Originally, it was this old pagan festival of the dead when they used to remember their ancestors. At about midnight, the boundary between worlds is supposed to be thin and people called their deceased loved ones back to feast with them at the banquet they held on that night, to be remembered-"

Brianne cut off as Raziel just started to laugh, softly at first then louder. Brianne was quite taken aback, partly because it was so unexpected but also because she had never heard him laugh before (and she didn't count his manic tern in Defiance when he fought Kain). It was not unpleasant but Brianne thought it sounded slightly strained. She just watched him, not quite knowing what to make of it all as he leaned against the wall and attempted to gain control of the fits of laughter that were overtaking him. Brianne suddenly wondered weather everything that had happened to him recently hadn't scarred his mind as severely as it had scarred his body.

"What's so funny?" She asked somewhat bemused, and a little concerned.

He had his head turned up towards the ceiling and brianne thought she herd him mutter something about irony but she couldn't make it out, though trying not to stare at the underside of his head as he looked up was not helping. He looked back down at her, his laughter fading and she blinked in wonder.

His eyes... they were… it was like someone had taken all the stars in the night sky and mixed them with glowing, crystalline water that flowed moved with a life of its own. Gone was the uniformed, featureless glow. Now they shimmered and glittered and glistened. Yet just behind the lights and weaving among them slightly, were shadows. Brianne was utterly entranced and nearly protested when he closed his eyes and shook his head, apologising to her and asking her to continue. When he opened his eyes again it was just in time to watch the last of the glitter fade back to the normal glow.She couldn't think properly, the only thing her mind wanted to focus on was the memory of his eyes, they were hypnotic.

"Brianne?" He said when she stayed silent for too long.

"Oh, er sorry, where was I?" She said, breathlessly.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yes, thank you."

He wasn't convinced, "I don't believe you." obviously. To Brianne he sounded hesitant, even wary, as though he thought he was causing her discomfort. He was right, but not for the reasons he suspected.

"Oh its not you-"

"You're sill lying."

"Well Ok, it is you." She confessed but quickly added. "But not in a bad way. Shock can be a wonderful thing you know." She joked, giggling slightly despite herself. Raziel didn't take it as well however so she continued, hurriedly. "It was when you were laughing just then. You looked back towards me and your eyes were different."

"Different? How?" He sounded intrigued and perhaps a little concerned. He pushed off the wall and walked over to sit at a comfortable distance from her on the bed, she swivelled to face him.

"Well," She began, almost shyly, "They were… Sparkly."

"Sparkly?" He repeated slowly.

"Well, yeah." She said, than realised how silly, and possibly offensive, it must sound to him. "But it was more than that! It was like liquid and stars and… and…" she paused unsure. She remembered the fire she saw in them, the wonder she felt like when she looked at images far off galaxies and nebula. She couldn't help herself, she reached forward, breaching the gap between them touched the side of his face in what was almost a caress. "It was... beautiful."

So absorbed in her memories, in his eyes, she didn't notice the way he leaned into her touch, the expression on his face. She did see the change in his eyes however, like clouds lifting from the night sky and no trace of shadows this time. It was so easy to loose herself to it, to forget the world around her and become completely absorbed in his eyes. The more she looked the more she saw, the more she felt...gradually images began to appear in her minds eye, emotions, thoughts, ideas... memories...

/...before I had chance register how it happened, pain exploded through my chest when I had just blocked a high blow from his morningstar. I knocked him clear away from me with a side kick and risked a glance down to the horrid sight of his boot knife buried up to the hilt in my chest, just below my heart.../

/..."That's enough from you Turel." Even the barest hint of warning in Kain's voice was enough to silence him immediately. "Answer me this Raziel," he said then, the dangerous edge to his voice gone, "If it had not been for fear of humiliation, would you have fought so hard? Would you, could you, have won that fight?" His voice was expectant and demanded an answer.../

/...Dumah had regained his feet and his wits and charged me with his blunted training sword. I dogged the blow easily and clipped his backside with the flat of my blade as I went past him. The training swords may have been blunted but combined with vampiric strength were still deadly and as such you were meant to try and avoid any potentially dangerous hits, only minor and glancing blows were allowed, in theory. Besides, I imagined that Dumah would like to be able to sit down at some point after this.../

/...Racing down the stone street, the sound of my footsteps echoed around and around amplifying it to dangerous levels, I was certain someone would hear. Damn that woman! A Seer she may be but that was ridiculous, even a Seer would be hard pressed to survive in the heart of the enemies base with no way of disguising herself. Despite myself I couldn't help but think that Kain would be furious if he heard that she had come to harm and she was my damn fledgling!.../

/...distracted as I was, I could not help but notice the curious absence of guards and general Sarafan militia you would usually expect to patrol the corridors. At least, I did not encounter any living guards. Some of the bodies, I noticed absently, were of my own doing, but others… it seemed that the Circle were not the only ones to suffer Vorador's wrath for the death of his sire… either that or Kain had decided to indulge himself.

Finally, after many a wrong turn and an infuriating number of dead ends and locked doors, I reached the balcony that had on an earlier occasion seen my escape from the stronghold; it would serve me just as well now.../

Raziel jerked back sharply and suddenly, pulling away from her and breaking the link between them. Brianne reeled from the range and intensity of thoughts and images that coursed through her head and nearly fell back when Raziel pulled away. "What the...what the hell was that! That was like... that was..." She looked at Raziel in confusion, amazement and growing horror. He was backed up next to the dresser, bracing himself against the wall looking a little stunned but nothing worse as far as Brianne could tell. "Oh god, Raziel, I'm so sorry, I didn't...Raziel."

"Just leave it Brianne," Raziel said sharply, recovering.

"I didn't-"

"Enough!" He snapped, pushing away from the wall and over towards the window, if somewhat unsteadily. Brianne didn't know what to do or what to say, her head was still swimming with what had just happened and that was doing nothing for her concentration, not to mention she was feeling absolutely terrible about what had just happened. Reaching the window, Raziel leaned on the sill and just when she though he would leave he said, effectively cutting off another apology from Brianne, "I know you didn't mean for that to happen and I know you are sorry."

"Raziel, I-"

"I know. Get some rest."

"I'm sorry."

"Good night Brianne." And then with nimble grace he leapt out of the window. Brianne didn't even hear him land.

Brianne stared at the spot where he had been, speechless, confused, upset and still a little dazed. The edge of the curtain ruffled slightly with the breeze from the open window, emphasizing the emptiness of the room and providing a contrast to the strange buzzing like sensation going round her head. Not bothering to cover the slight, silent sobs that overcame her briefly as she hugged her legs to her chest, a part of her wondered at which point she had gotten so emotionally involved in all this mess.

A couple of hours had passed and it was fully dark outside now. Brianne was curled up under the sheets and blankets on the bed. Leaving the window wide open even with the curtain closed and the heating on equalled one cold room at this time of year. When she had decided to keep warm by going to bed she opted to do it properly, going through all the usual night time rituals of brushing her teeth and getting changed for sleep and such. Consequently she was now lying on her back in almost complete darkness looking up at the black void above her where the ceiling was, not quite ready to go to sleep just yet.

Finally she had calmed down enough to really think about everything that had happened to her since the previous night and think she did. Obsessively. Over and over and over.

The first thing that stuck in her mind was the way Kains and Raziels attitude towards her contrasted quite drastically with what one might expect of them. If Brianne were to imagine a scenario like the one she was now in and depicted Kain and Raziel in a manner drawn purely from what she had seen in the games, well, even after just one day she would have imagined things to be a lot more bloody and a hell of a lot less civile, by current standards. As for the heroine in that picture, well, Brianne doubted she would be in such good care, certainly not from the anti-heros in question.

And speaking of anti-heros, what the hell was going on with Raziel? He was being, well, nice. At least Kain still had some of the menace she associated with him, Raziel seemed to have done a complete 180 degree temperament shift. He had been caring, considerate, thoughtful... ok, so it didn't add up. Frankly, it was about as out of place as a blue whale on a mountain top from where she was sitting, but for her sake she hoped it didn't change because when it came down to it, either one of them could kill her without really trying. Brianne shuddered at that thought but refused to delude herself that it couldn't happen, if she did she could get over confident and despite her current contemplative mood she didn't want to dwell on where that might lead.

Thinking back again through the events of the day another thing struck her as very unusual and she cursed herself for not noticing it earlier. So ladies and gentlemen, upon entering a new world filled with things completely alien to you, what would the typical reaction be?... Panic? Yeah, probably. Questions? Certainly...Random violence? Well as far as these world hoppers are concerned, that could be a possibility... Calm acceptance with not even your most simple questions regarding where you are, what the hell is going on and so forth? Nah don't be silly! Brianne gave a very un lady like snort of laughter before growing serious again. It was true. The only things they had asked her about was when Raziel wanted to know about the games and Halloween, other than that, nothing, nada, not even a hint of any real curiosity about their new circumstance. Had they gotten up to something while she was asleep to answer those questions for her? Did they know something they weren't telling?

In answer to that last question Brianne would have to say that yes, there was a world of things they were keeping hidden from her. How many times had she gotten the impression that there was an immeasurable amount of meaning passing between them even wile she was in the same room as them? From subtle glances to what she was certain were full blown arguments. 'Why are you here?' She had asked them, now she was beginning to think they knew far more then they were letting on and certainly more than she did. One thing that all this conspiracy and subterfuge did help her with though, was to help her identify from which point in their time line they had come from. At first she had wondered if they had come from the time at the end of the Soul Reaver 2 game since that was what she had been playing when this had all started but seeing them interact, their attitude towards each other, Raziels attitude towards Kain in particular, made Brianne think that they had come from the very end of Defiance. Reason being that before then Raziel had been so driven in his desire for revenge and for answers, that the relative peace with which the now seemed to coexist would have been impossible. The only problem with this theory was that the point at which the rift between them was healed was when Raziel was being pulled into the Reaver. Yet here he stood, most definitely not in sword form. And there was no physical Reaver either. Hmm.

Brianne rolled over onto her side and caught a glimpse of the clock next to her bed, 10:32, not late at all really considering that usually she would go to bed an hour later. Even so she was beginning to think in circles and at the moment that could lead to jumping to all sorts of conclusions, which could be dangerous considering who was involved. Finally giving in she closed her eyes and made herself comfortable, willing her mind to calm down then letting it drift of its own accord and simply observing the images it presented, letting it lead her to her dreams and thus to sleep.

She was dreaming again, it was vague, maybe a battle, distant screams and shouts rattling round her head getting louder and louder.

Brianne yelped as she bolted upright, the screams and shouting in the house around her startled her from her sleep. In dazed confusion she looked around her in the pitch darkness of her room, the panicked sounds of the rest of the house muffled by the walls so she could not make out exactly what was going on. She turned to look at the clock, 00:56; she had only been asleep for a couple of hours.

Dragging herself out of bed she immediately began to shiver with cold, an army of goose bumps flaring angrily over her skin in the cold room. Not bothering with the light she quickly rummaged through the various items of clothing she had brought with her and pulled out a sweater, a pair of tracksuit bottoms and her trainers and pulled them over what she was wearing, nearly getting tangled in the process.

Stumbling to the door, she yanked it open and was momentarily blinded by the hall light, the distressed sounds of the rest of the house suddenly clearer. Stepping out into the corridor she was just in time to collide with one of the other girls who was running down the hall, May. She was frantic, screaming when they collided, knocking both of them down.

"Brianne! Oh Brianne! Its-its," she was sobbing uncontrollably, "I cant- he- he- he's- no, oh no." She collapsed into incomprehensible babble on the floor, as Brianne felt stomach churning horror worming its way through her.

Scrambling forwards she grabbed May by her shoulders, pulling her up so she could see her face, "May! May, what happened? What is it?" Receiving only distraught sobs in reply Brianne resorted to shaking the girl in frustration and her own rising fear. "Damn it, May! Snap out of it! What's going on?"

At last some of this seemed to reach May and she choked out something about the basement. Brianne didn't wait to hear more. She tore down the corridor like her life depended on it, her heart racing a mile a minute. Downstairs people were running around in panic, screaming, crying.

Taking the stairs two at a time, something she had rarely done going down, her inexperience showing when she stumbled on the last few steps slipping the rest of the way down. Her hand caught the banister at the last moment, stopping her from falling flat on her face but wenching her arm as she jerked to a stop. Pulling herself shakily to her feet, another of the house guests darted past her racing up the stairs.

Somewhere close someone was calling for calm, few people seemed to be listening. She jogged down towards the kitchen, past rooms where remaining guests talked to each other in frightened whispers or tried to comfort hysterical friends. A huge burly man in his mid 30s that Brianne only knew as Dan barred the way to the kitchen, his face pale. When Brianne tried to squeeze past him a beefy hand on her shoulder was all it took to halt her in her tracks. He didn't say anything, was barely paying any attention to her at all in fact, he was too worried about what was going on in the kitchen and the rest of the house.

A huge crash sounding somewhere in one of the rooms behind Brianne caught his attention, and a cry for help was all it took for him to abandon his post for the few seconds it took to walk over to the door in question to see what was wrong. A few seconds were all that was needed for Brianne to slip through into the kitchen.

Annabel was there, so was Terri and another girl Brianne had only seen a couple of times before. The door to the basement was wide open. Terri and Annabel were sat in the corner away from the Basement, Terri was holding on to Annabel as though her life depended on it, sobbing into her shoulder, oblivious. Annabel looked up at Brianne sharply, looking drained and grim. The other girl, looking equally as upset was on the phone, it sounded like she was calling the police. Not waiting for any of them to talk Brianne barrelled past them and through the door to the cellar.

Stumbling down the stairs, still shaken from her earlier slip she came to the first room of the basement. Nothing, there was nothing out of place. Except...except one of the formally locked doors was wide open, the broken lock no longer holding it shut. Creeping forward, she looked through the door but the corridor beyond took a sharp 90 degree turn, stopping her from looking ahead. There were no electric lights so backtracking she reached for a torch kept down there incase there was a power cut. Advancing once more she continued round the bend in the corridor thinking she would never hear anything ever agin, her heart was thundering so loud.

Everything was dusty and grimy and definitely hadn't been used in a long time... not by humans at any rate. The light from the torch fell upon another set of stairs. Easing her way down, she was very conscious of the fact that the stairs were steep and there was no banister if she fell. Brianne had to stop when the stairs went round another bend, her hand on the wall to steady herself. Using the light from the touch she peered down the rest of the stairs; Another door, also open. One foot in front of the other Brianne, one foot in front of the other... Everything down here was made of stone, aside from the doors, probably because stone didn't rot in damp. The air was clammy and musty with age, in places the damp had left trails on the stone walls and roof, the small beginnings of stalactites and stalagmites starting to show.

There were doors on two of the other walls, one of them open, one of them shut. Brianne was making her way to the open door but focussed as she was on the way ahead she wasn't paying attention to where she was going and stumbled, catching her foot on something on the floor. Limbs flailing wildly she caught herself on the wall, jarring her already tender arm. Spinning round to look at the floor, the light of the touch shaking, she saw...nothing. Or what looked like nothing. Edging closer, her attention was focussed on a deep groove in the ground, quite out of place with the rest of the floor. No, not one groove but three, side by side. And fresh too, no dust, no sign of the wear cased by damp. Holding her hand over it she realised it matched perfectly with... Oh what have they been up to? They had only been here twenty four hours or so!

Backing away from the marks on the floor she turned back to the other open door. It loomed ahead of her like a giant gaping mouth, the darting light of the torch illuminating the budding stalactites just beyond the door and the water worn tracks on the stone and rotting wood made it seem far too organic. The door was splintered and cracked, almost hanging off its hinges were they had been forced to move after having been rusted solid for so long. Crossing the threshold she took stock of her surroundings. She had left the yellowed light of the small part of the basement still in use far behind, and yet...is it just me or is it getting darker down here? The shadows looked deeper, the light of the torch seemed faded and the corridor leading away from this room was a velvety black hole of nothing. Her eyes straining with every step further into the room she almost missed the prone form slumped bonelessly against the wall.

A quick double take had the shaky beam of light fixed on a boy, young man even, sprawled against the wall, twisted to the side with his feet splayed out in front of him, his back to Brianne and his hands in his lap out of sight. Her mouth and throat were dry, trying to swallow nothing while her grip on the touch became slick with sweat beneath her white knuckled grip. Everything about this was wrong. Approaching warily, hesitantly, she peered at the figure on the floor.

/...Terri was inside and so was a local lad, Frederic, who helped to clean the house on weekends. Terri only afforded them a momentary greeting before returning her attention and overly exaggerated charms on the helpless boy she had verbally pinned down like a butterfly.../

"Frederic! Frederic! Are you alright?" Reaching forward Brianne touched his shoulder, trying to ignore the alarm bells racing around her head like police sirens in a drag race; She didn't want to listen, to believe. This is wrong, this is so wrong! Oh please, please don't... Frederic didn't respond to her touch at allthere wasno indication that he even knew she was there. She was shaking his shoulder now, trying desperately to find some sign that he was alright... But she knew. She already knew when he began to fall back, sliding slowly to the ground, she had already seen how still he was, the drab grey pallor to what little skin she could see peeking out beneath his hair.

There was no thud, however soft, or any other nosie to signal the moment when he finally touched the ground. No, nothing so dramatic, just the slow cessation of all sound as he gently came to rest, leaving his front open and exposed to her view.

Brianne had never seen much in the way of gore in her life, she had never had an accident that required her to have stiches, neither had she seen anyone else in that state. She wasn't partial to particularly gruesome horror movies, preferring storyline over fake blood, nor was she a fan of hospital drama or anything else that might have helped her face the sight spread out before her. The was almost no blood at all really, barely half a cup full stained the white of his top, fanning down his chest like some kind of perverted bib. His head was just a handful of inches from her feet and looking down she had a clear view of him, of his face, utterly blank and expressionless , of his throat, torn open and sucked dry, leaving muscle and sinew and vessels and bone open to the air. If she were to tilt her head just so, she would have been able to look straight down his windpipe.

Brianne didn't realise she had been screaming until she was gasping for air.

Staggering back she collided bodily with the door frame, some of the old rotten wood splintering under her weight. Staring at the top of Frederic's head, the brunet locks tussled as though he had just gotten out of bed, Brianne could hear someone calling her name and the sound of footsteps coming closer. She couldn't have cared less. This...this is my fault! I brought them here, I'm responsible... I did this! He... they...They k-killed him! Oh god they killed him!

The footsteps had caught up with herand someone was blocking her view of Frederic, not that it mattered, the image was burned into her mind already. The person- Its Dan again- was pulling her to her feet and she was about as cooperative as a puppet with its stings cut.

What now? What will they do? What will we do?

As Dan led her out of the room and back out of basement and she caught a glimpse of Frederic's body and his ruined neck, a thought occurred to her that had been lurking at the edge of her mind since she had first realised something was wrong earlier that day. She had been thinking it all along but it hadn't really sunk in, a part of her hadn't quite believed it.

This isn't a game. This is real.

TBC

AN: Now THIS is where the story really starts to get going. Getting an idea of the scale of this thing yet? ;) Huge I know, certanly bigger than I had intened but thats ok because I have some novel size originalstories that I want to write when I have my writing style pinned down better. Some of the 'memory' sequence was taken from my first LOK fanfiction, Starlight, that got put on hold after I got more involved in this one and another bit was from part of a 'missing scene' that I started to write set between Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance. Rather than making it all up a simple copy and paste is so much quicker don't ya think? Till next time... :P