The dreaded bell of the surface is about to ring the dreaded toll, its noise echoing across the land for all to hear, beckoning for many to wake up into the morning. The bells strikes. I count. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. The sixth hour. Morning or night, breakfast or dinner, it doesn't matter to me. The Goopy One must leave to get his food for both him and my creation.

I cannot be too sure. If he's there, he could ruin everything. My hand ultimately reaches for my neck. His hands are on top of it. I breathe and breathe and breathe. I take a small roach in my fur and send it through the cracks to check. I sit underneath what seems to be the abandoned house so long ago. It was empty of dirty humans and worthless surface filth, just 2 of my subjects in a ghost town. I imagine the silence with only the sound of empty screams from the houses as the winds blew in them. I sit in the humid tunnels beneath waiting for my loyal roachman to return with my information, imagining the scene play out.

I took the potion out, seeing its green glow and its radiating heat. It's still warm like a green bloody heart, filled with new life for the kingdom. As such, I caress it as if a baby.. As if Scratch himself.. I even see a reflection across it looking back at me. Today, the sewers will be reborn. Today they'll be brought back to their real home. Today, my first subject will be mine because of this! My greatest treasure! My greatest key! He will not like you.. Yes.. He will fight against you.. He will try to destroy you... but you've seen me.. You know me. You can make them obey me, their ruler! I do not know where they get these insidious thoughts.. Everything I did is for MY kingdom, but YOU can change that..

CRANK!

I grow stiff. Only silence clouded my mind. I look across the tunnel to where the source comes from. Instinctively, I place my potion away on my back, raise my crossbow loaded with my traditional poisons and point into the darkness. I only hear the light pitter patter of sewage. My hands shake as I stare directly in darkness. Nothing comes out, but the implications still rang true. I always knew they were true. The humans would come any moment now, but they've always ignored it. They're dead.

I look down to my crossbow and unloaded the poisons within and replaced them with the potion in the case of desperate measures. My roachman comes back from the cracks. I feel his legs climbing up mine as he tries to go to my fingers. I give him my attention and he nods yes. He wasn't there.

The waters wash and fade as I climb up, up, up the pipe. I see the surface quickly. It was utter darkness; I couldn't see anything, but I smell the stench of fresh Zaunite air recycled from the bright city above. It comes closer and closer until finally a large splash can be heard across the house. When I hear it myself, I start to stiffen when I come out of the old worn out porcelain portal. My head immediately jolts to the closed door to my right. I slowly come off and blend in with my surroundings as I've always done. I wait for the door to open or even creak, but nothing happened in what seemed to be 5 good minutes. The Goopy One can come in any moment.

I open the door slowly to reveal a small brown rat in what seems like an island of light created by a sole burning yellow lantern. He clutches the accursed light fondly as he moves away slowly until he hits a wall. I see the stairs nearby, a way to escape to a deathtrap. Avoiding the light that reveals my shadow, I position myself between him and the stairs to block it if he tries to run. I tip toe slowly to that position, taking note in every step, every movement that my plague rat subject would make. All he did was stare at the door in anticipation of something, possibly the Goopy One himself.

"There you are.." I growl.

He didn't even turn; he knew the voice. He steps back and tries to run away. He squeaks and squeals for help, but nothing can be heard hear. "Now.. Time for YOU to go back to MY kingdom.. where you belong.." I hold the potion up again in my hand for him to see. He shrivels even more, moving back until he feel the concrete pavement of the wall behind him. The light he grasps illuminates it, showing the childish drawings he makes: a large rat with no pupils, me, atop a throne of rat bones with a large "X" covering it all. I'm taken aback. "What's... What's this!? This.. extermination!" I shout, pointing to the image behind. He wouldn't look back; he was already staring right at it. "You're supposed to like me.. You're supposed to like ME! I'm your creator AND the first plague rat! And.. and... and you see THIS! He brainwashed yo-"

CRANK!

It's the sound. Again. Much louder than the last. They were coming.

"You.. You think you're safe here!?" I shout, pointing to the direction of the sound. "The Goopy One's delusional.. You heard that.. Those are the surface dwellers.. The surface dwellers with their machines and chemicals.. With their many ways to exterminate US!" His face didn't change. He only closed his eyes, thinking it would make me disappear.

I grip his hand. He tries to fight. He's too weak. "Everything will change my little subject.." I said. I gesture to the wall with my supposed face. "All of this will change! You are Twitch's subject! Twitch is not your enemy.. The sewer king wants the best for his subjects.. I have something to make you see the truth!"

I take out the potion behind my back. He fought back even more at its sight. "DON'T YOU FIGHT! Your king commands it! Just close your eyes.. It may hurt, but it will all be better in the end.." I inch the potion closer and closer to Scratch's face until I feel the cask that holds it heat up suddenly. I look at it in surprise to see it glow bright. Suddenly, Scratch escapes my grip and pushes me away with immense ferocity. I look up to see his fur slightly glow green as it did back in the comforting depths of my home. It.. it must be a sign! It must be a sign that it works! Hehe.. It will work!

Seeing my position, he lunges up to the stairs to find a way out. As he runs over to the supposed safety of the wooden steps, he stops at the loud rumble above. They're here. Time was running out. With no thought, I lunge at him, pinning him down to the ground. He squirms endlessly in my weight as his fur begin to react again.

"Just a drip.. JUST A DRIP! PLEASE!" I shout desperately as I resist the urge to cackle. I hold the potion up to his face, letting it drip in his mouth one by one. Let the lies end! Let my subjects be with me! Let them trust me! Let them be mine! It drops closer and closer and closer to his mouth. I grow eager at the result.

He screams and screams and screams as the drops enter, but it will be worth it. Like the bones in my lair, the sewer king must face pain and sacrifice. Closer and closer and closer..

"Hey! What's going on down there!?" I heard someone say from the light above. I stop in my track, but that didn't stop Scratch. He threw me off and cowered back in his corners, knowing that voice wasn't ZAC's. He shriveled back below the my hideous image, dropping the lantern in the floor, as he begin to grasp his mouth, squeaking in pain. I see smoking coming from the skin. He begin to barf it out, ejecting it all out from his system. i saw a good portion of his lower face all scarred and burned as he tries to barf the poison out. He was vulnerable, too busy with the toxins to face me, yet I still hear the many footsteps above trying to lift the furniture blocking the entrance. I look up at my picture and look back at the potion, the one that I worked so hard on..

I took my crossbow and fired at the lone lantern. The island of light was gone. The image was gone. Suddenly, the door was blown open and massive amount of light broke through from the surface. On the stairs above us was a sole surface dwelling monster marching down the stairs. More were coming. I tried to hold Scratch's hand, but he refused to escape with me... Those thoughts still plagued his mind.. There was no choice.

I fired and fired and fired. I hear screams. I hear the heads hitting the ground, The monsters above us continuously fell. I hear my cackle. I hear my loud threats. No one was taking my subject away. No one was destroying us. Guns were fired, but there were aimless in the dark while the light made their location cleared. I fired and fired and fired...

All of the walls and the drawings were cracked, and the room was filled with corpses that no one could see. Only 2 remain in the darkness. I approach the shadow still shivering and twitching in the loan corner. I try to get him up, but even when I saved him, he would never come up..

Suddenly the house begin to creak and cry. Rubbles of cements begin to fall on our fur. I look up in horror as the basement begins to collapse.

I knew something went wrong. I just knew it. I could feel the screams and the pain from so many miles away. From even the cultivairs of the upper levels of Zaun, I could still sense what seems to be a massacre. I drop my food and just went through the pipes as fast as I could. I zoom past the depths of the city wishing that it was all just superstition, that Scratch was just safe drawing away whatever he wants, but all of that washes away when I see the neighborhood in ruins with new abandoned construction equipment. "SCRATCH!?" I scream. "SCRATCH!?" I run through the pipes and crack of my old house and went to the basement. The smell of death and blood hit me hard as I went through, fueling my anxieties and woes even more. Suddenly, I pop out of the pipes into the basement as sediment begin to fall down on my head. I look around to find corpses of all kinds and broken pieces of Scratch's charming art. However, if it was all corpses, there wouldn't be the sense of fear and dread. I look in front to see Scratch all safe and another trying to hold on to him. I couldn't care less on who this other person is; my instinct drove in and I grab the two quickly. Large cracks begin to form, letting the zaunite light through. I ready my legs to jump through the building. "Hold on tight fellas.." I warned. I leap upwards, crashing through the frail ceiling like a meteorite aimed towards the sky. As I went up, I looked down to see the disasters of my old home broken to smithereens by a nearby wrecking ball. My substance begins to grow light, becoming a small parachute for the two.

I tore my sight away from the wreckage. "At least Scratch was safe.." I repeat to myself. "At least Sc-" I stop when my eyes begin to look at the second person that I saved: Twitch. This inclusion changed everything. He was responsible for all of those dead bodies. I begin to notice the numerous new scars that Scratch obtained , specifically a big one located on his jaw..

The two landed softly on the ground. Immediately, Scratch went up to hug me, digging his face to his head to relax the newfound scars. I hug back, relieved that he was still alive, but then I look back at the twisted monster.

I place Scratch down with a small bloblet to press his injuries on and march to twitch. I grab him by the chest and pin him down to the ground.

"What. Did. You. Do?" I ask adamantly. "What did you do to Scratch!? And what did you do to everyone!?"

"I.. I saved him.." He croaks. "Those... people.. if I wasn't there, they would've killed him.."

I glance at the wrecking ball and then the wreckage of my old home and then the Twitch himself, looking tired and defeated. "You still tried to feed him that potion..." I growl. my grip released him. "If I see you again, I'm breaking an arm. I don't care. I don't want to see you again.." I turn back to him, walking

"But where will you go..?" Twitch squeaks. I'm surprised. I was expecting that he would run away like the coward he was. "Look what happened here.. The humans are spreading up here. They'll find you.. and they'll exterminate you.. They're a plague.. I told you many times! They're a plague! AND HE WOULD'VE BEEN KILLED!"

"I'll find another place!"

"But where!?" I pause, not knowing where to go. Everywhere I look I see old houses that are now dead, house that I thought were safe havens. "It's.. it's the only place.. I have more rooms in the sewers.. Please... You don't have to live in my lair. Please..."

I march back into the sewers, packing the normal trash bag beds and yellow lanterns into an empty pipe room. Me and Scratch said nothing throughout the trip. He only clings around my neck, not wanting to be in this living nightmare any longer. When we settle down, I begin to check the numerous cracks of the pipe room, looking for roaches and bugs and anything Twitch can use to spy on us. I still threatened to break his arm if I saw him here. Still would. Nothing was in the cracks. Nothing was there yet might I add.

I look over to Scratch who was shivering on his trash bag, not believing the turn of events. I come over to comfort him. "Hey.. This is only temporary. We'll find a home eventually.. Don't worry about it," I sigh. " I have something to show you." I look into my trash bag and took out what seems to be a small magical hextech gauntlet meant to manipulate any form of magic. When we were packing, I went over to get something at the promenade before we left. Usually my parents would disapprove of stealing, but I had no choice.

I wore it and begin to show a small electric ball. "See this? It can do all sort of things." I begin to form it in the many drawings that Scratch has made throughout the weeks. Some just 2 dimensional static drawings while others were 3 dimensional models acting the drawings out. "I got it just for you.. You can play around it. Just focus on the ball and focus on what you want to make.." I watched as Scratch manipulate the ball endlessly. I see the balls glow reflected in his eyes as it gives light to a dark world, same as I when my parents first showed it to me. I would have to teach him how to wield it. Magic's not just used for fancy light shows.. I don't even know how to do that myself.. My parents never taught me.

I look back in the dark corridors of the sewers, thinking I heard a large skitter. Thinking I heard the footsteps of what could be a hidden rat. He was nowhere to be found. I may have to teach him quick..

As Scratch played with the ball, it began to turn green.