[TRIGGER WARNING: BLOOD, GORE.]

"He's dead, okay, he's been dead for the past six or seven strikes! Stop it!"

Tim caught Alex's arm and pulled him back roughly. The stone clattered to the ground, slick with blood and a pulpy substance which Tim refused to accept was probably brains. Alex wiped his hands on his pants and used the edge of his shirt to clean his glasses. He still seemed almost bored. Perhaps, Tim thought, Alex had just learned to shut it all out. Maybe he was numb to this by now.

"Right." He said breathlessly as he grabbed one leg. "Help me drag this closer to the gate."
"Did you have to use a rock? You have a freakin' gun on your belt."
"Well...No, I probably could have shot him. I'm just used to using a rock, that's all."

Tim's lip curled in disgust. The man they had chosen as their ticket into the Darkened district appeared to be in his early twenties. He had a scruffy look to him - hadn't shaved in a week, reeked of cheap beer, and Tim assumed that shirt was white at some point long, long ago...Alex's reasoning was that he probably would have ended his own life in a few weeks' time anyway. Still, it seemed a cruel thing to do.

Thankfully, the streets here were completely dead. From Tim's brief strolls through the city when Jay wasn't talking to him, he had come to expect brawlers, drunkards, and cutpurses around every corner. He had expected to hear sounds of struggle in the alleys and loud swearing from the dimly lit taverns dotting the streets. But there was none of that here by the gate. There was a certain tension in the air, though he couldn't be certain whether or not that was just from being near Alex.

"So how long do we have to wait?"
"They'll be here any minute. Actually we should get out of the way."
"What's that supposed to mean?"

At that moment, a great rush of steam came from beneath the gate. The shriek of grinding metal cut through the silence like a bullet through paper. Alex seized his wrist and pulled him aside to stand in front of a nearby drug store. This didn't exactly seem like 'hidng' to Tim, but he kept his mouth shut. Through the cloud of steam he could see two figures approaching. They weren't extrordinary in sihlluoette - Two men of average height, average weight, nothing special. It was when they came into the light that Tim felt uneasy. They wore masks. Masks that felt oddly familiar, actually. Looking at them made his face feel strangely numb and tingly.

No straps or wires secured the maks to their faces. Both were made of some smooth, white metal and had finely painted black lips and heavy black rings around the eyes. There were no seems of any sort. The men stood over the body, examining it as if to make sure it was dead.

Of course it's dead, is there really any question about that? He barely has any face left and the left half of his skull is missing.

Alex jerked his head towards the open gate and motioned for Tim to follow as the men each took an arm and began to drag the man back with them. If the masked men knew they were there, they made no effort to stop them or acknowledge their presence.

"T-Tim?" Wait.

Jay's voice didn't carry very far here. Well, wherever 'here' was. It was dark and cold and he could feel damp stone against his bare back. He rubbed his arms and curled his knees up to his chest, wishing desperately that whoever had taken him had left him his sweatshirt. I've been here before. I know where I am.

"T-Tim? Are you there?" Tim's not here. He wasn't here last time, either.

He tried again. But he could almost feel his words falling out of his mouth and straight into his lap. Tentatively reaching out in front of him, he discovered that wherever he was it was a very small space. Jay couldn't even fully extend his arm. He found that the ceiling was only about an inch from his head, as were the walls to his left and right. A sudden feeling of claustrophobia overtook him and he had to shut his eyes and hold his head to stop himself from yelling out. Oh, right, there's a door.

One hand reached slowly to the wall on his right, finding the edge of a handle like you'd expect to find on a vault door. Jay wriggled himself into a better position to turn the wheel and tumbled out onto the floor of a dimly lit room. He had a feeling that he'd done this before - multiple times, in fact. The candle was burned down lower than the last time and the sheets on the old bed had been recently disturbed.

He stood up cautiously, scanning the room for...for what? Something in particular that he was supposed to find...Something he'd been working on? No...Yes?

Jay caught his reflection in a mirror propped up against the wall across from the bed. It was badly cracked, as if someone had punched it. Spots of dried blood surrounded the impact point. Jay looked down at his own knuckles, bruised and badly cut up.

So he had been here before. Recently.

Tim had no idea what he was expecting, but it wasn't this. The streets weren't cobblestone here, rather they were made of a thick, tar-black stone of some sort. Massive buildings with way too many windows that were too dark to see through rose up on either side of him. And it was cold. Even he could feel the icy wind that whipped around them.

"It's not usually this windy." Alex mumbled, pulling his jacket closer to his neck. "They must know we're here."

Tim didn't say anything. He was too busy watching the masked men. They were going through the dead man's pockets, emptying them of change, a set of keys, and a few scraps of paper. One of them pried a lead pipe from the man's belt (one that he had assumedly been using as a means of self-defense) and snapped it in half with ease. These weren't ordinary men.

"Are you coming?" Alex was already making his way down a narrow pathway that ran along the district wall.
"Yeah." He pried his eyes away from the scene and walked after him quickly.
"That's management. I still can't tell whether it's a punishment or a reward."
"What's with those masks?"
"Ugly, aren't they?" Alex paused to listen for something, shook his head, and kept walking. "As far as I can tell, they hammer one of those into your face and if you survive you get the job."
"Jesus. How does one get picked out for that test?"
"Either you get promoted from being a worker bee like I was, or you screw up really bad and they kidnap you in your sleep to hammer a mask onto your face."

Tim bit his tongue. He knew what Alex was implying, but he refused to think about that. Jay wasn't going to become one of those...things. Jay hadn't done anything wrong.

What about you? Aren't you a mistake?

He shook his head to force the thought away. He was not a mistake. Jay's disappearance was not his fault. It couldn't be. It wasn't.