The Servant and the Serial Killer

OK. My head feels fairly clear. Sort of. Clear enough.

Anyway, my last post ended with me chasing Sleight into the Empty City. So here's what happened next:

Ended up in the middle of a city park. Like Central Park only it wasn't in New York, and was therefore much nicer. I couldn't see Sleight anywhere. It was night (it nightish, all things considered) and he had slipped away into the shadows. I began walking around, looking for him.

I heard something move behind me, and spun around. Sleight's form was retreating into a heavily forested area, and I wasn't about to lose him when I'd spent a week searching America's toilet for the bastard. I gave chase.

I'm not sure how long I ran through those trees, but eventually they thinned out, and I burst out of the woods only to be met by a very tall building. I turned around to see the trees shifting away and more buildings growing from the ground. The grass and dirt beneath my feet melted into pavement, and soon I was in the center of an empty metropolis.

I walked through the streets of the Empty City, my eyes scanning every crack, every alleyway. Sleight was in here somewhere, hiding.

"I didn't mean to..." I heard a voice say, though from the way it echoed I couldn't tell where it was coming from. "Those people... I killed them and I don't even know why."

I heard something scrape to my right, and spun to face the mouth of an alley. I drew the pistol I had been keeping tucked in my belt.

"Just woke up and felt like I needed to... Never met them before, just knew that they needed to die.... And I felt I needed to come here. I needed to stop something. But I've failed."

The gun held out in front of me, I began walking toward the alley.

"Never failed before..."

I entered the alley.

"My head aches so much. I need to stop it... but it's already happened."

Step by step, I drew closer to the sound.

"But... there's something else."

I couldn't see a thing, but I knew I was close.

"You have to die."

A gunshot echoed through the alley, and I looked down to see my weapon laying at my feet, my hands clutching my stomach, trying futilely to hold the blood in.

I heard a click as Sleight prepared for the second attack.

I fell backward, using the last ounce of my strength to reach out to the Empty City, and show it Master's mark upon my being, entreat it to...

A Door opened behind me, and I plummeted through it.

The next thing I remember is waking up in a bed in some back-alley doctor's office, with Glorius and Acedia standing over me.

Heh. Guess they did something useful after all.

Thanks.

-STEWARD