The Fallen Cities

The stories told to us from the time we were little, told us of being able to live on solid ground and not have to have specialized metal spheres surround us, of when we walked on real dry land, and had devices that could communicate with each other from distant places on that land. Of times where big machines could take us from one place to another on land, air, and sea, they called it the golden era right before the water took back the land and covered the Earth once more.

I grew up listening to those stories of the Golden Age dreaming of the day when I would be able to transform into my mer-form and roam looking at all the ruins I've heard about from older citizens who have gone exploring.

Giving a soft sigh I sat up in my hammock and reached down grabbing my black boots slipping them on while I was at it. Heading out from my room and towards the door I grabbed my long coat slipping it around my shoulders as I walked out glancing up at the artificial light far up above me. Shaking my head I walked out shutting the wooden door behind me walking down the dirt street to meet up with my friend.

After staring at the lines for what seemed like minutes I finally gave up.

"FINE!" I grabbed the book and flung it at the bed before glaring at it angrily, sure, it didn't do any harm to me but the puzzles inscribed in that thing were beyond my mind.

After a second and a small huff I gave up and spun around, glancing at the clock for a moment revealed that it was getting close to time for me to leave.

Donning my cloak and huffing slightly I finally turned around and took the book labeled "How to raise a pet. for idiots." and put it back on its shelf secluded in a small area I liked to call the corner of shame.

Putting on my glasses I finally started on my way to the town square a few streets away, my friend asked me to meet there but to this moment I'm still not quite sure why.

Shrugging slightly I started back up on my way to the town square.

Along the way there I stopped at a fruit stand and bought a couple of pears and an apple to munch on as I walked to meet my Friends, one who was always late for everything but we still loved her.

Cutting down a side street one of the friends I was to meet, his cloak flaring out slightly as he walked. Giving a small impish grin I quickened my pace sneaking up behind him, slipping in and out of buildings I kept behind him, finally I went up on a ledge that hung out from the stucco buildings and crouched down watching as he got closer and closer, waiting for an opening to pounce.

Seeing my chance I leap down in front of him with a light thud, popping back up and dusting off myself I spoke "Hi there!"

A loud thump sounded in front of me as something landed on the ground in front of me, me being the man I am certainly didn't violently flinch, certainly not, and definitely wasn't surprised. Definitely.

"Hi there!"

It took me far too long to realize one of my friends that I was meeting was standing right in front of me, after a few moments pause I finally responded.

Well, I didn't so much respond as growl slightly before saying "Do you always have to do this!? I swear you'd make a much better creature out there-" I pointed at the metallic ceiling for a moment "-considering you enjoy hunting around for people so much." I started to mutter a bit before finally saying "So, any idea why we're meeting in the town square?"

Shrugging off the seeming insult koko shifted her mischievous gaze about settling on the community well a little ways away before answering him

"You know I have to wait till the next full moon before I can full transform and go out there. Besides its not my fault you flinched like I was gonna kill you when I jumped down in-front of you. As for our friend I have no idea."

Turning her gaze back to him she held out the red apple she was holding while munching on the pears she had bought as well. "

"I didnt think you ate yet so I bought this on the way over here" she spoke while reaching into her coat to grab yet another pear to devour.

Zei nodded and took the apple, after munching on it for a bit they started heading towards the town square again, or at least they tried to.

Walking there was getting to be a hassle, throngs of people were leaving and Zei couldn't help but knock into many, finally one ran smack into Zei but before he could even get a word in with the man he noticed a stricken look on the man's face as he hurried away from the town square.

Tension was building in the streets as they walked and an increasing amount of people seemed to be heading in the opposite of their destination, as they tried to struggle through the streets to reach their target a sharp copper smell filled the air, the crowds were beginning to thin but as the two got closer to the town square the copper smell continued to grow harsher.

Finally they reached the town square only to notice no one was there.

Her silver eyes narrow into slits as the smell of stinging copper met her nose, looking around she couldn't find the reason for the smell as far as she knew it was all around them like a cloak. Giving off a tiny growl she stalked forward searching the strangely empty square, all thoughts about the pears in her coat long gone.

As she got closer to the well the smell got stronger and stronger making a pit in her stomach, crouching down low with one hand on the well she crept around it stopping short at the sight before her.

"Zei! You might wanna see this!" she called back not taking her eyes of the sight in front of her

Zei rushed forwards getting beside Koko to see what was up, he certainly didn't expect to see this.

Four corpses sat on the floor, they had been slashed up and blood was pooling on the floor, death was in the air and it was making itself known.

Zei became hypersensitive to his surroundings, those corpses were slashed up and that meant that someone had to do it, a black pit had built up in his stomach and it was making itself known now.

They were the only ones apparent in the market, everyone else had fled and with good reason, Zei stood up examining the wounds closely before turning his back towards the corpses and looking directly at Koko.

"Don't settle there Koko, we don't know who caused these-" he pointed at the bloody corpses "-but if the person who caused these are nearby we certainly don't want to be out in the open."

Not taking her eyes off the corpses she stared at the one closed to her "I knew her..." she trailed off

"She used to come to the market place and buy eggs every second and fourth days of the moon cycles, she was really sweet to everyone."

closing her eyes in respect to the dead Koko shifted and stood up warily looking around watching for anything else that wasn't normally there.

"You're right lets go before we become one of them or are accused and hung for it" she spoke darting towards the shadows of the nearest building.

Zei quickly followed Koko as she hide herself.

Moments after they had hidden themselves a platoon of armored guards emerged from the streets, covered in chainmail for flexibility, wielding blades they began to advance into the town square, Zei threw a questioning look towards Koko before continuing to watch as the guards began to march around looking for the corpses purportedly reported by scared citizens.

Seeing the look she responded in a hurried whisper still watching the scene before them

"You know the law, if you are caught stealing or heaven forbid killing your punishment is death by hanging."

Sliding further into the shadows she continued "Think about it everyone else fled the scene but if the guards showed up and we were the only two that remained we would be charged with the murder and be executed."

Reaching down she pulled a long hunting knife out of her boot and held it comfortably in her left hand "We need to continue to move since the killer or killers are still more then likely somewhere around here waiting for all the hype to cool down so they can leave if they haven't already"

Slowly she started to make her way through the alleyways away from the bloody scene.

Zei nodded, getting caught wasn't on the agenda and any chance of getting hanged was something he wanted to avoid, moving behind Koko they began moving through the alleyways away from the town square and the crime scene.

As they continued through the alleyway Zei kept an eye open for anything suspicious, it was entirely possible they weren't the only ones in the alleyway and he didn't quite feel like having a surprise encounter with either the guards or the killers, moving through the labyrinthine they turned and moved from corner to corner until eventually they took a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end.

Before they could head back they began to hear arguing going on, not exactly clear but none the less alarming Zei turned towards Koko and whispered quickly "we need to hide."

Hearing the voices as well koko snapped her head around looking for a way out. Spotting it she whacked Zei on the shoulder and pointed

"There!"

Up on a ledge was a half open window near the corner of the dead end,

"Here gimmie your foot and I'll lift you up and you scramble into window and open it some more so I can climb in."

Holding out her hands waiting on pins and needles for him to hurry up climb up

Zei nodded quickly and with the help of Koko he lifted himself in through the window, from there he could see three figured slowly heading their way, thankfully the three didn't notice either of them.

Quickly he opened the window wider and reached out for Koko so he could help her in.

After hoisting him up and into the window she turned her head towards the ever closer growing voices then back at the window waiting antsy for him to help as the window became opened wider and wider.

Seeing Zei come back out the window and offer his hand she eagerly grabbed it and scrambled into the window just as the voices came to the dead end.

Pressing herself into the wall under the window she waited until the voices left.

Zei sighed slightly as the voices slowly faded away, it looks like they left, after a few second he turned to say something to Koko before he stopped and realized something. They were breaking into someone's house and they had no idea where the owner was.

Hearing the voices fade Koko looked around noticing the disrepair of the home in general, the wallpaper was pealing badly revealing the skeleton of the rotten wood walls, the smell of rot and decay was potent in the air, Koko shifted holding the sleeve of her coat up to her nose to try and filter the air.

"Zei this place has been abandoned for a long time look," she whispered pointed to the remains of a long dead corpse laying near the kitchen a broken tea cup lay shattered beside it.

Standing up she moved through out the house peering at anything that she took an interest in, after making a full circuit through the house she peered out the window and pointed once more

"Look there" pointed to a figure standing in the shadows

=PERSPECTIVE SHIFT=


Oh god, the blood...the blood is everywhere.

I stared at my hands, blood covered as I remembered what I did.

A vague cloudy memory surfaced as I sat there in horror at what I had done.

Things had been going so well, my friends and I had gone exploring in a ruin we found last Full Moon, it'd been awesome, there was so much to discover and we had been there for hours and had found so much, we didn't bring anything home though, didn't want to reveal what we had found before we had seen the entire thing.

We'd gone our separate ways as soon as we got back, we all thought about what we had found and each of us was eager to get back and dream about the next time we would visit. It didn't last though, a few moons later and everything had changed, the shadows mocked me, stared at me and laughed behind my back, my dreams weren't dreams anymore they were nightmares now.

Everywhere I went I heard whispers behind my back, people were making me the butt of their jokes and it wouldn't stop! Even my friends were planning something, I swear to you they were planning my demise.

More moons passed and I stopped eating, my body couldn't handle the food I was eating, it was rejecting the food being fed to it I couldn't stop it, I was puking any food that entered my body, sometimes even specks of blood could be found in my vomit.

As the moons passed I had planned something, I was going to meet my friends and we were going to talk about what we had found at the ruins, on the way though I couldn't stop hearing the whispers, they laughed, they joked, and they conspired against me. I couldn't help myself! I swear! When I got to the town square I was jittery, someone grabbed me and turned me around AND I COULDN'T HELP IT! I couldn't. I lashed out, grabbing my knife I stabbed him, sliced him up, my friends went crazy as well!

Everything was a blur, blood everywhere, when I realized what I had done my friends had left me there with a knife in hand and covered in blood, there were a few bodies around me...I guess I must have panicked, I woke up, surrounded by walls I realized I was in an alleyway near the town square.

After staring at my bloody hands for what felt like hours a wave of dread washed over me, I sat there and dry heaved, eventually I expelled whatever was in my stomach, blood filled my vomit and a burning pain spread through my body, I sat there shivering as pain coursed through my body like acid filled my veins.

Shuddering, I coughed and spat blood out, covered in blood I felt something come over me, a wave of cold washed my body as I continued to lay there, finally darkness washed over me, spitting up blood I lied there and closed my eyes for the final time.

Standing in the hallway of his apartment Ember stood holding the small worm like creature in him hands, he had found the tiny thing on the last full moon all alone while tailing some guys he vaguely knew as they swam into the forbidden ruins of what the history scrolls called New York. His gaze was directed in horror at the scene in his small window, down at the square were four corpses all slashed to ribbons by the very men he had been tailing. "Oh, my god!" he whispered clutching the thing tighter making to squeak out in pain, hearing it he instantly let up on his grip but brought it closer to his chest as he continued to look out the window. "Those poor people..." he trailed off a single tear coming down his face.

Flashback:

As the artificial sun went down I could feel the moon's sway calling me to transform and join her for a nightly swim in the chilly waters. After cutting through many alleyways and down different streets I made it to my flat and went inside. It wasn't much but with what I was paid to sand down drift wood into the shafts of spears didn't really cut it if I wanted to live a little nicer. Shrugging I made my way over to the kitchen and made a sandwich, and sat down at my banged up kitchen table. "I need to go buy some more bread" I muttered to no-one in particular while munching.

After I was done I put my plate in the sink to be washed later and grabbed my keys and coat as I made my way out the door and down to the chambers that would allow us to transform and take to the see to join the moon. At the docks I piled my clothes in a neat pile in a corner so that I could find them later and slid into the water feeling my muscles ad bones rearrange themselves so that I could swim with my tail. It was an albino tail with red accents here and there, all in all my tail was rather striking but I didn't stop to admire it like I usually would as I slid fully underwater, earlier I had heard these guys that I worked with all talking about how they were gonna go exploring in the forbidden ruins, so I decided to tail them when they went, and that was a couple of minutes ago.

I finally caught up to them and hid behind a large bolder that had been there since who knows how long just outside the place once referred to as New York. All they seemed to do was play around sending up streams of air bubbles with every flick of their tails, it was rather boring when they called it a night and headed back. As I waited till they left I tiny creature crawled up to me and was flailing its tiny upper body like the surrounding seaweed, it looked abandoned so I picked it up, it seemed really happy about that, and swam back with it and grabbed my clothes and headed home to sleep with that creature snugly under my jacket to keep warm.

Twitch twitch

The killer's body twitched slightly, signals sent to the muscles of a dead body, it twitched again but moments later the dead killer's mouth opened up to reveal a small pink worm-like creature, the creature shivered slightly at the feel of the cool air, it was much more used to the warmth that radiated from the now lifeless body.

The parasite slithered out of the killer's mouth, and with great speed fed on the body it hatched inside of, it tore small holes throughout the body before it stopped suddenly.

Its small body shivered again but this time not due to the cold air, it sensed something nearby, whatever end it considered its head lifted itself slightly and aimed towards the direction it was sensing from, kin was nearby and was trying to contact it, the worm-like creature began to head steadfastly towards its kin, slithering and navigating through the alleys it was born in it ignored the delicious smell of death around it and headed towards its destination.

Moving beyond the corpses inside the town square, slithering through the streets it felt a pulse from its senses, it was close to its kin and the signal was coming from a nearby window, it worked towards the building the signal was coming from.

Finally upon reaching the building it slithered around trying to find an entrance that would allow it passage to the kin that was contacting it like a light tapping on its conscious.

Ember still stood watching the scene in the square, a man and a woman had walked over to the corpses, he saw the woman say something to the man and they both took off to the shadows just as the guards came in and started to search the area. Ember turned around and started to head back to his living room, if you could call it that, when his little creature he had named Rozen leap out of his hold and quickly slithered towards the front door as fast as its tiny body could.

Following Ember couldn't figure out for the life of him why Rozen would scurry towards the door as if the flat was on fire. “Hey there, slow down little guy” he called out to the pinkish worm as he came up behind it and scooped it up

“Alright lets see whats got you so worked up huh?” he smiled and opened his wooden door enough so that he could still block his space with his body if needed “See, buddy there isn't anything there”

As the door opened the signal became significantly stronger and The Parasite immediately rushed inside not noticing the owner of the house that was presently opening the door.

Closing the door Ember turned away with Rozen in his hands, his white hair blowing slightly with his movement as he headed towards his beat up couch.

Rozen had other plans, the worm leap down and scurried over to the corner of the wall near the door, where the other worm was hiding

-PERSPECTIVE REVERT-

Zei peeked over the edge to see what Koko was pointing at; it was a bit hard to see but from the looks of it there was a person in the alleyway.

Zei squinted as hard as possible before whispering slightly to Koko "I don't think that's a guard-" he squinted again at the shadow "he's alone and guards stick to patrols."

"I know..." she trailed off still watching the shadows. She strained her eyes to find any kind of recognizable feature in the shadows, there! When the light shifted slightly she caught a glimpse of teal-ish green hair. "Zei, I think that is Masamune Ito. He's the only person I know that has greenish hair." She excitedly whispered to Zei leaning further out the window.


Masamune stood in the shadows waiting for the crowd to leave, what those four did was disturbing, and uncalled for to those people. Hearing hurried footsteps get closer and closer he back further into the shadows not wanting to be seen.

He swallowed his surprise as his friend Koko ran past with some guy who reminded him of a scholar right behind her, and continued to watch as they scaled into a window of the abandoned flat above.

Still waiting around to see what they were doing Masamune stuck around, looking down the street then back up he saw Koko leaning dangerously far out the window looking directly at him. Deciding to come out, she stepped forward and gave a small wave and a cheeky smirk before saying "Hey-ya Koko."