I had not expected to be catching late night public transit. We had waited outside my apartment for almost thirty minutes for a TTC bus to take us to the subway station.

  The entire time, people stared at Kas. Done up like she was, with her black leather and her many accessories, people likely thought she was some kind of nut case. Luckily, there were enough nerd conventions in downtown Toronto, that some whackjob wielding a crossbow and dressed in leather wasn't unheard of. Still, the unnecessary attention made me anxious. Kas, however, was unfazed.

  We hit Union Station and got off the subway. Kas wandered around for a bit, like she was looking for something she just couldn't find.

  "Lost?" I asked, slinging my duffel over my shoulder and leaning on my cane. Kas ignored me as she ran her hand along the dirty wall of the subway platform.

  "Not this one." She mumbled.

  Kas turned quickly and strode away with purpose, her long legs carrying her much quicker than I could keep up. Luckily, she stood out among the crowd, so it was easy for me to follow her, even though it took me longer.

  I watched as she descended some stairs and turned a corner, disappearing from view. I eyed the elevator next to me, with the little blue wheelchair sticker and sighed as I hit the button, calling the elevator up.

  When I reached the bottom level, I saw her standing next to a service door, painted grey that stood out among the white and yellow tiles. As I apporached, I noticed it had no doorknob. There was a little yellow plate on the door that had a lightning bolt; it said 'DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE'.

  I watched as Kas ran her hand along the door frame, her fingers tracing the edge gently. Suddenly, her finger found a button that blended seamlessly with the frame and the door clicked open. She turned to me and smiled.

  "Not as lost as you'd think. Follow me, and try to keep up. You don't want to wander off down here." She told me.

  I rolled my eyes and followed behind her into the door. I turned to close it behind me, and when I turned back around, I walked straight into her back with an "oof". She looked over her shoulder and glared.

  We were in a tiny boiler room looking space, with some kind of electrical server on my left and hundreds of little bronze pipes running in and out of the wall on my right. In front of me, or more accurately, in front of Kas, was another door. This one blended in to the room and was non-descript. There was a tiny slot, barred from the other side, like an old prison holding cell. She knocked on the door rhythmically, almost to the tune of 'Shave and a Haircut'. Then she grunted and made some horrible sound from the back of her throat. The little slit slid open.

  Staring back were a pair of yellow, bloodshot eyes, on a puke green face. Whatever it was had a white, fuzzy unibrow.

  "Whatchu say about my mudda?" A voice croaked from behind the door. It almost sounded like a Brooklyn accent.

  "Oh good, you speak English." Kas said back. "I'm seeking passage for two." She told the yellow eyes, which darted between her and myself.

  "We don't do humans. We really don't do normies, and we most certainly don't do youse folk." The voice said, the eyes moving back so they could poke a spindly green finger at Kas. She deftly grabbed the finger and the thing behind the door squeaked. I was so baffled at this point, with no idea what was happening, that I almost stumbled back into the entrance door. The sounded made Kas turn to face me, and she saw me going for my sidearm, but she motioned for me to stop.

  "I hope you don't like this finger, because if you don't let us in, I'm going to remove it from your ugly little body." She snarled, still holding the creatures appendage through the slit in the door. The creature made a gurgling noise, which I was understanding to be another language.

  "I will pay you double your fee, and you get to keep your finger." She told the thing.

  "Chill lady! Why didn't youse just say that to begin with?" The creature said, still destressed, but with a calmer approach. I could hear a large latch lifting from behind the door and Kas let go of the thing's finger. The slit closed and several more locks, bolts and chains made sounds as they opened the door ahead of us.

  "Gremlins." Kas said, turning to me and shaking her head, like that was a perfectly acceptable explanation.

  "Like the movie?" I asked, frowning. She shrugged and made a 'so-so' motion with her hand.

  "Kinda. But also, not really?" She told me, before banging on the door. "Hurry the fuck up!"

  The door swung open and I froze. I was staring at a whole other subway station that was just casually hiding under Union Station. The narrow hall out was filled with more bronze piping and several generators pumped away, rattling loudly. The Gremlin, as Kas had called it, was standing next to the door, holding it open. He looked miserable, but bowed a little as we entered.

  He was about three feet tall, with a little suit jacket covering his lumpy green skin. Aside from the jacket, he wore an old TTC conductor's hat between two massive ears on either side of his head and a loincloth. He had tuffs of frizzy white hair under his hat, but was otherwise hairless except for his unibrow. He had a rusty old name tag that said 'Gene'.

  "Umm...thanks." I said, stepping passed the little monster. He smiled up at me with an impossibly wide grin, hundreds of razor-like fangs glinting in the dim light.

  "Watch yer step." He sneered back. I jumped back, startled. He snickered, but snapped to attention when Kas handed him a little velvet pouch. He opened it, and poured the contents into his hand. Thin, almost ancient coins spilled out. They looked to be from various time periods. I noticed Roman denari and Grecian drachma among them.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  "That'll do." He chuckled, putting the coins back in the pouch and then stuffing it into his loincloth. Kas started walking down the narrow hall, so I followed. As we moved out into a large concourse area filled with haphazardly displayed neon signs and dangling christmas lights. Many different monsters wandered about between stores, or rushing about as train schedules displayed on large screens. There had to be at least a hundred species of creatures here. Some of them very closely resembled humans, but upon closer inspection, there were telltale signs that they weren't.

  "Wait up." I called to Kas as she disappeared into the crowds again. I hobbled about, trying not to make eye contact with anything, but it was hard not to gawk. This time it wasn't as easy to spot her. I panicked and kept a hand on my sidearm, tucked away under my trench coat. I had no idea if regular bullets would work on half the things down here.

  Ch0z3n1 had told me that all the monsters were real. Pendragon had told me that everything else was real too; Gods, magic, all of it.

  I started to recognize some of the monsters down here: I could pick out a group of cyclops hanging around, by posters for movies I had never heard of. There was a minotaur in a suit buying a newspaper from something that looked like a giant Jell-O wearing an apron. There was a mermaid sitting in a kiddy pool, playing a harp, with the instrument's case on the ground, collecting old coins as she played.

  They all just went about their business down here like we did, above.

  I was able to find Kas again once the monsters realized she was among them. They gave her a wide berth, hissing and cursing at her. They were all staring at her, and soon, I noticed, at me as well. I forced myself to move a little faster to catch up to her. When I did, she was staring up at one of the screens, looking at train times.

  "It looks like the one going to London isn't for a bit. We could probably get something to eat if your hungry?" She offered as I came up beside her.

  "I didn't bring any buttons and bobbypins. Do they even take real money down here?" I asked. She barely turned to look at me.

  "The coins I used are real money. The Old World functions off a lot of forgotten currencies made out of precious metals. And barter systems still exist. You could use your Canadian dollars, but you'll find the exchange rate is quite ridiculous." She informed me.

  "What would I even eat down here?" I said, still in awe of the whole thing. Kas pointed absently and I stared off across the concourse. There, nestled amongst the shops with signs in languages I couldn't read, was the familiar golden arches of a McDonalds. It was a small one, with no place to sit, but it was an honest to goodness McDonalds down in the pits of whatever the hell I was in.

  "They really are everywhere." I said, eyes wide. Kas made a non-commital grunting sound.

  "Wait, did you say we were taking a train to London, England?" I asked, realizing what she had said. She nodded and then did a double take, like she had forgotten I was here.

  "Oh right, this whole thing is new to you I guess." She said, laughing to herself. Or at least I hope she wasn't laughing at me, like I was just supposed to know this was all hiding beneath the city.

  "So, the goblin engineers have used human technology and mixed it with a bit of magic. The Old World has trains that go all over the world, branching out and spanning thousands of stations, with hundreds of trains running all at once. For chaotic little shits, they sure know how to run a transit system. It's free to use for monsters, but the Chosen who come down here have to pay. They make me pay more cause I'm a monster hunter." She explained.

  "Goblins...built super trains that span the world?" I asked, incredulously.

  "Well not just goblins. There were a lot of collaborators on the project, I'm sure." She shrugged. I looked around the concourse still unsure what to think.

  None of them had moved to attack us, which surprised me the most. There were plenty of vicious looking creatures moving about down here, but most of them went about their business. Sure, we were being stared at, but that was because we were the outsiders here. And apparently because Kas killed these guys as a profession. I followed her deeper into the concourse, over to the McDonalds and stood in line, trying to ignore my constant state of anxiety at everything that walked by us. I didn't like feeling helpless in a world that was new to me. I was used to being the top of the food chain.

  "Could you explain to me exactly what a Chosen is? I keep hearing the term used." I asked Kas, as we waited.

  "So, they're kinda like secret agents. The Order of Vigilance is made up of lots of Chosen. They are usually recruited in, for one reason or another and trained to go on expeditions to recover Artifacts. That's the main goal at least. They are trained to deal with any..." She looked around, choosing her next words carefully. "...disturbances, they encounter too. So, lots of combat training."

  "If you ask me though, they start recruiting too young. A lot of Chosen are hormonal teenagers. Can you imagine running an entire barracks full of whiny, horny, brats and trying to teach them to be soldiers? What a fucking mess." She added.

  "So they're child soldiers, working for a shadow organization." I said, grimly. Kas stared at me for a moment, before turning back to the menu. I didn't recognize all of the food options and the writing wasn't in English.

  "It's not like that." She said, shaking her head.

  "Sure sounds like it. I've seen child soldiers before. Get them indoctrinated as early as you can, offer them whatever they want, stick a weapon in their hand and send them off to die for a cause they could never know the true nature of." I told her, my voice almost a growl.

  "I see where you're coming from John, but I promise you, that's just not the case. Every member is asked to join, they are compensated very well, and all Chosen get a chance to bond to an Artifact or two to take with them in the field..." She stopped when I stared at her, eyebrows raised.

  "Not helping my case, I know." She said, defeated. "The Order takes care of it's members, was the point I was trying to make."

  "Are you a Chosen?" I asked. Kas gave a half-hearted shrug with one shoulder.

  "No. I mean, I was. But I'm not anymore." She said, most the of the wind gone from her sails. I expected her to elaborate, but she left it there. I didn't feel like pressing her on it either.

  I told her what I wanted when we got up to the counter and she ordered and paid for me. We found a bench not to far away and sat down to eat.

  I felt a sudden tug on my sleeve and I looked down. Standing beside me was a child, probably about eight or nine. He had messy brown hair and very plain clothes with no features to them; No pockets, branding, accessories. Like someone had drawn him and then made him 3-D. He looked up at me, pouting, with jet black eyes. I felt compelled to give him my food as he stared up at me with his big inky eyes.

  "Oi! Fuck off!" I heard Kas shout, as she threw some fries at the child's face. It hissed at her, grabbing the fries off the floor before running off. The minute the child was out of sight, I began to feel nauseous.

  "What was that?" I asked, trying not to vomit.

  "Little black-eyed buggers. They beg for food and shelter, and try to force you to do it. If you don't, they make you sick and just take what they want anyway. Weird little psionic creeps. Kinda like pidgeons or sewer rats." She explained.

  I looked back over my shoulder and watched as the kid ran back and forth from other people, as they handed him things, mostly food. One monster handed the kid his watch.

  "What the fuck?" I mumbled.

  "You'll get used to it." Kas said, nonchalantly.