He used to have a name. She used to have a name as well. But so much time had passed by now aher of them could even remember what they were. The cost of being watchers. They were warhat such tethering would bring them harm in some way. But seriously was that an uatement.

  He did not have much of a choi the matter to begin with, nor did he have any opportunity to iate the terms. His was hunted down and broken up. The deeds they used to do for the city were now used against them. And the leaders who once promised them safety and passage out of the city either failed or betrayed them.

  He did not know much about her story. He just khat she was in somewhat of a simir situation to his - she used to be in a , but she lost all pces she could be and any other hopes of surviving iy when her was torn down. Over the years she had only beore resentful and even hateful. Anytime some poor oblivious soul wandered into their area, she would actively seek them out, py with and torment them before actually killing them. He could only reason it was her way of venting. It was also a pusible theory that he would be subject to the same fate if the ritual that bound them here forced them to remain non-hostile to each other.

  A point of sotion for him, and maybe for her as well, was that they had a ation. It was a three-storey mansion in a quiet area of the Northern District mountains. Unlike many others he heard about, they had a pretty luxurious roof over their heads. Even after this many years of abando and decay, it was still a pretty good pce to rest, meditate and ponder what life could be when he could finally get out of here after finding someone and trig them into taking over for him.

  The night sky grew darker than usual, even though there were no visible clouds above. The moon was gradually obscured, its light faded and became slightly red.

  “Hey, woman.” He looked up at the sky and asked the er of the giant mansion: “Are you seeing this? ”

  “...what!?” The woman responded with a rather zy voice, without aowledging his question at all: “Don’t call me unless you have something important! Or do you see some fresh meat wandering in?”

  “No. The sky became darker.” He picked up his two swords, one long, straight and thin, one short, curved and thick with a hook on its spine. “Something’s nht.”

  “It’s te at night, idiot.”

  “No - this is different. It’s even clouding over the moon - something’s nht.” He narrowed his eyes as he gazed into the sky. Even when he had given his best, the sky was still fuzzy, and slightly foggy. He could not see anything, but the uneasy, creepy feeling in his mind intensified. “Get up, woman! Something’s wrong here! You scream at me if I’m wrong.”

  “Are you just too old to tell it’s night time?” The woman barked again, but she did sound more awake.

  “No - something’s - ” The man was still trying to rebut the woman as per habit, but his words were cut short by the faces that maed in the sky. “Wait - something’s definitely off here - did you leave somethihat would impact the stability of the seals?”

  “No. I’m not an idiot like you.” The woman finally made it out of her room and walked out on the sed floor baly: “What the - ”

  More faces maed in the sky. Right now everything around the mansion had bee dark. Even if they tried, they could not see anything outside of the mansion’s fences. Anything beyond was just a blur behind a thick gray wall of smoke and ash. A sudden fog had surrouhem without them even notig.

  “e baside. e ihe woman screamed at the man.

  The man did not his reminder anyway. He had already made it inside and locked the door behind him.

  Through this many years of ck of upkeep and maintenance, some windows of the mansion were already quite worn. Lucky for them, none of them was fully broken. Only a few of them on the upper floors were loose from the corrosion of wind, rain and is.

  “Find the help arm signal, now!” The man barked.

  “Where’d you keep it!?” The woman shouted back.

  “What the fuck!? You’re supposed to keep an eye on it!”

  “Bullshit! You were!”

  “Fuck you! It’s your responsibility!” The man bashed the wall and flung the carpet on the first floor to che the vault underh. It was a locked metal box. What was the bination, he could not even remember. “What’s the code to the safe!?”

  “Who the fuows! Stop fug around!” The woman was turning the rooms on the sed floor upside down, throwing the chairs and desks against the walls: “Just find it! It’s a red talisman, how fug hard could it be!?”

  A silent shockwave blew through the entire mansion. Both the man and the woman were struck by a suddeigo at the same time. Meanwhile, the weeping sounds of a woman, a man and maybe some teenagers began creeping up from all ers of the mansion. Dark red handprints, tear marks and scratches began appearing on the walls.

  “Please, stop.” A woman’s voice begged, weak, sniffling and heaving: “Please stop this. We haven’t done anything wrong. You ’t do this to us - you ’t do this to us - Please, stop - ”

  “You ’t do this!” A man’s voice resounded in all the rooms: “We’ve done all the work for them - how many tributions and sacrifices did we make?! You ’t do this to us! You just ’T!”