.+Austre Premonitions: 3+.

I can't even remember half of the events that led me back to my apartment. I'd thrown open the doors and slammed them shut (as if that was going to deter him) and practically leapt down the stairs onto the gravel below. My body had seized up again, so it felt as though I was trying to run through treacle. The stumble I made on the cobbles was a shock to the senses, and as I scrambled to my feet I heard the doors slam open behind me. I didn't even bother to look behind me; I took off at a run that felt jaunty and out of place, a run of sheer panic and adrenaline that was coursing through me. It wasn't elegant, but none of that mattered; so long as I was getting somewhere I didn't care much.

I didn't stop running for anything. I ended up on the road we'd recently gone down in the taxi, before it had been discovery mission and was just a simple summons. The small amulet was tapping against my chest as I ran, and I had to keep snatching at it on occasion to check it was still there. If I dropped that… life wouldn't be worth living. I don't know why I didn't think of hailing any of the transports heading my way-maybe I thought it would waste me precious time and the murderer would be upon me- but I didn't care for the looks of alarm and confusion shot my way as I hared it down the road as fast as was physically possible. At times I felt that if I had tripped I would have ended up braining myself on the turf, I was going so fast.

I only slowed up when I reached the main city, skidding to a stop on the green in the centre and bending over double to get my breath back and force my heart back down my throat into its proper place. Again, there were very obvious looks shot my way, but mainly of concern rather than the confusion of the cab passengers. I very nearly toppled over as I leant over, my legs shaking from the effort of sudden action, as once I managed to straighten up I shot a glance around me. What I saw surprised me. Nothing. There was nothing to suggest there was anything wrong; the city was just going about its usual business as I stood there wheezing and panting like a marathon runner. I'm pretty sure I'd have given those guys a run for their money, no pun intended, and I felt a sudden wave of nausea wash over me. I clutched a hand to my stomach and wheeled backwards towards the nearest bench, collapsing down upon it and waiting until the feeling subsided. I really had been expecting the anonymised being to be right there, not out of breath and just watching me, waiting for me to give up and leave myself to his mercy. But I'd obviously watched too many action films for that sort of thing to happen in real life. Then again, real life didn't usually involve the closest thing you had to a father slumping dead over his paperwork, but there you are. I ran a hand through my hair with a soft groan as the whole situation seemed to hit me all over again, and I just stayed there for a moment, holding my head in my hands and shuddering every now and again from the aftershocks of adrenaline.

I tried to think rationally. I honestly did. But all that happened when I wracked my brain was the image of the blacked out figure getting steadily nearer to me, until I ended up shaking myself and opening my eyes. Clearly logical thought wasn't going to work today, so I had the next best thing: pure, honest and unshakable instinct. And that instinct screamed at me to run. I stood from the bench and sighed, washing a hand over my face one last time before I set off at a strained walk. I needed to get back to my apartment, and quick; I couldn't waste any time, I had to get as many of my things as I could together. As I set off towards the backstreets where my apartment was situated, another frenzied thought suddenly broke through the figure's image and presented itself to me. What about the others?

'The others' were my two flatmates, Blake and Mercury. I'd been living with them for the majority of my lifespan, and I considered them more family than Kotori. I couldn't leave them here on their own…could I? What if that bastard tracked down where I lived and somehow got to them? After all, many people use the ones we love to break us. It's our most dangerous flaw.

I couldn't leave them, I realised that right there and then. I could not be a selfish being and run for my own life; it was their own lives at stake as well as my own now. I knew no matter how fast I ran, I could never get away from the guilt that would tear me apart if they got hurt because of me. I am not the kind of person who could ever ignore being the reason for another's death, and I'm sure no one else sane could do so either. And it wasn't as if they were complete strangers to me-I'd known them most of my life, after all. It was this fact that got me running again. My tired legs screamed in protest at my movement, but I firmly ignored it and pushed myself further so I was rushing through the streets, though as I was doing it in a slightly less rushed manner it wasn't as clumsy looking.

My apartment is directly above a small ale bar that's hardly ever filled with customers, and thankfully isn't too far away from the centre. It was this fortunate factor that allowed me to get there within a few minutes, and before my wasted limbs decided to finally give out on me. I practically threw myself against the door before my legs failed me, and rested my head against the door with a large groan emanating from the very depths of my throat. I shut my eyes and I could heard the world carrying on without me, the noises from the businesses either side of the street and the shouts of the Austre making their way down it and tasting their wares winding into my ears as I tried desperately to ease my breathing to an extent. I couldn't go blundering in acting like there was something terribly wrong-not to start with anyway. They wouldn't believe me anyway; too many practical jokes on my part would make them suspicious of the validity of the shit I was in.

I sighed heavily and moved my head back, only to hit it back against the door with a rather satisfying 'thunk' coming from the solid wood. I really was stupid when I decided to act on my impulses and not do the more sensible thing- in this case, it would have been to get out of that damned place and maybe even give the guy the damned amulet. I swung myself back again, intending to smack my head back against the door to scold myself for my idiocy, though this time when I fell forwards I landed against something considerably softer than the door.

"Er...is there any reason why you're head butting the door, Scar'?" Came a confused and slightly amused inquiry. Oh. Blake. He had obviously taken my self-abuse to be a knock… which meant that my head needed to be nestled in his chest, seeing as he's taller than me. Oh, brilliant. Despite this fact though I didn't make any move to prise my head away as I muttered back, "Hey, Blake."

I finally moved my head away from his chest (I have to admit he is a rather comfortable person to nestle into) and glanced up at him through one eye, keeping the other shut as the flooding of light came from the room beyond him. His hair had been changed again; humans really are irritating beings. They can't make up their minds. That day his was ink black and flyaway, and it was a serious challenge to see his eyes through the unruly mop he now owned on his head. I vaguely managed to spot a pair of mischievous eyes peering back at me, so vividly purple I had to blink a few times to get used to it, and they blinked back at me with the same confusion I heard in his voice. I couldn't help but feel a lot more relaxed since I'd actually got there in one piece, and even managed a weak smile up at him.

Blake's like my other half; we've gotten on ever since we were in the academy together training. He's the Yin to my Yang, definitely. I'm the crazy, wild one who does everything on a whim and lives on the edge. Blake is the calm, collected and sensible one who comes after me picking up the pieces and making sure I'm okay. In a better sense of the world, he acts very much like a mother would. He's also an absolutely ideal roommate; Blake's definitely better to live with than a woman. He doesn't try to strike up a conversation when I'm feeling cranky, and he doesn't butt in on one when I'm pouring my heart out either. He's just a listener on the side-lines. We've hardly ever truly 'fallen out'- I think the worst it's got was when we fancied the same girl a long while ago, and when I got with her Blake went into a sulk for a good few weeks. Even then it was resolved pretty easily, as I just dumped the girl and apologised to Blake. Sometimes friends really do come before potential 'mates'. "Someone's sounds enthusiastic", he stated, butting into my thoughts, "your ward didn't get run over by rampaging elephants or anything, did she?"

And there was the Blake I knew; joking to get me in a better mood. I shake my head and offer a small grin- a big achievement seeing as only a matter of minutes ago I was terrified and panicked. "No, nothing that drastic", I muttered absentmindedly, shouldering past him into the hallway. "In fact, it had been going pretty well."

"That good, huh?" I could practically hear the smirk in his voice as the door shut with a click behind us. "Lucky bastard, I never get those kind of scenarios. It's always the innocent ones for me."

I turned on my heel and raised a brow at him. "Well maybe you're just not the right kind of boy for those kinds of things, Blake", I taunted with a smirk, lifting my head up proudly. "After all, you're practically a choir-boy compared to me."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, get up those stairs. I have a bone to pick with you", he all but grumbled, walking down the hall towards me.

I stuck my tongue out at him childishly and started on my way up the stairs. Already the thoughts of the anonymised assailant and the dead Overseer were becoming more blurred and out of focus, like a window becoming clouded by rain or heat. That is a very big problem of mine; I am very, very easily distracted. My memory isn't the best in the world thanks to an event in my youth, and as a result I always forget the most important things, or at the very least try to make them of the smallest amount of importance as I possibly can. I do hate to put people out, and how Blake was at that moment, smiling and playfully taunting me, oblivious to the situation he could be in so very soon, I couldn't bear to ruin that for a while. So I kept quiet for that while merely to savour the lingering remains of normality I would have for a long time.

I pushed the door of our apartment open and immediately wrinkled my nose as an unpleasant stench hit it. "Ugh, what is that?" I asked with distaste, walking into the room and turning to face Blake for an answer.

"You tell me. It was you who did it."

"What?! This wasn't me!"

Obviously, it was my fault, but I wasn't going to admit that. I'd never give him the satisfaction. As I casted my eyes around the apartment, I couldn't help but cringe at the state of it. I'd never called this place a dump, or a shit-heap. But, as I stood in the doorway and Blake became forced to wade through the sea of litter and waste, I had to admit that it looked as if a bomb had been dropped in the centre of the room. A gigantic one, that was possibly comprised of old food wrappings and broken utensils.
Our apartment wasn't as bad as it probably sounds to you all; it mapped out like a house, really. You went through the door and you were met immediately with a living room, complete with a corner sofa and a TV-shaped gap (made with regards to Mercury having a tantrum). There was also a coffee table or three buried underneath the crap, but I can't remember where they were for definite-even when I was living there it had been a struggle. There was a breakfast bar that leads on into the kitchen, and that was the only thing that not covered in rubbish. That's because it counts as an additional seating area; I have a habit of sitting on top of it, and Blake likes to sit to it to eat his meals. Our stove and oven was usually kept pretty free too, though seeing as that was where the smoke was drifting from it clearly wasn't true in this case. The smoke curled out in skeletal curves that reminded me vaguely of clawing hands, and Blake was too busy rushing over to it as effectively as he could with the mass of decay rotting at his feet to see me shudder at the thought. "For God's sake Scarlet, can't you remember if you've kept something in there?!" He sighed exasperatedly in my direction.

I shut the door with my foot and fix a false glower onto my face as I look over at him. "How can you assume that it's my fault?! Mercury could have tried to cook something!"

"He eats everything raw, he's vegetarian and he lacks opposable thumbs," Blake said tiredly, not even bothering to look at me as he surveys the oven critically, clearly debating on how safe it would be to venture a look inside.

I paused, trying to think of something else to hurl in the defence of my already soiled name. "Well, he likes to experiment! Remember when he tried meatloaf?"

"You fed it to him when he was drunk, Scarlet." Blake gave another exasperated sigh. He obviously decided it was worth the risk, for he leant down and opened the oven door, half-choking as more of the foul black smoke escaped from its gaping and appreciative maw. "My God, what the hell did you put in there?"

As a matter of fact, I honestly couldn't remember. I had put in some kind of food before my shift, but I'd overran and so I'd had to abandon my potential meal and leave in a hurry. Humans wait for no one, even if they hadn't eaten and needed to get dressed properly. Besides, what I'd left in the oven had been the least of my worries....
Blake's nose wrinkled and he yanked his head free of the oven. "Seriously Scar', it stinks."

I swept an assortment of pizza boxes and old newspapers onto the already flooded floor and slumped down onto the tired looking sofa. "So I'm no chef. Sue me."

"You're not even worthy to mention the word 'chef', Scarlet", said the familiar figure of Mercury in the hallway that led down to our individual rooms.

I rolled my eyes and slumped down further. "Well, you don't even cook."

Mercury snorted derisively and walked into the room, fixing me with a rather icy stare. "All the same, you shouldn't go leaving things in the oven like that. You'll end up setting it alight one of these days", he complained, hanging his head over the breakfast bar and shaking it slightly to let his forelock fall between his eyes.

And yes, before you all ask, I did just use the word 'forelock'. And that is because Mercury isn't human shaped Austreform like Blake and I are. He was once, I have to point out; he was apparently quite a drop- dead gorgeous hunk back in the day. He was changed into this form when he was in his prime after a little- well, we could call it a little indiscretion- concerning one of the Order member's wives. Because Mercury is a horse. A very handsome horse, but a horse all the same. He was the colour of a threatening rain cloud with light dappling across his body as though he were constantly lying in the shade of a tree in summer, and the only human feature left of him was his vividly green eyes- natural for an Austre, unnatural for an equine.

I huffed out and folded my arms like a beaten child. "You always take his side of the argument. Would it kill you to take mine? At all?"

Mercury lifted his coffin shaped head and stared at me critically, his silvery forelock falling in between his eyes as he stood, obviously, in deep thought. "Well, that's an easy question", he said simply, "it's because you are never right about anything and Blake always is."

"Oh shut up", I said, giving in finally as I watched him walk over to the main room, flicking his tail in the direction of the smoke to waft it away from him. I'm sure all of you would find it really amusing that a horse has a Scottish accent, but he does, and it bugs me like there's no tomorrow.

"On the subject of you, where have you been today? I haven't seen you bother either of us for more than a few hours", Mercury went on, his eyes still on me as I let out a heavy grunt and rolled to the side, attempting to ignore him as best I could.

"Yeah, Scar'. Mercury's got a point…where have you been?" Blake asked from his place in the kitchen. By now he had reached in and retrieved the charred and ruined remains of my potential dinner from the oven and was looking at it in disgust. I also feel he would have been looking admiringly at it, for I don't know anyone who can burn something so effectively and easily. I am just gifted in that manner of life, clearly. Once the question was broached though all I wanted to do was to cringe away and hide in a darkened corner of my own room, away from them and the havoc it was soon going to wreak upon their somewhat contained and normal lives. But I still, for some insane reason, wanted to put off telling them even further. Even to this day I wonder why I did that-I wonder what would have happened if I had just told them to start off with. But I think it was due to simple fear; I could pretend it wasn't happening if it was only I who knew the truth, and I could continue to live in ignorance until they came for me and only me. It sounds like a stupid idea now, but in my unknowing mind back that it was genius. I just had to wait for the opportune moment…

In hindsight, I supposed that was probably it, but I chose not to answer the question. Instead I merely slumped down lower into my seat and kept quiet. Now my friends knew something was up if I was being quiet. Blake set my disaster on the side and wandered over, his eyes instantly alert and worried. "Scar'…what have you been up to?" he asked with a pointed spike to his words.

I glanced at him and then at Mercury, who walked a little nearer and flicked his tail expectantly. I ended up shrugging at them. "I had my shift, didn't I? Couldn't ignore that."

"How many clients did you have tonight, Scarlet?" Mercury asked, losing interest seemingly immediately and trotting lazily into the kitchen to retrieve an apple from the only full thing in the apartment- the fruit bowl.

"Three", I lied. Blake was still unconvinced, I could see it in those suspicious eyes of his, but he ended up sighing and moving away.

"How were they?"

"Alright." I shrugged. "Horny."

"I thought that was what you'd mean by what you said earlier. Seriously Scarlet, does it ever bother you that you're a pervert to most of those girls?" Blake asked, the teasing smile winding its way back onto his face.

"Oh shut up", I scorned, giving him a shove to the chest with a hand. Blake stood firm however and I huffed in annoyance. Blake was both taller and chunkier than me; I was far more wiry than he was, and I knew he had a lot of muscle hidden underneath the loosely fitting shirts he preferred to wear than I ever had a hope in having. "If it's what they want, they get it, right?" I added as a finaliser, folding my arms and smirking up at him.

Blake scoffed. "You're still a pervert."

"And you're just jealous."

"Yeah, uh huh sure, jealous of a pervert, that's a new one."

"Hey, I don't give the reasons, I just state the facts."

"Why you little-"

"Er, guys?" Blake and I looked over to a rather startled looking Mercury who had glanced out of the window of our kitchen onto the street below. His giant body was primed like a perfect shotgun, his ears back in a perfect rendition of a horse that's seen or heard something it doesn't like the look of. "Have you noticed that there aren't as many people on the street today?" he asked without letting his eyes leave the window.

Blake frowned and walked away from me to Mercury's side, peering out of the window himself. "Well, I don't know, Merc. Why don't you figure it out?"

Mercury flicked his tail with irritation. "Don't push me, I can bite you y'know. I mean, look outside. Usually around this time it's buzzing with life, but…nothing." He frowned-as well as a horse can frown- and looked over at me. "Did you notice it Scarlet?"

I shook my head, the familiar cold feeling of dread stealing over me. "Not really, no. I wasn't really paying much attention, if I'm honest Merc. Just seemed like a normal day to me."

"Well that's why you're the imbecile and I'm not then isn't it?" Mercury said, more to himself than to anyone in particular, and let his gaze fall back onto the window. "Something's going on alright…"

"Well, I suppose…" I paused, and Blake and Mercury looked over expectantly, waiting for me to say the inevitable words 'it could be something to do with me'.

You see, I'm not the best of Austreforms to befriend. I come with a lot of excess baggage that can put people off staying in the same room as me, let alone getting to know me. I marvel sometimes at how I managed to get the friends I did; Mercury is slightly more understandable, as he had got into trouble too. The way a lot of social circles work is people group together out of similarities they hold to themselves. For Mercury and I, that was the scrapes we'd gotten into concerning the Order or the Overseer in general. Blake on the other hand was a whole other story. He'd never done a bad thing in his life, and I doubted he actually possessed a mean bone in his body. I don't know how it happened, but the three of us ended up thrashed together and working it out on our own. And it had worked very well for the first few years. Then I simply got bored, and they unfortunately had to pay for it. I got into a lot of trouble on a regular basis, from simple indiscretions to events so terrible I could have been put to death for them. But the Overseer had always held out for me out of some strange kind of persistence that rendered me untouchable. I dreaded to think how I was going to get away with things now. The simplest answer was that I wasn't. And this was probably the biggest bit of 'trouble' I'd got involved in.

"You suppose what, Scarlet?" Blake said tiredly, washing a hand over his face as he talked and leant back against the breakfast bar, awaiting my words like a disappointed father with an unruly son.

I shrugged and tried to appear as nonchalant as I could as I replied, "Oh, nothing much. Just…I know that the Overseer's spot is going to need refilling…"

The silence that greeted my words was worse by far than that which had greeted me at the Overseer's mansion. It was definitely tenser, at least. Blake was staring at me through the gaps in his fingers, and Mercury's head had snapped round from the window to my form on the sofa. Their gazes were so strong I could have quite easily melted away in my seat there and then if I were related to the Wicked Witch of the West. I could practically feel their thoughts racing through their minds.

It was Blake who spoke first. "What?" he said in a very calm and calculated tone.

I swallowed painfully, feeling ridiculously like the kid in the playground who was telling on his classmates to the teacher on duty. "Well, I just…the Grand Overseer is dead."

Mercury choked on a neigh and spluttered. When he becomes too overcome with emotion his equine side tends to break through, and the neighing and the snorting will happen more regularly. This occasion was of course no exception. Once he got himself under control he said in a shaking voice, "You better be joking Scarlet, or I swear to God…"

"I'm not kidding", I said wretchedly. "I know he's kicked the bucket, so to speak. I saw him earlier, at his mansion. Dead as a dodo, he was."

A shudder seemed to go all through Mercury and he let out another strangled neigh, turning his head away from mine and neighing again. I supposed it was his idea of a grievous noise; it was grievous alright, but not in the way he suspected it was. Blake seemed to freeze momentarily, and then he was upon me, his black hair wild around his face as he shook me forcibly.
"Don't be a dick, Scarlet! If this really is some kind of sick joke you're playing on us then by God it isn't funny!" he all but shouted in my face, his face dangerously close to mine and the shaking becoming more and more violent by the minute.

"Blake, please…can't talk…properly…" I managed to splutter out between shakes. "I…m'not…lying…I swear!"

"Why should I believe you? You've scared us like this before!" Blake said hurriedly, glancing at Mercury who was dancing nervously on his hooves and presenting a neigh that made the glasses on the counter quiver.

I managed to wriggle free of Blake's grip (which is strong, believe me) and held the amulet out in front of his face. "This is how you know I'm not joking!" I yelled back at him, breathing heavily. The amulet swung in front of Blake's astonished face like a hypnotist's fob watch, and for a while all was silent again. And then Blake let out a noise that fell between a groan and a wail of alarm and slumped down beside me, putting his head in his hands.

Mercury stopped dead as he saw Blake crumble and looked over to me, and the amulet that dangled in front of my chest. His eyes seemed to grow large and he too came over, his neck arched and his head slowly reaching towards the precious object around my neck. He nosed the stone experimentally and let out a snort of warm breath that covered my face.
I batted him away lightly but couldn't help smiling at the feeling it gave me. He snorted and butted me squarely in the chest to tell me off and then focused back on the amulet. I felt almost conscious as he watched the stone swing lazily on my chest, and every now again I caught his eyes flicker up to mine in questioning. "Well, he can't be lying", he admitted finally, allowing me some personal space and casting a look over at Blake. "That amulet looks pretty genuine to me. And you know the Overseer rarely goes anywhere without it."

Blake didn't respond for a while, and I frowned at him. I knew I'd gone too far this time; Blake never visibly fell apart like this, at least not in front of us. He liked to make himself appear stronger emotionally and physically than he actually was, so losing his reserve was something that worried me immensely. "Blake? I'm sorry, mate, if it could have been any other way I swear…"

"Did you do it?"

I felt my heart jump into my mouth as I shot my head around to his form. The noise was muffled through the hands cupping his face, but I got the general message. "Of course I didn't do it!" I cried, a flare of alarm rising in my chest. "I'm not a murderer Blake, you've known me for long enough to know that!" I got even more alarmed when I didn't get any response for my efforts. Blake couldn't seriously be entertaining the stupid idea that I could have killed the Overseer, could he? Me? I know I had a bad track record, but my god. Blake was meant to be my friend- if even my friends were beginning to suspect me then I would be a goner for sure. "Blake, please. I had nothing to do it", I said, lowering my voice as emotion threatened to break through.
Blake looked at me for a very long time, and I was half convinced that he was going to turn me in to the Order right at that moment. That really would be the end of me in that case, considering the state of affairs right now.

The Order, I suppose, I must explain to you. I've mentioned it a few times during my recount, and all of you who are ignorant of them need to know why they are so worrying and frightening for the Austre of all kinds. I think the word 'bastards' describes them all perfectly, but you owe a more detailed idea of things. The Order were founded way back when, during the times where Austre had no jobs to do and could keep their own business to themselves and not have to bother with anyone else. They were there initially to help get the place running smoothly- kind of the equivalent of the government and police force rolled into one. And being headed by a group of old codgers with no sense of humour or fun. Anyway, once we were employed by our clients to keep them sweet, the Order became more involved in making sure rules were stuck to. Before we could kind of get away with a lot of things, or the rules would get bended for the select few (sounds harsh but believe me it was a lot easier to get away with things back then). But those days were very quickly cut short by the new Order who imposed not only more rules but vile punishments for disobeying them too. I've been subjected to many of these punishments before, and believe me they are not pleasant. They have also become rather corrupt in recent years, and have started punishing people they feel 'just deserve it'. People that, you guessed it, are like me. Especially my kind of people. They don't have much sympathy for us, and the only protection I got from their wraths was the Grand Overseer. Now you can fully understand the pickle I managed to get myself into.

Going back to the story, I was panicking by then. I couldn't fully accept that Blake would be capable of handing his best friend over to the very beings he wanted to keep away from, but people do strange things when they panic. That moment seemed to take hours to pass, but it finally made it when he said, "So why were you there, then?"
It wasn't exactly a 'no Scarlet, I'm not going to give you up' but it was the next best thing, so I settled for anything. I almost eagerly launched into my explanation, partly to get it out of the way and also to ensure my friends' favours. Both listened well-as I've said before, Blake is a good listener, Mercury can have his moments too- and once I finished they naturally had a lot of questions.

"Why were you summoned then?" Blake asked barely after I'd drawn my final breath on the subject.

I shrugged. "No idea. Kotori didn't tell me much about it, just told me to get in the cab and shut my mouth."

"Do you think…your brother couldn't be involved, could he?"

"I sincerely doubt that, Blake", Mercury interjected, sinking to his knees with a grunt. "He's an Austretor. He owes all of what he has to the Overseer- he wouldn't want to see him dead", he continued as he slumped onto the floor.

"Well, corruption's started to get everywhere lately…"

"Blake, my brother didn't conspire to kill the Overseer", I said bluntly, shooting his theory down in flames right there and then. Kotori was worse for Blake than following rules, after all. "No, it had to be someone else… and it was probably the 'someone' who was there when I was."

"I'm surprised he didn't try to kill you", Mercury remarked with a slight frown.

I gawped at him. "Mercury, I wasn't going to sit around and wait for him to try. I was out of there as fast as I possibly could!"

"That's not what I meant", Mercury replied bluntly. "I mean, if he was the murderer, he would have hesitated in killing you. You were there long enough for him to talk to you, right? So he didn't pounce on you instantly and try to kill you."

I opened my mouth to argue…and promptly shut it again. Mercury had a point. If he had been a bloodthirsty murderer-or a mad, raving lunatic- I probably wouldn't have had the chance to escape that I'd had: and what's more I'd taken it. He hadn't even bothered to follow me. What did that mean though? He clearly wasn't innocent because he was there. I looked to Blake for an explanation, but all he did was shrug. "Well, it's obvious isn't it?" When Mercury and I looked blankly at him he sighed irritably. "He might have been the murderer, but he wasn't the one with the motive. He was just a dogsbody, a kind of hitman someone ordered to kill the Overseer. It's way above just that one guy. Besides, didn't you say he was anonymised, Scar'?"

I frowned. "Yeah, so?"

"So, anonymising doesn't happen to just anyone. That's a class of magic reserved for those who can afford it. And who could afford to get themselves blacked out like that? A hired assassin."

I sunk back further into my chair and thought hard. Sometimes it was good to share problems with friends; it really helped. I had been convinced that he was the guy I had to hunt down to clear my name, but what Blake had said suddenly made a lot of sense. It explained why he had seemed cold and yet lacked any kind of emotion at all about the whole thing. It made me think that… just maybe… he'd allowed me the time to get away.
I looked back up at the two of them and cleared my throat almost noiselessly. "It's much bigger than I thought, isn't it?" I asked them, the horror returning to the pit of my stomach. My friends looked at each other, their eyes meeting, before looking back to me and nodding slowly. I expelled the breath I'd kept tightly locked in my lungs and washed a hand against my brow, my head beginning to throb with the mere vastness of the thought.  "It's bigger than any of us", I said, more to myself than to anyone in particular, and it was that thought that seemed to rouse me from a slumber. I stood up. "We need to go, now."

Mercury snorted and tossed his head, pinning his ears back at the thought. "We're not going anywhere. This place has been our home for years, we can't leave it just for them!" he said.

"Nice speech Merc', but that won't save our lives when that assassin's employer comes knocking at the door", I replied, my eyes darting between the two of them like a set of tennis balls. "We need to get out of here, all of us, before they find out where I ran to."

"So you led them right to us", Blake stated bluntly. "Well, you get zero out of ten for logic, Scarlet."

"Shut up and get packing, we'll need to travel light." And with that I fled from the room and nearly ran the short stretch of carpet to my room. All of our doors were different, and mine was by far the brightest there, with a bright orange paint slapped onto the woodwork rather messily and a large black tribal pattern tattooed across its length. I was a creative student at one point, but nowadays I don't have time to be.

I opened the door tentatively, like I was waiting for some vicious animal to come jumping out, but when nothing happened I wandered through into my room. It's true that you would say our apartment had some element of 'magic' to it- It seemed so small looking at it from the outside compared to what was contained in the inside. We had us our own little makeshift TARDIS, and my room was no exception.  There was one thing that's different in here compared to the other rooms in the house that I can still remember very vividly; it was definitely more untidy. Yes, even more untidy and messy than the main living room. But in a varying instance, the food and containers were replaced with clothing that had managed to get strewn to every corner of the floor. My room certainly had its own smell, and I wouldn't be surprised if it had been a perfect little ecosystem for some kind of vile, furry and rabid creature to be at home with. I tucked my hands in my pockets and surveyed the damage, thinking furiously to myself at what could be considered 'the essentials' and immediately started work.

Wading through the vast mass that I had so laughingly dubbed clothes on the floor was the first obstacle; I tripped myself up many times on ties or jeans or… basically anything that could possibly be on the floor. I attempted to salvage a few individual garments from the crash-site presented to me, but in the end I got to five shirts, a jacket and a pair of jeans before I gave up and threw them all aside. I was travelling light, and clothes would be bulky to carry. At least, that was my reasoning, anyway.

I then ventured over to my bookshelf, managing to keep my footing that time around. It looked like it had seen better days; half of the books were falling off of it or at least were in the process of doing so, clinging desperately to the edge with their spines broken and looking wretched with the abuse they had had to suffer under my ownership. The framework of the shelf itself looked like it was beginning to rot away under the damp and the overbearing weight of its cargo. I swear I had only had it for a matter of weeks. I'm pretty poor with keeping my things in pristine condition; this is something you'll learn to love with me with time. I decided a few of those books could come in handy, so I reached up to take a few off the shelf. It creaked in relief as some of the weight was lifted from its broken form and I batted the dust off of the covers of these massive volumes. Those were definitely too big, and so I picked up the smaller ones. These books I dubbed 'useful' were mainly handbooks on magic and escaping detection (many of these had been handed down to me or given to me by Kotori: he worries too much for his own good sometimes, but I have to bless him for those books now), both of which I was absolutely abysmal at, so I would need all the help I could get in that area.

Magic is something that we Austre are prided on. We're known to have it contained within our bodies, but contrary to the beliefs centred around us we tend to use it sparingly and never for anything trivial such as cleaning- which is probably why if you ever venture into an Austre's abode it will tend to look the worst for wear (we're also known as a very lazy race, too). Each Austre only has a specific amount of potential magic contained within them, and once it runs out then that's it. We are toast. So we use our magic in emergencies, and I mean real emergencies; anything that's in any way threatening our lives or threatening the lives of the ones we love count as emergencies. Cleaning our room before we drown underneath the decay is not. And when I say most Austre neglect their domestic chores, I have completely abandoned all hopes of ever returning to them. Learning how to escape detection in a magical format was something I really needed cluing up on, seeing as I was going to be a wanted man very, very soon.

I managed to find a bag throughout the desperate scrambling for items and stuffed the books inside it, giving in on my previous thought and picking up a change of clothes and shoving that in too. I looked over to my bed at that point and made to move over to it, before something I spotted made me stop. I think my bed was the only thing throughout my entire time at that apartment that had not been completely covered in the crap that had spilled onto my floor. The only real thing that looks bad about them was that the sheets were meant to be a bright, blinding green, but were instead dulled considerably by a thin layer of dust (my sleeping patterns are very erratic and I more often than not end up falling asleep where I fall. In this case, the sofa in the living room had been more of a bed than the bed itself had ever been) and the desperate need for a wash. But that wasn't what made me stop. It was actually the thing that had been plonked in the middle of my bed facing the door.

My eyes widened and I made no hesitation to lunge at my bed, landing in a heap on it as the springs in the mattress worked their magic and made me bounce in alarm. What I had seen that had made me act in such a way was clasped tightly to my chest, my eyes darting everywhere as I begged the walls for an explanation as to why it was out in plain sight. The 'it' in question clutched to my chest like a life support was a small, slightly dog-eared fluffy pony, only about 13 cm in height and with one eye missing. The remaining eye winks joyfully at me from the place where it's being rested, and I force a scowl onto my face. I already know what you're thinking; how pathetic, a guy like me with a stuffed toy. I'm not usually a sentimental kind of guy, but this was something that exceeded my rule. I had even named the damn thing Monty, I was so absurd. It was the colour of hot treacle, and the mane and tail though only rare strips of softer and finer 'fluff' than the body were a great few shades lighter, more the colour of custard. I found 'Monty' on one of my first jobs, when I was playmate to a little girl of around six years old. She had had all of these toys arranged neatly around in a circle, and this particular one she'd held out to me. "Keep 'im" , she had said with a bright smile. "Keep 'im safe." And I had, up until that point, 'kept him safe'. The toy slowly warmed as my body heat seeped through its material, and I kept the scowl fixed on my face despite how nice the feeling really was to me. I liked to keep mementos from my clients; it made me remember them, and I had collected a great deal of things from the worlds they had inhabited throughout my years as an Austreform. Some would say I was a bit of a magpie. Secretly of course, and never something they would truly miss; a hairband here, a plastic army man there… they never knew they were missing, and I had something to remember them by.

"Scarlet! We're done, we'll meet you outside!" I suddenly heard the voice of Blake yell from outside my door.

"Coming!" I yelled in reply, stuffing 'Monty' into my bag with about as much affection as I could muster before going to the door. The area near my door was the only area that was free of mess as the door swept it out of the way, but a scrap of something caught my eye. I frowned and stooped down to retrieve it, ignoring the shout of Blake and the inevitable footsteps away from my door and towards the outside world. It was a scrap of paper. Pretty ordinary, like it had been torn from a book or something. I rose to my feet and turned it over curiously. What I saw made my eyes snap open wide.

'BOOM.'

And that was when I started running for the second time that day.