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A Ghost never apologized A Ghost was there to obey A Ghost was nothing and no-one We existed above the law

You have to destroy evidence

You have to kill her

The conditioning doused ive you?" I her soul plundered my mind It was the only way

She knew about me I showed her too hters below The Muay Thai ring held an eager duo going at it ild ferocity No one looked up here, no one paid attention to the stand-off between us

The longer he kept ot She was mine I had the contract to prove it Every minute that ticked past cost me one hundred and thirty nine dollars of the two hundred thousand I agreed to pay--she owed it toit to you" Taking another step back, he rushed, "You don’t knohat life she leads What about the woo charging over there in your condition It’s professional suicide Do you have any idea what kind of shit-stor?"

My te business"

Stor toward hi willingly, Oscar slammed to a halt and braced himself on my shoulder

The moment he touched me, I lost it

My world swooped like a bad ti me from present to past

"You’ve passed the first test of three Congratulations"

My handler, and only person who I was allowed to talk to, cary After teeks in the pit with just scraps for nourishment, they’d broken my will, and I’d done what they’d ordered

My throat closed around the piece of chicken, re what I’d done only an hour before I’d broken into a home--complete with Christ in the hearth I’d sneaked up the stairs on silent toes and stood over a wo soundly in her bed

I’d stabbed her in the heart while her husband slept on

Then, I left

I choked, throwing the chicken away, staring at ht with da your mother"

"Fox?"

"Fox! Goddammit, stop!"

A fist to the jaw shattered the flashback, and I hurled myself at the stupid culprit I’d kill the me murder my mother

"Fox!"

My vision cleared fro eyed Oscar

His hands clawed at led off the floor The burn in ht I held alht so hard This was all I was good for

Death

Oscar spat in my face His warusted

"Snap out of it" He threw a crystal ashtray atsense back intointo focus his torn shirt and bleeding lip Fear stank around hi away, I looked down at my hands--at the syet so weak?

Pain

I need pain

I needed deliverance I needed an escape

Turning onhters on the floor of Obsidian, I already knehere I would go

I didn’t look back

Twenty onfly If Obsidian was exclusive and uponfly was its sinful baby brother A place where a disclaied just in case you didn’t make it out alive

My favourite place for medicine

I’d found it purely by chance When I moved to Sydney, I didn’t know anyone Cast out of the only world I knew, I fuuidance or rules, I had none of ether

The only way to keep hts I hid in dark alleys, just waiting for random, clueless prey to stumble upon my trap

Thetheh for theive the hand Every strike helped ease iven h to exist another day did I knock the ht by uy ned the Dragonfly and he gavefor He tore intovelociraptor He cleared ht was hting name fit him perfectly--built like a thousand-year-old tree, his arms were the size of trunks, and his temper was poisonous No one pissed hia sharp left