Chapter 18-In Which Death Defiance Isn't Copyrighted

The inside was about what Lozen expected. She hadn't been inside any manors the likes of which this Sirius Cane seemed to enjoy and the second she did, she remembered why. For a start, it was too bright. Literally. Her eyes crammed themselves shut once she passed through the door and took a good while before they got used to the pain the numerous chandeliers and snow white linoleum floors inflicted. So she couldn't even say what the place looked like when she entered. Though, when her sight did return or at least her retinas stopped burning, what the mansions actually looked like was detailed to say the least.

It clearly had taken a fortune just to build the entrance. The room the front doors lead into was cylindrical in shape and painted a garish gold and had a massive set of stairs spiraling up to the second floor. Paintings from self portraits of various seemingly unrelated individuals to abstract landscapes hung over the steps, set within ornate frames with patterns resembling flowers and seashells carved into them. There was no ceiling, just a glass circle cut into eight triangular pieces looking up at a sky exchanging the brilliant blue cast by the sun for a darkness speckled with stars.

Everything she could see looked like it had cost a small fortune and the reason for such extravagant displays of wealth eluded Lozen as she took it all in. "Impressive, is it not?" Finch's voice broke through her bewilderment and pulled her attention back down to the floor. Alberta seemed to be waiting for her in the middle of the room, subtle yet sufficient smile on her face as rivers of articulate clothes with people in them flowed past her like peacocks feathers in the wind.

"More like excessive." Lozen muttered to herself as she took another look around. Aside from the door behind her, there were three massive openings in the pillars placed at equidistant points from each other. The two at her sides were closed with the one directly across from the door behind her being left open for the decorated crowd to file into. "Some of these folks would consider that a compliment. Come along now. You are supposed to be my security after all." Alberta said before she started marched off towards where the rest of the crowd was headed and Lozen followed close behind her.

"Where's Judas?" Lozen asked as they approached the doors and Finch replied "I believe he calls 'mingling'. But if you mean to ask where he physically is, I have no earthly idea."

"I doubt that. In this place, he'll stick out like a shore thumb."

"You'd be surprised. For all his intellectual faults, he is surprisingly capable in this sort of environment. I dare even say, he fits right in."

"I meant someone wrapped head to toe in what he was presumably buried in would be easy to notice surrounded by all this."

"Oh yes. He followed the flow of the crowd like the rest."

Lozen let out a small sigh before saying "That sounds about right."

"My dear, you have no idea." Alberta said right before they stepped through the door and entered into the most bilious room Lozen had ever seen. It was massive. Titanic even. So big that it looked like it could fit her whole village inside. It was easy a quarter of a mile left to right, marble flooring spanning the entire length and an impossibly lurid ceiling running parallel to it. Nine massive ovular indents covered it, each filled with a painting that Lozen could tell whether it was actually painted onto the face or was just a massive piece of paper nailed to its face. She didn't recognize any of the images, but she was also fairly certain that was the point. Art meant less when no one could comprehend it, apparently.

The rest of the ceiling was covered in an drab display of golden architecture adorned with the same vine like patterns she had noticed around the paintings in the first room. However, the walls connected it to the floors were much more....Lozen decided to call it "well thought out". The surface that face the wall she had entered through wasn't even a solid wall. Instead, it was a massive rows of mirrors multitudes taller and wider than her, each ten men across and twenty tall. They were stacked side to side and looked out over a massive garden covered in display like setups of beautiful, color rich platlife all surrounded or fenced off by a hedge maze in place of a fence. On either side of the room were walls that had a pair of doors in their center and was otherwise covered in marble carvings and more, albeit bigger portraits of more nameless figures and places.

Covering what Lozen assumes was a massive ballroom of sorts was a see of finely dressed individuals whose prim and proper chatter completed the room. Massive chandeliers hung overhead and looked like they were one wrong tremor away from crushing one of them, but for now bathed the room in a light that seemed to rival the sun. It was difficult to look directly at them and somehow the clothing of the guests was about as insufferable to see. Somehow their outfits were catching the light and made the entire room look like it was on fire. Yet, that made it all the easier to find the deadman.

He stuck out like a gadfly crawling across a lantern, darting between the walking light sources and chatting people up to, surprising, success. Everyone he met seemed to chuckle and smile at whatever comment he made before he rushed away. "Fantastic." Lozen muttered as she saw Judas skipping throughout the crowd. "To his credit, he hasn't attracted any unwanted attention."

Lozen hummed before resting a firm hand on Alberta's shoulder and started leading the crone through the crowd. "Speaking of which, care to explain what all of this is?" She asked and Finch answered "I honestly have no idea. Cane isn't the type for these sorts of gatherings, even with his...let's call them 'beneficiaries'."

"I doubt that. Now start talking or I'll have Judas start firing and have you take the fall."

"If you insist. Cane was always the type to keep one eye over his shoulder, so if he's gathered..." She took a slow look around. "Indeed, everyone he had come into financial contact with, I'm assuming someone may have stolen more than they should have. Or Cane just miscalculated his finances again. He always forgets to carry a zero."

"Stolen?"

"Oh yes. He's a surprisingly easy man to swindle, in a way. Most of the people here probably have. Though every once in a while someone gets just a bit too ambitious and leeches off more than they can chew."

"Then why would everyone be here?"

"That's simple. He's not a very good finder."

Lozen thought about that for a moment before saying "So he's just gathered everyone he knows in the off chance a thief might be one of them."

"Correct."

"There's at least a hundred people here."

"Indeed."

Lozen waited for a moment, expecting for Alberta to tell her what was actually going on and after a solid minute of silence, she decided she was going to have to ask. "What's actually going on here?"

"Oh, I'm being very honest with you, darling."

"No you aren't."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I can't even imagine the dead one coming up with an idea that moronic."

"Darling, if any of my former companions had any sort of intelligence, they wouldn't have hired me."

Lozen thought about that for a moment before remembering the rest of Finch's old crew. One was a theatrical nitwit who was more useful dead, literally, another was just as idiotic and had shot him in the head after digging for hidden gold for six plus years, and the one who own this home had a habit of building several manors to act as glorified train stations for seemingly no sane reason. She wasn't really sure what she should have been expecting.

"Alright, then what would he do once he has everyone assembled?" Lozen asked even though she was certain she knew the answer, only for a voice to come up from right in front of her "Seriously? Have you never done this before?" Judas finished as he waded through the mass of extravagant individuals surrounding them. "And where have you been?" Lozen demanded as she maneuvered Alberta around Judas and continued making a beeline towards the window.

"Scouting out the scene, your welcome." Judas rushed out.

"I already have. Five total entrances, one on each of the interior walls and two built into the windows. Around a hundred unarmed individuals, but no security as of yet."

"What? No. I was-"

"Let me guess. Charming the locals in an attempt to get them to tell you about this place?"

"Well, obviously. What else did you have in mind?"

"Uh-huh. And what did you learn?"

"Well, Karen thinks that Sharon has been a bit-"

"Let me reiterate. What useful information did you learn?"

"About what?"

Lozen raised an eyebrow before saying "Did you at least figure out why everyone was called here?"

"Oh no."

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

"No, I mean everyone else doesn't know. They just got a letter telling them to come here. I think most of them were planning on talking Sirius out of more of his money. Still think they are, actually."

"Have any of them been able to get into another other part of the manor?"

Alberta answered that "Oh, they won't be able to do that. I've been to enough of these occasions to know he likes to minimize his guests ability to move around the manor."

After she answered that, all three of them arrived at one of the windows and after taking a quick look outside once again, leaned herself up against it before flattening Alberta on the glass as well. "And what of the exits?" Lozen asked to which Alberta answered "You just walked through it. And don't think going through the windows. You'd never make it through the guards standing between you and the fenceline. Well," She gestured to Lozen. "You wouldn't. Actually, I'm fairly certain you wouldn't be able to, Jebediah."

"What does that mean!!? They can't kill-" Before he could finish that sentence, Lozen rushed over and slapped a hand over what she prayed was his mouth. Now, while the move managed to silence the deadman, her hand must have passed through the spectral shell enshrouding and slapped against what had to be his skull. Even Judas froze in place once they made contact and a shiver seemed to run down both their spines as what felt like a tooth had fell out of his gums.

"Ahhhhhhhh." Judas moaned out as they heard something make a clicking sound on the ground like that of the coin on pebble and Lozen ripped her hand away from his face. Ignoring the possible tooth she had knocked out and muses of her hand slipping through what was essentially Judas's skin, Lozen said in a hushed voice "No, but they can still hear you."

Taking the que, Judas nodded and said "Point is, they couldn't catch me if they couldn't kill me."

Alberta cut in "And that is you hired me."

"Hey!!"

"Six iron chains and two shot gun shells to the legs. Your legs would be blown off and you wouldn't be able to move."

"That would never work."

Lozen cut back in "Both of you, enough! Judas, we still have a job to do and Alberta, I don't feel as if I need to remind you what will happen if that job does not go according to plan. So for now, both of you keep your eyes open and your voices down. Got it!?"

When both of them offered no protest, Lozen continued "Good. Now, Alberta, what is the likelihood of you getting us a private meeting with Cane?"

"Nonexistent if he isn't present. He's probably roaming the manor as we speak, trying to guess who has stolen from him."

"And would it be possible for us to find any way into the rest of the house without getting caught?"

"Not that I can think of."

"Need I remind you, the only reason you are still alive is because you are useful to us."

"No I do not and I assure you, there is no other way. The guards will be on high alert and most likely are already ordered to kill any trespassers on sight. My advice would be for you to wait until whatever Cane intends to do with these people is over."

Judas exclaimed "Why!? How do we know he's not going to come out guns blazing!?"

Lozen answered "Because if what Alberta's saying is true, he'd only be suspicious of the people he invited and our generous employer was not. Remember?"

After a moment where he fell quiet, Judas said "Huh. Well what do we do until then."

Lozen answered "Stay put and watch our surroundings. I don't want to be caught off guard."

"By who? The walking talking statues covered peacock feathers?"

Lozen ignored that and glanced back over at Alberta before asking "And you, you're going to tell me everything you know about these delusions Sirius is under."

"Wow! Sirius is delusional? Since when? And more, importantly, about what?" Judas asked and Alberta answered "On the note of 'when', unclear. Also, 'mole people' if you're wondering."

"Mole people?"

"His words. Not mine. He claims they're crawling beneath the ground and spying on all of America."

"Huh....okay, even I don't believe that."

"He said while in the middle of defying the laws of both nature and god."

"Exactly! It's not like the bar isn't low at this point! Still though, Mole people? That's just adding the word 'people' to the end of animal names."

"But it wouldn't be the most unusual occurrence to happen this day."

"So you believe that, and I'm only guessing here, there's a squad of subterranean half human half mole creatures tracking this one random asshole across literally the most wasteland from her to the Pacific? It's not even that inventive. It's just lazy. For some who's supposed to be batshit, I demanded more satisfying delusion."

"No. But I'm not saying I don't believe him."

Lozen cleared her throat to cut the two of them off and said "Point is, whether it's true or not-"

"And let's be honest, with the way this day has been going, there's about a fifty-fifty chance of that." Alberta commented again, trying in vain to make herself look at ease. Her eyebrows kept twitching ever so often though, something Lozen was starting to notice was a bit of a tell the former patron had yet to shake.

"Right. Anyways, Cane believes it to be true, so we'll have to act like it is when we approach him."

"Why?" Judas asked and Lozen answered "Trust me. With a man this powerful, it's best to play into his delusions. Doing anything else will just cause trouble. So Alberta, start talking or he may kill you as well if we don't first."

"Alright, darling. You don't need to be pushy. As far as my eyes and ears will tell, Sirius appears to believe the ghost of a worker of his he had flayed to death for disloyalty has been hunting him across the state. A ghost, mind you, that matches the description of this one exactly." She motioned towards Judas. "Blue glow, skeletal body, weapon that can kill in an instant, though no corpse horse as far as I can tell."

Judas tossed his head back and let out a loud "HAH!!" before saying "Sure! Just one hundred herbs and species of sure! Even I have a hard time believing this-" He passed a hand over himself. "Happened twice!"

"I wouldn't be so sure. Diamonds may be rare, but even they occur more than once."

"Are you seriously suggesting that this just happens!?!"

"No. I simply find it hard to believe that this event occurred only once. Though, I doubt it happened in relation to Sirius. My guess is that he must have heard someone tell of your story, Jebediah, and his psychotic mind must have constructed some terrible fantasy related to it. I'm assuming you spread your story around, didn't you, Jebediah?"

"Well....You don't know me!! And stop calling me that!!!"

"Judas! Keep your voice down!" Lozen snapped back.

"Oh please! These silver sucking bastards can't hear anything over the sound of their own voices and the sweet sensation of-" Before Judas could finish his inevitable complaint, a single sound came exploding throughout the room. An ear piercing gunshot rang out through the room, louder than anything Lozen had ever heard and caused her survival instincts to kick in. Her hand snapped up to grab one of the straps of the rifles slung over her back as she ducked down and her eyes were sent flying all over the room in an attempt to find where the disturbance had come from.

Screams rose up from all over the room, yet most of the people stayed frozen in place like deer on train tracks. It would have been pathetic if Lozen's attention hadn't been pulled up to the same spot as everyone else. Built in the wall right above the door she had entered from was a balcony whose designs would have allowed it to blend into the decorated surface it grew from if not for the individuals now manning it.

Four men wearing what looked like butler outfits with the tails and muted colors stuck out like sore thumbs in such an ornate environment. In each of their hands were held the same rifles that were sling over Lozen's back and one of them had fired a round into the air. Between the four of them however, was a man who fit right in with the ground beneath him.

His suit was an unwelcome break from how the rest of the men in the room dressed. Instead of just more black and white, only his boots were still made of dark leather and the rest of him seemed to melt into the lurid wall behind him. A silky white outfit clung loosely from his person with a shade of either gold or orange tinting it's snow white complexion. Sprinting from his neck was a frill of sunny cloth topped with a pale bow tie.

His expression on the other hand seemed horrendous. The grey hair that fell from his head was unkempt and settled around the base of his neck, his chin wasn't shaved equal on either side, and the bags under his eyes looked as if they were bruised. His skin sagged from his face and an air of lifelessness hovered around him. In his hand was clutched a cane made of black wood and topped with a hook-like handle carved from what had to be silver. Judging from his uneven posture, he must have actually needed it to. All in all, he looked to be even older than Alberta and multitude more hollow.

"That's Sirius?" Judas whispered over to them, not daring to break the pristine silence that had fallen across the room. "What the hell happened to him?" He continued to which Alberta answered "Give him some leeway, Jebediah. It takes a lot of work to be insane."

"He looks more decomposed then me!"

"On that we can agree."

"Both of you, shut it." Lozen snapped at them as the rest of the crowd started to murmur. No one's eyes seemed to pull away from the sight of that man standing atop the walkway, though for no good reason. The only authority or respect he commanded came from the men at his sides and an easy respect it was to gather indeed. When he opened his mouth, it wasn't even a voice that came tumbling out of his mouth. More like a croak that somehow managed to twist into words.

"My friends," The entire room seemed to quiet down as everyone strained to hear Cane's voice. "I see you've made yourselves at home. Gorging on my food, basking under my roof, scheming within my walls. That's what you all seem to enjoy, isn't it." His voice was trembling, though not from fear. The best way Lozen could think of it was out of some mixture of fear and a raw, pure hatred she did not think she would ever hear from another person. "You like to think you all can just come into my house and think it will be easy to just take everything I have worked to achieve." A series of murmurs rose up at that and Sirius shouted out in response to all of them "SHUT UP!!!! YOU ARE ALL IN MY HOUSE AND YOU WILL NOT SPEAK UNTIL I SAY SO!! You all come crawling here from every corner of this wrecked state, hoping to leech off more of my money and prestige, so you I demand that all of you parasites listen to me!!!"

He slammed his cane down on the ground and with that small gesture, caused all of the guards around him to aim their weapons down at the audience. Everyone else screamed and Lozen lashed a hand out to grab Judas's robes before pulling him in front of her. "What that...I am not your human shield!!?" He cried out to which Lozen said "Shut up and act dead if they fire."

"Oh they won't." Alberta added as she leaned up against the window. "He does this from time to time. It's just a threat and one I suggest you listen to if you want to know more about what's going on." Lozen couldn't and didn't have time to argue before Sirius's voice came ringing out through the room again.

"I know what you're all doing. I know, I know!" He had a hand scratching at the side of his head by the time he resumed. "Don't think I never did!! Don't think that you were oh so clever!! No, no, no! I let you do it! I kept you close! I made you need me! You, the Governor's daughter, and you, the Winchester heiress, and the rest of you too stupid and spoiled to even waste your own money!"

Lozen leaned over and whispered to Alberta "How much of that is true?"

"Presumably none of it. If I were one of these people, I'd tell him I was the daughter of someone valuable as well. It wins his favor and it's not like he's composed enough to ever check."

Before she could press any further, Sirius continued "And these walls." He slapped a hand onto the banister as if for emphasis. "These walls are thin!! I hear you when I shit and sleep, laughing at me and plotting to cut my throat! Don't think I don't!! Don't think I don't. And yet you still come crawling out from every corner of this fucking state to suck more of the blood from my veins!! Have you not taken enough!?! Have I not given you everything you could have wanted?! Have I not!!? My money, my home, my favor and that of everyone else in! This! Room!!" He smashed his hand down on the railing at each word, an act that caused a few yelps to rise up from the crowd even as the three of them remained more perplexed then fearful.

Sirius pauses for a moment, huffing and puffing like mad after having let that venom slip through his teeth and leaning over the edge of the balcony. He looked as if he were scanning the room for a moment, jaw hanging from his skull like a panting dog and teeth gleaming in the bright chandelier light. It was as if he were in the middle of a psychotic break and then in a second, that was all washed away. Lozen wasn't sure if Sirius recognized his behavior or not, but either way he straightened himself out and seemed to readjust his tie before continuing "And now all of you wish to take my sanity as well and have me believe the sun abhors the day. Is that what you wish? And I know what you're doing! You think you could scare me and make me lose my mind, but no! I don't know how you did it, but no! I won't let you do it! I won't let a single one of you unravel me! Not me!"

"Finch?" Lozen asked and Alberta replied "I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm not a psychologist."

"And yet now you start correcting people with that assumption." Judas muttered before Sirius cut them all off again "So! So, so, so, so, so-" He started muttering over and over again as he swung his head from side to side. "So!!! I'm going to give whichever one of you did this, and you know what you did!! I'm going to give you until the count of ten to show yourself!! If you do, I'll let you live. If not, I am going to kill every single person in this room!!! So if any of you have any information as to the whereabouts of this....FUCKING BASTARD, I suggest you start talking!!! One!"

The guards on the railing pulled back the loading mechanisms on their guns and let the collective clinks ring out.

"Two!!"

People were starting to scream again, but no one had broken their paralysis yet.

"Three!!"

"Darling, do you have a plan? Alberta asked as she started inching towards the dead meat shield Lozen had taken shelter behind.

"Four!!"

Lozen could feel her heart start to pound in her chest and her own gut twist every time she heard that maniac above them cry out a number, but she kept herself as calm as possible. Panicking wouldn't help.

"Five!!"

"Judas, the second they start firing, I want to to fall backwards onto me. Cover my body and don't give them a reason to shoot you." Lozen said as she glanced over her shoulder and saw that the door they had come through was indeed close.

"Six!!"

"You're still going to need me, darling." Alberta said as she swung her attention between Lozen and the platoon of guards atop the balcony.

"Seven!!"

Lozen whipped out her revolver as she said "No we don't. Play dead and pray these bodies soak up enough bullets."

"W!!"

"Darling, you won't make it out of here without my favor!" Alberta snapped over.

"Nine!!" Everyone around them had long since started to panic and run around the room like caged wolves. Screams slammed into the walls erected around them and they threw themselves against the door as if they would eventually pass through them if they just battered against it hard enough. Chaos was close to settling in and Lozen was prepared to fall back onto the floor, but right before Sirius could tell his goons to start opening fire, a different, yet monstrous voice came exploding out from the balcony.

"SIRIUS CANE!!!" It boomed out, snapped Lozen's attention over towards the left most side of the balcony to see the origin of the booming voice. And she didn't believe it for a moment.

She couldn't see a door anywhere near it or at least not one that was obvious from the surrounding walls, but that was the last thing on her mind. Standing right on the balcony, as if it were just another guard, was a figure whose entire body was carved from and radiated a pale, azure light, inside of which she could see a skeleton standing on legs blackened from rot. The projection encrusting it didn't appear to be wearing a shirt, revealing it's bulkier frame to all who would gaze upon it. A muscular, spectral outline was wrapped around a skeleton that was easily twice as large as her on it's own and brought to mind the Goliath figure Lozen heard mentioned so often by the colonizers. There must have been some sort of defect at birth, because the titans size seemed to stretch up even the ceiling and it's arms were as thick as her entire body.

It wasn't a colonizer though. She couldn't tell it from it's features, but there appeared to be a cloth headband wrapped around his forehead that gave a piece of it's identity away. It wasn't from here. That was a war bonnet from what she believed to be a northern tribe. Only plains hunters, "Cheyenne" she believed they were called wore those bands. It wasn't a detailed one, certainly. In fact, compared to the lavished banners she could recall, this one seemed handmade in the worst possible way. Sewn together from ugly, dirt colored clothes with the stitches curving at amateurish angles and a single, mangled feather sticking out from the back.

The only thing it seemed to don was a pair of simple pants that looked like they had been carved from a potato sack and stretched to the bursting point from the wearer's massive size. In one of its hands it held a rifle similar to the ones the other guards held and carved from the same icy light as the rest of it body. One whose barrel was pointed right at Sirius.

It all happened so fast. The guards surrounding Sirius were quick and raced between their boss and that thing, but it wouldn't make much of a difference. Lozen knew all too well what happened when that thing fired and in a split second, billions of thoughts exploded through her mind.

Another Chunuxu! How?! Didn't matter. It was here. It was angry. It wanted Sirius dead. Let it. It saved the trouble of having to hunt him down. The bounty would be easy to secure. Wait. The bounty. 950 dollars. Even with the others, that total would barely scratch the surface of the fortune at Cane's disposal. 2 million. She'd never have to hunt bounties again. She'd never have to worry again. No one would have to starve or die. Not ever again. All that wealth...she didn't know. What was she thinking? What was she doing? Why was she holstering her revolver? Why was was she grabbing one of the revolvers swung over her shoulder?

"Stand still!" Lozen cried out as she slapped a hand down onto Judas shoulder and swung the base of her boot into the backside of his knee. Judas crumbled to his knees as his balance was lost and Lozen lowered herself so that she kneeled by him as she swung her rifle down to rest on his other shoulder. It wouldn't substitute for a hill, but it would help her aim enough. She wrapped her free arm around Judas neck and slid her hand under the rifle, pinning him in place and giving her more stability as the creature raised it's weapon. All the deadman needed to do now was not more a muscle.

This was never going to work.

It's rifle was only held in one hand and that was apparently all it needed. As if it's weapon were a pistol, it started firing glistening projectiles at the guards standing between Cane and itself, mowing them down with ease even if they were the first to fire. She had maybe five seconds before it would have started firing at Sirius. Not much time at all, but it would have to do. That thing couldn't die, though, if Judas was any indication, she didn't need it to.

Her mind surrendered itself to the instincts that were guiding her actions, thoughts melting away until mere feelings and sixth senses controlled her. Everything else she could have thought or noticed, the continued screams of the crowd, the garish displays around, and Judas's protests of his usage, vanished. Suddenly, she was kneeling in a den of nothingness, just her and the creatures, or at least one small part of it. A portion she was sure it was going to need to fire that damned gun.

As the last guard fell to the ground, Lozen sucked in a tiny breath and squeezed the trigger. A single shot erupted out through the anarchal assembly and rocketed through the air above their heads. It should have been too high or low, nowhere near close enough, or off by just a hair's width. But it struck. By some miracle it struck.

The bullets smashed into the cluster of bones at the creatures wrist, causing an explosion of bone shards to come raining down as it's entire arm was flung against the wall. It fired, but the bullet passed right over Sirius's head. Perfect. Lozen was quick to pull the bolt of her weapon back and slid another round into the barrel, hoping somewhere deep down that she would be able to fire off another into the creature. Guided by her reactionary instincts, she guided the barrel back towards the creature only to freeze in place for a single second.

Those glowing, hateful eyes were staring down right at her, a sneer on it's expression and all that rage being flung down on her. A rage that nothing could stop or survive. It was more than enough to make her hesitate, but not keep her that way for long. Freezing meant death. That was something this creature couldn't make her forget.

She fired again before it could do anything more than notice her, this time managed to strike it right in it's shoulder, flattening the rest of it against the wall. Her fingers worked across the weapon, reloading and firing again without any sort of definite target. All she could think about was that this thing couldn't shoot if it couldn't use it's arms. Even with her rational mind being subverted, she was aware enough to keep them in mine as she fired. Every shot was directed at some part of the creatures arms, the shoulder, elbow, and sometimes the neck to disorient it. For a while, it seemed to work. It wasn't going down, but it wasn't moving from the spot and the howls of pain it let out weren't stopping.

But it didn't have to worry about running out of ammo. She slid the bolt back into place and pulled her trigger only to hear a quiet, tiny "click". Everything seemed to freeze as that one, simple, innocent sound echoed throughout the room. One empty click. One empty barrel. Not bullets to stop the creature. And it was still looking at her with those furious eyes missing nothing but a scythe. It had something better than a farm tool. Something she couldn't run from.

In that split second her adrenaline rush faded, the creature acted and all Lozen could do was watch. It let out a beastly scream and lung towards the railing. It's hand flung itself up and grabbed the spectral rifle from thin air. One second, it leveled the barrel. The second, it continued to scream. By the third, it pulled the-

BANG!!!!

She didn't even lurch when she heard it. It wouldn't matter. Nothing stopped it now but a pile of old bones. But it never came. The scene around her never faded into darkness and she didn't feel anything strike or even graze past her. At first she thought there was something she was missing and in fact, she was. A gun had in fact been fired, but she wasn't the one who had been hit.

The creature's wrist was shattered once again, a perfect shot by what should have been a mere madman. Sirius's free hand was raised and in his hands Lozen could just barely make out the outline of a revolver, smoke spewing from the barrel and a tremor consuming the hand that held it. The creature let out another pained scream and grabbed it's wrist as it's other hand fell....she blinked. That couldn't have been right. Yet there it was. The spectral blue energy that had once wrapped itself around the skeletal hand had pulled itself away and shrunk back passed it's worst the wound it had been dealt. And nothing didn't happen though.

The hand had been hanging over the balcony when it was shot and as such fell onto the crowd below as the creature seemed to real back. It's eyes were wide as it looked down at it's new stump, still gripped by it other, now only hand before they were tossed towards the one who had fired the bullet. Sirius froze as he saw the wraith look at him, but the barrel of his weapon was kept leveled at the creature. It must have seen this, Lozen though. No. It must have been afraid.

Without even attempting to strike again, it let out another vicious roar and bolted down the balcony, never once turning back to look at the madman. It smashed its shoulder into a pair of doors at one end of the banister and as if it had never existed, slipped out of their view, leaving Lozen in the middle of a confused, maniac swarm of people all crying for both answers and help.

She wasn't sure how long she stayed glued to the spot, not sure of what to do, until Judas cleared his throat and said in an uneven voice "So. Think the mole people sent him?"