Darker London-Uncover what is underneath...

His name was Bernard Terence Trust, age fifty two, balding and built like a wild boar. For twenty six years Alfred High had been his second home, his workplace, his dominion. Its burning had hit him hard, but he'd spent long hours working into the night trying to secure another premises. The building was little more than a skeleton, black bones rising from the scotched earth where classrooms full of children used to be.

( Burn )

Nothing touched by darkness stayed the same. Night lay heavily over the world, changing the city into a dangerous place for a beautiful young girl, out walking the streets all alone.

The first night was the hardest because she was almost caught. She'd almost killed the man who propositioned her just because he was so blatant and crude about it. He'd been older, close to thirty, unwashed and covered in muscles. Josie liked her men wiry, and this one was anything but. He'd herded her into an alleyway before she could gather her bearings, and he'd asked her twice for a blow job before she replied.

"Cash first." He looked rather disgruntled, but pulled out a leather wallet from his back pocket and searched through it, eventually pulling out twenty quid. Josie looked at him, disgusted, and growled. A moment later he was little more than a barely breathing heap on the ground. She'd taken all the cash as well as his watch and cellphone.

And just for kicks, she'd tied his shoelaces together in a knot it would take the man ages to figure out. Not her most diabolical scheme ever.

The money from his wallet payed for one night's accommodation at a decent backpackers four or five blocks down from where she'd left him. There was no way she was going to share a room, so she'd used the money she'd set aside for breakfast so buy a single room. She'd figure out nourishment in the morning. Oh, she'd figure out a lot of things in the morning.

But then, that first night, she'd wanted to sleep on her own terms. Here there were no nurses orchestrating a life around her. Sleep now. Eat now. Medicate, now. She was free of that, and although the night was a great temptation she had decided to sleep, and sleep she would.

Sleep claimed her till the next afternoon, when she woke sticking to her sheets. This would not do, no, not at all. She needed the best sheets, and a private shower. And gods, she needed a change of clothes.

So down the narrow staircase she went, after scrubbing herself clean under the mildly warm water in the horrific showers. Josie understood her beauty, and had some idea of how to use it to get what she wanted. It was remarkably easy to lure a man into an alley, with a flick of the hair or a certain smile, promising so much more. She took her time, picking out those that looked like the weight of their wallet was dragging them down from the drunkards who carried little more than spare change. Four hours later the sun was beginning to set, and she was almost five hundred quid the richer. If a handful of men were a little late home, a little more disorientated from the walk to the underground than they usually were, well, it was no skin off her back.

That night she delighted in scalding herself in the shower and crawled into deliciously soft sheets. The next morning, she extended her wardrobe sevenfold.

This was life. Not the life- that would come later- but this was well on the way. There were just a few pesky ghosts from the past she had to get rid of first.

Josie lost herself in the mist, pushing herself further and further till the muscles in her wings ached with sudden use and beads of sweat were forming on her brow. She could barely see the lights of the city through the thick blanket of fog, and she knew no one would ever see her, blending into the semi-darkness as best she could. It was almost an hour after her violent escape that she caught sight of a familiar building and decided to set herself down. She landed lightly on the corrugated roof of her old high school and prowled around for a few moments, making sure there wasn't anyone around. It was almost dark, and the entire building seemed completely abandoned. All hers.


Josie sat down on the zenith of the roof and looked at her hands, smeared with blood all the way up to her elbows. A whisper reached her ears, turning quickly into horrid little raspy noises like someone was having trouble breathing. Ignoring it, she stared at her hands and watched again and again as her nails ripped through her father, watching the blood and feeling the ease of it all and the warmth of the blood and she knew he'd be dead. Dead and gone and rotting soon, no shelter there no arms no nothing.

She wrapped her bloody arms around her stomach and doubled over, realising the pained raspy noises were coming from her. No no no no no she struck herself in the throat, as hard as she could, and they stopped abruptly in a short, sharp choke.

He has been stupid. He'd tried to change her, to smother what she really was, to mold her into his idea of the perfect daughter who hadn't her self. She wouldn't let him, hadn't let him, he'd been stupid and now he no longer stood in her way.

This was what she had to do in order to be herself. She had a past packed full of those that had stood in her way, had hindered her progress towards perfection. There had only, ever been two people who had really understood, who had shared the desire to rule, rule everything without opposition. The girl, and the boy. Maybe if she found them... but no. First she had to set herself free, perfectly free. First she had to cut all of her ties, destroy everything that had tried to drown her.

There was this very school beneath her, where the teachers had ever lorded it over her, where there had been too many rules, too many judging eyes. This, yes, this had to go.

She walked to the edge of the roof and dropped down easily onto the ground, the height was nothing. Before her rose the science rooms, windows made of allegedly unbreakable glass. Drawing her fist back, she rammed it into it and felt the impact right through to her elbow- but it worked. She pulled away pieces of the glass bit by bit, jerking them out of the frame till there was a hole big enough for her to climb through. Alfred Memorial High had always been too cheap for things like alarms. The room was illuminated only by street lights, giving the room a vague orange glow, but she found what she was looking for quickly enough. The Bunsen burners were always kept under the sink at the desk at the front of the room and the lighter lay quietly next to them. Too easy. She left the burners under the sink; the lighter was all she needed.

After flicking on the main gas behind the teachers desk, she made her way quickly around the room, turning on each individual gap tap as she passed. She opened the door to the hallway to let the gas watf through, and the door that linked the second science room to this one. The gas taps in there got the same treatment, and very soon the air was thick with the smell of it.

Josie pocked the lighter and jumped back out the window, dusting her hands and watching the dark building. She counted down from one hundred, slowly backing away and when she reached zero, she gave the school a quick wave and flicked on the lighter, tossing it at hard as she could through the window.

The blast wasn't as impressive as she'd hoped, but still the air caught fire with amazing speed, rushing right through the two classrooms. Josie watched in delight, wide eyed and large manic smile on her mouth. Beautiful: it was beautiful and she laughed, spinning round and round with her arms outstretched as the heat of the fire burning her face. The heat was a glorious celebration of her freedom- no, the first step on her way to real freedom.

Let all that would stand in her way take note of this fire and know they would burn just as easily. She was afraid of nothing. She would stop at nothing.

The sky was a dead thing.

The sun had dragged all the blue from the sky, and now the fog was drifting down to earth with no power to keep it in the heavens any more. It's daylight blue had curdled and turned to a thin, concrete coloured grey, and all the colours faded from the world as it fell.

Fell like an angel. Like the end of days.

Like a birthday, a beginning.

( Freedom )

For days after Doctor Rheinegold had spoken to her, Josie fought. She clawed at everyone, spat and screamed and cursed and writhed within her restraints, until one morning when they came to administer her medication. She was lying peacefully in her bed and greeted them with a smile and a cheerful 'good morning.'
( Lies and plans )