#( paras.)

the alley behind snake eyes was narrow and strangely warm, lit by a single flickering sign that buzzed like an irritated insect. mavis didn’t mind it. she knew every shortcut, every crack in the stone, every shadow with teeth. she walked them nightly. they respected her enough to leave her alone.

but something felt off. subtly. wrong in a way that made her skin prickle. she slowed. the air tasted different... emptier. the humming neon lights overhead dipped, dimmed, then steadied again. most wouldn’t have noticed. but mavis always noticed things like that.

she paused, slipping one hand into her coat pocket, fingers curling around the tiny charm her father had given her years ago. she told herself she was being dramatic. paranoid. maybe even hungry. she’d been working a double; her body was running on fumes and instinct.

still her eyes lifted to the mouth of the alley. the street beyond should’ve been busy, even at this hour. the underland never shut down, never truly silenced itself. yet the usual hum of life: the music from the bars, the distant roar of arguments, the shuffle of nightworkers was muted now. muffled. as if buried under several feet of dirt.

her fangs itched as she stepped out of the alley and onto the cobblestone road and froze.

the street was almost empty. a few lamps flickered. mist drifted along the ground like spilled milk. but no voices. no cars. no drunks stumbling home. it was the underland stripped bare.

“okay,” she murmured to herself, “that’s weird.”

she began walking, faster now. each step echoed too loudly. the apothecary wasn’t far. three turns, up the hill, and across the street. but she only made it halfway up the hill. something shifted in the fog ahead. small at first. a ripple, barely visible. she stopped, weight tipping onto her toes.

“who’s there?” her voice was steady, though her stomach dropped with recognition. the underland had monsters. she was one of them. but this this wasn’t a monster she knew.

the fog parted and there, at the crest of the hill, stood a silhouette. at first she thought it was a person. maybe a customer from the casino. maybe a drunk. maybe nothing to worry about. but as it stepped forward, the mist seemed to cling to it, dragging behind like a cloak. a shape too tall. too still.

mavis instinctively stepped back. then another step. the another. the charm in her pocket began to heat against her palm.

“i’m not interested in trouble,” she called out. her fangs slid fully down now, unbidden. “go bother someone else.”

silence. the figure tilted its head.

the lamps behind her sputtered and went out one by one, plunging the street into layered darkness. she shifted into a defensive stance, muscles coiling tight. she’d fought before... brawls with the occasional underland creature who mistook her small size for weakness. but, the thing before her didn’t move like something alive. didn’t breathe like something dead. it blinked out of existence. just... gone.

mavis took one startled step backward and collided with something behind her. cold fingers clamped around her upper arms. she gasped and twisted, nails lengthening, ready to rend but the world spun violently sideways.

the fog surged upward like a wave swallowing a shoreline. shadows stretched and snapped like ropes pulled too tight. the strange figure... now impossibly close. held her as easily as if she weighed nothing. her vision blurred, darkened at the edges, warped like heat haze.

“no!” she snarled, kicking hard, but her body lagged, slow and syrupy, like someone had injected exhaustion straight into her veins. her head lolled as the street around her dissolved into a smear of gray.

the last thing she saw was the crest of the hill. the abandoned lamps, the empty street, the mist curling in on itself like it was laughing.

and then... nothing.