“Hannah, a few weeks ago, I told you when I would murder, didn´t I?” I said, looking out of the window of an unmarked carriage.

“As long as you have a motive.” She said, only illuminated by the moonlight.

“Correct. And that is why I want you to back off today.” I stated, noticing how the eastern slums got closer and closer.

“Why?” She muttered, looking in my direction nervously.

“You have no motive to help me out tonight. I will not force you.” I said. She wasn’t made for this kind of task. And honestly, I didn´t mind it.

“I am not the weak girl you saved from the slums anymore.” She said, frowning slightly, but I could hear her voice wavering.

“I know, but neither are you a heartless killer. What I am about to do needs a complete disregard for life and you don’t have that.” I stated. Additionally, she needed to fight which she was still not good enough in. But I naturally chose to stay silent about that.

“I am not weak. And besides, you don’t have a complete disregard for life either.” She stated, which was somewhat correct. My targets this time would be all adults though.

“… Hannah, within a few weeks, you will meet your parents if they are truly alive. Do you want them to look at you as a heartless monster, or do you want them to be somewhat proud of you?” I asked, knowing I hit a weak spot of hers.

“I …” She mumbled as the carriage came to a stillstand.

“It is your decision.” I said, picking up the rapier on my lap and wearing my mask. I nodded towards Hannah one last time, opened the carriage and hopped out. I closed the door immediately and hit the wood with my hand, signalling the driver to get away from here. For a few minutes, I stood in the middle of a deserted street, one hand at the seethe, the other at the handle. I was quite the scary attraction apparently as those that were still wandering through the night all walked around me in a wide circle.

As two guards with spears approached me, I exhaled loudly and waited for them to come closer. Thanks to my actions as the saint, the public security in the slums improved somewhat. But still, it was far too little to stop me.

“Hey, you there! You with the mask! Are you deaf or what?” I wasn’t reacting to their actions in any way and even as they poked my shoulder with the tip of the spear, I didn´t do much. A few seconds afterwards, my hand shot up, grabbing the spear and pulling the first one of the duo towards me. The seethe in my hands hit his throat as he stumbled forwards and I dashed past him, aiming directly at the other guard who was already way too close to me.

My hand raced to the handle once again, drawing the rapier and stabbing into the guard's throat lightly. Hopping backwards a bit, I turned the rapier around and stabbed backwards as the other guard was just turning around. As I felt how my stab connected with something squishy, I dashed onwards to the next pedestrian. Screams filled the street shortly afterwards and a few more corpses greeted the two guards on the grounds.

And then, I stopped once more. I listened to the fleeing humans, their screams, how someone was nearly trampled to death, the low breath of a nearby man and closed my eyes. The symphony of death sounded so beautiful in my ears, so thrilling. Additionally, the sweet scent of blood permeated through the air, but once again I couldn’t taste it in my mouth. It wouldn’t be that hard to link the vampire of ‘The Crown’ to this incident then.

And so, I could only wait, listen to the music in my ears, and enjoyed the light snowfall. The white snow slowly turned into a red mush as I stabbed my rapier into the ground and leaned onto it cockily, looking at the three guards in the distance. They neither made any move to attack nor to run away. They waited, just like me.

While I just waited as a statement, they waited for the distant reinforcement. A bit bored, I knelt down in front of the rapier and made sure the coat went down from my shoulders onto the ground in a circular fashion. Only the gap in front of it revealed my leather armour and the few throwing knives on it.

Finally, as the guards numbered six, they started to encircle me their weapons, be it two short spears, a few swords with a lone shield and even a bow, in their hands.

“Surrender at once!” Smiling haughtily under my mask, I held both of my arms into the air and waited for one of them to approach me. Slowly, he stepped towards me and kicked my rapier away as soon as he stood in front of me.

“Hands behind your back.” He said, holding his sword dangerously close to my throat.

“Good sir, if you are trying to arrest someone, you should check if he has an accomplice somewhere.” I stated and watched in amusement how an arrow bore into the side of his throat. Before he even realized what had happened, I already wrestled the sword out of his powerless hand and stood up.

At first, there was utter silence as their eyes darted between me and the first assassin Tom managed to wrestle out of the Tarasov clan´s hands. It was Luke, the mute and deaf guy who worked with Tom to rob the merchant guild. He stood on a nearby hut, out of range for every close combatant.

Laughing, I twirled around in circles, quite happy to finally experience a battle again. This was far too little for me, they were far too weak, but a massacre was a massacre nonetheless.

Luke was already knocking on a second arrow as the enemy archer took a shot at him. Happily, I flung the crude sword away and noticed in satisfaction how it hit the arrow in the air, deflecting him off course. Luke’s arrow didn´t miss its target though and bore deeply into the belly of the archer.

Giggling, I stopped turning in circles and stepped to the right as one of them threw his spear at me. I caught it out of the air, thanked him for delivering a weapon this easily, dragged my left foot a bit to the right and then backwards. Finishing the first letter of my message, I hopped a bit to the right, took a step backwards as another arrow hit a fleeing target, and drew a half-circle in the snow below. Frowning slightly because of my less than fast writing, I finished that letter quickly as well while throwing my spear in between two houses as another one tried to flee.

The last one, the one with a shield in hand slowly backed off as he deflected the few arrows being shot at him. Laughing happily about finding someone who could at least do something, I strolled towards the dead archer and took his bow out of his hands. Grabbing a few arrows, I retrieved a few arrows and tested my luck as well.

Knocking on an arrow, I aimed at his chest and let go of the string. It harmlessly hit the shield and as I didn´t follow up he dashed behind a house, taking cover from Luke´s arrows. Listening closely to his rough breathing, but also the steps to my side as Luke jumped down from the hut to get a better angle, I stepped backwards and knocked on another arrow. Taking aim carefully, I noticed how Luke was doing the same, albeit out of a way better angle as he even saw the target. I could only look at shabby huts, a few tents and a very little gap in between.

I drew the string back to its limit, waited a few more seconds … and then noticed in amazement how the bow snapped in my hands. The string instantly slacked, making this bow incredibly useless. At least the guard wouldn’t get away as I heard an arrow hitting soft flesh. Sadly, it wasn’t mine though.

“I hate bows …” They were quite useless against me and they tended to break rather easily if I didn´t watch out closely. Raising my eyebrows, I threw it over my shoulders and strolled back to my letters. With blood smeared shoes, I made a few more letters into the snow and smiled happily.

‘There is no help coming.’, was written in the snow, right next to a few still bleeding corpses.

“Are you sure you like to work alone?” I took off my mask and asked Luke, which nodded in return. “In that case, we better get going. We have a quota to fulfil.” I said and wore my mask again shortly afterwards. I casually saluted towards him, turned around and strolled through the snow towards my next victims while he did the same in the other direction.

No guards stood in our way after these six. I mean, why would they? They all came from the commoner district and certainly didn´t like to risk their lives for dirt lower than them. Despite all my attempts to break down the walls between the different classes as Lucy White, they were still very present in the hearts of the people.

And I loved it.