POV: Melany, the fourth
Date: August 5, 1994
Time: 8:00 PM

There was still a red glow on the horizon as I left the city behind me. The darkness was closing in around me, and I could feel it was more than just the sunlight that was fading. My friends were gone. I'd felt it each time one of them died, like a stab to my heart. The third time, I'd had to pull over to keep from crashing. That must have been Sadie. They were gone now.

That old fool had brought so many evil beings to this place, and I was meant to be the next sacrifice to his vile plots. I couldn't believe it. I had been playing with the shadows like a toy. He was a tyrant in the realm I was spitballing at. The only people I cared about in this world had payed the price for it. Now I was alone, in this city, in the world, in the cosmos.

My destination was a little ways out of the city, but I knew my way. I'd never driven here before, so I had to stop and let my mind catch up with the speed of the car a few times so I wouldn't lose my place, but I didn't make any mistakes. I was where I wanted to be. An old construction site that was awaiting more funding before it would be continued. The whole thing wasn't worth continuing now, though, as the years had worn it down.

I grew up here, in the rusting abandoned site. It's where I met them, where I made my choice, where I killed an innocent girl. I stopped the car outside and got out, letting the encroaching darkness envelope me. If those demons want to come and take me, this is where they'll do it. Where there's no one around to get in the way.

I held out my hands, open wide to the sky, sure that there would be no one around to see me. There isn't anything left in this world for me. Maybe I can give those bastards something to think about when they come. Maybe even take a few of them down, out here where there's no one else to get hurt by their power. If I die here, and my soul is dragged to hell, maybe then I'll get the chance to see my friends again, if they're still somewhere out in the great beyond.

"Come and get me!" I shouted into the desert night. "Come on! I know you can hear me!"

Like the black shadows of a long dead dream, the sinister shroud around the skeleton structure started to move. I've heard Las Vegas referred to by another name. Some call it Sin City. If that is true, then this is the heart of the city. When I was a small girl, before the others found me, before I went to study in Europe, before my life really began, I saw so much here. So much evil, committed for no reason. Tributes, living, human, sacrificed to dark deities. Wicked congress kept out of sight here. I have to wonder if the people who started building this place stopped so that it would be left here for that very purpose.

I know I was the child of a woman imprisoned here, raped and left for dead. She survived nine months until I was born, and then a few years more, in the darkness. One day, I'm not sure how old I was, she died. I think her remains are still somewhere up there, maybe the fifth or sixth floor. One of the many dead left in this place, forgotten or ignored by everyone. Somewhere further inside the site, I knew there was a low mound of dirt where I buried that stupid bitch who trusted me.

Melanie Angel thought it was some sort of joke. She told me about The Prince And The Pauper. When she saw me, she'd thought it was really happening. That we would trade places and learn about each other. That's not what happened. The stupid princess wanted to see how I lived, so I brought her here, and then stuck a pick axe in her back. Now she's buried, and for a couple years, I was her. Well, that's over now, so I guess it's time to join her.

The evil heart of Sin City was coming alive to take me, as it had so many others who were brought here. I'm sorry mother. I couldn't change anything. I couldn't find the man who forced me upon you. I couldn't deliver your vengeance to him. Now I stand here and await my ritual sacrifice, recompense for my failure. I'm sorry, Melanie, for taking your name. I wasn't nearly as good at being you and you deserved, but I think I saved you from the horror of being sacrificed to the devil by your own father.

I'm sorry, Sadie. I'm sorry, Beatrice. I'm sorry, Whitaker, and Murry, and Nick. There's nothing I can do to make up for how disappointed you would be with how I turned out. You wanted something from me that I cannot give. You wanted a hero, and for some reason you chose me. I'm just not a hero. I never will be. Not now, not in ten thousand years. Finally, I'm sorry, father, for not being a good enough daughter and finding you.

There's something rotten about this place. I've known it all my life, and I know it now more than ever. I could see the rot, the murk, creeping out of every crack in the ground and walls, coming to greet me and bring me home. The void is where I belong. The abyss is where I will stay.

I took off my hat and flipped it over in my hands a few times. Aware that the death I now longed for was getting ever closer, I stared one last time into the cosmic infinity in the hat. Somewhere, lost in the stars of distant galaxies, I could see something beyond meaningless empty space. I was standing on the precipice now, crumbling before the might of it all. My faith left bare, naked before the eyes of some ever-watchful colossus. I wanted no more than to be swallowed up and forgotten by everyone.

"If you're out there... anyone... take me now and end my misery."

Something was moving, like a distant fire, staring through me. I dropped the hat, startled by the sudden attention, and that's when the rot began to close in around me. For the first time, I truly felt that something had seen me that I did not want seeing me. Something that lurks beyond time and space, ethereal, eternal. I collapsed to the ground, wanting no more to be seen, but only to be forgotten. Whatever it was that hid in that darkness, whatever essence had been staring through my hat, feeding off the souls I gave to it, was now aware of me like it hadn't been before.

She was beginning to stir, and I couldn't help but wish that she would stop.

"When you play with fire, Melany, it sometimes starts to play with you."

I looked up, surprised to see anyone here. Much less... whoever this was. She was tall, bronze hair flowing behind her like long grass, piercing red eyes staring down at me. Golden armor covered her entire body, and two gleaming white wings sprouted from her back. In her hand was a great scythe, made from gold. She smiled at me with her sharp fangs.

"Who... are you?"

The dark and the rot recoiled from her, retreating into the crevasses I had just coaxed them out of. Light and warmth poured from her, like some angel of truly biblical proportions. I haven't read the Bible, but I presume it describes angels like this. Around her, I could see bright mirages of eyes and wings, closing and opening, folding and unfolding, swirling around her and chasing the shadows away.

"Who are you?" I asked again. The first time it was a natural reaction to seeing someone so strange. This time, I wanted to know. I yearned for the answer.

"I am the angel of death."