• "Hey, get that kid!" The old one-eyed merchant screamed as a young boy ran off with an armful of bread. "He's a thief! A thief, after him!"

    The boy desperately ran for his life, the streets and alleys of eighteenth century England blurring past him. Faster, faster he panted in his head I have to get back...! He came flying around a corner and bumped into a young lady. She was wearing incredible fancy and expensive clothes, with long white gloves and a powdery snow white parasol. Her long, flowing blonde hair was held back with an exquisite ribbon, and her deep blue eyes peered down at him. Her midnight black shoes made loud clacking sounds as she stopped and stood in place. Why is someone like her in the alleyways here? These are the slums!

    "My, my, what do we have here?" She giggled lightly, placing her gloved fingers over her mouth.
    "S-sorry!" The boy blurted out, running around her as he could hear his mob of pursuers getting closer. The woman turned and craned her neck around, watching the boy disappear down the alleyway, smiling brightly to herself. Her eyes, if only for a second, flashed bright red, and she continued walking down the street, singing, "London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down, London bridge is falling down, my fair lady~" quietly to herself, shoes clacking down the street in a makeshift beat in time to her song.


    The boy skidded down a dark alleyway and hid behind a trashcan, peaking out from the side and watched his mob of followers pass the alley by. He waited a few seconds, and leapt out from beneath the trashcan and ran back out of the alley, and turned back to where he had came from. He ran through the main street for a while, eventually reaching a small group of urchin children huddled under a blanket in an alley.
    "Guys, I brought food!" He explained, handing each of the other little children a loaf each.
    "Yay! I get to eat!" A small girl cried, happily accepting the bread.
    "Oi, did you steal it again?" The oldest boy asked. He was on crutches, and his leg was wrapped in old, dirty bandages and tattered clothes.
    "So what if I did? Bread's bread, and we'll need it to survive." The boy retorted.
    "...My parents wouldn't have approved of any of this..." The older boy said, regrettably taking a loaf.
    "Hmph! John is right, bread's bread!" An older girl agreed.
    "Yeah yeah!" The little girl agreed, "You're just sad because you're the only one that can remember your parents!" Immediately after saying this, she clamped her tiny hands over her mouth, like she shouldn't have said that.
    "Hey, Angela...that's not very nice..." The older girl scolded the younger one.
    "Wah~ I'm sorry, Tim! I didn't mean it, I swear!" she cried at the older boy, who still continued to sulk, eating his bread with remorse.
    "Tim, I swear we'll find your parents again." John put a hand on Tim's shoulder.
    "Yes, we're all in this together." The older girl confided.
    "..Thanks, John, Mercy, Angela." Tim turned around and gave a weak smile.

    Just then, the group that had been tailing John earlier found them, and yelled,
    "It's the thieves! Get them!" They pointed fingers at the motley crew.
    "Run! Split up!" Mercy yelled. Tim threw down his crutches and attempted to run around the crowd, which didn't work, but let Angela and John dart around the mob while they were distracted.
    "Meet up at the other hideout by evening!" Mercy yelled as she attempted to fight the mob back with the small knife she had found, trying to save Tim at the same time. That was all John heard as he and Angela held hands and ran as fast as they could down the street. Angela was desperately hanging onto a stuffed rabbit, dirty and rugged from living on the streets for so long.

    "Come to me, John." A sweet voice rang out in his head. He recognized it. That lady from earlier...?! He thought frantically, and winded through the maze of streets, trying to get back to where he had seen her before.
    "John! Where are we going?" Angela asked, trying to keep up with his pace.
    "Trust me, I know where someone who'll help is!" He had strangely put all his hope into he mysterious woman. They ran into another alley, then back onto the street, then back in through another alley, and into a side street. Then they heard shouts from behind them
    "There's the other two, gettem'!" The two turned around to see Tim and Mercy being held by the group, Tim barely conscious and bleeding from a wound on his head, and Mercy, who had a deep gash in her side.
    "Run! Run!" She screamed, throat hoarse. "Run, you have to ru--" She was cut off when a man thumped her in the side of the head.
    "Mercy!" Angela yelled, faltering and tripping on the ground. "Ah!"
    "Angela! Get up! We have to go!" John pulled at her hand. Her face was scrunched up in pain.
    "O-ow, I think I broke my leg." She winced out.
    "No...we were almost...there..." John stammered.
    "Take him!" Angela threw her stuffed rabbit at John. "Take him and run, please, save yourself!"
    "No, you have to make it, we all have to make it!" John yelled, catching the rabbit as the mob gained faster.
    "Just go!!" Angela yelled as the mob caught up to her. John turned and ran hard, as he heard Angela scream. He dove into the alley he saw the lady in. No-no way, she's not here! He exclaimed. He trudged in behind a trash can and held his knees to his chest, crying silently as the mob passed him by.
    "No...If I hadn't gone this way...If I hadn't trusted the voice....no, if I hadn't stolen the bread....we-we'd all still be together...this is such a living nightmare..." He wailed.
    "A nightmare?" A clear voice asked, his head shot up to look at the lady he had seen earlier.
    "You...."
    She smiled at him. "Yes?"
    "...." He just stared at her, with an expression of relief, remorse, and torture.
    "You called?" She cheerfully continued.
    "Huh? Called?"
    "Do you truly believe you have no way out? Are you truly devoured by despair? Do you believe you have no way out of your 'Living Nightmare'? Then, come with me...." With the last sentence, she extended out her gloved hand, and her eyes flashed red again.
    W-wait? Despair? Living Nightmare? He hesitantly raised his hand
    "I can save you." Her voice cut through all his despair.
    He tightly grasped her hand.

    "Yes! I'll go with you! Save me!"