The world was a whir of green and brown as his feet felt like they were flying. Freedom was possible, he just had to make it out of this hell first. His steady breaths were calm as he dashed through the underbrush, ignoring the snags and cuts, calculating the best path for the fewest tripping hazards and less likely to be followed.

The man had ran for an hour straight, by now his pursuers should be dissuaded from their little game, at least it should take them awhile to reach him, and hopefully by then he'll be out of the woods. He allowed himself to slow down and was more careful about where he stepped not wishing to make anymore noise than necessary and did his best to match it with the rustling of the leaves as wind breezed through the canopy of trees above.

A scream howled within the wind and cut right through the man. It wasn't that far behind, and was certain it was one of the bastards that tried to hide and wait out this nightmare. He grit his teeth, there was no hiding from these people, they are treating it as a game, they were going to take their time to make sure nothing is missed.

"Oh, now I am getting far behind. If he gets one more then I lose automatically."

Her voice stopped his heart for a few seconds and he sharply turned to see Dia standing a few paces away. She smiled sweetly and held the gun on him watching as his eyes widen and she pulled the trigger. He staggered a bit, but didn't go down. She frowned, she had obviously shot him in the head, but it was intact.

"Hold on a moment," she told the man and took apart the gun. She smiled sheepishly as the bullets were blanks. She looked up to find the man had fled once again. "I guess, I'll be doing this the hard way." She bounded between the trees eyes narrowing on the back of her target. She quickly closed the distance , darting around the opposite side of an old oak tree of the guy.

Dia grappled onto a low branch and swung around meeting her foot to the man's face. He reeled back tripping on himself. She landed softly in front of the man before he could stumble back anymore. One hand reached around the back of his neck and the other lightly caressing the side of his face before she gripped down and jerked her hands back.

With a sickening crack, his neck twisted and died instantly. The slumped form fell to her feet with a thump, she didn't even glance as she stepped over and head deeper into the woods.

*

"I should have just stayed home," Fatima mumbled before shrugging off her bag and falling onto her bed face first. Wishing to just curl up and fall asleep at that moment, She ended up staring at the floor where she had woken up this morning. It didn't settle right in her mind and a small twinge in her stomach was disrupting the peace of the moment.

She shoved herself out of bed and stood at the spot, pondering how she was. She took a step and faced away, "this isn't right." The bed was closer to the door, so if she sleepwalked there was no reason for her to be on the floor, not to mention she would have ran into the door in the first place.

"Wasn't someone on my bed anyways?" Fatima continued to mutter walking out of the room and back to the main room. Sitting down at her usual spot at the table, Her hand brushing against the loose beads and other materials left out from the night before. The bowl of beads that needed to be sorted only half as full from when she had started.

"I wonder where their lot has gone to."

"Speak of the devil and they shall appear," Steve popped up out of nowhere. She let out a small yelp in surprise and jumped from her seat to put some distance between them. He stared at her for a moment, "Blondie, if I could kill you, you'd be dead."

"What do you want?"

"I want you to tell me where Dia went."

Fatima quizzically replied, "Why would I know, not like she owes me an explanation of where she goes." He glared at her, skeptical to believe her. "Oh what? You're the ghosts who follow her around everywhere at all times, you should have seen her leave!"

"But we didn't, last night, we left to patrol for Dark," she tilted her head in confusion. "The angel after Dia. We come back and she's gone."

"And you think I know this bit of information why?"

"You moved from the table to the floor of your room."

"And that significant information why?"

"Quit being a nuisance, Blondie. I know you know something about where Dia is."

Even if she said she doesn't know, Steve wasn't going to believe her. She tried to choose her words carefully trying to remember what had happened last night, but was met with a blank mind.

"Answer me, Blondie," his voice growled dangerously low.

"I don't know," irritation clear in her voice. "I don't remember."

"You don't remember?" He scoffed. She shook her head slowly. "Perhaps I'll just jump into that head of yours and find my answer then."

"E-excuse me?" He leered closer. "I rather you not do that, thanks," she took a large step back disturbed by the thought of someone else inside her head.

"What's the matter Blondie, concerns for what I might find?"

"No, concern for what you would do while in there."

"Oh, I have some ideas of what I could do." His smile menacing and never broke eye contact. Her direct stare only made it easier for him as he disappeared a split second later.

Fatima blinked in surprise, and cautiously peered around. You can't hide for me when I'm in here Blondie. Now what secrets are you hiding?

"What makes you think I have something to hide?" Her head throbbed sensing his presence, his energy expanding out across a portion of her mind. Not exactly dark but definitely unfamiliar.

Everyone has something to hide. Even the ones who seem predictable, that's because they show a face they want the world to see to keep another one hidden. Fatima cringed as pain spiked up in one part of her head.

"What are you doing, that hurt!"

You're the one who leaves her mind cluttered. How do you even string a sentence together? It wouldn't hurt so much if this mess was clean.

"What and make it easy on you?" She was met by another stab of cognitive pain, groaning in response. A sadistic chuckle played through her mind as she laid down on the sofa to nurse her throbbing head.

"So much useless information, looks to me like you are hiding something. Keeping it confined in a box and hidden from sight, stupid blond you can't hide anything from me or the others. You're such a stagnant character too, why is Dia so interested in you? The way this will end is a joke, it's predictable. You're nothing more than an open book."

Fatima growled, "get out of my head."

"You can't tell me what to do," a pause sunk in and he chuckled, "but I can make you do what I want."

"Wait, what?" She felt her consciousness thrust back into the recesses of her mind. Suspended momentarily in nothingness, there was the faint feeling she was moving yet she held still. Opening her eyes took more effort and her vision tunneled and had a film like quality. As if she was peering through a lens, watching as her body moved without her.

"For a moment there I was worried, Blondie." Fatima found it strange hearing her voice but in the vocal patterns of Steve. "Sometimes bodies resist and refuse to function under another conscious control, but yours, It was goes with whatever I command." He sensed where she lurked in her mind locating her to kick her out. "Which is good news for you, means your body won't be so easily damaged. However, such a weak frame, I'm not sure it will last long."

Fatima dodged as a wave of energy came her way to shove her out of her own mind. Fear of being shut out snapped herself into attention of her predicament. Steve looked to not be doing anything compromising to herself, but she had to hurry regardless. The next wave knocked her clean out. She looked down upon herself, silver wispy strings tethering her to it.

Fatima felt other strings tug and pull her, all attached to her core. Her green eyes gazed around at several strings tied to her, each one radiating unique energies. The most prominent was Harry's, which she considered just severing the connection. There was one that screamed bloodlust, it tugged violently. Joan was most certainly searching for her, this must be how she was tracking her. Fatima, untethered that one immediately, hoping it would set the other demon back so she could hide. There were three or four others that were normal, well if she had something to compare it to, must be her mortal friends. Then there was one faint sliver of a connection, it looked fragile, but Fatima plucked it like a harp, it was stronger than it looked as it vibrated and sent energy down to whomever was on the other end.

Steve kept fiddling with the control of her body, pushing past limits that Fatima didn't know existed. She grabbed tight to the cords to her body and reeled herself back into her own mind. She knocked on the door, Steve ignored her, but something else let her in.

While it didn't have a physical form, it was dense, and quite dark. Leering over her, Fatima strangely felt at ease and as if she had been in this situation before. It was a hazy memory that slipped from her grasp before she could fully realize what it was.

Whatever this thing was slammed into her bringing to surface the incident of the night prior. The man with the white hair asking for Dia, who happened to know she was there. Fatima stupidly let him in her home, was she seriously that dead tired? He took Dia, and used a memory spell, though it was probably supposed to be permanent, well for a moral it would be.

"What the hell?" Fatima snapped out of the sequence hearing Steve struggling with something. Her body locked up completely as the being that surrounded her spread out to the joints and expanded causing a mock Locked-in syndrome effect.

He hadn't expected the body to freeze up on him, not even a twitch to signify he still had control. He thought he shoved Fatima out completely, and there was nothing else that would impede his plan.

"Damnit, worthless in every way I suppose!" He exclaimed, the remark ebbing her nerves, and the being stirred erratically. Steve then noticed offending energy clouding around him ominously but not before It swept out several limbs of energy, seeking out the intruder before enclosing on him. Steve dodged out of the way but the willowy branches twisted in response. It darted part as he barely got away before it could skewer him in multiple places.

Steve grit him teeth and wished he had Leonard's speed so he could fight back without focusing all his effort to surviving each blinding attack. He was quick to observe it had him completely surrounded and there was no source of where the energy was coming from. A whiff of Fatima's energy brushed through it, but it was darker, distorted almost beyond recognition, then it wasn't just a small portion anymore, the whole thing reeked of it.

It flooded towards him in an avalanche wave, no way to block or dodge this one. His eyes darted and spotted Fatima's unaltered energy and dove down to it. The attack dispersed into two arms caving in to smash him from both sides. He grabbed hold onto Fatima and thrust her around to shield himself from the attack.

It didn't slow, nor hesitate that Steve anticipated would happen since it had her energy. It came at them in full force, Fatima threw her arms up in defense and the energy slammed into an invisible shield. It twisted and tightened around the shield erratically clearly angered at being denied to eradicate them both.

Steve smirked, with full intention to use Fatima to defeat whatever this thing was, but the shield was closing in upon them. It wasn't going to hold much longer, and Steve didn't think Fatima was aware that this was her doing. It mattered not as he channeled his energy and condensed it to his core. Pressuring it against itself till friction resulted in heat and light, in response the attacking energy receded slightly.

Instead it started attacking the barrier with pointed blows repeatedly, chipping it away since it focused on each strike. Each blow was meticulous, calculated, and happened like clockwork.

Fatima watched with a strange feel of ease, even with Steve right there and black smog-like energy was suffocating and surrounding them. She wondered if perhaps she should feel like she was in immense danger especially since the small shield was about to be shattered with the next strike. Yet she stood there and watched with slight anticipation of what will happen next.

However a feeling ebbed nerves and looked over to Steve as he braced himself to counter attack. The attacking energy was after him she knew as much. She considered letting it being he did forcibly take over her mind. The feeling however increased and she gritted her teeth in annoyance.

Steve waited for the moment the shield breaks to release the building energy he held back, like a time bomb under pressure if he released it too early or too late it wouldn't have any impact in his favor. The energy reared back and shot straight for him, the shield disintegrating as it plowed through it. Steve was a second too late, but found himself shoved out of the way.

He looked back and Fatima had taken the hit instead. The energy swarmed around her like an angry beehive, flowing through her but didn't affect her. Instead the dark corrosive element was dispersed upon contact with her and purified it back to her own. The rest of the corruption stopped and formed back into an image of a person and stood beside her.

Steve shot the energy not longer being able to contain it. The image melted into a shield protecting Fatima from the blast before condensing back into the image. It looked to her waiting for something, Steve staggered back slightly seeing how minimal the damage done had been. While handling Fatima was an extremely easy feat. The corrupted image beside her was what had been giving him trouble. But it didn't make sense to him, the image even existing until he wondered if Fatima was even a demon to begin with.

He poised himself ready to continue defending himself against this thing before him, the recoil of the energy burst had left him momentarily drained but used the brief moment of inactivity by his opponent to his advantage.

*

She had the wrath of a storm upon her victims as Grey briefly cast his gaze down at the mangled body with a few limbs twisted in unnatural ways for the human body. Unknowingly smiling to himself that Dia had found her way around the setbacks that were to ensure his victory. Clever Dia always made sure he had to actually put in an effort to win, not that he intended on losing but there were a few close calls.

He pulled out his phone, flipping through an app where he tracked the sole survivor of the prey. He had them all implanted with trackers just in case a situation like this occurred and if any of them actually managed to evade them to escape, fortunately that had never been an issue for Grey.

The last one was just ahead of Grey unmoving. He puzzled slightly why it wasn't moving at all and wondered if it was a malfunction or the prey was smart enough to cut it out. Grey stepped into a small clearing, shaded by the canopy high above but rays of light still filtered through the green leaves. The last one stood there waiting for him.

Grey stared unamused, these kinds of prey he considered incredulously stupid. Even with the conclusion that running or hiding would not work, trying to fight back, however entertaining, tends to be quite dull and repetitive after a while. The man clenched his fists at the sight of him, blaring eyes full of hatred and fear.

The quiver in his voice was clearly audible when he spoke, "You killed them all, like they were nothing more than animals." Grey remained unimpressed as he continued to talk tough. "Cowards use guns to insure they win; why don't you face me as a man and fight like one."

Grey smirked, and shot the man in both knees, shattering them. The man screeched in pain wildly as he was forced down to ground under his own weight. The sound didn't register as Grey stepped up to the man pressing the barrel of the gun against the back of his head. "Fight like a man? You're nothing more than prey, a piece in my little game. You don't even have the right to look at my face when I kill you." Grey pressed the gun harder against his head forcing him lower to the ground.

"Monster."

"All humans are." Grey stepped down on his back and pulled the trigger. His brains splattered across the clearing, tainting the ground and back splash stained Grey's suite much to his dismay. He gingerly removed his jacket and discarded it on the ground. Blood stains were a hassle to remove it was easier to just buy a new one.

The game was over, he had won and proceeded back to the starting point where he had high hopes Dia would meet him there. However he was greeted by Sebastian who nursed a bleeding nose. Grey sighed to himself, he should have known better.

"She took a car?"

"She took your car, sir." They looked to where the missing pearly white Camero should be parked. Grey checked his pockets finding his keys vacant.

"When did she even, never mind, just pull another car around, Sebastian."