It was nearly invisible against the grey sky. A ghostly woman of some kind, but not a completely whole one. Half the skin on her face was gone, revealing the bone and muscle beneath it. She wore a faded dress just as ratty as Creak's old one had been. The woman's eyes were the only thing that seemed clear. They were a bright, sickly yellow color with thin black slits for pupils.

The thing just floated in the air right above her and when they made eye contact it screamed again. Expect Creak didn't hear anything. It's mouth just opened, but no sound came out.

Cocking her head in curiousity, Creak tried to say something aloud, only she didn't hear her voice. She was sure that words had been formed and she had spoken, but she hadn't heard anything.

"You've gone deaf you idiot." Gorgos yelled in her head.

'Yes.' Creak thought. 'It's as if the world has gone silent.'

She looked up at the floating woman, whose eyes stared right at her. 'Can I name it?'

"Really!" Gorgos spat. "Are you a child?"

Creak was fifteen years old, so technically she wasn't a child anymore by Florencian standards. 'I still feel like one.' She told Gorgos. 'I think I'll call it a Silent Siren.'

She didn't wait for Gorgos to reply because suddenly her hearing came back and with it came horrific screams. The festival had been crowded and now people ran in every direction trampling each other in the process.

"This is chaos." She mumbled and looked at the terror in the faces of the people running. They were so scared, but Creak didn't know why. The silent siren wasn't moving so what harm could it cause?

"Why'd you take your eyes off of it!" Gorgos screamed so loud, Creak gripped her head in pain. Realization hit her hard and she whipped her head to where the silent siren had been.

It was so close now. They were almost noses to nose. She could feel it's breath on her face, air stale with the scent of death. It's eyes looked right into hers and Creak found herself just as paralyzed as the beast in front of her.

It couldn't move, so it couldn't get her. But she also couldn't move, so she couldn't get away.

'I'm trapped!' Creak didn't even realize she had been screaming until her voice gave out. Breathing hard, Creak could do nothing but stare into the eyes of death. In them she saw things... things she would never unsee.

                                              *               *                *

Pain! So much pain. Her stomach throbbed, but she was too scared to look at the damage. Something had cut her and it wasn't good. Rip crouched above her, his hands pressed against her stomach. "It's okay, Creak." He sounded desperate though Creak couldn't begin to understand why. Maybe she had to be alive when he brought her to the King.

"Creak! Look at me!" He pressed against her wound hard, sending a new wave of pain through her. Blood bubbled over her lips and she coughed, choking. "You have to look at me!"

"I'm tired." She managed to mumble around the red liquid. "I just want to go to sleep."

Rip looked down at her with pleading eyes. Oh how lovely his eyes were. So many different colors. Always a mystery. "You have to stay awake!"

"Why? Why won't you just let me sleep?" Creak's head hurt and her stomach shot pain through every inch of her.

Looking up at Rip, Creak saw something that intrigued her. His eyes were red... he was crying. Why?

He looked at her with so much pain and she wanted so bad to understand why he was hurting. "If you sleep now, Creak, I'm afraid you won't wake up."

                                        *                  *                  *

"Creak! Run!" A body slammed into her and knocked her out of the silent siren's spell. The spell... whatever she saw would have to wait until she was safe.

The siren screamed in rage at losing its prey and Creak grabbed her head in her hands. It felt like a nail was being hammered into her temple.

Vern grabbed her hand and ran, pulling her along with him. His lips moved, but the sound was lost to Creak. She shook her head and gestured at her ears with her free hand. Vern nodded in understanding and turned his attention to getting them away from the siren.

Creak could feel it in her head still. The death. The pain. It was with her and she couldn't bring herself to look behind her. The silent siren was there, nipping at her feet. She was sure of it.

Vern lead them through alley after alley, but Creak was sure they were lost. Everything looked the same in the StoneCold. Bright buildings boarding narrow streets. Creak risked a look up as her a ringing returned to her ears. Nothing. Just the normal overcast sky. A promise of snow blew in the icy air.

"Do you know where we're going?" Creak asked as the ringing finally faded and they turned down another alleyway.

"No." Vern's voice was different. More stern and without the friendly, lightheartedness she was used to. "Now be quiet."

Creak wasn't sure what his problem was, but she guessed it had something to do with stress. 'I'll listen to him.' She thought to herself. 'He seems to know more about what he's doing than I do, so I'll just have to trust him.'

Angel's singsong voice came to her. "ɬཞųʂɬ! ơɧ, ῳɧąɬ ą ῳơŋɖɛཞʄųƖ ɠıʄɬ ɬơ ɠı۷ɛ!"

"What are you even talking about?" Gorgos spat at her.

Creak smiled. It wasn't a real crisis if her two internal companions didn't argue about something.

"ıɬ'ʂ ƈơɱıŋɠ ƈཞɛąƙ! ყơų ɧą۷ɛ ɬơ ცɛ ƈąཞɛʄųƖ!" Angel's lovely voice warned her. "ıɬ'ʂ ƈơɱıŋɠ!"

"Oh really." Gorgos said with thick sarcasm. "And I thought it was just going to leave us alone."

Creak rolled her eyes at them, but didn't let Angel's warning go. Shutting out the voices in her head, Creak looked around.
There was nothing behind them, nor above them. Then she saw it. A small slimmer of displaced air at the corner of the alley.

Holding her breath, Creak quickly grabbed Vern by the shirt and pulled him through the closest door. Keeping a hand over his mouth, Creak pushed Vern ahead of her and up a set of stairs to the second floor.
The floorboards creaked beneath them as Creak pushed Vern to a corner of the room, out of sight from the room's windows.

"It's here." Creak whispered and Vern had the sense not to say anything in return. Cowering against him, Creak closed her eyes. If the silent siren found them she didn't want to see it. She didn't care if that got her killed because she'd rather die than see the death in the beast's eyes again.

The siren was mostly made of mist, which Creak peeked to watch with horror as it slipped into the room like a fog. Shaking with Vern's arms around her, Creak's eyes widened. Again she found herself unable to look away from the beast as it began to form in front of them. It's eyes, which were more solid than the rest of it, were missing.

Holding her breath Creak realized it couldn't see them. An airy sound came for its nose and it slithered closer.

'It can smell us!' Creak gulped back the panic that was raising in her throat.

"Wow." Gorgos marveled. "With that nose?"

She was right. The silent siren didn't really have a nose, just two small holes beneath where its eyes used to be. The air was cold, allowing Creak to see her breath and the wind that whistled through the siren's nose.

Creak risked a glance away from the beast to look at Vern. She had never seen someone so terrified. His jaw was clenched and every muscle in his body was wound tight. He watched the creature draw closer with complete horror in his eyes. It looked like he was living his worst nightmare and for all Creak knew, maybe he was.

When Creak looked back to the siren, it was right on top of her; its foul breath in her face. "Please, please, please go away." She muttered insanely under her breath, just as the door burst open and a man came running in screaming. He ran right at the beast, his arms gripping a wooden plank that he raised above his head and slammed down. The improvised weapon swished right through the silent siren and the force of his swing carried the man towards them.

The man stumbled and looked around the room, but the siren was gone, dispersed by his hit. His head whipped towards Creak and Vern who were crouched in the corner, paralyzed by fear.

"Up, up, up!" He called waving them to their feet. It was then that Creak recognized him as the only man at the auction who was sickened by humans being sold like animals to their own kind.

"We have to go! There isn't much time!"

"Where?" Creak couldn't keep the hopelessness she felt out of her voice.

"Why, out of this city of course!" The man looked at her with pity in his eyes. "Hurry though! That thing could come back any second now!"

"Why should we trust you?" Vern, having lost enough of his fear to think more clearly, asked.

"Fine!" The man exclaimed in urgency. "You can stay here! I can't wait any longer now!" Without waiting to hear their response the man turned on his heel and flew out the door.

Creak looked at Vern with a smirk and grabbed his hand to pull him after her. "Come on! He's leaving us!"

Keeping up with the man wasn't easy, but when one's life is on the line they learn to manage. Creak and Vern found themselves stumbling back the way they had come, but the man knew more about the city's lay out than they did.

'He knows where he's going.' Creak reassured herself. 'He knows the way out.'

Soon they found themselves at the edge of the plaza and to where the man had stopped to wait for them. Creak couldn't see around the building in front of her, so she wasn't sure what she was about to face once in the wide open space of the plaza.

Gulping up as much air as she could Creak looked up at the man. "Why'd we stop?" She wheezed through quick breaths.

"I wanted to warn you." The man said soberly. "The plaza is very open and it will make us easy targets. You mustn't stop for anything. No matter what you see out there, do not stop."

"We get it." Vern growled low in his throat. "If we stop we die."

The man smiled. "Precisely!"

Without another word he turned around the corner and took off, not bothering to see if they would follow. Creak prepared herself to run out into whatever the beast had done, but Vern's hand stopped her.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I'm sure we can find a way around."
Creak shook her head. "It would take too long."

Not giving fear the time to creep up on her, Creak pushed away from the building and ran around the corner. What she saw almost made her stop in her tracks.

Bodies littered the ground, fifty or so and some of them weren't dead yet. Wailing filled Creak's ears until it was all she could hear, but she refused to let herself stop.

'They need help.' Her mind screamed. 'They're dying! They're in pain!'

She wanted to stop and help, but she knew doing such a thing would get her killed. It was a hopeless situation and the pain threatened to drown her. Keeping her eyes straight ahead, Creak did everything she could not to look at the people littered around her.

Fingers crunched beneath her feet making her grimace. Moans floated around her and the smell of blood overpowered everything.

'That thing,' she thought, 'the silent siren did this. It had been just an inch from me twice, yet I'm still alive.'

Creak couldn't believe her luck, but knew not to dwell on it for fear of jinxing it.

She was almost to the other side of the plaza where the man stood silently waiting for her, when a voice stopped her in her tracks. 'Don't stop!' She told herself. 'You can't stop!'

"You promised." The voice was slurred and barely audible, but Creak could make out the words. "Please."

Looking down at her feet, Creak saw the little slave girl, May. Her face was torn and bloody and her torso was a tangled mess beneath her. Her blood pooled around her in a wide circle. So much blood. Creak wasn't ever sure how the girl was still alive, but she couldn't leave her. She had promised.

"Hang on." She said and bent down to pick up the girl. Her stomach was ripped open and Creak fear the damage she could cause from moving her.

The girl closed her eyes and whimpered as Creak lifted her.
"It's okay." She murmured. "You're going to be okay."
A screech sound behind her and Creak scream as her ears exploded in pain.

'Run!' She told herself. 'Run!'

Holding on tight to May, Creak ran with everything she had, but it wouldn't be enough. She could feel the silent siren's breath on her back and when she looked to where the man stood, Vern now beside him, she knew it was right behind her.

"Faster, Creak! You have to go faster!" Vern called to her.

Her legs burned and her back ached from the strain of holding May. She was so close now, just a few feet away from the safety of the narrow alley.

A hand suddenly shot out and gripped her ankle sending her to the ground. Screaming, Creak fell to the ground with May lifeless beneath her. Glancing back, she saw the man who had bought her. The man with a promise of death in his eyes.

'Please no!' Creak thought as she struggled and kicked at the man's hand.

The silent siren was right above her now and Creak knew she was done for. She was trapped and in an intense staring contest with dead itself, hoping not to blink first.

She would have died if not for Vern, who can out from behind the building's safety and charged the siren with nothing but his bare hands.
"No!" She screamed at him, knowing he was about to get himself killed.
Running up to Creak, Vern slammed his foot down on the man's hand and pulled her to her feet. "Come on!" He yelled to her and threw a rock through the silent siren, dispersing it into a cloud of mist.

Running through the alleys, Creak wondered aloud. "Where did that man go?"

Vern glanced down at her, not daring to slow their pace. "He went his own way. Told me the way out of StoneCold and just ran away."

Creak shook her head. "Sounds like him."

"No kidding." Vern smiled. "Did you know him?"

"No. Why would you think that?" Creak stumbled over a loose stone, but Vern kept her upright.

Vern shrugged. "I was just wondering why he would help us, instead of getting out as soon as he could."

"Does it matter?" Creak asked as they came upon a gate in the city's wall.

Vern shook his head and held the gate open for her. "No. It doesn't."

They ran out of StoneCold, the gate slamming shut behind them and Creak could only hope it would lock away her memories of inside the city.