Down The Rabbit Hole
Round One: Ashes To Ashes
Page Three

        "Hey... Silver, are you okay?"

        The mannequin snapped out of her thoughts and turned to Artemis, whom was looking at her with concern. At first, she seemed confused, but then she nodded and laughed nervously,
        "Oh! Heh heh, sorry.... Y-Yeah, I'm okay.." She replied, quickly glancing away due to her embaressment, "I-I was just... thinking is all.."
        
        Artemis tilted his head a little to the side and opened his mouth to speak, but then quickly closed it, assuming that her thoughts were none of his business. He then turned his head to look forward, and his eyes widened at what he saw,
        ".. Silver... I think we found it!" He informed, pointing to the gates up ahead.

        Silver blinked and stared at the iron gates as they approached it, the two slowing to a stop a mere few feet away. As they examined it, they could see that the sign at the top read "Graveyard of Spades" with the last "s" hanging by a single bolt and that the bars were rusty, as if no one had been here for years.

        ".. I... I suppose we did.." Silver muttered as she looked around, "... Should we go in?"

        Artemis tapped his index finger on his chin as he examined the entrance to the cemetary, thinking it over before answering,
        "... Well, that's what we came here to do.... but who knows what could be in there.. we should grab a few supplies.. you know, just in case."

        Silver looked over at him as he spoke and simply nodded, looking around at the buildings nearby,
        "G.. Good idea.. but where should we get stuff?" She asked in confusion.

        Artemis turned his head to look at the building beside them, catching sight of a broken sign that hung above its door. It read "Weaponary" in fancy letters, some of them being faded due to rain and decay. He smiled and just took Silver's hand, leading her to the building,
        "This will do! Come on!" He urged, pushing the creaky door open.

        Silver looked up at the sign and just had a confused expression before being pulled in through the doorway, the room too dark for the normal human eye. Since Silver's eyes didn't need light to see, her sight was perfectly fine and she could navigate through the room with ease. However, Artemis was human, and he struggled to see through the darkness,
        "Man... it's pitch black in here... I wonder if there are any flashlights or anything?" He asked, flicking a lightswitch a couple of times to see if it would work. It didn't.

        "Hmm... oh! I-I think I found one!" Silver announced as she ran over to a crowded table, pushing away some items before picking up a big, dusty flashlight.

        She switched the item on and it flickered a bit before its dim light settled, the mannequin then handing it to the man. Artemis blinked, but smiled at this and took the flashlight from her, shining it into the room,
        "Ah! Thank you, Silver! That really helps." He said gratefully before looking around the room at the numerous weapons along the walls and tables, "Wow! Look at all of this! I haven't seen THIS many weapons in one room before! Well, aside from my dad's arsenal.."

        "Huh? You're dad?" Silver asked, tilting her head in confusion.

        Artemis smiled sheepishly at the question and just strode over to one of the tables, carefully looking at the swords there,
        "... Yeah.. my dad's the head of a mafia gang.... and since he wants me to be the next in line, he has taught me pretty much everything about being a mafia boss.." He explained, but then sighed, ".. But honestly, I don't want to be that... I never liked violence... and the mafia is all ABOUT violence..."

        Silver didn't know what a mafia was, but she didn't need to ask; she understood what he meant and that made her frown. She walked up to his side and, with her good arm, hugged the poor man lightly, resting her head on his shoulder,
        "Oh Artemis... that's not fair to you... y-you should be whatever you want to be.. and not what others tell you..." She said, trying to comfort him.

        Artemis jumped a bit from the hug, but then his face grew red again and he stared at Silver in astonishment. He wasn't used to this, but he seemed to like it when he smiled shyly and returned the embrace,
        "... Th... Thank you, Silver..."

        Just then, however, the flashlight that he was holding flickered out, leaving them in darkness once again. This surprised Artemis and made him quickly let go of Silver to check the device,
        "Oh come on!" He exclaimed, banging the end on the table, which made Silver jump a few times, "Damn... the battery died... wait, maybe this could help!"

        He then reached into his pocket and took out a small feather, no bigger than his pinky finger, closing his hand and then reopening it. This caused the feather to ignite into a small ball of fire, but not dissipate, lighting up the room once more,
        "There! Much better!"

        Oh, it was not better at all for poor Silver. As soon as she spotted the flame, she froze up and backed away slowly. She was terrified of fire, due to the fact that she could ignite herself if ever coming in contact. She blinked, which triggered a brief view of what seemed to be a memory in her mind. It was of a candle, of which was then knocked over and caught a book, then a table on fire. Silver was confused, and had no idea where this memory came from, but it scared her all the more. Artemis finally noticed Silver's uneasiness and turned to face her with the fire in hand,
        "Hey... Silver.. are you okay? What's wrong?" He asked, moving the flame closer to her so that he could see better.

        It was then that she screamed and grabbed the nearest object close to her before bolting out of the door,
        "G-GET AWAY FROM ME!"

        "W-Wait! Silver! What's wrong?!" Artemis called out, running out of the building after her.

        He then stopped at the doorway and his eyes widened when he realized what he had done, glancing down at the flaming feather in his hand,
        "... Of COURSE! Damn, I'm an IDIOT!" He exlaimed, extinguishing the flame and placing the feather back into his pocket before dashing after the mannequin girl, "Silver! Please! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!"

        Artemis persued Silver almost through the entire town, trying to catch up to her, but he just couldn't reach her. The more he pursued the doll, the more that place seemed like a maze. He eventually slowed down to a stop and knelt over, supporting his weight by placing his hands on his knees as he attempted to catch his breath,
        "... *huff huff* God.... where *huff* is she?" He asked in between breaths, looking around to see that she was nowhere in sight, "Oh man.... *huff* I really blew it.. *huff* didn't I?"

        After a few minutes of catching his breath, he stood upright and just decided to keep looking for her. He strode down an alley in between two broken down buildings, hoping that he could find the doll,
        "Hey.. Silver! Where are you?! Can you--" He started to call out to her, but when he turned the corner to the backside of the structure, he was cut short.

        Artemis found Silver, but not in the way that he had expected. The man slowly looked down to see that he had been stabbed near the middle section of his torso with a dagger that Silver held. His eyes widened and he looked back up at Silver with a look of shock. She shared the same expression, slowly shaking her head,
        "... O-Oh no.... I... I am so sorry, Artemis.... I... I.." She stuttered, but she couldn't seem to finish her sentence; she was just so scared.

        Artemis opened his mouth to speak, but only blood dripped past his lips and he just collapsed down the the ground, holding the wound in his torso in pain. Silver's hand shook as she held the bloody dagger, staring at the fallen Artemis in shock. She then tossed the dagger down to the ground away from them and quickly fell to her knees beside the bleeding man,
        "Oh please... I'm so sorry! Don't die.... p-please, don't die!" She cried before burying her face into her only hand, "I-I don't know what to do! I-I'm so scared!"

        Artemis looked up at the distressed mannequin, his vision instantly getting fuzzy. He wanted to comfort her, he really did, but he couldn't find the strength to speak. Soon, he couldn't hear Silver's voice anymore and his vision went black, his eyes slowly closing.

        "It's alright... it was my fault for startling you.."

END.