Okay! I haven't given up on any more of my stories but this one has been struggling to write itself for a while.

Wish me luck.

No one was quite sure what had once stood at the top of the hill, nor what had happened to it or its occupants. There had certainly been some sort of building set before the long slope. The proof stood as a proving ground for the children of the small town.

Half set bricks, most crumbled away, left the structure rough and anything but safe. Inside its shadow remained the charred shadow of a fire pit, confirming that the remnants of the chimney had once been used for true fire.

Riley dropped her backpack by it and leaned her cane on a tree so she could slide to her knees and inspect the black scoring that had never gone away. Footprints, most of them children's, wrapped around the base of the chimney.

From her higher vantage point, and greater stature, Morgan poked her head around the corners, amber eyes shining in the bright sun.

"There's blood here," the elder of the pair reported, "Not much, just a few trails."

"Kids probably try to climb it," Riley predicted, touched the edge of the fire's grave. Heat sparked from it up her arm, lighting the tattoos that rested there a sickly shade of green. Her face scrunched up, nose crinkling and mouth carving into a line of disgust.

A few flicks and the color drained, leaving the ink black on her already dark skin.

Riley let her bag drop to her side and started sorting through, pushing books, plastic bags, and wooden boxes around she had what she needed. Somehow her water bottle always ended up at the bottom of everything.

The soft breath of jeans rubbing against each other alerted the girl to the last of their party, finally present. She didn't need to look back to see Viviane, pale as the moon, float across the ground to her side. The woman was the tallest of all of them, her hair shining white gold in the light of the sun.

The quiet, constant click that echoed from her finger tips was a reminder of Viv's endless collection of flip blades.

"So, what's the verdict?" she questioned, flipping the knife neatly between her slender finger tips. Somehow they had never gotten calloused, despite her years of working with her hands. Riley couldn't say the same, her own hands thick skinned and rough.

Her bare feet, toes painted pale blue, touched down on the outskirts of the area devoid foliage that surrounded the fire place. It was a perfect square, marking exactly where the house had once been. Or whatever it was. Some reports said it was a shebeen, or a bakery.

All rumors.

"It looks like there's nothing bad here," Morgan hazarded, tapping one of the bricks. Nothing shifted, nothing bit her. There wasn't even a creepy crawling rolling out of it to prick at her perfect skin.

Viv looked at Riley, who shrugged a little at her unasked question.

"Something bad happened here but whatever's lingering isn't hurting anything, really. Plants aren't growing and kids are getting scraped up but no one is dead," she waved her hand vaguely towards the monument. "I don't think we need to do anything."

That was a rare sentence for any of the three to say. Most of their time was spent walking in circles, dropping dried up plants, and twisting water in patterns that would make Pablo Helman green with envy.

Fire too, on occasion, but Morgan preferred to put less hazard into their work.

"That's… weird," Viv said after a time. Her graceful neck tilted with the arch of a swan.

She spoke truth as well. Riley could remember only a handful of times when they had left something alone. In fact the youngest could count on one hand.

"Well if there's nothing to be done here then we should probably get ho-" before she could finish Morgan's eyes were drawn to the ruin. The soot had started to creep out, reaching pitched fingers out to the girls with speed that should have been impossible by every law of physics. "-Oh. Fuck."

Riley reacted first, diving for the cane she had left abandoned. Its top shone brightly, chrysocolla exploding into shining light the second she touched it. She swung towards the darkness, whacking at a trendril that lashed out at her. She caught it on the cross and the soot retreated, slinking into a hunched snarl.

The dark girl scrambled to her feet, her bum leg screaming in protest when she put her weight on it to lift the weapon as a rapier, as Viv had taught her all those years ago.

She prepared to parry but missed the darkness slashing into her weak leg from the trees, catching her with a shriek.

Viv and Morgan lit the land with water and fire respectively, both glowing brilliantly in the dimming light of the world. Riley thrashed as she hit the ground, managing to catch a hand on her bag. She tried to rip it open to get her supplies but it was too late and her hands were too full.

Shadows engulfed her vision, swallowing the girl and dragging her down, down, down into darkness. She could see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel. There was nothing.

She fell.

The ground slapped her across the face.

Spinning around, rolling across the dirt Riley landed with her bag smacking hard enough onto her side to break the rib. She felt her cane clatter across the dirt to her right. The girl groaned, curling around herself. Everything hurt, everything felt more intensely than it had for the eternity she thought she spent inside of the pitch that attacked her.

Through her lids she saw lights spreading in bright colors. Reds and yellows danced across the skin, reflecting the world around until she got her courage up to try and see.

No darkness.

Just trees, fluttering green sweetly towards her face. The wind blew, carrying with it the feint scent of smoke, burnt copper, and broken greenery. The sky was streaked with pink and yellow, stretching long lingers across the pale blue of the atmosphere.

Very slowly, Riley sat up, drawing her good leg to her chest while the other stayed stretched out. She was covered in soot, coloring her already brown skin into shades of gothic black. A looked around revealed that she was sitting outside of the chimney again. Or rather, a chimney.

This one was the exact opposite of what she had left behind. It was not crumbling, nor solitary on a hill. This one was nestled in a small dale and attached to a large building. Smoke poured out of the top of it, bypassing the bricks and riding to darken the dawn sky.

A closer look around brought on the understanding that the structure that the chimney was attached to was a smithy. Outside was a long display of one sided swords and diamond shaped knives. Stars shining with black metal showed across the wall, stipulating that this was a chimney from somewhere in Asia. Japan by the look of the weaponry and the armor that adorned a mockup of a scarecrow.

Riley rubbed her leg idly, dread rolling through her stomach. This was not where she was meant to be.

Not at all.