Late. Labyrinth. History. School. Fall air. Summer’s end. Dead Leaves. Old stone. Shadows.  

Cornella sprinted through the streets of the darkened city. The twisted shadows of Cathedrals and shops criss-crossed the crumbling roads of Old Praile. The sun was nearly gone, hidden beyond the horizon, but the gentle glow of fading sunlight lit her way. She deftly navigated the winding streets, pausing every so often to check a street sign, to be sure of her location; the Old City was a labyrinth of unexpected alleys, twists and turns, and even those who lived there sometimes found themselves lost.  

As she ran farther, the fading sunlight was replaced with the harsh glare of the first streetlights turning on, casting bright pools of light every one hundred and fifty metres or so. The city council was working on installing better lights in the Old City, but until then, the lights remained few and far between. The sparse illumination gave the night an eerie feeling, and shrouded the limestone buildings in mystery. Cornella passed the ancient clock tower and sighed. She was late for class - again.  

Cornella was a student; she worked at a small cafe by day and took night classes at RTU (the royal Terageon University). She had recently graduated West Praile High, with top honours and a grade point average of 3.6 of which she was extremely proud. At seventeen, she was a few months younger than most of her friends but she liked to think that she mostly made up for it in maturity.  

Although she had only been going to RTU for a few weeks (it was the end of September), so far her schedule had been okay; except for this week. One of the other waitresses at the café was on vacation, so Cornella was working a different shift, leaving her little time to prepare for class.  

Cornella slowed down to pass through a particularly dark area, looking to the street signs for guidance. She huddled into her sweater; even though it was barely autumn, the temperature was unusually cool. As she passed the next street light, she stopped to adjust her skirt- if only she had had enough time to change, she hated her work outfit – not only was it unnecessarily slutty, but it was tacky, too.  

She was so concerned with her appearance and punctuality, that she barely noticed that the streets were deserted. Although Old Praile wasn’t exactly downtown New York; at this time of day in early autumn, there should have been plenty of people passing through the streets of the Old City on their way to nightclubs and galleries - after all it was only three minutes past nine.  

Cornella assumed it had something to do with the recent murders and disappearances in the city. In the past month, 4 people had been found murdered, and 7 more had disappeared; an absurdly high number for a city renowned for its low crime rate. Now no one wanted to go out at night if they could help it. Not that Cornella could blame them; in fact, if it wasn’t for her course on the history of Terageon, there was no way she would be out.  

Most of her friends found history terribly boring, but Cornella was incredibly fascinated. There was something enticing about the distant past, about bygone eras of chivalry and monarchy; times of peace and war – wars that were fought with swords instead of atomic bombs – so unlike the modern world of skyscrapers and industrial machinery. Cornella was taking several courses, but History was by far her favourite, partly because she found it interesting, and partly because she was in the same class as her best friend since Grade 12- Emillia.  

Glancing up, Cornella saw there was no trace of sun left on the horizon and all of the streetlights had turned on. Glancing down at her watch she saw it was now 9:09. She was nine minutes late for class with a good eight and a half blocks left to the building her class was in. She sped up, wishing she had found a job closer to the RTU campus.  

A growing feeling of unease made her stop and turn around. Seeing nothing, she shrugged, and kept running, determined not to be any later for class than she already was. She had no reason to feel unsafe at all- the murders had happened far from here.  

Suddenly she saw something flash across the street, out of the corner of her eye. Whirling around, her heartbeat speeding up, she caught the image of a dark figure, just before it disappeared. Cornella continued running, more quickly this time, though she was gasping for breath.  

In between gasps, Cornella was almost certain she could hear footsteps behind her. Whirling around again, Cornella caught the image of the figure a second time. However, this time the glimpse was longer, and she was able to make out that the figure was a man, or it seemed to be a man, anyway; its eyes were an unearthly shade of grey flecked with red.  

Cornella barely had enough time to glance at it, before it disappeared. She looked around, carefully, but still seeing nothing, she began to run again, her heartbeat pounding wildly and her breath ragged. Before she could take another step she felt strong arms around her waist, holding her still. Her breath caught in her throat as a deep voice whispered in her ear;  

“Don’t move and I’ll kill you quickly.”