The Underworld.
It is a world of pain and unending torture.
They tell you that there is no way out.
Ever.
But they are wrong.
The rumor has spread that there is a way out of the Underworld.
If one is to stand on the top of the tallest tower in the Underworld on a night of a full moon in the world of the living, the line between the two worlds will become so blurred one could simply step from the Underworld, to the land of the living and be free.
Free, until Hades finds you have left and sends his hordes after you.
So, if you intend on escaping your fate, take these instructions and run.
Run until you are free.

{{If you ever want to know more, this in the link to visit: Link to the Underworld}}

Aaund...Profiles:
Username: RobinGoodfellow
Name:Kassidy “Kass” Newer (don’t call him Kassidy though, he really hates that name)
Race: Shade
Age: 15 as far as he can tell. He’s really not sure. He didn’t start counting until after he came to this dimension, and then he up and got killed so, meh.
Weapon(s): none. And that’s the way it should probably stay. He’s a bit hopeless when it comes to weapons.
Magic: he has the potential to use magic, but doesn’t know how, and he’s rather wary to learn
Ablilities: Shades are interdimensional creatures, meaning they can pass between this world and the netherworld with ease. He can take objects (ie- cloths, packages, ect) but people and living things are harder. Shades also disappear in direct sunlight, something they can’t control, and for the purpose of going invisible, they would have to do it in the nude, otherwise there are cloths hanging in midair. Then as soon as they’re in the shadows again…it’s not very helpful. He can make shields of a sort (in the picture he’s doing it. It’s the black thing) but it takes energy. If the shield holds, he can take the energy back, but if the shield is broken/smashed/whatever, then, well, he can’t get it back.
Fears/Faults: He’s very bad at fighting, and has a slight blood phobia (yeah, he’s kinda a weenie). A bit unsure of himself. He's definitly not a leader. Really doesn’t like to be the center of attention.
Past: he was summoned from the netherworld when he was very young by a sorcerer who used him as a familiar for about 14 years or so. Eventually he was killed, and Kass thought that he was free. Unfortunately for him, it turned out he was still bonded with the sorcerer, and so when the sorcerer was sentenced to eternal dammination and Hades claimed his soul, ect, ect, Kass’s soul was claimed too. Not really having done anything out of free will he couldn’t be given a serious torture for all of eternity, so he became just another slave, the fate of those who never actually did anything in their lifetimes, but were all around stingy, spiteful, jerk faces. He’s not really sure how much time has passed since then, as time dosen’t really exist in the underworld.
Other: An intellectual, quite smart, very calm, but when caught off guard will freak out. Hates being mistaken for a girl (the name doesn’t help much either). He’s a bit detached from the rest of the world, probably the result of his boredom.
Appearence: http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/k...g?t=1261005158

Meh Profiles! =3

Username: Closet Shadow
Name: Lailie McVern
Race: Nightmare
Age: She was raped and murdered at age sixteen i.e. her being a nightmare once she got to the Underworld.
Weapon(s): None. She's never wielded any weapon bigger/better than a pocket knife.
Magic: None. Lailie was a regular human living her own little life before her death. No special training in any sort of magic.
Abilities: Fear. She can use it. She can use it well. After her traumatizing death, Lailie gained the ability to control and manipulate fear to a very powerful degree. She can literally scare someone to death using this power. She also feeds off this emotion like a vampire feeds off blood. She can simply suck any sort of negative emotion out of someone completely until they have a reason to fell said negative emotion again. If the emotion is fear, she eats it, if it's anything else, she can turn in into raw negative energy and dispel it from her body. But this requires concentration and persuasion, and giving that Lailie has had no training at all in any sort of way, she tends to destroy more the wants when she uses this power.
Fears/Faults: She's not a big fan of men/boys. Obviously. She can come off as pissy and a bitch to most men/boys but that's just a mask for the fear she has of them. She breaks easy. The whole "controlling fear" business is a sort of double edged sword. She's learned how to use it, but not how to block it. She's afraid of becoming a monster because of her need to inflict fear to survive.
Past: Lailie was a very rebellious teenager and belonged to a simple gang-like group that only did petty thefts and never got into drugs and big-time schemes. She did steal quite a few things, and broke a little law or two and got away with it, so it's understandable that she got in one of the less likable parts of the Underworld. It was her sweet-sixteen when she was killed. Date rape. It's far too popular. Her supposed boyfriend took her out to dinner and then out to an alley in his car. Lailie fought back. Given that said "boyfriend" belonged to the same gang Lailie was in, him having a gun hidden in the glove compartment wasn't a big surprise. Her torment in the Underworld is that the demon she's been damned to serve is constantly feeling her up and showing her off to his friends, who are also male.
Other: She likes cats and purple?
Appearance: Lailie McVern

Robin gets first real post >3<

It was night, or at least what passed for night down in the underworld. The light down here never actually changed from gloomy and fire lit, but now was the time that most of the dead and demons were asleep. Most, though, is the key word in that sentence. I wasn’t asleep, and this wasn’t just a battle with insomnia. I had been planning this for weeks, and now I was finally putting my scheme into action. I was escaping. I had already managed to sneak past the demon who was supposed to be guarding us, to be sure we didn’t escape, though he didn’t really need to be there. Most of the slaves were usually to tired out by the ‘day’s’ work to do anything but sleep anyway. Again, the key word there is most. But anyway, that should explain why, in the middle of the night, I’m climbing up the side of a hundred something cliff.
It doesn’t? Maybe I should explain myself better. My name is Kass Newer, I’m a shade, and when I was 15 my soul was claimed by Hades. A little while after that, I died. It’s a fun story, and by fun, I mean not at all. Basically, when I was one or so, I was summoned (thought the correct term would be kidnapped) from the netherworld by a sorcerer. Not really having any choice in the matter, I was used by him and did his dirty work (not to mention laundry) for the first 14 years or so of my life. One day, he up and got himself killed, and with him gone, I assumed I was free. And I was too, but only for about two weeks.
One day, I was walking outside, a crater opens up and skeletal hands drag me down to the depths. I’ve always hated clichés. But anyway, a demon there informed me that since the sorcerer had died, he had gone to hell. No surprises there. He also told me that since our souls had been intertwined, I got eternal punishment as well, welcome to the underworld. It was then I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life, not to mention my last. I complained that I wasn’t dead yet. So, then and there, I got my soul reaped and claimed. After a while, they decided that they couldn’t send me to a serious torture for all eternity, because I hadn’t really done anything of free will, but they weren’t about to let em go, so I became just another one of the slaves of the underworld, which, by the way, is you punishment if you are a spiteful, stingy, jerk. These are the type of people I get to work with all day. Fabulous. So naturally, you can see why I’m escaping.

I was up in my room, minding my own business, when the little devil came in.
"Miz, Lailie?" it had a French accent.
I sighed harshly, "What?" My voice was hard and uncaring, as per usual.
"Ze master would like to zee you." it had a bad French accent
I got up and stared it down, "Thank you. You can leave now." I told it. The little red creature scrambled away. I sighed again and looked out the window. The whole of the Underworld could be seen from the tower. "How did I get myself into this shit?" I asked, rubbing my temples and going over to my closer to change into something that wasn't pajamas. "Oh yeah. I got date rapped." I reminded myself in a sarcastic tone. I picked out a simple crimson T-shirt and a pair of torn-up jeans. I didn't remember how long I had been in this hell. But I did remember who sent me here. "If that bastard is still alive when I get out of this place, I'm going to kill him."
This was my usual routine. It happened every Underworld "night" -the light never really changed here- The "master" of this tower and my personal tormentor would summon me from my cozy room to his cozy room and constantly remind me of how I died. He would feel me up, take of my clothes, and I had no power to stop him. Like I no power to stop my killer and definite ex-boyfriend. And every night I would remind myself of how I got here, and what I would do if I could get out.
"Miz," it was the little devil again. I flashed my violet eyes a the creature. It squealed and ran as I used my control over fear to make it go away. That was one of the only props I got from this damn place. After I died, the fear I had so strongly felt made me into a nightmare. Not like the evil horses with red eyes, but like a bad dream in physical and humanoid form. The only problem was that I was always absorbing all the fear around the all the time. So I was always on edge, always in a bad mood. I didn't know what it was like to me calm and relaxed anymore. Living in a world of endless pain and fear didn't help my situation at all.
I finally stopped pitying myself, slipped some black flats on, and began my decent down the marble steps.

When I reached the "master's" room, I took one look, turned tail, and ran. He had friend over and they all would be wanting a piece of me. I was not going to let that happen, Not again.
As I ran up the spiraling steps, I could here them panting, growling, and clobbering themselves up the stairs behind me. My ear got hot, and my blood raced. I was being perused and unless I jumped off the top of the tower when I got there, there would be no getting away. But jumping wouldn't last me long I would just come back, and it would happen all over again.

So I ran faster. Maybe I could trick them to running off the roof or something. I burst through the doors and out into the hot air. I was almost home free. The only problem was that I couldn't stop running. I had built up to much momentum. "Shit!" I yelled, As I desperately tried to slow down before I went over the side.

I was just clambering over the side of the mountain citadel, the tallest point of the underworld. If I was going to escape, I was going to do it right. No heroic adventures, like some other saps had tried. There were three ways to get in and out of the underworld. The first was to get ferried here across the river Styx by Chiron. That didn’t work for me, because he only took people in. The second was to get forcibly dragged down here like I had been. The third, was no more than a rumor, but I suspected it was true. According to it, the line between the Underworld and the world of the living would blur when, in the world of the living, there was a full moon.
Shades, such as myself, were interdimensional creatures, and though the magic of the underworld kept me bound to this dimension, I could still see into the others, so I would be able to know if there was a full moon or not. Well, actually, I already knew that there was a full moon. I had visited this same place, on top of the Demon Lord Darmis’s (though apparently, he was called ‘Duke’ as lame as that sounds) citadel for the past three nights, and tonight was the night I would be able to step over from this dimension to the other.
I glanced up at the dark swirling clouds that substituted for the Underworld’s ceiling and smiled for the first time in…well, actually you could probably count on one hand the number of times the dead had smiled in the underworld, and I was no exception.
Closing my eyes for a moment, I concentrated on finding the world of the living. After a moment of searching, I saw it: It was night there too, and the silvery orb moon hung over the deserted field I was looking at like an enormous Christmas ornament. It was beautiful.
Smiling triumphantly, I took a deep breath and got ready to pass over. I could feel my matter begin to shift and move. I looked down and slowly but surely, my feet were beginning to fade.
Suddenly, from below me, I could hear the pounding of footsteps. Crap! I glanced down. My feet and shins were gone, but the rest of me was still here. I concentrated harder on reality, trying to speed up the process. The footsteps were getting louder, and I could hear more coming up from behind them. This was bad. I had disappeared up to my waist now. The doors that led from the citadel’s inside swung open, and out raced… a girl. It was probably some demon in disguise, I reasoned, I had almost disappeared now, but she was running at me.
“SH*T!” she yelled, still coming straight for me. By now I was wondering if she could even see me. I had almost disappeared, when she crashed into me, or rather what was left of me. Whatever she was, she was too late to stop me, and I disappeared.
A moment later, I was on my back lying in the abandoned field, the moon blazing above me, a contrast to the dark swirling clouds that had been there a moment before. I had done it! I was free! Before I could congratulate myself though, I saw the demoness, quickly materializing beside me, looking panicked and confused. When she ran into me, I realized, she must have hitched along for the ride. This was not good. This was not good at all.

I blinked. Only a moment ago I had been almost about to fall off the roof of the tower. Now I was sitting in a field and the moon shone full above my head. I looked around, the adrenaline still pumping through my veins. I looked up, and say a boy. "Great." I hissed, poison clear in my voice. If it hadn't been clear before, I wasn't exactly fond of the male species.
He must have been one of the demons that my 'master' had invited over and must have been using some sort of illusion spell to make it look like I was in the world of the living.
Wait.
World of the living. No demon as high-ranking as some of my 'master's' friends would know, or remember, what the world of the living looked like. I stood of and brushed myself off. "Who are you, and what to you want?" I asked, my eyes violet slits. There was always the possibility that he was a demon trying to get a piece of me. But if this was really the land of the living, that meant I was free, and I wouldn't want to be unjustly rude to the person to got me out of that hell-hole. So I would be cautious and not do anything rash until I found out what was going on.

{{sorry for the short-ish post, not too sure what else to work with at the moment.}}

I stared startled, at the girl. She was scary, definitely, hard purple eyes, even the whites were a pale violet color, long dark hair, and an expression that had ceased being angry, and was now just wary. Maybe she wasn’t a demoness after all. It didn’t seem like she was, most demons would have already tried to eat me. So who was she I wondered. Well, I thought, she did ask first. I stood up to look her in the eye, though she was still a couple inches taller than me. Brushing dust off of my black shirt I started:
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” I said, trying not to sound nervous (though lets face it, can you imagine not being nervous in this situation?), “I’m Kass, and seeing as I just escaped, I'm not sure what I want just yet. Who are you?"
I didn't think she was a demon,but she definetly wasn't one of your average dead. Now that I was in the world of the living though (world of the living. I still couldn't get over that. For what was only the second time in my life, I was free) if she turned out to be one, I could just hop dimensions to the netherworld. IT wouldn't take me as long now that my soul wasn't bound.
(OOC: s'okay, mine's pretty short too. It's hard to write 4 paragraphs when you're asking another character a question)
(OOC: I've gotta go. Either see you sometime later this night or tomorrow :D)

I eyed the boy. I knew the names of all the demons in my 'master's' circle, and 'Kass' wasn't one of them. So I loosened up just a small bit.
"Lailie." I responded simply to his question. I had no interest in saying more to him than needed.
Now that I knew he wasn't one of the demons after her, I turned to option two: He was just another dead person like myself. Or something. Basically he wasn't a threat.
I took in her surrounding just a bit more seriously now. The air was fresh and didn't smell of burning flesh or ash. The sky was clear and a moon shone brightly. They didn't have that in the Underworld either. And the landscape actually looked calm and peaceful. No demon could make an illusion much like this. So I must have been in the land of the living. "Well, thank you." I said, turning her back on him, "I don't know what you did, or how you did it, but you got us both to the land of the living, and I'm grateful. But if you don't mind, I'll be going my own way now." I looked for the road that was usually somewhere near abandoned fields like the one I was in now. Spotting it, I began to walk away.

{{M'kay, type at you later =3}}

Giving me a small, quick smile(well, not quite, but that sounds better than 'she frowned at me less'), the girl, Lailie apparently, walked off towards the dirt road that ran past the field without another word.
Well, I thought as I watched her stalk off into the night, she certainly doesn’t hang around, does she. Probably a good thing too, I reasoned, as I turned, and began heading in the opposite direction. Maybe it was because I’d never known a decent person in my life (not to mention I’d never even met one in my afterlife) but I wasn’t too fond of people in general. I preferred to be by myself for the most part.
Turning my attention to the road ahead of me, I glanced ahead to see if there were any traces of lights ahead. There weren’t, but that wasn’t all that bad. I had been hoping that there would be a gas station or something down the road a ways, so that I could get an umbrella before the sun rose. Yes, that’s right, I needed an umbrella. Why? Well, if the sun was out the next morning (and looking up at the cloudless night, I’d say that was a definite possibility) and any uncovered part of me was in that sun, it would disappear, and not having a head isn’t the most helpful thing in the world when you were trying to be inconspicuous, and I planned on trying to be. Maybe carrying an umbrella in broad daylight wasn’t the most inconspicuous thing to do either, but better people assume I’m crazy than headless.
Then again, of course, I had no money to speak of, and didn’t really want to steal something right after I had escaped from hell. To be honest, I didn’t really want to steal anything in general. Too me, that seemed a lot like proving that I had deserved eternal punishment, and who knows, maybe I did, but I had always liked to think of myself as, not so much falsely accused, but something along those lines. But aside from my little pity party, there was also a lot of risk involved in stealing.
Ah well. If I didn’t find a gas station or something that meant that civilization was pretty far off too, so it wouldn’t matter to much if I went around with my head invisible for a day, so long as I didn’t let any passing car’s see me.
Smiling again, I walked on, marveling at everything from the cool air to that I was hearing crickets in the distance, not screams of pain, to that my escape had gone off without a hitch. Then again, I could always find out that the girl actually had been a demon, that she had stopped me from reaching reality, and that this was all a cruel illusion before she ripped my limbs off. Possible, but hopefully not likely in the slightest. Hopefully.

I reached the road and picked a random direction. There weren't any street lamps and no sign of a car coming from either direction, so it was safe to say that either direction would lead me somewhere.
As I walked down the road, I took in the silence. It was nice. Really nice. I had no idea how long I had been in the Underworld, but it had been long enough that I almost didn't recognize the sound of the night. The sound of the crickets, the whisper of the wind.
As I walked, I planned out how I was going to make myself fit in, for obviously, I was still a nightmare. I could taste the fear that 'Kass' boy was sending towards me in waves. Okay, maybe it wasn't 'waves' but he was scared. Ish. I could see those types of things. Anyway, my eyes were simple 'contacts' but I would have to do something about my hair. Maybe if I put it up in a pony-tail it would be less conspicuous. I didn't quite know, they didn't give me hair-ties in the Underworld. But it was the only thing that seemed like it would work.
"And then after I more or less blend," my eyes brightened to a soft glow, "Andrew is screwed. And not in the way he wanted."
While in the Underworld I had sworn never to use my power as a nightmare if I ever got back to the world of the living. I didn't want to become like the monsters that tormented me, but Andrew was my one exception. He was the on reason that I had gone to that damned place, and I intended on getting even.
I had been part of a gang before I was killed. It was a little gang, but they did steal and cause simple trouble. It was fun as crap to watch the poor confused people run around yelling 'Thief! Thief!' and such. Andrew had been my boyfriend and like any good boyfriend that belonged to the same gang as yourself, he stole me quite a few things. While I had told him, he didn't need to do such things, he would simply say that he enjoyed it. So I let it be. Then it was my sweet-sixteen. He took me out to a wonderful restaurant and paid for it with plenty of cash he had previously stolen. I asked him if there was any way I could pay him back, he said yes, but wouldn't tell me what it was. Later that night Andrew took me out in his car. I had no idea where he was taking me until he pulled into the ally. He started feeling me up, I let him go on. That was fine. But then he started trying to take my pants off and I knew where that was going. I pushed him off. He pushed me down. It turned into a fight: Him trying to rape me, me trying to prevent it. Then, I guess he had enough of me fighting back, he took his gun out of the glove compartment and shot me. What a wonderful sweet sixteen, right?
My thoughts were broken when all of a sudden there was a sharp pain in my chest. I gasp and toppled backwards, holding my chest. My heart pounded, "What the hell was that!?" I asked the night and I regained my composer. Slowly the pain turned to a soft throbbing and I continued on my way.
I took only a few steps before I felt yet another sharp stab of pain in my chest. this time it was harder and I fell backwards and landed on the hard dirt. "What the?" I pulled myself tot he side of the road just in case that car I had yet to see would come speeding down the road. I didn't want to get run over. That would be bad.
I sat on the side of the road panting. What had just happened? I"t was like there was a sting attacked to the space right below and between my collar bones. Like a sort of leash. Like the sort of leash that kept me bound to my 'master's' tower. "Son of a-" my eyes got hard and my hair expanded. The 'Kass' boy must have been a demon after all. I hated it when people screwed with me.

(OOC: Sorry for the late post )
I continued to walk off into the night. I really must have been out in the middle of nowhere because I hadn’t seen a single car so far and I had been walking for, what, I didn’t have a watch or anything, but I’d guess about ten minutes or so.
All of a sudden, I felt a sharp stab of pain, somewhere above my chest. Gasping, my hands flew to the area around my collar bone to feel for a cut or bruise, or at least some type of small animal that was burrowing into my flesh, but felt nothing. This was weird, even for me…I was worried now, not to mention confused, but I walked on. The pain came with me, growing with each step. Finally, it was getting to the point of agonizing. Like an idiot, I continued to force myself to step forward. One more step. I couldn’t breathe. Suddenly, a thought ran through my head. What kind of idiot am I?! I wondered, stop! This really freaking hurts! I stopped, thank god.
The pain didn’t go away, so I took a few steps backward. That helped, it still hurt, but it was a dull throb, instead of the sharp pain it had been when I had been walking forward. Resisting the urge to go back any more, I tried to think of what this could be caused by. Demon’s couldn’t work in two dimensions, and they were the only ones who knew we had left…
We. How stupid could I have been? The girl obviously…but still, patience wasn’t something that demon’s were known for…were there any other options, I wondered. Unable to think of anything, I tried a step forward. Yep, still hurt. Crap. Searching my mind for ideas, a vague memory from when I was still alive surfaced…the last time dimension swapping had hurt. It had been back when I was just learning how; I had lost my pinky toe because I hadn’t been concentrating enough. We had eventually been able to find it, but not for a while. The sorcerer had said that it should have been somewhere close by.
With a small groan, I realized what was going on. In case of splinching (those Harry Potter books have such useful terms, don’t they?), shades had a sort of defense mechanism where the limbs (or in my case, toes) that were separated wouldn’t be able to go farther away from person they belonged to. It did this by identifying souls. It had been my soul that had been tethered to the underworld, and I was willing to bet my last cent (not that I had one) that the Lailie girl’s had been too.
Basically, whatever it was that kept lost limbs somewhere near me was now keeping Lailie and I in the general area. So much for no hitches. To cap it all off, this meant that…I ripped out souls out from our bodies. I didn’t even know that that was possible. Turning around, I began to half jog, half run down the road in the direction I had seen her take, the pain that I had been feeling slowly disappearing. I figured that I had to get to her soon, because with me running towards her, she would be free to walk again, and it was possible I might never catch up with her.
As I ran I thought about my plans I had made while still in the underworld. I remembered the worst case scenarios I had created. I remembered the bad scenarios I had thought up. This was nothing like anything I could have imagined, and not in a good way.

{{No problem ^3^}}

I was half running, half gliding back towards the field. But I stopped half way. In my anger, I had forgot to think things over. If this 'Kass' guy was a demon, that meant that he wanted me to go running back to him. He was depending on my anger to reel me in. But there was also the fact that demons very rarely let their prey come to them. And the ones who did that were insanely attractive. Not that he wasn't okay looking or whatever, but he wasn't irresistible. And very few demons could make an illusion such as this might be. So what exactly had happened?
I leaned up against a tree alongside the road, trying to make sense of the situation. I was having very little luck. "Okay," I took a deep breath, "Think, what happened?" I went over thew course of events. First I was running from the mini-demon horde, then I escaped onto the roof. There was a moment of darkness, and I found myself in that abandoned field with the Kass boy. We exchanged a few words, names, and then we each went our own way. He was scared of me, and it tasted real, so he wasn't a demon. But then what was this whole string-like thing about? What made that happen? Did it have something with how we both got to the land of the living? For sure he didn't mean to take me along. Maybe something went wrong.
As much as I hated the idea, I was going to go back and find him. It would probably make more sense if I got the other half of the story. I pushed myself up off the tree and continued back towards the field. I would take my time with this, and make sure I wasn't walking into some elaborate trap.

I was still running but breathing much harder now. Peering up ahead, into the moon lit darkness; I could just make out her shape. To my surprise, she seemed to be walking my way as well. I wondered if she had figured out what was happening. She could have been a shade, I reasoned, but then again, she would have known what had happened when we had shifted dimensions…or maybe she wouldn’t have. I admit, I might have been stumped if a girl had crashed into me while I was working and two seconds later I was in a field. Hopefully, between the two of us we could work something out. Then again, if our souls really were gone and we couldn’t go more than a mile or so from each other, I’d just be happy if we didn’t end up strangling each other by morning.
I waved my arms above my head so she could see me, and began jogging towards her again.
“Lailie!” I called. My voice seemed unnaturally loud in the open space, and…here is where I would normally write ‘years’ but truth be told, I had no clue how long I had been dead. But anyway, my time in the Underworld had taught me that it didn’t pay to make loud noises, or sudden movements. To be perfectly honest, it didn’t pay to do anything in the underworld except do as you were told and try to blend into the rest of the dead masses.
Whatever it was, I felt wary about calling out again, so I just continued jogging down the path towards her.
(OOC:This might have to be my last post for the night. I'm not sure)

As I walked, I saw a figure running my way. I slowed my pace. The only person it could have been was Kass, and I didn't quite trust him.
My thoughts were confirmed when he called out to me by my name. The word echoed in the vast space and I tensed up a little. I wasn't used to loud noises. Well... I take that back. There were very many loud and uncomfortable noises in the Underworld, but this was a single noise, one voice. It made me uneasy.
He seemed to think the same thing and didn't say anything else as we got closer and closer.
Finally we were standing only a few steps away form one another. I stared down at him with untrusting eyes and my hair flowed in an unseen or felt wind. It did that when I was nervous. Hopefully he didn't know that. Hopefully he thought it was an act of aggression. That I was as pissed as my eyes made me seem.
"Okay," I started, still looking at him with hard violet eyes, "What the crap is going on?"

{{Okay...}}

Her odd purple eyes seemed more solid than before and her hair, ignoring the only slight breeze, was whipping about her shoulders, and unless I was mistaken, it looked bigger than before. She sounded positively pissed. What was her problem, I wondered. I didn’t say anything for a moment, I didn’t want this to turn into a contest to see who could be the biggest drama queen (though she could have had a legitimate reason for hating me) and also to show I wasn’t scared. That latter of course, was a bit of a lie. She was scary, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Not to mention how I had no way of knowing what she was, demoness, shade, dead, or some odd combination, and now she was glaring at me like I had killed her family or something.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I said, adopting a neutral expression (no sense getting her angrier at me than she already was), “I just saved us both from the underworld…well, actually, you hitching along was a compleat accident, but still, why are you so angry at me? A second ago you were fine to thank me and walk off—“ okay, that was stupid, I thought, that’s why she’s so pissed, I’ll bet she thinks I’m keeping her from going forward…well I sort of am, but not on purpose. She wouldn’t know that though.
“Never mind,” I said quickly, before she could deliver some scathing comment, “It’ll be easier for me to explain what’s happened, or at least what I think has happened, if I just tell you my story. Basically, I’ve planning to escape for the past three weeks or so. Today was the day I finally did. You know the stories about how the Underworld and Reality kinda blur when it’s a full moon in reality? Well apparently they’re true. I’m a shade, so it wasn’t that hard for me to jump from the underworld to here.
When you ran into me, you came with me. Shade’s have a thing where, in case our limbs get torn off when we’re dimension hopping, the limbs will stay within about a mile or so from the shade, it varies from person to person, but that’s not important,” I was rambling now, I tended to do that when I had to talk about something the required me to say more than a paragraph, I needed to finish this up quick before I started talking about pidgins or something, “Shades can also take people and items with them, that’s why we’re both still wearing clothes and why you were able to come with me. Usually, it differentiates people by their souls, but seeing as our souls were the things that tethered us to the Underworld, and seeing as how we’re not there right now, my guess is that we physically don’t have souls right now. We left them in the underworld. This also means that whatever keeps shades from losing limbs, thinks that we’re the same person. Basically, we can’t go more than a mile away from each other.” I grimaced, and looked back up at her, wondering how she was going to take the news. That is, I thought, if she even believed me.
(OOC: Also- 2nd page! Woo!)

((Sooo sorry for disappearing on you, Robin! i had to leave for Christmas and then I just didn't come back. Ask any one of my friends -mostly Little Miss Flip-Flops- I do this a lot. Sometimes I just don't get back to getting on. I'm sooo sorry again. But I'm going to try and stay this time.))

I stared at the Kass guy and listened. I was good at listening.
I could taste his fear on my tongue and it calmed me down a bit. Most people would calm down after a good meal, right?
He began to explain what had happened; the rumors, and how they were true. But then he began to ramble and I was loosing track of what he was saying. Kass must have seen my expression of 'get to the point' or caught himself, for he did wrap things up. He explained that he was a shade, and what shades could do to make sure they stayed in more-or-less one piece after dimension jumping. And when he got to the end, I nearly hurled. I had to stay with this boy. Kass and I were connected. Physically. I hoped Kass took my reaction as one of disgust and didn't see the fear under it. That would be bad. Very, very, very, bad. If Kass found out that my bitchy persona was just that, a persona, who knows what he would do.
I took a deep breath and then looked back up at Kass. My eyes were still hard, but my hair had gone back to it's usual shoulder length and it wasn't angrily whipping about my head.
"So," I began, channeling my fear into the poison that laced my words, "What now? We can't go more than a mile from one another, this has already been proven. And I have business I need to take care of elsewhere." I was thinking of the man who killed me of course. But who knew what this boy wanted or where he wanted to go.
But as I was thinking this. I remembered what Kass had said while he was rambling. Our souls were still in the Underworld. This meant we could get pulled back down at any point after they realized we were gone. My eye widened and my hair began to grow once more. I looked at Kass with my arms crossed, "You said that our souls are still in the Underworld right? At least, that's what you think since we seem to be," I breathed, "...physically connected." I almost choked when I spoke those words but I went on.
"I've been living with the Duke ever since I died and he was always dissing the rumors and saying that even if they were true, only your physical body would pass through and the soul would be left behind so you could be dragged back in once they noticed you were gone." I put emphasis on 'died' so as to get the message across that it wasn't an accident or something. When I said 'died' I meant 'killed' and then maybe he would get the hint.
But I was stuck with him. I was stuck with a boy. And there was no way for me to get out of the situation. Hopefully I could keep up my persona until this got worked out. I didn't want to have to stay with Kass long.

(OOC: Hey Closet! You're fine, good to have'ya back and hooray for Little Miss Flip-Flops.)
I took in what she had said. They could take us back? When planning my escape, souls hadn’t even crossed my mind, but now of course, they seemed all important. Of course, it seemed like everything I overlook usually turns out to be. That was how they had found me wasn’t it? By tracking the sorcerer’s soul to mine. And how they had dragged me down.
Then again, the chances that they would care where I had gone were slim. People disappeared every few days, and new ones were always coming in. Maybe some demon had decided that they wanted a slave, or the Harpies thought that someone looked tasty. I was just another nameless, faceless drone. I had no specific duties, no specific tormentor. No one would notice when I was gone. That’s what I had been counting on when I had escaped.
Of course, not just I had escaped. I grimaced as sudden realization dawned on me.
“Lailie,” I started, dreading the answer the question would bring, “You worked in Duke’s castle. Did you have a job where anyone would particularly notice if you disappeared?”
But of course she would. Sure, she may have had a kitchen job, but that would be lucky, and luck had always tended to avoid me. They would realize she was gone immediately. They would come after her. And when they found her, even if, by some random chance, I was a mile away, they would want to know how she escaped. And they would find me.

Fear began to roll off Kass in waves. I could tell now that he figured out the intensity of the situation. He flinched, and I knew then that it clicked in his head. And then he asked the question that in turn made my face go sour.
"I was his personal play toy." I wrinkled my nose at the memories, "And a whole bunch of his buddies were chasing after me when I ran into you. If they haven't already sent the scouts after us we don't have very long." I answered bluntly.
I could feel my edges blurring as Kass' fear vented into me. I'm sure he could see the change in my eyes, even though I tried oh so very hard to keep them sharp and unwelcoming. I didn't want to be this. Yes, the fear made me feel better, but it also made me feel worse. I was a monster, feeding off the fear of others.
My thoughts had flashed me by and it was only a few seconds that passed, but the fear was draining into me. And at a much faster and stronger pace than it usually did. Maybe it was because I was so close... No, I had been in the faces of other people when doing this... It was because we were connected....
I was loosing my concentration. I never consumed this much fear before. And it wasn't even that much. But something was making it more potent. My vision began to blur and I felt myself falling.

((I had to make it dramatic >3> And the outcome of this might be kinda laughable))

((Drama's what makes things great! That and greatness. Also, I think I might be borderline controing your character in this. If I am, really, really sorry)

Well, I thought, she’s certainly a cheery one. I would have responded, but all of a sudden, she stopped glaring at me. Her eyes seemed unfocused, her head lolled to the side a bit, and her knees buckled. Looking back I can see what the right thing to do in this situation would have been. As I watched her begin to fall, I knew what the right thing to do would have been. For some reason though, I still don’t exactly regret not catching the her.
I watched her fall to the ground, making a thump as she hit the ground. I admit, I had no idea what to do. Poke her with a stick? Maybe not. Run in the opposite direction? I’d have to come back in a minute. The kiss of life? Not if you paid me. Stand there like a ninny? Oh wait, I was doing that. At least try to do something? I guess. Taking a hesitant step forwards, I bent nearer to her.
“Lailie?” I questioned uncertainly, my hand halfway to her shoulder. I wasn’t sure whether or not to shake her. If she was unconscious, I didn’t think that would do much good, and if she wasn’t, well, she didn’t seem like someone who would take to kindly to being touched.
Oh well. It was her problem, and with the amount we seemed to have, she would just have to make it wait. Grapping her shoulder, I shook her, gently at first, then a bit harder. I called her name again. I even turned her on her side so she didn’t swallow her tongue. Nothing.
Crap crap crap. This as bad. Her fainting or whatever had just happened could mean that there were demon’s nearby. This was all her fault. If not for her hitching a ride with me, I would be home free. Now, I couldn’t go anywhere, demons might be coming any minuet to look for her, and where she was, I obviously had to be as well. I couldn’t even go to the netherworld, so long as I was connected to her seeing as how she was human, and humans couldn’t travel to the netherworld, even if they wanted to. Not that anyone ever would. Except maybe me, if only to hide. Who knew that I’d ever actually <i>want</i> to go to the netherworld. It was a virtual war zone there, almost complete anarchy. Maybe it had changed since I had died, but I doubted it.
Somewhere in the distance, an owl hooted, the low noise breaking through the night air and my thoughts, bringing me back to the problem at hand. Lailie. I squatted down again to check for a pulse. To be honest, I half hoped that there wouldn’t be one. We didn’t exactly get along, she’d just be going back to where she had been, and I’d be home free as soon as I burned her body. Reducing things to ash was the one way to dispel the freaky magic. It’s what we’d done to my pinky toe. Not that I was planning on telling her that though. I didn’t know what she was in (the underworld that is) for but she didn’t seem to happy with me as it was. Those morbid thoughts aside, fortunately or unfortunately, I found a pulse. Probably a good thing too. I knew I had counted it as an option, but I just didn’t know whether or not I had it in me to actually burn a human body, especially one of someone who I had known, albeit not very long.
Now what, I wondered desperately. It’s the middle of the night, two grumpy teenagers walking along a dirt road, with no buildings in sight would arouse the suspicion of any cop worth his doughnuts. A grumpy teenage boy walking along a dirt road with no buildings in sight, with a teenager girl slung over his back would arouse the suspicion of anyone who wasn’t blind. Of course, those weren’t my only options I realized. When I had been in the underworld, what had I done to make the workload easier when no one was looking? Make a shield. To those of you who don’t know about shades, let me explain. Most shades can harness our energy in a corporal form, and bend or stretch it to create a shield or in this case, a sort of sled. Unless the shield breaks, we can take most of the energy back into our bodies, if not, we may have to sit down for a while. If we put <i>too</i> much energy into the shield, we’ll either die, or faint. Both things that would not be helpful in my current situation.
Still squatting, I turned to her again and put my hand gingerly under her head, not wanting to touch her freaky hair. I was half afraid it might eat me. Closing my eyes, finding my center, and finally focusing my energy the way I had been taught, when I opened my eyes again, I was rewarded by the sight what looked at first glance like a semi-transparent blanket underneath Lailie. I grabbed it, and felt a tingle run all the way from my hand, up my arm and to my shoulder. My energy. I grabbed it more tightly, stood up, and took my first step forward. No rips, no tears, no death. Nice. I could feel the strain, the energy, after all, was just an extension of me, but nothing serious, and far easier than trying to sling her over my shoulder. This in mind, I trudged on, hoping that no cars were driving by.

((She's unconscious. What else could have been done? And it's perfectly fine :D I really love Kass' thinking Lailie's hair might eat him. That made me laugh.))

It was black. Just black. There was nothing else. No movement. No sound. Nothing to see. Just black. I struggled for conscious, but to no avail. I needed to wake up. Now. I had no control over my body and the out there that I couldn't be a mile away from. Who knows what he might get into his head.
The fear was taking it's turn and eating me. I was scared. No. I was terrified. I never liked being unconscious. I was too vulnerable when I was sleeping. In fact the Duke had rudely awakened me once or twice. Lack of sleep out of paranoia was another reason I was alway so bitchy.
But back to the fear. It was eating me alive. I tried to scream, but I couldn't even feel my mouth to open it, much less make noise.
Then I began to see things. I mentally grabbed for them, but whatever they were turned to mist in my hands. I tried to call out again, but there was no sound. But I was starting to see things. The black was slowly fading away.
At first I was glad. But then the remaining shadows began to form into faces. Scary faces. The face of the man who killed me was the largest face. The other faces were the faces of the Duke and his friends. All the monsters that had taken advantage of me in my life. Before and after death.
then they began to come at me, the faces becoming heads and growing bodies. They licked their bloody lips and reached for me. At first I could feel nothing, and only see them. But then the Duke grabbed me. I could feel it. He had his hand on my wrist. He was pulling me closer. Shaking me. At first gently, welcoming. But as I stuggled for get my hand back, he shook me harder and harder.
Finally I wrenched my hand back and I turned and ran. I ran as fast as I could, but it wasn't fast enough. I kept falling and it felt as if I were running in water. They were getting closer and closer, they're eyes glowing red and tongues hanging out between their fangs.
Then I screamed. I screamed loud and I could hear it. And so could they. And they liked it. They always liked it when I screamed. So they came at me all the faster.
And then they were on me. Piling on top of me. I couldn't breath. I tired to right them off, but nothing I did worked. My lungs were being crushed and my screams were muffled. I felt myself being dragged. Dragged out from under the weight of the monsters. But they still came after me. Snarling, biting, pulling. I screamed again.

I screamed, and bolted upright, gasping for air. My body hurt all over and I was having a hard time breathing. I was on a road. On the side of the road. I was on something. But I didn't really care right now. I leaned forwards and held my head in my hands. I was back in reality. That was comforting.
I was about to let myself go and cry when I remembered Kass. I blinked harshly and looked up and around. Kass was staring down at me. If I had actually been expecting him to be there, I would have taken more time to pull myself together. But since I had thought he dragged me to the side of the road and left me to be run over by a car or something, there were still tears in my eyes and my eyes themselves were still scared, soft, and light violet.
I snapped my head away and stared back a the asphalt. Well shit. I thought, regretting my lack of attention to what was going on. Now he knew. That was bad. Maybe I would be able to play it off...

((I actually have a friend (funnily enough, she's a bit like Lailie personality-wise) who has this mass of blond hair that I'm afraid will someday eat me. I'm sure that if my friend got angry enough, her hair would go on a rampage. Like one of those supervillian-esses, but without the slutty outfits and ankle-breaking boots))

When I first felt her body jerk I thought she was awake, but when I looked back it was just her, shivering and twitching in her sleep. I tried to shake her awake again but after that didn’t work I went back to just dragging her. Though I wasn’t sure whether I’d be considered dead or alive at this point in time, I’d have to say that this counted as one of the oddest things I’ve ever had to do.
Eventually, around the time the horizon was getting lighter, she stopped shivering and sat bolt upright, wide awake, eyes yet another shade of purple. This time it was a very light purple. Go figure. I had been about to welcome her back to the world of the living, about time you woke up, you’re heavy, what was that about, until I saw the tears in her eyes, and the terrified look on her face. The scared look in was wiped off her face like writing in the sand when the tide is coming in, though the moment she saw me though, and she quickly turned away. This wasn’t awkward at all.
I shuffled my feet awkwardly for a moment, trying to think of something to say.
“Bad dreams?” I finely asked. No response. Couldn’t blame her either. Well, not for that anyway. Shuffle more. Give her some time to pull herself together…
“Um, are you okay?” She’s fine, she just fainted, twitched for a couple hours and woke up crying. That and attitude problems, but I had a feeling she’d always had those. “What happened back there?” I queried, finally managing to ask a competent question.
I couldn’t rule out demons just yet, but as much as I seriously hoped it wasn’t them, I hoped she didn’t have some type of syncope, where she would just randomly faint all over the place. It was bad enough that I was stuck with a virtual beacon to any demons who might be after escaped souls, but if she was going to be dead weight…I dropped the subject from my thoughts. Knowing my luck, it wasn’t good to give Fate or whatever any ideas.[COLOR="Silver"]

((Haha, that's great :D))

I didn't answer his first question. I was trying to get the tears to stop. Trying to tell myself it was a dream. Well, a nightmare to be exact. But wither way it wasn't real. But it felt real. Everything they did to me in my nightmare felt real. And still did. I hurt all over, but I wasn't going to let Kass see anymore than he already did.
Then he asked me if I was okay. No! Duh. was the first thought that came to mind. But I wasn't telling him that. then he asked me what happened. I might as well tell him that.
"I'm fine." I said, standing and trying my best not to flinch at the pain that was being put on my muscles. "And as for what happened..." I paused. Oh screw it. "I'm a nightmare. I become one after I died. And that means I more or less am a bad dream in physical form. And because I'm a nightmare, I consume fear." I looked at him in the eyes, my eyes hard and dark violet again. "And for some reason, the fear I consumed that was coming off of you was stronger than normal and it overwhelmed me. Simple really." I explained in a blank, cold tone. Though underneath I really just wanted to break down and cry. I wish I could get away from this guy! I screamed in my head, but my face and eyes stayed the same. Flat, and uncaring.

Okay. I see. So I was so scared of her that she fainted. That’s fine. If she didn’t want to tell me she didn’t have to. I looked at her. She was glaring at me again. If she kept this up, she’d probably burst a blood vessel. Better say something.
“I see,” I replied, “Well, if you can walk again, then we won’t be needing this anymore.” And that said I squatted again and, motioning for her to get off, grabbed by energy and pulled my energy back into my body. A bit dusty, but still usable so long as I didn’t mind a few sneezes the next time I had to use it.
“Shade thing,” I said, unable to keep a bit of the smugness out of my voice. I didn’t look at her, as I had no doubt she was still glaring at me, but I liked to think that maybe she might have been a bit impressed. Yeah right. A low grumble of complaint from my stomach reminded me that my ego wasn’t the other thing that I needed to feed.
“Well,” I said, standing up, “ You may have gotten a nice meal off my fear, but I’m going to need a meal sometime, we have no money, we’re most likely miles from civilization, you’re a virtual beacon for demons, we can’t go more than a mile from each other, and the sun will be coming up in an hour or so. Did I forget anything?” I didn’t wait for a response from her and continued, “ Unless you have a better plan, I say we try and find a town or something, figure out where the heck we are, and if we’re anywhere close to where the sorcerer lived, go there. He had all sorts of books, spells, potions, all that crap. I’m guessing we could try to find something to get our souls back or at least something that could separate us.” I continued by way of explanation. I was beginning to form an idea about maybe stealing a soul, but I didn’t want to say anything yet, so I just waited for her to reply.

I raised on eyebrow at Kass when the took the thing he had been dragging me on and pulled it into himself. Telling me simply it was a thing that shades could do. I guess it was interesting. In a weird way. But I wasn't one to say anything. I ate fear to breakfast. Literally.
Kass' stomach grumbled loudly and he started off listing all the negative bits in our current situation. I was about to point out that fact that I didn't look remotely human with my eyes and emotional hair, but he didn't give me a enough time to say anything. I guess that was alright. It wasn't something I had to tell him.
Then he mentioned something about a sorcerer and spells and magic. Something he could use to separate the two of us. He had my attention there.
"I guess we're both on the same page about wanting to go our own ways. So let's go. I'm sure the hounds have found the field we were dropped into by now." as I said this I looked down at the road. It was fresh asphalt. Slick and black. And the paint didn't have any skid marks on it. "And by the looks of things, we're near some sort of place that at least has houses. They don't re-pave back roads. Unless I've been gone longer than it feels." I looked back up at Kass. I wanted out. Now. We both did. So what were we waited for? I began to walk in the direction Kass had been dragging me.