Each passing day I'm reminded who I'm destined to be. What greatness it would mean to be The Vanquisher Of The Deep.

Sometimes I believe them. Sometimes I think they're lying,

»»-------¤-------««

A sudden flap in the curtains allowed a flash of sharp light into the dark room, bringing Kirin out of her slumber. A crack of light sets a great divide in the darkroom. Her eyes slowly fluttered open, a sudden blur became focused. From the corner of the room stood a dark figure. She squinted her eyes.

"Jaeger?" She called out.

No answer.

    The hairs on her arms began to stand and the sudden chill filled the room and eventually her spine. The figure stepped out slowly. Its boots thumping on the ground, close to the beat of her heart.

It passed the divide.

The glare of the light reflected onto its circular lenses on the mask it wore. He slowly raised its arm and pointed its finger to her. Her lips quivered, all of what she would scream just fell off her lips as just air.

Kirin threw the blanket over the bed and quickly stumbled out of bed. It grabbed her, wrapping its arms around her to stop her from resisting. But she never gave up. A faint voice called out to her. She shook herself more within its grasp and finally looked up at it. A sharp red burned into her mind from the eyes of the mask. She freed one of her arms and raised her hand to slap its face but she felt her wrist get caught.

"Kirin!" Jaeger shouted.

The room was no longer dark, a complete opposite of whatever room she was in at the snap of a finger. She noticed that Jaeger was holding her wrist and her entire body. It took her a while to regain her bearings. And once she did, all the blood in her body rushed to her head, painting her face red. She got out of Jaeger's grasp and quickly walked to the window. Her hand pulled the curtain to allow the afternoon sun to fully enter the room but she held onto it, balling her fists as she stared out. Still feeling His grasp around her.

"I'm sorry," she softly let escape.

Jaeger carefully observed her. She didn't move but he can still see her other hand tremble. He decided not to do anything and picked up the chair from off the floor.

"Homesick much?" He asked.

Kirin forced a chuckle. She felt a faint smile grow but recede quickly

"I was never used to fancy beds," her legs crossed, making her slightly rock, "totally different vibe from my rundown apartment."

"Your landlord would be upset if he heard that,"

Kirin caught a tear from her eye with her hand. "Why would he care?" She turned to look at Jaeger but she ended up looking down anyway. "He knows that it is too. . . he should."

Jaeger paused. He couldn't tell what to say at the moment so he got up from the table and fixed his shirt.

"Go wash yourself up, I'm gonna step out and smoke," he began walking towards the door and looked back at her over his shoulder as he grabbed the door handle. He took a long enough glance and said, "the shampoo and soap smells really nice. Maybe you'll catch yourself having a boyfriend." He watched as the corners of her mouth curled up.

"Just go get cancer already!"

Jaeger's mission was accomplished. He stepped out of the room and looked both ways as he shut the door behind himself. One hand readied the pack of cigarettes as the other searched for his flip lighter in his pocket. The neighboring door opened and a man with a suit came out. His hair was slicked back with a little stubble on his chin. He fixed his blazer and looked at Jaeger at the corner of his eye and then eventually turned to face him. Now getting a better glance at his face, he could see his cloudy gray eyes.

"Do you happen to know where the exit is?" The man asked him. "It looks like we're going out for the same thing. Coincidence!" He said with a smile that would taunt someone. And that's how Jaeger took it.

"Not sure," he replied. "This is only my fourth time being here."

The man looked down both ways but the halls seemed so endless.

"If I recall-"

"There should be some sort of sunroom near here," Jaeger interrupted him and began to walk to the left of their rooms. "He has a lot of ways to get to the courtyard or whatever it is."

The man hurried to catch up to him and pulled out his pack of cigarettes.

"He's pretty scary, huh?"

Jaeger raised an eyebrow as he kept a lookout for the door to the sunroom. "You mean the Father?"

"Just the way he didn't even think about it. Just click," he imitated the sound of an explosion and his hands reenacted a blown up brain. "Completely," he looked around to make sure no servants were around to hear him and said, "insane." He ended up whispering.

"That's just how he's always been. It isn't the first time either." Jaeger stopped to look at a door that was mostly glass. "You new here?"

The man looked through it to find the setting sun's light flooding the room and plants soaking it up. He opened the door first as he said, "kinda. I've been doing some really dirty work for him so I guess you can say this is my first big team operation."

"Big team huh?" Jaeger replied as he walked into the room. "It couldn't be more unorganized than it already is."

Both of them walked out into the courtyard and lit up their cigarettes. The man held out his hand to Jaeger after the first puff.

"I'm Marx by the way."

"Jaeger," he replied, sticking his hand out to meet his and they both shook.

Marx put an off-settling smile on his face, "I'm sure we'll meet here again soon in the near future. We have a lot of work to do."