It wasn’t Sky screaming that woke me up this morning, but her silence. I’ve gotten so used to that noise waking me up at the same time very day that the quiet was somehow even more alarming. I ran straight to her room, and saw her lying on her bed. When I asked if she was alright, she said yes, but refused to speak beyond that. Since it seemed trying to get anything else out of her was pointless, I went back to my room and started working.

A few hours later, Sky came into my room. Without a word, she walked around my desk, sat down in my lap, and tried curling up like a large cat.

D: “Sky, what are you doing?”

S: “Nothing. What are you doing?”

D: “I’m trying to write this email. I need to send it out to our drivers distributing supplies.”

S: “Why? They’re going to die.”

D: “I hope we can catch Arkady before he starts to kill our drivers as well….”

S: “No. We don’t. We’re all going to die.” *She started swatting at keys on my keyboard, creating strings of gibberish in the email.* “I’m going to die. You’re going to die. All of us are going to die.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. So I sat there and watched as she filled more of my email with random letters.

She had filled an entire page when Ahriman stormed in. He paused when he saw Sky, and seemed to take a moment to calm down before proceeding forward and slamming a huge binder on my desk.

A: “Sort through these. Now.”

*I cannot begin to stress how massive the binder was. It could have been used for weight lifting.*

D: “Are… these all casualties?”

A: “No. Worse.” *He brought out another binder, also large, but not quite as huge as the first.* “These are casualties. These,” *He slammed his hand on the first binder,* “are defections.”

*I flipped through it quickly. A lot of proxies had just run off when they didn’t think their superiors were looking. More of the gangs who were supposed to work for us were breaking away. I even saw a few police officers listed. Worst of all, that cult town I’d visited had driven out the proxy sent to collect tribute from them, and were ignoring all our attempts to get back into contact. Ahriman had begun ranting again, so I just got back to work.*

A: “I don’t know what’s worse, the cowards running like whipped dogs or the foolish vultures thinking they can start picking us apart! The police have begun arresting proxies! Right off the street! What the hell are we paying them for? Just because a few of us have been killed, they think they can turn on us with no consequence? We are facing one man! Just a single man with a few improvised weapons! He is nothing! He is a single pebble when compared to Father!”

*Sky suddenly sat up in my lap and tilted her head to the side.*

S: “Why do you call him Father?”

*The sudden change of subject caught Ahriman off guard, but I don’t think he was going to give up the chance to monologue to a willing audience. Soon he was talking again, this time with a hint of pride in his voice.*

A: “Because we are his children. He has chosen all of us to fulfill his greater plans. We are his instruments, and he provides us with guidance so that we may better serve him.”

I’m sure he would have gone on longer, but Sky started laughing at him. She fell off my lap and started rolling on the floor, laughing so hard that she was coughing and crying. Ahriman quickly fled the room, and I got on my knees to try and calm her down. She wrapped her arms around me, and kept laughing until her laughs turned into sobs.

S: “I don’t want to die! Why do we have to die?”

I held onto her until her crying stopped and she fell asleep. She’s on the couch now, still napping. Poor girl probably needs it more than the rest of us.

God I hope she doesn’t end up being right about this as well.