Mayhem pressed her hands against the damaged elevator doors, peering down the dark shaft as the lights around us flickered. She leaned in, her tail twitching, hips swaying with impatient energy.

Then she glanced at me with a grin. “Looks good. This should be the way out. Though… having a fairy would’ve made this much easier.”

“Oh, that’s what fairies are for?”

“Fairies have many uses, but finding exits is probably the most useful one.” She crossed her arms with a smirk. “So—who’s going down first?”

The elevator door looked like it had been forced open too many times—now it hung crooked in its frame. I leaned over the crooked doors. Sparks flickered down the metal shaft—one of the only sources of light. The more I stare down at it, the more it feels as if the shadows creep upwards.

I turned back to her. "We are going to do what there?"

"Yes," she answered with her hyena laugh.

I looked down again into the void. There was no way I was going down there. In that moment, an arm gripped around me, and there was a moment of weightlessness as I was now inside the elevator. Peering up, I saw Mayhem with a grin as she slid down the elevator cable.

My blood rushed to my head, and I had to close my eyes as we descended to the depths. I felt a jolt and squeeze as we landed on the bottom. I opened my eyes to see that Mayhem was close to me.

"That was fun."

"Can we not do that next time?"

"Nope, we are going to do it every time, Vestige." She started to move out of the elevator.

We’d landed in a ruined lobby—tiles cracked, the ceiling gaping, a desk smashed like it had taken cover fire. We headed to the front door; I heard drips of water as pipes above me in spots where missing ceiling tiles are.

Mayhem kicked the door open as she made her way out. It was bright outside as the wind blew against my face.

Outside the buildings stretched toward the sky, like they were trying to pierce the heavens. The roads stretched on forever, lined with mobile vehicles that I had never seen before. Not a soul in sight, but I couldn’t shake the feeling we were being watched.

"Here you go," I was placed on my two feet. "I cannot carry you the whole time, princess." Mayhem smirks.

I just glared back at her as I dusted myself off.

"Oh, come on, it was not that bad. Here we are in the endless city."

"This city looks pretty different from the one I am used to."

"Yeah, this is one of the more modern ages that I have heard of. Though some things are slightly off from what I was told." She started to walk down the steps. "I can take you to one of the fancy places if you so desire. Getting something good to drink or something nice for you to wear."

I walked beside her. "I pass on the clothes, but a good drink does sound nice."

"Aww, but you will look so good in something else."

An amused look came on my face. "How about you? You just got some clothing off of some goblins."

She looked at herself and took a sniff of her clothes. "True, something else would be nice."

There were vehicles as we walked by, some looked randomly damaged, while others looked brand new. One was right next to us, so I took a look inside. Inside, the seats looked comfy, as the interior had leather seats and was spotless. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. I could break it, but I realized the gap between me and her had grown. But she was checking her clothing, so I was not too worried.

I patted her on the back. "The clothes are not that bad."

"They are?" Her face brightened up.

"Yeah, yeah. How long is it going to take for us to get to the safe zone?"

"You see that big black dome over there?"

She pointed to a big black object in the distance. It was vastly different and alien to the other buildings in the area.

"It will be about a day's walk, but that is the safe zone. We are lucky and started close to it. Last time I was here, it took like a week before we got there."

"That is a relief." But I was still uneasy about it all. There are so many windows around that there must be someone watching us. Some windows still flickered with light, and the signs, written in shifting, foreign scripts, seemed to change whenever I looked away.

I felt a grip on my shoulder as my gaze fell onto Mayhem. "Is there something wrong?"

"We have to wait for the stoplight."

On the other side of the road, there was a red light blinking. "Why don't we just pass? There is no one around."

"Better be safe than sorry. There is an anomaly that can happen if you cross during a red light."

We waited for the light to change, but she was getting annoyed with the wait. The moment when it changed, she took a breath before her first step. As we passed, nothing felt abnormal to say, at least.

The dome had been getting closer and closer in our view as we traveled. Slowly, the stretch of roads felt odd. I had seen blood here and there, but there was a lot of it here, and more cars were damaged.

"Hey, Mayhem, is there something odd about this road or something?"

"I don’t think so?" She closed the distance between us. "With me next to you, there is nothing to worry about."

I hoped she was right about this, but there are not a lot of places to hide unless we go into those buildings. At that moment, I saw creatures wrapped in strips of black paper, shaped like wolves. They had visor-like eyes, which displayed a number display with red numbers across them; the numbers differed per wolf. Their jaws dripped green and black saliva.

"Shit, stay close to me Vestige, and get ready for the fight. We've got to kill these ticker wolves." She whipped out her axe as she struck a battle pose.

The lead wolf howled. I raised my firearm. The assault began as the ticker wolves charged forth. Some jumped onto the vehicles, and others weaved through them as they closed the gap. Paper fluttered from their bodies, each step marked by a mechanical ticking.

One leapt off the vehicle—only to meet Mayhem’s axe, as black and red liquids gushed out of the body. Mayhem lunged forward to cut down more of them. I turned and fired my gun at the ones that flanked us. There were so many of them as my bullets hit them, and more kept coming.

I kept shooting as my body moved instinctively rather than anything else. Red, black, and shredded paper blurred together in the chaos. In a moment, I was lost in thought. I got knocked down by a wolf, and my arm was the only way to block it as it reached my neck. I took out my knife and stabbed it over and over until the movement stopped. The full weight of the beast was on me as I had to shove it off me. Sticky black and red fluid clung to me, reeking foully as I scraped off bits of paper.

The fight was not over, I stood up, I readied my gun once more, aimed dead-set at the next one. When I pulled the trigger, it was a click. Oh, I was fucked over once again. There was no time for my arm to be raised. I was only able to blink.

With a large crash, it was gone. Its body mangled with another one as it became another fallen, like others. A single wolf howled, and the others turned to retreat at its call.

I looked over to Mayhem as she rotated her arm after a swing—she’d racked up a solid kill count. More of those ticker wolves lay scattered near her. Mayhem sheathed her axe and walked over. I was given a moment to catch my breath. She patted me on the shoulder.

"Well, you could look better." She smiled at me, but just glared at her back. "If you want to be like that, it is fine, but can you help me out?"

"Alright, what do I need to do?"

She walked over to one of the downed ticker wolves. She used a knife to cut open part of its chest and dug in to fish out a metal object. It was made of gold and had a bunch of gears on it.

"All the wolves have these, so you need to get them out as they are worth something."

We gathered the wolves’ hearts in silence, the adrenaline still humming in my blood. When Mayhem finally held up a full bag.

As if right on queue, we heard a clap. I turned to see a tall woman with long emerald-green hair styled in vintage curls, and sharp wolf ears peeked through. Above her ears spins a thin, luminous halo formed from jagged lines that constantly shift up and down in a loop. She wore a tailored crimson and black pinstriped suit with gold buttons and a high-cut waistcoat, her silhouette accentuating a slim, hourglass frame. Strips of faintly glowing green paper floated around her like slow-burning embers.

"I am Ledgerra of the Wolf Market," she said, her voice smooth as velvet and twice as dangerous. "And I believe you’re the ones who killed my underlings."

Her foxlike grin didn’t waver—elegant, calm, and unmistakably predatory. As she stepped closer, the flickering green light caught her golden eyes and black-lacquered lips.

I turned to Mayhem, who clearly knew more about this than I did.

She put on the most natural-looking face she could muster. "What if we did?"

"If you did," she continued, unfazed, "then I expect payment for my loss." She rubbed her fingers together in a gesture older than money, her glowing gaze locked onto us.

Mayhem lifted the bag full of hearts. "How about this?"

Her grin did not change, but maybe there was a slight change in her halo. She pressed her fingertips together as if there was a moment of pause. "Can you give me a moment to evaluate my loss? I must apologize as I did not do my due diligence and did this before I got here."

She reached into her suit and took out a handheld device. Mayhem, on the other hand, put her hand on her weapon to be ready, and I did the same.

"Oh, it is nothing like that. Um, I did not get your names." She glanced at the device before she returned it to her coat.

“I’m Mayhem, and this is Vestige. So is that bag enough to pay you off, or are we just wasting time?” Mayhem bared her teeth.

"Yes, I’ll accept it," she said, pausing. "But first, a counteroffer. Join the Wolf Market. I’ll let you skip the trials—line of credit included." She extended one red-gloved hand.

"What does she mean by this?" I glanced up and realized the rooftops were crawling with ticker wolves. I refocused my view back to Mayhem to see what she would do.

Mayhem threw the bag at her feet and raised her axe. "We will not be joining you, so let’s pass. We don’t make deals with Broker Wolves."

She opened the bag and peeked inside. "Everything is in order."

Without reaction to Mayhem, she reached into her coat and pulled out a crimson business card, the ink shimmered like fresh blood. The card slipped from her fingers, drifting toward me as if it had a will of its own, and fell right into my hands.

"Here is for next time, you truly don't know what you need until you fail a few times." Her grin widened as she turned, the emerald slips swirling around her like burning ash. "It’s always good to have friends in high places."

Mayhem sighed once Ledgerra and her wolves disappeared. “Thank God. We got lucky—I didn’t want to fight her.”

She looked at me, eyes serious for once. “Never, never make a deal with her. Broker Wolves are like devils. Those ticker wolves? Bound to her by debt.”

I nodded slowly and slipped the crimson card into my pocket. We didn’t fight her. But something told me… we didn’t win either.

I managed to smile. “At least we didn’t have to fight again.”

But that part about being soul-bound—how different are we? I shook the thought. We’re not like her.

No more trouble followed us. The dome loomed over us, and as we got closer, it felt impossibly huge.

“Come on, stop staring and get over here,” Mayhem called, already at the checkpoint.

I followed her inside. Whatever waited beyond that threshold—I wasn’t sure I was ready.