The Empire of Sin

re I had been left to wait. It contained a single piece of the most unforgiving wood in the shape of a chair, and I have been standing for what

and ancient fear. My fear. And that of whoever had been here before me. Cold perspiration dripped from my hands, and I clenched them into fists at my si

warfed my own, the deep shivering hand-quaking as he succumbed to telling me what he had done. He would call it a deal-it would be called a remedy. He had promised to a man whom he could not repay with money the only currency left; me. Th

oid of pity or interest. One gestured with his chin, a silent command to follow. My feet felt like lead, but some primal instinct for survival forced them to

nd huge frozen chandeliers dangling overhead, their light purposely dim to cast longer, darker, more menacing shadows. And there were not dances and couples alike; rather, there were armchairs in semi-circle formation encircled around a sm

luated, and sold. As I stepped onto the dais, a low murmur involuntarily rippled through the assembled crowd. I could feel their eyes on me, dozens of them baring me more efficiently than any touch could. I saw glimmers of them-a gleaming gold watch on a thick wrist; the predatory arc of a smile on a man in the front row; the cold, dead eyes of another who looked more li

adow at the very back, was different. I couldn't see his face, not clearly, but I could feel him. While the others radiated a loud, boorish energy, his was a void. A silent, immense gravity that seemed to pull all the light and sound in the room towar

id not even cast a glance at me, as though I were a part of the furniture. His voice, when he spoke, was

are piece: untouched and of impeccable lineage." He gestured sweeping toward me: his hand stopping shy of touching my back. "Lot 7. Twenty-two years o

a human being. The same rage burned hotter in my chest-an impotent inferno. I locked my jaw, raised my chin sharply higher, and stared st

at was thin and reptilian. "We shall st

. Then, from the front row where the butcher-eyed man sat,

ife, my body, and m