The Underground -- 1 of 100
This one is a bit short -- think of it as a teaser?
Hopefully, I'll be able to finish this -- I really, really need you guys to kick me if I don't. Thanks to all who voted/gave me opinions (that's why you get to be spammed by my original works, hurrhurr), by the way -- you helped a lot, and even if I didn't pick what you want, I'll try and get some other stuff out for you in the future. <333
In a city ruled by corrupt men of law, Skell Rinnark is an eighteen-year-old criminal in the Underground, a network of black magic, crime circles, and werewolf packs. When cataclysmic events begin to expose the Underground and threaten its existence, Skell has to combine the life he once had with the one he has now in order to save it.
100 themes are from koiia_halo
Characters, setting, etc. are fictional and belong to me (fiercesunshine); any similarities to real people, places, or events is purely coincidental.
001. The Beginning
Skell Rinnark is ten years old the first time he wakes up to screams.
It’s not uncommon in this city, at least not in the dark, dank slums of the Directional Districts. Skell and his family live in the Central District, the center of the city’s high-class society and fancy dress parties, as well as of the city itself. In the Central District, you shine your shoes and slick your hair, you say “please” and “thank you” and tip the bellboy if he’s done a good job, and you absolutely do not go to the Directional Districts unless you happen to own factories there, are part of the government or the police force, or have been kidnapped there (or on a ‘rescue mission’, which more often than not ends in a blood feud). In the Central District, Skell is the son of a wealthy banker and the daughter of the area’s largest purveyor of fine wines, and is a quiet child that the school teachers say is intelligent with a mind for strategy, but (if you’ll excuse me for saying so, Mr. and Mrs. Rinnark) seems slightly off, and oh goodness, I hope your daughter’s troublesome phase quiets down soon, or she might infect your son and we wouldn’t want that, he is such a nice boy.
Skell’s sister is named Jezebel, and years later Skell will wonder why his parents named her Jezebel and still expected her to be a quiet, polite, high-society girl (Jezebel will laugh and ask him why their parents named him Skell - “You’ve always been destined for bones and blood, little brother” - and he won’t have an answer for that, either). The school teachers say that she is pretty, but rude; that she hangs out with the wrong crowd, a bunch of ne’er-do-wells from the Directional Districts who stop by after school and take the fifteen-year-old girl out to smoke behind dumpsters and play pranks on elderly women with status and money. Their parents are not home enough to keep her “in line”, and the house staff is either too slow to catch her or too unwilling to be bullied by her loud mouth and, it’s true, closed fists.
The screams Skell has woken up to belong not to Jezebel, but to his mother.
Skell kicks his sheets off and slips out into the hall as a maid rushes past, her arms full of hot water and bandages, and he frowns and follows her to the kitchen, away from the screams and sobs of his mother. His father is pacing in the drawing room, speaking animatedly on the phone, but he doesn’t pause to hear what is being said - later, he’ll wish he had, but now he’s worried, because something has happened and the only one unaccounted for is Jezebel, and his sister has always, always been there.
A manservant tries to grab him, but Skell is lithe and quick and ducks under his arm into the kitchen, where his sister sits on the table and the doctor shakes his head as though he thinks there’s no point. Jezebel looks up at him from where she’s clutching her arm and smiles at him, but her face is ashy and her smile is different, somehow, and says “Hey little brother” just as the doctor informs the maid that there’s no point in his being there, “She’s already infected and you are capable of patching her up; there’s nothing I can do”, and that is how Skell Rinnark learns that his older sister has been bitten by a werewolf.
At ten years old, Skell Rinnark meets the Underground for the first time.
Hopefully, I'll be able to finish this -- I really, really need you guys to kick me if I don't. Thanks to all who voted/gave me opinions (that's why you get to be spammed by my original works, hurrhurr), by the way -- you helped a lot, and even if I didn't pick what you want, I'll try and get some other stuff out for you in the future. <333
In a city ruled by corrupt men of law, Skell Rinnark is an eighteen-year-old criminal in the Underground, a network of black magic, crime circles, and werewolf packs. When cataclysmic events begin to expose the Underground and threaten its existence, Skell has to combine the life he once had with the one he has now in order to save it.
100 themes are from koiia_halo
Characters, setting, etc. are fictional and belong to me (fiercesunshine); any similarities to real people, places, or events is purely coincidental.
001. The Beginning
Skell Rinnark is ten years old the first time he wakes up to screams.
It’s not uncommon in this city, at least not in the dark, dank slums of the Directional Districts. Skell and his family live in the Central District, the center of the city’s high-class society and fancy dress parties, as well as of the city itself. In the Central District, you shine your shoes and slick your hair, you say “please” and “thank you” and tip the bellboy if he’s done a good job, and you absolutely do not go to the Directional Districts unless you happen to own factories there, are part of the government or the police force, or have been kidnapped there (or on a ‘rescue mission’, which more often than not ends in a blood feud). In the Central District, Skell is the son of a wealthy banker and the daughter of the area’s largest purveyor of fine wines, and is a quiet child that the school teachers say is intelligent with a mind for strategy, but (if you’ll excuse me for saying so, Mr. and Mrs. Rinnark) seems slightly off, and oh goodness, I hope your daughter’s troublesome phase quiets down soon, or she might infect your son and we wouldn’t want that, he is such a nice boy.
Skell’s sister is named Jezebel, and years later Skell will wonder why his parents named her Jezebel and still expected her to be a quiet, polite, high-society girl (Jezebel will laugh and ask him why their parents named him Skell - “You’ve always been destined for bones and blood, little brother” - and he won’t have an answer for that, either). The school teachers say that she is pretty, but rude; that she hangs out with the wrong crowd, a bunch of ne’er-do-wells from the Directional Districts who stop by after school and take the fifteen-year-old girl out to smoke behind dumpsters and play pranks on elderly women with status and money. Their parents are not home enough to keep her “in line”, and the house staff is either too slow to catch her or too unwilling to be bullied by her loud mouth and, it’s true, closed fists.
The screams Skell has woken up to belong not to Jezebel, but to his mother.
Skell kicks his sheets off and slips out into the hall as a maid rushes past, her arms full of hot water and bandages, and he frowns and follows her to the kitchen, away from the screams and sobs of his mother. His father is pacing in the drawing room, speaking animatedly on the phone, but he doesn’t pause to hear what is being said - later, he’ll wish he had, but now he’s worried, because something has happened and the only one unaccounted for is Jezebel, and his sister has always, always been there.
A manservant tries to grab him, but Skell is lithe and quick and ducks under his arm into the kitchen, where his sister sits on the table and the doctor shakes his head as though he thinks there’s no point. Jezebel looks up at him from where she’s clutching her arm and smiles at him, but her face is ashy and her smile is different, somehow, and says “Hey little brother” just as the doctor informs the maid that there’s no point in his being there, “She’s already infected and you are capable of patching her up; there’s nothing I can do”, and that is how Skell Rinnark learns that his older sister has been bitten by a werewolf.
At ten years old, Skell Rinnark meets the Underground for the first time.