Chapter 1
"When I catch you I'm gonna skin you alive, boy!"
Ghoul felt his heartbeat against his chest in an outrageous manner.
Wall, small bridge, long path, corner, small path, bridge.
The entire city was messy, it had no real structure to it but to Ghoul he knew every path as if it were his backyard. After all, he had lived in the city his entire life.
He ran quickly, his maximum speed. The carpenter, however, seemed to be quicker, it was unexpected of an old man with a white beard and a bent back.
Ghoul felt that it was annoying to run with a purse filled with coins in his hand. It was heavy and set him off balance. He could feel the coins bouncing around in the purse, it was the sound of metals clanging against each other. The purse wasn't shut tightly which made some coins bounce out of it, but Ghoul didn't care. .
He turned another corner, it wasn't much left until he reached the hole. His eyes caught the sight of three teenagers standing in front of him. They looked ragged, sketchy and most importantly, hungry.
Ghoul decided to avert his plan, it was too risky running past them. He knew another path he could take, instead of taking the corner he kept on running straight forward. There would be ladders he could take there.
He ran full speed towards the ladders. Luckily nobody was on them. Instead of climbing them normally, Ghoul leapt onto the ladders and then jumped up three steps each time. He was quickly at the top of the ladder, as he looked under him he saw the furious eyes of the carpenter.
He felt breathless, the entire deed had taken a hit on his endurance. He couldn't stop just yet though, he kept on running towards his escape.
Another problem appeared. On the path he was going to take, there were multiple builders and they had blocked off the path. He had once tried to run across a building zone, the bulky builders quickly caught him and gave him a beating.
He would have to find another path. He stood still regaining his breath whilst he thought of all the options. It was risky but he would have to wing it.
He looked behind him to see that the carpenter had climbed up to the top of the ladder.
Ghoul started running into an alleyway with the carpenter behind him. In the distance Ghoul saw multiple teenagers standing, they all had a red bandana. It signified the blood dagger clan and Ghoul had other plans.
Ghoul wasn't planning on running into them though. This alleyway was usually filled with boxes, each one giving off a strange smell.
Ghoul jumped on these boxes and started climbing them. He jumped from the boxes to the railings on the walls. Something in the corner of his eyes approached him, he quickly looked towards that direction and saw the carpenter's hands flying towards his feet.
He quickly stepped further into the railing avoiding the hand. The carpenter was climbing the boxes alongside Ghoul, the old man had a lot more stamina inside of him then it looked. Ghoul pondered if he was a demon, it was the only possible explanation.
However, there was no time for thinking.
Ghoul ran alongside the railing. He ran back to the building zone, now that he was on the railing, he could run across the building zone.
He saw some builders' eyes pierce him, but they could do nothing. He was too high up, well nothing is an understatement. One of them threw a rock at him, it barely missed.
Once Ghoul had passed the building zone, he jumped off the railings and kept on running. He ran across the bridge in front of him, he looked to his left to find the carpenter furiously pulling himself across the bridge to catch him.
Ghoul gave the carpenter a sly smile before he leapt off the bridge. The carpenter's eyes widened, they were ten meters high. He looked towards where the kid had jumped, there was a small hole in the wooden floor.
There was water under the hole, the market was after all built atop a lake.
Ghoul dived towards the hole, he felt his hands hit against the surface of the water, for a split second it was hard as stone but then he was fully submerged in the water. Apart from the light shining through the hole, it was pitch black.
He swam forward fully trusting his experience. If he swam towards the wrong direction he would drown. He swam in the pitch-black darkness for a minute before he saw the small hole in front of him, it was about time. His lungs had started hurting, now that he saw the finish he sighed in relief, mentally.
When he was under the hole he felt a few hands grab him and pull him up towards the surface. The second he exited the water, he fell down on the rotten wooden floor and took heavy breaths.
"Do you have the purse" a deep voice escaped from behind him.
Ghoul was focused on breathing, but he raised the hand with the purse. After he had done it he felt the purse being snatched out of his hand, like someone forcefully taking a gift out of your hands.
"Good, good"
Ghoul heard snickering coming from behind him after his body had stabilized he finally turned around and entered a seat looking at them.
He found four teenagers standing in front of him, the one holding the purse had a large black hood covering his head. His name was Khelo Felo and he was the person Ghoul had gotten this job from.
Khelo opened the purse and his eyes brightened up. His greed-filled, large hand went into the bag and took out three copper coins. He purposefully tossed them at the ground in front of Ghoul.
"I think that concludes our business"
"What? You promised me half"
"Ohh did I," Khelo said, a sly smile creeping upon his face.
"Do you have any proof of that"
"You said it, I heard you."
"I did not say it."
"I swear that you said it"
"Look at this boys, the running must've gotten to his head"
Khelo let out a laugh followed by three other laughs. Khelo walked up to Ghoul, and in a deep voice said.
"I promised you three copper coins, now answer me this. How much did I promise you?"
"Half"
A quick left came, striking Ghoul in the jaw making him fall on his back.
"How much did I promise you?" Khelo repeated.
"Half"
A sharp kick came towards his stomach.
"How much did I promise you?"
"Half"
Another sharp kick towards his stomach, this one had more force put into it.
"How much did I promise you?"
"Half" Ghoul coughed up.
Ghoul heard Khelo take a deep breath, it was followed by silence. He heard steps approaching his head, followed by another silence.
Khelo lifted his leg and stomped Ghouls head.
Ghoul passed out from his brain being shaken too hard.
"Let's leave this shithole" Khelo muttered.
He and his companions made their way out of the abandoned store. Thirty minutes after they had left, ghoul awoke. He had a blurry vision and memory at first, but after a while, it cleared up.
He got into a fetal position with tears in his eyes. Once again he had failed to make any friends, and on top of that, he had been scammed. He felt cold emanate from his chest, tears slid down his cheek.
He sat still embracing the moment. Shortly after the sadness had transposed into a void, rage took its place. He stood up and wiped the tears off his cheek, he felt like he could kill a god right now.
After stomping his feet once too many times and swearing that he would take revenge, he picked up the coins. He made his way out of the rotten building and into the market. The air there felt fresher, he started travelling towards a merchant he knew.
That merchant sold the cheapest food around, albeit it wasn't good food, it was still the cheapest food. On his way there, thoughts appeared in his mind. "Why do we need them", "they only took our money", "we could do it without them". These short whispers felt extremely attractive to Ghoul.
Life had a strange way of opening up doors, whilst you were thinking about those exact doors. In Ghouls vision a store appeared, more importantly, he saw a purse inside of the store. It didn't look to be much but it was unprotected, it also certainly had more than copper coins in it.
Greed got the best of Ghoul as he crept up towards the purse. Once he had grabbed it he heard a voice coming from behind him.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
Shoot! Ghoul had been spotted, his adrenaline started pumping through his veins as he turned around. The merchant was a lot younger than the carpenter, but Ghoul could not get a good picture of his appearance. He had already started running.
He ran towards the hole, it would be the safest way out. The issue was that this section of the market was highly popular, there would be multiple people blocking his path. He could not afford to be slowed down since he heard steps coming merely one meter behind him.
A single slip, mistake or any of that would let the merchant catch him.
Corner, the right path, straight ahead, teenagers, left, forward, right, blood daggers, forward path, wood wall, boxes. Ghoul quickly made the boxes fall over, slowing the merchant down a bit.
"I will sell your skin"
Forward, path, out of the alleyway, main market area, hole, hole, hole? Where the hole was, he saw a rough plank that had been installed there, the carpenter must have wanted to doom him and installed a plank on top of the hole.
"Fuck," Ghoul thought.
He quickly rethought his plan, he knew of another way he could escape. There was another ladder a short moment away from the hole. He started running towards it. He leapt onto the ladder like before and quickly made his way up.
He started running towards the sidelines of the market, the ones beside the mountains. Once he reached the sidelines he started running right, if he could make it to the cliff and leap himself into the lake he would escape.
He ran towards the sideline when he saw a critical issue. There was a group of people blocking the path. One of the taverns on the sidelines had kicked everyone out of it leaving them drunk and blocking the path.
The ghoul looked behind him, he saw the merchant running towards him. He was stuck between a wall of people and a tough place.
He was stuck, but he had to do something. There were two options available for him, enter the tavern exactly to his right or jump off the cliff onto the wooden floor. The latter would most likely result in broken feet, he prayed for his life and entered the tavern.
He took a few steps into the tavern before freezing. Everyone's eyes in the tavern were glued to him, almost as if he was an imposter. There was an ominous feeling circulating in the tavern, the feeling of unsuppressed power. It felt suffocating.
The door opened again and the merchant entered, he quickly saw Ghoul and grabbed him. Ghoul turned his eyes towards the merchant, the merchant pulled back his other hand and launched it towards Ghoul.
His punch froze.
"No fighting is allowed here", one of the people sitting on a stool bellowed out.
Ghoul saw the merchant's arm trembling, he was trying his hardest to move it but some invisible magical force was stopping him.
"This is a thief and he stole from me"
"And"
"What, what, what do you mean and? I am backed by the blood daggers, if you help this kid they will put your heads on spikes."
A burst of laughter came from the entire tavern, the man felt embarrassed and mostly disrespected. He looked around the tavern and spotted a blood dagger member.
"You, you there. You are part of the blood dagger clan, you can't just let this happen to me"
The man he was speaking to was indeed part of the blood dagger clan, which he spotted due to the iconic red bandana he wore. The man was two meters tall both in width and in height. He was bulging with muscles and wore no shirt to show it. He stood up.
He slowly made his way towards Ghoul, he grabbed the purse right out of Ghouls's hands and tucked it into the merchant's hands.
"Now get lost," the red dagger member said.
The merchant felt infuriated, this wasn't justice. He took down his hands and started walking out of the tavern. Abruptly, he stopped, turned around and threw a punch towards Ghoul with all he had. Just as he was about to hit Ghoul he was stopped by the magical force once again.
"Pathetic" the wizard mumbled.
Crack!
His elbow had been turned the opposite direction it was supposed to go completely shattering his limb. The merchant tried to scream in pain but his mouth was shut tight by the magical force. A muffled scream could be heard, the magical force picked the man up and threw him out of the tavern. Once he was outside his muffled scream could not be heard anymore.
Ghoul was happy and annoyed at the same time, it had ended better than he feared, but worse than he hoped. He walked over towards one of the stools beside the bar and sat down. The bartender was a Fishman, he had a round shape and the face of a blubber fish. Behind him, there were hundreds of different drinks.
"Give me your strongest drink," Ghoul said.
"That would kill you without a doubt, boy. And you certainly don't have enough for that."
"Here's a cup of ale, this one is on the house," The bartender said amused.