We didn't hear him coming. I don't know why, and I won't pretend to try and give an explanation. The fact of the matter is that we didn't. We didn't hear the ravenous, bloodthirsty husk of a former man lunge out of a side-tunnel and take out Third's jugular in a single bite, mid-lunge. But that's what happens sometimes. You miss things.

Ashrore instantly swivelled and began to fire, the whole tunnel flaring bright and dazzling with every shot. One shot missed by a mile, it being squeezed off mid-turn. The second skimmed the man's head, and by the light as it sailed through the air I could see his face a little.

His eyes were shrivelled, completely red, as if he was on something. Something incredibly potent and lethal. His cheekbones were showing through his flesh, his face paler than a man's should be, like that of someone that had never seen the light of day. Like something bred in the tunnels. His hair, what of it there was, was short and blonde, with bits of discarded flesh tangled up in its thick curls. He was hunched over like an animal, and in that moment I realised that that was what I was looking at. Not a man, but an animal.

Ashrore went to fire again, and I brought mine into view of him, but the thing bolted, off through the side-tunnel it had come through to begin with, howling and screeching.

I rushed over to the girl, her eyes flickering away. Her throat was ripped open beyond repair. I tried to rip my shirt in order to cover it and put pressure on it, to try and stop the bleeding, but it was too late. Before I could do anything her eyes locked gazes with mine and she passed away. For the second time in my life, I held someone in my arms, blood flowing from them, as their soul left in search of another realm.

'Fuck,' I whispered, trying to hold it back. I hadn't known the girl, but had had a few conversations with her. She was nice. I would have liked to get to know her better on a personal level, find out where she lived, what she liked, get her to fully open up. I never got around to doing so. I never will.

'Sssshit,' Ashrore said. 'It'ssss taken the casssse.'

'The case?' I said, my throat a little clogged, so that the 'c' in case was throaty and sounded like some demented being hissing.

'The ssssstuff? That we're meant to be delivering? It'ssss taken it.'

And so I sat there, in the sewers, holding a corpse next to a Trovation with a gun and a case full of enough money to keep me going in my apartment for, most probably, the rest of my life, having just seen a demented husk of what I thought was a human being, make off with a case filled with a highly-hallucinogenic drug. There are some perks to this job, and there are some bad points, but it definitely puts you in situations you never thought you would experience.

'We can't go back without it. We'd be shot on sight,' I said. Ashrore nodded, offering me a hand up. I took it.

'We'll come back for her. We need that casssse,' she said grimly. She blew a kiss to the girl's body and ducked into the side tunnel.

I bent down and closed her eyes before following Ashrore into the depths of the sewers after the case.