The playful mood having ceased in an instant, Rick strained his ears, but he didn't hear anything himself. In addition, the few lighted spaces he could see down the long corridor appeared to be vacant and without movement of any kind. He knew anyone coming down that tunnel would be forced to step through the filth of the waste lining the bottom of the sewer and couldn't help but make noise in the process, but no matter how much he strained his ears, he still couldn't hear anything.
“Meow,” Kitty quietly offered, and she turned to him with a worried expression, reached down, and pulled back on her leather getup and strapped it back on.
Taking a quick step back to the shelf, Rick immediately retrieved his shotgun, and the thought entered his head that maybe the Constables had not ceased their pursuit after all and had instead spread out and decided to go about their search via stealth. He still honestly couldn't understand how he couldn't hear anything coming down the corridor, but he knew he was in a completely different dimension of time and space. If there were cat-women and giants, there might just be something that could fly and still be after them that he couldn't account for.
Reaching out then and taking Kitty's arm, Rick motioned with his head that they should continue down the sewer the direction they were heading. Kitty, still completely enraptured and just staring down the way they had come, nodded her head, and the two cautiously continued forward. Even as they slowly made their escape once again, Rick saw Kitty continuing to double-take and stare behind them in the dark, her eyes etched with concern. Even being around her the short amount of time he had, Rick could tell that she was stuck between being confused about whatever her senses were telling her and being afraid. In other words, she didn't appear all that sure about whatever she was picking up on, and she therefore couldn't be sure if it was a threat or not.
After fleeing a couple steps out of the light and into the darkness between lighted spaces in the sewer tunnel, Rick looked back and was forced to suddenly do a double-take himself. In the direction they had just come from, he suddenly couldn't see any light at all. It was as if either the sun had suddenly fallen outside and night had happened all in an instant, therefore not providing light to the grates overhead, or all the grates behind them were suddenly covered all at the same time. Literally, behind them was just a long stretch of nothing, as if the world suddenly ended, and Rick, for the first time, felt a cold shiver run down his spine. Something clearly wasn't right here.
“Meow,” Kitty whispered, her voice now definitely frightened.
“What the fuck is going on?!” Rick hissed, staring behind himself in the darkness in total disbelief.
Swiveling his head back around to his front, Rick could see the lights ahead of him still streaming down from the grates overhead, and when he turned back around again, he stopped in his tracks and blinked several times. Now, all of a sudden, he could once again see down the tunnel and all the lighted areas were there once again. Quickly dismissing the idea that he was somehow seeing things or had gone momentarily crazy, Rick felt suddenly afraid. Something or someone was out there toying with them.
“That doesn't make any sense,” Rick whispered.
Reaching out and taking Kitty's hand, Rick decided right then and there that he wanted to get to the next area of light in front of them as quickly as possible. Something just wasn't right, and as he turned to proceed up ahead, he suddenly saw that all the lights in front of him had now somehow all gone out as well. The two of them now were in complete darkness, and it was as if they were walking blindly into nothing. Even when he did a quick double-take behind him again, he saw no light, and it was as if a cloud of the darkest of night had suddenly descended upon the two of them.
“Meow?!” Kitty's voice sounded more frightened and urgent this time.
The next second, Rick distinctly felt as if he was suddenly being watched, as if predatory eyes in the darkness were staring at him and tracking his every move, and in reaction, he let go of Kitty's hand and pointed his shotgun directly in front of him.
“Who's there?!” Rick challenged, his voice lined with fear even though he tried to sound as tough as possible.
The next heartbeat, Rick heard Kitty hiss, like a threatened cat, and then he heard what sounded like her swiping at the empty air with her claws. A moment after that, he felt her bump into him, and because he was completely in the darkness now and unable to see a thing, he was afraid to point his shotgun anywhere now for fear of firing it and hurting her.
“What's going on?! Who's there?! Show yourself!” Rick challenged, as Kitty suddenly back into him and forced him against the wall of the sewer.
A heartbeat later and more quickly than he could even react, Rick then heard and felt someone breathe a hot breath on the back of his neck, and Kitty, a second later, again swiped at the air with her claws and was now growling in challenge almost continuously.
“God damn it! What the fuck is...?!” Rick rambled in frustration, feeling threatened but unable to see a thing and feeling fear closing in all around him and threatening to completely overwhelm him.
A moment later, he heard a playful giggle that he was pretty sure didn't come from Kitty, and it, in fact, fluttered on the air, first on one side of him and then crossed in front of him to the other side. Knocking his shotgun from his arms the next minute, he suddenly heard Kitty make a strange exhale of a sound, almost as if she were swooning, and then he felt her fall into him. Letting go of his falling gun and wrapping his arms around the petite cat-woman, Rick felt the dead weight of her in his arms and his heart suddenly lodged inside his throat in worry. Had she suddenly been killed? Who the hell is out there in the darkness? How can he possibly fight, what he couldn't even see? Not only that, but he had just dropped the only weapon he had. He was in deep shit, and he knew it.
“Kitty! Kitty! Are you all right?!” Rick panicked, pulling her limp body up and shaking her.
A heartbeat later, Rick heard that playful giggle again in the air, and this time he knew for certain that it couldn't have been Kitty. He was now surrounded on all sides by complete darkness, and it was so bad that even though he was holding Kitty close to him, he couldn't see her at all. In fact, if he had put his hand right in front of his face at that moment, he knew he wouldn't even be able to see his own fingers.
“Who is there?! What do you want?! Why are you doing this?!” Rick shouted out frantically, being completely disarmed and at the mercy of whatever mysterious force had attacked them.
“You summoned me,” a sultry female voice whispered then into his ear, and he could even feel her hot breath on his earlobe.
Jerking away and pulling Kitty with him, Rick smacked his back up against the sewer wall once again, his eyes wide and his breathing heavy.
“Who... Who are you?! And what have you done to Kitty?” Rick asked, holding Kitty in his arms but still blinded by darkness.
“She is only asleep,” answered the playful voice, which seemed to be on his right one moment, then, the next instant, was over on his left.
Not being able to see anything at all, Rick was scared out of his mind, and he could feel his heart pounding in his chest and his knees were weak. Like when he was a little kid certain that there was a monster in his closet, Rick just wanted to run out of there as fast as his feet could carry him. Not only that, but he had now lost all track of where he had dropped his shotgun in the dark. He distinctly understood that he was completely at the mercy of whatever was toying with them.
“Are you with the Constables?” Rick warily asked, his head whipping one way, then another.
After a playful laugh that seemed to dance all around him for several seconds, the voice finally whispered, “No.”
“Then... Then what do you want?” Rick asked, stepping as far back as he could, to where his ankles were pressed right up against the sidewall of the sewer.
“A deal,” simply replied the sultry voice, and then he felt a hot breath again blow on his ear and cheek.
“A deal? Who are you? Why don't you show yourself, and... and we can talk then?” Rick asked, trying to master his fear.
“Sorry, my... self isn't here right now. I am but a faint echo of it,” the voice teased.
“What are you? A... A ghost?” Rick asked, feeling goosebumps pepper his neck and back.
“No, not quite. I need you to set me free, Rick Hancock, and then I can help you find... Jizzy! Oh, what a wonderful name!” the voice breathed passionately, like a hot and excited lover.
“How... How do you know my name? How do you know about Jizzy?” Rick defensively asked, wondering exactly what else this secretive voice in the dark might know.
“I know... everything about you, Rick. I can go into the darkest of places, and I have wandered the roads of your most hidden thoughts and desires, even those you'd never put word to. In fact, your desires are what drew my attention to you,” the playful voice admitted.
“Who are you?” Rick then pointedly asked.
“No, you don't get that... too dangerous. But, instead, you can call me... Darkness,” the teasing voice answered.
“Why don't you give me your real name?” Rick asked.
“Among my kind, giving out one's real name has... too many strings attached, you might say. You can call me Darkness though,” the voice assured him.
“Why did you harm, Kitty?” Rick asked, still holding up his feline companion close to him.
“Harm her!?” the voice breathed in shock. “I hardly harmed her. I just put her to sleep, so that we could talk, that's all.”
Rick had seen all kinds of scary movies over the course of his life, and his mind was filled with all the horrible possibilities of everything this bodiless voice might be. He was still frightened and trembling, and he felt a deep drive to know exactly who he was dealing with.
“What... What are you, Darkness?” Rick asked after a few silent moments.
“I told you, an echo of a voice. That is why I am here though. I need your help. You help me, and then I help you. How does that sound?” she simply asked, and again, he felt hot breath on the back of his neck.
“What do you need me to do?” Rick then asked.
“Free me. Unlock a door. It's that simple...”
“And in turn?”
“In turn, I can bring you to the dungeon where your djinn is being held,” the voice shrewdly bargained.
“How do you know where she is being held?” Rick asked.
“I have heard her screaming. I can hear everything in the dark when I want to. Nothing is hidden from me in the dark... nothing,” giggled the playful voice.
“So... So Jizzy is near?” Rick tried his luck, his eyes scanning the pitch black around him but still not seeing a thing.
“Near, far, what is the difference? Those things are not limitations. I can take you to where she is being held,” Darkness assured him.
“How... How do I know I can trust you?” Rick asked, his mind still alive with all the monstrous possibilities of what Darkness could be.
“Trust!? Really, Rick Hancock? You cannot really trust anyone, but what you should know is, if I swear an oath, unlike you, I am wholly bound to that oath. I will swear an oath to you that after you set me free, I will bring you to the dungeon where your Jizzy is being held,” Darkness explained to him.
“Why? Why would you help me do this? You must not be a kull, then?” Rick guessed, trying to eliminate the possibilities of what she could be since she was being so evasive and vague in her answers.
“No. I am not one of them!” she growled, her voice, for the very fist time, laced with anger.
“What... What are you then?”
“Does it really matter, Rick?” she asked, her voice sounding as if she was growing bored with him and his questions.
“It does,” Rick immediately replied. “I don't know who or what you are. I have no idea the consequences of the deal I would be making with you.”