In a place with psychedelic Lights and distorted Items two Maids fell through the space sometimes down, sometimes sideways and on rare occasions up. The whole place was looking like a fever dream of tunnels, chambers, and plaid.

  While one of them was crossing their legs like she was sitting on some kind of invisible chair, the other had her eyes closed hard and tensed into a ball while moving impossibly through the place.

  Seconds past into Minutes and finally a circular hole was visible in the distance where both of them shot through. Entering the Hole both vanished from the place or maybe the place vanished entirely from existence afterwards.

  —

  In the School city was a rather unsuspecting dead end. Most people do not wander there, as it was just a way for a few Shops to transport their waste without being seen by Nobles with extremely high vanity.

  On the floor of this Dead end a black circle expanded and out this circle flew a ball shaped maid while another gracefully got ejected and landed silently on her feet. The Ball on the other hand met the floor hard before unfurling into a rather distraught looking Seria standing up while shaking a bit.

  “We are here~”

  “Noticed it already, Alice. Huff. Where are we in the city exactly?”

  “Restaurant District. Near the small Bistro Drak likes.”

  “Close enough. Can you search the Barkley Residence, as he might have the most Information. You can at least search things, I cannot. Just as ordered no traces and no killing if not necessary.”

  “Roger~”

  While moving to the end of the dead end Alice just vanished before she could enter the street and Seria was alone.

  “Better get to work too.”

  On the Street before the small dead end were many carriages driving around while Servants were walking through the busy street. Many of those side Streets were there to make it easier for Servants to go from A to B without hindering Nobles on the main streets. Sometimes Noble Carriages take those streets too to take shortcuts, but most do not ever use those streets, if there were official Streets with better construction.

  While being busy a man with slight stubbles came out of the Dead End and vanished into the masses.

  Not even a few Minutes later Alice appeared in front of the Barkley Residence. Without even being noticed by the guards she just jumped over the Fence while gliding down like a feather to the floor. Going to the wall of the Mansion Alice laid a hand on the wall.

  “[Trick door]~”

  The wall opened like a door and Alice was going in. As the wall closed back to being a wall Alice leaned her head to the side.

  “Am I too late?~”

  Walking through the Mansion there were no lifesigns and while the Guards outside seem to still be on duty the inside was having a metallic scent. Alice took the direct way to the Bedchamber of the Master of the Mansion, while walking by some doors where slight blood pools seeped from the gap below them. Entering the Bedchamber Alice was standing there while a shadow removed a blade from the throat of Martin Barkley, seeing his job finished.

  “And you are?~”

  Startled by the sudden voice the man in dark clothes turned around. What he did not expect was a Maid to not scream but just ask casually like that. Somewhat baffled he was unsure of his training, as he did neither notice her or execute her while cleaning the Mansion.

  “I am no one, and you are dead the second you scream.”

  “Oh, that is why I speak to you casually, you are no one, that makes sense~”

  Not understanding what Alice said, he was inching closer for a quick kill before she made a struggle. Seeing this Alice did nothing, just said a few words.

  “[Fun House]~”

  Lunging to her he noticed she was further away as expected. The Rug which was rather sturdy looking slipped, when he wanted to put more force into a second step and fell to his knees before looking up and seeing the Maid gone.

  “Shit! Did I lose my edge?”

  Hurriedly he ran after her and came to the stairs. He saw the Maid casually walking up the stairs to the third floor like she was not even bothered to be chased by an assassin. As he rushed to get to the top of the stairs, she was already gone again but saw a door at the end of the long corridor close.

  While he ran to the Door on instinct to eliminate the threat of exposure he noticed something significant he missed while he was chasing.

  ‘Wait, third floor? This Mansion has only two!’

  Still working on instinct he quickly opened the door and saw a Toy room. Giant Teddy Bears, balls as big as him and some Dolls.

  ‘What is going on?!’

  Carefully entering the Room he looked around and found a small staircase down.

  ‘Why is there a staircase here? That is not right, I need to abort!’

  Before he could do anything the Door at the other end of the Room slammed shut and the large Teddy Bear started to move. Thinking the Maid might have hidden inside the Bear he cut the throat of the bear but only cotton came out while the bear swung his fluffy paw down hard.

  Being hit by the bear he was at first disoriented, before coming back to his senses. The cotton was gladly cushioning the swing, as if it were not cotton his head might have been obliterated by the force.

  Having no option as the bear was obviously not a living being the Assassin rushed down the stairs, just to find a crossroad of more stairs, one going up and two going down. Taking the left down he came to another Staircase crossing and taking the left again, at the third he took the front stairs up and came out in what looked like a kitchen, where a cake was already prepared, but no one was around.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Who are you again~?”

  The Voice came from everywhere and nowhere, when the Assassin said again: “I am no one!”

  “Oh right~”

  After that he went for the next door as his reflexes warned him of impending danger. He moved his head in the last second before a kitchen knife embedded itself into the wall. Noticing more movements he rolled right away into another position when half a dozen more knives and out of reasons a fork outlined the trajectory of his roll. He could escape right before all the pots and pans suddenly started to ricochet through the Kitchen like pinballs, while the Cake on the tray was never hit once.

  After this ordeal the Assassin started to panic and it did not get better when he saw where he was now. In a large ballroom some Instruments were playing themselves while Chairs were everywhere moving gracefully their legs and dancing with each other. Chairs Dancing was something he never thought he would see in his entire life.

  “This is fucked up! Is that Illusion Magic?”

  Quickly taking all the antidotes he had he noticed they had no effect. He felt like everything he was seeing was real, but his Sanity did not accept that. Searching for an Exit he found one. If he could not escape through doors, he would take the Window.

  Taking a Start and jumping through the Window he shattered the glass and wanted to prepare himself for rolling on the ground to cushion the fall, but noticed with shock the Gravity was reversed and he fell upward.

  With practice he could barely change his position to not break multiple bones and rolled rather awkwardly on a marble floor. When he finally was back to his senses through the adrenaline he noticed he was in the foyer and not outside. The stairs upwards with the red carpet were there, the glass shards of the Window he broke were lying around but something was wrong.

  “Where is the Window I just jumped through?”

  Ignoring the Shock he used his remaining strength to stand up and escape through the Main Door. Through fear of what was happening he did not even stop as he snapped the door open and rushed through, just to be in an eerie dark Corridor with wet floors and endless Iron doors with Metal Slides to look into the Cells behind them.

  He knew this place or rather, it was his nightmare. This was the place where they put him as a small child to make him an experienced Assassin. Out of the hundreds of children only a few survived and he was one of the unlucky survivors. Seeing his nightmare he wanted to go back but the door was gone.

  Metal sliding on metal was heard from somewhere, like someone opened the surveillance windows and closed them. This Sound was grating on the Assassins nerves while he tried to find the source by slowly and carefully moving about.

  “Nothing here, nothing there~”

  The melodious voice of the Maid was now for him the most devilish sound he had ever heard. Even the cries of the other Children while being trained were not that grating than this carefree sound.

  “Where are you!”

  “Huh? Oh I am here~”

  Searching for the noise made him start to shiver in absolute fear. This feeling he thought he casted away long ago made him extremely uncomfortable. Even Torture would not be this harsh and he knew it as his training included being tortured.

  “You do not know even who your owner is, how sad~”

  Walking further and further, he could only try to end this Demon clothed as a maid to end this Horror. After he was out of this place he would even kill himself, he promised this himself just to never think of it again.

  “Nothing to find out, sadly. Do you know who you even are?~”

  “As I said I am NO ONE!”

  “Yes, I remember now~”

  After a corner he saw the Maid closing a looking Window and turned around to him. Her Hair was long and black and the Skin was too white. The Eyes of her looked at him with pity, which made him even more angry.

  “I’m going to kill you!”

  “How?~”

  “I am gutting you with my knife like a fish! I never made more than the necessary cuts, but for you I butcher you into pieces!”

  “You can’t do that as you have no knife. In fact you have no arms either~”

  “What are you saying you Bi- …!”

  Noticing he could not see his arms he panicked.

  “Did you already forget? You are no one~”

  “What are you talking-”

  “As you are no one, you do not exist. If you do not exist you have no arms. In fact you have nothing~”

  “No, I have… Wait, I am me! I exist!”

  "No, you do not. You said multiple times you are no one, remember?~”

  “No, nonono! I exist! I have a Name my name is… What was my Name?!”

  “Only people have Names. No one is nameless~”

  “No I exist, I am-”

  “Sorry I need to go now. You should vanish in a few moments completely~”

  “Wait, please help me. I do exist, please don’t let me vanish!”

  “I have work to do, bye~”

  With those Words Alice turned her back to nothing and walked away. The place where no one was existing got smaller. Doors vanished and the floor got shorter and shorter. Everything got erased, slowly and deliberately by being someone who never existed. The last thought vanished and Alice stood in the Bedchamber where the throat of Martin Barkley had not stopped to bleed.

  “Huh? I think I fought someone… Probably no one important~”

  Going to Martin she looked at him and sighed.

  “Too late~”

  While his throat was just being cut, the weapon must have been poisoned or enchanted as he was already braindead before he stopped bleeding. With him being dead there were many leads gone without a trace.

  “Then the good old work is needed~”

  Turning around, Alice got to the study and started to search the Documents lying around. Searching the whole Study was tedious work but while she needed multiple hours to work through all of it noting everything that might be a clue she was not disturbed. As she left the Mansion it was already starting to get bright again, while Guards turned the whole Mansion upside down for clues of who would have the audacity to just kill someone with noble heritage in the School City like that.

  While Alice was just entering the Mansion, Seria was also searching a house. The House of the one who might probably the leader of the small Clique of Nobles. He was the oldest of the Children who were with them and had somewhat the most influence except for Barkey, as he was the acquaintance of Drak.

  “House of Count Chanderfield’s Son. Better get to it and search through it before there is nothing to find.”