The guard turned away from her, and for a moment Meryn was free of scrutiny. She couldn't run – the doors were locked and her friends were still here, in danger. She couldn't fight – the guards had [i]guns[/i]. She still had Spook's rune, but who knew what [i]that[/i] did. Meryn wasn't sure she wanted to take the chance after the ordeal with the snake monster. Her eyes darted to Lily and Emma. The clamorous sounds on both sides of the walls were reaching fever pitch. Oliver's bell sat heavy on her chest.

On an impulse Meryn raised Spook's mask and fastened it to her face.

The world that came into focus from behind the mask was a chaotic explosion of movement and color. Meryn saw her companions' familiar dreams shifting around them, as well as those of the guards, adrenaline making their movements sharp and erratic. She turned and saw a chaotic mass of color and movement from within the city – except she saw it [i]through the wall[/i]. She turned her head to look at the other side. Her blood immediately chilled. 

Beyond the wall was an enormous, writhing mass of black. It moved along the ground. Pieces broke away and started climbing the wall. The door started to crack. And then the scene was chaos.

Meryn's guard cut and run (not that she blamed him) shoving her aside and practically throwing a child at her. She didn't have time to recover as Emma grabbed her (and the poor kid) and made a break for the door. Meryn stumbled after Emma, unable to do more but follow after her as she was overwhelmed by the flurry of color and movement the mask showed. And the black slowly seeping through.

A foreign grip found her arm. Her head snapped to the side just in time for something to be roughly shoved into her chest. A stranger [i]yanked[/i] and Meryn felt Emma's hold on her hand slip. And without that anchor, Meryn was lost in the frantic sea of people.

Meryn could only struggle to stay on her feet as the stranger pulled too hard, running through the panicked citizens of Cogswall. The dizzying sights of people and dreams and [i]demons[/i] spun around her as she was dragged behind the stranger. By the gods above this was all her fault – if she'd just tossed the felidrake into the portal, if she hadn't used it to teleport the demon, if it hadn't been killed, if they hadn't been infected, [i]if she'd never left Enn in the first place[/i] –

They broke through the suffocating frenzy of people and emerged in a narrow, dead-end alley. Whoever it was that pulled her along turned over his shoulder, saying [b]"You one of those magic Traveller guys?"[/b]

But Meryn wasn't listening. Finally getting her bearings, she dug her heels into the ground and wrenched her wrist from the stranger's grip. She shoved whatever had been thrust upon her (some sort of… envelope? She didn't have the time to care) back into his own chest and used the force to try and push him away. Satisfaction flickered in her when she saw him stumble back a few steps, barely keeping from falling over. 

[b]"Hey!"[/b] he shouted in surprise.

She finally took him in – it was a man, older than her, taller than her (though that wasn't saying much), clearly [i]stronger[/i] with how he'd just dragged her through the mob. He was also… rather dirty. And smelly. Meryn had lived on the streets long enough to know the look of those who called it home.

But Meryn wasn't looking at [i]him[/i]. Not really. No, instead she was looking at the dreams living in the air around him. They were a lifeless mess of browns and greys, flat, stagnant colors that seemed to float aimlessly around him, even in this panic. They moved sluggishly, colors dripping and bleeding into each other. But every now and then, a brown would lighten to a flash of orange, grey would shift to an electric blue. They were the only hints that there might be any vibrancy to him at all.

Meryn wanted away from him. She had to find the others, and they needed to get [i]out[/i]. She spun her head around, her long braid, frayed and messy from her 'adventure' whipping behind her. She could still see the ever darkening mass of dreams near the city wall. Her eyes found a route up the rusting metal building that lined the alley, if she could get enough momentum to reach the first hand-hold. Meryn backed up as far as she could and bounced once on her toes. Her whole body still had aches and pains arcing through it. Steeling herself, she took off towards the wall.

But the man had closed the distance in the time it'd taken her to collect herself. She'd barely taken her first step when he clamped onto her arm again. The sudden change in her momentum threw Meryn off balance and she swung around to face him just as he once again shoved the envelope at her.

[b]"No, this is yours!"[/b] Frustration stained his voice his grip turning painful in his determination. Meryn lashed out – a response ingrained in her at a young age to angry men who wouldn't let go. Adrenaline surged in her and she grabbed her open bag with her free hand. She swung as hard as she could at the man.

[b]"F - [i]oof![/i]"[/b] 

Her bag collided with his stomach and he staggered back, releasing her arm. A slip of paper fluttered to the ground along with the envelope. The man was doubled over and coughing. Meryn turned and immediately took off at the wall again. Her feet landed once, twice against the rusted metal, helping to propel her upward. Her hands reached up, ready to latch onto a high window ledge to pull herself higher.

[b]"Stop running!"[/b] Meryn heard just before she felt a hard yank on her braid. Her hands missed the ledge. She fell back, landing hard on her rear, her arms barely catching herself, keeping her head from hitting the ground. Her hands burned with new cuts.

Her eyes snapped to the man, still bent over but looking determined. And annoyed. He was glaring at her as he reached down to curl his hand around a piece of paper. Meryn's eyes widened when she saw the intricate lines of a rune peaking out from under his fingers. The envelope was still crumpled on the ground.

[b]"For hell's sake just take it!!"[/b]

The rune began to glow.