Astraeus and the Constellations of Accalon

The air was cold and dry, even for a winter night. A fog had settled in that made everything seem as if it were painted all in grey. The cobblestone streets were slick, the streetlamps barely illuminating the way forward.

This was a rough town, no one could dispute that. It was said that this city was built on the back of the lawlessness that had spread from the war-torn lands across the sea. No one knew how long ago the war had ended, or even how it had started. But those who were born here didn't remember a time when crime hadn’t been so common place.

As I walked through the streets, keeping my hands buried deep in my coat pockets and my head bent low against the biting chill, I tried to forget about why I was here. I tried to pretend as if I wasn't afraid of what might happen next.

But I was afraid. So very afraid...

I turned down a narrow alleyway with no other option but to walk straight down it. Ahead of me, several feet away, stood a man dressed in black and wearing a mask shaped like some kind of bird's beak. He reached out towards me as I approached him, holding out his hand and beckoning me towards him. He muttered something indistinguishable under his breath and then cleared his throat loudly before speaking again.

"Are you lost?" His voice echoed slightly in the alleyway, bouncing off of every wall and ceiling. "Do you need an answer?"

I shook my head slowly back and forth before answering him with a soft whisper, not wanting to wake anyone else who might be sleeping in their homes nearby. "No...no answers tonight."

The man shrugged his shoulders and nodded. "Alright then." He grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me around behind him until we were standing at an old wooden door set into one side of the alleyway walls. He knocked three times then fished a key out of his jacket pocket before unlocking the door and pulling me through it after him once he saw that it was unlocked.

We climbed up several flights of stairs before reaching a small landing where another door stood waiting for us on the other side of the landing's railing barrier wall. The man took hold of my arm again and pulled me over to stand just outside this second door before knocking yet again on its surface. After only a moment or two passed, he opened this door as well and pulled me inside with him once more before closing it behind us both again too quickly for me to see anything more than what appeared to be a normal looking bedroom with little more than a bedside table and lamp next to its bedside laying there in plain view instead of anything more sinister looking such as torture devices or instruments used for flesh cutting or bone breaking...or whatever else they might use these days to inflict pain on others while they sleep so they can live another day longer without having to deal with anyone trying to kill them in their sleep when they don't expect it to happen! As if reading my mind just then, he spoke up again with his voice echoing slightly once more off of everything he couldn't cover up all at once by simply touching his hand over his own mouth so all that escaped from between his fingers were quiet whispers meant only for my ears only!