Dance of the Gods

The man was dead...

And he was dead because of Veronica...

She didn't technically kill him and he most definitely deserved it, but that didn't change the fact... She was a murderer.

It would have been fine really, in the main room –– where the man landed –– most people were his crewmates. They knew what he was like, that he was at fault... But it wasn't her lucky day.

There was only silence in the room, then slowly two people stood up and drew their revolvers. They took out their badges, marking them as police officers. Their shift was over and they came here to relax a bit... Let out some steam.

They walked towards the stairs careful, not knowing what happened or if the culprit had a weapon. When they come close to the staircase, they looked at each other and nodded.

Moving quickly they pointed their guns at the top of the stairs, expecting someone to shoot at them, but what they didn't expect was that there was no shooter, or anyone resisting.

On the top sat a young woman with tear marks on her face. She seemed to be in a daze and just kept staring at the man with a broken neck. One of the officers checked his pulse anyway, then he looked at his partner and shook his head.

The other man walked out into the room and called to all the sailors.

"This is a murder scene! No one leaves until we say so!" There was some grumbling, but they only had to take one glance at the officer's gun to stay seated and silent.

In the meantime the other one slowly approached the woman. He came face to face with her and asked, "What happened? Did he try to hurt you and you pushed him? If so that is self defense and you won't get a murder charge."

She didn't answer, her vacant eyes couldn't seem to focus on anything. The officer started to get annoyed.

"Say something dammit! Do you have identifications on you?"

Silence was the only answer he got. With a sigh he stood up and went downstairs. Here his partner was already speaking with the sailors and after a couple more minutes they began talking in whispers with each other.

"The man's name was Pete Hick, he was a sailor on the Airen, a merchant vessel which just came to port. The others described him as a jerk how doesn't understand the concept of no. The woman is a barmaid and he harassed her a couple hours ago as well."

The other man looked thoughtful, he had a pretty good idea of what could've happened.

"So, this Pete who already harassed her once. Just happened to be at the top of the stairs when she went up. Then just fell down the stairs... It was probably self defense then, but she doesn't have any identification or just in too much shock to respond."

"What should we do?"

They looked towards the stairs and the corpse. There wasn't much to be done, in the Free Cities it was a crime to not have IDs. It was punishable by a hefty fine, then you are required to head to the Courthouse and make one.

"We have to bring her in. If she doesn't comply that is an obstruction of justice, which is a crime. You said she doesn't have ID as well, which is a crime as well."

The other man sighed, he clearly didn't want to bring the girl in who is probably just suffered some trauma, but they were officers of the law. There job was to uphold it no matter the person or status.

"Okay, I will bring her in and send someone to take the corpse away. You should also find the owner and talk to him."

His partner nodded and they both went separate ways. One of them walked up the steps and grabbed the woman, she didn't try to fight him and just let him lead her down the stairs. Her eyes never left the dead man's body. Even when they were about to step out of the building, she was still looking there.

Once they actually left the building though, her eyes just stared at the ground in front of her.

"I'm Officer Stephen by the way."

The man introduced himself, the woman didn't even blink and continued looking with that empty expression of hers.

"Still not talking, fine. Maybe a night in a jailcell will loosen your tongue."

It would have taken a long time to walk all the way to the station. Luckily in the Free Cities there was a rule for carriage drivers, if an officer is ever need of quick transportation they are obligated to help.

Officer Stephen waved towards a private carriage heading their direction. The carriage stopped and he showed his badge. In the carriage travelled a government official, but no matter how annoyed he got, the law was above everyone.

The driver helped Stephen pull the girl up and he went and sat next to her.

The ride took approximately 15 minutes, Stephen jumped down from his seat and helped the girl down as well. She was still silent.

They walked into the police station, it was a huge building compared to the houses next to it. He brought the girl to the main counter, where Dan was about to retire for the night.

He was an average looking man, on the older side of the scale of time. He had black hair and green eyes, he also wore glasses. Stephen always felt a bit weirded out by him, he didn't quite know why, but probably because of his obsession to cleanliness and order. On his table everything had to follow some kind of uniformity, the stacked papers just had to be perfectly aligned.

His shift only ended now, but before he could've left, Stephen had to record the arrest and file the paperwork. Looking a bit surprised he said, "Hey, Stephen. I thought you retired for the day. Who is this girl?"

"Yeah I was. I went with Stan to Miles Inn to drink a bit after work, but there was an accident and someone died. She is the one that presumably caused it, but she haven't spoken a word to me, so its only a guess."

Dan looked thoughtful, then began to find the right form for Stephen to fill out. Eventually he found it and handed it to him.

"No this is the wrong one. It wasn't a murder, but self defense. We brought her in, since she has no ID and she didn't talk, which is obstruction of justice."

He just shrugged and took out the right form. Stephen thanked him and quickly filled it out. When he was done, he led the woman to one of the holding cells and locked her in.

"You know, you just have to start talking to me and we can work something out. You don't have to spend the night in this cell."

The woman just sat down onto the bed and stared at the floor. Stephen sighed and went away to send someone for the dead body.

In the cell Veronica's mind was in shambles. Killing someone even a person who deserved it... She just couldn't take it.

The cell was cold and silent. She lay on the cot and watched the ceiling while trembling. The scene was constantly replaying in her head.

She walks up the stairs, gets attacked, tries to defend herself and pushes him down. Then there was that horrible crack of his neck breaking. It just kept playing. She walks up, gets attacked pushes him down, crack... Goes up, gets attacked, push down, crack... Goes, attacked, pushed, crack... 

After a while only the last sound repeated...

She tried to fall asleep, but the sound haunted her. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the body. When she took a breath, he could've swore she heard the man's last breath echo around the cell.

Many people would think her weak. How could someone be so broken up by killing an evil person. But she wasn't like those people, she was just a university student stuck in a strange different world and trying her hardest to survive.

Truth be told, it wouldn't have hurt her so much if it would've happened in her own home.

But she wasn't home... She was as far away from home as possible. She didn't even know, if she would be able to get back.

So no, it wasn't the murder that caused this disconnection to reality... It was only the trigger.

When that person died, something changed in her. She never really thought this world to be a reality, it felt more like a weird dream that she would wake up from and tell her friends about.

Now... Now she knew...

This isn't a dream or game or anything like that. This is her new life. Maybe she will find a way to return, but that is a very big 'if'.

There was a chance... A very high chance, that she will never find a way back home.

Deep down she knew it already, but at that moment. When she heard the cracking of that neck, her life flashed before her eyes. She saw all her memories even the ones about this world, and the realization set in... She had no way of getting back.

She won't see her parents ever again, or her brothers, or her friends. She will never finish university, then falls in love with some guy, gets married, have kids and dies happily with her family around her.

There is only this world, empty of anything that connects her to it.

She felt that way too... Empty... With no reason to be alive...

In her mind there was a little voice, it spoke to her.

'Of course you have a reason to live, you can make new connections, have new friends. You can still build a family and who knows... Maybe find a way back.'

It was strange, the voice sounded like her, but also different... But it was right! She didn't know if it was just her subconscious speaking or something more mysterious, but she didn't care.

Suddenly in her heart a very little spark of hope ignited. It gave her enough strength to chase away the useless depressing thoughts. Then she remembered something, she should try to focus her mind, like those other times... It always seemed to help.

She closed her eyes and ignored the memory of the dead sailor. Instead she concentrated on that spark of hope and slowly, but surely cleared her mind.

After a couple of minutes she fell asleep, with that spark burning even more. If you looked at it you could even see a very small satisfied smile in the embers, like the hope done a great job keeping itself alive.