One city two faces 

Some tales start heroically, others start simply and some come about due to a happy accident. This is a story about a girl and a simple mistake that would shape her life and by extension the city she lives in, it is not a story of overwhelming triumph or of failure. Just a story of how sometimes mistakes can be the very thing that makes us human.

Chapter 1

Scarlet stared out the window of her fathers apartment, as the deluge of rain outside continued. The rain was nearly deafening against the  glass she found herself sitting next to. . After all the work she had been doing recently it felt nice to sit in this apartment covered in plants she and her father had planted together. To get away from her job in the factory and come and spend some time with her father. She felt a bit trapped really. Despite having been born rich, currently her family had little to no money. She along with her father were working themselves to the bone. Scarlet counted herself lucky to have been able to keep the apartment  she currently sat in, but she and her father knew this was a short term solution. They had to find a way to survive, and a factory job wasn't going to do it.

Suddenly lightning struck right outside of the apartment and the massive clap of thunder woke her from her thoughts and she quickly stood up scared the lightning had hit the building. She knew it had not, but still such a loud noise so suddenly had scared her. That was when it hit her, why was her father not home yet? He had promised he would be home early today and he was currently an hour late. Even in this sort of weather he shouldn't have been this late, and that was when she heard a knock on the door. Who would be knocking at the door, didn't he have his key? She made her way to the door and looked through the peephole, a police officer stood at the door. Scarlet felt a tinge of fear run up her back, as she opened the door to see what this officer wanted.

“How can I help you?”

“Are you Scarlet?” The officer asked with a bit of discomfort in his voice, as if he had something bad to tell her.

“Yes that is my name, what do you need?” She asked a bit of fear creeping into her voice as he stood there at the door.

“There was an accident.. At the factory.”

Scarlet stared at him for a minute wondering what exactly he meant by that, an accident in the factory? What did that mean for her? Wait an accident at that factory, the factory she had a day off from and her father was hard at work at? Her stomach began to roll as that thought hit her, surely not he couldn't of.. Could he?

“Is my dad okay?” The girl asked fearfully as she stared at the officer hoping it wasn't what she thought. Surely not right, he wasn't dead, probably just injured right.

The officer removed his hat and shook his head before he shakily spoke up. “I'm afraid.. Your father passed away a little over an hour ago in an industrial accident.”

Scarlet was stunned for a moment as waves of fear, anger and disbelief passed over her. Dad was dead? That could not be! Surely he had to be mistaken. Was what she was thinking until he pulled a ring from his pocket, and offered it to her.

“I'm sorry but this is all we can give you back, it.. Was all we could find.” the officer put his hat back on and pulled a paper from his pocket. “If you would like to keep up with this investigation please call this number, and may god bless you.”

Scarlet quickly took the paper and shut the door, she didn't want anyone to see her cry or know that she had a weakness. Suddenly it felt like the one bedroom apartment scarlet and her father shared felt so cold. The walls felt as if they were closing in upon her, suddenly the entire world felt like it was crumbling down. First they lost most of their fortune and now that her father died and she had no one else, all she had left was her fathers diamond marriage ring. The ring he promised he would give to her when she got married. She had one other item from long ago, her fathers dueling rapier.

The sword she would not allow to be taken from her. Nor the ring of her father. Soon the emotions overtook her and she collapsed to her knees, as the crushing feeling of loneliness hit her. The tears began to flow down her cheeks in a steady deluge like the rain slapping against the window of the apartment. There was nothing she could do but cry. What else was there, what had caused this. Why did it have to be him, why couldn't it have been anyone else? Who else was there for her, what else could be done but to cry. If only there was something she could do, who caused this accident? Was it an accident at all? Someone had to pay. A flash of anger crossed her eyes despite the fact she was bawling her eyes out. Suddenly there was another knock at the door, and then a letter was suddenly pushed under the door at her feet. The letter had a weird logo on it but yet felt so familiar to her. She was drawn to it and had this strange urge to open it that she just couldn't stop. She tore the letter open with voracious gusto, from the envelope fell two items. The first item was a handwritten note, the second a calling card. The note simply read ‘To scarlet, the daughter of a once great man now removed from this earth, The power to find the truth is within you.’

The power to find the truth was within her? What could that possibly mean and why was it written so strangely? She wanted to figure that out but then she remembered the calling card? Where had it gone too? She began to scramble around on the floor till she found the card. It was upside down, and impossibly black. She grabbed the card and flipped its face up. The face of the card had a shield embossed upon it that looked as if it was burning. That was strange, how could a card be burning but yet be producing no smoke? Suddenly with a blinding flash the card burst into flames and ceased to be. And as the card vanished, a sudden warmth grew within her as if suddenly everything was going to be fine, and then she collapsed to the ground out cold.

The next morning scarlet awoke on the floor of the apartment hours later than she should have awoken. She was going to be late! Then a feeling hit her, she needed to bring her fathers sword with her, and she wasn't sure why but she grabbed it anyway. As soon as she touched the hilt of the rapier suddenly the blade of the sword caught on fire, and she screamed and let go of the blade. At that exact moment a voice spoke to her from the corner of the room.

“Be not afraid young one, all I have done is provide you with the power of change. A fire has many meanings, and the fire in your heart is the change this city of two faces needs.” She began to turn towards the corner and look where the voice was coming from when it spoke up again.

“Before you turn around, answer a question.” She stopped and then shrugged before responding. “What is the question?” 

“If I told you that you had the power to destroy this city what would you do?” 

“I would leave the city alone, the innocents of the city have not wronged me. I simply want to know why my father is dead, and whose fault it was.”

The voice laughed and then responded “Well if that's the case, you may turn around.”

Scarlet spun on the spot and laid her eyes upon something rather strange, it looked like a book floating in the corner, on fire? “I must be seeing things, that must be what it is.”

“You aren't seeing things”

“You're right i am seeing-” She stopped, the book just talked.”What the hell are you?” she asked frantically the rapier finding its way back into her hand.

“I am the ghost of Christmas past.. Just kidding, I'm a magical familiar. You can call me asmodeus.” He said with a grin, or whatever a grin would be for a shapeless mass of flames.

“Okay so first my dad dies and now some demon is summoned due to me being emotional? This is truly a sick joke huh?”

“It's not a joke, and I'm offering to help you with your quest? You want to know what killed your father. I'm your best choice kid.” Asmodeus seemed trustworthy, but something about him didnt feel right. Yet, this was her chance to have the power to make a change.

“Fine, what do we do?”

Asmodeus suddenly flared up a bit. Clearly showing how happy he was, despite being a glowing mass of flame. “Well then lets get this started huh?”