Coming back to the present, the man she was following had stopped to examine some wares at a stand. Shit; she thought. Keep on walking and go somewhere secluded. The man kept examining items and having a conversation with the keeper of the stand. It looked like he was going to be there awhile. She found a nearby bench and sat down between two other townspeople, adjusted her hood, and subtly kept an eye on the man. To pass time, she thought back to the day she used her powers for the second time.

Two months had passed since the first attack, and she had never been able to trigger her powers a second time. She was walking home again; alone as always, when another man approached her. She had a sudden flash back to the night the man came for her on Isaac's bidding and the pit grew again in her core.

"Hey baby." The man slurred; stumbling towards her." Let me have a go with ya."

"I am not working anymore tonight. Come by the Red Rose tomorrow when you have had time to sober up."

Holding himself up with a hand propped on the side of a closed market stand, he said, "You will work if I tell you to work, whore. That is your job. I am to be pleased by you, and you are lucky if I decide to give you any coin at all for your services."

He began to stumble towards her again, and the pit suddenly flared and took control of her body once again. She shifted swiftly, and appeared at his side and struck his throat, followed by a solid kick downwards to the backside of his knee, forcing him to collapse with one leg limp and hands grasping his throat. She found a foot sized rock, and crashed it to the side of his face. Grasping for consciousness, he fell prone. She raised her foot and rapidly brought it down; crushing his skull; ending his pathetic life.

The void quickly collapsed, and emotions set in. Realization that she had finally used her powers again was quickly diminished by the comprehension that she had just brutally killed a man. She didn’t know what to do; she took off running down the street. Turning a corner, she crashed into a man and woman. Hastily she brushed herself off, apologized to the couple, and began to walk away.

"Vic, wait." The woman said. "There is a way to control your powers and to make a difference here. There is no need to continue living as you do."

"I'm sorry miss, but I am not sure what it is that you are talking about. If you will excuse me, I would like to be getting home before my husband becomes too worried and comes looking for me. I am sorry again for knocking into the two of you."

"You know exactly what it is that I speak of Vic. Would you prefer if I called you Victoria, the whore that is the answer to every man's dreams? We both know of your powers. You may not know exactly what it is that you are, but you are not alone. There are others like you, and I have talked to them in the past. I can tell you how to have control of your powers; to make them sit at your beck and call, and to be used when you want to use them instead of just hoping that when they are needed, they will suddenly come to you."

"I'm nothing more than a whore. I'm not special."

"Do not say that Vic. Everyone is special in their own way. Do not ever belittle yourself. This world is hard enough on each of us and we do not need to make it more challenging by being hard on ourselves. As for your powers; feel the void. When you feel the emptiness, take a deep breath and calm yourself. Let it become one with you; it is just a deeper aspect of your being. With calmness, comes understanding and with understanding, comes power. Do not fight it, force it, or lose hope. It will become a part of you. Use your powers for good. I have a feeling that something twisted is going on in this city, and you can be the person that begins to clean this city up. Be careful though. You will be needed soon. A hero of old has returned. He will gather allies to stop evil and he will need your help. Stay safe, Vic. We will meet again soon."

With that, the couple left Vic standing there, dumbfounded.

For days following the encounter with the couple, Vic kept going over the conversation. Be calm; let the void fill you. It is a part of you. Something twisted is happening in this city and you, Vic, can help fix it. A hero has returned to defeat evil and will need your help. You are not alone. These words left her with more questions than answers and she needed the answers. How could she, a lonely, simple whore, do anything to fix a city that had begun falling apart? She was liable to end up dead in an alley herself. What would a hero want with her, except maybe to make her his whore? The statement that left her with the most questions was of her not being alone. Who were the others and could she find them? Could they truly help her if she did find them?

In the months to come after the encounter, Vic practiced letting the void fill her, and she finally got the hang of it. She began to sneak around at night and with the aid of her powers granting her superior reflexes and senses, she hoped to see if she could learn more about what was happening in the city. She was out a month earlier, when she heard a commotion in a nearby alleyway and went to investigate. There were four men, and a helpless woman. Her dress was torn in places, as she was trying to fight the men off all the while, working to cover herself up.

"We are taking you with us back to Isaac," Vic overheard one of the mean say "he never said we couldn’t have a little fun with you first."

That was all that was said before Vic stepped into the alley, saying, "Take your hands off of her." She could feel the void throughout her body and could discern the startled faces as they turned to excitement.

"Look what we have here," one of the men said, "another whore wants to join our party."

"I'm not a whore." Vic said, I do not have to be one anymore at least, she thought; and with that she shifted, and was slamming into the man who called her one. Vic took advantage of the opening that now presented to her, as the other men were shocked that she attacked with such force. She readied her hidden knives and struck at the nearest of the other men, drawing blood from the man's arm.

"Fucking slut," he roared, "you wanna play, let's play bitch."

Vic stood planted, waiting to see who would attack first. A man came charging for her, sword held high, determination written on his face. Just as he was close enough to attack, Vic dodged to his side, under his blade, and sliced through his tunic, which gained her a curse. She readied herself as the next attacker came charging for her. She dodged his blade, and gave him a punch to the side of the head with the handle of the knife, disorienting the man. Two of the men started running for her and she charged straight for them. With the aid of her powers, she jumped at one of the men, slamming the knife, hilt deep, into his throat and using momentum, she swung around behind the other man to slam her other knife into his spine. Both fell limp.

The man she had sliced on the side began to come towards her. He swung his blade at her. She crossed her knives and parried the strike. She flung his blade back, and struck. Seven rapid stabs from her blades, downed the man. The man that she had left disoriented from the strike to the head began to back away from her and then took off running, leaving Vic alone with the three dead bodies and the disheveled woman, who had crawled to a corner and curled herself up and wept.

Walking over to the woman, Vic said, "are you all right? Did they hurt you at all?"

"I-I, think I'm fine. Who are you and how did you stop them?" the woman said.

"My name is Vic and I am just like you."

"What do you mean you are just like me?"

"A man came for me from Isaac, once before, saying I was special and that they wanted to turn me to their cause. I did not understand why, but I was able to defeat him, the same way I defeated the men that were attacking you. We are special; we have a gift, ability, and they want to use us as tools for their own reasons. Your body, they deposit in some alleyway if you decide not to join them. I can teach you to use your gift, and we can work to clean this city up. I met a mysterious couple once and the woman told me what I needed to do to control my power. She told me a hero has returned to us and would need my help. She also said that I was not alone; there were others like me. I have now found you and together we can make a difference."

"We-we have powers? What-what does that even mean? I am just a simple woman, how could I do anything to clean up the city? Where would we even start?

"Well, how about we start with you telling me your name?"

"My name, my name is Allie; Allie Pierce."