Five Dead by Dawn

Five people can't be more different. Cosima is an Oracle, and widely in love. Astraid is an assassin who was hired to kill the Queen. Maxxy is a Witch serving as a nurse in the Royal Palac. Dior sold her soul to Maxxy so her family could live and has been a ghost since. And Irie is the famed Demon Queen, who stops at nothing to get what she wants. But then they wind up being kidnapped together and in desperate need to escape can they bond? Or will they just make it a thousand times worse?

Chapter 1: Cosima

Cosima Lennox hated how people could never trust her. Of course, by becoming the Oracle she should have realized it. As she stumbled through the Saturday market, she ignored the hate-filled comments and the rude comments and marched into a private booth in the center of the market.

“Roscoe Colin’s!” She huffed.

“Ah, Cosima. To what do I owe this pleasure?” Roscoe asks. He’s putting away a deck of tarot cards, no doubt just wrapping up a reading.

Cosima liked Roscoe a lot. He would indeed drive her insane, but she had known him forever and she couldn’t hate him for one thing.

“You told the Queen about me! And now she has an appointment in 30 minutes.”

Roscoe watches her pace. With his wolf’s grin, he looks mischievous. A snicker escapes his lips, and she debates punching him in the gut or his perfect smile.

“So are you saying…”

“Stop,” Cosima hisses trying to shut him up.

“That I have better customers than the famed Oracle herself?”

“No,” Cosima pauses to let her mind speak for her “you know exactly why she wouldn’t believe in my gift. Your stuff is all luck, odds, and probability, but mine is harder to… comprehend than that. Oh, if I’m right, the Queen is walking down the street right… now.”

As the royal trumpets squeak and squabble Cosima smirks and slips out the flap of a door, ending up right next to the Queen herself.

“Hello, madam. Cosima Lennox is at your service. You have an appointment with me…”

As the Queen's head turned to look at her, Cosima understood the hesitant feelings surrounding her. Her fully black eyes were a shade darker than the devil horns on her head. Her walnut brown hair was styled so that it had tons of braids. A scar took out part of her left eyebrow and eye and went down to her lips. In the same spot as the scar was a silver hoop ring on her lip.

“Oh, you’re the one that claims to see the future…” Her voice came out sharp and her mouth twisted into a scowl. Cosima silently cursed Roscoe for telling the Queen about her.

“If you will just give me a chance I can show you. I can prove it to you. Of course, there are some contracts you have to sign, and I can’t tell you how soon this is going to happen but it has always worked.” Cosima said. Then she took the Queen's arm and led her to a massive privet booth.

When the Queen finally settled down and stopped her rude remarks, Cosima took both hands and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, she was in a small room that had five little beds. The Queen, Cosima was looking through her eyes and was being restrained by two girls that Cosima didn’t know. Across from the Queen was her. But Future Cosima had a bloody nose and another girl was holding a small box of tissues, but when Future Cosima reached for them, her hand passed through the box. And the girl's hand.

Violently, Cosima shook her head snapping her out of the future and back into the present.

“Madam…” Cosima started. “I would rather not share your fortune with you. I’m sure you can understand…”

“Then you are a phony like all of the others. Guards, do you think liars should be executed?” The Queen asks slyly.

Cosima, desperately, explains her vision, leaving out the ghost. If the legends were true, ghosts symbolize slaves and pain. Sometimes death. It's rumored that if you can see a ghost, those fortunes are coming to you.

“There is no way I will ever be in a room with you again, though I wouldn’t mind punching you. You’re a scam like all the others.”

“And,” Cosima adds, feeling something else, “Get out now! Trust me please.” Cosima pushed the Queen as fast out the door as she could. She sighs, hoping nothing will happen, but as she makes eye contact with the elf across the market, she knows it isn’t.

And then the Queen was on the ground, and the elf was gone, the only thing remaining of her is her knife lodged in the Queen's chest.

Chapter: 2 Astraid

As Astraid raced down the crowded streets of the market, she scorned herself for letting the Oracle see her. Astraid quickly turned into a small ally. The ally looks like a dead end to all others, but Astraid jumps up, bouncing off the walls. As she reaches the top of the walls, she grabs for the top and… When she comes up she notices the lone figure standing in black, watching and judging her every move.

“Pepper,” she laughs.

“Astraid, for the final time join us or die.” Pepper sneers. He’d been trying to recruit her for the Assassins Guild. Of course, she always refused, beating up all of his little crooks on the way.

“It looks like your little party’s getting desperate if they’re sending their boss.” Astraid mocks.

Pepper smirks and draws the lone sword on his back. It’s silver, with sapphires covering the handle.

“Nice sword. Any chance you’d give it to me and I could just go?” Astraid ask’s. Pepper charges her and under her voice, she mutters “No, okay then.”

She lets him land a punch to her gut with his empty hand before she draws her daggers.

She tries kicking him in the balls, but she laughs when she hits a hard plastic instead. 

“A cup? Are you afraid?”

“Never against you.” Pepper spits. She kicks him in the gut, and then while he doubles over she grabs his head and doves it words the ground.

Astraid tsk’s, “a simple move.”

Pepper stumbles to his feet and blocks her violent swings with her daggers. Barely.

She ducks, squats, and swings her leg closer to Pepper, knocking him down. She pins his arms down using her legs. He struggles, bucking and all but she holds firm. 

“So I can take your sword and you never find me, or I kill you. The latter would make a statement, I get the sword…”

Rough hands grab at her shoulders and arms. She spins around, breaking the grasp on her arms. About a dozen kingdom soldiers stand behind me. 

“Aterala” she grumbles. Astraid backs up till she nearly falls off the ledge.

“Don’t!” A guard exclaims. “You and your friend are under arrest for treason against the Queen.”

She smirked, saluting with two fingers, then jumped, grabbing the ledge of the next building over.

As she pulls herself up guards run from building to building. As they’re not watching, she jumps back to the ground, cursing the underworld again for the pain. 

By the time she stumbles back into the Saturday Market, the guards are on the roof of where she is. To protect from unwanted protection, Astraid snags a plain brown cloak and runs into the busy crowd of merchants and thieves.

That was too close.