At the mention of Caden's name, Alyssa's eyelid twitched for a second, she knew this was trouble.
She was trapped in a dark alley, surrounded by corpses of slain blood puppets.
The alley was a narrow, filthy canyon between crooked timber-framed buildings, their upper stories jutting out over the narrow passageway like rotting teeth.
The air was thick with the stench of human waste and decaying food, the smell of unwashed bodies and rotting thatch.
The ground beneath his feet was uneven, the cobblestone slick with muck and filth.
The walls on either side were daubed with a patchwork of mud and straw, the surfaces pitted and weathered by the elements.
The only light came from the faint glow of a torch in a nearby window, casting flickering shadows across the ground.
The light was weak, barely penetrating the darkness, and the shadows seemed to move and twist like living things.
Alyssa's eyes scanned through the alley, hoping to locate the one responsible for the blood puppets.
