:pretty hate machine:

Bernadette Peneles glanced over her shoulder. Was that weird blond woman looking at her? She grimaced at the thought and turned her attention back to chapel. His Eminence was boasting on about something about how he was the bestservant Julianos could ever ask for. It bothered her deeply how a primate could have such a high standing of himself. She had once been to Cheydinhal on official business. The primate there made such a better primate than that smug Valandrus. Still that one girl's carnivorous look bore into her soul. What the hell was going on?

"Go forth and seek to earn the love and blessings of Julianos," Valandrus ended.

Bernadette stood and headed out the door. She was heading toward Tamika's house, when out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the blonde woman slipping out of the chapel door, her eyes still on Bernadette. In an angry fit, she made a beeline toward the freak.

"Why are you staring at me?" she demanded.

"Staring. I'm not staring." The woman replied. Now that Bernadette got a good look at her, she was more of a girl than a woman really. She had a very young face, but there was something to her. Something very dark and twisted.

Bernadette stomped her foot and scowled, "Yes you are. You are staring at me like I'm something to eat and I demand to know why! Do I have something on my face? or are you just a bit weird like Glarthir?"

"Glarthir?" the girl seemed to be repressing intrigue at the subject, "Could you tell me something about him? Are you and him...close?"

Bernadette looked repulsed. "No we aren't close! We're neighbors! As if I could be attracted to Glarthir! All I ever said was that he wasn't as bad as some people s-" Suddenly her eyes narrowed as she quickly realized something. "Who told you this? Was it that awful Ambroise? He's a filthy little liar and he knows it! I can't believe he'd be immature enough to make up some terrible rumor like that! So I yelled at him once! I thought he stole something of mine. That was months ago! Why can't he just get over it already? That little s'wit has been bitching about it ever since! I apologized! If h-"

The Breton girl looked a bit disturbed by all of this. Her mouth hung open and her eye was twitching just a bit. Bernadette shook her head and sighed. "I am sorry for going off like that."

"No, it's fine," the girl replied, even though it was obvious that it wasn't fine. "What are your thoughts on your neighbor then?"

Bernadette blinked and smiled, "Oh, well he's a little off, obviously, but he's never done anything to harm me. He's been a good neighbor. Sure a lot of people say he's off his rocker, but honestly, he's not as bad as people make him out to be."

The girl's eyes were immediately lost in deep thought. Her brow furrowed a bit pensively. "Hmm," was all she said as she turned and walked off the other way. Bernadette stared as she left. What a strange girl! She herself turned around and saw old Cassius Amantus staring at her and laughing to himself, tickled to death at something.

"What in the name of the Nine is so damn funny, Cassius?" Bernadette snapped.

The old guard shook his head and wiped away some tears of laughter. "Just picturing you and Glarthir's paranoid tiny kids," he choked out.

The Breton's eyes fumed as she glared at the guard and her fists balled in anger. "Oh, you little-" Not knowing what to say she yelled out the first thing that came to mind: "Doorknob!"

Cassius's lower lip trembled for one second before he buckled over, breaking out into a fit of booming laughter. Bernadette stomped past him toward Tamika's house. This would be a long day.

:bloody bloody:

Nels stared at the Redguard, sitting down to dinner. Eating his food so- so- smugly. He had murdered beautiful Dovesi in sick demented- racism. Legion swine! Primo and Domitius seemed to be under the impression that it was a third, well fifth, party. Somebody had been sneaking in or was hiding in the house and picking them off one by one! So they looked to Neville for protection! Those mindless fools! He would slaughter them where they stood, and poor Domitius, he had a wife and child back home! If he died- No, Nels wasn't going to give him that chance. He would have to take matters into his own hands, but how?

If he killed Neville then the other two might think him the killer. He had to find another way. He had to wait for him to slip up. For him to strike again! But could Nels take that chance? What if Nels didn't act soon enough and Domitius or Primo ended up dead? He would have to find another way, but what? Staking out his next victim's room would be the only way possible to prove his guilt, but who would his next victim be?

Just then Primo pranced down the stairs and sat down at the table to eat some venison.

"Hey is Domitius still asleep?" Neville asked casually. Primo nodded and the soldier exclaimed, "By Talos, the boy has been sleeping all day! How much longer do you think he'll sleep?"

"Gods know," Antonius replied. "I'm worried about him. What if the killer goes after him next?"

Neville's eyes glanced back to Nels and then back to the youth. "I'm going to go check on him," he said, "you wait here."

The Redguard stood up and walked over to the stairs. The Nord gasped and ran toward the stairs to see the door shut behind the murderous fiend. Was he too late?

:bloody bloody:

The Bosmer smirked as she watched the Argonian and the Vampire bicker. It was all she could do. Antoinetta, Domitius, and Gogron were allout on missions. It wasn't fair! She didn't have Antoinetta or Domitius to talk with, or Gogron to- well, you get the picture. The fight was amusing though. Honestly Telaendril was beginning to wonder if Valtieri or Ocheeva even noticed her presence.

"We have been over this a thousand times!"

"Yes but every time you fail to do whatever it is we agree on!"

"Listen, Shadowscale! I have been in this business since before your grandmother even hatched! I know what I'm doing!"

"You are so frustrating! I swear all it ever is is 'I have been serving Sithis for two hundred years. I am the most loyal of followers' blah! blah! BLAH! Ocheeva is sick and tired of listening about it! Who is in charge here: Ocheeva or Vincente?"

If it was possible, the vampire's cold red eyes got colder. "I cannot believe you are throwing that in my face," he hissed.

The Bosmer leaned back in her chair and stretched, letting out an unintentional yawn. Ocheeva and Vincente stopped arguing and turned their heads to face the tranquil mer sitting in the corner of the main room of the Sanctuary. She opened her eyes and an embarrassed smile came across her face.

"Why hello dear Siblings," Telaendril said, her voice cracking.

"How long have you been sitting there, Sister?" the vampire questioned.

"Um," She blinked and tried to come up with an answer. All that came out was a strangled sound and then she stammered, "Oh, dear! Look at the time! Almost eight already! By Sithis! I must be going! Top secret-er-spying stuff to do!"

With this she scurried across the room toward the ladder leading up to the well. Vincente and Ocheeva exchanged looks.

"Bosmer are so weird."

:bloody bloody:

The Breton girl's eyes rolled as she tried to explain it one more time to the stunned Bosmer. This unorthodox contract was becoming tedious. If not for her sworn duty to Sithis, Antoinetta would be on her way back to Cheydinhal right now.

"For the last time, she's not following you," Antoinetta stressed the subject as hard as she could for the eighteenth time in the past twenty minutes.

"But-I was certain-" Glarthir sputtered.

"Well you were wrong," the assassin spat. Her eyes were cold and her face was pent up with frustration. If he didn't get it this time, Antoinetta was going to have to kill him herself.

"Are you sure?"

"YES!" the girl roared at the tiny man.

He blinked in astonishment, before regaining his poise and smoothing back his hair. "Well Toutius Sextius has been displaying some rather, suspicious behavior. I think he is part of the conspiracy against me. Since you obviously have no patience, whatsoever," he shot a glare at the girl, "I think you should also keep some tabs on Davide Surilie."

Antoinetta growled, "This better be good."

:bloody bloody:

The Imperial rubbed his temples and yawned. It was half past midnight and he'd rudely been awakened from the best sleep he'd gotten in ages to the sound of two grown men fighting like children. He got up from the stairwell and walked back into the dining area. Seriously, this was getting ridiculous. He was going to killsomebody. Not like 'Oh my gods, I'm going to kill you!' No, he was actually going to stop somebody's heart from beating.

That was if Nels and Neville didn't beat him to it.

The two were sitting opposite each other at the dinner table, arms crossed and refusing to look at each other. They were grown men acting like children. No, the Imperial had seen children act more maturely than the Nord and Redguard were acting right now. Gogron's tactics were ringing in his head. It was tempting, but he wanted to play this out a little bit longer.

Then there was his fellow Imperial Primo Antonius, who was sitting in the middle of the table and held his head up with his hand against his cheek. Like Dom, young Primo was just trying to keep his sanity. Domitius would have to remember to kill him quickly and painlessly.

"Let's go over what happened," Primo sighed and shook his head. "Neville, why don't you start?"

"Why does he get to start?" Nels objected.

"Because hedidn't push somebody down a flight of stairs," Domitius muttered crossly. The Nord sat back in his chair in a huff.

Neville had a rather satisfied look on his face as he began in a regal voice. "I was worried about Domitius. He had been sleeping all day, making him an easy victim to whoever is killing us off one by one." The Redguard shot Nels a look. "So I went upstairs to check on him. The next thing I know this drunkard has his arms around me and is trying to beat me to death against a wall." Nels tried to conceal a smile. The others were rather unamused. "I managed to get away from him, but lost my balance and fell down the stairs. I could've broken my neck, but maybe that's what Nels here wanted."

Nels muttered something unintelligible under his breath. Primo sighed. "Okay Nels, now you can have your turn."

The burly Nord sat up and began his story. "When Neville went upstairs, I was afraid for Domitius. I didn't want anybody alone up there with him. Who knows, maybe Neville could've plunged a knife into him and claimed it was like that when he got there. Well, when I saw Neville, I kind of lost control and tried to restrain him, but he kept thrashing and knocked meagainst a wall, forcing me to let go. Then he must've lost his balance and fell down the stairs."

"A likely tale," the former soldier hissed.

Nels slammed a fist against the table. "You suggesting something, swine?" he roared.

Primo threw his hands down in aggravation. "Stop it both of you!" he screamed. "You are acting like children!"

"That's an insult to kids everywhere," Dom muttered under his breath.

A small smirk formed on Primo's lips at this. "What would possess somebody to act like this?" Antonius sighed.

"Four anxious men. No, living, women. And a lot of booze," Nels mused, looking to a bottle of mead on the table. There was a second of silence, and then suddenly, Primo burst out into laughter. Nels chuckled a bit and even Neville cracked a smile. For a minute, the tension lifted and the four just laughed. Domitius almost felt sorry for the three others. This would most likely be the last moment they had where they weren't scared out of their minds in pure terror.

As the laughter subsided, Primo tossed his head and smiled. "Well I believe I'm going to call it a night." Getting up from the table, he headed up the stairs.

"Good night Primo," Nels called. His tone was light and cheery in spite of the series of events that had happened in the past two days.

"Be careful," warned Neville in a serious voice.

"Yeah, yeah. Good night, guys! Don't kill each other," the Imperial called, merrily. With that, he disappeared onto the top floor.

:bloody bloody:

It was quarter after eleven as Toutius Sextius crossed the Skingrad Bridge to get to Salmo's bakery for some nice sweet rolls. As he passed by, he noticed Davide and Gaston Surilie chatting away and laughing with Cassius Amantus. He could just imagine what lovely conversation the Breton brothers and the drunken guard were having. No doubt it had something to do with a woman's- private areas. Sometimes the people of this town disgusted him.

"Hey Sextius, ya seen the new girl in town?" called Gaston. "She's got some real muscles on her, dain't she?"

Had he called that or what?

Against his better judgement, Toutius stopped to talk to them. From the smell, he could tell Cassius was obviously already drunk. Before noon, he figured as well.

"New girl you say?" Toutius asked in an inquisitive tone.

"Aye," Davide nodded, "Sweet, pretty little Breton. Looks'a lot like Mrs. Amantus before she got big an' fat from eating at Salmo's e'ery day."

He nudged a hysterical Cassius in the side, who was now in tears of laughter. Toutius could not believe he was allowing himself to be in such disgusting company. The old guard wiped the tears from his eyes and sighed. "Oh, you shoulda seen her yesterday, Sextius! She had Peneles all in frenzy. Asking questions about Glarthir and her." Cassius's voice cracked as he continued, barely repressing his laughter, "Imagine! Glarthir and Bernadette!"

At this, he finally caved into the laughter and would've most definately fallen over if not for Davide being in his way. Toutius couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"'ey! There she is!" Gaston yelled and pointed. With disdain, Toutius looked over his shoulder to see a small blonde Breton girl leaning against the building, as if she were hiding. He had to hand it to the Surilies and Cassius, she was rather pretty. He couldn't help shake this feeling that she was looking right at them. More oddly, he got the feeling her cold eyes were directed right toward him.

"Le's go talk ta her!" Davide grinned, breaking from the group and heading toward the girl. His brother and the guard laughed and followed after him, like two pups following their master. Toutius was about to continue on his way to the bakery when he noticed some queer behavior on the girl's part. The second they began to head her way, she looked startled and fled the other direction. Though Toutius didn't blame her for fleeing at the sight of the threesome, he could not deny this was odd behavior for a woman. Many women of the town fancied Davide, enough to stick around despite the other two. Maybe she was smarter than the the women of Skingrad. Sextius shrugged and made his way to Salmo's. He was almost there when suddenly he slammed head first into somebody.

The blonde Breton girl fell to the ground. Sextius just stared at her. God, she was breathtakingly beautiful. "I-I'm so-so sorry, Ma'am," he apologized, stuttering pathetically. He offered his hand to help her up.

Instead of saying something or taking his hand, the girl stared at him, like he had caught her stealing red-handed.

:bloody bloody:

A low bellow of a scream awoke the mansion. Nels opened his eyes and quickly shot out of bed. It sounded like Domitius. Dammit! Neville had gotten him while Nels was so ignorantly sleeping. If anything happened to that man, Nels would never forgive himself. He ran to the bedroom from where the scream came to see Domitius standing. The Imperial was alive but utterly frightened out of his mind after finding a corpse lying in the bed next to his.

"Primo," Nels gasped at the bloody sight. Neville would pay for this.

"What is going on in here?" the Redguard asked groggily as he entered the room.

The big Nord swirled around to face him. "Don't act like you don't already know," he spat.

The soldier scum rubbed his eyes and spotted the body. Suddenly the man began to shake with anger. "You murderous ape!"

"Legion swine!" Nels hissed.

"Gentlemen!" Domitius's voice cried out. They both turned to look at the young man, still shaking from his discovery. "We cannot lose our heads," he tried to reason, but his words were lost on the two.

"I'm sorry sir, but I will not wait for this drunken abomination to murder you where you stand!" Neville growled.

Nels swerved back around and shot the Redguard an icy look. "Oh yes, play the part of the righteous soldier," the Nord's words were seeping with venom. "Primo was a fool. A good man, but a foolish one. He thought you would keep him safe."

"I'll have your head!" Neville growled and without a second thought, lunged at him, taking them both down.

They struggled on the floor as Domitius tried in vain to pull the two apart. Nels knocked the man back for his own safety as he saw Neville reach for a knife in his pocket. Nels bit Neville in the arm, causing the soldier to drop the knife which slid across the floor. They both leapt for it, but Nels reached it first. He turned and in one fluid motion, slashed Neville in the throat. As the blood poured out, the old soldier tried to gasp for air and fell over.

Nels stood up victorious. Though it was too late for poor Primo and the women, Domitius and he were finally safe. The Imperial man would be able to go home to his wife and daughter. He looked around the room, but the only other person who seemed to be there was Neville making a sucking noise on the ground as he laid in a puddle of his own blood.

"Dom?" Nels called out in confusion.

"Looking for somebody?" a voice hissed from behind the Nord, who turned around to see Domitius standing there with a dagger.

Then it all clicked together much too late. The dagger pierced the big man's chest and he fell to his knees before collapsing on the ground. His face was in an expression of utmost shock. Next to him, Neville finally stopped twitching as darkness began to enclose the room. The only thing the Nord could hear was the sound of Domitius's sick laughter. Yet somewhere in the distance, there was the faint sound of bells and a little girl calling "Daddy! Come see what I found!"

:bloody bloody:

"I don't think I can trust her," muttered the Bosmer, pacing alone in his house.

It had nearly been twelve hours since Glarthir returned from his midnight meeting with Antoinetta Marie and the subject was still on his mind. It was driving him mad. It was worse than the time that witch Else God-Hater, may she burn in hell, tried to take him out. Luckily he had managed to bite a chunk out of her hand and get away. Of course, Levitus and Liric, those pathetic excuse for guards, didn't believe a word he had said. Luckily they were both away on top secret business. He would have to remember to get back at them for their foolishness.

Suddenly there was the loud sound of somebody banging on the front door.

"Glarthir, ya paranoid freak!" yelled a voice from behind it.

He spun around and ran to the door to open it. Standing outside was a terrible sight. At his doorstep stood, a very pissed off David Surilie, the ringleader of the conspiracy against Glarthir, holding Antoinetta by the shoulders. The girl was twitching and trying to struggle her way free of his grasp. A cross Toutius Sextius, looking pompous as usual, stood behind the two.

"Is this yours?" Toutius asked, with an air of disdain.

"What did you tell them?" spat the fuming Bosmer at the struggling assassin.

"Nothin'," Davide growled. "She's as quiet as she is pretty."

Glarthir looked at the girl suspiciously, not believing the ringleader for a second, before returning his glare to the angry two-man-and-one-hostage mob at his doorstep.

"Is there something we should know, wood elf?" Toutius sneered.

"No!" Glarthir objected. "Why whenever something weird around here happens does everybody blame me?"

"I have no idea," the Breton man rolled his eyes. Sextius let out an unintentional snicker and quickly resumed his poise. Releasing Antoinetta, Surilie sighed in disgust and gave a final warning to Glarthir. "If anythin' happens ta my wine, ya can bet that disturbed little head a' yours I'll be comin' af'er ya."

The two walked away and Antoinetta hissed angrily under her breath, "Bloody drunks."

Glarthir could explode at the girl. How could she be so blatantly careless? Had he not given her the strictest instructions to make sure nobody caught on to this little experiment? Unless, she was a spy! The real one sent by the Dark Brotherhood was tied up somewhere or worse. How could he had been so foolish! It was obvious that this girl couldn't be a killer. She was sneaky and crafty like a spy, obviously not a killer. Glarthir could feel the blood rush to his head. What was he going to do?! He had to take this into his own hands and remain calm and collected so she wouldn't catch on and run to Surilie.

"Meet me behind the church in fifteen minutes," Glarthir hissed. He closed the door on a stunned Antoinetta and headed up the stairs.

:bloody bloody:

"Look at this!" J'Ghasta grinned and threw a copy of the Black Horse Courier on the table. "It will cheer you up, I promise you."

Yawning in disinterest, Lucien Lachance picked up the paper. As soon as his eyes saw the headline, his lips curled into a sadistic smile and his eyes filled with sudden interest.

"Oh, my, my, my," he muttered, still grinning. He looked up at his Khajiti Brother. "Could this possibly be true?"

J'Ghasta nodded. "I think it's time one of our Siblings visits an old friend of ours, eh?" he asked. His rough voice was barely supressing laughter.

Lucien looked back to the paper. "I do believe it is," he replied and got up from his chair. He walked to his desk on the other side of the room and began to write a letter to Ocheeva. "I know just who to have visit him."

The Khajiit raised an eyebrow. "And who is that?"

Dropping his quill, the Speaker twirled around and smiled at his Brother. "Have I not told you of my secret weapon at the Cheydinhal Sanctuary?"

"No, but I'm very interested," J'Ghasta replied, his voice negating his words.

"Domitius Marcus," Lucien continued in a proud voice, as if he hadn't heard, or was ignoring, J'Ghasta, "A promising young lad, may even become a Speaker one day."

"I thought you said he was an incompetant fool," he laughed.

Lucien glared at him. "You never forget anything do you?"

"Never," the Khajiit smiled.

Sorry took so long and that this chapter isn't as long as the others. it moves rather slowly though.