She had been beat. Phantom stood over the dead body, panting from her mad dash through the rain. The raw tissue of her scarred backleg wept with anger, with pain, itching like it had caught on fire all over again, begging her to stop. But Phantom paid it no heed. She stared down at the dead feline on the cobbled street, long forgotten in an alley. “No.” Phantom whispered to the darkened sky as the clouds continued rolling in. “No.” She rasped. Phantom had had a promise to keep, to fulfill, and now... Above her head, even the sky began to weep. Droplet after droplet trickled from the sky, and soon the faint drizzle had turned into a howling vengeance, rain slamming against the cobbled streets, thunder rumbling across the sky. A rivulet of blood ran from the dead body, a tantalizing, mocking reminder that Phantom had been too late. Too late to save them. Always too late to save those she cared for. “DAMN YOU!” Phantom yelled into the storm, anger lighting her blood. “I get it, I'm not meant to make connections, but...” The calico trailed off, and then let out a wordless scream of agony, the tears rushing down her face joining the rain and blood on the pavement. “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you,” Phantom's fury was a palpable thing, blazing in her soul as she turned and walked away from the body. That was all it was now. A dead body. “And I'm coming for you, Lottie. Electra can't hide you from me forever.” - The Masked Malady Phantom
