"This will be easy," The Child smirked. Silas thought it was a girl but in fact he could not exactly tell for certain as their only defining feature was long black hair. "finally the game begins."

The Woman continued watching Silas, her crazed and twisted smile was unnerving.

"To the death," She said.

The Youth that had greeted them moved towards Sky, he seemed as agile as she in the air when he was in the form of the crow.

"It will be a pleasure," The Youth agreed.

And finally the Man who didn't speak. No sound passed his lips, for there was no purpose in a voice. All could be achieved in silence.

Silas' grip on the ghostly chains tightened, pulling them to send a signal to Sky. Letting her know he was very well aware of their predicament and he was with her.

"Who shall go first?" asked the Child to his companions The Woman mulled the possibilities but it was the Youth that answered,

"Allow me. I will teach you all that Faust only needed me to get this job done." He laughed, shooing the others away with the waving of his hand. "This Collector is nothing. Just like the all the others."

His suggestion was met with derisive smirks from his companions who were less than confident as he but were more than willing to let him go first. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread and even the silent Man approved with a nod.

"Excellent idea." The Woman sneered, the Child at her side changed back into a crow before flying away. "That way you'll be too dead to feel any disappointment in losing to me."

She too was then gone, dark feathers swirling on the wind as together with the Man, they followed suit after the Child as crows. The Youth was left alone between Silas and Sky as laughs and caws echoed into the dawn sky. Against the backdrop of morning not long off, there were more crows beginning to cross the sky and the Collector knew that thousands were soon to follow.

"Catch me if you can." He cackled. "I doubt you'll be ready for what I have in store for you!"

The Youth caught Silas' look, and then Sky's before winking and then giving them a salute. Turning, he took off in a sprint across the roof away from the Collector and Sky, diving back over the roof's edge where he too became a crow and flew off into the night.

"No!" Sky shouted, giving chase until the chains reached their end. Silas could not fly so he made no attempt to follow. Instead, he walked to the edge of the roof from which the Youth had just jumped, Sky wasting no time to fly to his side now that they were no longer hindered by four threats.

The bird remained targeted in Silas' sight, flying off into the distance between the towering buildings above the streets below. 

He was flying towards the next tallest building close by. A derelict skyscraper under construction since a time forgotten. It stretched as bare bones of iron and concrete into the air for nearly forty stories unfinished. Up. Up. Up. Towards the very top was where the crow was going. 

Rushing back the way they came in a blur of shadowed motion, Silas and Sky reached the ground floor within minutes and were out into the street. Chains and a ghost of flowing white followed the Collector in black who stepped in a wide stride towards where they had seen the crow go. 

The Others in the street saw him coming, parting for him as he made no attempt to excuse anyone in his way. 

As dawn broke, crows that numbered in the thousands began to cross the dawn sky and no Others took noticed or cared. Their migration being a daily occurrence but to see the Soul Collector in the flesh, was not. 

Both Silas and Sky followed onto the construction grounds, pushing through a half broken fence and broken equipment that had been left lying around, useless now after so long. Pieces of scrap metal and wire had already been stripped off anything worth any value.

Looking up the looming titan of rock and metal, Silas saw some of the migrating crows break from the greater murder's migration on their unified path to fly towards the very top of the tower. 

"Odd," Silas whispered. He had never seen individual crows once break away from the main flock. The distant cawing beckoned them upwards, pulling them into the beginnings of Faust's game. 

But going up was going to be a problem. The broken elevator left to rot at the building's exterior.

"This isn't right." Sky said. She was there in the corner of his eye. Again the Soul Collector was undeterred. Stepping into the bowels of the iron giant with Sky floating beside him, they found the skeleton of a flight of stairs that would take them up. There was nothing on the lower floors. It was only meant to tire. Up staircase after staircase, the Soul Collector's pace remained the same. Over beams and through hanging plastic tarps, Silas followed the sound of the crows.

The sun was already up when they reached the upper floors. It's cold light shadowed by the wings of the dozens of crows circling the building, flying upwards to the top in the direction the Youth had flown. 

Silas continued to climb. His legs burned but he had the ability to push it from his mind. The closer they drew, the louder the cawing became. Instead of crossing the sky to Heaven and Hell, these crows remained.  

"Silas. I don't like this..." Sky whispered again to his ear, holding to him closer.

Silas and Sky's sudden appearance did not bode well for their any sort of a welcome from them for as they made it to the top floor. A louder wave of cawing began nearly deafening Silas with the sound. Crows on every possible perch. More or less remaining where they were, they remained watching although clearly unhappy at being disturbed. It allowed Silas to navigate with the chains held in hand and an eye on Sky. Only the threat of vociferous annoyance hindered them.

One by one his legs lifted to the next step until he reached the top.

The Youth was there, surrounded by his own person murder of crows around the open roof spiked with large iron beams that pierced the sky. A rusted crane used in the building's construction loomed above their heads but it had gone without operating for so long that it was doubtful it could even turn on at all.

"I hope getting here wasn't a difficulty?" The Youth grinned. Silas could feel the ache in his legs but he simply pushed it from his mind.

"This one has been sent to collect you." Silas said, neither missing a breath nor a beat. The Youth needed to be marked.

"No no, you see, that's not the way it's going to work." The Youth replied with a laughter that bubbled up through his lips like water through a crevice. "I will kill you first and feed your body to the crows."

Sky was eyeing the birds. Not by the Youth's words but the fact that every single one was staring at both her and Silas while their black eyes reflected no life. There was only one life. And it was the Youth. Not a single one was a real crow. 

Sky could feel it. A soul in close proximity always pulled at her hunger. There was nothing in the birds. They were empty.

An illusion.

Silas' palm aflame, the sigil burned. Like a fever taking hold, he was determined in a way he had never been before. Knowing that the end was just within his grasp, he craved the completion of their contract's end.

For a short moment there was silence. Every crow going quiet.

"Silas," Sky tried to get his attention amidst the exchange between him and the Youth. Raising a hand in a silent command, the Youth's control over the strange murder of crows became apparent. Wings took to flight and deafening caws ensued in a flood of shadow and feather. 

The perched crows came together. Claws wide and beaks open and screaming. The flock of black birds became a swirl of black, churning in the air to grow into an indistinguishable darkness that stretched upward into the dawning sky before turning in angered fury towards the Collector and his Sky.

"They will deceive us!" Her scream echoed Victor's warning.

Disbelief.

Silas had only a moment to look to the ghost girl, and she back at him. Reaching to Sky, his mouth widening to shout her name but the sound was stolen from his throat. The surging wave of shadow hit them, and into every hole the black seeped. Drowning out the Soul Collector's voice as he and Sky were pushed deep into an all consuming darkness.