[CupcakeDolly]

The night had been colder than most, but it was nothing that a good pair of torn stockings couldn't guard against. The bodies littering the ground - some desiccated, most stabbed and stripped, some wide-eyed with the blight - were covered in a thin layer of frost and proved difficult to peel up from the dirt.

Ophe- Or rather, a girl named Amary dug her fingernails underneath the body of a woman who had gone stiff with rigor, working away the ice until her partner - an old man with a stooped back who was bundled in layer upon layer of cloth - could haul her up onto his rickety cart.

"That's a stubborn one," Ophe- Amary remarked, remembering her manners when she declined to point out to the old corpse collector that she had done most of the work for him. "You'd almost think she didn't want to go just yet." Her partner remained quiet and simply shuffled on down the street to the next body. The girl named Amary smiled, her bounding strides quickly allowing her to catch up with him. She'd grown fond of the man, as fond as if he were her own pet, and she'd even considered giving him a name. Naming something as beautiful and loyal as he was would take time though, and she was in no rush to think of -

Hold on, 'beautiful' wasn't quite the right word. How did she usually describe him?

Oh, right. Ugly. The old man was ugly as sin. That didn't matter to Oph- Amary. She was still quite fond of the ugly old man regardless, otherwise she wouldn't have appointed herself his apprentice.

The ground beneath them trembled, and the old ugly man clutched his cart with both of his frail hands in a vain attempt to keep it upright, but half a moment later a thunderous roar echoed through the streets and the cart fell onto its side, tipping out the pile of frozen corpses onto the ground.

The girl named Amary had crouched low to the ground, pointing her right ear toward the source of the noise. "Did you hear that as well?" she asked her unwilling mentor. Noticing the mess the old man had made by tipping over his own cart, Oph- Amary sighed and shook her head. "Look what you've done! I'm quite sure the first thing you taught me as your apprentice were the fundamentals of keeping those poor dead people neatly stacked and constantly mobile. Well, the student must become the teacher for the time being, it seems. I want you to have those stiffs stacked and ready to go by the time I return!" The girl named Amary wrapped her thin arms around the old man's bundled form and planted a kiss on the back of his head. "And don't you worry, I won't get myself into trouble while I'm gone! I remember what you always say to me. Nothing. You say nothing to me all the time, and it speaks volumes. I will keep your sage advice in my heart, and I'll be back shortly." Releasing the old man, Ophe- Amary skipped away into the darkness, scrambling up the nearest building and quickly disappearing into the shadows as she went off to find the source of the cacophony.

The old corpse collector shook his head and muttered, "Crazy bitch," before stooping to clean up the mess of bodies.