Story relevant part of post-- scrambling to search her mind for a proper story. There were many things that scared her but ghosts and ghouls were not among them. She settled on a story she knew word for word from the earlier years of her life with her mother. This was no happy bedtime tale, but one of caution. She cleared her throat and began. "Let it be known, there is a place that is full of wicked scavengers. They live not just in the shadows of the night, but walk boldly in the light of day wearing many masks. There is never a moment of ease, for the scavengers have a million eyes and there is nothing that they miss. This is a place where happiness is the most terrifying emotion, because it reminds you that there is always something else to lose. Always something more to be taken. These creatures masquerade in the body of man, and they seek out those they find different; anyone who could threaten the wealth that is beyond wildest imagination in a time of great poverty, or the status that the fear of masses has brought them. They steal more than freedom, break more than bones. They hunger for bloodshed, taking children from mothers, mothers from children, husbands from wives; there is no discretion. They spare only those that feed their hunger, and extinguish the light of those who cannot. Eventually..." she paused, brushing her hair behind her ear and letting her voice grow softer. "Eventually, even for those who are spared the greater horrors, they pull every thread of happiness away until you unravel. Until you become a willing cog in a machine of terror and greed. It is only when you find there is nothing left, that you realize the scariest monsters aren't lurking in stories. They walk next to you in the marketplace, sleep soundly a few doors away, and are always lurking one step ahead of you. Watching. Waiting... There is no shortage of these scavengers, only the thrumming of heartbeats between, that measure the time until they come to take again. There is only one way to defeat these scavengers, and one way alone, for there is only one thing they cannot steal. Hope." She clasped her hands in her lap, looking down at them in quiet contemplation. "Not a very good scary story, huh?" she said, but she didn't raise her eyes to them. She didn't move a muscle for a few long moments, but when she did she looked up with the most earnest expression on her face, eyes sparkling like someone who had managed to hold off tears. "So do I win?" She asked, plastering that cheerful smile back on her face. There was apparently much the young woman had been hiding behind smiles.