[8] Giant Bat Attack!

Despite having the nickname 'The City of Lights', the streets of Paris felt unusually dark that night. The street outside the Cupboard was completely silent. Not a single car passed. Not a single person scurried by. Even the sewer-dwelling rats had disappeared. It was as if the entire world had fallen asleep, leaving the city beneath a heavy blanket of comforting darkness.

And in the midst of it all, there was only one person in all of existence who was left awake.

Frances sat at the Cupboard's wide table, hunched over beneath the yellow glow of a singular reading-light. Around them, stacks of books were piled up like little towers of useless information. Dark circles had formed under their bloodshot eyes and their hair was all ruffled up, but they didn't show any signs of retiring for the night. Instead, they just kept scanning the yellowing pages of each book, desperate to find something.