Kari breathed heavily as she crawled into a hole in the wall. She never thought she would have to do this, but the day's events gave her no choice.

Men were following her, bad men. They had cornered her and her mother and they had demanded her mother to hand over a box or else they would hurt both of them. She had pulled a gun from her purse and fired at two of the men. She then told Kari to run and hide until help arrived.

Now she sat there, trying to stay quiet, trying to stop herself from crying.

She didn't know where her mother was or if she was all right. This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to be home, safe and happy with the people she loved. She was supposed to meet her father today, for the first time in her life. But instead, she was scared and alone, and on her birthday, too.

When she heard two pairs of footsteps, she held her breath and pushed herself further back into the hole. Her mother told her that if she ever had to wait for one of her friends that she hadn't met yet, she had to listen for the safe word that they had agreed on. The only people who would know the safe word would be Aunts Tiffany and Joey, Kari's father, and his friends. She listened now, for someone to say the word that meant they were on her side.

But instead, she heard, "Come on out, sweetie. We won't hurt you. Much."

And it went on, and Kari wanted to cry when she saw a pair of legs approach the hole, but she stopped herself; she was safe as long as they didn't know where she was.

After a few minutes, the legs left the entrance and after another minute, she heard the footsteps walk away.

Once she was sure that they had gone, she started to leave the hole, intending to find another, less cramped hiding place to wait. She had just poked her head out when, without a warning, someone grabbed her by the hair and pulled her forcefully out and away from the hole. She cried out once before the third man that she failed to hear forced two of his thick fingers into her mouth. Then he picked her up and began running.

As he ran, Kari could hear the voices of the other two shouting after him.

"Bring her back, Sean! We need her to get the box from Cotton. You can play with her afterwards, but not right now." But Sean didn't stop. Kari struggled to get away from him, tried to scream through his hand, and even went so far as to bite him, but he was too strong, her screams fell on deaf ears, and the bite didn't seem to cause him any pain.

He slowed to a walk when something that looked very much like an archway came into view. The man removed his hand from her mouth and his face conveyed no emotion as he gently touched her head; it did nothing to reassure Kari of her fate. She tried to cry out one last time, but it only came out as a whimper. She buried her head into his shoulder, mentally hoping that this was only a nightmare that she would wake from soon.

Just as the man was about to cross the threshold, a voice called out, "Stop right there, you fucking impostor!"

A confused Kari found herself tangled in bed sheets, looking up at the ceiling instead of over "Sean's" shoulder to see who had spoken. Then she realized it had only been her memory haunting her again. Shakily, she climbed out of bed and looked into the mirror to see her reflection.

Curly, untamed brown hair framed her pale face and tired blue eyes. Her nightclothes were in disarray, with a torn shirt that she kept telling herself she had to sew up, but always forgot about the moment she got dressed and grey sweat pants that still had a red stain from spilling tomato sauce on herself one month before.

She sighed. "Happy birthday, Kari," she said grimly, "you look like hell chewed you up and spat you out." She went into the adjoining bathroom that she and Joey shared and locked the door leading to her room before undressing and stepping into the shower.

Today was her thirteenth birthday, but she felt rather indifferent toward it. She wasn't going to be allowed to drive, vote, or be taken to a bar or casino, and since it had been three years since her mother disappeared, Kari had long since given up hope that she would come back. Therefore, Kari had nothing to look forward to: it was just another birthday, another year in another life. At least she didn't have to go to school today.

After five minutes of standing in the hot shower, there was a knock on the locked door.

"When you're done getting ready, please come down stairs. We're going out today."

"All right, Joey," she called back. Ever since her mother disappeared, Kari stayed with her two aunts, Joey Summerskill and Tiffany Hall. She had no where else to go since the world would think she was mad like her mother appeared to be at times and her father never came.

Her father...

The very thought of the man she had never met in person hurt her even now. At this point, she was convinced that her father was either dead, or didn't care about her. Even though a birthday present was sent every year along with a letter in his handwriting telling her otherwise, she believed that if he actually cared, he would come to see her himself and tell her that.

More than once, she considered sending a letter of her own telling him as much, and she had even written several of them and had been ready to put them in envelopes, but she always tore them up and threw them in a fire because on top of not meaning the nasty things she said about him and not even knowing where to send them to, she didn't want to risk leading those... people back to her.

No, don't think about it right now, she told herself as she finished her shower. She put her sweat pants in the laundry basket so that she could try again-for what must have been the thousandth time-to get rid of the stain on the next laundry day and draped the shirt over the vanity in her room, making sure that the tear was visible so that she might finally mend it.

She dressed in a plain blue t-shirt and jeans with fake tears near the knees, tried and failed to tame her hair before she put a black headband on to at least stop her hair from falling into her face, and shoved her feet into her tennis shoes. She then went to the vanity and took bluebird earrings that didn't dangle and put them in her ears.

"It's your birthday; you need to dress up a little bit," she told her reflection, smiling a little. "Try to have a little fun today."

For a moment, she could have sworn she saw a face that wasn't hers, a man's bluish-white face with pins driven into it and dark eyes staring right at her. But then she blinked and the image faded away as well as the smile she had forced on her face.

Shaking her head, she turned away from the mirror and went to the place where her three-legged grey cat, Inese, was still asleep. Kari gently pet her head before grabbing her purse and going downstairs.

She missed the last two steps on her way down and she held out her hands to stop herself from falling on her face, but she found it wasn't necessary when someone caught her.

"Careful now, missy. I don't want to have to take the birthday girl to the hospital."

Kari smiled as she looked into Joey's face. "I'll try not to, Joey." After straightening herself, she stood on her toes and kissed her on the cheek.

"Happy birthday, Kari!" Tiffany beamed at her as she ran over to hug her, too. They were her mother's best friends and the only people she trusted in this world. She didn't know how she would be able to live without them.

As they all left the house for a special birthday outing, Kari thought that maybe this year everything would start to get better for her from this point onward. If anything, things can't get any worse. She just had to get by for now.

Deep in the Labyrinth of Leviathan, the man Kari had dismissed as a trick of the light when she was looking in the mirror watched as she left the house with her protectors. He mused for a moment how very much like her mother she was, having had plenty of opportunities to observe her. Both were quick to judge others based on first impressions and were resistant to change their views. Even now, this girl believed that he was a monster just as Kirsty did. All of this would change tonight.

There was a knock on his chamber door.

"Come in," he called, his eyes not leaving the girl.

"The Guardians are ready to leave at your command, Master."

"Thank you for telling me, Nikoletta." He turned to look at the Deep Throat now. "Are all the preparations for tonight ready for her arrival?"

"Everyone is ready except for Dreamer. She claimed that she needs to know more about this child before she can set up."

"Very well. Tell the Guardians to leave now and let me know when she has opened the box." Nikoletta left the room to do as she had been told.

Xipe Totec watched as Kari Cotton entered a café with Joey and Tiffany close to her. "Everything will change tonight, child. Don't let your fear or your anger stop you." Then he left to work on his part for the evenings events.

Author's Note: Hello, everyone! I'm Hopeless and this is my first Hellraiser story. This took about six months to get this right, since I had trouble not making the first chapter 10,000 words long. I'll get the second chapter out once I've had it completed; I am not making the same mistake I did with previous stories and wing it, since all I end up with is a hot mess of wasted ideas and pop cultural references. I hope you will enjoy this story, as predictable as it may be (there is nothing new under the sun). Please feel free to give me feedback on this story at any time. Like it? Good! Noticed some grammatical mistakes that bug you? Tell me so that I can fix it! Someone out of character? Tell me how they usually are! Even if you just tell me the story sucks (though I will resent that), some feedback would be nice. In case I forget to put this in other chapters, I do not own Kirsty, the cenobites, Joey, or Tiffany. They belong to either Clive Barker. I only own Kari and Justine and any friends that do not belong to Mr. Barker. Take care everyone.

Second Author's Note: My God, I keep changing things. /= I swear, this is the last time. Does anyone know where to find a good beta reader? I keep making the same mistakes again and again and I'm getting sick of it.