Marena cracked open her eyes slightly, only to shut them quickly again when the faint, but still all too bright morning light was all she found. She was sore all over and was covered in piles of what she assumed garbage, discarded back in the shallow alley just as she was. She deduced that she’d obviously been out for a while considering the gloom of a sky was a lighter shade of grey, indicating that the sun was up. She had figured bailing out of the truck was the better solution, only to find that as soon as she was out the first thing she came in contact with was a brick wall.
She stretched her limbs out and yawned before lazily standing up. She figured she’d have to go back to the church to get her pay (though she wasn’t sure how much she’d get, considering her early retirement the night before.) from Priest, then she could --
Priest.
As she changed her pace dramatically, she slipped on a piece of wet something-or-other and fell back to the ground, jolting and knocking the breath out of her. She drug her nails across the pavement in an attempt to gain a grip on the slick pavement and pulled herself up once again. She met the end of the alley and peered out at the mess no more than a hundred yards from where the alley was. The vehicle -- if you could call it that anymore -- was a mess; scorched, and in parts still aflame. Marena stumbled over to it and searched the rubble, though in reality she hoped to find nothing. Every body around the blast site was scorched beyond recognition, so she wasn’t sure what to look for anyways. She tiptoed around the fallen vehicle, avoiding still-hot embers with bare feet -- somewhere along the way she had lost her shoes.
As she observed the wreckage, she nearly stepped into another unfortunate laying close to the vehicle. She hopped erratically on one foot to clear the mess when she noticed something near said unfortunate. She choked, paled, and once again slipped and fell to the ground.
A rosary.
She reached over to the foul mess and snatched the rosary from the ground. It was fairly undamaged; it must have been thrown aside in the blast. She wasn’t supposed to be upset about this kind of thing. This was the business she chose, these things happened; sometimes you lost. She was supposed to stay detached. She wasn’t supposed to make friends; in fact, she was supposed to do exactly the opposite.
But Priest had been her friend, regardless of if she wanted to admit it or not.
As she scrambled to get back on her feet she heard someone else choke back a sob in a similar fashion as Marena had. She held her breath and listened until she was satisfied that the person doing the sobbing was in no position to kill her. She unconsciously looked back at what was once her friend then quickly turned away, feeling her eyes well with tears she hadn’t felt in a long time.
She stood, turned, and immediately ran into someone wearing all white. She sobbed out loud this time, tears breaking away from her eyes and running down her cheeks; there was really only so much one could take in such a short amount of time. Marena looked up at the person she had almost tackled and recognized her as one of the NightRiders, the albino one; she was hard to not recognize. Marena gasped and took a few steps back. The other woman didn’t make any threatening moves; she really didn’t move much at all. Marena saw something that may have been an attempt at a smile...it looked like the woman didn’t have much practice in them and probably wasn’t terribly thrilled about doing one now, but Marena assumed she did it as to not scare her any further.
“He paid for me,” Marena stuttered, pointing back to her deceased friend.
The woman raised an eyebrow. “‘Paid’ for you? What are you doing here, then?”
“What? I...” Marena paused, then understood the confusion. “Oh...oh! No, not like that, I’m not...no! No, no, I’m not that...”
The woman looked at her disbelievingly.
Marena continued. “I’m a mercenary. So, no, and I’m not really against you guys, I just was whenever someone wanted me to be, it’s nothing personal.”
The woman stared once again, then reached over and roughly wiped an errant tear from Marena’s cheek. The woman looked at her fingers. “Something was personal. Priest was your friend, I can tell. I don’t care if he ‘paid’ for you, you probably would have done it anyways, wouldn’t you?”
“No...” Marena trailed off, and suddenly very much wanted to slip again, just to be able to sit and think for a moment. “Why are you interrogating me?” she paused, then gasped. “Holy shit, I’m dead. You’re God, aren’t you?”
The woman sighed, though she sounded half amused. “No, far from it. Call me Ghost,” Marena resumed her confused and frightened face. “That’s what they call me...I’m not really a ghost.”
“Right,” Marena answered softly.
There was a slight pause. “I’m not going to kill you,”
Marena exhaled. “Oh, that’s good.”
“Have you seen anyone else around here?”
Marena remembered the sob she’d heard earlier, but it was strangely silent now. “Yeah...I heard someone earlier. Down that way...” Marena saw Ghost glare at her.
“You’re coming with me,”
Marena felt a wave of fear wash over her. She swallowed hard. “Why?”
“You may not have done much last night, but don’t think I haven’t seen you before. You’re lethal, don’t pretend with me. I don’t have any reason to kill you, but I’m not leaving you alone. Eve did kill your friend...who knows who you’ll round up to avenge him?” Ghost said, speaking a lot at one time, considering what Marena had heard about her alleged silent nature. Guess she had something to say.
“Oh...but, I won’t do anything to you,”
“I don’t trust you. Now move it,” she said sharply, falling back into her rumored attitude. Before Marena could say much more she felt cold gunmetal press against her back as she led Ghost towards where she had heard the sobbing noises. Eventually, they happened upon a wreck of a woman, writhing in her own despair on the cobblestone. Ghost sighed and kneeled down next to the woman (Eve, Marena assumed) and spoke to her in a soft, even maternal, voice.
Marena stood nervously off to the side; she decided to just stay with her, or she’d send Eve after her later or something.
“C’mon Maruska...let’s go home, okay?” Ghost spoke softly, and the woman on the ground nodded, standing up. Ghost steadied her and helped her walk, and motioned to Marena to follow them. She warily stayed a few feet behind them until they reached the Chatrani, the beautiful theatre which was now a home to some. They boarded the lift and slowly descended into the darkness. Soon, however, Marena could see light towards the bottom, and as the lift touched down, she found herself staring into the eyes of a hulking, intimidating man who was close to two feet taller than her. He stared right back.
Marena felt her chest tighten and spoke with a strained voice. “I...thought you said you weren’t going to kill me.”
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