Marena closed the large door behind her and immediately let out a sigh of relief. She wasn’t used to being terribly polite, but she did the best she could, given the circumstances. She could always blame it on nerves afterwards. She shoved her hands into her pockets and looked down, only then realizing that she still, in fact, did not have shoes. She grimaced at the grimy floor and stood on her tiptoes, as if that would help at all.
The complex was much larger than Marena had ever imagined, given that she had only seen the outside; and even then, she’d only seen that a few times. The corridors were institutional in nature, more like a fallout shelter than somewhere to live. She soon realized that the halls, all looking the same, were also very disorienting and she soon had no idea where she was in the facility. The area she was in was actually grimier than where she had been previously, so she quickly spun around and continued in the general direction in which she came.
Marena quickly happened upon two double doors she didn’t quite recognize from before. She debated going back the way she came but her feet protested otherwise. She cautiously pushed open the doors on the right and stepped in. It didn’t look like a hallway, but it didn’t really look like much, seeing as all of the lights were turned out. She fumbled around for some sort of switch but came up empty handed. She turned around and headed back for the doors she had entered from. Before she could reach them, however, a figure stepped in front of the window in the door, blocking any sort of light, then grabbed Marena by the wrist and flung her into the wall next to the doors. Thinking as quickly as she could, she pulled one katar from her side holster and, holding it in completely the wrong fashion, shoved it between her and her attacker, pointing up at said attackers chin.
“Heh,” the attacker laughed, then reached behind Marena to a small button which turned on harsh, fluorescent lighting. Marena squinted and noticed she was actually in a store room. Lovely. She looked at her weapon and quickly flipped it around, then turned her eyes back to her attacker.
“I think you meant to take the left exit, darling,” It was a man with fiery red hair and piercing green eyes; one would think he was Irish, except that he spoke with an slight Russian accent. The man took a good look at Marena and not recognizing her at all, asked, “Do I know you?”
Marena smirked. “I’m new around here.”
The man nodded in understanding but didn’t change his stance, instead leaning in closer to her. “Well, then. I’m Killswitch, as my friends call me. I help run the place; I’m in charge. Hmm.... You must be...”
“Gemini. And uninterested, but thanks!” she said cheerfully, pressing against Killswitch with her free hand to push him off of her, but it did little good; he must have been stronger than he looked. “Really, Mr. uh, ‘Killswitch,’ I’m just not in the mood.”
He smiled a bit. “Well, Ms. Gemini, how do you know that’s what I was thinking of, hm?”
Marena almost laughed. “Please. You‘re not that hard to read.” she winked. “Well...and your hand is on my ass. Just a guess, though.”
“Well...”
“Like I said, sir,” she put both of her hands against his chest and shoved as hard as she could, sending him staggering backwards. “I’m really not interested.”
Killswitch let out a “humph”, growled, and backed up more, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter that looked more like a blowtorch than anything else and lit it.
Marena pulled her weapon down to her side. “Well, good choice, because I was about to give you a nice new piercing about here,” she said, pointing to the bottom of her chin. He insisted she would have never gotten to, to which Marena politely disagreed with but dropped regardless.
“So, why are you here?” he questioned. He then offered her a cigarette, which she took even though she didn’t smoke. She always did; it made people open up more if she was smoking as well, for some reason. Ah, the things you learn about the Prague underworld.
“I was hired to kill you guys, but well, you know. Shit happens.” she drew the smoke into her mouth, held it for a moment, then blew it back out nonchalantly.
“Why are you here then?”
“Prisoner of war, I suppose.”
Killswitch thought for a moment. “They probably need you. Things are happening. They need all the help they can get,” Marena tried to interrupt, but was interrupted herself. “At any rate, why don’t you go talk to some of the others, Marena? I bet most people here would like to meet you.” he finished, eyeing her up and down.
“I bet they would.” she answered sarcastically, then paused. “However...do you think I could talk to Eve?”
Killswitch erupted in laughter. “Oh sure. Just waltz on into her room, she wont mind. It’s not like you tried to kill her or anything.”
Marena nodded. “True.” she hesitated for a moment. “Excuse me, sorry, but is there a bathroom around here? It’s been quite a while and --”
“Sure,” he interrupted, and gave directions which seemed somewhat understandable, given the labyrinth nature of this place. Marena thanked him as sincerely as she could then turned and exited, racing down the hall away from Killswitch. He was an odd fellow, and she feared staying in there too long would have resulted in something unpleasant, for either.
Marena continued back the way she came, as through the other door the hallway seemed slightly more familiar. Soon she reached a long row of rooms and upon inspecting one deduced they were the living quarters. She proceeded to knock on every door, apologizing and acting lost at each wrong door. She eventually happened upon a door towards the end of the hall that wasn’t answered quite as quickly, but Marena could hear life inside, so decided to wait. After what seemed like entirely too long the door swung open and Marena was to behold, in all her destructive and sopping wet glory, Evelina Maruska.
“Hey!” Marena said as nicely as she could.
Eve looked perplexed for a while, then came back to reality. “Um...what do you wan- who are you?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. My name is Marena. Well, some people call me Gemini, it’s kind of my “working name,” so call me whatever you want.” she stopped to take a breath. “I was hired to kill you last night.” Eve stepped back. “Oh, nah, I don’t want to kill you anymore. Actually, your buddies hired me...strange the way the world works. Hm, you mind if I come in? I’ve been all over this place looking for you.
Eve stared at Marena like she had lobsters crawling out of her ears. “Um...sure.” she eyed her warily. “Come on in...”
Marena walked into the bleak room and sat down on the couch across from Eve. “Okay, Eve...you mind if I stop this little act?”
Eve shook her head.
“Alright, good.” Marena looked around the room, then back at Eve. She looked like a mess, which was to be expected, but Marena was pretty sure she didn’t look that bad. She at least hoped she didn’t.
“What do you want?” Eve finally said, breaking the silence.
Marena shrugged. “I don’t know, I thought I’d come say hello, since we’ll be working together and all,” she smiled.
“No you didn’t.”
“I wanted to see who I was supposed to kill? I thought you would be about seven feet tall, on par with the rumors.”
She gave a gruff, unconvincing, almost scary laugh. “Right. And no we won’t. Be working together.”
“Won’t we?”
“No, I’m leaving.” she stated bluntly, and as if to illustrate her meaning she walked over to her bed and began throwing more things into a suitcase she had placed there. As Eve looked through her shoes, she threw an old black pair of boots that were “always too small anyways.” Marena sensed opportunity.
“Can I have those?”
“Go ahead.” Eve said as Marena walked over, took the boots, then proceeded to try them on. Lo and behold, they fit. How convenient.
“So, Eve, where are you heading off to?”
“You know, nobody gets it,” Eve cut in, throwing a shirt into the air. Marena stopped talking. “None of them! That’s why I’m leaving. I HAD to kill them, you can’t just let someone kill your friend and not give them the same -- But, I mean, NONE of them out there understand. Not Golem, not Ghost, I don’t care how much they want to they can’t. It’s frustrating and I can’t take it anymore. And I don’t know where I’m going. West. I’m going to go west. Maybe London. I don’t know.” she stopped, still talking to the wall.
“Priest killed your friend?” Marena cut in, hoping not to get smacked in the process.
Eve looked back over at her. “Ah -- Yes, yes he did. She was a fucking civilian and he murdered her. A man of God.” she laughed bitterly. “Sure.”
“But...” Marena thought. “Priest didn’t really...like killing, that doesn’t sound like him.”
“Well it was! Julia followed us and he was trying to shoot me and he shot her so I had to kill him, okay?”
Marena failed to grasp her twisted logic but decided to just let it rest. There wasn’t much more she could do now. “I see.”
“You were that bastard’s friend, weren’t you?” Eve nearly yelled.
Marena stared back. “Yes. So I guess I do understand what it’s like, don’t I?”
“Well, you’re the only one.” she said. “And you don’t want me dead?”
“No,” she paused. “What good would that do?”
There was an awkward silence in which Marena fiddled with her new shoes and Evelina continued to pack. Marena had been thinking of the reason behind such a violent encounter, but Eve’s reasoning wasn’t rational and Marena got tired and bored of trying to make it so.
“So, you’re going to London?”
Eve rubbed her temples. “Sure, yeah. It sounds nice. Anything is nicer than here. I fucking hate Prague.”
“I second that.” she thought for a moment on how to approach the subject, but just forgot and went straight for it. “Can I tag along?”
Eve looked back at her as if she was mad at first, then made a face of indifference.
“I don’t --”
“C’mon, you said yourself I’m the only one that gets it, and I hate this hellhole as much as the next person. ”
“Well, you didn’t have the misfortune of being,” she paused suddenly. “Born here. At least you don‘t look it.”
“No, I guess not. This is as far as I could go on what I had.” Marena said bitterly. “But I’m here now, and I want out. I can help you as well, I have a way of getting things cheaper and easier, and who doesn’t want that?” Eve face was impassive. “Come on, I’ll even say please. Please?”
Eve was silent for a moment, in some sort of thought. Moments later she let her shoulders slump and waved her hand above her head in apathy. “Whatever.”
Marena smiled. “Excellent.”
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