“So… Have you seen it?” The cargo lift lurched slowly every second or two, as it escalated gradually towards the surface; so slowly, in fact, that Evelina was quite distraught over the lack of noise – the whining, melodic grind of metal that would have surely better accompanied Marena and herself, rather than complete silence. Eve felt rather awkward, primarily because she had agreed to travel with a woman who was, just a few hours prior, prepared to reap the rewards of her bounty. And the fact that Marena herself showed an obvious anxiousness in Eve’s presence didn’t make things better at all.
It was beginning to get on her nerves, the lack of speech between them; she would have figured the lithe mercenary would have something to say to the person that had killed not only her ‘friend, but pretty much the entire, tightly knit group of people he associated himself with. Sadly, this was not the case, and she realized that in fact, neither of them had said a word since they had left her room, all too occupied with doing their best to avoid any other residents, and more importantly, all of the Nightriders.
‘I’ll just be out for awhile. That’s all, just awhile. They’ll understand- God, I need a break, I need to get out of here…I need to think.’
Natalie. For some reason, Evelina felt she’d only be letting her down. Her actions as of late had been nothing but cowardly, and utterly embarrassing in a sense. She had brought Natalie into Prague, and the woman, from such a healthy background, had showed extraordinary resilience in both combat, and emotionally. Ghost was, and had always been, an unnaturally cold woman, and while she had learned much from Eve, she seemed even more adept in her role in the deadly, ongoing territorial war they took part in. Evelina, however, overtime, had only become broken, and unstable.
The minute she doubted why she fought, killed, and took the life from the eyes of those she had never knew, and would never know, she realized she was incapable of continuing. Evelina Maruska, born of the night, and infamous in the eyes of those who had ever seen her pick up a firearm, was now seeking an easy escape from the very place – and the people – who had given her purpose.
She blinked for a few moments, reaching over and massaging the back of her neck with her free hand, as she looked over to Marena. It took her a moment to realize that she had fallen into the recesses of deep thought, and had forgotten that she had even asked a question. The bronze-skinned woman of equal height and rather beautiful, dark hair was watching her intently, if not slightly confused. She shook her head slowly, and silently, with a faintly raised eyebrow, and Evelina looked back ahead. Marena soon followed suit; Eve’s attempt at conversation failing to remove the ever growing, and ever present tension between them.
“…The surface, the Chatrani, it’s nice.” She continued, her voice trailing a bit, as if completely prepared for her latest attempt to also be in vain, but Marena responded rather quickly, much to Eve’s surprise.
“Ohhh, yeah, I have. Well, I mean the outside,” She nodded and quickly added, “From a distance.” Which seemed rather awkward itself, but it was apparent she was trying, at least. Marena waited for a moment, and then looked back to her left at the ebony clad woman, who stood nearly shoulder to shoulder with her. Evelina, nodded fairly slowly to the reply, and continued to stare ahead. She seemed transfixed on the endless shuffle of luminosity between the parallel beams of the cargo elevator’s gate, in partial thought, and partial boredom.
“It’s much nicer inside, you’ll see, this lift… It leads up to the basement level.... It’s the only one that still does.” She broke her gaze from the rusting gate before her, tilting her head back and watching the shoddily paneled ceiling, mumbling for the damned lift to speed up, already having set records with it’s seemingly, pure lack of speed. She blew air from her lips, fervent and annoyed, and already tired of holding the dark and worn suitcase at her side. It was worn not by excessive use, however, but age; Evelina had just happened to have the old thing around, and in the back of her mind, was worried that it would fall apart at the seams at any moment. She had managed to over pack it, despite not having many valuables to call her own, and the handle which her fingers tirelessly gripped was cheap and thin, and rattled in her palm as if it were about to snap.
“I’m sure… I um, I don’t mean to seem rude, but… Why didn’t you... Have guards, I mean, in case someone just… Decided to take a trip down here…?” Marena inquired, rather abruptly, and then became quiet once more. She was casually swinging her arms about as their transport crept closer to its destination, hesitant to add more. Evelina looked over to her, raising an eyebrow, and wondering why Marena even cared; as far as she was concerned, it really didn’t matter. The hired hand shifted uncomfortably, realizing this, and continued, “Just curious, really…”
“You’ll see soon enough.”
“What about the others? You know, friends, family back at the Chatrani…”
There was a bit of silence, and Evelina slowly smirked; something that made Marena nearly exhale in relief. “…I don’t have very many of either, though I suppose you’ll do alright for now.” The dark haired girl looked at her sideways, watching her with an ever present grin.
“…What do you mean?”
“I’m going to be traveling with you, aren’t I? I guess that makes us friends now.” Evelina looked away and upwards, as the lift finally reached its destination, and a breeze of cold, if not, stale air swept past both of them.
“…I suppose it does.” Marena turned nodded, almost smiling herself.
They came to a sudden and rather noisy halt, though into where Marena could not tell. As the passage ahead of them was revealed, the iron gates of the lift slowly sliding away, their visibility had lessened greatly. They were beyond the vibrant lights of the shaft, and neither one of the two women could see much more than a few yards ahead of them. As they prepared to exit and get moving, Evelina quickly extended her arm out in front of the anxious looking girl that was accompanying her. “Wait.” Eve nodded and took a few short steps forward, while Marena paused in mid step, looking slightly perplexed.
Evelina’s dark, leather coat rustling as she moved ahead, she raised a hand, and in the room beyond the lift’s exit, two crimson lights suddenly came to life, and a mechanical noise was made as the gun cameras hoisted against the corners of the ceiling were roused from stand-by mode. They locked on almost immediately to Evelina, dark, arm length barrels loaded with machine gun ammunition poised directly in her direction and ready to fire if the distance between them was closed any further. She brought her hand to her neck quickly and motioned at them with a kill signal. There was a pause, and slowly but surely, the glowing lights on the twin, mounted – and heavily armed – motion-detecting camera’s changed to green, the artillery reverting back into their previous, lowered position.
“Security… So there is security…”
“More than you’ll ever know.”
“…Meaning?”
“They already know I’m leaving, by now. Come on.” Evelina motioned for her to follow quickly, before striding over to the staircase at the end of the small room. Marena hastily followed Nightrider, who covered the length of steps rather swiftly, and undid the bolted lock on the door at their end. Moments later, she forced the heavy entryway open, and revealed the large, and somewhat better lit, expanse of the amphitheatre’s backstage area. As they made their way inside, and Evelina closed the passageway behind them, she grinned, watching Marena closely as she examined her surroundings.
While many loose items and miscellaneous, outdated objects that were dust ridden, old, and for the most part, incapable of being used were littered in the wings of the theatre, there were many other, more grand things of notice in the spacious venue. The floor was a rich, sleek black that stretched on into the darkness of the ends of the area, and the walls both ahead of, and behind the pair, were an almost velvet, fascinating shade of scarlet, only tainted by settled dirt that had been blown about. Towering set pieces – most noticeable being what seemed like the seemingly stone, vanilla figure of a lion just to the side of Marena and against the wall, that could have passed as quite the piece of art at a museum – that seemed eerily well preserved were scattered about the area, and in a vicious contrast to the confined and shoddily made corridors of the underground complex, everything was so spacious, and grand.
“I want to see more.” Marena spoke, slowly breaking her gaze from the lofty pseudo-sculpture at her side to face Evelina, who was already heading off to their left, the heels of her boots clicking softly against the fresh-looking floor. Eve did not reply, chortling to herself quietly, and the girl known as Gemini took the incentive of following her, as they weaved quickly around the corner of the end of the offstage span.
Evelina remembered with when Julia had showed her what it was like, on stage, inside the Chatrani, years ago.
It had not yet changed, since then. And it was one of the few things of recent memory that had made her glad. Evelina had never known much outside of Prague. Its decadent, grime ridden streets, silent, violet and bleak ‘afternoons’, its violent evenings were devoid of any sense of beauty or intrigue, and yet she was always forced to call it a home. The bustling streets of London, while more lively, bright, and well kept, were no better, no less ailing from its lawlessness. The rest of Europe she had seen was just as withered; cities, peoples, and towns that knew nothing but drudgery, and seemed surrounded, perhaps even engulfed by it.
However, the Chatrani was nothing short of magnificent. It had not gone unchanged; it’s outside décor showing signs of age and erosion from hard times and the battles it had been embroiled in. But not unlike the cathedral that the deceased man once known as Priest and his followers had found safe haven, it was a sanctuary. For Evelina Maruska, and the rest of the Nightriders, and even the residents of the Chatrani who had no place else to go, it would always be their home, and one single, standing monument of splendor that they would risk their lives to protect.
Evelina gazed about in wonder, into the vast and grand amphitheatre that stretched on far beyond the edge of the mahogany stage. The air was still and quiet, as her eyes scanned along the rows of burgundy seating, the carefully crafted balcony’s that stretched on four entire stories upward, the walkways and pathways, and her eyes finally found the extravagant ceiling that spilled over across the rest of the amphitheatre. At its center, seven marvelously done portraits of angelic figures, and a majestic, ever present chandelier that gave out the most brilliant glow when illuminated.
She smiled slightly to herself and continued walking downstage until she reached the end, its sudden incline into the crimson carpeting, and she crouched, staring onward in perpetual and silent thought – only broken by the footsteps of her patron who unhurriedly sat at her side.
“There used to be a time when this would all be… Lit up, you know. People would live up here, in the gallery, until about a year ago. Yeah, things… Have been getting more dangerous… People would be risking their lives so,” She looked over to Marena sullenly, for only a second or two, before once again returning her gaze back into the dim vastness. “So they tend to just stay underground. No one comes out here anymore… No one turns on the lights.”
She laughed quietly, though it was a shallow and rather distraught laugh, and Marena seemed to sympathize, though her eyes continued to wander about the hall, undoubtedly intrigued by it. Her only response was a mere nod, and Evelina didn’t really expect much more than that. She stretched, letting her suitcase slip to the floor, and continued to stare off. As she resumed speaking, she tried her best to keep her words from slipping into an inaudible mumble, but to almost no avail.
“You know, Julia… My friend, yeah, she used to come out here a lot. We don’t mean to keep anyone confined down there…” She turned to Marena and trailed off, her voice obviously strained, “Sorry… I mean, about… Priest and anyone else… I mean, he was your friend and…”
”Don’t worry about it.” She quickly pushed off the end of the stage from her sitting position and began walking down the main, center aisle that went down the heart of the amphitheatre towards its entrance. Her voice was suddenly cold, and her dark hair swayed from side to side as she strode ahead of the Nightrider. “It isn’t the first time. We should go, right?”
Evelina paused for a moment, Marena voice far off, drowning into the space of the amphitheatre, and she nodded, reaching down and lifting up her worn suitcase and heading off right behind the unlikely ally, Gemini. “Yeah, we should go.”
Marena came to a stop at the end of the area, looking through a pair of gold framed, classical glass doors that lead to another section of the amphitheatre. Evelina came up beside her and pushed the doors open, turning to the right instead of straight ahead toward the exit, in the foyer. She directed Marena not to follow her, telling her to meet her outside in a few moments, and the bronzed mercenary did exactly that, making her way outside and to the sets of stairs that cascaded down onto the winding street of Prague below.
She sat down slowly, running a hand through her hair and obviously chilled by the cold night air; not to mention looking extremely tired, having gained little to no rest as of late. The roar of the motorcycle engine pulling around the curve of the Chatrani building, however, awoke her intensely, as Evelina’s strikingly sleek and swift ride pulled up to the court just to the front of Marena. It came to a skidding standstill; its jet black, smooth surface matching Evelina’s coat unerringly and certainly seemed as if someone had spared no expense towards the quality of the bike, and its looks, as well.
Marena leapt to her feet and jogged down the length of the steps hurriedly, grinning at the visually impressive vehicle and raising an eyebrow in wonder. “Wasn’t yours…”
“Wrecked? Let’s just say I borrowed Ghost’s ride earlier.” Evelina frowned and looked off to the side, revving the engine as Gemini took a seat on the bike herself, still looking inquisitive.
“Uh, isn’t she going to be pissed when she finds out?”
“Most likely – One question, though: seriously…” She turned her head to look at Marena out of the corner of her eye. “Why do you want to come with me…?”
“I’m contractually obligated to work for the Nightriders now. And you’re one of them, aren’t you?” She smirked and added, “Besides, I have plans for where we’re headed.”
“Contractually…” Evelina nodded quickly, as the purring engine was quite ready to head off, and she turned and looked at the Chatrani once more, giving it a silent - and hopefully, not permanent – farewell.
‘Nat, Marcus, everyone… Julia. I’ll come back. That’s a promise.’
She looked ahead almost morosely, closing her eyes, and once again falling victim to her own, deep thought. “Alright, to London…?”
“To London.” Marena answered, restless in tone.
Evelina opened her eyes, and the engine of the lustrous motorcycle roared viciously as they sped off into the night.
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