Evelina sat on the edge of the bed, unsure what to do. It had taken them very little time to claim the room, and Marena had almost immediately afterwards went into the bathroom, saying something about the condition her hair then had started a shower, which had lasted all of about one minute. She now had the complimentary hairdryer on at full blast. Eve swung her legs back and forth on the side of the bed and stared at the door.
There was a soft knock. Eve was so startled by the noise -- and timing -- that she jumped a little, then started for the door. She looked through the peephole and, surprised, flung the door forcefully open, startling the small girl in front of her.
“What!?” was all Evelina could muster, and studied the girl. “You. You...?”
The girl looked hurt but not exactly surprised. “Kaori. I was in the Chatrani...I-I caused that...quake...and....” she trailed off at the end of her sentence, looking down the hall.
“Oh.” Eve said, a bit surprised to see girl here, and wondering how she got here. “How? Why...?”
“Motorcycle. Because I didn’t want to be with the Nightriders; not the ones till at the Chatrani. Not after all of that...” she muttered.
“Oh.” Eve repeated, a bit harshly. “Well, come in, I guess.”
Marena stared at herself in the mirror, her elbow resting against the counter surface, her hands as steady as always. She pressed the small stick against her eyelid and pressed lightly, dragging the black pencil-like line across the edge connecting her eyelid and eyelashes. She carefully pulled the line up towards the end of her eye, then proceeded to reverse the direction and repeat the process under her lower lashes. She then placed the pencil back in the bag and retrieved a small, plastic box, the contents a powdery version pencil color. She rubbed her finger in the shadow and dabbed it delicately in strategic points, making her eyes appear smoky and glamorous and wonderful. Each eyelash was traced with a color as black as it’s predecessors. Cheekbones made prominent by golden-red blush; lips made delicious with glistening red color.
She ran her finger in a crescent pattern on her cheek. Sometimes, in certain light, she would remind herself of her mother so much it was eerie. She had her mother’s features and her father’s coloring, and for that she was thankful; she didn’t want to look like her father. She closed her eyes and pictured her home, but bathed in a sunlight she had never seen but could only imagine. She saw beautiful Moroccan beaches, the sand glistening as the waves and rough current whipped it around, changing the patterns along the shore. She’d never really been able to go in the water, for fear of the dangerous undertow, but always imagined herself floating among the waves, feeling the hot light against her face, burning it in such a way that it was more pleasure than pain.
Her thoughts wandered back to her mother, and she would see her on the beach as well. Her soft skin tone burning in the light, raven hair glistening and piercing green eyes sparkling; Marena believed her mother to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She would remember times walking down the beaches in Safi and down the streets of Tangier, taking in the fragrances and culture, looking in shops they knew they could never buy from, trying on clothing they would never own.
She was happy thinking about her home and her mother. She was happy thinking of a world where the sun actually shown, where each day was a little brighter than the next. But, inevitably, when Marena thought about her home, she thought about her father, and home would suddenly go very dark again.
She opened her eyes and stared at herself in the mirror once again, her mother’s face now vanished.
“Beauty is only skin deep.” Evelina said, interjecting into Marena’s thoughts.
Marena’s hand faltered. “Skin deep is the only part that matters.”
Eve made no comment. “Where are you going?” she changed subjects, pointing to Marena’s attire as well as her actual primping.
“Out.” Marena answered sharply. “I’m going to go get us some things to make our stay more pleasurable.”
“Oh.” Eve gestured at Marena’s bright red dress, which also had hints of and an entire lining of yellow. Marena had quite a few flashy colored dresses and shirts she had brought along. “And this helps how?”
“Well,” Marena said, not even looking over at Eve, “I assure you that it’s not only my intellect that’s going to help me tonight.”
Eve was quiet for a moment, as if thinking how to approach something. “Um, Marena, we have a little problem.”
Marena looked away from herself and over at Eve. “What?”
Eve stepped aside and motioned. A young girl, probably in her late teens, stepped through the doorway and stared at Marena.
Marena returned the stare. “Who is she?”
“ Kaori. She was at the Chatrani, she caused the little accident and I guess she figured running away was the best solution.” Eve explained. Kaori looked at her coldly but didn’t say anything. Eve then motioned for Kaori to leave the bathroom, and Marena thought she could hear Kaori say, sarcastically, something about “Mommy and daddy having to talk now.”
Eve put her hand to her forehead. “What the hell are we supposed to do with her?” she paused. “She got here on a motorcycle, she can damn well get back. She can’t stay with us!”
Marena stared at Eve. “What? We can’t kick her out! It’s the middle of winter, and I know I couldn’t make it on a motorcycle all the way back to Prague. She doesn’t have anywhere to go, Eve.”
“I know.” Eve agreed, exasperated but still with a look of utter frustration. “I don’t need more ‘buddies,’ Marena. I didn’t want any in the first place.”
Marena huffed. “I know what it’s like to be that age and completely alone. So she can be my ‘buddy,’ because she’s not going back.”
Eve gave a grunt.
Marena walked out of the bathroom, her shoes clicking against the linoleum before being muted by the carpet. She reached over and grabbed a small purse, which she had put anything she might need in tonight. She looked over at the girl. “What do you plan to do tonight, Kaori?”
Kaori thought for a moment. “Stay as far from Eve as possible.”
Marena laughed, but tried to cover it. “Well...I‘m going to go down to the casino. I suppose you can come for a little while.”
“Oh.” Kaori nodded. “Okay.”
The main floor of the casino was a dazzling sight, with chandeliers and scantily clad women as far as the eye could see. Golden statues of ancient gods littered the entryways with tables and slots filling out the middle. The most amazing part of it was, however, the ceiling. The ceiling was one giant screen that looked like the sky, with swirling clouds, changing weather and the night and day progression, as if the world wasn‘t always really perpetually dark. She understood why some people spent their whole lives in here.
The floor of the casino was packed tight, and Marena had no trouble swiping a few wallets from both tourists and seasoned casino veterans alike as they veered into her at an almost constant pace. Most of the wallets had a decent amount of cash so they could buy the necessities, such as gambling. Most of the wallets she threw back onto the floor once she rifled through them and took the cash. She handed some over to Kaori, or seemed utterly unfazed by what Marena was doing, to entice her to leave for a little while.
Marena stopped and leaned against a wall, followed by Kaori. “What can you do, Kaori? I can‘t really drag you along now, for a little while anyways. Can you do something on your own”
“Um...sure.” she replied. “Where are you going?”
Marena hesitated. “Business.”
Kaori smirked. “Sure, ‘business.’ Well, I’ll go do some ‘business’ of my own. I‘ll meet you by those doors in a little while, okay?” she said, pointing to a set of double doors to the west.
Marena nodded and the two parted. Kaori headed off towards the actual casino area, while Marena headed towards the front desk. She wasn’t exactly sure what else she would be capable of taking, in this casino at any rate, so she decided to look a little outside of the casino.
Marena soon found herself walking up the slanting, curving driveway to the parking garages. Most of everything she saw on the floors were things she really didn’t want or knew she couldn’t obtain; security on most high end cars was too complicated on the resources she had, and the ones that weren’t she never saw.
She continued up until she got to the level that Eve had parked her bike on, which, she hadn’t noticed, happened to be the VIP area. She figured she’d might as well check on Eve’s bike to make sure it was okay, seeing as at the time it was their only mode of transportation, despite the fact that Marena hated it with a passion. That’s what she was up here to fix, though.
She happened upon the bike a little while later and it seemed to be in the same condition as it had been earlier. She was tempted to kick it, but she knew Eve would somehow find out it was her and stick a couple of dents in her as well. In frustration she slapped the leather seat as hard as she could, causing the bike to wobble. Marena gasped and wrapped her arms around the bike to steady it, muttering curses as she hugged the bike.
Marena walked as quickly as she could from the motorcycle, in the opposite direction in which she had come. As she walked, she noticed at the far end a station, obviously there for security purposes, but what security it offered she wasn’t really sure; all she could see was a rent-a-cop watching a portable TV, his feet propped up on the desk, sets of extra keys from valets hanging off the wall. The casinos had very large signs in the garage stating that harm to any cars was not their responsibility and, despite that, people still parked their millionaire sports cars in these shotty garages. She wondered if people just didn’t take them because they were afraid they would get caught by cameras that probably didn’t even work, let alone tape the entire garage.
Marena continued to walk towards the rent-a-cop building when something very shiny caught her eye. She spun around and, in it’s silver plated glory, was the most magnificent car she had ever seen. One of the most expensive sports cars on the market was sitting in front of her, so there was obviously reason she had never seen one. She had heard about them, however, from books and off the streets. Plenty was to be said about them; their power, their expense...
And their horrible locks.
It was almost common knowledge to anyone who had stolen a car that the newest model, which this one obviously was, had a terrible lock system that nearly anyone could get into, given they had the perfect circumstances to do so.. The problem was never spoken about to the company, however, because once you broke into the car there wasn’t much to do. The car may have had shitty locks, but hotwiring it was close to impossible; no one had ever done it. Not to say they had never been stolen, but it usually required months of planning she didn’t have.
Marena continued to stare at the car in it’s glossy, sleek glory. She then, without even looking away, slid her hand into her purse and pulled out a small pair of cuticle scissors and a pocketknife. She took a quick look around and noticed only one camera facing her, but someone had knocked it off the stand and it was staring straight down at someone else's car. She slid down to the ground and somehow got her head and arms underneath the door panel and proceeded to pull back the bottom of the panel with the butt of her knife. Behind the thin panel one could simply reach up and pull down the wires that connected to the door looks. It was a childishly simple set up; all she had to do was cut the two wires and touch them together and the locks would trigger open. The problem usually was the alarm would go off one the panel was pulled back, even if it was easy to stop as well. This time, however, the alarm didn’t go off. She wasn’t exactly sure who to thank, but she thanked them anyways. She then went on to cut the wires with the cuticle scissors and she heard the sweet sound of automatic locks flipping open. She smiled wickedly and got off of the ground, wiping off her dress.
She excitedly opened the door and immediately sat down in the drivers seat, looking for any form of information she could use. She checked under the seats, in the little sun visors, and in the middle compartment and found nothing, but upon inspecting the glove compartment found something very interesting: a valet ticket and insurance papers. It was common knowledge nowadays that the ticket was given to you and the valet took the car. This guy, however, must have left and come back, not bothering with the valet. Also, the insurance papers clearly gave her the owners name, who was hopefully the person driving it. This was a very good thing for Marena. Now she didn’t even need to knock out the cop and search, painstakingly, for the right key. She could present the ticket and present herself as this man’s wife. This was working out so insanely well that Marena was certain it was some sort of trap. Not that she cared or intended to stop, but it was in her thoughts nonetheless. Lady Luck was apparently on her side.
Marena closed the door of the car and fixed the door panel before walking over to the station, mustering all the charm she possibly could to give her any sort of advantage. She reached the station and knocked on the glass, startling the man inside. He turned around to see who was there before exiting the building.
“What seems to be the problem, m’am?” he asked politely.
“Oh, sir, I’m so glad you’re here.” Marena said, sounding tense and worried. She had also strengthened her normal accent, so if she mispronounced the man’s name it would sound like she just couldn’t speak English well. “My husband told me to come up and get his car for him, but I dropped the keys down the drain and we don’t have another set with us, I can’t even get into the car. He’ll be so angry with me, I don’t know what he’ll do. But...didn’t the valet leave the extra set of keys up here with you? I could use those and run home before he finds out and...” she acted as if she was going to cry.
“Don’t worry, m’am, I’m sure he did. I just need to see your valet ticket, okay?” he told her, trying his best to “calm her down.”
Marena nodded and handed him the ticket. “Thank you so much, you don’t know what this means to me.”
The man smiled and looked at the ticket for a moment, then walked back to the hall of keys. He returned a few moments later holding a set of keys. “One more thing m’am, to confirm, I need your husband’s name and registration number?”
Marena tensed a bit but didn’t let it show. “Reg...registration number? I don’t know that! Sir, how would I know that? I can’t...but I can’t ask him! Oh, what he would do if he knew what I have done.” she actually started crying now, an act she’d learned long ago. It helped immensely in these situations.
The man’s face softened. “Oh, come on- no, stop crying, just give me his name okay?”
Marena gave a weak smile. “Dante Lamoroch.”
“Well then.” the main nodded and handed the keys over to Marena. “Here they are. Don’t lose these, now, or I can’t help you.
Marena nearly squealed with joy. “Oh thank you so much, sir! I will not forget your kindness.” she said, handing him a €100 bill, and thanked him again. The man did not protest.
Marena walked calmly back over to her victory, but once she was inside could not help herself as she peeled out of the garage and sped out. She was tempted to give it a test run, but knew she had said to meet Kaori at the front and, as she pulled past the doors, saw Kaori walk up to the exit and stand, waiting. Marena groaned and pulled the car into the parking garage of a casino across the street, gladly paying the small fee to hide away her new toy. She then took the walk back over to her own casino ans walked through the doors, meeting a very happy Kaori.
“Look.” she said simply, and flashed a roll of €100 bills and grinning widely.
“Now how did you manage that?” Marena asked.
“Uh...” Kaori hesitated. “Skill? Or... ‘skill,’ maybe.” she smiled, accentuating the second skill. “Maybe.”
Marena laughed. “Good job. Well...” she began, then threw the keys at Kaori, who nearly dropped her money in the process of catching it.
The girl looked for a moment, then Marena saw her eyes bug out and she looked back up at Marena, slackjawed. “Now really. How?”
Marena paused for a moment. “Hm. ‘Skill’”
The two smiled at each other and laughed once again, wickedly, which almost -- but not quite -- covered up the sound of gunfire coming from the casino.
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