With your head pulled in and a hood covering your face, you walked through the dark alleys of Zaun.

Muddy rainwater splashed underneath every step you took.

The stench of chemicals was stuck inside your nose.

Shadows crawled over the ground and up the walls.

Your eyes wandered through the darkness.

Eyes were watching from all sides. Some of the people seemed like poor fools, unable to make proper decisions of their own while others looked like they were the reason for other peoples misery.

All of a sudden, one of the dark silhouettes made eye contact.

His eyes were darkened and all covered in crust. His face had mud all over.

The cracked lips moved, a soft sound escaped.

Quickly, you rounded a corner. It was better to get away quickly before he would ask for something like money.

Or worse, he'd try to hook you up on drugs.

Rumour had it that there was a new kind of substance going around. It was supposedly stronger than any other drug and made incredibly addictive.

Apparently it also came with heavy disadvantages.

Again, a few drops of rain fell from the sky. As the watery orbs hit the surface of your clothes, an awful stench hit you.

Headaches chased through your temples.

Pulling a face, you lowered your head even more and rushed on.

Neon light kissed your feet.

As you looked up, the door of the last drop greeted you.

Your feet froze.

It felt like you betrayed Viktor by planning to make business with shady people like the ones that lured inside this building.

Sure, Vander was a great man with great ideas and unlike others, he had moral. But that didn't change the fact that the people of the Undercity were monsters.

His influence had changed the way the people of Zaun went about their work and kept everything in check, but crimes were still crimes.

Out of caution, you threw a fee glances over your shoulder. Somehow it made you unreasonably nervous to be at the Last Drop without any real connection to it.

A few people already started to look you up and down.
Your hand reached out for the doorknob.

All of a sudden, a wave of dusty, dry coughs struck you.

Taken by surprise, you tore your eyes wide open and pressed a hand to your mouth.

The coughs shook you so violently that a vibrant pain made your lungs ache. Breathing became impossible.

Weak on your legs, you had to support yourself on a wall.

For a short second the pain was gone.

Greedily and with tears in your reddened eyes, you managed to gasp for air.

The hard wall pressed into your back as another wave of pain and coughing made you bend over.

Heads rose.

Confused glances were thrown into your direction.

Feeling the stares of strangers digging into your flesh, you forced yourself to catch a breath and crawl around a corner into another dark side alley.

Out of breath, you bend over and let the pain do its worst as a steam of blood gushed from your mouth.

Thick red drops poured from between your fingers.

Red and dirty rainwater mixed with a shimmering layer of oil on water.

The taste of iron and raw meat covered your lips.

It smelled of smoke and ashes.

It scratched inside your lungs whenever a breath crossed your lips.

You tried to ignore the cough that scratched the back of your throat.

Steps approached.

Your eyes jumped to the side. Out of reflex, your fingers twitched and reached into the side of your pocket to wrap around a knife.

Someone passed. Shadows crawled over the ground, over the walls and vanished onto the darkness again.

A shaky breath escaped your lips.

Small drops of blood poured from the cracks of your mouth. It felt like your teeth were bleeding as well.

Your entire body was trembling. Breathing burned.

"Holly shit.", a low voice chuckled.

A cloud of thick, grey smoke stroked your face.

The weight of a hand pressed down on your shoulder.

"Fuck off!", you growled and shook it off.

With the back of your hand you wiped the blood from your mouth and spit the rest against the wall before standing up straight again.

Annoyance already visible in your (E/C) eyes, you turned to meet the person's gaze.

Surprised your eyebrows rose.

"You really appear out of thin air in the worst of times, don't you?", you asked with your eyebrows pulled together. "How did you find me?"

With an amused smirk on her face, Sevika took a drag from her cigarette.

"There's blood on your shirt.", she noted drily.

You didn't give it a second thought.

"I was looking for you."

She smirked.

"I'm not a nurse, kiddo."

You rolled your eyes.

Pain and impatience had taken your will to have a conversation with her besides what you desired to discuss.

"You told me a guy needs people to work for him.", the tip of your tongue appeared to clean the corners of your mouth. "I need his contact."

Her gaze wandered up and down on you.

"He needs people who are... capable."

A hissing sound escaped you. Annoyed, your lips curled.

"I am, thank you very much."

Curious, her head tilted to the side while she crossed both arms in front of her chest.

"What would you need the money so desperately for? You seem on the brink of death already anyways."

Baring your teeth, you showed her that your patience was running thin and you weren't around to make smalltalk.

"That's none of your business.", you snarled. "You said he pays well. I am willing to work."

With a shrug of her broad shoulders, she took a drag from the cigarette and threw it into the mud.

Hissing, the glowing tip died down.

It smelled burned for a moment.

"I'll bring you to him.", she offered. "But you should know that it's dirty work."

"I didn't expect anything less."

"It's very dirty."

"So what? Should I be concerned that it will kill me?"

A huff escaped her.

"That's one way to take it."