09-10-2017, 08:20 PM
Melko was a child of the streets. She had lived off the dark underbelly of the city for so long that she knew virtually every trick. She could feel the urban environment breathing and could dance to its pulse. Any street rat knew that the city was alive, even if non-street kids and scientist said that they were insane. Cities lived and breathed with their own savage energy.
It was her street smarts that had allowed her to slip undetected from those who trailed her. Her skills also allowed her to slip unnoticed behind them. Her hooded jacket had also changed. No longer red but a dark gray-black. She had managed a moment when she first lost the group following her to pull the garment off inside out and put it back on. A professional thief had thought her about reversible clothing.
When she started trailing those who had been trailing her, she was amused to see their confusion and then outrage at losing her. She trailed them for the next twenty minutes before they gave up and got into a black unmarked minivan and drove off.
Even as close as Melko dared to get without being seen, she never did discover who they were or why they were after her. With a quick glance around to make sure that she was alone, or as alone as any could be on a crowed street, before she vanished down an ally. She dodged down allies. Moving in and out of the shadows of the buildings. Sidestepping piles of refuse from overflowing trash cans, the occasional homeless person, and pools of thing she would rather not know what they were.
She moved her way deeper into the under city of Chicago. She knew that a few of the drunkards and homeless people she had passed were guards and watchmen for a friend of hers. Even though she was not a member of the particular organization her friend did, she knew that she could hang out at his place for a while and be relatively safe.
The two had been fast friends for a few years now. If she was still being fallowed, he could stash her at one of his safe houses for a while.
She came to a metal grated door with a slid peephole. She knocked on the door. Carefully tapping out the beats to ‘shave and a haircut.” The knock echoed in the alleyway around her. The metal slid of the peephole slid open with a thud. Golden snake-like-eyes peered out at her. The voice that belonged to the eyes was a soft snake-like-hiss. Due to the fact that the voice’s owner had had his tongue split years ago.
“What do you want?”
She pulled back her hood to revile her face as she smiled up at the door. She knew that man behind it. When she had first met him she had instantly disliked him. She still did not trust him. He was nothing more than a hired muscle. He was a thug, and his loyalty laid with whoever paid the most. Yet as at the same time if a fight did break out he was the man she wanted watching her ass.
“Jerik, you know it’s me,” she said with a hint of irritation.
He hissed as his eyes narrowed. “You know that I hate that name.”
“I know that you do, Jerik” she stated with a sly smile. “Is Victor in?”
The snake eyes rolled in annoyance. “Ya.”
The door peep plate slide shut with a bang. Sounds of locks being opened drifted to her twitching ears. The door slowly opened on well-oiled hinges.
She stepped through into the dimness. Jerik pulled the door shut and started turning and sliding locks back into place. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the gloom. Her eyes adjusted more quickly than those of a normal human. Although her eyes surgery had been botched and blight light hurt she thrived in gloom and twilight levels.
She knew that the bruit was right behind her. She also knew that another stood not far from them ready to deal out pain and even death if needed.
“Which room?”
“Just go straight. He’s in the common.”
She nodded slightly to the serpent splicer, than continued down the hallway. She passed a few locked doors, her ears picking up muffled sounds of various activity’s that she would rather not know about. Sex, BSDM, and drug use being the most readily recognizable. The drug was more than likely the drug Moxadroxain, better known as Super E or Splicer Candy. It was a big hit with splicers. It was a mix of ecstasy and LSD and was shot up like heroin.
She entered the common room. There were a few men gather around. Normal humans, splicers, and a few of the awaken. There was a big Doberman in the corner smoking a cigarette as he lazily watched the room. A few girls danced on a raised staged, one on a pole. The two girls were down to their panties. The red head not on the pole slowly sliding her black lacy thong off to dangle in the face of a man spliced with bull DNA. The man was sniffing deeply and was clearly aroused. The stripper hung the garment on one of his horns before turning around and wiggling her ass in his face.
On the other side of the room from the strippers was a lion at a table. Her friend Victor.
He was half siting half lounging in an over-sized beanbag chair. He was concentration on a intricately carved wooden game board before him. Malko walked up to the opposite side of the table and studied the board.
Mancala she realized.
The wooden board was carved with twelve small depressions, six to a side and two large depressions, one on each end. Stones of different colors filled most of the depressions only a few were empty. So the game must have been going for a bit.
Victor contemplated his next move. He tapped a depression on his side with a paw. One of his human attendants, a black man dressed in a well-tailored suit and sunglasses, picked up the stones in a leather gloved hand and began dropping the stones one by one into the other cups as Victor looked up at her.
“It’s been a while. In trouble?”
She sighed and took in the lion. The tufts on his mane had recently dried red and he had red highlights streaked through it as well.
“My complements on your hair dresser.”
“What can I do for you?”
“Some idiots are after me. I don’t know who or why. I gave them the slip awhile back but I figured I better lay low here for a bit.”
