白玫瑰

You had waited, of course, idling near the exit, smoking, the six-pack sweating as it hangs from your fingers by its plastic yoke. You are liable to sate your curiosity, its hunger, which surfaces when you had noticed a familiar face in an unfamiliar scene—unaware, going about her everyday life, unadorned by the glittering, noisy scene of the Heart’s Palace.

Remember passing by her at her table, cards tilted between her fingers; friendly, meaningless chatter your disguise those months ago. She had a reputation amongst the other runners: an unlucky table for the crowd even though they were unlikely to notice before it was too late; like a fly in a trap.

You have your own reputation—more similar than different.  

“Wouldn’t imagine I’d see miss high-roller shopping here of all places. You’re not lost are you?” You begin to wave with a bit of smirk before spreading your arms, gesturing obliquely at the surrounding area. “This is more a place for penny-pinchers like the rest of us.”

Is it a bit unbecoming? To insert yourself this way, nearly walking beside her? Perhaps it is—though you’ve already done the work to make your point and you can tell she has seen you too and when you set your sights on a prize, you’ll have it.  

It was exactly what she didn’t want, and Ivory barely bit back a curse when she heard his voice. Anyone even barely associated with the casino was someone she didn’t want to interact with outside of work hours. They only served as a reminder of the shackles that bound her to this damned city, and the sooner she was rid of them the better.

“ I don’t know what made you think that I had any money. If I did you wouldn’t be seeing me on the dealer’s side, would you? Those with money to spare would be on the other side of the table, and those with money and sense would be far far away. ”

This was not completely true. There were plenty who came to the casino night after night in hopes of doubling or tripling their meagre funds, betting on their supposed future earnings, but it was the job of people like her to continue the illusion, lull them into a false sense of hope all the while draining what they were willing to lose in the name of earning.

She can tell he doesn’t mean to leave her alone any time soon, and shoves one of her bags at him. “ If you’re going to keep sticking around, at least make yourself useful. What are you doing around here, anyway? ”

She’s definitely been up longer than she would like, but dealing with situations like this were bound to be exhausting even if she had been fully rested, even if she had only been helping out peripherally. And of course, since she had stopped to help, she’s been notified to stay put so that the police could get witness testimony.

Stupid, in her opinion, because she’d arrived after things had got going, so what more could she tell them, really? Argument was of no use, even if it had been a reasonable request for them to let her go home to sleep, offering her contact information in return.

The next time she’d definitely keep on walking.

She’d parked herself on a low wall, watching the last of the ambulances head off to the Vale, when she caught sight of a very worried looking girl hovering around. 

It’s almost routine for Ivory at this point, alerts that pop up on her phone for grocery sales, which days are the best for getting fresh produce at better prices, which brands are the most value for money. It’s what must be done if she wants to get out of here as soon as possible, and if everything went well there would only be a year and a half left before she could completely leave this city behind.

If everything went well, that is, and she has long learned that nothing ever went well around here. But that small hope is still too strong to give up, and it doesn’t take too much effort from her to be able to calculate her numbers.

It’s a little time for her to relax for herself, listen to a podcast while going about her errands, especially after seeing a building literally collapse inn front of her ... she could swear that the smell of smoke still lingers somehow.

It was a good decision to always change out of the clothes she wore during her shift, a feeling that dry cleaning claimed due to stains from helping out in a fire would not be allowed. The thought had flashed across, just briefly,  that she could just continue on her way, there were enough people around, those trained to combat situations like this..

I mean, she was just an ordinary citizen, after all. It would be understandable for her to stand back, not wanting to be inconvenienced, afraid of losing her own life in trying to save others.

( But haven’t you already done that? The life you’re living now can hardly be called one, after all. )

Fortunately ( unfortunately? ) she had not been brought up in that way at all, and thus now we find her in the midst of the chaos, helping to situate the displaced children and checking for those with more serious injuries to be sent away with the medical teams.

The blaze of the flames do not ward against the early morning chill that sweeps through the city, especially for the orphans who have been moved to a safe distance, and so she ends up catching the arm of someone nearby.