Catch Me If You Can

It was rather sad, the realization that Bela Talbot had been in the Hollows for a few weeks now, and found herself so occupied that she had little time to venture out in the nightlife. Between scoping out exactly who she needed to defend her back from, and being summoned by Lilith’s baby sitters at every occasion, there was little time to get all dolled up and scope the town for more personal interests. After all, she was a woman with her own needs beyond rolling naked in her own riches.

However, it seemed tonight she would be satisfying both aspects of her life. Meeting one of Hollow’s founders could be called pure luck, but she learned quite some time ago to never leave things to luck or chance. Whatever it was, she was going to use this little meeting to her advantage. He could know things which would be invaluable, things which she might have to otherwise bend backwards to learn. But here she was gaining his delivery with the nice little package disguised as a simple drink together. What more could she ask for? If she played her cards right, which she had little doubt that she would, she could have a one way ticket to the very dagger which she so desperately sought out. And it would bring her one step closer to getting the hell out of this town. She wanted nothing more than to see that contract with Lilith torn to shreds. Bela had never functioned well in shackles.

The atmosphere of  the club could be felt as soon as she saw it on the street. The sound of music, deep and pulsating, the chatter of people, and the odd smoker or two leaned against the outside of the building. It was a scene that she hadn’t witnessed for quite some time. Too long in fact. Bela might not have been a beer at the bar kind of girl, but she could never really resist this sort of atmosphere. It was the sort of place you went to forget your troubles, forget who you were, and become someone else under the flashing lights.

Bela hugged the thin coat tighter around her body, doing her best not to quicken the pace of her steps. God she hated them all, all those things that went bump in the night. Most of all she hated the demons she sold her soul to. Not that she ever regretted the choice. She had no time to regret choices she made in this life, it was a waste to mourn things you could no longer change. She could have expected this, being used like a puppet who could be summoned whenever her owner tugged a string. It ate away at her pride, to be such a minion, and there was very little of her pride left anymore.

Tonight there was chill in the air that she was sure had to do with the creature she had just finished speaking to. When one was aware of what was out there in the world, you stopped believing in coincidences. One action was always the direct result of another, nothing was just brought upon by chance. The world was a carefully oiled machine, and even the fucked up things that could happen were meant to.

And so she was not surprised that this was a miserable night when she was supposed to meet with one of the demons who Lilith spoke through. She was being baby sat, patrolled like a high risk prisoner. She was surprised she was allowed to dress in the morning without one popping by to do a full body cavity check.  Then again, they knew who they were dealing with quite well – she could be slippery.

It was just inside the border of the city, when she had sighed softly at the walk it would take to get back to her place, when she heard it. A shifting in the trees, the tingle of awareness that she was not alone. Her fingers slipped to her pocket, finger curling around the trigger of her gun. She barely had time to count to three before she pivoted quickly on her heel, gun drawn sharply. Only she found herself  face to face with not man, but several. Women and men, at least five of them who looked none too happy to see her.