Graverobber's bagged eyes widened as he watched the halo-tron. Poor kid he thought to himself. True he had no great connection with Shilo, he had no great connections with any human being, but he couldn't help but feel bad for the girl, he was still human after-all. He remembered seeing her in the graveyard earlier that very night, her pale skin glittering in the moonlight, her dark hair and clothes making her blend into the night. He couldn't help but thinking as he extracted the zydrate from the newest corpse, that she was beautiful, despite how frail she was, maybe because of it. He also remembered later in the night, watching her fear and awkwardness amongst the mass of zydrate addicts vying for his attention and his loot.
He watched the girl's face as she heard the truths that her father had hidden from her, her fake sickness, her mother's death, everything. Seeing her heart break like that made even the jaded drug dealer grow angrier with the wretched world. He sighed, knowing there was nothing really he could do, and shoved his hands in the pocket of his faithful coat and shuffled down the dark alley. Most of the zydrate addicts were still high from his last visit so nearly no one bothered the infamous zydrate carrier. He walked past several dumpsters that were his various resting places, deciding to do some more work before he tried to get any sleep, his stores were diminishing, and most of the Genecops were probably still at the opera. He vaulted the small fence guarding the mass of graves that had become his home and livelihood.
He strolled through the graves, knowing his way around even in the pitch black night. Stopping off at the section of the graveyard he had been working in earlier, the very place where he first saw her. He shook the poor girl from his mind and began his work. He shoved his needle and syringe into the nasal passages of the deceased woman. You could tell from looking at her decaying for that at one point she had been beautiful, but her half-heartedly covered surgical scars and obvious attempts of perfection made her just like the rest of the drones in his eyes. He hated the idea of women trying to make themselves perfect, he had always believe d that the flaws in people were what made them beautiful, not how pretty a surGen could make them. He shrugged and finished extracting the brilliant blue substance into his vial and pocketing it. He shoved the girl back into her concrete grave and shoved the lid back on. He started walking over to the next grave when he heard the sound of an approaching car. He jumped behind a close-by headstone, cursing himself for not having heard it earlier.
He watched the black limousine pull up in front of one of the grander mausoleums. He watched with curiosity, what was a car like that doing in a graveyard? It stopped briefly to let someone out then drove away quickly. His eyes widened when he saw who it was, Shilo. He could see the blood covering her back and matting in her hair. She walked shakily towards the steps of the mausoleum, and he stood. Part of him wanted to go say something to him, but, what do you say to someone who just found out her whole life was a lie? She made it up the first step, but on the second she misjudged the clearance and fell onto the stone. She did not even try to get up, she merely lay there, and he noticed that her body was shaking, wracked with savage sobs. He strode toward her, and kneeled next to her. Awkwardly he poked out a hand and rested a hand of her shoulder, "kid?"
She turned her pale face to him; her black eyeliner ran down her face in pale watery streaks. Her eyes cried out to him with such pain that he felt his jaded heart break for the poor girl. "W-What do you want?" She choked out through her strangled sobs; he saw a hint of fear in her eyes and sighed.
"I'm not gonna hurt you kid, don't worry, now here, let me help you." If she wanted to protest she either didn't show it or was too weak to disagree with him. He gently grabbed her upper arms and pulled her to her shaky feet. She leaned on him and he walked with her up the last of the steps and into the mausoleum. He felt her body, how frail she felt in his strong arms. He could feel nearly all of her bones, and every muscle in her body was trembling. He walked her towards a staircase lined with torches, stopping at the bottom step, looking at her to ask if it was the way she wanted to go. She nodded and he gently helped her up the steps one by one, at the top of the stone stairs was a heavy wooden door which he kicked open with one of his booted feet.
On the other side of the door was a dusty Victorian parlour, it was beautiful, but everything about it felt dead. He couldn't help but be creeped out by the many holograms of her dead mother adorning every wall and flat surface there was. She pointed towards the stairs, "To my room, please." Her voice was hoarse and he led her up the stairs and into the room with the open door, judging by the medical equipment and such, it had to be hers. He looked around at the hundreds of cased insects, and the stuffed animals it was so…her. He smiled and lead her to her plastic-encased bed, and couldn't help but notice that her father had kept her like she did her insects and sighed. He helped her sit down on her bed and she threw off her wig, he hadn't before realized that she had no hair, but he guessed it must have been a side effect of the medicines her father had used on her.
She lied on her back and looked up at him, "thank you Graverobber…"
He smiled his Cheshire cat smile, "No problem kid, really."
"Shilo….my name's Shilo…"
"Alright, Shilo."
A small smile slid on her pale face and she rolled onto her side, curling into a small ball, he grabbed a blanket from the end of her bed and placed it over her before turning to take his leave. His heavy boots made the floor creak as he walked and as his hand reached the doorknob he heard her mouse-like voice "Please….don't leave me."
He turned to her, confused, no one had asked him to stay all his pathetic customers wanted from him was their Z and once they had that they didn't care about him, even the ones who paid through…other means. He walked back towards her bed and sat down on the edge beside her. "I just… I can't be alone right now, please….don't leave."
He smiled and slid off his boots and coat, a bed was a bed, and anything was better than another dumpster. He walked around to the other side of the bed and lied down, placing a hand on her face, "Don't worry, I won't go anywhere, now, you get some sleep."
She nodded, her eyes growing heavy, soon he could hear her long soft breaths and knew she was asleep, he followed not long after.