Thanks to my beta reader MusoukaS for doing a great job on this.

Facedown

Shilo couldn't believe it: he'd hit her again! Even after he promised it would never happen again. She remembered the first time her dad had hit her. He was so sorry, he said he didn't mean it, that he had a hard, stressful day at work.

And now, she walked down the streets, for what seemed like the twentieth time that day, just because she didn't feel like going home. When she turned round the corner, she ran into the one person she really didn't want to run in to.

"What do you want?" she asked with a little bit of anger in her tone of voice.

"Hey kid, what's wrong?" he asked, concern evident in his.

She quickly grumbled something under her breath that Graverobber couldn't catch and tried to shove him out of the way.

"Hey, don't just try to shove me out of the way. What's wrong?" Graverobber asked again, but seemed to be more demanding and commanding this time. Once he got a good look at Shilo, he knew exactly what had happened. Her face was tear-stained and red, and as he continued to look her over, he noticed much older bruises and even some fresh ones.

"Shilo, who did this to you?''

Shilo looked down, she couldn't meet his eyes – at least not now, not now that he knew her secret. She could feel how the tears started to run down her face.

He looked at her face and saw the tears slowly rolling down, ''Hey, it's OK. You can tell me. Come on, kid''. He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. He started to rub calming circles on her back. It might've taken her a little while, but she was finally able to gain control again.
"I'm sorry; I usually don't lose control like that. Been a hard day, that's all" she paused, "What are you doing anyways?''

Grave robber had failed to realize that he still had his arms around her, "Don't try to side-step me, I can see the bruises. Now, tell me, kid: Who did this to you?" He noticed how pale her cheeks were.

"My dad." she said in a whisper and the grave robber could tell that she was starting to shake.

"Oh man, come on, kid. I'll protect you, I promise. You can stay with me, you'll be safe", with that said, the grave robber grabbed her by the hand and started to run towards the alley. He knew some back roads that he often used, it would get them to the small apartment he had. It took them about fifteen minutes to get there. And even though his apartment wasn't in one of the best spots as Shilo looked around, she didn't really care right now - all she really cared about was that she was safe and with someone she trusted.

Even though she didn't know him that well, she did trust him with her life. He was almost sweet as he stopped running when they got closer to his house: it was hard to tell who would let go first, or who wouldn't let go. Shilo just wanted some sort of connection, but she couldn't exactly tell why grave robber didn't let her go. She chanced a quick glance at him; she could see the worry on his face as he glanced over at her every few seconds.

"Grave robber, thank you for helping me", Shilo said, her voice still shaky.

"You have no need to thank me, kid. I couldn't just leave you there", grave robber said, his voice sounded almost stone cold.

He opened the door for her and gave a tour around the house, showing her where she would be sleeping, and where the bathroom and kitchen were. She never spoke, and grave robber could understand why seventeen years of being locked up in a house and being beaten by your father would traumatize a person.

Shilo was actually surprised that the grave robber was being so nice to her. He always seemed as if she was like a nuisance, but he had always watched over her nonetheless, and she would never know how to repay him for it. The tour only took about fifteen minutes and when they got to the spare bedroom, grave robber looked at Shilo.

He put his hands on her shoulders and started to shake her a little, "OK, kid, you have to say something or I'm not going to leave you alone here, can you hear me?"

She took a deep breath, "I don't know what to do".

Grave robber was shocked to hear this coming from her; he thought she'd be fine. "Hey, it's going to be OK; you know you're safe here, right? You know the layout of the house now; you can have the run of it while I'm gone. You can even come harvesting with me if you want".

Shilo just walked over to the bed and lied down. She didn't know what to say to him. Grave robber could tell that Shilo just wanted to be alone and he also had some harvesting to do before the sun came up; he'd already spend a good chuck of time helping out Shilo. He walked out the front door and into the night, on the way to his favorite hunting ground.

As he was walking, he thought about going and paying the repo man a visit, and giving him every bit of hurt back that he had inflicted on Shilo, but then he thought better of it. It would be a waste of time anyways; one way or another that bully would get what was coming. Even if it weren't from the grave robber himself, it would be from the Gencops - hopefully.

He was almost at the graveyard when he heard something in the alley he was passing. He walked very quietly over to the mouth of the alley. He got a quick glance of a figure peering at him from the shadows and as he walked closer, he could see Amber Sweet staring at him.

She started to walk over towards him as a small smile played on her lips, "Well, look whom I found. I wonder what I should do with you". As she got closer, grave robber started to back away, but he just ended up backing into a wall.

"Hey Amber, how about you just let me go, huh? Come on", Grave robber said with a sly smile on his face, trying to inch away from her, but he bumped into one of her bodyguards.

"You know, I could just take you in and let them kill you"

Grave robber froze; it was as if his whole body shut down. "Why would you let them do that? Where would you get your Z then? Nobody in this whole city gives you a good deal like I do", he said, trying to put on a show. He kept trying to find a way out; his mind seemed to be touring on one hundred miles an hour.

"You know, I think I could. It would be really easy to find another dealer to get my stuff from," she said, walking closer to the grave robber, "And then you would never get to touch this again."

She took his hand and ran it down her body. Grave robber's eyes rolled back in his head for a brief moment, "OK. I really have to go now".

It took him about twenty minutes of sweet talking and teasing along with some of the Z he had left to finally get out of Amber's clutches. He continued to walk towards the graveyard, not stopping for anything now and his mind started to wander.

Why am I even helping Shilo? Why do I care? I mean, I would like to beat the shit out of that so-called father, who'd done this to her. So, maybe I am growing a heart or at least a conscience. Whatever it is, it's new to me. I've never had to care for another human being. How do I rationalize this? Hmm, Maybe I'm just helping a girl in need or I'm just doing it because there's something in it for me. I'm not quite sure.

He started to hum, as he got closer to the graveyard, automatically walking towards a newly spotted and fresh grave. He walked over to the grave in three strides, crouched down to get his tools ready.

He stood back up and pushed the lid off of the casket. He pulled the body out and laid it on the ground, unwrapping the plastic and grabbed a syringe. He then pushed it into the corpse's nasal canal. When he heard a pop, which meant that he'd hit the brain, he let out a soft, "Yes". He pulled back on the syringe and saw the blue liquid that he loved so much. He filled up about ten more vials and then walked out of the graveyard, walking back towards home and hoped that Shilo was doing better.

Shilo woke up a little groggy and disoriented. She sat up and looked around the room, not quite sure where she was. Everything from last night came rushing back to her then; her dad hitting her, walking around and bumping into the grave robber, and him bringing her to his house.

She got out of bed and found a pair of clothes that looked exactly hers, but she knew that she hadn't brought any with her, so that meant that the grave robber had gone back to her house and took them. Shilo smiled at the thought of him actually going to those lengths to help her.

She picked the clothes up and walked to the bathroom to clean up a little. She was actually surprised about how clean the bathroom was, considering the fact that the only person who lived in this house was a guy. She climbed into the shower and turned the water on, she stayed there for a while. She wasn't sure for how long, but the water did get cold, so it must've been at least for an hour. She got dressed and walked into the kitchen to find something to eat. She noticed something on the table as she did so; she walked over to it and saw that it was a note. She picked it up and read it:

Dear kid,

I hope you slept well and remember: you're safe here. He won't find you. I'll be back at sunrise, so you'll have the house 'till then.

G

Damn, he has good handwriting, was the first thought she had after reading the note. The note alleviated some of her nerves.

She walked over to the fridge and looked inside: there wasn't much inside except for some milk. So, she started to look into the cupboards. There, she found cereal and she grabbed the milk from the fridge. She sat down at the table and starting to eat as she read the paper.

There was nothing really interesting in it, except for Genco's everyday commercials of promoting surgery.

She wasn't interested in surgery, so there really wasn't much to read.

As she ate, her mind began to wander to the previous night. She didn't even know what had gone wrong: She was at home, waiting for her dad to get home from work, and when he did – he just seemed so mad. She heard the front door open and her dad walked in. She had walked down the stairs and something in her dad just snapped. He had come after her without even saying a word and he hit her.

Again and again – the blows coming, but then he finally stopped.

It was then when she had sprinted for the door, grabbing the handle and opening it wide open. She ran right into the street, not even looking where she was going, she simply ran. And when her legs got tired, she slowed down and walked around the block a few times. When she had walked around the block for what seemed like the hundredth time, she finally ended up running into grave robber.

It was when it all had started. She had been sort of happy when she saw the grave robber, even though he was a drug dealer. He had always been honest with her, though. Her mind stopped wandering right when she'd started thinking about the grave robber. He always seemed to jumble her mind.

She looked around and saw that the sun was coming up. There was a clock on the wall; it was 5:00 AM. She was starting to wonder why the grave robber hadn't come back yet. She finished her cereal and went to sit on the couch. It seemed that she had found out a lot about him in the short time that she had been there – more about anyone in her whole life.

Grave robber walked through the door around 7:00 AM. He had blood on his shoulder and he was limping. Shilo walked over to him, but didn't get too close though. She wasn't sure if he'd like that.

"What happened to you?"

It took him a few seconds to answer as he'd been gasping for air, "I got seen by the Gencops; it didn't end very well".