"Kid?" Graverobber stood over a young girl, passed out next to his dumpster, with days old blood crusted over her teary face.
Shilo looked up and blinked, wiping her eyes, "Graverobber? Is that you?"
She sat up and wiped her eyes as he knelt down, an eerie blue glow coming from the inside of his jacket. "How long you been out here kid? You're a mess."
She shrugged, "I don't know...since the opera I think."
Graverobber was taken aback, "Kid the opera was three nights ago! Why didn't you just go home?"
She shrugged and blinked back tears, "I don't know."
'She looks so pitiful' Graverobber thought, 'well I guess she's got an excuse, what with Mag and her monster of a father both dead. She probably doesn't even know how to get home.' He sighed and reached down to help her up. "Come on kid I'll take you home."
Shilo stood and followed him, staring blankly ahead. In the back of her mind she was aware that she was following the most dangerous drug dealer this side of Sanitarium Square and that she should be afraid and cautious, but she didn't care.
Once they got to her house Graverobber opened the gate and ushered her into the yard. "Alright kid, you take care." He walked back out and closed the gate behind him, but stood and watched, waiting for her to go inside. She didn't. She just stood there, in front of the door, looking at it like a scared little girl. He sighed again and walked back in, taking her hand and pulling her into the house. "Kid, are you gonna be okay?"
Shilo looked around, gazing at the holograms of her mother hanging on the wall, and nodded. "Yeah, thanks." She began walking up the stairs to her room before turning, just in time to catch him opening the door. "You can call me Shilo."
It had been three more days. Graverobber has shacked up in the dumpster by her house to make sure she was alright, but he hadn't heard from her. She hadn't come out. She hadn't come to her window. He hadn't even heard her crying. Not that he would admit to it, but he was getting worried. He decided to jump out of his dumpster and walk to the front door. He knocked...no answer. He pursed his black clad lips and pushed open the door, still unlocked. "Hey kid?" From somewhere in the house he heard a small whimper. "Shilo where are you?" He walked in and saw the fireplace was pulled out, leading into another room. He quickly ducked into the room and stopped short, seeing Shilo sprawled on the floor, still covered in dried blood and staring at her fathers repo mask. "Kid..."
She looked up from the mask and scanned the room from the pressure hose in the corner to the scalpels to the bondage table to the door where Graverobber stood. As soon as her eyes fixed on him she burst into tears.
He didn't know what to do, watching this young girl crying hysterically, covered in blood, and mourning a monster. After a moment he sighed and knelt down awkwardly, pulling her into a loose hug and letting her cry into his shoulder. She curled into his lap and buried her face in the fur of his jacket.
An hour later she stopped crying and he picked her up, leading her up the stairs and into the washroom. She sat on the edge of the giant bathtub as he grabbed a towel and some soap. He reached over her and turned on the hot water, letting it fill the tub and steam up the room. "Okay kid, I'm gonna go now, get cleaned up." When he got no response he sighed and pulled off her wig, setting it on the counter. He had known from the first moment he saw her that she had been wearing one, but now after the opera he knew why. He looked down at her, really looked at her, and examined her face. Her pale skin and thin build made it clear she didn't eat much, and that she really had been ill. Her eyes were sunken in and vacant, but the first night they had met, in the graveyard, he had seen something in those eyes that had drawn him to her, to help her. That spark was still there, only hidden behind the grief and confusion. He stopped the water once it was at the top and knelt down. He pulled off her blood drenched shoes and stockings before standing again and pulling her wrist bands off her arms. For a moment he hesitated, 'she's a little girl for god sakes! This is wrong!' But another voice, the more empathetic voice, spoke up 'she needs your help. She can't do it herself.' And so he decided to pull her up so she was standing, and carefully, not wanting to frighten her, pulled the dress up over her head and tossed it behind them on the ground. He decided that was enough, as she was only in her undergarments, and lifted her up, placing her in the tub.
Shilo relaxed into the water, letting it pull her out of her haze. She turned and saw the Graverobber sitting on the ground, legs crossed, watching her with what, if she hadn't known better, would have passed for concern. Her knees instinctively rose up and her arms crossed over her small chest.
At her sudden discomfort his lips quirked and he waved dramatically, "Welcome back Kid."
Shilo sat, speechless, "I...um...thanks, I guess."
Graverobber rose up, grabbing the doorknob, "I'll let you clean yourself up. I'll be outside the door if you need anything." Before she could answer he disappeared through the door, closing it behind him softly.
She soaked in the water, letting the blood drip off her shoulders and back. She couldn't believe she had just sat there and let her father die. She had walked away. She had left him. She had failed him. Just like he failed her. And to make it worse she had let a drug dealer, a Graverobber, bring her home and take off her clothes. The thought made her shudder. She was mortified...not by the fact that she did it, but by the fact that she wasn't ashamed. She wasn't ashamed that she had let him into her home. She wasn't ashamed that she had seen the kinder side of the notorious Graverobber; even if it was probably to get in her pants. She looked at him and saw a flicker of hope. He had survived. He had made it through horrible things and still found a way to smile. Why couldn't she?
He sat against the wall outside the washroom door, listening to her breathing, the water sloshing around her as she moved. Why had he come here? There was nothing in it for him. But she was just a kid, he couldn't have just left her there alone. 'It was none of your business' a part of his brain screamed at him, 'grab something valuable and run.' But somewhere beyond the selfish Graverobber, buried far back in his mind, another voice sprang out, 'she would have died. You saved her.' He shook his head at the thought. What did saving her get for him? Nothing. Just a world of trouble and probably and overly attached seventeen year old who'll never leave his side after this. He should have stayed away. He should have just left the kid alone. Instead he let his moral voice pop up after years of silence and drag him, yet again, into madness.
"Gr-Graverobber?" A small voice came from the small girl, poking her head out from behind the bathroom door. "Could you...um...my nightgown is on my bed...could you hand it to me."
He stood and nodded, "Yeah sure thing kid, hold on." He walked into her room across the hall and nearly tripped over his shock. He stared, a little creeped out by all the dolls and bugs and towers of books along her walls. He cautiously pushed aside the plastic sheeting around her bed and grabbed the nightgown. He all but ran back out of the room and back to Shilo.
"Thanks." A minute later she appeared, wig in hand, wearing her strapless nightgown. She looked down awkwardly, shuffling her feet, "Thanks for, um, helping me. You didn't have to..."
Graverobber shrugged, "Didn't have anything better to do, GenecCops are running wild, can't get near a graveyard at the moment."
"Oh...Well thanks anyway." After another moment of awkward silence Shilo cleared her throat. "I'm going to go to bed."
Graverobber nodded, "Alright. I'll be downstairs. If you need me."
Shilo scowled, "You don't have to stay. I'll be fine."
He chuckled, shaking his head, "You said that last time and look where we are."
Shilo sighed and nodded, "Ok, whatever. There's a room down the hall it's got a pretty comfy sofa if you wanna sleep. And feel free to clean yourself up, you smell like dumpster."
"Whatever you say Kid. Go to bed."