Left, right, left, right, back. An endless shifting pattern that keeps me alive. My eyes track the people around me, making sure that no one is tracing my steps. Left, right, I doge an oncoming woman and dart across the road. A yellow taxi screams past, honking like a wild demon. Left, I turn down a dark alley. Right, I take note of the trash littering the gap of nothingness between the buildings like confused confetti. Back, I arrive at my destination.

Green, flaking, sickly. Both the door in front of me, and the person sequestered behind it, fit this description. I knock. 1, break, 2 fast, break, 5 slow. The sliding visor groans open, and a pair of bloodshot eyes peek out from the gap.

"Ehhhh, it's you, girl. Ehhhh, come on in kiddy."

He opens the door and I slip in quietly.

"Ehh, you know where to go."

The old guard sounds just as creaky and desolate as the building we stand in, but I know that neither are what they appear.

I walk down the hallway, more confident now, shoulders back, head up, stepping on the balls of my feet like a warrior, not a mouse. I open the door at the end of the hallway, and there he is, the once past employer, and successful drug lord, diablo. Tattoos cover his face, twisting blackly over the landscape of his body. Scars cover his bruised knuckles, each one a seperate tale of pain. Cliched, but deadly, he stands before me, as archetyple of wrath as hell is of pain.

"I knew you'd come crawling back. What do you want?" Eyes narrow, back hunched, looming.

"One last job" I lick my lips "Paid in full, and enough to get me at least 10 grand"

"Deal, i'll get you your 10, but if you do this, you stay in the business or you die. Checkmate sister, you're the best player in this little game of mice, but youll never, ever, get out now. Walk out that door unscathed and penniless, or get the mark. Tick tock, the choice is yours."

Wordless, I bend down and remove what remains of a tattered pair of soiled trainers. Diablo smiles, gold teeth shining past his pale lips. He turns and strides through a door into a handsome room covered in fur rugs and a luxurious four poster bed. A fire burns in the grate, crackling with mirth and heated happiness. He reaches into a stand containing a fire poker, and a fire brand.

"You'll want to sit for this."

I comply, sitting slowly on a red velvet lounge. My hands ruffle the material idly as Diablo shoves the poker into the shimmering heart of the fire. Soundlessly, I watch as he straightens and pivots, his dark dull eyes pinned to my light shining ones. In one swift move he grabs my leg, twists, and holds the brand to the center of my heel. I gasp in wordless pain as the glowing metal burns a star shaped pattern into my flesh.

"Congratulations, you're one of us now, and you are going to steal Starry night"