Author's Note: Hey everybody! Chapter numero cinco is now up! Yipee! But we're far from even when things and the plot itself thickens. Thisis actually considerably light and a tad fluffy in the beginning half, but the next half gets all serious and solemn. And then later chapters is when we finally move on to the heartbreaking angst, angst, angst, angst, angst (Potter Puppet Pals reference- as am I too suffering from Post Potter depression. IT CAN'T BE OVER! ! ! There's gotta be another series! ! !) Oh, nd as you can see from what you will soon read- I want my fic to be accurate to the timeline of 1993. So the types of cars, artists and their songs, and all is 90's stuff.

5. Lonely Girl in the City

The honest impression from this Shana girl in Joey's eyes seemed a tad too difficult and early to tell exactly, as she was not one to jump ahead and assume. After all, the quote itself makes an ass out of you and me. But from Shana's looks, she seemed like a brightly girl, high and proud about her ethnics and being a city-girl, quite the charm. Hopefully a good kid having grown up in a good nieghborhood to Joey's personal hopes, since the bad parts of the city made her nervous. A fellow reporter a few years back when she first started the jump went to cover over a hostage situation down in a nasty part of Manhattan- and ended up with four bullets in the chest in a body bag. Even at the times when she had been desperate for a story did she never find herself completely willing to go as far as to plaes like those.

Following Shana past through the crowd, somehow finding a bit more difficult time to slip through while Shana groved her way through with almost a natural flexibility, Joey met her at the end by a nearby alternative parking lot on the sidewalk. Not far to the right was Joey's own car, but glancing over she noticed Shana didn't seem to be heading to any car in particular.

"Hey- wait up!" Joey called out, raising her right hand as she chased after and gently grasped Shana's shoulder. Turning around to face the reporter, Shana looked with a face of slight concern.

"Yeah?" was all she simply said while Joey merely continued to glance around and about the area for another quick second. Joey slowly let down her hand off of Shana's shoulder, swallowing lightly while the presumably African American woman crossed her arms and waited.

"You said you had something to show me?" Joey questioned, as Shana's mouth formed an 'o' in remembrance and smiled warmly, nodding.

"Right, riiight. Sorry, forgot. I was just headin' back to my place, why don't you just go get your car and follow me?" she explained.

"Um, pardon me for asking but...where is your car anyways?" Joey asked as polite sounding as possible without sounding like a 'snoop' the official term nickname meant in offense to those stereotypical about reporters. And usually most reporters were snoops, but Joey knew her borderlines to respective curiosity and inavading privacy.

Besides, Shana didn't seem disturbed or offended as she made a light chuckle.

"Um...well honestly it's not here. I just walked from here, my place ain't that far from here. Sides, I don't even have a car. I got me a damn fine ride." she winked, though Joey honestly couldn't understand what she was referring, though guessed perhaps most likely a motorcycle. Strange, Shana seemed a bit petite and too friendly to be someone who rides around a motorcycle in a leather styled appearance, with tatoos and a cold pout. Though that was the basic idea to most what a biker, and perhaps it wasn't even a motorcycle.

"Well, would like a ride though? I mean, it still seems like you've got a bit of a walk ahead of you." Joey offered kindly. Shana seemed hesitant, but after a few minutes of debate she nodded quickly and energetically. Enrgetic- not quite the feeling Joey was having right now as of her current exhausted present state, yet wouldn't let that get the best of her as she lead the way to her car, a simple 1992 Toyota Camry. Catching a brief glance of Mark as he started his way to leave, Joey made a friendly wave of goodbye to him as the two women got into the car.

"Seriously, thanks Joey. You don't really have to do this-"

"Oh no. It's no trouble." Joey interjected, insisting Shana's guilt was for nothing. Hands firmly on the wheel, there a mental wave sent throughout Joey's mind to keep wide awake and full attention on the road, aswell as Shana here. Just to at least be able to have an official full view on Miss. Harley's character and, hopefully, wasn't up to something troublesome. Though the light brown haired reporter had faith and wanted to believe all was fine.

"So uh..where are you from Shana?" Joey questioned after two minutes of pure, basic silence. Joey had forgotten to turn the radio on, so there wasn't even any music playing to preoccupy the time. Shana must've been distracted the moment, staring blankly out the window for the city view when Joey briefly turned her head over, catching Shana's attention.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Right uh- I've been from around here, the big ol N.Y.C all my life to be honest. Well, not all my life. I just mean, whenever I stay for more than a month at a place, it's always been here in New York- always in the heart of the city itself." she answered, a bit hastily though casually.

"Well...except not counting Vegas. Don't tell!" Shana giggled, pressing a slim finger to her lips and winking. Joey laughed, though had honestly never been to Las Vegas before, or honestly why the place was so troublesome or with a reputation of problems arising after parties. She could, however, recall Mark talking about plans to travel to Las Vegas after his twenty-firsty birthday and him offering her a plane ticket and invite.

"What about you Joey? You don't honestly seem like some kind of a typical city gal." the woman with a red dyed bang asked.

"Well...I'm rather from upstate New York. Well, I was born there. After my father died in Vietnam War when I was born, my mother moved us both down to the city for her to search for a job. And since then , I decided to pursue a career as a reporter- wel, just not quite a real reporter." Joey bitterly mumbled the last part. If she wanted to be honesty, she would've added in her sentence that that was all the basically summarize her life so far.

'Unless you'd care to whip up the tale of how you fought against Hell and it's demons and single handedly, with the assistance of a handsome ghost, sent them back to Hell.' her self conscious teased, though Joey's eyes widened at the sentence of 'handsome ghost'. What? Handsome, since when had her mind come to think of that? But before she had time to question to herself, Shana's face was mixture of the obvious sympathy for the mentioning of her deceased father.

"Oh wow. Joey I'm so sorry." she said sfotly, the mood of it all turning a bit awkward. Joey had heard this told to her many, many times. Shana's way of saying wasn't much of an exception to the others.

"I know...I mean it's fine. Honestly." Joey insisted warmly in her reply. After an awkward pause seemingly set in between the two, like a rough patch of ice, Shana decided to break it.

"Hey Joey, you mind turning on the radio?" she asked eagerly and kindly, in a curious manner.

"Wha-...oh yeah. Sure." Joey said, with a simple press of the button, already on a station from earlier before, was whatever that station was was in the middle of playing a song.

You're a rebel now

Don't give a damn

"Ooooooh! I know this song!" Shana squeed happily, swaying her shoulders and shaking slightly in a manner of somewhat dancing while sitting down. Joey admittedly liked the beat, though the artist itself was a familiar artist voice, though couldn't quite recall. Madonna? Nope, no way. Joey wasn't much of a music person anyways, but perhaps it would become more familiar to the song.

Shana's bouncing about, dancing siilly(as she was aware her dancing was silly) as Joey glanced over was enough to crack a smile, whilst Shana pointed a finger in the direction in which to turn to get to her place, while mouthing the song.

Always carrying on

With the game

I'm tryin' to tell ya boy

It's a mistake

You won't realize

Until it's too late

Don't understand why you

Insist on living such a dangerous life

Time after time you stay away

And I just know that you're telling me lies

Black Cat Nine Lives

Short Days, Long Nights

Living on the edge, not afraid to die

Heart beats real slow

But not for long

Better watch your step

Or you're gonna die

"Is this Janet Jackson?" Joey asked, rather loudly over the top of the music in which was belting out loudly in between the mix of the guitar and chorus. Shana hadn't quite heard what she said, but stopped dancing as she turned down the volume to barely audible.

"Sorry what? Yeah, this Janet. You like?" Shana grinned.

"Eh, I'm not much of a music person. But her voice is nice, and I like this beat. What's this song called anyways?" Joey asked, slightly humilated as she had guessed possibly something with either 'Black Cat' or 'Nine Lives' and not wanting to look oblivious.

"My theme song, sugar. Black Cat. Sometimes when I ride with the boys I turn this baby up to full volume. My favorite compact disk in the world that ain't died yet from how many times I've kinda replayed often." came the sassy reply, as Joey sniggered at that joke. She looked around to the nearby building in front of her, a brick building in basic good condition- though nothng like an outstanding five star suite.

"Is this it?" Joey asked curiosly, as Shana nodded, taking off her seatblet and getting out of her car seat.

"Yup, this is the place. The closest thing to home." she said, while Joey quickly turned off the car and followed to the front main door.

Joey could see the details better to the place, and it honestly stood the borderline of good and bad. Good for it's good condition, and rather the style of the building itself was quite beautiful. Though there was grafitti of offensive insults on the sides, some stained windows at certain floors of what looked to be ash as though a fire had occurred years before, with curtains stained a slight foul stench that made Joey wrinkle her nose.

"Piece of shit, isn't it?" Shana questioned jokingly, though almost as though able to have read Joey's mind rather her curious and inspecting face for that matter, at the heat in Joey's cheeks light up brightly in embarassment.

"No! No, not at all! It's overall pretty nice actually." she spoke the honest truth. Joey could tell Shana didn't seem to buy that as she arched a brow and mumbled a 'Mhhm?'.

"Nah, it's fine Joey. The place is a rot wreck. There's been two fires that happened here, and there's rumors someone got jumped and stabbed to death right here in this parking lot. Tellin' ya, don't ever bring yo kids here." Shana informed, sighing slightly. Joey felt her eyebrows rise high, gulping at the idea of what if her living apartment had a history of possible murders and arsons. Definetely he easiest answer would be to quickly move out.

Turning her back for a brief moment, Joey glanced around at the place, the other nearby buildings suddenly seeming with a dark appearance of a shadow casting over.

'More friends...come to play with you Joey.'

Joey felt herself frozen in fear, a cold sweat forming at her forehead, fingers twitching and trembling. Suddenly the place seemed completely unfamiliar and cast in a trance of darkness. Foolish as it sounded, it was the only honest truth to describe. Her mind and common sense screamed to run, as she swore in her ears she felt the piercing movements of one of...of..them sneaking up on her from behind, lunging forward to grab her in the horrors of torture-

"Joey?" came the replied voice of a curious Shana, obviously meaning no harm. But Joey herself jumped as if she probably thought she was a mugger, and Shana stumbled back a bit.

Joey gasped, her heart beat pounding against her like a luod, thumping hammer as she tried to relaxen, slowly turning over to instantly recognize Shana.

"Sorry...didn't mean to scare ya with my lil horror story." Shana apoogized, a light sarcasm implied somewhere in the joke to it. And though Joey didn't quite laugh, she couldn't honestly blame for Shana's comment. She was acting quite on the edge and tense today. The spilled coffee, Mark tapping on her car window, and now this?

'It's because I'm so tired probably.' she sighed to herself while Shana waited for a response.

"You didn't scare me Shana I'm just..." Joey trailed off, unsure how to finish.

'It just so happens today is the one year anniversary in reminder of how demons had walked the Earth, murdered many people inside a popular club, and turned five innocent people into mutilated sidekicks to his little army. Did I forgot to add the perilcious dreams and kind ghosts included?' was the honet, sarcastic remark. Though of course, quite a skeptical scare she'd give to the poor city girl, as well as how that would be impossibe for her to believe. So of course, Joey didn't say that.

"..Just not having a good day really. That's all." she decided to simply finish.

"Nah, I feel ya Joey. I..I'm not having the best type of anniversary kind of day myself." Shana said, though loudly for the first part. The other sentence was rather meant to be mumbled to herself, though Joey had caught on to it and was, ofcourse, automatically curious. Wondering if perhaps somehow she meant like, the same idea of an 'anniversary' Joey herself was having.

'Could she have been there? At the club? Or chased in the streets?' the reporter wondered to herself silently, but decided to wait before asking such questions as she headed inside.

The main floor of the apartments itself was semi-decent, somewhat with the feeling this was a place filled with dirty secrets poorly covered up. From outside, Joey could suddenly hear the nioses of faint barking of two roaring dogs- obviously a menace to one another and foreign screams and cusses from other people, whether encouraging their dogs or something completely different. Typical loud city folks, but there was a bit of an eerie effect to it as Joey trutted alongside Shana.

Shana couldn't honestly understand what there was to be so fearful of. Then again, perhaps Joey was some kind of high class city-girl, not used to the lower areas around the city. There seemed something...jumpy about the reporter. Easily startled when her back was turned, and rather in a constant distracted gaze, though that one was understandable for Shana.

She hoped they could be somewhat good friends while assisting through her story, but Shana felt as though Joey knew...more. Things others never listened to, were never told of, or were never meant to be told. With how startled Joey was, it was almost as though she had witnessed murder and everytime someone caught her from behind, she expected it to be that very same killer after her.

Sure the city wasn't always a breathtaking place to live in, nd neither as cheap as it used to be from what she remembered as a young child- but it had some good effects to it as well. It was the small rewards that would count for her, and the place, despite the whispered rumors and ugly gang past from long ago, Shana saw nothing to worry about.

She noticed the greeter, Samuel 'Sam' Bonds, a dark skinned, grey haired man who appeared to be in his sixties when he was actually in his early fifties, shoot Joey a rather cold look and the slightest hear of a snarl. Shana narrowed her hazel eyes, made a gesture for Joey to wait where she was, and approached Sam calmly, with an arched brow and tapping foot.

"Sam?" she simply said in a dry tone.

"Evenin' Shana." he winked, suddenly turning warm for her.

Ah Sam was not one to get along with typical strangers, and it was not the easiest to get on his side. But Sam had met Shana many years earlier, when her mother had hired him several times to babysit her while job searching. Sam had otherwise been warm and friendly, but in his previous years having lived a difficult life as a gang member, battled his own harsh demons of drug addictions, and lost the lives of his wife and young son from a brutal car accident, all these embittered him permanently. And the scars certainly went deep.

"Try to lighten up a little bit? You're scarin' my poor friend here, and she isn't one to come down to our world here." Shana sighed, staring down at the old man.

Sam hoarsely chuckled, a rather creepy sound to hear due to the damages of drug addiction in the years before, he was considerably lucky not to have had his throat removed. Though he had gambled with his life against that once.

"Ah, so she ain't from the ghetto, eh? Poor blondie babe looks like lil ol' Bambo there startled an' all." Sam remarked about Joey in a simple comment, something implied as slightly offensive, though otherwise was a joke. Though Shana disliked it when Sam joked that she and him were both from the ghetto. She hadn't honestly thought of herself coming from the ghetto, then again, her lifestyle wasn't necessarily something of an average middle class life.

"Sam you know I don't like none of them damn ghetto jokes. Just, please, for me try to lighten up a bit?" she pleaded in a soft whisper, noticing that Joey had turned her head over curiously to their conversation. Sam leaned in to Shana, so she could hear him as he nodded.

"Alright sweet baby gurl, only cos you startin' really look like yo momma there. And you knew I always liked yo momma alot. Whoo he!" he cackled in his inappropriate joke, true that he had indeed been heavily attracted to Shana's mother.

Shaking her head, Shana smiled warmly and mouthed a thanks as she guided Joey along to the fourth floor as to where her apartment was at from the staircase, since the elevator had signed place in front clearly stating 'OUT OF ORDER'.

"So...Shana How long have you lived here exactly, at this place?" Joey asked in between slight pants as she and Shana seemed to hurry up the stairs at a good pace.

"This is the original building I was raised at. We had our own house at one point, but we quickly lost it after my father walked outta my life. Sam, he was my babysitter, and he really loved my mother a lot. So, he let us back here. I only came back here about way early last year, like actually probably late 91." Shana explained. Stopping for a brief breath, she huffed in a remark about the 'damn stairs', before finally reaching what was the fourth floor, and towards the simple worn down coating of red painted door marked room 4E- Shana's apartment.

"So...anything you gotta expect about my place?" Shana asked curiously.

For a moment for Joey, it almost seemed like they were two friends hanging out together, eagerly viewing one another's houses. But this wasn't, as Joey knew she had to focus back on the story without seeming rude and in a hurry. Besides, why hurry? The more time taken the less of a chance having to encounter Ryan. Originally it had been Brad who would make the sexist and picky remarks in the year before, but was suddenly fired in rumors for sexually harassing another reporter. Ryan was replaced instead, but did he turn out to be the true spawn of the devil for how spiteful and despicable he was.

As long as he kept his hands to himself though, (and with her pepper spray kept nice and tightly somewhere in her pocket) Joey felt otherwise fine with that situation. But Ryan overall just made Joey naturally furious thinking about him and the stress he would typically bring on her.

Hearing a sound 'click' and the noise of Shana unlocking the door, she opened it abruptly, making a hand gesture and warm smile to invite Joey in. Joey herself took a deep breath before stepping inside at what was honestly a lovely, unique room.

There was something about it styled to be 'city-like' the gray brick wall for one side in the living room, where a tan wood floorboard was placed, and simple white furniture of two couches, a coffee table, and an average sized television. But upon the gray brick wall were two large paintings hung, one made of rather creative, simple yet somehow in a pattern strokes of the primary colors. While the other was a re-done picture of the infamous Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol, though with some messy details that made it evident this was redone. In front of her, straight ahead not a wall but a whole view from a large window similar to her own apartment.

The kitchen had a red brick wall, and rather steel appliances, though a bit cheap looking in that matter, again with several types of artwork, and artwork equipment scattered about. Joey figured somewhere in the nearby back was the bedroom and bathroom, but it didn't matter.

"It's...beautiful. And the artwork is...wow." Joey breathed, honestly amazed.

"Took me a while to fix it up, the paintings...well...Miss. Monroe over there was bought at a high school artwork sale place. But the other one there was myself. Actually, most of these are done by me." Shana grinned proudly, though her cheeks were flushing from the flatter.

"I didn't know you had such talent Shana." Joey remarked, wide eyed in a bit excitment, having then forgotten the story.

"Eh...I sell most of these though. A girl's gotta make some livin' ya know. I mean, everyone thinks that cos I've got a motorcycle out in the back I'm some junkie bike gang member screwing around on drugs." Shana pouted her lips and rolled her eyes, obviously annoyed by the stereotypical assumptions made. Joey hung her head low for a moment, both in shame and for how her neck had begun to feel rather stiff for that matter due to the restless night previously.

"Joey? Is somethin' the matter?" Shana asked, in concern as she approached her. Joey snapped her head up, blinking her eyes once or twice before clearing her throat.

"Shana look. I don't want to sound rude, but you said you had something to show. Would you mind.."

"Oh yeah. Sure. Totally. Why don't you just uh...make yourself comfortable. Uh, yeah. My place may look fancy but it honestly doesn't have much. Just uh, you can go sit over in the living room and call if ya want anything while I go get it." Shana said, her hands gesturing about a bit awkwardly as she rushed off.

Joey exhaled a breath deeply, licking her dry lips and smiling slightly for a brief second. She didn't want to seem like a rude guest but simply helping herself to plopping down on her couch, but didn't want to upset Shana and her hospitality. So, she slowly made her way to the white couch (taking twice to make certain there were no dirt stains on her that would spread on the couch) and sat straight upright.

She could hear the shufflings and noises of Shana rummaging through, as well as the creative potty mouth Shana had as some things either fell or fell on top of her as she muttered cuss words, though not meant for them to be loud.

Joey in the meanwhile, shifted in her seat a bit awkwardly before noticing the face down frame on the coffee table, as if accidentally knocked over. Joey reached for it to gently bring it back up, surprised it wasn't shattered or damaged for the luck of it, and- well. She felt the urge to look over, turning over to the sight of the photograph.

A happy looking couple, obviously in love from the meer sight of their eyes, let alone the fact they were in each others arms and smiling brightly while whoever had taken the picture photographed them. The woman was Shana of course, slightly younger than what was now, and the man seemed...eerie familiar. Shoulder length dark brown eyes, bushy dark eyebrows, dusty brown eyes, fair skin, all familiar in a person she just must've seen before.

Racking through her memories, Joey couldn't help but make a coy smile at how adorable it was. There was an obvious lipstain on this boy's cheek, while Shana wore a lopsided birthday hat- obviously haivng gone to celebrate her- twenty second (as she had squinted was able to find in the background a possible friend of Shana cutting a simple cake with blown out number candles that said '22') birthday.

"Hey Joey I- oh." Shana had said, stopping in her place as she had noticed the reporter looking at the picture frame.

Joey blushed, realizing what she had done and feeling immediate guilt for going through Shana's personal items and possibly hurting her feelings as well, as her fingers gently gripped on the frame to balance it gently back on the table.

"Shana, oh Shana...I am so, so sorry. Look I didn't mean to-"

"No, no Joey. It's...it's fine." Shana interrupted, with a slight smile, though it hadn't hidden the sudden hurt pain forming in her eyes.

"I really hate to ask since really look like a snooping bitch but- who is this guy?" Joey attempted to ask, though felt as though she should stop.

"No, no. Not at all, you're- you're not a snooping bitch Joey. He...he's- his name is Jimmy Hammerstein. He's my fiancé- or sorta. I...Joey, you're reporter interested in stories, right?" Shana quickly drawed softly. Joey nodded her head, but bit her lip.

"Shana if this hurts you to say just say so. It's wrong of me to even ask so you don't-"

"Well boy have I got a story for you. Call it Lonely Girl in the City and why the world is a bitch. Where to begin?..." Shana began, sighing softly and sadly.

What do you think? Slow and riducously boring, I know. I know this is so boring. I hate myself for there being no action at all. I should probably official declare to you that this story is REALLY slow pacing probably. It'll be just a little longer before we get to the actual Cenobites, blood and gore, or the official Jelly. Though the next chapter may be the start of an M rating to adult themes and Shana's heartbreaking story. Bring tissues!