Entry 3:
Did you hear? She's dead. Word is, Geese shot her as she was trying to escape with that bastard Bogard. I…I cared about her, mate. We haven't done much but fight in the last year or so, but still.
She was really something, wasn't she? A girl like Lily draws trouble like food draws a starving man. Really brings out the protective instinct in an older brother, you know? She wouldn't have it, though. She hated me prying into her life…hated it when I tried to stop her from going out. I remember that day, about a year ago, the day she stopped talking to me.
"Goddammit, Billy! Leave me the hell alone!" She flailed drunkenly as I tried to help her up the stairs.
"You're drunk! Again!" I spat. "And if I don't help you up these bleedin' steps, you're going to fall down and break your neck! So stop struggling, and just let me help you!"
"No!" she shouted, fury flashing in her emerald eyes. "You stay away from me! Stay out of my life, you…you thug!"
She started crying then. Not normal girl crying, but serious bawling. I didn't know what to do…I'd never seen her like that before.
"You think you're so much better than me? You think I'm such a whore?"
"Luv, I'd never think that," I told her, hoping I sounded as sincere as I felt.
"You! How dare you think you're better than me? You're nothing but a thug, a hitman, a henchman! I can't stand it! I hate you, I hate this place, and I hate Geese Howard!" She broke down then, sobbing uncontrollably. It tore at me, it did. It wasn't that I took her drunken ranting personally; it's just that I hated seeing her so upset. "I wish he'd never brought us here. I wish we'd stayed at home, with Dad. So what if we were poor? So what? At least we were…at least we were free."
"Lily, luv, free to do what? Live out our miserable lives on the street? Geese gave us a chance at a better life."
"No!" she shrieked. "No! He's just using us…all of us! We're nothing but whores, selling anything, even our humanity for money."
"Sis," I soothed, trying to comfort her as best I could, "it's not like that at all. Geese-"
"Shut up! Shut UP! Doesn't this place bother you? Don't you see the corruption? Don't you see how sick this place is? Or are you blind to it? Or worse, a part of it?"
"You're drunk, and you don't know what you're talking about!" My patience had finally run out. Who was she, after all these years, to tell me I was wrong? She wasn't much of a saint herself!
"I know exactly what I'm talking about! You bastard, you're just like him! You're one of them, you're one of them!" she shrieked like a woman gone mad.
"You listen here!" I shouted, grabbing her arm and pulling her closer. "If I'm knee-deep in it, then you're sure as hell neck-deep, so don't go preachin' to me, Sis!"
She twisted out of my grasp with a violent jerk.
"You just stay the hell away from me!" she hissed before stumbling her way up the rest of the steps and disappearing into her room.
That was the last time we really spoke. I knew she was unhappy, so I suppose I'm not surprised that she tried to run away with Bogard. I wonder if it's true, though, that Geese shot her. I guess it doesn't really matter, does it? Whether he shot her, or someone else did, doesn't change anything. She's still dead, and I'm still…"one of them".
Anyway, I've decided. I left a message for you earlier at your hotel, with directions on where to pick up this journal. My answer…I'll give you my answer in person. Meet me at the King's Landing Bridge at 2:00am.
I'll be waiting.
-Billy
