\+/ Tales From Night City \+/ Chapter 59 - Taken

Molly suddenly jolts awake with a deep inhaling gasp. Shes been tucked into bed nice and snug with a warm, soft, silk blanket and a fresh bottle of real water waiting for her on the bedside table. Her head feels heavy.. carrying along a headache that makes her feel as if she's been hit by a truck. She rolls over onto her side to see that she's in a clean, well furnished, beautiful apartment high-rise. The familiar sounds of Night City lay muffled countless floors below her as she looks around at the quiet, opulent and stylish, high-ceiling apartment. Completely lost, and unaware of her location, she shakes the blanket off and sits up in the bed revealing her black bra and panties. She lets out a deep, exhausted shriek of pain as she feels the soreness in her body wash over her. She looks down to see a deep bite on her chest with dried blood around the deep top and bottom row of teeth marks. She slowly reaches to lightly touch the bite mark and feels a sharp pain, making her twitch. Her white neck and wrists were red and raw as she raises her hands to her forehead and lays back onto the bed.

She then slowly gets out of the bed and stretches before the rising morning sun... wrapping itself around her curves. The sound of her bare feet slapping on the polished wooden floor is heard as she walks up to a huge window pane overlooking the beautiful morning Night Cityscape. She sees a feint reflection of herself before she focuses in on the city itself. She firmly places the palm of her hand on the glass as she stares deeply out into the city. Unable to understand the immediate feelings she feels when doing this, she fully embraces them for the first time as the city stares back at her...

"Good morning Night City." She says softly to herself in a tone of awe with a slight smirk. She re-focuses her attention back to her reflection in the window pane, seeing her own toned, curvy body in her bra and panties. A wave of various thoughts and emotions hit her all at the same time as she stands there overlooking the cityscape and her own reflection overlapping each other in the window. She suddenly feels the sensation of belonging... acceptance... as if she has offered forth the enigmatic, feral nature of her true self only to have it embraced with open arms... A feeling she's truly never felt before. In all of her years of travel and work all over the world, nothing has ever given her these feelings. They seemingly all hit her at once causing her to snatch the palm of her hand away from the window and take a step back in discomfort and disbelief... ending her mesmerized gaze out into the cityscape. 'What the hell was that..?' She thinks to herself... intimidated and confused.

She glances to her right and sees her street clothes neatly folded and stacked beside the bed. On top of the clothes rested a small white note written in pink cursive left behind by the Russian doll. She walks up to the clothes and grabs the note, hearing the Russian doll's soft, beautiful voice in her head as she reads:

"You have taken me. And I have taken you. Nothing will ever change that."

"Please. Make yourself at home. I will see you soon. My precious killer. My Milaya."

Molly looks up with disbelief on her face as she slowly crumples the note, closes her eyes, and puts her hands on her forehead. "Shit..." she says to herself under hear breath. She begins to slowly put her t-shirt on as she feels another sharp pain on her back causing her to wince and shriek hard in pain. The shirt slowly slides over the deep, red scratches all over her back from nails digging in. She finishes putting on the rest of her clothes and makes for the exit. She sees various personal belongings, pictures and items throughout the apartment that she forces herself to ignore as she leaves. She exits down the elevator, walks through the lobby and makes her way outside.

A sudden rush of the city sounds and commotion wash over her as various people going about their day are heard. Vendors shouting things for sale, car horns and alarms going off alongside the sounds of sirens and people laughing in conversation. These sounds are a new welcomed comfort to her that shes quickly growing a fondness for as she makes her way up the street through the dense foot traffic. She walks several blocks up the street, well away from the doll's apartment and takes a seat on the stoop of another apartment complex. She takes a heavy drag of her smoke before taking a deep breath and slowly gathering herself while casually watching various pedestrians and cars pass by. Countless thoughts drift through her hungover and exhausted head as she sits there thinking deeply about not only the prior night... but the entirety of her time spent in Night City. She takes all the time she needs before taking another deep breath and letting it out slowly while feeling the remnants of an unforgettable night.

"Fuck... here we go." She says in a tired tone. She rests her cheek on her closed fist as she turns off her geo-block... causing a huge wave of text messages to flood her vision. Countless text messages from Manny and various associates of the corpo chain frantically trying to contact her scroll in one after the other with the notification sound pinging over and over again. Before they even finish flooding in, a call on the holo comes in from Manny causing her eyes to glow orange.

"Molly!" He shouts in a genuinely concerned tone before he quickly catches himself and clears his throat. "ehem; Ma'am. Are... are you-? Is everything alright? Where are you? Team was trying to report you MIA but I didn't let em... as you wished. I think the-"

"Just... come get me Manny..." Molly says in an tired tone before disconnecting the holo call and taking another drag of her cig and flicking it. She gets up off of the stoop and starts to walk up the block. She hears a voice that shes passing by on the sidewalk which grabs her attention... causing her to stop and look over.

"Spare a veteran some change ma'am?"

Without hesitation, Molly transfers 200 eurodollars over to the homeless man. "Of course... Here you go." She says in a soft, genuine tone.

"Knew I saw good in you... God bless."

Hearing the statement causes Molly to pause while continuing to look at the homeless man in the eyes... She responds in a stern tone.

"...There's no good in me."

Before the homeless man can respond and disagree, she walks off into the distance as he watches.