Alice Merrick

Human | Hacker | 20

[hacker-heaven]

The diner surprisingly was one of the few places she could go to get away from everything. All the news about the town was making her worried. Of course she was worried for the poor woman who was missing but she hadn’t known her well. She was worried about what this would do to her....well whatever she was. Employer she guessed seemed the least convoluted at the moment even if she was more to her than that. Here though the chatter all blurred together so she didn’t have to hear the rumors circling around so many people in this case. Couldn’t people just mind their own freaking business.

[j-fontaine]

“Wait no, I don’t understand.” Moira looked up from the book she’d been reading on werewolves to the person next to her. “They have to kill someone to become the werewolf? Why?”

[hacker-heaven]

“I’d say that it means their are born wolves. Do you really want an infant turning into a wolf.” the redhead said not looking up from her laptop

[arthur-talbot]

Well, this is another shirt ruined, I can’t go– Oh, umm, I’m sorry, I didn’t think anyone was here still. 

[hacker-heaven]

Alice couldn’t help but laugh looking at Shiloh. “You look like a disaster.” she said shaking her head.

[teddyarkwright]

Quinn’s eyes shifted slowly around the square as he slid seamlessly past the people crowding the craft fair; he breathed in deeply and a crooked smile settled on his lips as he ambled to one of the stalls selling little glass figurines that had caught his eye a good twenty minutes ago. His ever changing attention span had kept him away from them but he reached for one on impulse and balanced it in his hand carefully, momentarily stilled by something close to awe as he raised it to the light and smiled even more brightly. “God, it’s pretty, isn’t it?” He wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular, and yet continued to ramble, “Absolutely amazing, I think.” He blinked and held it towards the person hovering around the stall, “You weren’t looking to get this one, were you? I can find another.”

[hacker-heaven]

“Oh no. You go ahead. I’ve just never seen someone so entranced by glass before.” the girl said walking into the stall looking around. She or her brother didn’t particularly like these but she normally found one for her aunt. It didn’t matter that the woman kicked them out. She still got a gift on her doorstep from Alice every Christmas. Her brother hated their aunt and to a point she did too but for better or worse she raised them and she made them into the people they were. “I thought only crotchety old ladies and little girls liked glass figurines.”

[harperclarkeinactive]

Waiting for the bus past four was a pain for a person like him, the bench and the bus scheduel both being completely taken over by stressed out and stern smokers who never took kindly to someone asking them to step away for a while. Harper had since long lost the will to explain to people why they couldn’t smoke so closely to others and instead walked away to another bench in a slow defeat. It was almost fifteen minutes left before the bus arrived anyway and he didn’t own the will to walk home so what else was he to do? He gave the only person sitting on the bench a soft stare, wondering whether she would mind the company or not. “I was going to ask if I could sit here? It smells like crap over there, I’d rather not be in the middle of it.”

[hacker-heaven]

She looked at him for a moment. Her eyes traveled over to the other side of people and the wall of smoke they were creating. She hated the smell of smoke. She would but only when she was out of her mind stressed. A bad habit picked up in her rebellious phase from that stupid aunt and uncle of hers. She knew though how it bothered some people. “Go right ahead.” she said looking down at her phone again not the most social of people around.

[hacker-heaven]

Late Nights

[arthur-talbot]

“I enjoy my work, I don’t think many other people my age can say the same about their job. It’s stressful sometimes, and a little smelly at others, but I love animals. If I wasn’t at work all the time, I would probably get one. A dog, maybe. Or a cat. Or a fish. Or a bird, like a parrot, I’ve always wanted one of those, but most likely a dog.” Realizing that he was starting to ramble, he forced himself to stop, eating another piece of pancake. It felt like ages since he had food like this, he was used to the diner these days. “I’ll try not to make you do that, but, really, I don’t get hungry much, not sure why.” He could guess though, but going down that path required alone time; misery loved company, but him, in misery, did not. He looked at her and then smiled at her, nodding thankfully. “It’s just a shame that he was so young, but she’s still got a litter of other puppies to love on. Just the tradition of first female is broken now, but I guess that means she can pick a different theme of names. I reckon she’ll go flowers this time, but she hasn’t decided which one to keep and which ones to send along to another family.”

[hacker-heaven]

“No I don’t believe they can.” She smiled as she listened to him talking about animals. She always loved the way he spoke of them with such passion. She loved anyone who could speak of something they loved with such passion. “You could probably get a fish and not have to worry so much about how much you work. Or a cat. They’re pretty independent. And then you’ll stop deciding every animal in this town depends solely on you, come home more and you can get a dog.” she said cutting the pancake up and pushing it in her mouth. She shook her head. “Well hopefully the puppy she picks lives long and she loves it just as much.”

[damienashing-blog]

With the press of a button, synthetic light blared from the screen of his iPhone into the darkness of the apartment complex hall, the space seemingly a timeless purgatory where peeling wallpaper and the question of had this place even seen electricity before? graced the mind. A shithole, in other words, and at 6:15, Damien was done with this. Customers being late was not a game he played, and although the responsibility of blood trades had fallen on his shoulders for a couple of days whilst Zach was out of town, deviations from what was expected in business wasn’t his weight to bear.

Lifting his thin frame from where he had been leaning against an old stairwell banister, footfalls on the old rug beneath him threw up dust as he headed for the exit, pulling out the blood bag that had been hidden in an incredibly roomy inside pocket of his jacket with the intention of reading the label. It would denote for whom it had been for, after all, so he could remember to note them as a time wasting, Halloween ignorant bitch for life, and as he pulled at the brass door handle, he paid no attention to the outside until he stepped into it, right into the path of a passerby that he just dodged crashing into, thanks to reflexes that enabled him to quickly sidestep them.

With the offending blood bag still in hand, Damien’s gaze immediately flicked to it, and without even missing a beat to look up at the other person’s face, he shrugged it off with a toothy grin.

“Pig’s blood.” His eyes glinted as he gave it a small shake, his other hand opening shifting his jacket so that he could nestle it back in. “Just not Halloween without someone getting doused like Carrie sometime through the night, y'know.”

[hacker-heaven]

She was annoyed. Zach was missing again. This counted the twelfth time in three months that she just couldn’t seem to find her brother. The arguments ‘He’s an adult’ ‘He knows what he’s doing’ flew through her head but she didn’t care. She didn’t give a fuck how supernatural and strong he was. She didn’t give a fuck that he was an adult. She knew what he did mostly. She did and she knew he was playing a dangerous game. Perhaps he was out working but she still worried. There still was that little part of her that wondered ‘What if’ What if something bad happened. This was Ashbourne. At one point it was safe to live there but not anymore and not when around the fucking holidays where people can easily get snatched. She’d seen enough bodies trying to erase the presence of the rebellious little group from the internet. She didn’t need one of those images to be her little brother. 

So here she wants. Wandering around his haunts, where she knew he went to sell. Back when it was just drugs, when he was human she’d bring him food or hot chocolate after hacking into his phone one night. He’d learned better now learned how to keep her out and from finding him so instead she traipsed into the most dangerous areas of town on her own in her mission in finding him making sure he was okay.

She hadn’t meant to run headlong into another person. Honestly hadn’t expected to find anyone at this place. Her head spun for a moment as he spoke. “Car....I didn’t...what the fuck are you talking about who the....” she started before catching a look in the moonlight and tilting her head. He was familiar. “You’re one of Zach’s friends.” she said simply then let up a smile. “Please tell me you know where he is.” she said knowing she probably sounded like a crazy person but her brother did that to her. 

[katherineirving-deactivated2016]

Of course Edmund had refused to greet the first guests arriving at the party, even though they were coming to his home at his invitation. She shouldn’t have expected anything more than the terse ‘I’ve got other business to attend to, Katherine’ that she had gotten in reply, but it would have been nice for once. Her costume wasn’t truly a costume in the purest sense, it was a gown she had been very fond of in the 18th century and gone to great lengths to preserve with magical aid, but it was as flattering as she remembered and few in this town were old enough to remember it anyway. She put on her brightest, most welcoming smile as she spotted the first arrivals, even though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Very well done in the costume department, my goodness! I’m quite impressed. Welcome to the party, darlings. I do hope you had a peaceful journey here, no pumpkin smashing or worse out there tonight?”

[hacker-heaven]

Alice felt it her duty to come. She felt more and more indebted to Katherine as the days went on especially learning all she had about the woman and their connection. She worked hard, she did what she could so that it wouldn’t feel like charity or pity. Family fell on hard times and generally other family jumped in and helped. That wasn’t what she knew though. The young woman knew self reliance, efficiency, she knew not to rely on anyone. After all what examples did she have. Her parents died, her aunt and uncle were manipulative, neglectful, and borderline abusive, and Zach, whom she was supposed to be closest with just did as he wished and screw her, screw the consequences. So Alice grew up believing everyone did something for a reason, for a price and she was determined not to fall too deeply into debt with her great great and so on grandmother or whatever Katherine wished to call herself.

“No everything was fine Ma’am.” she said looking the woman over. “Not much of a costume for this party is it.” she said her hair brushing through the artificially dark hair her costume required. Her jacket at the moment around her waist.

[hacker-heaven]

The young woman sighed as she stared at the phone in her hand sighing. Her brother should have texted her back. She was growing more and more worried when she couldn’t see him no matter how much she tried to mask it. Too many deaths and so many of them weren’t entirely human. With everything she knew she couldn’t help being paranoid. “What do you want.” she said looking up from the phone feeling the other person’s eyes on her.

[hacker-heaven]

Queen of Peace || Alice and Katherine

[hacker-heaven]

katherineirving:

Katherine had such a dense web of plans, of schemes and dreams, that sometimes she let the short-term solutions hold the smaller plans together while she worked on the far more important ones herself. This had been one of them, and she was realizing that putting it off this long had been a mistake. Well, perhaps not entirely. She hadn’t known at the time what kind of person Alice was, if she could be trusted with such knowledge and if she was loyal enough to her that it would be a safe thing to do. Quite obviously she was, that little spiel that she had gone on after her miniature rant brought a warm smile to Katherine’s lips and erased a few of her doubts as well. “You’re owed an explanation, among other things. And a raise, for that matter. But it’s quite a long story and I’d rather not have my sister or my husband stumble into the middle of our talk.” Katherine said once Alice had finished, then gestured towards the door to her left. “Fortunately Antonio knows better than to bother me when I’m in the study and I think Rory is at school right now. Or at least I hope she is.” Her raised eyebrows gave an indication of how feckless her baby sister could be, but she let them fall back into place as she opened the study door and gestured for Alice to follow her.

There wasn’t a good way to start this conversation, unfortunately. Every way that she flipped through in her mind seemed to have too many potentially unwelcome consequences, but by the time that she settled in a wing chair by the window she had decided upon a simple one. She waited until Alice had joined her in a nearby chair before she began to speak again, and even then she paused before letting the words loose. “I appreciate that you don’t believe the rumors being bandied about town, that’s very kind of you. However, there is a rather solid reason that I trust you, Alice. You see, your blood…” Katherine began, raising her hand to point at the point of the girl’s chest that was hopefully where her heart lay beneath. “And my blood, if it were still flowing, is quite the same. You don’t remember your parents, I assume. But I do, and I remember quite a few of your father’s ancestors, going all the way back to me.” A statement like that required a dramatic pause, so Katherine allowed one after it and spent the time watching her great-great-however many greats granddaughter process it. “I assume you have figured out that I’m a vampire, like your brother. And my brother, my sister, my husband, the list goes on.”

The young girl was staring at the woman as she spoke and nodded she followed her inside. She’d never actually been inside the woman’s house. She only caught glimpses of the family she’d had. She didn’t really need to know them. It was Katherine who had helped her, it was Katherine who was the puppet master here and she wasn’t comfortable with her family knowing she worked for her. How could she explain what she was doing. She could barely explain it to her brother. No it was best to keep what she did under wraps and let no one know. Looking around she saw the vast beauty of the home the woman lived it. 

She took a seat biting her lip uncertainly. She looked at the woman as she began talking. Her heart stopped as she spoke. ‘All the way back to me’ She just could stare. Her, Katherine  was her relative. After all her searching came back with so little on both of her parents, even less so on her father, she found one of her relations right in her backyard. How could she have been so stupid. Now that she was looking at her she could see tiny things, tiny traces. That look in her brother’s eye. Obviously the red of her hair in which she brought her hand up to touch her own softly. That small smile she’d seen on the woman’s face. The proof was there but she’d ignored it. “I...I have found many people of...different ways of life in this town.” she whispered replying to the bit her mind could process. Standing up she started pacing. Katherine was her family, her family was Katherine. Both ways it just sounded like some fairy story.

[hacker-heaven]

orionfaulkner:

It was an interesting perspective that the girl gave him, albeit one that was more than a little terrifying in its naïveté and that made him cringe internally, though his external facial expression remained neutral. This was a prime example of why they were in such a sorry state, the people of Ashbourne. They didn’t rock the boat and they taught their children to do likewise, all in the sake of upholding a utopia that was crumbling under their feet. “And you don’t want to? Not even a little?” Orion prodded, turning slightly towards the sound of the girl’s voice to seem more engaged in the conversation. “Maybe I’m just too nosy for my own good, but I can’t say that I wouldn’t want to know some of what they might be hiding.” Obviously the people of Ashbourne hadn’t had enough riling if this was all that he was hearing from the target audience of the work they had aimed for in the first place. So much for the dissatisfied youth. “Not all of it, but these rumors can’t be entirely baseless or they wouldn’t spread like they do. And last, that’s the most important part right there. Every rumor sprouted from a grain of nasty truth.”

Of course Alice had never cared about Utopia. She had learned long long ago that the world was just a shitty place. It’s why she loved hacking as much as she did. It got her information she could decide to use to decide whether or not to trust people, she could use whether or not to decide to act. And it was why she could trust them to the extent she did. Because she did know their secrets, perhaps not all of them but she knew enough to get a sense of those leading them. “I’m not saying I don’t want to know.” she said. It wasn’t like she could tell the man she could find out whatever she wanted whenever she really felt something was off. Her methods were pretty illegal after all “But I’m saying not everything should be known by everyone. People on the whole are morons. Especially young adults and if they learn some information...I just think it’s better for people, everyone to keep secrets. I’m sure you have secrets yourself. So why should they be penalized for keeping some themselves. Why are they supposed to have their lives and every form of privacy they have shattered. “A grain could be anything though. A grain can be harmless and sprout poison.”

[hacker-heaven]

meyerlowell:

“Kinda true, but we ain’t necessarily good therapists and we generally don’t get asked permission before people start spewin’ their lives at us.” Meyer pointed out, picking up a rag and wiping down the few sticky spots that remained on the bartop. “Gets kinda heavy, but you can’t just ignore ‘em when they’re askin’ for advice neither.” Or at least he couldn’t, even with his piss poor reputation around town and naturally grumpy demeanor. He was getting that same agitated vibe off of the girl in front of him that he did with the confessional drunks that he ended up talking to from time to time, though she didn’t seem inclined to share her problems with him the same way that they did. “Yeah? I won’t doubt you on that one, but that don’t mean I won’t step in if some asshole gets all up in your face. That okay with you?”

She shook her head smiling a bit. “Well I’m not going to do that to you. It seems very rude.” she said simply sipping her coke. “That’s assuming a lot. You guys have nothing better to do then listen to their problems, you guys don’t have problems of your own, and you want to listen to theirs. I don’t think I would.” she said. “No I guess you can’t. Well I guess you could but that would probably be pretty bad for business and your conscience. She watched him a moment. She liked figuring people and motives out and maybe if she could figure him out she could understand the council better. Understand and see that what was going on with propaganda was nothing but smoke and mirrors trying to get people angry like she told everyone. She let up a smile at the man and nodded. “Fine. If you feel the need you can save the poor little girl in distress.” she said with a shrug.

[hacker-heaven]

orionfaulkner:

Orion had a hand in that bullshit propaganda, but he wasn’t going to share that with someone with that sort of opinion on the matter when he was fresh off of a long shift at work. Especially not when the girl’s voice was sharp as glass and twice as pointed, that was just asking for trouble based on the timbre alone. “Quite a lot of it on the ground, I suppose they aren’t as dissatisfied as these poster people seem to think.” Orion observed, making a mental note to ask Sabine if she had any better ideas for new ‘propaganda’ tactics. Maybe he could get her to let loose some dirt about the Irvings this time, who knew. “So you think it’s all bullshit, what people are saying? Every single bit of it, or just most of it?” Call it being nosy or call it surveying the target audience, but his interest was piqued now and there was no stopping it.

“I don’t know how much of it is real  and how much of it is bullshit. I just know that whenever anything bad happens people blame whoever they can. They blame the people in charge.” she said picking up the posters and fliers from the ground. “And I don’t think they’re as dissatisfied with it as they’re just lazy. A poster gets blown down and no one fucking cares. They only care when someone riles them up about something.” she shook her head. “These people that do this, make this, I haven’t heard any real proof. All I’ve seen is fear mongering. Yes the council keeps some secrets. They have to or the idiots panic. Copycats emerge. And the truth of things will never be found out. It’s muddied and buried under fifty miles of bullshit.” she said blushing a bit as she went on her rant to a stranger but no one had ever asked her opinion on the happenings in the town and aside from that she was still working out her own feelings. She just knew she felt very protective especially over her employer.

[hacker-heaven]

orionfaulkner:

He had first noticed the crumpled up papers when he had initially made his way over to the bus stop after work, the way they had rustled as he knocked into them with his cane gave the material away, but they hadn’t started to bother him until he sat down and noticed that they were under his feet as well. It was embarrassing to ask the person next to him just what littered the floor, even after all of these years, but curiosity got the better of him in the end. “Excuse me.” Orion said finally, turning slightly to his left to make it more obvious that he was speaking to them and them alone. “Do you know what we’re standing on here? I sort of…” He held up his white cane by way of explanation, then decided to continue speaking rather than let embarrassment creep into things. “Can’t check them out myself, but there’s a hell of a lot of them for some reason. Are they posters or something?”

Alice looked around noticing the man and pulled the earbud out to hear what the stranger was saying. Honestly she hadn’t been paying much attention. Perhaps she should have but she was so used to every street, every corner, that going from the cafe or club to her apartment or really anywhere just put the girl on autopilot. Bending down she picked one up looking at it and scrunching her nose up. “It’s a bunch of bullshit propaganda about the leaders of the town trying to make everyone see them as evil. I guess they decided just working from online excludes a market of people dissatisfied.” she said bending down to start picking more up to rip them up and throw the useless papers in the trash.

[hacker-heaven]

Queen of Peace || Alice and Katherine

[katherineirving-deactivated2016]

There were times when Katherine wished that Alice looked less like her own Alice, that their temperaments were different and the lines less blurred, and now was most definitely one of them. Though she would never admit it to anyone, there was a part of her that ached to see just how much the girl in front of her seemed to be intimidated by Katherine’s very presence. This wasn’t her Alice, but she was an extension of her, a genetic reminder that her daughter had existed and had children of her own, and that did get under her skin sometimes. That was happening more often these days than it had before, which she disliked but didn’t know how to do anything about either, as the situation in Ashbourne was obviously not going to improve overnight. She watched the girl silently as she stepped into the foyer, and listened patiently to her blurt out things that she quite obviously had been dying to say for quite a long time. Being sentimental wasn’t helping her focus, neither was the fact that Alice’s little spiel was exactly the same sort of thing that her daughter used to do all of those years ago. She had never been particularly good at tact or keeping her opinions to herself, that Alice, and a faintly bemused smile replaced the false one from earlier as she listened.

Well, at least until the last bombshell fell and knocked both her smile and her facade awry. The girl thought that she was being cut off, neglected, ignored, and it was entirely Katherine’s fault. Her own fault, and here the girl was, declaring that she was loyal enough not to let loose any of the less than kosher things she had learned about the workings of Ashbourne. The Irvings needed allies right now, most of the people connected to the council did, and yet here she was, dropping the ball on keeping this one close. “I’m not cutting you off, Alice, and you aren’t fired, not in the slightest.” Katherine said quickly, posture shifting away from the perfectly poised (and perfectly false) cast it had been in earlier when she answered the door. Even her facial expression changed, albeit slightly and in a way that wasn’t hugely noticeable unless you knew the difference between when she was being genuine or false. “It’s just…” She trailed off, letting loose a harsh sigh as she tried to find a way to word what she wanted to say to the girl. “It’s a mess, everything is a damned mess and I can hardly manage to keep things running at a bare minimum without cockups, so I forgot what resources that I had at my disposal. Namely you, Alice dear.” The faint, exhausted looking smile that she flashed the girl then was probably several shades more genuine than she should have allowed, but it was all that she could manage right now, quite frankly. “I don’t suspect you of all of this hacking bullshit that’s causing me such a headache, I could never suspect you of that, for a number of reasons. And I’m sorry for being such a neglectful employer, that is entirely unacceptable. You’re right to call me out on it.”

[hacker-heaven]

Alice stood stunned at the woman. It was the first truly genuine things she’d ever heard come from her. She could see the changes ever so slight as they were. Things that reminded her of herself when she was going from polite and well mannered like her aunt taught her to cutting her brother down or helping one of the very few friends she had out. She was grateful more than anything that she wasn’t losing her job. She hadn’t screwed up the best situation her and her twin had been in since they were toddlers. She shook her head immediately. “Just as you would have had a right to fire me. Secrets are being spewed throughout Ashbourne and you know for a fact I know more than I should.” she said simply taking a calming breath. “I mean you really have no reason to trust me. Criminal action is my job and criminals aren’t exactly trustworthy.” she said simply. “I still don’t understand why you hired me. I had no practical experience, no degrees in computer sciences. You took a big gamble asking a child to do this kind of work...” she looked at her. It was something that had bothered her for so long. Why had Katherine wanted her. She was a very powerful woman and rich. She could have gotten the best hacker in the world and instead she found the scruffy little girl who liked playing with code and screwing with her teachers by changing grades in their gradebooks to see if they were paying attention.

Sighing she shook her head. “I guess you really don’t owe me any explanation. I just needed to make sure I still had employment.” she said running her hand through her hair. “You know I don’t believe half the shit being said about you. You can be a bit of a bitch....but you showed me and my brother kindness when you didn’t need to. You helped two idiot kids who were strangers to you out.” she said softly “So you me against this asshole. His style is so abrasive it’s insulting and he’s destroying this town and I won’t stand for that kind of thing.” she said passionately

[hacker-heaven]

Late Nights

[arthur-talbot]

“Good response,” he replied with a faint grin. “I’ll get around to picking up soon, it’s just not on the top of my to-do list lately, you know? More important things to do – although this might take priority soon, going to run out of clean dishes.” He took the milk from her to pour his own drink then sat down at the table with her, dumping a decent amount of syrup onto his pancakes; he was very particular about how much. “I ate lunch yesterday, but I, uh, missed out on dinner because I was working late and just went to bed as soon as I got home,” he said sheepishly, taking a bite of the pancakes. “Funnily enough, I actually like cooking, I just don’t make the time to do it. I’m sure I’d get bored enough to make something and avoid starvation, but I’ve got Lulu and you bringing me stuff as needed. – and, yeah, I suppose that’s true, but it’s still polite to ask, isn’t it? Even if you want to push him down the stairs.” He smiled sadly, “Died last night. The car did too much damage for us to repair, we had to put him down. She was very upset.” 

[hacker-heaven]

“Well seeing as your never home I can’t imagine why it would be.” she said simply before rolling her eyes. “You know you need to live some of your life away from that clinic. If you want to be any help to your patients you have to remain healthy yourself.” she said patting his arm. Smiling she took a bite of the eggs. “That’s what I’m talking about! You need to eat! Every meal is important. Am I going to have to come over here every day to feed you.” She laughed. “He deserves it sometimes but he is still my baby brother.” she said ignoring that he was only seven minutes younger than her. she frowned a bit and her hand reached over the table to his. “I’m sorry about that. At least he’s not in pain.” she said softly. “But that must be so hard. I know how attached she was to him and I know what losing a patient means to you.”

[meyerlowell-deactivated20180822]

She definitely didn’t look old enough to drink, that was for sure. Way younger than his baby cousin, by the looks of her, but at the very least she didn’t seem like she could make any trouble in the bar and she didn’t demand to be served booze either. That was something he could handle, though he did wonder just what was weighing on her mind to make her look that downcast as he gestured for her to come inside after he had unlocked the door. “No offense, but you don’t look real keen about anything. I ain’t a therapist or a mind reader though, so I could be wrong ‘bout that.” Meyer commented, flicking the lights on with a lazy wave of the hand just inside the door itself. There was a steely glint in her eyes though, one that reminded him of his sister Mira, and he sighed as he stepped behind the bar to fetch that Coke that she’d wanted. “Any seat you want’s just fine with me, and you let me know if somebody’s makin’ you uncomfortable or harassin’ you. I don’t let that shit slide in my bar, many an ass has been kicked outta here for that kinda bull.”

[hacker-heaven]

She wasn’t sure if he’d even let her in. Her ID said she was 20. She never even thought of finding the fake one she had made years ago when it was easier to get away with them. She smiled a bit when he let her in. “Thank you.” she said walking into the room and heading over to the bar taking a seat. She sighed biting her lip looking down at the coke in front of her. Everything in her life was falling apart it felt like. Her brother, her home, her job. She shouldn’t have but she was startled by his words and how close to the truth they were. In the moment she didn’t feel good about anything. Looking back into her cock she shrugged. “They do say bartenders are practically therapists.” she said deflecting from his observation taking a long gulp of the coke. “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.” she said with a small half smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.