Skye Life - The Hobo

Serena didn’t skip, she trudged.

The streets of the Sprawl were familiar and early in the graying dawn there was no one around. Particularly on the weekend it was the quietest time of the day. She dropped of the clothes she borrowed from ChiChi, as well as a sleepy promise to gossip hard later, Serena went on her way taking a shortcut home. The Sprawl was always in a constant state of flux. Things were always breaking, falling, being built, abandoned, sinking and often joke only Sprawl really knows the sprawl as a result. There were lots of hidden pathways and books one could take.

Serena trudged through the half built section of Elysium. It would cut her walk in half as opposed to walking clear around. It was hard to tell if the construction had been halted or abandoned. Maybe someone had their own party and someone had arranged some construction material into a makeshift skate park. A barrel had been rolled and the faint whiff of smoke indicated they had used it to house a fire and the concrete floor was littered with beer and liquor bottles.

An overall typical scene. It was when she neared the exit something not typical happened. There was an odd sound and it stood out because this was new, not something she would have heard on the regular. Not part of the din that was always around her.

She wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed, and without Cyd there, she could sleep like a starfish if she wanted, without someone taking the covers or complaining that she was taking up too much room. Okay, the latter was mostly her complaining that Cyd took up too much room, and truth be told, if one of the two hogged blankets, it wasn’t Cyd. She could get some sleep, and have the entire place to herself!

There was a buzz in the back of Serena's head. The regular hum she might have been used to but an irregular pulse.

“Ugh, cut it out!” She complained to no one in particular. “I’m tired.”

There was another pulse … and another … it was irregular but almost like a heartbeat.

herself following it, stepping in time, and she turned down an alley she normally wouldn’t have, making the sound louder. “What are you?” She asked, looking around for an answer.

Nothing answered back, which was a little odd as the sound continued to pulse. Busy with something it paid the girl no mind as she searched for its source. The sound led her to an adjacent building, with construction material stacked neatly, the building had shelves and some heavy equipment … and right there when she turned the corner a body on the ground.

He was sprawled bonelessly on the concrete covered and surrounded by broken glass, the skylight above broken. His head tilted to the side away from her, his hand wrapped loosely around something near his shoulder. The concrete under him was stained with something. Not the black of someone who had been affectionate with the Carbon Sickness or the more natural red color but … deep blue.