Short Skirts

The rat gnawed at a chunk of moss coloured cheese. A weeks worth of mold gave the rotten dairy a pungent air that the rat found fascinating, it finished the small meal and quickly scampered along a drainage pipe, up and up again, seeking it’s nesting hole behind the neon sign, buzzing and flickering with hummingbird whirs. Sated, the rat rolled itself up into a tight ball on a patchwork of feathery down and stretched it’s front paws out to earn some warmth from Seventh Heaven’s neon rays. The rat gave a great yawn; tiny yellow teeth glinted against purple lamplight. Beady pink eyes blinked away a blinding haze of unnatural light before finally retiring.

Inside the bar the brunette studied herself in a dusty windows reflection. She looked pensively past herself and out onto the slum’s street. It is nearly time, she thought, they should be back by now.

Behind her a TV span through different channels as a tiny girl quickly clicked from one to another. A small pink tongue poked out from a crooked smile that fell when she landed on the news station. A man was midway through the sentence she’d been trying to find, he spoke quickly without emotion.

“ – A disturbance in Sector Six has left yet another reactor incapacitated, as yet the cause of the commotion has not been released, though President Shinra has issued a reward for anyone with information that could lead to the incarceration for members of terrorist group AVALANCHE.”

Marlene clicked off the television and hopped down from the barstool she’d been…