Vivi had left the GeneCo building at a run, but even though she tried to keep it up, she had to slow to a walk before she was even out of sight of her (former?) place of employment. Damn these shoes! How are we supposed to work efficiently in these ridiculous platforms? The humidity pressed in on her, and she thought she might suffocate in the city air of Sanitarium Island. Every so often, she would try to speed her steps to a jog, but that never lasted long. She wouldn't take off the shoes, though; never know what you could step on in these streets. She just kept trudging down the uneven sidewalk, avoiding cracks and trying not to think of broken ankles. The sensible voice in the back of her head, the one that had advised her not to leave work in the first place, the one that had made her grab her coat on the way out, was telling her that she should at least be paying attention to her route. Vivi, however, had fulfilled her daily sensibility quotient and didn't want to think of anything at all.

His face… her face. Callisto. She had been stocking shelves in Storage B, mostly lungs, when the whisper went around. Pavi… Pavi's coming. Paviche Largo, the boss's middle child, and their boss in turn, in a way. The other GENterns' faces had smiles pasted on, but their eyes through their masks were inscrutable. Vivi had seen Pavi on posters and the floating billboard, like everyone else, and she had heard rumors, but she had never met the man. When he entered the room, his movements almost exaggeratedly catlike, the others had crowded around him too quickly for Vivi to get a good look. Nica had grabbed Vivi's pale arm in her slender cocoa brown hand and dragged her forward so that Vivi had almost tripped.

"Better go say hi," the senior GENtern had muttered. "He likes to see the new girls." Vivi turned to answer and her shoe slid on a puddle of preserving fluid. She threw out her arms for balance, and suddenly there was a hand on either side of her ribcage, supporting and steadying her. The hands lifted her so that she was back on her feet and stable once again. Vivi turned to thank the owner of the hands and found herself looking into the face of her roommate Callisto. The height of the face was wrong, though, and so were the eyes. The body that accompanied the face was entirely wrong- it was male- and there was something else… scar tissue. Scars surrounded the deep brown eyes, eyes that should have been green, and encircled the face from hairline to jaw. The voice that emerged from Callisto's rosebud lips nearly made Vivi's heart jump from her body.

"And who is this?" the man purred in a far-too-Italian accent. His eyes quickly left Vivi's face to survey her body. Vivi was too shocked even to be offended or flattered by this attention, too shocked to answer for herself.

"Vivi DePaul, Mr. Largo," Nica said. Pavi raised Vivi's right hand to Callisto's lips and kissed it. Those lips felt like latex, a mockery of human flesh, the warmth too far removed from the skin, and Vivi dared to hope for a moment that it was only a mask, but no, there was the freckle that sat just a few millimeters from the corner of Callisto's eye. Vivi shuddered and immediately wished she could have kept herself from doing so, but Pavi just smiled with Callisto's mouth and said, "It is lovely to meet you, Miss DePaul. I hope we might soon get to know each other better, bella." When he released her hand, two more GENterns rushed to take her place and she let herself be nudged toward the back of the group. Even when the others surrounded him, she continued to back away until her back hit one of the shelving units. And then she turned, followed the unit back until she reached the far wall of Storage B, and then she opened the door and stepped through.

She made her way through Storage A, through the hallway beyond, down the stairs, through the locker room, and down even more stairs, her feet gradually picking up speed. And then she was out the back door, in the unguarded alleyway behind the GeneCo building.

And now she was wandering the streets of the city that had been her home all of her twenty-two years, streets that she had never walked alone, still wearing her white dress and shoes and red mask. At least she had a coat to wrap around herself; although it was warm, she felt so strangely exposed. When it got darker, she took off her mask and rolled it up. Now she could almost be anyone, and that was the most comforting thought she had had all day. In the night-dark of a city that was never truly light, however, there was never much comfort to be had by those who were not using the darkness to their advantage. Vivi was surrounded by nothing familiar, and being between buildings as she was, she could not even see the giant floating billboard at the city's center.

The night people were coming out, right now just the junkies, but soon there would be others that would pose more of a threat, and much as she hated to, Vivi knew she would have to take any port in a storm. She said a quick prayer to whoever might or might not have been out there- Mom? Dad?- and stopped at the gate of a Victorian-looking house with a couple lights on inside. Another prayer- probably futile- was needed before she pressed the intercom button.

She almost left before she received a response, slow as it was in coming. She had just turned away when the speaker crackled and a voice said, "Yes?" It was a man's voice with a slight British accent, and it sounded more than a little weary. Vivi realized she had no idea of the time, although she thought it couldn't be too late.

"Um, I'm sorry to disturb you, sir, but I'm lost and I was wondering if…" She didn't have a clue what she was wondering. She tugged on one dark curl in frustration. I'm so stupid sometimes! The intercom was silent, waiting for her to continue. "I'm sorry, I just, I need some help, I mean, directions, or-" The intercom buzzed and the gate swung open a few inches. Vivi pushed through and closed it behind her, and started up the walk. The door before her was opening and a figure appeared, backlit by the warm glow of the lamplight inside. The door closed and Vivi had to squint to see in the space that seemed even darker now. As she got closer, details about the man emerged little by little. He seemed fairly tall, though she couldn't be sure about that because he was standing on the step. He wore a sweater, trousers and boots; his hand reached up to adjust old-fashioned glasses.

"Can I help you?" he said. His was the voice from the intercom.

"I'm very sorry, and this is going to sound strange, but I'm lost." Vivi started to laugh and wasn't sure why, maybe out of nervousness, maybe out of self-deprecation. Cut it out, you're going to sound like a crazy person! She took a few breaths and said, "I'm sorry. I've been walking around most of the day and I don't recognize anything anymore. I'm not really sure what to do."

"Where are you trying to go?" She hesitated. She didn't know anything about this person; he could be as harmless as he sounded, or he could be a complete psychopath. Not that anyone in this city was completely sane, but… Don't be an idiot about this! "Can you tell me how to get to Westminster Boulevard?"

"Which end?" Vivi hesitated and the man sighed. "Look, I'm not-- If you're trying to get to the east end then you just continue down this street, take a right onto Salvation, and another right onto Westminster. If you're trying to get to the west end, I wouldn't advise going that way, even in daylight. You'd have to go up this street- Columbia- for a few miles and then take a left onto Chroma, a right onto Valdemar, and continue on just past the Square." Past the Square… Damn it! She'd been traveling in completely the wrong direction for hours. She pulled at her hair as the man said, "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help." He opened the door and started to go back inside.

"Wait!" He stopped. Wait for what, idiot? "I'm, uh... I don't really know you, but-" But what? "-but I'd rather take my chances here than out there. I'm not asking for you to let me in!" she added. "I can sleep out here, under a hedge or something, but I can't go back out there. I'm sorry. I can't." Very nice. You've just bullied a complete stranger into letting you sleep in his yard, after leaving work in a panic. All in a day's work. The man was standing frozen on the stoop. Nice job, jerk. You scared the poor guy. "I'm sorry," she said. "My name's Vivian DePaul."

"Nice to… meet you," the man said. Vivi's face reddened. At least he's polite, unlike you. "May I ask, Miss DePaul, is there someone after you?"

"Hmm? No! I just…" You're going to sound like a child, or a cat lady. "I just don't get out much. I'm not used to walking around by myself at night. It's not safe." The way his head tilted, it almost looked like he was smiling at that.

"I understand."

Author's Note: So! What do you think so far? How are Pavi and Nathan written? Have I made it clear that that's Nathan from about halfway through the chapter to the end? How is the dialogue? What do you think of Vivi's internal dialogue? What do you think of the street names? Any comments/constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!