STRANGER, jesper fahey

CHAPTER FOUR

"Lead the way, sharpshooter. "

Gwen had found out from a young age that names were such powerful things, peeking around the shadows of the street corners with curiosity shining bright in her dull eyes as she watched men and women alike speak amongst each other in quiet tones. Picking up on their anxiety as it bloomed through the air, their fear as they spoke about whatever new monster that had begun to show their face in Ketterdam, and making names for themselves through blood shed, through cruelty, through causing absolute damage to the point of striking terror in lesser mens veins.

But she'd also learned that putting a face to a name that caused such things could be one of the most dangerous things you could ever do. Because the terror of the masses could either make you, or it could be your downfall...and she had watched enough of both to realise there was a way she could still be feared, still make a living through the harshness of the Barrel...and not have to gamble with her life over something as stupid as a few syllables that they'd all been given as a way to be individuals.

Which, of course, was how her aliases of the Stranger came to be. Coming to her through a simple happening across a pitch black monstrous mask that blended in perfectly to the darkness that seemed to be ever on the brim of swallowing Ketterdam whole, and she'd only taken one simple look at it before realizing it was something she could hide behind...and something she could use to grasp at the useless power all unfortunate souls seemed desperate for.

Because she knew all of this, and she'd learned it all too through the loss of her own innocence as she'd watch blood and guts seep into the uneven cobblestones of the floor until her throat would spasm with bile, listening to their dying screams, their hacking breaths wet with mortality, and eventually...choosing to survive and subject herself to the brutality of life by becoming a name and nothing more as she began to take precious oxygen from lungs with an efficiency that most were absolutely terrified of.

And yet, currently awaiting at the destination she and Jesper had arranged for them to meet and staring out into the foggy air for the elusive sharpshooter that she'd chosen as her unknowing helping hand in his own bosses murder, she couldn't help but ponder the implications of her freely giving her own name to him the moment she'd laid her azure eyes upon him...because was she that desperate for a scrap of human attention? Had her libido endangered her rather dangerous mantle that hung in the balance of genius and crazy? She wasn't all that excited to find out.

However, it wasn't like her name was exactly well known in the first place, not her true name, her birthname...and everyone who had once known it was long since dead, either buried in the earth below or...well, it didn't matter all that much where they were. Dead was dead, and there was no point in giving such things a second thought, not anymore, not unless she wanted to join them in her grief.

"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes, gorgeous!"

Gwen's lips quirked just slightly at the familar voice, ear twitching for half a second before she spun around on her heel to find Jesper strutting towards her, arms spread wide with his tan coat flapping in the light wind and that strange hat of his hanging low on his forehead...but she could see the light splattering of bruising against his temple, turning the skin it found there a dark shade of blue, and the cut against his lip that had re-opened just slightly as he grinned massively, like he was announcing his presence to the whole of Ketterdam and she almost found herself laughing at his dramatic display.

"I thought you weren't going to show. Running awfully late, aren't you?" She tutted playfully as she moved to meet him halfway, pouting mockingly as she crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her hip out to the side, uncaring of the curious eyes she could feel watching them as a group of tourists walked through them, muttering under their breaths while clutching their valuables tighter, already deciding that Jesper and Gwen looked like nothing more than lowly criminals and she had to clench her hands into fists in her attempt to stop herself from showing just how criminal she could be.