• Blood pooled beneath the dirtied heels of her once pristine white shoes. She took in a breath of ‘fresh air’, which consisted mostly of cigarette smoke, rotting flesh and the smell of gasoline. Needless to say, it wasn’t the nicest combination you could think of. Pausing with the cigarette secured between her dark painted lips, she looked upwards to the grey sky that never seemed merciful enough to privilege her with even a ray of sunlight. Her skin was almost impossibly pale and her hair had been a snowy white for as long as she could remember.

    Her whole appearance would’ve been amazing pure and light, had it not been for the dirt and blood spatters that covered the stereo-typical nurses’ uniform. The button dress stopped slightly above her scraped knees and bore the symbol of a black X, as opposed to a red cross. She took a long drag from her cigarette and exhaled slowly, her pace quickening now.

    Her hands worked with a swiftness and precision that most surgeons could only dream of. Inch by inch, she cut into the flesh of the man with her rusting scalpel. It was a wonder that the damned thing even cut anymore. “Almost done, Mr.Holloway. I’m sorry we didn’t have any novocaine.” She hummed, her voice muffled because of the drag between her lips.

    She wasn’t in a hospital, nor was anything sterile. Hell, her ‘patient’ had already been dead when she found him. She was just cutting around on a dead man in the middle of an abandoned parking lot that that turned in to a sort of dump, filled with boxes, trash bins and now, dead bodies.

    ‘Nurse Lilith’, as her name tag revealed, wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, smearing the metallic-smelling red liquid across her skin and making her silvery bangs stick. “There we go.” She drew the cigarette from her lips after setting the scalpel on a small bench nearby. Without a hint of remorse or respect for the dead, Lilith put the drag out inside the gaping opening, listening to the soft hissing noise it made when it touched the moist organ- the heart.

    That was enough of that. It was a game; not a really operation, of course. Lilith turned around and began walking towards the hotel. It towered above the rest of the town like a bad omen, only overtrumped by the church on the other side of town. In comparison, all other buildings were small and humble. It was their regular meeting place and she was quite sure that she was late.

    Time meant nothing in this wasteland. But Lilith didn’t want to be rude.....