Night Beats: Ghost in the Vending Machine

Chapter 1: S06E08: Hooker, I Barely Know Her

"The sun never sets in Night City!" Her mother had parroted the slogan at least twice on the car ride when they moved. Trix could imagine the hush that fell over the boardroom, some idiot born with more suits than brains smiling, proud of the garbage that spewed from his mouth. There might have been a time when the city lived up to that reputation, back when the streets glittered with something more than broken glass. Eventually it would grind even that between its teeth until everything was a parking lot full of sand.

Trix was eight when her mom plucked her from the dirt of Kansas and planted her in wet concrete. Part of her stayed behind, her grip on the soil strong enough that the pretty bits broke off, leaving her guts to rot beneath the Earth. Truth be told, she liked to consider herself a dandelion, resilient and hard to get rid of.

But she wasn't feeling very resilient tonight. Instead, she was cold and wet. For the fifth night in a row it was raining, and even though it was early autumn, the temperature had taken a nosedive. She should have known better than to wear fishnets instead of leggings, but black mesh straining against thick thighs seemed to do it for most men these days.

The hinges on the side exit screeched a familiar tune, and music floated into the alley.

"Oh, hey, Trix. I didn't know you were out here."

"Yeah, just taking my fifteen. What's up, Ange?" Trix moved further under her umbrella as the rain blew sideways down the alley.

"I got me a job, so I'm heading out for the night." The phone screen cut on and washed Angel's skin a pale blue.

"And Rich let you out early?"

"It's a weeknight, and we're slow. He was gonna cut hours anyway. Might as well be me." 

"Lucky. I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Saturday. I'm off tomorrow." Angel slipped the phone back in her purse. "See ya."

Trix watched her trot off, high heels cutting ripples across neon puddles. Angel was smart enough to have side hustles, and young enough to do less work in person and more in front of a camera. Trix would do it, but she didn't have the kind of Delphine looks to exist in anything over 480p.

"Just be careful, you never know with some of these apps," she called, but the end was lost to the rumble of traffic and thunder.

She looked up at the sky in its brick frame. Somehow, she could see stars, little pricks of light that stabbed their way through an amber haze. Trix supposed the slogan was right. The sun never set in Night, it just gave up at the end of each day, content to rise again expecting things might be different. The sun may have been known for its optimism, but no one ever said it was smart. 

The hum of the city blended with the rain to form a dull murmur. It lifted the hair on her arms, and as the wind cut through the alley, the sensation prickled up her neck. Something across the road glinted gold, and Trix's attention lifted from the bits of grass that forced their way between brick cobbles. The prickling squirmed across her scalp as she locked eyes with a man in a dark hoodie.
Trix held her breath, unable to break his gaze until a bus cut across her line of sight and left the spot empty.

"What the?" She squinted then jolted as something deep within the alley clattered to the ground, punctuated by the howl of a feral cat. It was probably Frank, the fat, one eyed tom that would spray the side of the building whenever she brought him kibble. She supposed she'd seen worse while on the clock.

"Franky, that better not be you pissing on the cans again." Trix left the sound of the busy street behind and followed the smell of overflowing trash, mud, and piss.

"Frank?" Trix turned the corner, and the piles of garbage came into view beneath the quivering light of an old incandescent bulb.

The soft sound of scraping drifted out from behind a row of trash bins, and Trix tiptoed over a colorful skid of broken glass. She leaned to look into the darkness, and a flicker of light caught golden eyes. Trix let out a brief gasp as a rat shot out, and her heel caught the edge of a pothole.

"Oh, come on," she grumbled, pulling the broken heel off the muddy end of her shoe. "Cheap garbage." Trix shuttered as the lightbulb overhead gave its last fuck and went out with a shattering pop.

"God, what's next?" She groaned as the alley became bathed in darkness, lit only by the rubescent glow of the city reflecting off the clouds. The same prickling carved a path up her neck as a shadow grew from the ledges above, but when she lifted her head, all she could see was a steady drizzle of rain.

"Okay, I think maybe-" Trix gasped as she bumped into something large, staggered forward, then turned to look up into shifting golden eyes. The man smiled at her with stained teeth that sat at crooked angles.

"Come here often?" She took one hobbled step backward. Trix wanted to run, but every instinct told her it would be over the moment she turned. 
The question pitched into a shrill yelp as the stranger crossed ten paces in a single second. His fingers closed around her arm, nails sliding through skin and muscle before scraping against bone. The man opened his mouth, a cold hiss slithering across blades of teeth that spouted around a gaping, black maw.

Its nails cut across flesh as Trix jerked away and buried the spiked heel of her shoe into the side of its neck. The creature shrieked as it let go, and Trix smacked it with her umbrella before sprinting towards freedom. It felt like the walls collapsed around her as she took a left, a right, then staggered onto the street across from a construction site.

Her mad dash left her disoriented, and the fear clouded her sense of direction. Trix could hear the creature in pursuit, grinding its nails along brick and mortar. She shimmied through a bit of cut fence and stumbled around pallets of cinder block and cement covered in clear plastic. The ground had turned soggy from the rain, and over the next several steps, the mud pulled the shoes off her feet. She wanted to scream for help, but deep down, she knew no one was here to rescue her tonight.

Trix ducked behind a pile of massive drainage pipes. Her hands shook as she pulled out her phone, flicked it to silent mode, then tried to make an emergency call. The struggle to hit the right buttons was intensified by the mud and blood that caked her fingers. The first ring went unanswered. A long pause followed as she dug around her purse for a familiar rubberized canister. The second ring still didn't connect, but her fingers grew steady as she turned the cap until the safety disengaged.

A third ring was cut short as a shrill hiss rose into the quiet darkness of the construction site. Trix screamed as a creature crawled towards her, its long limbs pulling it over broken ground and building materials. Where its eyes should have been now sat golden slits engulfed by blackness. Along its face and neck, dark veins wove themselves beneath pallid skin and patchy fur. She could hear the line pick up as the creature dragged itself close enough that Trix unloaded the canister of mace into its gaping mouth.

Its howls of anger tore across her skin as she groped through the mud for her phone. She managed to snag the case before taking off into a run, ignoring the glass and metal that shredded her hands and feet as she stumbled over uneven ground.

"Please, you have to help me!" she sobbed, unsure if they could hear through the dirt that packed the microphone.

"Ma'am, Ma'am, can you tell me where you are?" A small voice gurgled through the speakers. "Can you get someplace safe?"

Trix tried to worm her way back through the fence, but as she clawed her way across rusted links, something caught her ankle and ripped her backward. She looked with horror into golden slits that bobbed in relentless darkness. The fear overwhelmed her mind until there was only pain followed graciously by nothing.