Present day

The dark streets of New Orleans are not as welcoming when in the back alley behind a strip club. There are used needles scattered across the ground, trash piling up as if the garbage trucks only come to pick it up when they feel like it, and you feel as if there is always someone watching you. Though it feels ten times worse when you wake up in a place like this with a throbbing headache, dried blood covers half your face, hair, & scalp, and memory loss.

Rena had all of this, but also a sense that she was not safe. As if the reason she woke up in this dark, dank alley could come back at any moment. So, she tried to steady herself up onto her feet using one of the large metal bins. This, in turn, only made her head feel worse. She stumbled backwards, but kept a firm grip on the bin, lest she saw the vermin next to her staring up with beady eyes. One sharp shriek is all it took for the bulky doorman of the club to coming barreling down the alley way.

“What happened? What are you doing out back? Why are you covered in blood? Where’s Luca?” are just a string of questions this large burly built man in all black kept booming at her, as if he knew who she was.

Lifting her hand off the bin, Rena reached up to touch her temple. She winced in pain as she stumbled forward. Two large hands wrapped around her shoulders, stabilizing her just in time. Though when looking at her hands, she saw the red sticky liquid that sat between her fingers. Shock set in, and she could feel the darkness calling her back.

“Woah, stay with me now,” the man in black repeated as Rena laid more of her weight upon him. Though it was too late, with the ringing in her ears she started to become dizzy, and the world drifted away from her once more.