St. Val

[Lily of the Night]

Run away, run away. That's all she'd been doing! Go someplace new, cause a disturbance, run away. She kept thinking, Aw whatever. Someplace will want you. And yet they hadn't; not yet. She was too crazy, maybe? ... Naw. If they couldn't handle her there was no reason to stay anyways. But still.
Okay, she had to stop thinking these thoughts. She was just going in circles.
Maybe she should try something new tonight, get her mind of things. ... Naw. God, this was so tiring. So she kept running. Of course, not always running, running. But running somewhere none-the-less. The train she was on was due to arrive any minute in some new place. Always a new place, never the same place twice. Any minute.... Ah, here they were.
She filed off with the rest of the passengers. She looked like a normal tourist, probably because she was, in some odd sense of the word. She glanced up at the sign. Camaeli. Nice, she thought, let's go explore 'Camaeli'. She spotted the entrance doors and walked through them. The wonderful smell of industiral city met her senses. Maybe this Camaeli wouldn't be so bad. Until it kicked her out, that was. She started off down the street. Time to find how big this city was. And cause a little disturbance.
As she walked she realized something disappointing. This city was too small. Jeez, she thought, time to leave my mark and head out already. It was a nice place, but seriously, how could a city survive on only two main companies? This was rediculous. So, which of the two big building was going to be her prey? She used her best method of choice: Eeny Meeny Miny....
You get it.
Well, if mother dictates that such-n-such is the best one who was she to contradict? She came to the base and walked in. Oh, nice, customer friendly. Too bad she didn't have time to try to buy anything. She glanced around and stopped to admire the building. It really was very nicely constructed. Pretty decorations everywhere. Hmm, was there some event coming up? Oh well, she didn't care.
The store was weird; it looked like the first five to seven floors were the actual store. So what was everything above? Offices? Oh, it had to be offices. And those were waaay more fun to mess with than a stupid department store. So she got on the elevator. Floor 25? Yeah, that should be good enough. She felt the box drag her up a couple hundreds of feet, then come to that sickening stop. That was one of the fun things in life people never seemed to appreciate.
She stepped casually into the lobby-place. Wait, lobby place? Niiiiice, she had hit jackpot. That was usually how her luck turned out, though. So she grabbed a vase of flowers and acted the delievery girl. You know, all cutesy. Not like the act would go through well. Everyone would be able to tell. But she didn't mind. She had but one job to take care of. And soon.

[Lily of the Night]

She turned the corner and strode up to the reception desk. "Ma'am," she said sweetly, "I got flowers fer someone. The sender said to me 'Bring `em to the front desk. They won't be there today, but I want them to be there overnight fer when they get back, hopefully tomorra.' I don't know what kinda delivery that is, but its fer a paying customa, so who'm I teh argue, right?" So she was laying it on a bit thick. Oh well, she didn't know what kind of accents people here had, but in a city there were always a few people with an accent here or there.
The receptionist eyed her skeptically for a moment. "The card?" Confused, the girl nearly asked what she meant before remembering that, duh, she was supposed to be a flower girl. "Right. In ma wallet, here. Just a mo`." She tugged her wallet out or her back jean pocket and flipped it open. She always kept a few spare ideas there in case of a tight jam or two. She flicked through several small squares before finding one that would work and held out the little pink paper for the receptionist to read. "'Welcome Back!'" the receptionist read. "Hmm. Well, I guess you can go on back. There are two people out today. A Mr. Jacobs and a Mr. Dawy. Mr. Jacobs has a sweet-heart, I hear, so I'm betting it'll be his. His cubicle is a bit far in the back. If you just want to take it there. Here, you see this long row here?" The receptionist paused for the girl's assent. "Yeah, well walk along this row for ten cubicles. Take a left turn and his'll be the last in the row on the right." The girl smiled. "Why thanky, Ma'am. I'll be on my way back, then."
And off down the rows she went, holding head and vase high with dignity--or as much dignity she assumed a flower-girl could muster. A smile faintly crept to her lips. These cubicles were very secure. Not just any passer-by could look in. They even had little doors to get in, although the walls were only head-high. This place was some important business station.
Last one in the row on the right. Here it is! she thought. Gently she nudged the door open and set the flowers on the desk, pushing a few papers away to make room. Then she closed the door and sat down. If she wanted to do something good, she had to be fast. First things first: get on the computer. She hit the button and pulled herself up to the desk. While the machine whirred into life she picked up some of the papers and flipped through them. Oh great, he was in charge of stock management. This would be fun. Being so important a man, his computer loaded quickly and she was set to her second obstacle: cracking his password. She knew nothing of this man so it seemed it was a chance for her to test her skeleton-key. She took out her wallet again and pulled out a small computer chip. She loved the little thing; pure genius, really. She had weened it off a man a couple of scams ago. She slipped the chip into the back of the computer and typed four consecutive zeroes in as the key code. Full access. Of course the computer would leave traces that meant the man would know he'd been hacked, but the company would probably have already figured that out by the time she left. She scanned over a couple of his program files and then picked another random victim. Program C:Man.../. Perfect, the management program. She rewrote the If/Then statements a bit, making sure the stocks would exaggerate when they were going up and heading down making every move either look like a million-dollar scheme or a bankrupting scam. Done. She saved, logged off, took her chip, shut down the computer, and left the cubicle. As she headed for the elevators she smiled and gave a small wave to the receptionist. Then the glossy metal doors slid together and she couldn't help falling into a fit of laughter. Another one for the list.

[Lily of the Night]

She composed herself a moment before the doors slid open on the ground level and she walked out amid the bustling shoppers of the bottom floors. Jeez, there really were a lot. Maybe there was some holiday she didn't know about going on. Then again, she didn't keep a huge tally on the date very often. It didn't really affect her. Except the Christmas rush. Then she tended to head towards the south where not as many people celebrated.
Back to the train station she headed. She needed a ticket out of here. She jumped on the next ride out and bought the ticket fast. "DId you hear?" a old woman asked her friend excitedly. "The stocks are shooting way up! I'm going to be rich!" The girl, passing by on her way to the train, smirked. This city moved nice and fast. Too bad it was so small. And by tomorrow they would hate her.
The sleek train sped smoothly out of the station heading west as far as the girl could make out. They left the foggy city and soon were passing through the rolling grassy hills of wherever they were. She settled into her not-so-comfy train-seat. It would probably be a long ride. The minutes then hours slid by as the daylight faded to dusk which in turn faded to night. The lights flickered on in the train with a soft buzz, stirring the girl from her uncomfortable slumber. "Approaching destination," the intercom informed her, "Less than an hour until arrival." Fellow passengers around her began to gather their bags and put their books or newspapers back into their packs. The girl often carried solely her wallet on her, so she did not partake in this pre-embarking event. Finally she felt the train easing to a halt. She glanced through the bright reflections on the window into the pitch night and found they were in another station. Here we go again, she thought. Time to work my magic.

[Lily of the Night]

She got out of the train to come head-on to the roughest crowd she'd ever encountered. The pushing, the shoving, the name calling; and she reveled in it all. This she could handle--she finally had an excuse to be rude in the world. She pushed her way through and practically ran up the steps, bursting into the seizing night air. And then choked on the exhaust fumes. Well, she couldn't say she didn't deserve it. She blinked a bit, then checked out the city at a quick walk. It was well in towards 11 now and the night scene was taking hold. The neon lights burned the black away from the sky and the traffic mixed with wild stores, clubs, and bars bombarded the city with a cacophonous racket.
The girl weaved her way in and out of the shops, checking out the merchandise that the shop salesmen pushed in her arms. Almost nothing was worth buying, yet she hit a few treasures midst the chaos of the shops. Not that she bought anything--she wouldn't be able to carry it. It was nice, though, to know that this city had such a