A LIGHT FLICKERED IN THE DISTANCE.

The street was empty; it was shrouded in a thick mist, snow covering most of the surface, and the only few cars that passed by drove so slowly to avoid any accident on the slippery asphalt.

"Did you admit the patient?"

"No. He didn't make it. Died inside the ambulance, poor guy."

Robin kept her eyes ahead, staring outside the window unblinkingly, studying the flickering light of the streetlamp. She barely focused on what two of her colleagues were saying, their figures reflected against the glass before her.

"What was it?"

"Not sure, heard he was into some kind of trouble. Bet all my money it's got something to do with drug deals."

"Why? 'Cause of where he's from? Seriously Paul-"

"No. I meant because of the situation and all."

"Oh..." Patricia, his sister, heaved a grim sigh. "Fairford just gets crazier each day, huh?"

"Yeah... can't wait to get the fuck out. I'm living off cafeteria food to save money faster."

Robin heaved a sigh, her eyelids sealing shut when the streetlamp started to function. The orange halo formed a deep contrast to the navy-blue color of the sky, and it was the only source of light to illuminate the dark corner of Kennedy street.

"Ah, well... can't say I feel anything anymore. Scary how you become immune."

"You're still a first-year resident, Patricia, don't talk like you've had years of experience-" Paul cackled-"Ow!"

She shot him a dark glare after punching his shoulder. "Where do you think we could go?" She turned to look back down at her half-eaten sandwich, picking at the crumbs. "I mean, any place is better than here, really."

"Not really. Fairford is still currently better than anywhere else. It's just the direction it's heading to is scary. We're still milestones ahead of Darwin City," he mused. Patricia paused, giving it another thought.

"Yeah. You're right. I hope it doesn't come down to this." She shivered at the thought. "The underground is terrifying. You know Gwen? The biologist we met back at Thomas's house party?" Paul nodded. "She told me only a few people are allowed to go there in their research facility. Barely five including enforced security."

"Damn..." Paul mumbled. "I shouldn't be surprised. It's been a dump our entire lives. I heard they experiment on people. Did you know the government tested the first ever Covid vaccine on them too?"

"Wouldn't shock me. I think they offered them money in exchange."

"Maybe they barely offered them a few bucks. People there live off what exactly? Money from dealings, I bet. It's a fucking ghetto."

Robin listened quietly to their exchange. She tightened her jaw and forced herself to keep her eyes shut, struggling to tune them out.

So damn loud.

Patricia drew out a long breath. She took the time Paul was chewing to rummage for the sandwich she had prepared. "Hey Robin, I have an extra sandwich to get you through the night if you need."

It took Robin a few seconds to open her eyes and offer a small shake of the head.

"Don't bother," he snarled, mouth full. "It doesn't speak. When it does, though, it's usually sarcasm."

Robin's eyes rolled, turning fully around to face them with an eyebrow shot up.

"See." He grinned in triumph.

"It didn't speak yet." Patricia's eyes narrowed in mock seriousness before she extended her arm to hand Robin a sandwich covered in tinfoil, anyway. "Here. You're gonna need this. Pretty sure we'll throw it all up an hour later, but still."

"You shouldn't be in this industry if you can't stomach it."

"You're one to talk," Robin muttered, erupting a groan from him as she referred to the time he had to rush out of the OR to hurl in their first time witnessing an open chest surgery years ago.

"One time it happened."

Patricia giggled, and Robin took the sandwich from her reach.

"Thanks."

Patricia and Paul were twins. They barely looked alike. The only thing they really had in common was their last name. Patricia was kind and shy, Paul was snarky and loud. Two complete opposites who spent their time bickering and gossiping during the breaks. They brought Robin very little entertainment, but she was growing used to them. They were becoming a distant, incessant buzzing she practiced tuning out and would only need in times where silence felt too suffocating.

She slid down to sit on the ground on the wall opposite them, stretching her legs so they fit in the blank space between them. She unwrapped the tinfoil while Paul plunged into another one of his gory Fairford murder stories that would always get Patricia in a fit. They were on night call and horror stories after midnight were never the best ideas to prevent her from becoming jumpy and tense when she had to stay sharp.

Robin slowly chewed on the brown bread, teeth digging into the cheese wrap Patricia prepared. It was only when the taste hit her tongue that she realized how much her system needed food, her tense muscles relaxing from relief. She hummed to herself and rested her head against the wall, eating in peace and tuning the twins out.

She tilted her head slowly to look back out the window. The streetlamp was back to strobing but at an irregular, almost mad pace, the bulb seconds away from burning and popping.

Her eyes zoomed back to the window glass reflection when something shifted behind her.

Her pulse slowed at the sight.

She twisted her head back to catch if what she had seen was real-and she hadn't been wrong.

Andrew Hayes.

He stood by the reception, skimming the file in his hands. His lips were sealed in a grim line, and at that moment he looked older than he usually did. There was a hint of grey in his hair, the wrinkle bringing a soft touch to his otherwise cold, hard eyes. He took a pen out and scribbled on top of the paper, blinking and taking his glasses off, hooking them in his white coat pocket.

It was then her ears caught what Paul was saying.

"How he did it is beyond me. Performing an autopsy on your own daughter? I could never."

"She's not really his daughter though..."

Paul shrugged. "He still raised her."

Andrew Hayes was in his late fifties and had the reputation of being one of the best forensic pathologists in the city-state. Although he moved a lot, he had dedicated most of his career to treating patients in Darwin city, or as many people refer to as "the underground". Many questioned why someone as talented as him would waste his life for a dead city, and he had answered that question once during an interview: 'There's more to save'.

One would think Darwin plunging down the abyss where it became beyond hope would pull his resolve to save it along with it. But it only grew stronger.

Despite his heroic acts, his reputation for collecting strays had once gone off the rail.

Not only had he saved countless lives in Darwin, but he also opened his home. He founded Hayes Home years ago, an orphanage that collected orphans and neglected children from the streets of the underground.

Out of the children gathered by the association, he had adopted two girls, and many questioned if it was a preference. Whether his intention was to do good-it was shadowed by controversial topics of pedophilia and grooming, but it had never fazed him, nor the girls. He took them in, opened his home, and put them back on their feet until they moved out at eighteen to grow independent. As far as Robin knew, they had maintained a tight relationship with him.

Well, one of them now.

Robin swallowed her food, her throat growing tighter.

A year had gone by, and Violet's murder was yet to be solved.

After the police interview, Robin, Christina, and Finn went back to Bridgham Building to find that the scene of the crime had been cleared, but that the remnants were for them to take care of. Violet's blood being the main disturbing issue.

Robin's father had spoken to a team of forensic cleaners he knew, while Ms. Alby, the landlady, had offered them to stay the night in the vacant rooms available on the tenth floor. Despite it being a much smaller apartment, the girls rented it instead of their old one, unable to scrub the fresh memory of Violet's cadaver lying in a pool of blood in the middle of their living room.

To this day, apartment 1509 hadn't been entirely cleared. Each time they stepped inside to get the rest of their belongings, Christina would claim to be swarmed with an eerie presence, and they would leave just as fast as they came in.

Robin snapped out of her daze when the sudden sound of an electric pop interrupted her thoughts. She was startled and shot her head to look outside.

The light had vanished.

To walk back home in the middle of the night was always a terrible decision.

It was 12:40 a.m. when Robin finished her shift. There was a specific route she took walking back; it was well lit but hauntingly quiet. Fairford hadn't always been so dead at night. At least, not before the curfew was enforced. It had been alive and busy, but now, it was lifeless and eerie.

There were two things Robin carried with her and made sure she always had on her: a whistle and a pocketknife.

The knife she held clutched between her enclosed palm, hidden in her pocket all the way till she reached the door of her apartment. The whistle was something else; it was a gift from Violet to the girls that they found when clearing their old apartment. She had given it to each of them when things got worse. 'This is for when you can't find the voice to scream,' she had said. The whistle dangled from Robin's neck along with her keys hidden inside her shirt so they wouldn't rattle from her steps.

Bridgeham building was five blocks ahead and Robin needed medication from the pharmacy-nothing serious, only the essentials in case of headaches, diarrhea, or nausea. She had noticed this morning that their cabinet was running out and Christina never kept tabs on the medications. Robin was too busy to. She didn't even have the time to get some in the morning.

A smart person would wait until the next day to get some. Robin knew it, but a smart person wouldn't get back on their own in the middle of the night. She was already in deep, and the pharmacy was right here, right on her way.

She made up her mind and inspected her surroundings, taking notice of a group of three people as they left her destination. She frowned, noting the instinctive way they pulled their hoods up to hide their faces.

Darwinites. She was sure.

Her gaze landed on one of them, the one walking ahead, his pink hair distinguishing him from the others. She sensed the sudden shift in the air. He met her eye evenly, keeping them locked as they bypassed each other. Her eyes skipped over to the girl standing right behind him, and Robin blinked at her when she realized she was staring right back all the while, dark bangs shadowing her green eyes. Odd. Robin's gaze drifted to the third, hidden on their other side, whose hood was so far up she couldn't catch a face.

She stored their faces in the back of her mind, angling her head to face ahead.

She stepped inside the place, and as expected, it was practically empty, save for the few people scattered around.

"Hello," the man greeted from behind the counter, managing a faint smile.

Robin greeted back with a nod, already starting her round. It was a routine that she enjoyed, but with the pressure of time and place, she no longer savored it and instead did it as fast as she could.

The pharmacy was wide, and it was split into three sections that she memorized like the back of her hand. She went into the far corner where her essentials were, crouching down and picking up the boxes she needed, mentally checking them off the list. She snapped her head to the door once it opened, her frown growing deep once she took notice of who it was.

Finn took hurried steps to the counter and said something to the pharmacist that she couldn't catch. The latter ushered him to the section where she already was. She turned back to focus on her task, choosing to ignore him.

Seconds passed, and she heard footsteps approaching her. She took a deep breath and mentally prepared herself for shutting down the attempts at socializing. Her eyes focused back on the boxes before her. Seconds passed, and they became slightly blurry as her thoughts drifted. Her eyes skipped to her left. She could clearly see his figure barely a foot away from her-but he wasn't making any move. Her eyebrows knitted into a deep frown. She willed herself to focus and went back to skimming the words and expired dates. Her ear shook when she heard him moving.

The fact he was here at this hour was odd, and it irked her.

She shook her head and stood from her crouching position. Hating herself for what she was doing next. Her eyes skipped to him, halting a second longer when she noticed the wrap around his left hand. She looked up at him to find him in deep concentration, a frown clouding his face and gaze hard. She quirked an eyebrow.

"Need help with that?" She asked in a monotonous voice. Finn's chin snapped her way as if now noticing her existence.

"Oh, there you are." He heaved a sigh of relief.

Robin blinked. "You weren't going to find me in those boxes, Fergie."

His face dropped into a dry glare. "It's Finn."

"Right." She brushed the correction off and ushered at his hand with her eyebrows, urging him to continue.

"I passed by your place, but Christina said you had a shift. I need a bondage."

Robin blinked. She waited for a beat, and when she noticed his face remained in the same concentrated state, she quirked an eyebrow. "You asked the pharmacist for a bondage?"

Finn gave her a questioning look. "Yeah."

"... okay." She brushed it off and stretched to get the bandage from the top shelf. "Here. Bandage."

Finn sighed in relief, taking it from her. "Thanks."

"Is that a t-shirt you used?" She commented on the white fabric, noticing now the blood soaking his palm. She dropped additional bandages in her cart, one could never be too cautious. "How did you hurt yourself?"

"Broke a glass while doing the dishes."

"Were you mad at it or something?"

He snickered lowly, staring up from his injured palm to meet her gaze. She stared back at him, feeling her eyes stretching into a wide pose. It had been a year since they last interacted. After Violet's burial, they hadn't crossed paths, and it was easier that way. Looking at him reminded her of that night; it was enough Christina was doing it as well.

He opened his mouth to speak-

Just as he was about to, a gunshot erupted. Robin's ears shook as the loud piercing sound disoriented her senses. She swiveled back to see, feeling herself floating as her heart stopped beating for a millisecond.

It was all fast from there.

Four masked people barged inside, breaking the glassed doors with rocks. Robin crouched down to avoid the shattered glass, instinctively reaching for Finn to make sure he did too. Sure enough, he was reacting fast. He swung a hand around her, pulling them both behind the shelves.

There was loud yelling, there was even screaming. Finn turned to check on the pharmacist, about to stand to bolt his way. But the man was already running out the back door, leaving them to deal with the robbers. They were yelling loudly, almost in a panic state, as they rushed to every shelf and knocked as many boxes as possible inside large black bags.

"Fuck, let's go!" Finn rushed, holding her arm and pulling her to the door.

"Wait." She took the medications from the cart and stashed them inside her bag as fast as she could.

Finn's eyes bulged. "You can get them later!"

"Not letting this fucking trip go to waste." She reached for the bandage in his hand and took it too.

"We need to pay for these," he hissed, and Robin's face contorted to let him know how ridiculous that was.

"Because that's what matters?" She shut her bag and clutched his arm.

She pulled him with her to the cornered shelves, dashing to the nearest broken entrance. They weren't sure the robbers were going to let them leave freely, but they took a blind chance with their backs bent and faces hidden. They somehow knew that their focus was solely on the medications and nothing else. They were stealing to survive.

The pair bolted out of the place, soles of their boots crushing against pieces of glass.

And they ran.

_____________

Notes:

Sorry for the long wait, had to recraft this story as I had a sudden idea that literally changed the entire course of things.

Comments and votes are always highly appreciated! And criticism too, it would help immensely!