You come to cold and damp. Opening your eyes, you note that you’re face down in a puddle. Your head hurts something fierce, like you were using it as a hammer. Or maybe you were the nail. Maybe you picked a fight or had a bit too much to drink. It doesn’t matter.

What does matter is someone’s rifling through your pockets. That kinda crap won’t fly.

You haul yourself standing and someone falls back with a squeak. Glaring over, you can see it’s just a kid. Dirty mess of blonde hair and real tired grey eyes. Looks homeless, but right now, you’re no looker yourself.

“Well damn,” the kid says, “found a live one this time.” She’s got the kind of voice that speaks of hard times.

“The hell kinda kid robs dead folk for a living?” you grind out.

The kid grimaces. “One who’s desperate. Belief’s getting scarce these days. Us smalltime gods take what we can get.”

“A god? You?” You suppress a chuckle.

“Don’t laugh!” Girl pulls a switchblade from somewhere. “I was someone once. I mattered.”

“Whoa there, calm down.” A quick check confirms you’re not armed. Might even be your blade she’s got.

“Long as you know who’s in charge here.” She slips it back up her sleeve. “Not often I find someone that ain’t too far gone, but that’s society’s fault, not mine”

“If you were somebody, how did you wind up digging in gutters to stay fed?” You figure the girl won’t think about stabbing if you can keep her mouth running.

“That’s the thing. Name, memories, powers, and faith. All gone. Bet she left me with a scrap just to make a point. I can still taste the power I had once.”

“Who?”

“Yasaka,” she spits the unfamiliar name like a curse. “No such thing as competition with her around. She may as well own the damn country. Kanacorp has its fangs in every kind of business you can name, not just the legal ones. Best guess is I was a rival.”

“How long ago do you figure that was?”

“Five years? I haven’t been keeping track beyond seasons.” The girl takes a deep sniff of the air. “You know, I think I know why the Gatherers targeted you. You got that spark of divinity about you.”

“I’m not-”

“Then who are you?”

You realize you don’t know. No name, no memories. No powers or faith too, if the girl’s right. Well shit.

“Thought so.” The girl turns her head to stare down the alleyway. “Aw crap, time to jet.”

A couple seconds later you hear loud voices, maybe three or four. The grind of metal on pavement follows with them.

“Come on, haul ass! This is a rough part of town. You don’t want the gangs to cut your second chance short, do you?”

Go with the strange girl what claims she’s a god or get your brains splattered across the pavement by bloodthirsty lowlifes? Not much of a choice.

She takes you across the dirty street and through several alleyways. You’re glad to have shoes, watching the girl hop here and there to avoid broken glass and such.

“There, we should be good for a couple minutes.” The girl tries to dust herself off some, only manages to spread the filth.

“Why do you care what happens to me?”

“Call it honor among thieves. Any god that ain’t with Yasaka is good in my books.”

“That extend to giving back whatever you took from me?”

She flashes a grin. “I’m sure you’re missing all that pocket lint. Seriously though, not a penny to your name. No ID or nothing. Welcome to the bottom of the barrel. Be glad you got clothes and organs.”

“Damn.” You’re starting to get hungry too.

“If you need food, you eat. Even gods need to stay fed and the like. We just need to feed our souls too.”

You make a point of checking your pockets. Not a damn thing.

“Eh, I’ll spot you for a meal, maybe even a place to stay the night. That is, if you ask nicely.” She turns abruptly and starts walking off. “Or you can dig through garbage. Whatever works.”

Another non-option. Besides, if she wanted to hurt you, she’s done a piss poor job of it.

She takes you to a cheap fast food joint a few blocks down. It’s about what you might expect for this part of town. Height tape at the doors, hasn’t been cleaned in a while, and of course the smell of grease so strong you can all but feel it on your skin.

It might be around two in the morning, but there’s still people about. A good number of them have knives or bats lazily laid out in plain view. They talk among each other like friends, whether they have blue, red or yellow colors. You get a brief glance from the lot when we come in, but no one gives you shit.

“Neutral ground,” the girl states. “Yeah, it’s a territory border for the gangs, but everyone knows you don’t shit where you eat else you get everyone’s guns shoved up your ass.”

The food’s alright, more for warming and filling than for taste. You’re not a vegetarian, that’s for sure.

“Eat your fries,” the girl says between loud slurps of her shake. “The burgers ain’t always beef, but you can trust the fries.”

You think better of worrying about that. The fries are fine. “So why help me?” you ask.

The girl takes another long, loud slurp, earning herself a few dirty looks. “Simple, really. I’m short on friends these days. Anyone I can get in my corner boosts my chances by a hell of a lot.”

If nothing else, she’s very frank about what she wants. “And for me?”

“Boosts your chances too, you know. More than it does mine.” She tosses her burger wrapper across the room to the trashcan. It bounces off the rim and hits the floor. “At the very least, I’ve got a friend we can stay with tonight and you can make up your mind in the morning. Sound alright?”

You’re good with that. More than good right now. Turns out sleep and unconsciousness ain’t the same thing. You’re pretty tired, now that you got some food in you.

Girl’s friend lives in an apartment she says is in yellow territory. Third floor, narrow stairs, the kinda place where people don’t talk to their neighbors. So much for politeness.

Girl knocks once, twice, and then waits. You can hear creaking floorboards as someone makes their way to the door. The person looks on through the peephole before opening the door a crack.

“Oh, it’s you. And you brought a friend? I was just getting ready for bed.” Tiredness seeps into a voice like warm honey. The snap judgment part of your brain says you can trust this woman, whoever she is.

“Not exactly a friend. ‘Nother like me, needs a place to crash for the night,” the girl says.

The door closes and you hear locks being unlatched. When it opens again, you come face to face with the girl’s friend. Well, sort of face to face. She’s shorter than you, proportioned like a slender adult. The feathery, planty wings sticking from the back of her sweater mark her as a fairy. She’s got long blonde hair, sea green eyes, and a winning smile.

“Lily White,” she says with a small bow, “nice to meet you, um…”

You say you’re sorry. You don’t have a name or really anything at all.

“Oh.” Her face falls. “That’s no good. Names are important. But please, come in!”

Lily’s apartment is cleaner than you’d expect from a fairy, but that’s not to say it’s tidy. Overgrown potted plants and dirty clothes are strewn about like mines. The boxes stacked around the entrance tell you your hostess isn’t finished moving. Whether that’s in or out, you don’t know, but it’s no business of yours. It’d be healthier to be on the way out.

“Make yourselves at home,” Lily says with a flutter.

You soon find yourself seated on an old, well used couch, the girl who brought you here flopping herself across a chair. It’s a small miracle you’ve been conscious long enough for your clothes to have dried. Still, you’ll need a shower and a change at some point. The hobo look isn’t you.

‘Course, you can worry about that when the time comes. For now, you busy yourself with asking how these two met. You figure fairies and gods don’t have too much in common.

“Well,” Lily starts, “I was first moving in and…”

“Couple asshat yellows decided she’d make for easy pickings,” the girl cuts in. “I mean, pretty fairy, new in town, looks a bit too high class for the area? Yeah, you know they’re all over that.”

“Anyway,” Lily continues with a faint blush, “she jumped in to save me and managed to drive them off. She got cut up pretty badly in the process, so I felt responsible and took care of her until she healed up.”

“Those bottom feeders ain’t been giving you trouble lately, have they? What with me not being around and all.”

“I see them sometimes, but they haven’t been able to do anything to me. I’m going to move again soon, so I should be fine.” Lily gives the girl a smile. “You worry too much. Besides, it’s not as if I can’t defend myself any.”

The girl says something under her breath, but you only catch the words “too nice”. Lily yawns, then you and the girl yawn. It’s like you’re all watching the world’s most boring movie. You really need some sleep.

“Sleep sounds good right now,” Lily says. “Bathroom’s over there. I don’t have any spare toothbrushes or anything, so sorry about that.”

You doze off shortly after. The couch isn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, but it sure as hell beats the ground. You actually get some rest and hey, maybe you can start piecing your life back together tomorrow! Wouldn’t that be something?

You wake to a hammering sound. It takes a minute to shake the sleep off, the damn sound not letting up. You’re the only one here right now, a note telling you the girl and Lily had to go take care of something. The note says not to go wandering, not that you have anywhere to go.

There’s another loud crash and the door shakes some. Not good, that.

You creep on over to look out the peephole, floorboards creaking on the way. Yeah, that wasn’t the brightest move. The folks outside definitely heard that. It’s plain to see that these are the yellows from Lily’s story. One’s an annoyed looking girl with a bat and the other’s a twitchy boy with a knife.

“We know you’re in there, little fairy,” the boy says. “Too bad for you your protection is expired. Open up and we can make this quick.”

The boy looks to be a druggie, so you’d have better luck talking down a bull. Gonna be fight or flight here.

>Action?