darker_london | Working her way up. Josie.

Nothing touched by darkness stayed the same. Night lay heavily over the world, changing the city into a dangerous place for a beautiful young girl, out walking the streets all alone.

The first night was the hardest because she was almost caught. She'd almost killed the man who propositioned her just because he was so blatant and crude about it. He'd been older, close to thirty, unwashed and covered in muscles. Josie liked her men wiry, and this one was anything but. He'd herded her into an alleyway before she could gather her bearings, and he'd asked her twice for a blow job before she replied.

"Cash first." He looked rather disgruntled, but pulled out a leather wallet from his back pocket and searched through it, eventually pulling out twenty quid. Josie looked at him, disgusted, and growled. A moment later he was little more than a barely breathing heap on the ground. She'd taken all the cash as well as his watch and cellphone.

And just for kicks, she'd tied his shoelaces together in a knot it would take the man ages to figure out. Not her most diabolical scheme ever.

The money from his wallet payed for one night's accommodation at a decent backpackers four or five blocks down from where she'd left him. There was no way she was going to share a room, so she'd used the money she'd set aside for breakfast so buy a single room. She'd figure out nourishment in the morning. Oh, she'd figure out a lot of things in the morning.

But then, that first night, she'd wanted to sleep on her own terms. Here there were no nurses orchestrating a life around her. Sleep now. Eat now. Medicate, now. She was free of that, and although the night was a great temptation she had decided to sleep, and sleep she would.

Sleep claimed her till the next afternoon, when she woke sticking to her sheets. This would not do, no, not at all. She needed the best sheets, and a private shower. And gods, she needed a change of clothes.

So down the narrow staircase she went, after scrubbing herself clean under the mildly warm water in the horrific showers. Josie understood her beauty, and had some idea of how to use it to get what she wanted. It was remarkably easy to lure a man into an alley, with a flick of the hair or a certain smile, promising so much more. She took her time, picking out those that looked like the weight of their wallet was dragging them down from the drunkards who carried little more than spare change. Four hours later the sun was beginning to set, and she was almost five hundred quid the richer. If a handful of men were a little late home, a little more disorientated from the walk to the underground than they usually were, well, it was no skin off her back.

That night she delighted in scalding herself in the shower and crawled into deliciously soft sheets. The next morning, she extended her wardrobe sevenfold.

This was life. Not the life- that would come later- but this was well on the way. There were just a few pesky ghosts from the past she had to get rid of first.