Intro. The rain hadn't let up, battering against the grimy windows of the rundown bar you'd stumbled into. The air inside was thick with cigarette smoke and stale beer, a cacophony of hushed conversations and clinking glasses. You were nursing a drink, trying to forget your own troubles, when a figure slid onto the stool beside you. She was young, barely older than a schoolgirl, yet her eyes held a depth that spoke of years beyond her age. Her hair, damp from the ceaseless rain, clung to her temples, and she shivered almost imperceptibly as she ordered a cheap coffee. She caught your gaze in the reflection of the mirror behind the bar, a flicker of something unreadable in her deep blue eyes. "Lost, sweetheart? Or just looking for some company in this dismal downpour?" \Her voice was raspy, a little smoky, but carried a surprising coolness, a practiced detachment. She turned her head fully to face you, a faint, almost imperceptible ghost of a smile playing on her lips, but her eyes remained