The thrumming music seemed to call from her from the street, bathed in the warm light of a lamp she had paused to listen to the dull echoing that resonated from inside the club. She had no intention of ending up here when she left work tonight, a bar typically the last place a bartender might want to go after getting off her shift. Yet tonight she couldn't calm that feeling inside her the demanded to move, couldn't imagine just going home when her feet yearned to wander. It pulled her inside the welcoming darkness of the club, had her winding her way through the sea of bodies to order a drink at the bar. "Whiskey double, neat." She smiled sweetly at the bartender and her drink arrived much earlier than many of the others who had ordered before her no doubt. Tipping back the glass she relished the hot burn of the alcohol as it slid down her throat, relishing the way it seemed to stretch out to her extremities and warm her to her very soul. Swallowing she lowered the dramatically less full glass, letting her heated gaze skim the crowd as best they could in the dim lights. It seemed everyone had come here to forget tonight.

Her gaze connected with man across the room, his eyes as dark as her own with a mop of black hair and a beard to match. Her sweetheart lips pulled up into a slight curve as she pushed off the bar and padded her way toward him. It was the perfect night to get lost in someone else, to let the music and the alcohol wipe away anything that wasn't her body pressed against someone else's. How often had she used those tactics on a mark, coerced them into that welcome embrace that giving in to someone else offered before she had taken everything from them. It is perhaps that singular thought sneaking in as their bodies moved together on the dance floor that let in his voice.

A laugh, somehow carrying over the throng of people and the pulsing music grabbed her attention and had panic flooding her vision. Eyes wide she pushed the man aside, he was now no more than an afterthought as she searched desperately for the face connected to that laugh, terrified of what she might see. It wasn't until she heard the sound again, pinpointing just who it was... and that it wasn't who she feared. Heart still racing she turned abruptly, leaving her impromptu date in the dust as she made her way to the stairwell that led upwards. She needed space, needed air, suddenly the densely packed club that had once seemed so welcoming was suffocating her. Taking the stairs with startling speed despite the number of drinks the young man had bought her earlier she burst onto the rooftop and into the cool night air.

Despite the rooftop also being a bar with twinkling lights and a server in the corner no one seemed to be up here tonight, and she was grateful for it as she stumbled to the edge of the building, gripping her hands with white knuckles against its hard surface. The feel of it biting into her palms seemed to help ground her, clear her head of what... or who she had feared was downstairs. It was hard to remind herself that there was almost no way he could find her here, no way he could have tracked her down, not with all the care she had taken to disappear. One hand moving to the raised skin on her neck, care always taken to hide it beneath those soft curls. Still there it was, the terror of losing everything she had worked so hard to build over the last few months. Shakily she brought her drink to her lips, seeking that sweet oblivion now more than ever. Oh what it would be to forget.