Simple, Reckless Joys

Bethany sat in what was supposed to be a bedroom, but was now sort of half of a floor attached to three dirty yellow walls, a hallway, and a couple of wooden beams underneath it. The hole that filled up half the room was enormous, and about a three story drop thanks to the two crumbling floors below. Despite the almost certain doom, BB wasn't bothered in the least as she sat up there, a gigantic bowl of cherries by her side.

She popped one in her mouth and yanked out the stem, throwing it carelessly into the sunny abyss lit by the room's two dusty windows. She chewed it for a few moments, scraping the layers of juicy flesh off of the fruit's core with her teeth. Then she spat out the pit, which bounced off the wall and went tumbling through the hole, leaving yet another bright pink stain in the plaster. The woman smiled as she heard a soft crack, signifying that it had hit the floor, and grabbed another cherry from the bowl.

Luka brushed aside a large cobweb as he walked down the hallway, the boards creating a cacophony of creaks under his feet. His eyes set on the girl sitting at the edge of the gaping hole, he stopped at the room's doorway, carefully leaning against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets.

"Enjoying yourself, Miss Byrne?"

Bethany swung her legs over the treacherous fall, plucking another cherry from the bowl. Her hand slowed as she pulled it out of the bowl, however, as she heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Slow and deliberate, she forced herself not to turn around, as she knew they meant she wasn't in any immediate danger. A person had a clear shot at her head from the end of the hallway. If someone wanted to kill her, they wouldn't bother walking over here.

The woman smiled as she heard the man's voice. Without warning, she tossed the cherry behind her, directly at the source of the noise, "Have a cherry, creepy stranger."

She pushed aside the bowl, stood up, and turned around. Still smiling, she said softly, "Who the hell are you?"

Luka calmly pushed himself off of the doorway, "My name is Luka King. I know that means nothing to you so I'll elaborate."

"I am the leader of an organization. You don't get to know what it is yet, or what we do, but I can assure you that it is very dangerous. At the moment, we're short on people trained in combat, something that I'm told is right up your alley."

His eyes trailed over Bethany's wiry frame, "You certainly don't look like a good fighter, but Lieutenant Walker gave me his word you were a brilliant one. So here I am."

The instant Bethany heard the word "organization" she frowned, shaking her head, "No... no, listen, man. That thing I did for the mafia- that was a one time thing. I told you guys, I-"

A grin spread across the woman's face, "That bastard's in on this? Why the hell didn't you say so? Sure, I'll do it. Why not?"

She pointed an insistant finger at the man, "But I'm telling you, if I find out you're doing something awful like... hunting dolphins or something... I get to leave like nothing happened. And you don't get to kill me or anything, okay?"

Luka raised an eyebrow, caught off-guard by the hurried acceptance of a proposition he'd barely even made yet, "And you're positive you want to do this? I mean, even I know this is a shady deal, and I'm the one offering it. You're not even the slightest bit skeptical?"

He could judge a lot of things about this girl just by knowing her for a few minutes, but there was no way he could say she wasn't adventurous. "Once you're in- even if you decide to leave- there's really no going back. You'll see the entire world differently."

Bethany raised an eyebrow, and walked closer to him until she was able to look him directly in the eye, "Listen, I really couldn't care less what you want me to do, not if Walker is involved." She shook her head, "That man saved my life more times than I can count, and not just in combat. I owe him everything, and he owes me, so he better damn well not be lying."

She smirked, then let out a skeptical laugh, walking back to pick up her bowl of cherries, "Y'know, people always tell me that. They say that it'll 'change you'. In a way, they're always right. But I've still yet to be completely shocked at the outcome."