The city was starving again. You could smell it, iron in the puddles, rot in the vents, that thin metallic taste of rain filtering through cracked concrete. Power stuttered across the skyline, the towers blinking like dying stars, and somewhere above, the rich were still pretending it meant something. They still held parties in their sealed glass halls, drinking clear water, laughing over food grown under perfect light.

Down here, it meant nothing at all.

Mara Vane pulled herself over a shattered fence and dropped into the muck with a splash that smelled of oil and rust. Her jacket, yellow as a warning sign, glimmered in the flashes of distant lightning. The color marked her like a flare. It made her easy to find, but she wore it anyway, because fear was for people who were scared of getting into a fight. Mara was not.

She had been tracking the Keepers for hours, following them from the rooftops as they hijacked the convoy meant for the lower districts. The freight had been food; ration haulers bound for families who had not seen a proper meal in weeks. Mara had seen the Keepers ambush the drivers, kill them, and reroute the vehicles down a broken side street. She had known it was coming. She had known the pattern. Every time food was meant for the poor, the Keepers appeared first.

So, she had prepared.

She had planted her trap in advance, collapsing old, rotted support beams that would give way when triggered. When the Keepers drove the stolen haulers into that narrow corridor, the buildings around them groaned and fell inward, blocking the street with debris and concrete dust. They weren't crushed, but they were trapped, boxed in by the ruins of the city they'd been bleeding dry.

Mara crouched on the edge of a ruined balcony, watching as the gang scrambled below. They shouted orders, argued, tried to clear rubble, kicking at the wreckage in panic. The rain turned the dust to slurry, streaking the stolen vehicles in grey and brown. One man began prying open a crate, laughing as he tore into the rations meant for starving children.

That was her cue.

She dropped from the ledge, hit the mud, and moved before the first of them noticed. The metal bat in her hand was heavy, wet, and reliable. The first Keeper turned too slow. The swing broke his jaw clean. The second shouted, reached for his lance, but she caught his arm, twisted, and rammed the bat into his gut. He fell gasping into the muck. The third tried to run, shouting her name like a curse. The fourth raised his weapon, sparks flickering at the muzzle. She slammed it back into him before he could fire.

The fight lasted less than a minute. It always did.

When it was over, the air reeked of blood and wet stone. The hijacked haulers sat in silence, headlights flickering weakly through the rain. The Keepers lay sprawled in the mud, dying.

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Mara wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and spat into the dirt. She hated this part, the quiet after. It always made her feel too human.

She crouched beside the nearest crate, pried it open, and stared. Rows of ration bars, still sealed, still good. Enough to feed an entire district for a month. Enough to keep a thousand people breathing a little longer. Her throat tightened. She reached in, grabbed a handful, shoved them into her pack.

"Of course you'd steal food from children," she muttered to the corpses. "You'd steal the sky if you could eat it."

For a moment, only rain answered her. Then something else. A sound, soft and quick. The scuff of bare feet against wet stone. A breath caught in a throat too small to hide it.

Mara turned sharply, hand on the lance she had taken. Her eyes adjusted to the gloom.

At the far end of the alley, half-hidden behind a broken cart, a child stood. Barefoot, thin, maybe five. He was shirtless, his skin streaked with muck and blood, a bloody truncheon hanging from one hand and dripping into the rain. His face was covered in blood, his eyes were hollow, and there was nothing behind them. His feet were cut and raw, leaving thin smears of red across the stones, and he looked like he was an inch from death itself.

He was watching a dead men that lay in front of him. It that looked like the kid had killed him. How Mara did not know.

Her brow furrowed. The boy crept forward, hands trembling, gaze fixed on the body like he was deciding something far worse than what he had already done.

Mara straightened slowly, whispering under her breath. "He's not gonna eat that body, is he? Oh, dear gods, he is. I need to get in there and stop him."

Her heart thudded, anger and horror twisting in her gut. She dropped the lance, snatched a ration from the crate, and bolted into the alleyway. The rain slapped against her shoulders as she ran.

"Here," she called, voice rough but trying to soften. "Eat this. Don't eat that. Come here, come here, Rabbit."

He froze when she said it, the word landing somewhere between a name and a mercy. His thin arms curled against his chest as if he didn't know whether to run or reach for her. Mara knelt, lowering herself to his level, her boots sinking into the puddles. She held out the ration bar like a peace offering.

"See?" she said. "It's food. It's real food. You don't have to..."

The boy lunged before she finished. His teeth sank into her hand as he snatched the bar away. Sharp pain flared, bright and immediate. She hissed through her teeth, jerking her hand back. Blood welled where he had bitten her.

"Oh shit," she muttered through the sting. "This rabbit's got teeth."

The boy froze again, eyes wide, fear and hunger warring in him. The rain matted his hair to his skull. He looked like he was ready to vanish if she moved too fast.

Mara exhaled slowly, forcing the edge out of her voice. "It's okay, Rabbit. It's fine. It's fine." She reached out again, this time with her uninjured hand, and gently patted his head.

He flinched, then leaned into the touch. The tension left his shoulders all at once. He started to cry, silent at first, just shaking, then ragged sobs that caught in his throat.

She sighed, the fight and fury draining out of her all at once. "If you cry, I'm gonna cry," she whispered, half a threat, half a plea.

The boy pressed the ration bar against his chest like it might disappear if he let go. Mara sat back on her heels, hand throbbing, rain soaking through her jacket, and watched him eat.

Lightning flared above the rooftops, throwing both of their shadows long across the alley.

The woman in yellow stayed there until the boy stopped shaking. And if anyone had seen them from the mouth of the alley, they might have mistaken them for what the world had almost forgotten: two people sharing a single heartbeat in the ruins.

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