[CupcakeDolly]

Clothing slipped on over Rue's body, silently and carefully. The girl sat on the edge of the bed, her complacent face almost hiding the maelstrom of anger within her if it hadn't been for her burning eyes.

Good riddance.

The man lying on the bed behind her could have been anyone. His face had taken on the universal mask of death, and the evidence in his wounds told a strange and highly false story. The simple truth was that he had lied, and when it became clear from his sealed lips and grabbing hands that he had nothing of import to share, Rue had silently retracted her offer with the use of her beloved sword. His loud and disgusting thoughts had been well worth silencing, and without a deep and intricate investigation, nobody would have been able to tell for sure what had happened to the poor bastard. Not that Rue was worried about silly things like getting caught.

With her boots pulled on, a voice suddenly came into Rue's head, and she winced at her mother's whining tones. It was the usual - "Where are you? What are you doing? Why won't you come home?" - laid over thickly with false worry. The girl straightened up and blocked the voice in her head until it became not much more than white noise. She brushed off her perpetually dirty traveling outfit and gathered what little she had, then waited.

When the old whore finally ceased and there was quiet in her mind once more, Rue stepped out of the tiny hovel of a home as casually as she had stepped in, leaving the useless dead man behind. Whoever it had been, she was positive nobody would miss him.