the stark, vaporous breath leaking out from the ghostly shadows infused the air with nicotine, partly from the hazy cigarette held loosely between morgan's chattering teeth. snow freckled across the group's shoulders as phil's eyes scanned over the crimson slashes painted across the chipped, brick alleyways; their pattering footsteps mixing with the faint sirens and intoxicated laughs that seemed to echo throughout the murky streets.

"she should be here any minute," morgan exhaled through a multifaceted cloud of nicotine as she stopped in the middle of the alley, lazily slumping against a brick wall. "how'd you get her to agree to this?" phil inquired as he, after a moment's hesitation, dragged a cigarette out from the concealment of his pocket. dan furrowed his eyebrows, "i thought you didn't smoke."

phil's azure eyes flickered to a half-hearted glare, "guess you're a bad influence." dan darkly chuckled, running his chilled fingers through his fringe. "it wasn't very hard, i get a desperate call from her pretty little face every so often," morgan smirked, her acutely-aware eyes glancing behind over her snow-seeped shoulder every few minutes. phil scoffed, his eyes darting away from her violet and ebony strands to dan's apathetic gaze. "may i?" the raven-haired man questioned as he quirked an eyebrow; a smirk tainting the brunette's lips.

"what? my lighter?" he taunted, his tremulous fingers tracing patterns over the icy metal. "wouldn't want to be a bad influence," he dimly chuckled, his eyes darkening to a glinting facet of cockiness. "fuck off," phil rolled his eyes, a faint smile curving at the ends of his chapped lips as the lighter was tossed into his hands.

"where is she, anyway?" dan asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously at the violet-haired girl a few feet in front of him, who remained a spine-chilling demeanor of silence. "hey," dan remarked hesitantly as his eyes narrowed in a darkening doubt. phil's eyes flickered between the back of melanie's deathly-still disposition and dan's fatigue-tinged, chocolate irises; his fingers apprehensively beginning to wrap around the icy knife hidden in his pocket.

"morgan?" the dark-haired man inquired, before whipping around as a indistinct footstep pattered in the gravelly puddle behind him. "sorry," he heard morgan taunt faintly through the muted earshot caused by the sudden mask of toxic fabric encompassing around his skull.

an indecipherable grunt voiced undeniably from the brunette, his voice muffling as it was presumably drowned in the same fabric that blinded them both. he could've sworn he heard dan shout his name before he felt a sharp piercing in his side; his throat choking up with an agonizing lack of oxygen as a trickle of metallic crimson leaked out from between his bloodied lips. dan's hazy voice streamed rapidly into a spiraling, indecipherable conversation between their attackers until his vision was overtaken with flashes of cerise and black and his diminishing conscious faded.

-

"wake up, sleeping beauty," a haunting voice said, the sudden jolt of his hair being pulled upwards waking up a cuffed phil. a fiery pair of murderous irises glinted at him, before his dizzy vision flickered to his side, hazily revealing morgan and dan. a blood-stained rope bound the brunette's scraped wrists together as he sat sprawled in an unevenly placed chair, his seemingly-unfazed gaze staring him on.

"what the hell?" phil coughed, tasting iron in the creviced cracks plastered across his lips. "did.." he trailed off, his hesitant eyes lowering to his side, where he was suddenly reminded of the stab wound below his ribs. "did you fucking stab me?" he scoffed, earning an eye roll from dan. "what the hell?" he spat, his eyes narrowing towards the nonchalant morgan.

"you should be thanking me, after all, i got you this meet. but i couldn't arrange bullshit if i would've mentioned him after the shit he pulled last time he was here," she grumbled as a cigarette dangled from between her lips, quirking an eyebrow towards dan.

"she's right," the blue-haired girl stood in front of them began, narrowing her eyes at the brunette as she sat down. "i would've personally killed you as soon i saw you." dan chuckled darkly, "why didn't you?"

her hazel irises flickered between the two of them, chewing on the insides of her sculpted cheeks. "i'm intrigued," ashley spoke slowly, her words dripping with tense suspicion and a grudge. "i've heard you're quitting the game. i don't like you, howell, but you could be of some use to me yet," she nodded absentmindedly, as if still stuck in thought. "that is, if you're as clean as you pretend you are. i'm not hiring some suicidal addict who can't fucking stand up straight."

dan swallowed, not daring to look into the sapphire eyes that burned holes in his side. "i'm not quitting," he quietly choked out, a sense of hesitant angst tracing over his words. "i'm not done yet," he repeated, blinking away the weakness that earlier laced his voice. "and i'm not here for heroin, we're here for information."

"hm," she pondered questioningly, resting her chin against her fist. "what do you want to know?" dan choked down his fearing apprehension as he turned to his side, meeting phil's confused gaze. "was zoe sugg a client of yours?" the jet black-haired man asked after a moment's hesitation, flickering his glossed-over gaze back to ashley. "you'll owe me one after this," she exhaled, earning a reluctant nod from the anxiety-infused brunette. "i heard about her death," she shrugged sympathetically, "i didn't sell her shit, you know i don't sell to kids, howell."

dan's lips pursed together as his eyes darted to the icy cement, his uneven breath hitching in his strained throat.

"you of all people know that."