Waiting their turn, Leo and Tom heard many discussions and whispers in the line about the streetwalker corpse in the courtyard. Such an event was rare, Leo had only heard of a streetwalker dying a handful of times in his life. All of them were caused by two streetwalkers presumably fighting one another, but now, Leo wasn't quite so sure.
He knew that there were at least 3 pure masks here in the slums; what if there were more? What if he wasn't the only streetwalker slayer within the slums?
As Leo's mind wandered the two of them rapidly approached the front of the line. Getting their food, Tom bid Leo farewell to head to the mine. Eating dinner and breakfast the next morning was a luxury that Leo wasn't used to, but one he welcomed, especially after the night he had.
Leo ate his breakfast slowly as he walked to the dump at a leisurely pace. As the pure mask no longer corrupting his very being, his mood had dramatically increased. Leo was happy, almost giddy as he entered the gates to the dump.
Most of the workers had started work leaving the check in area of the dump almost empty. Looking around Leo was unable to spot Cal in the few stragglers that he entered with. Walking over to pick up his designated apron and gloves Leo overheard two of his coworkers talking about the streetwalker.
Unable to suppress his smile, Leo tied the apron around his waist, thankful that his mask covered his face. Something he did was the talk of the slums, who wouldn't be excited? The worst part was being unable to stand up and shout 'It was me! I killed the streetwalker!'
Doing so would immediately get him abducted by the puritans and interrogated. Leo shivered at the thought and walked into the dump proper. Taking a look around he found Cal at a sorting table conversing with one of their coworkers.
Leo grabbed a bin and filled it before walking over to the two of them.
"Dude, I'm telling you; it was the guards that did it. No way a streetwalker dies like that without at least drawing blood of its killer."
"But why would the guard care to even kill one of those things? A streetwalker hasn't attacked a shelter in years."
"Some slumfolk heard it slam into the Finch shelter, I think the guard perceived that as an attack and hunted it down."
"Ok, sure after it already was in a fight with something."
"Maybe a puritan came down and wanted to play around?" Leo chimed in as he walked up.
"Shit, that actually might be what happened." Cal said, smacking his mask in frustration.
"A puritan coming down here in the dead of night just to kill a random streetwalker? No way!" The coworker exclaimed.
"The puritans do weird crap all of the time, why not?" Leo defended his statement as he began to sort through the garbage in his bin.
"Speaking weird crap, Leo you seem to be in a good mood. Spend a little quality time with your lady friend?" Both the coworker and Leo could practically hear the smirk on Cal's face.
"Yup, didn't even get a wink of sleep last night. I'm sore all over and just a tad exhausted."
"Good man!"
"See here Johnny boy, I taught this man everything he knows. You better stick around and listen to me if you want to please the ladies." Cal said as he made a gesture with his hand.
Leo punched Cal in the arm, "Johnny don't listen to this knucklehead."
"Wasn't planning on it boys." Johnny laughed as he pulled a piece of trash out of his bin.
***
The entire dump was ablaze with conversations about the streetwalker. Theories ranging from one of the gangs did it to display their power, to the most common streetwalkers fighting, to the absurd such as the puritans were testing some new secret weapon to terrorize the slumfolk.
Leo was almost shocked how much this incident sparked a fire under the dump workers to talk to one another. Normally there was very little talking within the dump, but today other was barely a single moment of silence.
The reason was rather simple though, there just wasn't much gossip to talk about in the slums that was worth talking about. Most slumfolk kept to themselves, and the struggle of survival kept everyone else's heads down. Attention was something to avoid here in the slums.
The puritans made sure of that.
As the day slowly came to an end, Leo couldn't help but want to check up on his pure mask. The torch practically burned a hole in his pocket as he desired to just leave work and go check the mask. Fighting the urge he knew to be from the pure mask's influence; Leo finished his workday.
Walking out with Cal and Johnny, Leo realized he actually had enough to afford dinner again tonight without cutting into his shelter payments.
"You boys getting dinner tonight?" Leo asked the trio.
"I'm meetin with Katie tonight, or I would." Cal replied.
"I ate dinner yesterday so can't afford it." Johnny said with a sigh.
Both Leo and Cal gave Johnny a pat on the back. They knew that struggle all too well. With that, the trio said their goodbyes.
For a brief moment Leo considered visiting Haily but remembering the awful stench of the basement that was still clinging to his clothing, Leo thought better of that idea. Cal and Johnny didn't say anything about the smell, but Leo knew that the two had a greater resistance to smells than the most slumfolk.
Leo was still tempted to go check on the pure mask, but with all of the focus and attention the guard was giving the Finch Courtyard and the abandoned building next to it, he should probably avoid that place for now.
Continuing to walk aimlessly, Leo figured that even if he could afford dinner, it might be better to use it to take a bath instead. Getting this stench off of his clothes and his skin wasn't such a bad idea, and then he could return to the shelter for a good night sleep without any concerns.
The more he thought of it, the more that the idea sounded like the correct course of action. Realizing where he was, Leo made a quick turn and began to walk towards the baths.
There were two baths in this section of the slums. Normally only used once or twice a month by slumfolk, the primary purposes of the baths were to wash those slumfolk that are going to enter the upper section of the city for the puritan's 'games'.
Due to that, there was a public section that slumfolk would pay to enter for access to 'clean' water and soap, and a private section that had slightly more amenities that was free to the slumfolk who were entering the upper city.
Leo soon neared the closest bath to his shelter and paid his way into the public section. A few slumfolk were also making use of the facility, though most everyone stuck to themselves.
Placing his clothing away to be cleaned, Leo collected one of the basins that were provided. Dumping the water over his body, he shivered from the cold. Hot water was reserved for the private section of the bath, and only for special festivals at that.
Gritting his teeth as he wiped away the grim of the past few weeks, Leo took care to avoid causing the wounds on his leg and body from reopening. Washing away the dried blood and dirt that had scabbed over his leg, he was finally able to see just how gruesome the wound was.
He had a feeling it was going to be severe, as he had seen the white of bone during the fight when he took a quick look, but he wasn't quite prepared for the flesh being flayed to reveal the muscle beneath it.
Leo was honestly shocked that the wound was not currently bleeding, judging that the power of the mask had saved his life in more ways than one. Unwilling to touch the wound in fears that it would begin to bleed, Leo moved onto inspecting the smaller cuts that he had received.
They were numerous, marring his already heavily scarred flesh with new ribbons of red. Soon enough they would also scar over, added to the terrible hall of stories that were written on Leo's body.
Leo stood up, satisfied with his state and having used all of the water in the basin. He walked the basin back to its place and collected his clothing that was freshly 'cleaned', which was a nice way of saying it was soaked in scented water and dried using some strange contraption that existed before the slums fell in status.
As he picked up the still damp clothing, Leo sighed. It was getting a little late and only an hour or so of light was left in the day.
Leo exited the bath and walked back to his shelter. Saying hello to the doorman, who was just one of the slumfolk that worked at the shelter, Leo stepped inside.
"Hey Leo, wait up, where did you go last night?"
"Ah, I huddled up inside one of the abandoned buildings with some dude named Tom from the mines." Leo was actually surprised the doorman asked.
"Good, good, glad you were ok. I tried to argue to let you in when we saw you get to the doors and leave but you know the policy."
"Yeah, it was my fault, I shouldn't have stayed out so long."
"If you were out there last night, did you manage to see what happened to that streetwalker in Finch?"
"No, but I heard it, I've no idea what killed the bastard. There was a bunch of noise from fighting and then just silence."
"Damn, I don't envy you, well, sorry for stopping you. Have a good night."
Leo nodded his head and made his way over to the pile of cloth that he called home. He laid down his head and heard a few more of the others talking about the streetwalker's death.
A little pleased with himself for the past two days have gone, Leo fell asleep within a few minutes of laying down.