Chapter Text
The Distillery District.
Once a grand sight to see in Dunwall, now one of the lowliest places one could find themselves in. These days, the streets are filled with the homeless, gang members and plague ridden rats. These streets are linked with broken homes haunted by ghosts of unfortunate endings.
Another day in the Distillery District, another home added to the list of those that will now remain silent and empty forever. Upstairs, a couple lay in bed to rest for the last time. More victims of the plague, their bodies left to decompose until they turn into skeletons so unrecognizable that no one will remember who they once were. The windows and doors were badly boarded up, and someone drew a large X on the door in blood to warn others of the plague ridden inside.
This particular home has one other room with a bed in it, but it sits empty.
The child of the couple in bed, a young girl named Florence, once rested there with tears in her eyes and bruises on her skin. After they died of the plague, she left her home for good with no intentions of ever coming back again. She took to the streets instead in an attempt to figure out how to survive on her own.
The streets were dark and unforgiving. Men with lustful gazes, thugs looking for violent encounters and everything in between. These were the things Florence experienced on a day to day basis. She learned quickly how to stay hidden, how to navigate the streets to get away if she needed to, and slowly turned herself into nothing more but a shadow. Ever since leaving home, she was nothing more than another one of the rats of Dunwall; hungry, feral and slinking in the shadows of every corner.
After some weeks of struggling on the streets, she found a temporary sanctuary with a gang leader named Slackjaw who took her in and fed her. However, the things she witnessed at their home base made her uneasy, and after a few days of staying she decided to sneak away in the night and never come back.
The night she decided to leave, she also decided she wanted to get as far away from the Distillery District as possible. She’d heard things get easier the farther east you;d travel, so she found herself spending the next week making her way farther and farther east of her old home town. As expected, things did seem to get a bit better the farther she got, but each new location came with it’s own problems it seemed. She never stayed put when trouble came, and rather continued her journey east every time to get herself to a new destination.
Eventually everything became more quiet. After passing a certain point she realized there seemed to be less people around, less business, and more empty houses. Just when she was beginning to question why it was this way, she found herself face to face with the barriers along the border of the Old Port District. She remembered stories about this place, that it had been quarantined because of the plague and that no one was allowed to reside there anymore.
Florence looked at the barriers with some consideration. She had no idea if there was any resources within this district such as food, but she liked the idea of an empty town that she could hide out in without any worry of external issues. No more thugs, no more dangerous people or machines, just a silent town to herself.
With a quick look on either side of her to confirm there was no one watching, she stepped forward to make her way through a weak point in the barrier.
Once on the other side, she continued to wander the streets to observe her new surroundings. It was silent and empty, void of even rats it seemed. Something about this area felt kind of pleasant in it’s own way she thought to herself, and she began to feel the first spark of hope since she had left her home. Maybe this new location could work out after all.
While the streets were fine, she wanted to have a better awareness of her surroundings. She knew that all of these districts were bordered along the river, and she knew if she was able to find the river she would probably have a better understanding of exactly where she was. Currently there wasn’t much to help her figure out where she was, as the streets all just looked the same to her. Everything was dead, no life to differentiate the areas of this district.
By the time the sun began to set for the day she finally reached the river. In the distance, she could see the sparkling surface of the water reflecting the colors of the sunset sky. A bit of relief washed over her when she saw it; she was beginning to doubt she’d ever find her way to anything familiar after so much wandering around. With the river, she’d at least know that in the westward direction would be all the places she’d already traveled.
When she got close to the river shore, her eyes landed on what appeared to be a dock with a boat at the end of it. Curiosity rose in her at the sight, wondering if the boat would be intact enough to use. She assumed it was abandoned with the rest of everything in this town, and if the boat was in good shape, maybe she could use it to sail away to someplace else, maybe even one of the other isles. Maybe she had a chance of finding something better than Dunwall itself.
Upon reaching the dock, her footsteps were no longer silent as they hit against the wooden surface. She made her way over to the little boat to try and get a better look, consideration on her face as she tried to make a judgment call on what condition the boat was in. From her perspective it seemed like it was in good enough shape to be usable and she began to wonder if she could figure out how to drive a boat on these waters.
Before she could think about her boating skills for too long, a set of footsteps that were not her own sounded from behind her. She whipped around, eyes locking with an older man with a cigarette in his hand.
“Well, isn’t that peculiar.” He spoke to himself, a look of mild confusion on his expression. “I hope you weren’t planning on taking that boat anywhere, I need it to get around these days.” The man spoke again, a small smile on his expression. Florence didn’t care for any formalities or friendliness, instead her eyes looked at either side of her to see if there was any way she could jump off the dock to get away. She knew the river waters weren’t safe, and it looked like there wasn’t any easy way out other than the way this man was blocking.
Looking in his direction again, she scowled at him. “This place is supposed to be empty, why are you here?” She muttered. A look of amusement crossed his expression when she said this. “I was going to ask you the same thing, actually. How’d you get in here, anyways?” She didn’t respond to his question, just continued to scowl in his direction. She wanted it very clear that she wasn’t happy in her current position.
The man sighed, seeming to think to himself for a moment before putting his cigarette out. “Well kid, I don’t know who you are or how you got in here, but I think I’m gonna have to take you inside to figure out what to do with you.” he said calmly, hoping she wouldn’t take it the wrong way. Unfortunately for him, she didn’t like what he had to say and stayed frozen in place instead of showing any indication that she was going to follow him. “I’m not staying here.” She finally said.
The man waited a moment longer before taking a deep breath and taking a few steps toward her. For every step he took forward Florence took a step back, right up until she couldn’t back up any farther. “Sorry kid, I can’t let you go. You gotta come with me.” He apologized. He reached out a hand to grab her to pull her along gently, but before he could she ducked. “Wait!” she said quickly, her angered expression changing to something mixed with fear now. “I’ll come with you, just don’t touch me, okay?” She finally caved in. The man paused for a moment before pulling away and nodded at her. “Okay, I won’t. Just follow me.” He agreed before turning around to lead the way.
She tailed behind the man, noting that they were making their way toward the old pub. Many thoughts ran through her head about what was to come. Why did she have to stay here? Where was he taking her? Were their others here? She worried about what was to come next for her, and wondered if she would regret having passed that barrier.