Lilith walked towards the docks of West End, her Doc Marten clad feet safe from the puddles underfoot. She had heard that West End was full of unsavory characters, but she hadn?t seen a soul since leaving the more populated street next to the Alley Cat club and the other bars there. The light rain misted down onto her hair, making a few stray strands stick to her cheeks. An empty can bounced off the steel toe of her boot and skittered across the street, the sound echoing off the brick buildings towering over her.

As if a wall had sprung up before her, Lilith stopped abruptly, her head turning to the right. Violet eyes squinted against the rain as she followed the line of the building up to where it disappeared into the sky. The paint was peeling, but Lilith could just make out the words. Iron Helm Flats, huh? Good enough for a start, I suppose. I don?t have the money to buy a building of my own yet, and something tells me management is on a long vacation here. Lilith mused silently to herself as she took a quick stock of the windows. Only two were lit at the moment, and by candles from the look of it.

The door protested loudly on its hinges as Lilith let herself into the vast apartment building. Fingertips ran delicately over the mailbox slots to her left as she passed through the main lobby. A fingernail caught one and it slid open, an old letter wafting down to the floor at her feet. A brow quirked as she read the name on the addressee label: Lily Angelus. Perhaps she was seeing coincidences where there were none, perhaps not. Either way, the apartment number was noted as she headed across the spacious lobby towards the staircase at the far end.

These apartments must have been the luxury place to live in their heyday, what with the detailed stone work of the floor and crown molding still clinging to the ceiling?s edges. Lilith stopped at the foot of the stairs and let her eyes close, expanding her senses upwards. She felt the presence of a few others above her, throughout the building, but like everything else in West End, the details were muddled. Frustrated, Lilith retracted her net and opened her eyes. If there were any squatters who wanted to give her trouble, she would just have to rely on her reflexes to help her.

Her movement up the stairs was uneventful before she stopped at the desired landing, hesitating before moving to face the leftmost of the three doors before her. Lilith gave a quick glance to the name on the bellplate before pushing the door open. It read the same as the letter she?d left on the floor downstairs. This door opened silently despite its obvious lack of use. Avoiding a web spun across the threshold, Lilith ducked into the apartment and slid the door shut behind her, the click of the latch falling into place a crack of thunder as it echoed in the room.

Light was non-existent; Lilith?s hand grazed the wall beside the door, looking for a light switch. Fingers flicked at the dial she found, and she was rewarded with a blaze of light from overhead bulbs that promptly expired after a split second of use. Lilith was a statue, frozen in place, casting outwards to confirm the room?s emptiness before moving forward. A soft ball of spell-light was sent to hover near the ceiling, casting light into the corners of the room.

It was a very large space with an open floor plan, where all of the rooms seemed to be one. There was a bank of windows along the opposing wall from where Lilith stood, looking out over the warehouses to the water beyond. Furniture was scarce: a bed at one end of the room half-hidden by a screen, a table and two chairs, and a couch facing the windows. Nothing seemed to be too worse for wear, if one didn?t count dust as a negative. The lack of furniture in the room made it seem massive, but Lilith was not concerned with furniture.

The room had one door besides the entrance, and a quick thought probe determined that to be a bathroom. Lilith moved to the center of the room and sat cross legged on the hardwood floor. Tugging a scrap of paper from her pocket, she softly recited the incantation written there, pushing outwards with her mind as she spoke. If anyone was watching from the street as Lilith murmured the words, they would see an entire bank of windows dissolve into the brick of the building, as if they never were. The room hummed as Lilith finished, her whispers chasing each other around the perimeter of the room as the spell took effect, finally dissolving into silence.

She stood and brushed her palms off on the leg of her jeans. Lilith turned to take in the view from the windows, watching the darkness of the water as it faded into the night sky of the horizon. Another look around the room elicited a heavy sigh from between her lips. There was a lot of work to be done before she could live here: cleaning, repainting, and furnishing. She tallied her remaining finances in her head as she exited, closing the door behind her. There was just enough to fix up this flat; it was a good thing she had just been given employment.

Turning to face the wall where the door to the apartment once was, Lilith reached out and pressed her palm against the peeling paint there. The wall rippled beneath her touch as the spell recognized her and a door came into view. Lilith removed her hand, and the door dissolved back into the wall. ?Perfect,? she murmured to herself, eyes bright. The spell was an illusion spell with a barrier only disarmed by her touch. It wouldn?t fool everyone, but it would take someone looking specifically for her with a great amount to power to disengage it. It was good enough for now. She would employ someone more powerful to ward her permanent residence later.

Emerging onto the street, Lilith heard the bells ringing in the distance and smiled. Yes, this would work; she could call West End home.