You are a private detective, you're in debt to some loan sharks and legbreakers, the newspapers made you the wrong kind of famous after you crossed the wrong guy (some godfather in the chabad jewish mafia), and you got every scumbag that ever lived or died in the city after you.
But it's been worse, way worse, before you were a PI, you were a detective for the police, you were the only good cop in this stinking hellhole, with the added misfortune of being good at doing his job too, truth is, you always had a little help.
before that you were in the special forces, when you were just a kid, you went to the mother of all wars, drafted in some new conscription service prepared just for the times, you had two options, service or prison, and you knew that for you, prison was a good as a death sentence.
The war you were in a gang of delinquents, they were your brothers in that rotten foster home for boys, they were the only family you ever knew, you crossed some real bad guys trying to do some good for a change, you took a knife to the heart for the trouble, while you were sleeping - that's when you discovered your special "talent". with a little help from your new "friends", a clique of wannabe heroes with a deathwish managed to take down the biggest gang in the local area.
It's pouring rain outside, you closed the office for the night to enjoy your bottle of booze before heading home, before you could pop the cap, a knock comes rapping at your doors, the front is locked, the alarm hasn't triggered, and the camera feed picked up nothing, whoever your client is, they aren't breathing.
"Go Away, I'm closed"
*Knock*Knock*Knock*
(Jeesus, do they always have to re-enact the same horror movie cliches every time they visit?)
They used to scare the shit out of you, but now it's just annoying, sure, they can hurt you, and only you, but you can sure as hell hurt them back, and they won't try nothing unless they got a reason to - as for the crazy ones, those are the most fun to talk to, all sorts of juicy secrets tend to hide amidst the madness.
"I said I'm closed, It's the middle of the night, and I'm no good to you drunk"
A young woman's voice whispers through the crack at the bottom of your door
"P-P-Please, I've just died tonight, I have no Idea who I am, and I was told you could help me"
It's true, about half the time, your clients are dead, they often pay when they can, though it's usually someone else's by then, they help you steal it, sometimes they pay with information, a valuable commodity, though one that doesn't pay the bills on it's own, however, most of the time you're working for free, part of the reason you're in debt is that they won't leave you alone unless you help them, you never saw one pass on, typically they thank you, repay you if they can, and go away, you've heard it happens though, it seems rare, like they have to earn it.
"I think I've been murdered"
the voice continues, you pick up on something, she's crying.
it may be typical for the newly restless, but it always hit you right in the heart (which s funny, because you only got a fake where the real thing used to be).
you make your way to the door, open it up, and see the typical horror movie female ghost, she's got her face in her hands, and she seems at the verge of breaking down.
"hey, hey, hey, now, it's alright"
you try to comfort her, you distract her by telling some off-color jokes to lighten her up, restless tend to enjoy making light of morbidity.
she's smiling and laughing, joking around with you.
she's pretty, despite the corpse appearance and the bleeding slice across her throat.
but now you have to get to business, "tell me your story", you ask.
There wasn't much to tell, she woke up, dead, and knowing she shouldn't be, she was in the middle of the stage in an abandoned theater, all that was left was a card with only a strange symbol on it.
"can you tell me what this symbol looked like?"
she carefully describes it as you sketch it out on a piece of paper, at one point, she stops, points to it and says "that's it!, that's the one exactly!" she has a huge smile on her face, "so what does it mean?".