One For Sorrow- Soo Lin Yao's Perspective

Chapter One: What Once Was

Once, in a land far from here, there was a small house in a distant place. This place was filled with life, love, and happiness, a family tighter than the knit of any jumper. Although it was a small place, and money was hard to come by, it was a happy one. Singing filled the kitchen each night, intermingling with the aromatic spices cooking on the hob in the evening, and a weary yet cheery man would kiss his children each night before tucking them into bed and reading them a story. Then, the children would drift into dreams sweeter than candy, the day's problems melting away as dragons from their stories burned them down one by one. These children would awake in the morning to a smiling mother, brush their teeth, and do their secret handshake before heading downstairs for breakfast. To the young mind, it seemed like this reassuring simplicity would never end. Things were good.

This is what Soo Lin Yao told herself now, staring out of the window of her dismal flat, alone. Privately, she struggled to keep the magic of her childhood alive, the tales of her youth slipping away like water through cupped hands. Her past was a jigsaw- once assembled with ease, pieces had been lost over the years, leaving her a broken patchwork of whatever she had left. Little girls are made of sugar and spice, yet little did she know that sugar could grow sickly, spices burn with deadly zeal. Innocence was a thing she could seldom remember now; the Black Lotus tattoo on her ankle burned determinedly as if to remind her of her fate.

Suddenly, a familiar knock broke her out of her trance. Shaking herself internally, she reminded herself of the number one lesson above all else, Innocence and hope aren't things we have here. You're kidding yourself, Soo. Now go and answer that door. Steeling herself for what was to come, she glanced through the peephole and opened the front door once more.