BLOODLINES, BLOOD MONEY & BLOODSHED (Episode 1: A Family Apart)

Chapter 1: Gwan Yin Li

Standing at the marble topped counter of the bathroom sink in a beautiful Kimono robe, Fifty four year old Gwan-Yin bent over, placed the tightly rolled one hundred dollar bill to her right nostril and sniffed the thin line of cocaine from one end to the other until it was gone. With the interior of her nostrils eaten away from years of cocaine use, she braced herself against the counter top, raised her head, closed her eyes and enjoyed the feel of her high.

The room spun around her.

Her mind went cloudy.

Around Gwan-Yin, the master bathroom, which was done in white and trimmed in red, was the size of an efficiency apartment. Two chandeliers and ceiling fans hung from its high ceilings, which were also laced with a row of windows that exposed a view of the sky day or night. Underneath them were granite floors, a shower, Jacuzzi, fireplace and mantle, and floor to ceiling windows that stretched the entire length of the west wall; red Asian drapes now pulled back to reveal the night outside and the security patrolled grounds of the mansion.

 Gwan-Yin opened her eyes and looked into the mirror with lazy eyes. At fifty four years old, there was no hiding her age. Her hair, although still beyond shoulder length and mostly black, still had strands of grey; an amount that was increasing every day. Her skin was growing wrinkled. Crow feet were now appearing on the outer edges of her eyes. With no makeup on, Gwan-Yin now surveyed it all, the cocaine's effects making the unpleasant reality of growing old a little more easier to deal with.

The ceiling fans above spun.

Placing a hand on the surface of the counter, she opened a drawer with the other and pulled out a knife. Slightly dizzy from her high, she admired the blade of the knife, its weight, its feel in her hand, the way the light glistened from it. Taken in by it all, she untied her robe and let it fall to her feet. Totally naked, her body revealed numerous knife cuts in various stages of healing, many of them decades old. They zig zagged across her arms, neck, back, thighs, buttocks, and belly. Having no problem adding to the grotesque collection of scars, Gwan-Yin placed the knife's blade to her inner forearm and then sliced slowly. As the blade thinly tore open her flesh, blood began to seep from the wound and fall to the floor. She gritted her teeth through the pain but kept slicing. A moment later, she sliced into her arm again, once again gritting her teeth. She then put the knife down, stood there, looked into the mirror and watched the blood run from her reflection's arm. The feeling of both pain and the cocaine's effects brought a twisted smile across her face. Like always, she welcomed both. For her, there was nothing better than the mixture of pleasure and pain.

Moments passed.

Gwan-Yin grabbed a towel, turned on the sink and began to doctor her wounds. Placing gauzes and medical tape on them, she picked her robe up from the floor, put it back on and then looked at herself one final time in the mirror. Situating her long silky black hair across her shoulders, she then headed out of the bathroom and into the master bedroom.

The mansion's master bedroom, just like the bathroom, was done in white and red. Underneath its two-storied ceilings was a satin sheeted king sized bed, a couch, vanity, fireplace and mantle, among other beautiful and expensive luxuries. Asian portraits lined its walls. Sprawled across the center of its freshly polished granite floor was a large hand woven Oriental rug. And just like the bathroom, the drapes of the bedroom's floor to ceiling windows were pulled back to expose the mansion's sprawling acres of beautiful land underneath the night's moon and stars.