The Sequel of our One Shot-ish Book 1 is finally here!!!
Perrie and Jade's adventures continues as they traverse a series of multiverse they never thought ever existed.
For our NEW readers, we highly recommend that you read Book 1 first, as there ar...
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Can I get an AMEN for this badass cover that my wife, LittleRed, did back then for this story?
*Ready for another wild ride? 😏
For a moment, time stopped. The buzzing streets of New York are suddenly enveloped by a deafening silence that one could hear a pin drop in the middle of the street.
The leaves caught by the breeze froze mid-air, along with the napkins that the hotdog vendor chased after. People going about their lives stood still, not one of them realized that time has stopped. It would've been mesmerizing, except that no one noticed it save for the very person responsible for it – a mysterious brunette with a magnetic energy, an aura that seems to pull people in whether they liked it or not.
Out of nowhere, she appeared on the side of the street; one leg first after the other. Her energy swirls into the air as if to welcome her. As soon as her other foot touched the pavement, time resumed like nothing peculiar ever happened. Not a single soul noticed that the woman appeared before their eyes two seconds ago all because time stopped.
The woman looked around her. There were people who were walking, passing her by, and the ones that are stuck in the worst traffic jams of their lives. Her ears were picking up strange and different noises from the vehicles, a couple of children, some tourists, and maybe a pigeon or two. Then, her nose picks up a stench that smells like one giant pile of hot garbage. It was true though. As delightful as the city looks, it reeks of an indescribable smell that almost always goes unnoticed.
She was walking towards the Meatpacking District, a hip commercial area on the far west side. It is home to the Whitney Museum of American Art, high-end designer clothing stores and a stretch of the High Line, an elevated park built atop former railroad tracks. With its cobblestone streets that are filled with trendy restaurants and swanky bars, one could easily be lured into the neighborhood.
It wasn't until the woman reached a part of a street where less and less people were going. She could hear the laughter of the people fade away as she went deep into the deserted street. It's getting dark, and whether she knows it or not, it's not safe for a woman to tread the streets alone.
Sure enough, three men looking like hungry hyenas were coming towards her. They were staggering. Either they were drunk or high on drugs. But one thing is for certain, you could see in their eyes that they are predators – choosing their victims very carefully, looking for weaknesses in the herd.
"Hey...baby. It's not safe for a pretty girl like you to wander around this place at this time," one man called out. "Let me take you home." His friends behind him snickered at his remark.
The woman only looked at the man with an unreadable face, unfazed by his words. Normally, when a guy says something like that, most girls would cower in fear and run away, or stay frozen in fear. But not this woman, she's curious about these men. She was just staring at them, which puzzled the three men quite a bit. If it wasn't clear in the beginning, this woman is different.
"What is this place?" she finally asks.
The men howled in laughter. They couldn't believe they're about to hit the jackpot of finding an innocent tourist up in their alley. It wasn't every day they encountered 'fresh' meat.
"Baby girl's lost, man," the other guy voiced out. "Take her home!" The third guy agreed with him.
"This is New York, babe. C'mon–"
He was about to touch the woman, but she was quicker. She dodged when he lunged forward, she then gripped his hand and twisted it in a very odd way that he could hear his bones crack a little.
"I can smell what you're up to," she growled at him, eyes starting to change to a different color. "And none of them are good."
The guy's two friends were about to charge at the woman, but stopped in their tracks the moment they looked at the woman's eyes that turned into a predatory slit-shape and a bright shade of scarlet.
Without a word, the woman tilted her head and in just a split second, the three guys fell to the ground, paralized and almost gasping for air. Gasping for life they surely didn't think would be grateful for.
The woman didn't look remorseful at all, in fact, she only stared at them in disgust before she stepped over their bodies, careful not to let her slick, black boots touch their skin. The men weren't dead, but they would've been only if they knew they were messing with the wrong girl.
Right now, they're just paralized from the toe up – they can't stand, can't talk, can't move a single muscle. The only thing they were able to move were their eyes. Their look of terror after they laid on the ground, unable to do anything to defend themselves. They were terrified of this tourist, or whatever this person was.
"New York, huh? Land of mortals. This is gonna be fun." The woman gave them one last look with a smirk forming on her lips before finally leaving them to their doom.
☆
From the time we were little, we heard the same caution: Listen to authority figures, be feminine, follow the rules, act like a lady, and so many more.
As time goes, the women we see as bad girls defy all those edicts. We've all had that female friend our moms warned us about – the bad girl. They do what they want. They defy the rules. They don't care about their bad reputation. And they seem to not mind paying the consequences of their actions.
People are drawn to bad girls for a few reasons. First, they are intoxicating. Much like alcohol, they can lower one's inhibitions and get one to do things one would never do otherwise. Bad girls also give you a glimpse of a different view of the world.
Bad people tend to give you a sense of invincibility. You may know that jumping off a waterfall is questionable, but if you do this with gusto, with little thought to the possible consequences, it emboldens you, which is a great feeling. It leads you to adventures, gets you out of your comfort zone, and prompts you to try things that you wouldn't dare without this infusion of confidence.
Most people probably aren't as extreme, but they do like some mystery. Who doesn't love a bit of mystery in their life? Bad girls are mysterious by nature. They're secretive and elusive. They are hard to catch and almost impossible to keep. And, oddly enough, most people like that.
And if you find that the rules you are told to live within need to change, then become a bad girl yourself. The best thing about bad girls is that they change the world.
