Stay Vigilant

In the Rise of Night

If there was such a thing that could compete with an innate need to feel air in her lungs, it would be the liberty to ride the ocean waves on a white crystal sandy beach with no one around. To walk the strides of a lone wolf, undeterred, was a dream she constantly craved for.

But that was not reality.

All across the world, ambivalent feelings roused through the sediments of peoples bones on this very day. Some did not care, some fantasized over the chance to start a new year. Maria, however, was inept to answering this question.

It was a reminder of how swiftly time fleeted away from ones grasp, how it died with old routines and love. Maria just wanted to enjoy New Years Day while it lasted.

"You will not dip head first into that place ever again, Maria!. Only idiots dare those dumb decisions, you KNEW the risks at stake, I cannot believe your negligence! Set your alarm for 5 am, Trevor will have you running miles and calisthenics tomorrow." He amplified the message with a slammed door. His overbearing hollers made her floor shackle underneath.

Her arteries seized, the stress beckoning her heart to run so fast it created a fire. She couldn't pull such feelings aside no matter how hard she tried.

Yesterday hit her like the soft playful waves before a the tsunami. She lied, when she abandoned a routinely walk for a public high school, she lied to the faces of the guards.

Maria growled, head thrown back, remembering all those sweet foreign faces that held wild smiles when she talked to them, they already were familiar of her. It was indeed not her first time slipping out of bounds. She even managed hitch a ride and leave with them to a cinema binge downtown, before she was inevitably found and dragged back by Fathers men.

Now, this precious memory was now tainted by his dark black irises, daring her to object what demanded compliance. She hated the cowardice that had overcome her like a bird with skewed wings, she wanted anger for a change. Maria often questioned herself as to why he hurt her so easily, it wasn't like he was ever physical.

The young woman paused for 30 minutes behind the bullet proof window. She stared miles into the icy mountains up ahead. The images of Fathers disappointment revolved over and over, until, that sentimental part of her was raw. Usually, she would consider herself a head strong person, a thrill seeker unaffected by sudden changes.

And yet, when it came to her Father, that wild side of her was bowing its head almost every time.

Marias throat screamed for the burn of fresh alcohol, her knuckles fisting the white feathered blanket beneath. She needed something to pacify the mood. Whether or not she should drink it now, at the marriage ceremony this evening, or at all, was highly questionable for to logical mind.

'Ill take a bit at the wedding ceremony', she thought 'just a glass'.

5:30, read her phone.

The Spotlight of tonight was dawning upon her, soon.

She grabbed lidocaine ointment she received after Bribing the house nurse.

It was based on the burn she received, when she "accidentally" dumped extremely hot water on her hand. It was like eating an X Pepper.

After lathering the substance all around where the ankle and shin met, she grabbed the Japanese knife and waited.

These past couple weeks, the 19 year old had been running little mini investigations around the Office of her Dad whenever she did not have combat practice or workouts. Austin Georgiou, a long lost friend of her father, was quite the catch in terms of the amount of times he made a presence in Fathers files. Getting through that office, however, was a lot easier said than done. There was small microscopic camera mounted a crystallized chandelier, and various guards haunting the hallways. If it weren't for those noses and brains of her 2 year old German Shepherd, named Atlas, forever on her side to fetch her some dying old files and conceal them with his mouth, it may have been impossible.