apocalypse

chapter 2: Beatrix

Chapter 2: Beatrix

Beatrix Hetford was born and lives in Los Angeles, she grew up in a dysfunctional family, her childhood and adolescence were marked by difficulties and abuse that left her with deep emotional scars.

Beatrix is the second of four children. She has three brothers: Mark, the eldest, and twins David and Thomas, two years younger than her.

Her family is complicated. His father, Frank Hetford is an authoritarian, violent man as well as an alcoholic and misogynist. The mother, Clara Smith, is always submissive and often absent. The father always preferred his sons and never hid it. Beatrix, being the only child, is often ignored or worse, treated with contempt.

Frank never misses an opportunity to criticize her, making her feel inferior and useless. "You're just a girl, why are you holding books" he told her. "Stay away from me at school I don't want them to know we're related." Says mark, who always follows his father's example, actively participating in emotional and even physical abuse.

The twins, are young and influenced by the behavior of their father and older brother, they have nothing against her but avoid her, fearing they will also be mistreated.

During her time at school, Beatrix's life was no better. She was a bright student, but her intelligence and desire to learn, along with her glasses and common nerd traits, made her an easy target for bullies.

The most popular students mocked her, excluded her, and sometimes tormented her. No one ever stopped to help her or ask why the sadness in her eyes, or why she spent every lunch break alone, hiding in the bathroom.

Beatrix had always dreamed of going to university, studying law and finding a way to escape her suffocating reality that oppressed her every day.

However, when it came time to apply, Frank was adamant. "No, we don't waste money putting a girl through college," he said coldly. "You have to stay here and help your mother." At those words Beatrix knew she couldn't protest.

Her heart changed that day, and with it, her spirit in her eyes. The following years were a succession of degrading and dead-end jobs, always under the oppressive control of his family. Despite everything, Beatrice did not give up completely.

she finds refuge in books, where the words of famous authors become her lifeline. Quotes from Shakespeare, Einstein and many others give her hope, a light at the end of the empty tunnel. His emotions are a mass of anger, sadness and a tiny spark of hope.

Beatrix usually works in the small supermarket in the woods, surrounded by centuries-old trees and hidden paths.

Simon, her boss, an old college friend of her father, a fifty-year-old man with , disturbing look and invasive hands, made every work shift a nightmare for Beatrix. When Simon isn't threatening to fire her or criticizing her every move, he indulges in blatant sexual harassment.

Beatrix feels trapped, helpless in the face of the continuous advances of a man who held her future in his hands, she felt as helpless as when she is in front of her father.

The situation is made even more complicated by Simon's wife, a jealous and suspicious woman who interpreted Beatrice's every slightest gesture as a confirmation of her fears. Beatrice can feel that woman's sharp eyes on her every move, making her job even more oppressive.

Beatrix is on the porch of the house, her heart still beating fast from the hasty run out of the kitchen. In front of the porch, the morning air is fresh and crisp.

Beatrix breathes deeply, trying to calm her nerves. "Let's hope today goes better," she repeats. It has now become a mantra that she repeats every day as soon as she leaves that house.

She hastily greets some neighbors, trying to maintain an air of normality and hide the wound on her face. "Good morning, Mrs. Pana," she says with a forced smile without getting any response but only a disdainful look.

The lady has been a friend of her mother since childhood and sometimes she often stayed to sleep at their house but only when the mother wasn't present.

"Hello, Marco," she adds, addressing the lady's little son, who is playing with a ball on the side of the road with his friends. But they too ignore her, Marco looks a lot like Beatrix father, so much so that everyone, except her mother, was suspicious of the relationship between the two , But she never said anything for fear of being mistreated .

Finally she arrives in the alley where he parked the car she approaches her old car, The white paint is chipped and there are some deep scratches on the doors .

Suddenly the squeaking of the vehicle door makes a high pitched and grating sound, similar to a metallic moan. The sound begins with a low moan that quickly grows in intensity: "eeeeeiiiik."

As the door opens fully, the creak reaches a high-pitched peak, then slowly drops to a sort of metallic echo as the movement stops. This sound, although annoying, is now familiar to Beatrix, so much so that she almost no longer notices it as she sits behind the wheel, inserts the key and turns it, the car engine emits a deep and guttural sound, a roar that vibrates through the vehicle.

First, there's the familiar electronic whine kicking in, followed by a "vrr-vrr-vrrroom" as the engine comes to life. As soon as Beatrice presses the accelerator, the hum of the engine becomes higher pitched, transforming into a decisive and powerful "vroom".

The tires make a soft creak as the car begins to move, and the sound of the engine blends with wind and road noise as Beatrix pulls away, gliding nimbly towards her destination.

After 10 minutes of traveling on a deserted road, a shortcut that Beatrix always takes to avoid the morning traffic when going to the highway, she arrives at the highway but finds everything blocked.

"Oh no, damn it" she whispers to himself, feeling her anxiety rising. The cars are strangely stationary, stuck in a traffic jam that stretches for kilometers.

Beatrice grips the steering wheel until her knuckles turn white, her panic growing with each passing minute. Look at the clock on the dashboard it's 6:59 Beatrice left almost an hour and a half ago, time is passing inexorably, the delay is becoming more and more critical. "I can't believe it," he says, his voice shaking. "I can't be late... but why aren't they moving?" She looks around desperately, trying to understand what was happening.

At the end of two hours of waiting, Beatrice realizes that she won't be able to arrive in time. "Dad will kill me if I'm late," she thinks, her heart pounding. She has to figure out what's going on, she leaves the car on the side of the road, just grabs her bag and quickly walks out.

She looks around the cars are abandoned, no sign of the owners. "Where is everybody?" She thinks, "Maybe something happened," she muses as she looks at the other cars stopped, empty, with no one in sight. In the end she decides to start walking.

"I can't stay here. I have to find a way to get to work." she tells himself. Panic rises as he begins to walk along the line of vehicles, the sound of his footsteps ringing eerily in the silence.

Each step is a heartbeat. , every look around is a desperate search for the answer to the question where everyone is.

The road seems endless, a maze of metal and broken glass. "I have to get there," she repeats to herself , as she finally enters the woods, as if it were a mantra which gives her strength as she advances towards a goal that seems ever further away. The sun is higher now, but the light that filters through others brings her no comfort.