The Pull

Chapter 1

"Oh. My. God." Emma's face was all it took. I could no longer keep the smuggness from reaching my face.

"Oh I now, sweet-cheeks, I know." I was damn proud of my accomplishment, and I had a good reason for it too. I had totally outdone myself this time. My usually white-blonde curls was flattened and coloured black, done in the characteristic forties updo. I'd sown the top I was wearing myself: a stiff leather collar on a black, fitted blouse. The gorgeous pencil skirt was a struck of luck from a vintage shop downtown, and the high heels were pointy, shiny and black. I'd even thought of the stockings with the hem in the back, held in place by an extremely sassy and characteristic garter belt. The garter belt had actually been a necessity rather than part of the planned outfit. I'd come up short in my search for the right design in regular pantyhose versions, thus ended up buying vintage there as well. My first vintage underwear. The thought alone just a tad bit strange, but now I was glad for it because they made me feel savage. My makeup was a perfect replica of the inspiration, with subtle cat eyes and wet lips. And then the crown of my outfit: the owl. The fucking owl. I had to ransack the internet, but here it was: a life-size Eurasian owl in plastic, extremely realistic and slightly disturbing.

"Well. If no one fucks you tonight, I will."

I chuckled.
"Thanks, love. I might take you up on that offer. Exactly no one will get my costume. Not that I care about those ignorant nerds anyway, but it would be nice to have my efforts recognized."

"Don't be a sourpuss. You could have done Leia like everybody else. Or, with that hair, you would be an amazing Khaleesi. Or Ciri even! You could have done Ciri, and everybody would have known. You'd practically get every Geralt in town drooling over you. But no, you went for iconic sex-on-film Sean Young. Suit yourself."

"Geralt isn't attracted to Siri. She's like his daughter."

"What? Oh, whatever, you nerd queen." Emma scoffed and sipped on her wine.

It was ComicCon night. We did this every year. It was our own little tradition, and every year we took it a bit further. Last year I went as Samrus Aran and no one got it. It was annoying but fun, so this year I intended to keep the tradition going and people on their toes. As usual there would be 500 Leias there and given the success with Marvel Universe I suspected one million Thors, Tony Starks and Captain Americas.

But me and Emma? We lived for this. Emma was looking the part in a steampunk outfit, an homage to her absolute favourite show: Dr Who. While she popped the cork on the next bottle of cava, I made the last adjustments on my costume. She handed me a glass of bubbly and raised her glass.

"To the best night, and my best bitch. The fucker is gone and you, my dear, will have a splendid night in heels as a single woman."

The fucker, being the boyfriend I'd had until two months ago, was indeed gone.

We'd met at work. He joined my team when he started working at the firm,  and the attraction had been instant. The first three months had been amazing. I first realized something was off was when I found out he'd been going through my phone. I confronted him, of course. He apologized, of course. Then he started making small comments about my clothes and how I got dressed up for 'others' than him. He wanted to know where I was, like all the time. He went totally crazy when I accidentally logged off the GPS app and he couldn't track me by my phone. Then he wanted me to stop seeing my male friends. I refused. So, he slapped me.

I'll admit. It was hard. I never thought walking away from someone who hurt me would be hard, but it was. In the end, I'd spent too much of my life letting others inflict pain on me, feeling like I deserved it. I needed to break the pattern, so I left. I spent a few nights at Emma's place, sleeping on the couch while trying to figure out what to do next. I didn't feel safe in my appartment as long as Mark had a key, so my brother and a friend of his eventually went and got it back from Mark. I refrained from asking how they got him to comply.