Among many beasts, there is only one beauty

✿ Chapter 1.1: There is no going back. ✿

After a long day at work, I just want to go to my apartment and take a long relaxing bath. Today was insane, how on earth was I supposed to know that my boss was going to get assaulted after one of the patients tried to sell her Herbalife? Out of all the things she could have sold us, it needed to be the silly supplements. She is the most empirical person I know, so obviously she was outraged and tried kicking her out, this Karen had the wonderful idea to punch her square in the face. After that police had to be called, and multiple of us had to contain her. The reprimand was out of this world, I'm not going to lie.

And then there is Tinder. And bumble. And Hinge. Whatever app there is for dating I have it on my phone. I do what I can to land a boyfriend. All of my girlfriends are getting engaged, married, and having babies. It's not like it's weird, I am the weird one. I am 23 years old and still a virgin, like Mother Mary, never been touched by a man. I am not a prude, okay? In fact, I am horny and kind of desperate. But when everyone was messing around I was focused on school and uni. Now every time I get a date and tell them that if they kiss me it will be my first one, they look at me oddly. Like I'm some sort of abandoned puppy. They look at me with pity, let's be honest here. And if they don't mind is even worse, somehow. They are the red pill kind, the ones that want a traditional wife or a second mom to wash their boxers. Ugh, gross.

Living in Miami does not help, at all. Here everyone is gorgeous. They look like models stepping out of the runway. While I have more of a basic look going on. I have never been under the knife, nor do I plan to. This does not make me morally superior, I'm just scared. I haven't even dyed my hair ever, I haven't even cut it since the 7th grade, just trims at home. Just too scared of a botched haircut or a chemical cut. Not that I need to bleach it, since I'm a blonde naturally. But I always wanted to be platinum blonde, like Daenerys. Gosh, I love that show.

I continue to drift in my thoughts while driving around my neighborhood. I step out of my car, nothing fancy, a run-down Toyota. But hey, it still works alright and gets me places. I enter the code to my apartment building, 9856, I type in the keypad. I press the elevator button to my floor. Once it reaches it, I walk up to my apartment door and enter the key. As soon as I'm home is naked time. I take off my scrubs and shoes in the doorway and step into the kitchen, I start the air fryer and put in frozen chicken nuggets. I set the time for 40 minutes in low heat so that I have time for my bath.

I walk into the bath and start the warm water in the bathtub, plugging it beforehand. I brush my teeth in the sink and start detangling and oiling my hair as I always do. I step into the water, it almost fills up to the brim of the bathtub. I get my head fully underwater, I am fully submerged, I hold my breath and close my eyes until it pains me to do so.

When I rush above water, gasping for air. I am no longer in my world, I think. Am I experiencing a lack of oxygen? Am I dead? What a pitiful way of dying. I smack myself across the face, really hard. Fuck, that hurts a lot. Okay, I'm not dead. Then where the hell am I?!?! All I can see is the jungle. I am in a small lake in the middle of nowhere, my feet do not reach the bottom of it. I am actively swimming, at least I'm okay physically, Did I travel in space? What the fuck is going on?!? Relax Gaia, please I beg you. I inhale deeply and I feel that the air is crisp, with no contaminants that I can smell. Weird. I swim to the shore and get out of it. Strangely I feel no cold, the air is warm and humid, like summer in the tropics. I sit down on a nearby patch of grass and I catch myself starting to have a panic attack, I try not to, please not right now. It does not matter how many prime numbers I count, as my therapist told me to, I still hyperventilate and start seeing everything black.

When I wake up I am in the arms of some handsome man, dressed like a caveman. Weird, but I don't mind it. If my savior is a tribe man I could not care less. It's another human nonetheless! He starts talking to me softly, to not scare me.