The Leviathan

Chapter 5 ~ PIA ~ That Day

Chapter 5 ~ PIA ~ That Day

 That day rain falls but it doesn’t touch the ground. Because there’s no ground to touch anymore. Everywhere I looked there’s water. The whole Black District was flooded with wreckage, human refuse and abandoned children.

I hate the rain, I hate the mud. I pretty much hated everything else at this point. I have been sitting in this rain for hours and hours, and the brown murky water had already receded up to my waist.

I was cold, hungry and lonely. I wish to die. I truly wish I had died.

With her. With them.

I gripped her her cold blackened hand that is now rigid beneath the roof that had collapsed on us. I was the only one who made it out alive. My mother and my sister had died in the fire that had swept through the Black District. No one came to help. No one. No matter how much I cried or screamed. I wanted to save them, I really did. But I was afraid. The fire hurts. My hands were burnt from trying to hold the beams of the roof after it collapsed. I heard them scream my name. My mother tried to crawl out beneath the burning wreckage. But she couldn’t leave my sister behind. I watched her die.

“My poor little child.”

The first time I heard her voice, it sounded so beautiful that I thought I had died and gone straight to heaven. I looked up and saw the kindest most beautiful eyes I have seen. It was the color of the bluest sky.

“Come.” She said offering her hand to me. “Come with me my child.”

She must be an angel. Only an angel would want to help me. So let go of my mother’s hand and took hers. Hers were warm and soft. Behind her were two girls. One was a small girl and with short cropped black hair and bruised haunted eyes. The other one was a bit older and had a long brown hair and a smiling face. They both took my hand and we waded through the flood and wreckage.

“I’m Hayliie. But you can call me Hay.” The older girl said to me. “And this is Viktoria. She doesn’t talk much.”

We were rescued by an angel that day. That day, the three of us become sisters. Not by blood but by bond. But if you ever thought that was a happy ending, you are wrong. It was a prelude to a nightmare.

That was eleven years ago. That was when I used to believe in fairy tales and angels.

Now only one thing is certain to me. Death is inevitable and angels do not exist.

 I checked myself in the mirror. Adjusted my cleavage and the slit of the short Japanese kimono I’m wearing. Smoothened the black wig and re-applied my shiny pink lipstick. I don’t have time to think of the past because tonight, I have a job to do.

The posh Japanese restaurant in the heart of the Merchant District is not only famous for its food but also of its special kind of hospitality. I bowed low at the passing guests, tiptoe on wooden sandals with the practiced gait of a geisha. I kneeled outside one of the guest rooms and slowly slide the sliding door. The guests turn to me and I bowed low to them.

“My lords, would you want to be entertained with music?” I said as I showed them the samisen (Japanese traditional stringed guitar).

The guests and the fawning geishas nodded happily while the restaurant hostess waved me in impatiently. Like me she was wearing the short kimono and the wig. I sat down beside her and as I adjusted the slit of my kimono, I can feel eyes staring at me. I carefully lifted my head and saw a handsome young man raise his glass of vodka and nodded to me. I smiled, acknowledging his toast.

“You are late. The drinking has already started.” The hostess snapped at me. “You know the restaurant policy…”

“I’m sure the young lady is quite sorry for being late but I what I really want now is to be entertained.” The young man interjected much to the embarrassment of the hostess.