Author Games: Ace of Spades

Quarterfinals: Addilyn Devella

Addilyn was most certainly not a daft old lady. She had worked hard to earn her life and had faced the brutal cyclone that would follow the road she travelled. Addilyn was tough but Milena Seble proved to be the strongest of all cyclones. It had made her waver at the thought of death, cry when she thought she was strong and made the walls that she had built in her mind come crumbling down.

So, when her eyes fluttered closed for the hundredth time that night, she was hesitant to give in to her body's desire. She forced her weary body to stand from the uncomfortable casino chair while the soft snores of her fellow gamblers echoed in the seemingly empty room. While their young bodies were able to cope with the long night with a lack of decent sleep, Addilyn felt as though her lungs had a layer of dust coating the linings and every breath she took was raspy with age and fatigue. If it weren't for the makeup then one would be able to see the shadows beginning to form under her beautiful young eyes that were still marked from her tears.

As a lady who was set in her ways, the Milena Seble was a place where she would be forced reminisce her life. For ten years, Addilyn would wander outside of her cream coloured mansion at precisely nine o'clock to collect her daily mail under the watchful eye of the rising sun. Her grandfather clock would chime like a bell-tower as she went outside as it thrummed to each of her slight steps. That was the boring life of Addilyn that repeated every day as if it were a clock itself.

Of course, Addilyn had once lived a glamorous life as she travelled with models, fell in love and was even as lucky as to bear a child. However, she felt the age of her body tonight. For once she felt old. She could feel the wrinkles on her skin and could feel her heart beating ever so slightly in her chest and she felt the iciness of the room seeping into her frail bones as if there were a thousand ghosts trying to take over her body.

Addilyn could feel death. As she followed her instincts to an unnoticed door she felt the ghost of her past following her with each of her silent steps. She wandered into the dark and empty room knowing that it would probably hold another card game but instead she was met with a beautiful navy curtain that was framed in glowing light from the outside. She thought it might have been morning, since her body was so tired, however as she drew the curtains she found herself staring out into the artificial city lights that were glimmering in the sheets of rain. She felt as though she was looking outside for the first time and part of her longed to feel the icy rain for one last time.

Even on the brink of death there is something to do for the first time, Addilyn thought as she pressed her hand against the glass and drawing in a sharp breath as her cool hand was met by an even colder surface. The barrier between her world and the real world had never been so obvious to her. Nevertheless, Addilyn was captivated by the small street as cars flew by without even glancing at her defeated face staring out. The lights lit up her face momentarily with each car splashing by before casting her back into the valley of shadows that she was trapped in.

From a young age, Addilyn had been lured from her small hometown into the glamorous lights of the city. She left behind the bonfires and her family in order to create a more interesting lifestyle. It wasn't easy to do this, or at least that's how Addilyn recalled it. She had to sneak around the back, hiding in the shadows and working her name until Lyn landed right in front of the modelling agent who immediately took her on.

Lyn, as she was called in her younger years, quickly fell in love with such a busy life. As her career flourished like a nurtured flower her family disappeared until they were simply faceless people who she referred to as part of her old life. She partied all night, drunk until she could barely remember the afternoon and danced with boys who swooned at her feet. She led a life of immoralities that she frankly couldn't care less about. She travelled to New York City, Miami Beach, Los Angeles and even circled around Las Vegas a few times as she followed her modelling career liked a dog chasing its tail.