Spark of Life

Chapter 1

It is a warm late summer's eve, with the sky waning into the dark and the stars luminously alight. A table sits just out of reach of a weeping willow that in no way obstructed the view with a young woman almost beneath the evergreen foliage. The décor of the restaurant may be quaint and inviting, and the evening may be scenic, but Sonya Blade by now knows that she's ready to throw in the towel.

30 minutes.

Her blind date is 30 minutes late and she understands that he won't be showing up at all. By this point, Sonya knows when she's been stood up; and alas it hasn't been the first time something like this ensued. The blonde could feel the foreign, searing prickling of tears welling up behind her emerald eyes. She wasn't going to cry. She wasn't. But the rebellious tears came anyway, languidly streaking down the apples of her cheeks. The frustration and misery reigned in the hazy, emotional lethargy that weighed down Sonya Blade's mind. In the past two months, she had been on 5 blind dates set up by her good friend Jax and his wife Vera. The blonde understood her best friend's intentions.

She was 25 and is undoubtedly not getting any younger. Her last boyfriend had been 4 years ago and she had been distraught when he left her for the girl he was cheating on her with. She had believed he was the one, but that expectation was shattered, just like the glass heart frame that she had their picture in before she flung it at the wall. Sonya had, in her heartbreak and resolve, buried herself into her work and her friends. As the years went by, her friends all started getting married, leaving her the subject of their matchmaking. Most had backed off when she stated that she wasn't looking for anyone, but Jax and Vera could see the truth.

She was looking for someone. She was looking for someone to fill his place.

The odds of coming across someone like that were diminishing by the minute. Finding someone who caused her to feel alive again was a reality that the blonde, at this very moment in time, saw under no circumstances transpiring. God, she was most likely going to be that elderly woman who had 5 cats and lived by herself in solitude for the rest of her life at worst. At best; she'd become like those woman who drink posh wine by the bottle, stuff their faces with chocolate, and read erotic romance novels in an effort to feel better about themselves, but in actuality makes themselves feel even worse. The mere thought makes her shudder. Is that her fate? If so, her future seemed bleak. The blonde rested her head in her hands, as she felt the sobs about to come and she knew that she couldn't stop them.

Inside of the restaurant, which was called Edenian Gardens, the hostess station was currently being manned by a black haired woman of radiant beauty. She looked like she could be a supermodel with an aura of grace that she emits. The young woman blows a rogue strand out of her face, since there was nothing to do. That is until she decided to look out the window and spotted the hunched over form of Sonya Blade; quivering with her head in her hands. The black haired woman's heart cried out in sympathy towards that poor woman, she understood what it was like to be in such despair. She didn't even realize that one of her co-works had snuck up behind her until his voice spooked her.

"What are you looking at Kit?" John Carlton, or better known by his alias Johnny Cage, enquires and Kitana wanted to jump out of her skin. Kit was the nickname that Liu, her mother, and her other co-workers used for her.

"That woman, by the willow... Say Johnny, wasn't she one of your tables?" Johnny fixates his attention on the sobbing blonde and his once cheerful demeanor fades instantly. The waiter recognized her by her hair and the lovely scarlet dress she was sporting. He had sat her down at her table and noted that she was extremely pretty, from what he could remember. But he pushed a majority of the details out of his mind, because he assumed she was on a date. Now, there seemed to be no man in sight... The man runs his fingers through his chestnut hair, disheveling the once meticulously styled hairdo, as his eyes flicker to the clock.