Fou d'Amour

Chapter 1 [Polished]

"THE fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame."

Edgar Allen Poe

WARNING: GRAPHIC/DARK THEMES

There is also bad language from time to time. Censored but I thought I might warn you in advance.

Still here? Okay, let's read:
-_-_-

I couldn't sleep.

I couldn't sleep most nights.

My father was arguing with Jane downstairs. The sickening shatter of glass rattled my senses, blows were exchanged but I was out on the roof, hugging my knees as the freezing air seeped through my clothes as if I were slowly drowning. My bedroom was soundproof but it felt almost suffocating to be in there that night. It was an f-bomb shelter. Ha! Funny.

"WELL IT'S NOT MY FAULT IF THEY'RE YOUR SHOES!"my sister yelled at the top of her lungs. We have neighbours y'know. They didn't care though. Arguing over something so petty...as per usual. Father probably tripped over a pair of his discarded shoes and blamed Jane for it. I didn't care about the specifics; I wanted them to stop talking. I've always wondered if this sort of behaviour was normal and everyone just under-exaggerated. People do that a lot: lie so others think that they're normal. Nothing to see here. The moon was full and bright and the wind had the faint scent of copper. Funny.

The soft moans of a moving train were carried away by the biting wind. There's a train station near my house, I thought. I could leave this place for good. As I pulled myself back into my bedroom through the open window, that suggestion seemed adequate enough. I didn't know why I didn't do it before, my family was toxic. Happy families by day, murderous by night. Funny.

Anything was better than living here.

I'd live to regret that sentiment.

Yet I packed my phone, a few clothes and one hundred in cash; put my coat on and slid down the roof and onto the concrete below. A foul sensation snaked itself up my leg but I ignored it. Their arguments flooded my senses but like waves during a falling tide they gradually became out of earshot.

There were no streetlights where I was walking. The council passed an energy conservation bylaw a few months ago and I will never forgive them for it. Going through pitch black and a chilling air was the only way I could travel, thanks to them. Luckily, there was a small LED torch on my rucksack that I could pull off and use. I guess being the only girl at my local scouts had its benefits.

Rubbing my arms, I looked around me. Nothing but black as I reached the top of my street which led to the park. The gate was locked. Three chains were wrapped around it however it's efforts to keep me out were futile as it was a pretty short gate. In fact it was shorter than the hurdles at athletics. The rusted old thing had no real purpose other than to tick off a borough council bullet point list of what a park needs to have.

My village's effort was kept to a bare minimum. There was a church, one supermarket and a park, everything else was residential. Thousands of identical houses back to back for miles were condensed together into one huddled little village.

However luckily for me, I lived on the outskirts and closer to the nearest town's railway line, the closest station once known as "The Devil's Rails" as people would throw themselves onto the track. It was similar to Aokigiri Forest: no one knew why they did it in that place, they just did.