Rules for Orion

chapter two

Two: Avery
August 12, 10 AM. Dwyer, VA.

The town of Dwyer, Virginia is a small, oceanic establishment right next to the shore in the southernmost coastal part of the state. Pastel cube houses line the streets closest to the boardwalk. Beyond that, a brackish suburbia reigns supreme, complete with trapped youth, rude children, and elderly women that are proud of the fact that they have never left the town limits in their lifetimes.
I sit on the edge of a fountain on Main Street, gazing upon what I suspect is the latest town gossip—a mildly pregnant brunette and her boyfriend (both around sixteen—that's young, I believe) exiting the café. There are two identical children, aside from their dust-brown hair's length, aged exactly the same (ten in years, maybe?) coming up the street. One leaps over the steps up to the agora; the other scrambles over the steel bars. They both disappear into the dim lighting of the store behind the glass doors.
I sigh, more audible than I would've liked. I haven't seen my sister in weeks.
Weeks. Two, I think. I remember it—strobe lights, blue and white; jaws and necks. The staircase leading to his room was long and dark. His dead body against mine was white and cold.
I remember it.
There had been something about waking up in someone else's home alone that was strange.
The dormitory room in the District of Columbia—the capital of this nation, a group of states—overlooked the campus' gardens. Gardens into which I had never ventured. I thought maybe that day was my day to explore. Finally, I could go anywhere I wanted on campus.
Finally, I think, and laugh at my past self, mirthless. I had only been there two days.
I'd sat up, stretched out the nerves in my shoulders, the slight aches, and cast off the sheets. There was sunlight coming through the windows, dappling the doorway as I slipped out of it and down the hall to the dormitory's baths.
I had been caught off guard by my reflection. I remember that. Of course, I had already seen my darker skin, felt the cold on the back of my neck. But it was strange to see it closer.
My hair is dark and curly, but lighter and less curly than it used to be. Looser. Waves, I think they're called. Irony, my chest shouted when I first saw it. It is cut short.
My eyes are now gray. Intensely so. Light brown skin. I'm taller than I used to be. I like that especially.
I had put my hands on the edges of the sink in the dormitory bathroom and looked into the mirror. No one else was around; they were in class, or asleep, or somewhere else. I practiced my new voice; I introduced myself to myself the way he had done so to me the night previous: "Hey, I'm Avery."
I realized I did not know my last name. It starts with an L, I thought I remembered. I was quite sure I'd seen that somewhere. I will find out later.
"Hi. I'm Avery."
My voice kept shaking. Either with fear or excitement, I don't know.
"Hello, my name is Avery."
I started to feel somewhat intoxicated, like wine, lotus, maybe. Where did I want to go first? What persona did I want to adopt?
I can be anyone I want to be, anyone at all. 
"Name's Avery."
By the gods, no. Too cocky. I reached up to bring my fingers through my hair, down to my bare neck. There was a hint of a scar there. How did I get that? I'd have to make up a story.
I'd seen my mother cry before, for a host of different reasons. Some of the time, she would tell me she was crying because she was happy, but I'd never really understood it.
I sat down on the cold tile of the dorm bathroom. I got it then.
My blood beat back into my skin through my heels on the floor, echoing a pulse throughout my entire body that makes sure I know I am alive. That I am human.
I imagined how proud my sister would be.
I walked back to the dorm room, although I was a little sad to leave the mirror behind, and looked through all my new things. I pieced together something that I thought fit my new (his old) personality. (I had to keep reminding myself that before I left this place, I had a character to fill out.) I was going to explore the gardens. And then I would explore this world.
I called my sister later that same night. She promised she would come to meet me soon.
"See?" she asked over the payphone. It astounded me that I was there and she was somewhere else, yet I could still hear her voice as if she were beside me. She promised me that she was going to find a body, too, in the next few days.
Everything would be alright.
"That wasn't so difficult, was it? Only one man had to die."

On the edge of the fountain, I still look over Dwyer. I miss her, but I have more pressing matters. The sky is growing darker and I have to find somewhere to stay tonight.