Ocean Eyes

Fairy Tales

                                     "Loving you was the most exquisite form of self destruction."

                                                                                      -unknown

Ryder curled her body around the infant, the blankets cocooning around them. She sighed softly, pressing a kiss to her sister's head and closing her eyes. The music playing through her headphones did little to block out the sounds around her but she pretended they did.

"It's nine o'clock on a saturday,

The regular crowd trickles in"

She began to coo "Piano Man" into Violets hair and the one year old let out a happy gurgle. It didn't matter to the child that Ryder's voice was gruff and scratchy from the cold, dead air around them. It didn't matter that her tune was off, or that some words caught in the older girls throat. Violet loved the sound of her sister's voice and she nuzzled deeper into Ryder.

"There's an old man sitting next to me,

Making love to his tonic and gin.

He says 'son can you play me a memory,

I'm not really sure how it goes-

But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete,

When I wore a younger mans clothes."

The lights in the small room flickered off, bathing the two girls in darkness. Through the headphones, Ryder could hear the whirring of the old refrigerator putter out and the shouts of the people in the other room grow. Ryders ipod- an old thing thats battery had died months ago and now only worked when plugged into the charger- shut off, the music abruptly cutting off.

Without the soft crooning of Billy Joel, the screaming in the next room was deafening. A harsh shatter of glass rang out through the room and the decibels of the shouts rose. Violet started crying, heaving sobs that Ryder hurried to quench.

She stood up from the couch, moving her sister to her hip and rocking her. The rhythm of her movement calmed Violet slightly, but the sounds from the other room just continued to rise. Ryder growled slightly under her breath, glaring at the door separating her from the group of screaming adults. She was barely a teenager and yet here she was, raising her sister.

The shouts rose and then stopped dramatically, punctuated by the sound of the front door slamming. The small basement apartment fell silent, save for the quiet cries of Violet. Ryder cooed to her, hiking her up and swaying. She did so mindlessly, her hands clutching her sister but her mind elsewhere.

Her eyes focused on the small window that sat high up on the concrete wall, the dim lights of streetlamps shining through it. They glanced off of the falling snowflakes, illuminating the pure white precipitation as it accumulated on the ground. It built against the basement window and Ryder watched it, enraptured.

"Those motherFUCKERS!!!!!!!" The door to the kitchen flew open, slamming against the wall with a loud bang. Caroline Kane stumbled in, an empty Bacardi bottle clutched in her right hand. Her long black hair was tied back in a matted braid, her face a bright red that indicated the alcohol in her system. She threw the bottle at the wall, the glass shattering as she screamed. "Call themselves my FRIENDS but they wouldn't help me pay that fucking electricity bill! God, what fucking assholes!"

Caroline fell onto a mattress that had been laid near the window, bouncing once before swaddling herself in a mass of ragged blankets. Violet started crying again and Ryder retreated away from her mother, pushing herself onto the side of the couch furthest from her. The room remained silent as she quietly comforted Violet, curling around her and pulling her to her chest.