A Waltz Of Lies

01. Chapter One

the moment shit happened

THE world seemed beyond reach. The miseries of it, down and down below; lush grounds mixed with tints of blue, horrible people and good people and people like my father, who was worse than both.

"So you're from Germany," the guy next to me was saying. He was smiling, and loud and not much to look at, but pleasant still. When the only time you spent was one with drunken people, I realised you became less picky.

I tried not to snap, stay quiet, or keep staring out the window. I settled on a noncommittal, "Yes "

The lie fell effortlessly off my lips, and the guy, whose name I'd so easily forgotten, seemed glad to accept.

"That's So cool!" He chriped, like a Bird, like a kid, like a happy person.

He probably is, I thought, after a quick examination. It was easy to spot the likes of him.

"Is this your first time out the states?" he went out, when I proved nonresponsive.

I nodded, curt. It was my first time out of Chicago, I didn't add. My dad is probably on his way to kill me, I didn't say.

"Me, too," happy guy said, grinning like he'd been born among the clouds, showered with love from then on, his parents singing kumbaya every  minute CNN reported bad news. "It's so tough, leaving the family behind. I don't  think I can stay much longer than a week there "

"That's nice," I said, after the kid' s stare turned from the usual question of what's up with this  bitch?  To the even more familiar, easy as That, she is a bitch.

"Yeah,"went on Birdie, after a short pause, all smiles again, probably reminiscing a laughable  moment  with his sisters, five of them, as he'd mentioned a while back. "Mom flipped out when I told her I was going to study abroad, and dad..." He shook his head, letting out a snort-accompanied chuckle. "It was like a mini drama series, with ten episodes or something."

I mustered the truest smile I could, turning to the round windowpane before Birdie could start talking about another "interesting" occurrence within his jolly family. I didn't want to laugh, because if I did, it would be for reasons entirely different.

My mom would have rejoiced at my escape. If she'd been alive to witness it.

And my father...

It was a miracle he hadn't found me, chopped me to pieces, and served me atop a platter for his esteemed guests, like a prized possession.

Because I was a prized possession. One of his many.

"...have the most enjoyable of flights "

The flight attendant's voice interrupted my brief dive into the dark past. I took a shuddering breath in and looked around the plane. It was loud, the type of loud accompanied with people, the type I never knew, never wanted to...

But new was...new was what I'd always needed. It was a promise I had to keep.

I stood up. The young guy gave me a questioning look before I answered, "Bathroom."

On the short path there, a jolt wrenched me forward.

My heart lurched along with the manuever, and I grabbed a hold a nearby seat.

When the movement stopped, a steady beat later, everyone looked a little flabbergasted. I turned to the seat, trying to mutter an apology, but stopped short.

Eyes.

Deep blue. Dark blue. Dark and deep like...the ocean...the universe.  Black lashes adorned the hard gaze. It focused on me, on the hand I had on it's.. .it's shoulder.

It had been a man's shoulder, not a seat.

" Sorry," I said, stuttered. A bit of both.

The man didn't reply. Instead, his eyes focused on the hand I still had on his shoulders: wide, strong shoulders. He was wearing a crisp suit, I noticed. He was the most handsome man I'd ever seen, I noticed.

I wrenched my hands away as if burned.

He didn't smile. He didn't have a reason To, I told myself.

My face heated. What.

Trying to forget the total rudeness of the entirety of the short-lived encounter, I made way to the bathroom. A large, dark skinned man left the compartment at my arrival, flashing a brief smile down at me.

"Hey there," he gurgled out, all deep-voice and smooth-talk.

I raised a surprise brow before replying likewise, and diving headfirst into the bathroom. Inside, I took some time.

I looked at my face. My mother's face. Timid. Pretty in a way all pretty is: heart lips and heart eyes and high cheekbones. A wide smile, a crinkling skin. "Your eyes are so beautiful," everyone said. And maybe they were. Bright brown, a lion's golden glance, just when the sun hit it right.

And then there was the monster that lay behind it.

I was leaving when another, strong bump hit the plane. It swerved like a car going fast on an uneven Road. It lurched so bad that I almost fell.

An alarmed flight attendant hurried to me, asking, "Are you okay?"

I nodded, waving away her concern. I was going to ask, "Is everything okay? Is something wrong? What's wrong?" But there was a sudden outburst from the sharp left, hitting hard, and I felt my feet leave the ground before falling flat.

My eyes watered. My head throbbed. Everything was a cluster of noise and chaos and chaotic noise. There was a beep-beep-beep everywhere, a captain's  voice trying to reign above all others, and a hand on my body, helping me up.

I co-operated. Found the strength in my bones. What. What. What. What the fuck  was happening?

"PUT ON YOUR SEAT BELTS!" A feminine voice screamed. "STAY CALM WHERE YOU ARE, AND PUT ON YOUR SAFETY MASKS! EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY!"

I did as told. I looked around, saw panicked expressions in faces here and there and everywhere, I heard babies crying, I heard mothers comforting the babies crying. I had never felt so much terror, a virus infecting whoever breathed it in.

It was an unbridled chaos, it went on and on and then

And then there was nothing.

Nothing but effervescent pain.