Luxuria | BTS

Part I

"Omnes sumus Peccatores"

- We are all Sinners -

~~

Another city.

Another school.

Another home.

You sighed, looking out of the window. The train was speeding through the city, a concrete jungle unfolding before you. You were sitting alone in the compartment, two suitcases stacked up next to you.

You didn't exactly ask to move, but here you were.

Closing your eyes, you waited to hear the train slowing down, the conductor to announce the next station. Finally, after what seemed like ages, the metallic voice from above you declared that they were approaching the city centre.

Taking your suitcases and slinging your rucksack over your shoulder, you exited the compartment. The train was slowing down with a screech, crowded platforms coming into view.

Grimacing, you fought your way towards the doors, waiting impatiently for them to open. You were sick of travelling, of the many people, the hustle and haste of it all.

Thank God you weren't going to be living close to here.

A bus waited to take you to one of the smaller towns surrounding the big city. Feeling mentally drained, you fell onto one of the seats and leant back, head touching the cool glass of the window. A little less than an hour, and you would at least reach your new home.

Your own home.

After being an orphan in on- and off foster care for almost the entirety of your eighteen years of life, you hoped to finally, finally get some peace. You'd never had a family, nobody had ever wanted to adopt you and you only ever stayed in foster care for at the most, two months.

It had hurt you for a long time until you understood why and what was wrong with you.

In principle, nothing.

It was just that you weren't a mere human.

The journey took as long as you had expected it to, bus manoeuvring painfully slow through the crowded city streets. You'd put your headphones on and watched the same concrete jungle that had just unfolded before you in the train slowly disappear, swallowed by rivers, forests and nature again.

You were dozing off by the time the bus turned off the highway and down a second street towards a small village in the distance. Jerking awake as a tire scraped the sidewalk, you looked up in time to see the sign reading the town's name.

Rows of neat houses and shops passed you by. Still mentally exhausted, you leant your head back against the window, watching your new home unfold before you.

Maybe you could finally have a fresh start here, in this calm town on the outskirts of the city.

Maybe you could finally come to rest a little.

~~

The house you were moving into was small and comfortable, standing in the middle of the street close to the surrounding forest. Setting your suitcases down, you stood before the front porch for a few moments, taking it in.

Breathe. You finally have your own place.

A small smile crept onto your face, and, picking up your stuff again, you walked up the wooden steps. The key was hidden under the empty flowerpot, and with a careful click, the door swung open.

It was dark inside, seeing as the blinds hadn't been opened. Placing the suitcases to the side of the hallway, you shut the door and began striding towards the living room, rucksack still slung over your shoulders.

The orphanage had made sure to at least furnish everything before you moved in, since you had had to save up yourself for the rest and although it was all more than a little shabby, it was more than enough. Opening the blinds, you let sunlight stream through the room, illuminating it and bathing you in warm light.

To be fair, you weren't eighteen quite yet. Seven more days, to be exact. But the orphanage had been more than glad to get you out of there sooner or later, and you wouldn't object.

You hated that place with your guts.

After opening all the blinds on the ground floor, you ascended up the stairs to your bedroom, bathroom and small study. It was really nothing special, but it was a place for you to be you, for you to escape the depressive grasp that being a teenager in an orphanage had had over you.

Sighing contently, you threw your rucksack to the side, falling flat onto the bed. The mirror on the opposite wall reflected you as you lay there, a tall girl with long black hair, sunken cheeks and dark brown, cold eyes.

It was the thing that distinguished you from other people.

Your eyes.

You had read many books with descriptive about people's eyes being the window to their soul and heart. If that was the case, your eyes were a portal straight to hell.

It wasn't something you noticed on first glance. It was a matter of the longer you looked, the scarier it became.

Because although your aura, cold, disjointed, and fearsome was something people felt the second you stepped into the room, chilling them to the core, your eyes shone with anger, hatred and wrath.

Nobody but you had ever dared to look yourself into the eye for more than a few seconds to see it. The roaring fire, red and gold, the hissing embers, the dots of darkness and black, all hiding beneath the cold brown.

Just beneath the surface, able to be seen with one long glance.

Waiting to be released.

But nobody did. Everyone was too scared to look so deep into your eyes, too scared to get burned by what lay beneath. You frightened people, you perfectly portrayed a cold exterior combined with deathly fire underneath.

The effect you had on others was all you could describe as wrathful.

Intimidating, frightful, but at the same time, igniting burning hate and anger.

Everywhere you stayed for longer than a day, these feelings started to spread. Feelings of chaos and loathing, overshadowing any other positive feelings. Homes, towns, schools, but in principle, people - in your presence, they turned malicious, angered and terrified.

And you enjoyed it.

In a sadistic way, you liked watching whatever control you had over these emotions change what others felt. You could only smile slyly in the shadows as you watched fights break out, knowing that they felt, but couldn't prove anything against you.

You soaked up the viciousness, the unexplained hatred, the vengeance. You craved the fright, the dread, the angst towards you. You smiled through the feuds, the violence, the anger you could cause by simply staying in one place too long.

Because if you had learned one thing from books and old stories, online research and legends, it was that the mighty and powerful were always that.

Feared and hated at the same time.