A DARKER CITY

chapter one, monochrome world

Ramona didn't go out like this often, not since her parents died and she learned to be detached and happy. Like a perfect little doll. Pretty and kind and unaware. It's what it took to survive. Ramona was distant now, not that anyone would notice. Her sisters had never been her friends, and she'd never really been social as a kid in school. The kids seemed too ignore her for being so strange, so she ignored them for being so cruel. She was used to being home alone now, happily drawing and singing and dancing around the house. Shopping seemed pointless when she already had everything she needed- or wanted, for that matter.

But Morgan had insisted they go shopping for something prettier for Ramona to wear, claiming that "black doesn't suit you, let's see if we can't find something a little more fitting for a teenager with her whole life before her." Morgan talked as if she was older than twenty-one, as if she was some adult with experience and wisdom from age, it must have come from being the oldest sibling- or maybe just from the death of their parents.

Ramona had counted on Athena saving her, but even the forbidding girl had agreed that they needed to get out of the house, that the floors needed to be scrubbed clean of blood and that they shouldn't be there for it. Ramona wanted to be there. She was there when they died, she should be there to see the last of them sponged up from the cracks in the wooden floorboards. It'd been weeks since they died, and even now the smell lingered.

But she obeyed her sisters, because it wasn't worth fighting for. She was passive. A combat to Morgan's aggressive, and Athena's passive-aggressive. They were always balancing each other out, somehow, as if it mattered to the world that three young girls were in a dispute or getting along.

From the outside looking in, it must have seemed stupid. And from the inside, looking at it before her, it was pointless. Their parents were gone, and someday they would be gone too. maybe Ramona first. Or maybe Morgan, or maybe Athena. The day was cold, and misty from the morning. That's what pulled Ramona from her thoughts.

Morgan pulled her sisters towards a store with bright lights out front. Inside was jewelry in every shape and size and color. It was one of many stores Morgan went to bi-weekly. Everyone here knew her, she was welcomed here and people happily greeted her.

"pick one out, Ramona! It'll be fun." Megan encouraged.

"okay." She said, voice monotone and eyes blank and she accepted her sisters request. Megan looked hurt, but didn't say anything. Ramona was always so cold, no matter how kind anyone was to her. It broke Morgan's heart. She hurried over to a beautiful diamond set of rings.

Ramona wasn't impressed much by things, material things especially. It was dull, and in a way, it was a waste. She'd wear it, whatever she bought, but it wouldn't mean anything because she was the one to buy it. A gift from yourself was cheap. She absent mindedly traced the necklace she wore- the north star, in a polished silver. She'd had it ever since she was a kid.

A sapphire ring caught her attention, if only because it was adorned with silver and not gold. Gold was too cliché. "this." She poked the class.

"huh?" Morgan was caught off guard, trying on necklaces with help from the storeowner. He was captivated by Morgan, but Morgan didn't seem to care.

"this is the one I want." Like it was obvious. It was. What else would she have been saying?

The store owner talked about how the ring was made, trying to seem smart to Morgan. It seemed to be working. How sad. It was pathetic that the all men were nearly the same, average with average intelligence and only an eye for the polished and beautiful things.

People like the store owner missed the more refined things, like Athena's mature and quiet beauty, of the fact that just outside the window and across the block the store workers wife was being mugged and she was screaming for help. Oh, how romantic it would be if only the poor woman could be saved by her husband and whisked off to some happily ever after. But that didn't happen and the lady's screams died out and the city went on.