Changelings

Raven

The room stinks of piss and vomit.

Raven dumps her duffel bag on the carpet and flicks the switch. The purple light makes her eyes burn and she sucks hard on her rotten molar until her jaw aches. An unmade mattress stands next to the window, baptised in a yellow patch that smells of cheap deodorant with faint hints of liquor and vomit.

A stack of grey bed sheets are on the floor in a mutated ball next to the wooden wardrobe with 'slut' and 'fucker' carved into it.

Raven swears she sees dried blood on the wall, but it doesn't matter now. She needs to stay low.

At least there's a fucking TV.

She slams the door shut behind her, sharply turns the key, and yanks it from the keyhole.

A fat Huntsman crawls along the wall and Raven reaches for her hoodie. It's just one night. One night and that's all. She lifts the hoodie to her scrawny shoulders, hisses as it bumps her infected nose ring and swears when it scrapes the black bruise on her neck.

The purple light flickers and she forces herself to breathe, to remain steady, knees locked, legs straight.

The light flickers again and stills. Raven tosses the hoodie on the flimsy carpet and runs a hand through her shaggy hair.

Breathe, she tells herself. Fucking breathe.

The Huntsman disappears inside the crack on the wall as another car whizzes past.

Raven's throat itches for a smoke, but she ran out of ciggies a hundred miles back. The remaining $50 in her wallet is her ticket to the edge of the border.

She strips out of her ripped jeans and takes the oily remote from the bedside table.

After five minutes of flicking through static channels, she lands on the Information Station. Her family's home is on fire. The roof folds upon itself and crashes. Firefighters stand back with their bursting hoses, soot on their faces.

"....The Phillips' daughter, Simone, is believed to have perished in the fire," a silver-haired reporter says. Raven smirks and stretches her legs. She hasn't been called Simone in years. Not since her family threw her into the Treatment Facility.

The camera cuts to her mother. Prim, beautiful, well-put-together Lorna Jane, with pearls around her neck. "I can't believe my daughter is gone."

Raven wants to strangle her with it. Wants to watch her burn.

She flicks her left wrist and a red flame erupts from her palms.