Illusion

The Princess & Her Hero

"I will need to see an I.D Ma'm",
the bartender said. He looked young, probably in his mid-twenties.

"You need an I.D ? Don't you know who I am ?"I said. He rolled his eyes and just stood there as I glared at him. After 2 seconds of glaring I broke out a smile and showed him my driving licence. "Its actually nice coming to a place where people don't know you"

"You ... ah... Famous or something ?" He said as he poured me my martini.

"No. Lets just say I did a bad thing for a really good cause, got caught, escaped and is still public enemy no. 1" I said, taking the glass from him.I took a big gulp as he just stood there, astounded, deciding whether I was serious or not. " I'm kidding, relax. Jeez."

I wasn't.

"I need to get going so I think this should do it" I said handing a 100 dollar bill to him and walked off before he could even say a word.

The weather outside was chilly. My legs were freezing and aching. I wonder who decided that wearing heels and knee lenght tops that were too tight was a fashion statement ? All I could do was pull out a cigarette and light it. As I looked up at the sky the moon looked really big. Maybe it was in that part of its orbit where it is closer to our planet. The moon was this big the day I was born too, 26 years ago.

My mother used to tell me how happy she was the day that I was born, in truth I don't think she was. I don't think she had ever been happy since she married that scumbag of my father. I remember those nights when he used to come home, drunk and beat the shit out of her as me & my older sister hid in the closet. We heard her wail and scream. All I could do was sob into my sister's shirt.

My sister, Brito was the only one I could look upto. She was brave & smart & always there for me no matter what. She was 13 years older than me and just as beautiful as our mother. I remember how she used to take me to the park when I was five and pluck lillies and make me a flower crown. She used to call me her princess & I used to call her my superhero.

Once when I was 10 I remember how my sister picked me up from school and how we went to the park. She was working as a waitress in a diner and she always used to manage her work & me. She loved me so much that rather than going away for college she decided to stay and go to a local college after working for more than a year at starbucks. She was talking literature and was in her final year. She never left me alone and took me everywhere with her.

That day she made me a flower crown and bracelets and told me that she was moving in with her boyfriend billy and that I could come stay with them. I remember how delighted I was.

"Will mother join us ?" I asked her sitting in her lap.

"No, she is too stubborn to leave that house and that piece of shit of our father" Brito said.

"It's alright. The princess is always with the hero anyway" I said smiling ear to ear.

"A princess always belongs to the prince"

"Eww I'd rather stay with you my hero" I said & she chuckled at my Shakespearan response of forfeiting princes. She then told me that it was time to go home one last time. When we reached home it was half past 8.

The door was slightly ajar. We were worried as we entered our house. The lights were off except for the kitchen, I silently trailed behind my sister as she made her way to the kitchen. Her body tensed as her hand flew to her mouth. I was scared and kept asking her what was wrong, I got no answers, I stepped away from her and into the kitchen and shrieked with absolute horror as I saw my mother's body sprawled on the floor. Blood oozing out of her head and forming a pool near her face, her blue eyes were still open staring into the void as her fragile, pale body lay on the floor, deader than a doornail.