Dysfunction Over Time

Chapter 1 - { Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow }

Chapter 1 - { Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow } 

Starting today, it'll officially be three years of knowing that woman. She helped me so much, I owe it all to her. Happiness bubbled in me, what will she say when she knows I've been accepted into one of the Forty Houses? 

I get off the train and walk slowly, in the day, the place looks abandoned and sleepy. At night, the lights will light up, women will wait out on the streets, hoping to capture men who've lost all their love for their wives. Enchanting men that want to forget everything for the night, drowning in a stranger's warmth. 

Ever since the Foreigners came, things have changed so drastically and quickly. I barely remember that day. I was only a young kid in Kindergarden, but I could sense something amiss. The teachers worriedly looked out the windows, and watched the news. 

After they read a news article on the computer, school ended and parents hurried to fetch their kids. My mother scopped me up in her arms, comforting me that nothing wrong. I miss her like that. Now, she's...fallen apart. Father never does anything. He doesn't care after all. 

When I was younger, I wasn't the most attractive kid. My parents for some reason hated me for it. I tried to understand them, but I felt like it was impossible. Did I truly come from their genetics? I felt so hopeless and alone. 

I remember clearly the day when I met that woman, who gave me hope. 

"Oh my god, you're the same weight as me and you're only twelve." The corners of my mother's eyes were tight, her hands worn and thin. She wiped her hands off on a towel before she reached into the old chipping wodden cabinet. 

A cold wind filled the room as the door was forced open. My father trudged in, pushing his glasses up his nose. "I hope the god awful Foreigners leave soon. Go back to their own galaxy, they don't belong here." He frowned as he tossed his patient's medical charts carelessly on the stained table. 

"Your hair looks horrible," My father commented as he saw me sitting trying to do my homework. That day, I had already gotten many other comments on my appearance. The thought that my own parents thought that way too hurt me more than I could imagine. 

I ran out, not knowing where I was going, the tears blurring my vision. I bumped into someone and I looked up startled. My mouth hung in awe at this woman in front of me. I had never seen anyone like her. 

Rings adorned her fingers, at the end of each was a perfect manicured nail. She had a cigarette in her fingers, and thick chain bracelets lined her arms. A heavy fur was draped over her shoulders and she wore a long red dress with a plunging neckline. A necklace with a large raw stone of some kind rested in the hollow of her neck. 

With her other hand, she tucked her thick curls behind her ear, the dangling earring swinging a little bit by the movement. She lowered her dark mascara coated eyelashes, and she took a drag of her cigarrette, smoke curled around her.

"Be careful around here. Go back home." Her voice was surpsingly deep and powerful, she had a sensous and powerful perfume that reached my nose. "I'm not wanted home." I sniffled. "Darling, do you want to be desired?" 

"I- I don't know. I just want to be loved someone." She gave a laugh, I couldn't understand why she was laughing when her expression seemed so pained. "Do you want to be admired?" She kneeled in front of me. "Yes," I said. 

"Follow after me." She stood up and started walking down the dark street. The light from the lamp post flickered a faint glow. "Are you coming or not?" The tip of her cigarette had an orange ember, the smoke curling off of it and surronding her in a haze. "I'm coming!" I almost tripped over my own feet to follow her.