A Kingdom of lies.

Chapter 6: Lonely hearts always return together.

Serafna Verga walked down the crowded streets of Manhatten, humming a song. Naturally, her voice was drowned out by the loud moans of the cars and the annoying chants of the faast paced world. She was used to Vienna's slow paced life where the day began at 10 and ended by 3. To return to the country in which she grew up was strange, no doubt but it was also comforting. Having never learnt a word of German before, she actually survived quite well, using phrases and words she was picking up from the television now and then. She had always been bad at lanuages and fluently could speak only English and off course, Spanish. Yet, she struggled with learning German.

Despite scumbing to the mysterious charms of the realm of the Hapsburgs, Serafina quite hated the place. Growing up in a fast paced world, she was not used to waiting. She expected the world to begin by 7, like it did in New York. But, Vienna was slow and quiet. Poeple awoke by 9 and their work began at 10. Lunch was for an hour by 1 and by 3, the bags would be packed and they would head home. This was an exeption to the shop keepers and the people with the higher paying jobs who worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without a moan of protest. She was used to that. In New York, while she was training to be a dancer, she was expected to be at the school by 7 in the morning and often left only by 8 or 9 in the night. She was used to almost 13 or 14 hours of work. In Vienna however, things were different. She came in at 9, worked till 1, had a break till 2 and worked another hour after which, the school closed its welcoming gates. That was 5 hours of work. This was torturous on her dance and thus, she ended up practicing in every minute of her free time. They would tell her to breathe in the fresh air and relax but, she simply couldn't. Why? Because if she would, she knew that she would self distruct, again.

Ahh.. it was good to be back, she thought to herself with a smile. She missed the impatient crowd, the rude screams of the taxi drivers, the sky packed with high skycrapers and the scarcity of green and birds. She missed the thick air of smoke and polution but most of all, she missed her routine of 12-14 hour work days. Yes, she missed all of that, a little too much. She loved her job- she was a dancer  off course.

Serafina then, vaugly touched the small hear locket she was wearing around her slender pale neck. It was a small silver hear shapped locket with a few words delicatley written.

"Catch me when I fall, smile when I rise and that is why its always you and I"

She unconciously rubbed it and remebered who gave it to her. It was her last day, she was moving out of Spain to some boarding school in Switzerland. She promised herself she would not cry- Caroline had enough to deal with then itself. But she had grown up with her and they had become closer than sisters. That was the closest she had ever been with anyone. They were so similar- laughing all the time at silly jokes or simply making a fool of themselves by running across the purple hills of Spain when ever they pleased. They were so similar, so alike yet different. Although they were in the same grade, same age and lived in the same neighbourhood, Caroline always felt a class above her. She always had this superior aura to herself which strangely, never made anyone hate her. Everyone loved her, some people a bit too much. So the obvious reaction was one of anger, betrayal and sadness when she told them that she had to leave. They were loosing her forever. The promises of keeping in touch, the both of them knew was simply a formality- it would never be fullfilled. It couldn't be. She would be in her new life and Serafina in her own. There would never be any contact because both the "sisters", no matter how alike were different.

That night, she cried herslef to sleep and did the same for the next few weeks. She stopped eating and only drank water for survival. She did not do anything that summer- she slept, watched some television and repeated it all over again. She even stopped dancing as a form of protest. She needed her best friend back, desperatley. This was not some little girl wailing for her friend- no. This was so much more. The Vergas had owned a chain of organic grocery stores through out the country. But were they rich? No. The fact was, being the oldest and only child, Serafina was expected to take over but she didn't want to. She loved to dance and the conforntation with her parents only terirfied her because she knew their reaction all too well.