Toujours Pur.

Chapter Eight.

It was the pain first, then the light and finally the temperature of the room that hit Larissa at full pelt. The over worn mascara slowly separated as Larissa opened her eyes, but instantly snapped shut as the light filtered through her eyes, the instant feeling of regret overtook. The curtains on the far side of the room blew in an elegant way, the path of the wind sweeping up the dainty fabric, struggling to be set free from the dark green tassels holding them back.

It wasn't long before Larissa opened her eyes for the second time, this time letting the early morning light consume and pry at her eyes, there was dust swimming through the air the sunlight highlighting this.

For a long time Larissa lay in the same position, her eyes following a track of patterns and swirls that were embossed into the tall ceiling of the room.

Her slender fingers wiggled slightly as she managed to push herself out of the position she assumed she'd been stuck in all night. The sudden intense rush of nausea and pain shuddered through her as her eyes embraced the shards of sunlight that had immigrated into her room, through the windows she'd forgot to conceal by delicately thick fabric the night before, the regret she'd forgot about suddenly appearing once again.

'Uggggh fuck' she muttered quietly to herself as she sat on the side of her bed, her body felt numb, worn down, disgusting. Her eyes traced the hard wood floors, yet again getting lost in the endless amount of patterns. She sat like this for a while before gradually forcing herself to stand.

Fractals of images and information began to invade her mind as she slowly slouched over to the bathroom door.

Her eyes were an unusual red tone, the veins more pronounced, her skin was a pasty yellow colour, the remainder of the previous nights makeup smeared in an unpleasant experience way. As Larissa stood and examined her appearance for longer she noticed the dark ominous looking bags were sitting irritatingly directly under her swollen eyes.

The cussed water sounded ten times louder to Larissa this morning, her dark eyebrows dragging them selves together as she felt the running water wasn't changing temperature as usual. She waited for a while before determining the water was not going to darken in temperature.

Everything felt like a struggle to Larissa today, she fiddled with the dark towel attempting to tuck in the corner to the part she had just wrapped around herself, eventually managing it. Looking down she frowned, her feet appeared to be more pasty and swollen that normal.

Huffing to herself, Larissa turned the brass door knob the intentions of finding the source to her water problem showed evidently across her face. She watched her feet drag themselves out of the room and onto the second floor landing. With her eyes still transfixed on her feet, Larissa suddenly crashed into the back of a rather large man. The sudden stench of tobacco and pine wood entwined her sense of smell.

She huffed yet again as the man turned around to look down on her 5ft 4 frame. It was then Larissa realised she was in a towel, and only a towel, her fingers tightening significantly around the fluffy fabric.

'Do you mind.' He grunted, Larissa looked at him, her mouth dropped open, today was not a day to irritate her.

She snapped her mouth shut, just to open it again to say something, an insult sitting on her lips, but instead found herself unable to, she watched as the man raised his eyebrows before turning to look down at the door behind him. She then noticed he was holding what she assumed to be some sort of tool in his hands. She found her eyes dragging over the back of the man, she spotted a dark wand sticking out the back pocket of his dark blue jeans.

'We do have magic you know.' she found herself saying.

'I like to get my hands dirty sometimes.'