Masquerade

Part One: Prolog

With a close to non hearable clicking sound, the lighter gives out a small flame.
The flickering orange give the room a decent tone, dancing on the walls up and down.
It's a temporary "home", just a stop to a new family, again new people, people who don't understand me just a bit or what happened.

A happy family, with a dog, maybe a kid on their own, in search to "help".

I spit out as the anxiety starting to quill out of the dark corner of the room, morphing into creatures of my nightmares. Just close your eyes, they are gone after that, my mom said it every time.
Searching my pockets, I think of her, her kind smile, her eyes.
The worker who took me back then, said me I had her eyes, since then, I see her every time looking into a mirror.

Finally I find the pack of cigarettes my body craves for.
Routinized putting one between my lips and lighting it, I inhale greedy the smoke.
The relaxing effect sets in after a short time, the stress falls of, the shadows retreat deeper in the darkness.
"Let's look what a happy family I am gonna see, maybe it is a new model".
I chuckle, talking to myself is every time a sure thing to cool me down, although it is a bit crazy.

Retreating from the window to the bed, I strip myself from the overall clothes,
throwing it without looking in the dark, I need anyway fresh clothes for tomorrow, so why caring about the dirty ones, unnecessary work.
Lying down in bed I remember the name and location of my new home, something deep in a most rural part, perhaps it is gonna be harder this time to flee, but nothing impossible.

"Luz , wake up!", Miss Ryan shakes me a bit, enough for me to wake up and reaching the wanted target.
"Make yourself ready, the driver is waiting for you downstairs",
"Okay, okay, just please get out first",
"I'm on my way" she sings and triples out of the door.
With a sigh and running a hand through my hair, I lift myself up from the bed.
A girl in another temporary shelter helped me cut it, just trimmed the sides and combed the rest to the right side, a simple change that helped me a bit from creating a new me.

After ten minutes I stand before the house and look out for the driver.
I was fast, beside not having very much to pack, I dress simply, hoody and jeans, a safe combo.
"Luz Noceda?" a kind off thin person appears beside me, for a moment my heart jumped.
"I am her, are you the driver?",
"Yes, I was sent to take you to your new home, just to ensure you don't flee before even meeting the family, who was kind enough to want someone like you".
His words hurt, but it is true, my history isn't the best, over eleven times I fled from different families, knocking out another teenager for good, shoplifting.
Not a clean resumee of my past, but I don't have to be berated by a simple driver.
"Let's just get this over, clean and easy and perhaps I'm willed to give you five stars for the lift",
"Just joke around, I meant it",
"Finally something we have in common".

With the flat land just speeding by the car window, the drive was silent, perhaps I cut him short with my comments, another one who thinks I'm just an asshole.
Everything could've been different, in another timeline, I just live my life with ma real mom,
together with dad, one of these happy family lifes, you know, these with house, kids and dog, were mentioned before.
Maybe even my driver has one, he looks like the type, the "Daddy" type, under the week the loyal company worker and on the weekends the friendly neighbor, who visits the church and help around the city.

I sigh inside of myself, sometimes I miss her, Luz Noceda, before she just became Luz, an outsider, one who can't cope with society, I loved her, her happiness, how naively she looked at the world surrounding her and what a wonderful world it was.