FATE\Deus Decipit

Chapter 14: Alone in the Dark

1:30 am, 10 days after the fight at the Temple of Zeus, the coast of Glyfada, a suburb south of Athens

Monica walked down a thin, lonely beach. Shops and stands littered the coastline- empty. In the dense fog of the early morning, it was an eerie yet tranquil atmosphere. Her barely-awake mind was drunkenly reminded of 'Creature from the Black Lagoon'. A cold pleasure washed over her as she imagined her favorite movie monster emerging from the depths to drag her to a watery grave. An oddly pleasant thought, and one that occurred to her often.

She walked over to the water's edge, dropping her purse unceremoniously on the sand. She followed suit, and sat with her knees to her chest; the sand was bound to get caught in her stockings and Daisy-Dukes, but, this was routine for her, and so she was long past caring.

During the day, this beach was filled with tourists and hipsters talking and typing away about one thing or another, a cup of coffee almost always in hand. In those hours, the thin beach and commercial atmosphere was more exhausting than it was relaxing, but here, in the dead of night, the thick fog isolated this space from everything else, creating a miniature paradise for her to enjoy. She always came here after work, and it was always the highlight of her day: just sitting here, looking out over the watery expanse at the intersection of evening and morning. The crisp, salty air nipped her skin and enveloped her body like an old friend, as if to say "Everything will be alright, and even if everything goes wrong, I'll still be here."

She was usually here later, but late-night business had been decreasing in the last week or so. Prior to eleven, business was no different than expected, but after that everything slowed down to a crawl until only the drunk, homeless, or high were left- all half-asleep or so hyped up on substances that sleep was far beyond them. She and the other workers had started being let off early since there wasn't anyone there, but she didn't care except for a faint worry that it might affect her salary. If she was being frank, she wasn't sure she could handle a decrease in pay, and while she didn't really care why, she couldn't help but wonder what it was that was killing the once healthy night-life of Athens. It was as if some haze had enveloped the city, and, in fact, she had started feeling more tired herself, though, since she was always tired, she couldn't be sure it wasn't just in her head. She had heard talk of a gas leak or chemicals in the water, but didn't put much stock in them.

She rubbed her forehead. There wasn't any point in thinking about it; whatever happens, happens, she may as well just focus on the waves washing ashore.

Having grown up in the mountains, the beach had been so distant from her until a mere year ago, but now felt so much like a part of life that she wasn't sure she could live without it. Much more than an old friend, it was her only comfort.

She had run away from home a year and a half ago, going immediately from there to Athens to try and make it on her own. Unfortunately for her, the city was a living tourist trap, built from the ground up to try and milk people of their cash. Living in Athens meant you were either very wealthy or barely scraping by, and there was no place for a runaway within the towers and ruins of the old city. Glyfada was technically a part of Athens; a suburb that contained much of the city's lower-income residents; it was also the best place in the city if you didn't want people asking too many questions. She was only 17, though she could pass for older, but, lacking an ID and formal residence, any half-decent job was out of her reach. She had no choice but to work for a local club.

She worked from 5pm to 3am, and slept in until past noon. It was an exhausting lifestyle, and, between her schedule, tiredness, and general introversion she had neither the ability nor the motivation to make any real friends. Was she lonely? Well... she couldn't say that she wasn't, but she also couldn't say it was something that she thought about often. People, in a word, sucked. People were terrible and cruel and unkind and stupid and rude. They're generally horrible and unpleasant. Why would she want to be with people when all of them just annoyed her, when they were just going to leave her behind anyway? People are selfish, and Monica was too selfish herself to bother with them.