Pyromania Rose - chapter 1 and 2

Prologue

         I always found it hard to believe that there was something beyond a reasonable doubt when it came to the supernatural stuff. I have always read about it in books as well as seen thousands of shows and movies based on the supernatural. I knew that it was all fiction bullshit that people made up just to get viewers to see the imagination world of the author’s ideas. Don’t get me wrong, there are some really fascinating ideas out there. Ideas that would blow your mind while other freaked you right the damn out. I have seen it all. I have read it all but I have never experienced it in real life. I wondered to myself almost every day if vampires were real and if they were why hadn’t I seen one? Or maybe I had but I wasn’t their type to bite me on the neck and suck me dry. Probably a good thing anyways. I really don’t want to be dead right now. Not at this age. I am still young and exploring the real meaning of life. What does this world have to offer me? Or is that the other way around? What do I have to offer the world? I have no talents in particular but I am good at anything I put my mind too. Give me a puzzle, I will get it solved. Give me a tool and I can fix or build anything you want. It just might not be perfect. I never said I was perfect in anything but I never said I was a failure in anything either. I don’t think like that anymore. Thinking like a failure won’t motivate you to do anything. I stopped feeling sorry for myself because I realized that no one else was going to take the time to feel sorry for me either. So it was a waste of time to believe that other people gave a shit about you. Have you ever walked down the street and stared at the millions of people that walk passed you? What would they be thinking? How am I doing today? Not a chance in hell! They would walk right by you and probably criticize something about you in their heads. And it’s not like you can hear what they are thinking but you could almost feel the vibe they send off even if it’s for a second.

There is a reason to why I am explaining this to you right now. I believe that even though there is no such thing as supernatural beings on this planet, there is a sixth sense that some people can tune into whenever they want. I am one of those people. The doctors said to me years ago that I had Post-Partum Stress Disorder. There was a reason to why I was diagnosed with that disorder but that is a story for another time. But I will tell you this about my past…. Those few years I spend travelling on my own and believing that I was all grown-up, I was still living a nightmare that I thought that I could control. Turns out that the nightmare was controlling me. Even though I left that nightmare years ago, there was a part of me that remained there, growing up and learning the evil ways that I had once lived through and escaped.

Post-Partum Depression…. There was the problem, and the doctors prescribed a solution…. Pills! Damn those pills. Whenever there was a problem with someone, the doctor would just write down on a note pad what pill to prescribe and oh….. They just got another lump sum of money tacked onto their paycheck for scribbling down something on a piece of paper. Amazing how this world works now. You have a problem, the pill is the solution!

But even though I took these pills, I was also smoking weed all day to slow down the world. I know that weed slowed down your brain and made you forget things but I used it to get rid of the pain. I had used the damn street drug to escape the real world and go into a world that was made up in my mind. A safe place where nobody could hurt me or bully me or try to kill me. It was my happy place. And it still is my happy place. My imaginary world has gotten me through stressful situations, or helped me cope with the overwhelming amount of people that were all jammed together on a tiny bus, or help ease my brain of the tortures of my Ex.

But I am not just sitting here typing away thinking about my ex right now (that would only hurt my brain). I am here to let you know that everything that I have learned in my twenty-six years of living of the supernatural has always been… there! I will let you in on a secret…. I was once human…. But now I am so much more.



Chapter One

         People walking by, minding their own business. Everyone in a rush to get somewhere yet here I was, standing in the middle of the sidewalk unable to move. What was I looking for? Was I meeting someone that I hadn’t seen in a long time? Or was there a shop that I needed to visit to grab something. I looked ahead to see the cars zooming by at extremely high speeds. That wasn’t normal. I looked to my left to see a shop with no sign but a red door. Was it red paint or was that…. Blood… running down the door? I walked towards it and touched the door. My hand got coated with blood. The ground started shaking violently and windows shattered above and around me. The sidewalk cracked wide open, swallowing people into the endless depths of hell. Flames shoot out of the cracks and burned cars, people and street signs. I tried to avoid the burning flames but the flames swallowed me up, burning my skin. The pain, it felt so real.

“Beep, Beep, Beep”. I opened my eyes.

This was it. This was the end of days. The day when Mother Nature got crazy and kills everyone.

The cold chill in the air woke me. Damn! It was just a dream. Thank god! But it felt so real. I lay on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. I didn’t care that the alarm clock was still beeping. It could beep all it wanted too. I needed to get my shit together before getting out of this bed. I slowly turned my head to the left and stopped when my ear touch a cold spot on the pillow. Damn! I knew exactly what that cold spot was. I reached up and touched my nose and sighed. Another nosebleed. Going to have to buy another pillow. Damn! That was the tenth one this month.

         “Grr!” I groaned and rolled out of bed. I didn’t swing my legs around fast enough and I landed flat on my stomach on the cold hard ceramic floor.



Owwww!



I swore again and slowly pushed myself up. What was with me today? I can’t even get out of bed right. I pushed myself upright only to get a head rush that made me dizzy and I laid back down on the floor. My nose was still bleeding. I must have lost a lot of blood if this is happening to me. I plugged my nose and pushed myself up again. I rose to my feet, grabbed my glasses and walked over to the bathroom. A trail of blood followed. Thank god there wasn’t any carpet on the floor. That would be a bitch to clean up. I got to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. Blood was all over my face and running down my neck. I other looked like I just got the crap beaten out of me or I spent the whole night on a murdering rampage. Great! I had to go to work in less than an hour and here I am, looking like this. I turned around and went to the shower. I took off my glasses and placed them beside the tub. I turned on the tap and waited for the water to get warm before pulling up the plug to turn on the shower head. I stripped out of my bloody- covered nightgown and stepped into the warm shower. I know that having a warm shower wouldn’t slow down the bleeding but I was freezing cold and needed to warm up. The blood ran down my body and flowed towards the drain. I closed my eyes and put my head under the shower. I liked the feeling of running water over my head. It was soothing when you spent the last eight hours dreaming of nightmares and people other trying to kill you, monsters trying to eat you or people kidnapping you. I opened my eyes and reached for the shampoo. Washing my hair, I thought about the dream I had just had. It was strange but I had dreamt that dream before. In fact, the past month has been the same dream. Always the same dream where nothing has changed and yet I end up getting kidnapped and thrown into that van. As I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair, I looked down at the shower floor. The blood had stopped because the water was clear. Thank you nose. You made up your mind. I had this sinking feeling that the reason why I was having these nosebleeds was because of this dream. I closed my eyes to try and remember what the dream was about. But all I could remember was the ending of it. The two doors and the van. I opened my eyes and turned off the water. I stepped out of the shower and reached for the towel. The bathroom was full of steam which made the room warm and cozy. I liked the feeling. I wrapped the towel around me and I turned to the mirror. There was writing on the mirror that had appeared from the steam. I grabbed my glasses and cleaned them so I could look through them. I squinted at the writing. “Last day” it said. I thought about it for a second when it dawn on me. I didn’t have to take those damn pills that I had been taking for months now. I had been taking these damning pills because I was diagnosed with Post-Partum Depression recently from my doctor. I didn’t believe that I had it but when I had done my research, I found that the symptoms were identical to the ones I was experiencing. He said I didn’t have to take them forever but I had to finish the bottle as well as go to therapy classes for the last three months. I didn’t have to go to the classes anymore because my depression had been conquered. All I had to do was change my habits. I quit smoking cigarettes and weed. I went for long walks and bike rides and I spend time in the busy downtown Toronto exploring new and interesting places. I had lived in Toronto all my life but when I went to live somewhere else, that was when the problems of drugs, sex and pain filled up the void in my life. I had left Toronto and my family behind because of the painful bullshit that the family was going through. I believed that I would do better on my own than be around them. That was a mistake for sure. I learned my lesson and moved back home. I spent the first few months with my folks before getting my own place and maintaining a job. The job never paid for much but it did pay for the rent and the minimum amount of food. Talk about surviving it but I wasn’t the only one living from paycheque to paycheque.

Half of Toronto was living like this cause the economy was shit. It was because of the damning immigrates that came here and reproduce like rabbits. They have taken over Canada and we as Canadians have other given up and allowed it or struggled to maintain a simple nine to five job. You could say that I have a resentment towards those that are fresh off the boat. Why not? They have taken over everything and I know that as a human, we are able to adapt to conditions but this has gone too far. There are more than a hundred different languages being spoken yet English is the hardest language to learn, according to immigrates. But we as Canadians are having more of a problem having to understand all these different languages. French was the second leading language to learn in school but now Spanish and other language are being pushed onto young children because the population had been changed. There is more religions now that people can comprehend and it’s hard to keep up with all the different holidays.

I whipped the mirror to see my reflection and I noticed a white hair growing in the front. It wasn’t because I was aging fast, but from all the weed I had smoked for all those years.  I brushed my teeth, my hair and cleaned my face before getting dressed and preparing for the day ahead. I was still trying to wrap around my head about the dream but I wasn’t going to take much notice of the message that it could be sending me. It was just a dream… right.

I grabbed my jacket and purse and walked up the stairs of my basement apartment. I turned off the lights and opened the door. A rush of cold wind blew right into my face, slapping me hard and waking me up. The leaves had all fallen off the trees and they danced along the ground as the wind pushed them passed me. I locked the door and started the head off to work. It was fall time and I wasn’t looking forward to the winter months that were just around the corner. But one day at a time was my motto.

I dodged passing cars as I crossed a busy intersection and smiled at the honking drivers. There was always a few drivers that would give me the finger when I did this but I liked taking chances. Life was too boring if I didn’t.



I remember one time when I was crossing, a truck driver thought it would be funny to speed up and try to hit me. But I was able to leap out of the way before he could hit me. He even swerved towards me before hitting the curb, losing control and slamming right into a cement wall. I had just missed being the meat in the sandwich and I stood staring at the wreck. The driver was okay but his truck was totalled. I smiled briefly before hopping over the wall and disappearing into the small forest behind the wall. Yes there was witnesses but since I was fast on my feet and able to hide my face, there was no way police officers could identify me.

As I hopped the wall and landed in the thick bush behind the wall, I could hear the young baby birds singing for their mother to return with food. I pushed my way passed the bushed and jumped into a small manmade path that led out to a residential side street. I could smell pot as I got closer to the road and as I turned my head to where the smell of pot was coming from, two young boys looked up and stopped what they were doing. I didn’t say anything but smiled at them. They tried to hide the pipe that they had in their hands. I walked passed them and continued to head towards work.

I arrived at my job with ten minutes to spare. Seven O’clock in the morning was when I had to start. I quickly walked down to the basement of the store and put my jacket away and changed my shoes. I put on my uniform and bounced up the stairs to where the deli was. Yes, I worked in a Deli at a small grocery store. Not the perfect job but it was a job. I enjoyed serving customers. The conversations I had with some of them were funny and interesting. One of my friends from work showed up, hung over as hell and reeked of alcohol.

         “You look like shit this morning, Mary.” I said as I moved to let her pass. She didn’t say anything as she pulled out her uniform jacket and slowly put it on. I watched and noticed a medium bruise on the side of her neck.  She looked up at me and noticed that I had seen her bruise. She quickly covered it with her uniform and turned to face the mirror that was behind us. Mary had always been my friend. We went to high school together and spent almost every waking day together in those days. I didn’t speak to her when I was out of Toronto because I didn’t want her to be worried about what I was doing. But when I came home, she was the first person I called up. Mary was mad at me for a while but we soon got past that bump in the road and became good friends again.

         “I had a rough night.” She said as she fixed her messy hair. I stared at her. She looked like me.

         “You look like shit yourself… Rose.” She said sarcastically back. She was tall like myself but she had brown eyes while I had green eyes. Her hair was long, curly and golden blonde. I had straight chestnut brown hair that was layered and had natural highlights from the sun. We acted like sisters and some people would mistake us for being sisters. No, not sisters but best friends. Mary always wore make-up to cover up her skin but I didn’t believe that make-up was good for me so I was all natural. Mary was always jealous of that. My skin was smooth and had a light tan to it. I never got pimples, my eyebrows never needed plucking and my lips were always rosy red. The only imperfection that I had was my eyes and the fact that I had to wear glasses. As for Mary had perfect 20/20 vision but she was always at war with her acne and that was the reason to why she caked on the cover-up. I always thought that she was beautiful without the make-up but she wouldn’t leave the house without it. Her purse was full of make-up shit and whenever she had a chance, she would be touching up her make-up and pushing up her boobs (which were huge as for mine were tiny).

         “So I was out last night drinking…” Mary said as she played with her hair and staring at herself in the mirror. I listened as I changed the meats around in the counter and pulled out the salads.

         “I met this really hot guy at the club and we totally hit it off.” She said as she smiled at herself in the mirror, showing her teeth. Practicing her smile for the customers. Always a good way to start the day. I had moved to the end of the counter to grab the last of the salads and I could still smell the booze off of her.

         “Mary… hold that thought. I will be right back.” I said as I disappeared to the stairs and ran down the stairs. The boss of the store was going to show up and if he smelt Mary, she would probably lose her job. It wasn’t the first time that she had shown up hung over or wasted. Almost three times a week she was like this. I went to my purse and search through it until I found the perfume that I had bought two weeks ago. Just a cheap smelling perfume that would cover up that god forsaken smell that was radiating off of Mary. I ran back up the stairs and walked right up to Mary, handing over the perfume. She smiled and sprayed it on.

         “What would I do without you?” she said and she handed me back the perfume. I placed it in her bag.

         “You were saying something about a really hot asshole that …?” I said as I moved away from her. She tried to smack my arm but I moved too quickly and she missed.

         “He isn’t an asshole… he is nice!” she hissed as she turned to rotate the meats. I worked on changing the salads to their new clean bowls and placing the dirty dishes in the sink.

         “I am sure he is. So… got his number?” I teased ads I turned on the faucet and checked the water before plugging the hole at the bottom of the sink. I reached for the soap and squeezed a large amount of the cheap ass soap to foam into the filling sink of water and dirty dishes.

         “No!” she said as she placed the meat back into the counter. “He wasn’t worthy enough to get his number. Just another jerk.”

I looked at her with raised eyebrows. Another jerk. He must have done something to really turn her off. I waited for her to continue but she didn’t. I started to waste the dishes as she came over to throw something into the foamy water.

         “How was your night?” Mary asked as she wipe the counter with a J-cloth. I looked up at the mirror and shrugged. “I didn’t do anything except for read.” I said as I moved a bowl over the running water to rinse off the soap. I placed the bowl into the other sink.  Mary looked up at the reflection of me through the mirror. “Again? You didn’t go out or anything?” she asked. I shook my head. What was the point? I had done the whole partying thing, the drug life, the dying and reviving my life, having my life threatened to be ended by my Ex and drinking myself almost to death. Nope, I was passed all that bullshit and all I needed was a calm quiet lifestyle.

         “You need to get out sometimes, Rose.” Mary said. I looked at her. “What?” I asked as I noticed she was standing in front of the mirror with her hands on her hips.

         “That’s it! You are coming over to my place tonight,” Mary said,

“We are getting dolled up and we are going to rock the night.”

Being that it was Friday and all, I couldn’t really say “no” to her. I placed the last of the dishes in the other sink and wiped my hands dry.

         “Fine… but you are paying for it.” I said as I pointed at her. “Great!” she said happily and did a little hop as she move to the other end of the counter. It was just then that the supervisor came around the corner, smiling as always.

         “Morning all!” she said. “Morning Beth!” I said as I moved towards the sandwich area and made sure that everything was there and lined up. Beth moved behind the counter and looked at herself in the mirror. She wasn’t thin like Mary or I. she was slightly on the chubby side and her hair was looking like a rat’s nest. Guess she woke up last and missed fixing her hair. She sighed loudly as she pulled her hair back into a messy bun.

         “What’s on the agenda today?” she asked. Mary looked at me and I looked back. What was on the agenda for today? The cooks were nowhere to be seen and since Mary and I were the only ones here, it looked like today was going to be the slowest worse day of the week. And Fridays were the busiest time too. With everyone leaving to go to their cottages or just to get out of the city, we were going to be busy as hell. And that was putting it lightly.

         “Well, we have nothing cooking and the store opens in two hours.” Mary said to Beth. Beth froze for a second before turning to me. She had this look on her face that told me that it was up to me to cook in the kitchen. Damn! I nodded my head and moved like lightening down to the basement where the kitchen was. Great! I had seven large pans to fill and I had two hours to do it in. I quickly grabbed everything out of the fridge and started prepping. Pasta with a rich tomato sauce for one dish. A vegetable dish with corn, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and whatever I could find. I thought that fish would be a good dish so I dashed up the stairs and grabbed some salmon from the fish department and fresh herbs from the produce section. I went back down to the kitchen and quickly prepared the salmon dish. Well, that was three out of seven dishes cooking. I needed more though. I grabbed the potatoes and chopped up some potato wedges and seasoned them and tossed them into the oven. I took out the chicken breasts and made a mushroom sauce with chucks of mushrooms to go with the pan fried chicken breasts. Two more dishes left. I was racking my brain when one of the two chefs showed up. He looked tired and wore out. “Greg!” I said with a surprise look on my face.

         “Sorry I was late. Rough night.” He said as he moved into the kitchen. He looked around and nodded with a pleased look on his face. I was really helping him out this morning. “Looking good here. I will take over from here.” He said as he put on his apron. I nodded. I hadn’t put on an apron like Greg had because when I cooked, I didn’t make a mess like him.

         “It seems like everyone is having a rough Friday.” I said as I headed up the stairs. More employees had showed up and before long, everyone was in preparing for the day ahead. Beth was chatting to Mary about something but judging by the tone of her voice and her body language, she was not pleased with Mary. I am guessing the perfume wore off but the alcohol didn’t wear off. I walked over to the fish department to set up the fish section with the fish manager, Patrick. He was a really cool manager and he always had some kind of story to tell. He also taught me about the different kinds of fish and how to cook them. He also worked in the meat department with his best friend, Essieo.

The store was busy as usual for a Friday and it wasn’t long before I noticed the time. One more hour before my shift had ended. Mary had sobered up a bit but as she sobered up, her bad attitude was starting to show. What else was new!?! When the rush of customers had left and there was a moment to think, I looked at the reflection of myself in the mirror as I wiped down the counter. I wasn’t thinking about anything but suddenly I got this really loud ringing in my ears. I paused and waited for the ringing to stop, which it did after about a minute. Susan, another Deli worker, had noticed me staring at my reflection and came over to talk. She was the type of girl that wouldn’t shut up once she started. She rambled on about her children, which she had four, and then went on to talking about her love life, which was again nothing to gloat over. I closed my eyes to try and tune her annoying high pitch voice out of my ears but that wouldn’t work unless you physically put earplugs into your ears (which I had at home). Mary looked over and grinned. She knew how I hated the rambling of Susan and she loved to see me suffer.

After work, Mary and I went back to her place to make ourselves beautiful for tonight’s partying outing. Mary had so many different clothes to try out that I felt a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing.

         “So, where about is your closet?” I asked her as I looked in her closet. She gave me a weird look as she moved to where I was standing.

         “What the damn are you talking about?” she asked and then stopped in her tracks. Her closet was completely covered from head to toe with clothes, dresses, slutty tops and shoes for almost every day of the year.

         “What? If you think that is bad, you should see the other three closets!” Mary said as she turned to walk towards the kitchen. I was dumbfounded. How one single person could have this many clothes.

         “Do you wear any of these?” I called out towards her. I heard her laughing in the kitchen. I had no idea where to start. I would have to dig for hours before finding something that would catch my eye. Don’t get me wrong. Mary had it all. She had the massively big apartment condo that was paid in full from her grandmother. She had a brand new Audi convertible car that was a flashy cherry red with all the bells and whistles anyone could ever ask for. She was loaded beyond belief and had just inherited more money from her parents (that recently passed away from a car accident). She had everything while I was living from paycheque to paycheque. But money didn’t bother me because she didn’t act like a spoiled rich bitch like most money greedy bitches do. If fact, she didn’t let anyone into her life, except for me. There was no boyfriend to share the bedroom with or younger sibling to have to babysit. She was alone and happy.

         “Where the hell do I begin?” I asked out loud.  Mary popped around the bend with two drinks in her hands. She passed one over to me and smiled. “Would you want to wear a dress or a top and pants?” she asked as she looked at her drink. I looked down at the drink. I could smell the alcohol from the mixed drink.

         “What’s in here?” I asked as I took a sip. I could taste the vodka but there was another alcoholic substance in the drink as well as the vodka. “Oh….. That is my little secret!” Mary chimed sweetly and turned to head towards her bedroom.  Whatever the drink was, it was good! I felt like I had to keep drinking it and before I knew it, ten minutes had passed and there I was, standing with an empty glass in one hand and staring into the overwhelming closet of clothes.

         “I can’t decide.” I called out. Mary came out of her bedroom a few seconds later. She wasn’t wearing her normal jeans and pink top that she wears almost every day to work. Instead, she had a sleek black dress that hugged her hips and went down to her ass cheeks. Her cleavage was showing almost all of her tits and a long thin chain necklace of gold and silver played around in her cleavage. She still hadn’t done her hair but she looked amazing without it.

         “Is it really that hard to find something?” she asked as she marched towards me. Her heavy feet thumping as she moved quickly towards me. I took a step back. She stopped suddenly in front of the closet. “You’re right. I need to organize this. Let’s see what’s in my other closets.” But before we moved, she looked down at my drink. “You need another one?” she asked. I stared at the empty glass.

         “Very dull being empty and me being sober.” I said, smiling. She quickly took the glass from my hand and disappeared into the kitchen. Moments later she returned and passed me a larger glass. The vodka was radiating from the drink. “More vodka than juice.” Mary said as she kicked the fallen clothes back into the closet.

         “Rose, you need a good sexy ‘I-want-to-get-laid’ dress and I have just the thing.” She said as she started to move towards her room. “Just trying to figure out where the hell I put the damn thing.” She mumbled to herself. I looked at my drink. Meh, it was Friday and I was going to get drunk. I was going to have fun and loose myself in the crowd. I was going to let the world know tonight that I don’t care.

I followed her into the room and within twenty minutes and ripping through clothes, she found the dress. It was better than her dress. I could dance in this dress and yet if needed too, I could kick someone’s ass with this dress on. Double bonus. The dress was black with spider web design all over it. It had lace running up the side of the dress to show a bit of skin but not enough to give away the surprise underneath. It had a low cleavage cut but was slightly covered by more black lace that webbed around like a spider’s web to hide the prize underneath.

         “That is wonderful. Where in the world did you get this?” I asked. Mary passed me the dress and took a sip from her drink, which was on her dresser. “I have a friend that is in the fashion business. Do you remember that dress design you drew back when we were in high school?”

I thought about it and tried to remember. I use to do tons of those drawings and sell the designs to people to make extra cash on the side. I nodded slightly but I was still trying to remember the design that I had drawn out. “Well, I gave her the design, she made the dress for me as well as one for her fashion line…. I hope you don’t mind?”

I took another sip at my heavy loaded drink and set it down on her dresser. I was impressed by the design. Just by looking at the dress I could see a bit of my work in there. But this designer had gone a step further and made the dress more stunning than I could ever make the dress. “Can I try it on?” I asked. Mary opened her bathroom door and waved me in.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I was still in shock. It looked amazing and even Mary couldn’t say much except for ‘Wow’. We spent the next few hours getting on our make-up, drinking some more, watching TV and waiting for the taxi driver to arrive. Even though Mary could drive to the middle of Toronto, where the club district was, it would make more sense to get a taxi driver to take us down there and back home when we needed to get home. Even though it cost money for these rides, we were going to split the bill fifty-fifty. It was only fair. It had been about half an hour before the taxi driver showed up and by that time, both Mary and I were drunk beyond a reasonable doubt. I don’t know how we managed to get down to the main lobby or get into the taxi without other falling down or throwing up all over the place but we made it. The taxi driver looked at both of us from his mirror as we both spent about five minutes looking for the damn seatbelts.

         “Where the f*** are... oh” I mumbled to myself. Mary let out a roar of laughter which only prompt me into joining in. we must of looked like a bunch of fools ready to jump off a cliff if someone had asked us too.

         “Where too, ladies?” the man asked. I looked at the driver and then at his licence papers that indicated who he was and when his licence was going to expire. I really had to lean over to get a look at his name. Mohammad.

         “To the club district!” Mary sang as she opened the window and stuck her head out. The driver looked worried but I just nodded to him to start driving. He put the cab into drive and off we went. He was nice enough to put on some dance music for us to get us into the mood. I had a feeling that it was going to be a long night.

Chapter Two – Party

         The music was loud. The floor was shaking from the speakers that were maxed out from the bass. And there we were, dancing, singing and getting our groove on. Hours had gone by and I was started to lose my buzz from the alcohol and yet, there was Mary, still partying like the night was still young. I had heard her call my name a few times to rescue her from sick horny bastards that tried to get her to go with them but I was always there to shoo them away. I looked at my watch and noticed the time. Two in the morning and even though the club was starting to die down, the music kept blaring and people kept on dancing. I was tired and went to sit down at a nearby chair close to the bar. I could see Mary from where I was sitting and I could order all the drink that I wanted too.

The bartender walked over to me and leaned over the counter to hear me. “What will it be, love?” he asked. I smiled lightly at the ‘love’ remark but I wouldn’t let it bother me.

“Double shot of vodka with a small cranberry chaser on the side.” I said loudly so that he could hear me over the blasting music.

He nodded and within seconds, he put two glasses in front of me with Vodka in one and cranberry in the other.

“Fifteen-fifty”

I passed him a twenty and waved him away when he tried to get me change. Four dollars wouldn’t buy me another drink anyways. I picked up the vodka drink and swung it back into the back of my throat. The ice cold tingling feeling hit the back of my throat before running down into my stomach. I quickly picked up the cranberry and drank that. I hated the after taste of vodka but cranberry did a great job of masking that awful aftertaste. I sat watching Mary dancing. She was beautiful in her dress and free in her own world. She had no rules and that was what I liked about her. No rules! You did what you wanted without having to pay for the consequences. I always managed to end up paying for my mistakes… the hard way!

It wasn’t until I was about five more shots of vodka in that I noticed something different about Mary. She wasn’t having fun anymore. There was a guy that had made moved into her domain and wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer. I looked back at the bartender and waved him over.

         “How much do I owe you?” I asked him. He smiled. “Nothing. Free. On the house.” He said loudly back. Damn the guy really likes me. But he wasn’t going to like what I was about to do next. I pulled out a hundred dollar bill from my small purse. “This is for whatever happens next.” I said back and shoved the bill into his hand. He looked surprised and confused all at the same time, which to me looked damn cute. I hopped off the bar stool and walked over to where Mary was fighting with the guy. Mary took one look at me and ducked. I swung my fist back and with all my might, I managed to punch the shithead right in the nose, feeling the nose break when I connected, and watched him hit the floor hard. The music didn’t stop (like it does in the movies) but everyone that was around us backed away. The guy started swearing and cursing but I didn’t want to stick around to find out what he was going to do next. I grabbed Mary’s hand and pulled her out of the bar into the cold city night.

         “That was f***ing amazing!” she hollered at me as I walked towards the main intersection. I was tired and that was really not how I wanted to end my night. Plus my hand was killing me. I stopped and turned to face the overly drunk woman.

         “Mary… do you understand why I don’t go out to party anymore? Because of this. The bullshit that follows everywhere I go.” I said angrily. I raised my arms in disbelief and looked up at the night sky. You couldn’t see the stars at all. The light pollution was so bad that downtown wasn’t even dark at all. But it was cold. Mary slowly stumbled up to where I was standing. She had over did it with the drinking tonight and everyone outside could see it. That boy in the club knew it. She was a target with a huge “I’m Drunk” sign tattooed on her forehead.

         “See what I have to go through when we party? This happens all the god damn time! Can’t we just not have this happen? For once?” I raised my voice at her, even though I knew it wasn’t going to do a damn thing towards making her understand. She was drunk beyond drunk and she was ready to collapse. “Time for bed.” She said quietly.

I waved for a taxi, which showed up in the nick of time before Mary ended up passing out on the street. We got into the cab and she was out cold.

         “Where too?” the driver asked. I stared down at my friend. I looked back at the driver and gave him the address to her condo.

The drive home was long and it seemed like we had taken the long way back to Mary’s apartment. Damn! We were. I guess the taxi driver really needs the money tonight. Probably to pay for some strippers after dropping us off. I might look like a million dollars but I don’t have a million dollars.

I looked down at Mary, who hadn’t moved from the seat. Her faint snoring was only telling me that getting her up to her apartment was going to be a huge challenge. I never understood how she could drink the whole bar dry in just a few hours?

I looked out of the window at the passing city. There was still people out, walking drunk, screaming and yelling at each other, eating their sorrows, screwing in alleyways, and more things I wished my eyes hadn’t seen. This city was once peaceful and quiet but now, it wasn’t even safe to stop at a red light. The cab driver was driving a little too fast for the area that we were in but he had good reason too. You could get jumped in this area. Just as I thought about what might happen to us if we did stop at a red light, the cab driver hit the brakes of the car and both Mary and I lunged forward towards the encased glass. I put one hand out to stop myself from hitting the glass while using my other hand to avoid Mary’s face from hitting the seat in front of her. She woke up and swore loudly.

         “What’s going on? We hit someone?” she asked drunkenly. The cab driver had tried to make the yellow light but wasn’t able to make it without getting the police car to follow them, which was to our left.

         “Sorry! I thought that I could make It.” he said through the glass. I looked at the police officer, who looked back at me with raised eyebrows. “It’s okay.” I said lightly as I helped Mary to her seat.

As we waited for the light to change to green, I looked around the area and noticed a gang of thugs. A cold chill came over me and I had this bad feeling. Damn! They had noticed the cab and they were making their way over to us. The cab driver flicked the locks on so that no one could get it. The police officer reached for his radio to radio in for back-up.

As the thugs got closer, a few started banging on the window while others had climbed onto the cab and started jumping on the hood of the cab. Mary jumped back as one of the thugs banged on her window, screaming and howling at her. I jumped as another thug came to my window doing the same thing. Before I could tell the cab driver to drive, I heard four shots being fired almost at the same time. The cab lowered suddenly which only meant that the tires had been shot. The police officer got out of his car with a gun but before he could get completely out of his vehicle, three more shots rang out and the officer hit the ground with a thud. Double damn! The cab driver tried to put his cab into ‘drive’ but then the driver’s side window smashed and glass went everywhere. Two thugs grabbed the poor driver and pulled him out of the cab. Mary screamed loudly but she wouldn’t stop screaming.

         “Calm down!” I shouted over her screams but that wasn’t working. The two thugs dragged the driver to a nearby alleyway. They disappeared into the darkness. Then a flash of light and the sound of another gun shot went off and I knew the driver was killed. That meant that they was only Mary and myself left in the cab. Another thug unlocked the doors. More thugs reached to open both the back doors but Mary and I managed to grab the doors and keep them closed. But it didn’t take long before Mary lost her grip from the handle and the door whipped open. Mary let out another loud scream and started kicking the intruders.

Like that was going to do much good.

The thugs grabbed her legs and dragged her outside. I let go of my side of the door to stop them from dragging her off into the darkness but I wasn’t quick enough. My door swung open and two thugs grabbed me by my waist and pulled me out of the cab. I kicked and squirmed as they pulled me out and onto the cold asphalt road. I had counted roughly about eight thugs. I could hear Mary on the other side of the cab screaming and crying. I kept trying to break free but one of the thugs had a good grip on my shoulder. I turned around and curling my fingers, I lashed out with my nails and scratched one of the thugs in the face, making sure that my long nails dug deep into his skin. But as I pulled my nails down, one of my chipped nails, that must have happened when I was clawing my way from the cab, had caught on the guy’s eyeball and jammed itself in. I felt the wetness of the eyeball on my finger tips and with a quick snap of my waist, I managed to rip out his right eyeball from his face. The thug jumped back, grabbing his face and swearing loudly.

Man that gotta hurt. 

Two thugs looked to see what was wrong with their buddy, which gave me enough time to roll underneath the cab and crawl to the other side. But I didn’t make very far before another retarded thug grabbed me by my ankle and pulled me back towards him. My tights ripped along the side of the road and the dress that I was wearing was shredding and getting all filthy from the dirt and oil that was on the road. As I was being dragged out from underneath the cab, I could still hear Mary, screaming and trying her best to fight off the thugs.

I twisted onto my backside to avoid the thug from grabbing the back of my hair, and as he went to grab onto my arm, I swung my leg out and kicked the guy in the balls. He howled in pain as he went down on one knee, which by then I had raised up my elbow and nailed him square in the nose. Success! He rolled onto the ground, crying out in pain.

Assholes!

         That… bitch!” the man howled out. I crawled away so that he couldn’t grab me and I quickly got on my knees but before I could get to my feet, three thugs rushed over and kicked me in the stomach. I went down hard onto my knees before rolling onto my side. One of the thugs grabbed my hair and smashed the side of my head hard into the side of the cab’s back door. I could feel the metal aluminum buckle from the pressure. My ears rung out and the agonizing pain filled my head. That was it for me and I knew it. Stars were surrounding my vision and as I tried to focus, another thug kneed me square in the face. Blood pooled out of my nose and I hit the ground with the side of my head. I lay there, breathing heavily. I could hear the laughter of the thugs as they looked down at me. My nose was pulsating and I could feel the warm sticky feeling of my blood oozing out of my nose.

         “Leave her here. Let’s go work on the other one….” One thug said to the black guy that was staring down at me. His right eye was gushing with blood from the missing eyeball and his left eye was twitching from the pain.

         “Bitch…” the man said as he spat at me. I could hear Mary still trying to fight off the other thugs. I waited. If I moved now, it would only encourage the assholes to come back and finish what they had started. I listened while my eyes were closed. The footsteps seemed to fade behind me until all I could hear was the sound of Mary screaming from the pain. I opened my eyes and looked over at her. She was down on the ground, blood and tears rolling down her face. She looked at me, hoping for a miracle. I looked back for a second before turning my head away. I didn’t want to see what was happening to her. As the thugs beat her into the ground, I slowly crawled towards the alleyway. Even though I knew that there was the dead cab driver there, I needed to hide. I was in no position to fight eight to ten guys on my own.

Slowly, I crawled to the entrance of the alleyway and scrambled to my feet. I lend up against the brick wall and panted. My legs felt like Jelly and my head wouldn’t stop spinning. Blood had stained my clothes and as I looked back, I saw one of the thugs pull out a gun and point it at Mary’s head. I screamed as he pulled the trigger and Mary’s body went limp. They turned to look right at me.

Shit!

I turned and guided my way into the dark alleyway. I looked around searching for a door and ladder. Something to keep me away from the gang but it was hopeless. There was no ladder to climb up on and there was no door to hide behind. The alleyway was a dead-end as well. I was trapped. I turned and pressed my body up against the back wall of the alleyway. Eight thugs moved into the alleyway and towards me.

Well… if you are going to die, at least die with honor.

I pushed my body away from the wall and moved two feet towards the thugs. They moved around me and while they circled me, each of them pulled out knives and guns and hammers. I could barely make out the objects in their hands from the darkness but I knew this was it. I was going to be another dead girl written up in the newspaper.

“Another girl found brutally murdered in the alleyway in the club district.”

I looked at the men as they circled me. My eyes were going in and out of focus from the loose of blood.

         “Which one of you…. Assholes… is the ring… leader…?” I slurred. The shadows of the men danced along the alleyway walls from the moon light as they circled around me, singing and howling. They stopped circling me and one man stepped forward. As I looked at him, I could make out his features slightly. He was missing his right eyeball and his dark hair flopped in front of his left eye. The blood shimmered in the moon light as he moved towards me. A silver chain flickered in the moon light and I could just make out the object that was hanging from the chain. It was a cross with the devil’s tail wrapped around it. Demonic cross

         “Bitch… you are going to pay for what you did to me.” The man said angrily. He raised his knife and pressed it up against my left cheek. I looked right into his eye socket before glancing behind him. Someone was behind him. Someone that wasn't part of his gang. As I took a step back, the ring leader reached for my arm with his right hand and while holding on with a tight grip, he raised his left hand to reveal his deadly knife that glistened in the light.

This is it! I am going to be dead before I have even lived my life. And it’s all because my friend wanted to go damning clubbing. Damn!!!!

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