death & fate

Tristan starred off into the tropical orange sunset of southern LA. The reconstructed city was truly splendorous at this hour. The tangerine skyline flooded down and danced between the windows of the resurrected city. It was truly a beautiful sight, one of the few things that tristen could look forward to in his lie at this time.

The one thing he hated most about this city, was that everything was so god damn boring. Go to school, until your 18. Get a deadbeat job somewhere, for him it was some mindless warehouse job, and live in your crappy apartment until you die all the while putting up with the same idiotic street thugs and pickpockets. The only way to get out of this godforsaken town was to go into either the armed forces, or get a job on a ship. Both of witch he found distasteful. Thus he was trapped in this boring hell forever. Nothing interesting ever happened here. The whole god damn town was corrupt, just about everyone was either in the gangs, the yakuza, or the masses of getting mugged and racketeered to provide general income for the gangs and yakuza. The cops took the bribes, the politicians didn't care, the newspapers printed the same overly dramatic bullshit every day, and nothing was done to fix anything. The whole town sucks, and nobody cares. Everyday he hoped for something extraordinary to happen, for some hero to appear or some great leader to take them to Shangri la, but every day they were sadly disappointed.

"tadaima" he said as he entered his home in the foreign ward.

" ah son" his father sat at a stool before the kitchen counter, on the counter sat his numerous bottles of liquor. " we've run short on cash so I had to get you a pair of room mates, hope you don't mind"

" thanks for telling me ahead of time" tristen said with casual sarcasm. He made his way up to his room, the halls had roughly a dozen unpacked boxes and the shower could be heard from the other end.

Guess that's one of them he thought to himself. When he opened the door to his room he found something he was completely unprepared for. Right before his eyes was, a long black haired beautiful naked woman. Her flesh was pale and her form was slender. She had long pitch black hair that seemed to go down her back, just past her butt. She was stretching her arms out towards the sky. She turned around to reveal the rest of her body, her exquisite figure seemed as that of a goddess. Her belly smooth with a light innie of a belly button. Her breast were roughly c cups and seemed perky with a slight bounce to them. Below, her legs were long and smooth. She stood about 5 foot 7 just shorter than tristen. As soon as she saw him She instantly gave out a sheik and went to cover her body. I took him a moment to fully comprehend what exactly was happening. After three seconds of staring like a moron, he panicked and slammed the door. Using the moment to catch his breath. It was in this moment that he noticed the shower had stopped running. He looked down the hallway towards the bathroom to find a red haired woman, wrapped in a towel. As she passed him, she couldn't help but give him a sinister smirk, almost as if saying, you're gonna be fun.

When she entered the room the three of them would be sharing he could clearly hear her voice through the door.

" fate" one voice stated "is that guy still out there"

" yea" the other woman returned " I think that's the room mate that we were warned of."

" oh" the first voice answered.

" why" the second inquired " something happen, he looked terrified"

" errr nothing" the first said in a shy, timid voice.

" now death, don't be bashful on me" the one called fate seemed to inquire " he walked in in on you didn't he"

" umm" by the sound of her voice tristen could tell she was blushing " err"

" heh" fate commented " we probably scared the living bejeezes out of the poor lad"

All the while tristen was standing outside living out quite possibly the most awkward moment in his life thus far. He had just fund out that two stunningly beautiful women, named death and fate were his new roommates, and he had just seen both of them either almost naked or completely naked. He immediately rushed back to his far less than sober father.

" dad" he could hardly find the words to say " dad what the hell"

" what son" he looked up from his glass of burbon " something wrong"

" what the hell do you.." triston choked, unable to find the words to shout at his father. " dad there"

" what your new room mates" his father smirked " aww did my little son get shy of women"

" dad, uughh" he knew there was no arguing with his stone skulled drunk father. Even when sober the man made as much sense as a stoned monkey. " one of these days dad, just one of these days."

He returned to his room, only this time he knocked before entering.

" it's all right kid" came the voice of fate " were both clothed."

He hesitantly opened the door. Behind it he found death, sitting on a black sheeted mattress with a rampant blush across her face. Her space was clearly the area on the left corner of the room, fates bed was right beside it. Tristen mattress was in the center, between the two. Though the room was actually so small the three mattresses were forced into one. Fate herself was in more clothes than the towel he had first seen her in. she wore an alligator green jacket and a blue t-shirt below. She also wore a set of tight but unscarred jeans, she stood by the window, she had clearly been gazing out of it just before tristen had walked in. as for death, she wore a long black skirt with a black blouse.

" sorry for the scare " fate said in a gentle, comforting tone " to be honest we thought you were a woman ourselves, ironic huh"

"yea" he returned still shy.

" listen maybe we got off to a bad start" she approached him " how about dinner tonight, on us"

" all..right." he couldn't refuse her. " where"

" were not all too sure on that yet" she answered " were just a little new to this city, so how about you choose, and in the meantime could you give us a tour of the house"

" my father didn't do that" he inquired.

" no actually" she herself seemed surprised at the fact " he just lead us up here, told us the monthly rent and that you also lived here and went back to his vodka. "

" sounds like him" he returned. " well, I guess you seem familiar with the room, and the bathroom already"

" obviously" fate returned.

" well, there's the storeroom at the end of the hall, just about all that's there is stashed liquor and spare parts, if anything breaks, just look for it there. Then the fire escape is the out the window at the end of the hall, by the way whenever you take a shower, if you haven't already noticed, it's a good idea to keep that window shut, the building across is littered with peeing toms." deaths blush tripled in capacity " also the tv in our room only works with the satellite dish, it is an illegal dish because we are technically stealing service, so don't tell anyone we have it, and every now and then it will need to be budged to get certain channels. As well, your free to beer in the storeroom and my closet, but not the bar downstairs, my dad will throw a fit if any is missing that he isn't responsible for. And that's pretty much everything you need to know about this place"

"great" fate commented " now how about the town"

" that ones quite a tale" tristen returned. " but if you don't mind my asking first, where exactly are you two from"

" far away" fate seemed the first to respond. " but that's not important, now how about that restraunt"

" allright" she seemed frighteningly forward with him " I know a place"

" perfect" fate decided " what are we waiting for"

Tristen took the pair of them through the streets, he did know a half decent restrount in LA. It was a small seafood place on the seafront, owned it's own pair of fishing trawlers so it was naturally cheap enough, even for his wallet. But with the fish they caught and how much when, Who knew what the price would be, or what would be on the menu for that matter. The place was only twenty minutes by foot from his appartment, but it was quite possibly the longest 20 minutes of his life thus far. Death walked behind him, a little close but mostly keeping her head down with a light smile on her face, a kind of gentle smile that showed she was secretly hiding something. She seemed to be just listening in on him and fate. She seldom glanced up, and was quiet as the grave, no pun intended. If tristen hadn't known she was there, he probably wouldn't have even noticed her presence at all. Fate however was a completely different story. She stood right by him, constantly engaging in some kind of conversation. She never seemed to ask about anything. On the contrary, a certain smile kept slipping on to her face that hinted that she knew more about everything around him than he did (witch was odd for someone from "far away"). She also seemed to carry a certain black book with her in hand, there was golden pen with disturbingly red ink that seemed to be clipped to the books cover. Tristen was never certain what to make of these traits, but something told him they were more than just odd quirks. The most twisted of all was when a hobo seemed to be slightly too curious. It happened nearly halfway down. In the middle of one of fates odd explanations of the royal family in England, death , who had barley made a sound since tristen first saw her, let out a squeal. They both immediately turned, running from behind her was a scraggly bum. An old man dressed in only rags with a beard that could have held an entire buffet line. He ran with a sinister yet drunk laugh The blush on deaths face told the story well. The man though didn't make it fifty yards before (oddly enough) a massive flock of pidgens swarmed down and pecked him to death.

" heh, killed the cat moron" fate said softly as if she were talking to herself. Tristen couldn't imagine that this was only coincidence, especially with the evil smirk on deaths face when she turned around. Tristen would keeping his distance when it came to her.

The restrount was rather empty, only a few seats were taken. One crew at the bar seemed to strike tristen in particular. It was a set of three laughing weirdos at the bar, eating sushi and laughing about. One was a muscular man, allways laughing about something under his breath. He was clad up in a business suit that had seen better days. The one in the center seemed timid, she was thin and small wearing rags, but despite her shyness, she seemed to almost appreciate the company of the others. The last of them looked like someone rarely seen in this town, he wore a snobbishly wide smile, and was allways mock hitting on the woman in the middle. His coat was lavish, subtly aristocratic. In this town the last thing you want look like is someone with money, and he clearly didn't know that yet. Fate seemed to have a unpleasant reaction to them.

" do I really have to see such ugly faces in this time a day" she snorted as they sat down in a booth.

" you know them" tristen asked, curious.

" too well" she commented, a look of utter distain in her eyes " whenever those three get together, all hell breaks loose"

" who are they" tristen inquired.

" their names are poverty, corruption, and ignorance" fate spat in their direction " and believe me, there always starting trouble"

The three of them noticed death and fate not long after the appetizers had arrived. It wasn't long before corruption convinced them to pay them a visit. Tristen hated them just by the way they were approaching.

" hey there ladies" corruption was the first to speak " you two look lonely"

" cant you see were with decent company" fate indicated tristen " go bother someone else"

" no need to be mean dear" corruption crawled across the booth behind death and fate " were all friends here"

" yea what's your problem" ignorance stated manerlessly.

" come on now lighten up" corruption rubbed his hand over deaths cheek to her obvious discomfort " we know each other, right"

" could you back off asshole" tristen defend " the lady clearly doesn't like to be touched" tristen wondered if pidgens or stray dogs were waiting outside for them.

" ohh tough guy" corruption looked dead at tristen.

" dont fuck with him man" ignorance spoke angrily.

Corruption smirked and went for deaths neck with his palm. Worst move ever. Tristen gave him a mock chuckle, then drew his grandia 45 revolver from it's holster on his belt. he fired two shots, clipping the ears of both corruption and ignorance, poverty meanwhile was stepping back, clearly just tagging along with the boys not wanting to get too involved. Corruption looked at him like a father who had just been cussed out by his son. The rest of the bar looked over to see what was happening, gun shots were common, but still drew attention.

" you little..." he was curt off by a smiling fate.

"I dont think so" in an instant she had drawn her notebook and leveled her golden pen to the paper. The crimson ink was only micrometers from the surface.

" he's got four bullets, there's only three of you, and I'm pissed off" she looked at them, daring them to make a move " you wanna fuck"

" fine" corruption backed away, and gave tristen a (this isn't over yet) look. tristen just stared back at him, his hand on his revolver until they all had left the bar. The rest of the people just went back to their meals, like nothing had happened.

With a sigh he released his gun and turned back to them.

" sorry about that" he apologized.

" no problem" in a flash her pen was hung and her book was folded " there always harassing death, I'm impressed at how you stood up to them though"

" I stomach too much crap to se jackholes like that get away without a few scars" he stated.

Fate smiled gently, while death only had a look of concern on her face, like she was worried grievously abut tristen. The rest of the night seemed to go well. When they left the bar, the streets were unnaturally quiet. So much that the majority of their conversations were hushed in tone. The streets that wee often littered with homeless, gangsters, prostitutes, and late night drunks at this time of night. But tonight, there was nothing. Nothing but an early snow that seemed to have crept out of nowhere. After the last nuclear war, such weather patterns weren't too uncommon, but it was still unnerving. Death was constantly looking around, checking over her shoulders, like she knew something was wrong. Other than the shadows of hidden bums creeping in the alleys, tristen saw one other person in the streets other than himself and his companions. A woman dressed in white, with long still black hair. She looked like she might almost be a distant relative of death. Her white gown seemed to stretch to the ground, then merge into the snow paved street. She was still as a statue, and yet she moved. Turning her head to look strait back at him. Her eyes were blank and dull, like a pair of stones. Tristen passed around a corner, and their gaze broke.

" she was silence" fate informed " don't worry, she'll be gone by the morning"

He wasnt certain if that was a good or a bad thing. When they reached the appartment, his father was passed out, as usual, wreaking of alcohol. The three of them seemed almost relieved to be home. Tristen took a shower he had been needing since he had arrived home from work. The grime and dust built up on his skin was disgusting. He only hoped he hadn't smelled to bad the night during dinner. Drying off and getting dressed before leaving the bathroom. His greatest surprise however was yet to come.

He went down the hallway, back into the room the three of them now shared. Just as he entered the doorway, he heard death talk to him for the first time yet.

" tristen" she spoke in her soft and timid voice. " can... can I " she stuttered.

" what is it" he turned to her " something wrong"

" it's just" whatever it was, she couldn't find the words to say it right. He eyes were thick with worry and hesitation. " just... please don't think anything of this alright"

" what" he asked out of confusion.

Without a moments warning she had slipped her hand behind his head, and pressed her lips into his. He was caught off guard completely, eyes wide and his jaw dropped open. Using this she pressed her tounge into his mouth, passionately. Then as abruptly as she had begun, she withdrew. Her head now down with a blush, not of shame, but of something he couldn't quite define.

" don't think anything of that ok" she reiterated in a desperate tone, pushing him away.

" allright" he said. She backed off and disappeared into the shadows down the hallway. Tristen entered his room, baffled and confused. He had kissed before, but that was just awkward. Not just because of how seemingly random, but just how passionate she had been at the end. He touched his lips , remembering her feel. He laid down on the mattress, the room vacant. He wondered what fate was doing. No bother, he set the alarm clock for 7:00. Early enough to get to work on time. He only hoped they wouldn't be too stirred. With the memory of deaths kiss still on his lips, sleep came quickly. His dreams were the best in a long time.