Chapter Sixteen: "Different flowers from the same garden"

The hallway stretched out before her as she raced along, feeling the blood in her veins pulsing. An unprecedented fear was rising underneath her skin and a stinging tear was hanging in her amber brown eyes. She held onto the gun loosely, the thought of it had entirely escaped her mind. As three doors appeared before her, she pressed on, passing through the first door and stepping into a dimly lit room where she paused timidly. Laid out on a bedded chair, like a sleeping beauty was the school captain she had lived in fear of for as long as she could recall. Her hands shook as she slowly approached stepping over the steel railing and into the main area where the girl peacefully slept. She seemed so carefully placed, her raven hair evenly fell onto the pillow where she rested, her hands clasped together. Lei stopped beside the girl and placed a hand onto hers, wondering if the girl would awake by her touch. The beauty did not move, her hand felt warm, and soft, and the other girl retracted her own quickly enough. Off to the side, adjacent to the bed which the girl slept was another chair that was similarly bedded. As soon as the conclusion had crossed her mind, she felt a sharp pain enter her side and soon darkness covered her eyes as she slipped into unconsciousness...

* * *

The sky was a thick gray, stretching over the brilliant blue that had shown just yesterday. Cars sputtered by splashing water onto the sidewalks. Everything seemed quiet and dark, and the only safe place was inside, as the sound of distant thunder rolled, threatening to streak lightning across the sky once more. 

The girl sat on the couch, folding her hands in her lap, where a fine black dress was draped over her small body. She was alone, and yet for some reason she couldn't get herself to be afraid. Just a quiet girl, all alone inside of the house, looking at the portrait on the fall wall. It was of a woman, a woman she had known very well when she was younger, for the four years of her childhood, there had only been one portrait of her mother. Those somber eyes, and faint smile, she seemed to have the perfect expression, the epitome of beauty, the very essence of it. Recently the girl found herself staring at it more and more. Perhaps it was because they were going to set her mother into the earth this day. The day the sky thought to cry. The girl wasn't sure if she understood it exactly. There was this warmth, she remembered having, next to her, holding onto her, telling her to be strong, and now, it had grown cold, and she could only find strength within herself, she searched for it, searched for the strength her mother had so easily given her. She couldn't help but stare into those painted eyes and wonder if she had what it took it be like the woman her mother was. In her father's eyes, nobody could be equal to Marian, and anyone who thought otherwise would soon be corrected. 

He had grown hard over the past few months. So much fell upon the girl it seemed. Her mother's death had to have meant something. But what could it be? Those who were responsible had already died, and anyone they may have known was as well. The money behind her father would prevent it from being any other way. Nothing could remedy his sorrow. Not even her, his own daughter. In her mind she knew she was still a child, she felt so self-centered wanting to be looked after. Those days were gone. She had to be a lady, she had to show respect at every turn. No room for error.The only heir to her family. The next pillar. The front door opened in a sudden burst, and a group of men with umbrellas came stomping in, shaking the water from their coats, and then hanging them up on the coat rack. The man in the burgundy coat sighed, and walked into the living room, and paused for a moment as he saw his daughter look so entranced at the portrait of her deceased mother. He let out a sigh and placed a hand on her should. It was wet, and cold, and then he knelt down beside her and whispered into her ear. "If anyone could grow to be as beautiful as your mother. It'd be you, Reyna." He said kissing her on the cheek and then taking off his gloves, he lead the group of men past the living room and into the billiard room. There were a few murmurs among the men, but in their awfully similar looking coats, and hats, it all seemed dull to Reyna. She didn't care what they said, or what they would do. Nothing would bring her mother back. It was in this moment, she realized that. She had already cried her tears, and now she stood up slowly stepping next to the portrait and with a soft smile, she touched the canvas gently, tracing her hand along her mother's black hair, and down to her dress. The woman had been a saint in a dark world. Even her father considered leaving behind his legacy for her. Yet there was something pulling at Reyna's mind. She turned around and faced the window, and a black car was positioned outside. It was running, she could tell, and yet she couldn't see who was inside. Then from the kitchen emerged a woman dressed as a maid, and she shooed Reyna away from the window, and pulled the curtains. "Oh those scoundrels! Trying to invade on the Pichanto like that. I'll be the first to say it, the master never let's down. No matter how hard they press." She continued on with her rant, placing her hands on her hip, and Reyna slowly scooted away, searching for her own salvation within the large mansion.There would be no salvation for the girl. The innocent world he mother had showed her was collapsing, and the dark world of her father was quickly closing in. 

Time would pass, and as it did, things did as well. She had grown into the beautiful woman her father had married, or she was starting to. Her long raven black hair, her fair skin, her beautiful eyes. She was the spitting image of her mother. Yet in being raised by her father, she had come to follow in his footsteps. The only grace she ever held was in her beautiful aura, but she made it quick to understand, to those who failed to comprehend; that she was strong, stronger than anyone. That was her only salvation. She could remember a time when a vase had fallen from the mantle and onto the floor. Her father had punished her with the back of his hand, but there were no complaints. She took it, and continued.

That is how I dealt with things. Take it as it comes. Roll with the punches. If you are too weak to get up, then you don't deserve to live. I wonder what mother would think if she heard me say such things? That is a question I have avoided. I can't stop to think in this world, you have to keep moving forward.

When she was a bit older, Reyna began to despise things like alcohol. At first she wondered if it did as everyone claimed. A mysterious thing it was at first, a way to knock out the bad thoughts, the heart of a good time, and any party there may have been, it was apparent that booze was involved. She hated it for some reason. Those who knew her story were a bit uncertain as to why. Why Reyna? Don't you want to just, relax, and vent a little? Take some of that stress and just, throw it away? She never saw it that way. It wasn't throwing it away, it wasn't doing anything but hiding it inside of her. She could not have such things. It was weak. She couldn't be weak, she couldn't betray the hand that fed her.

"You have made me very proud Reyna. I hear that the school has promoted you to be its representative. I would have expected no less from my own daughter." The news of her becoming the school captain had just added to the Mafia-Lord's trophy room. A strong leader, needed a strong offspring. There were no loopholes. There were no ways to sneak in. A castle built to outlast any storm. Alone. She was alone. She was alienated from her friends. She distanced herself from everyone who came near. She will continue to be alone in till her father finds a way to get her to marry. Even if she did look like her mother, nothing would stop the greedy from wanting more, more, and more, she would be consumed. Eaten alive. I will outlast any storm. Even if I am alone...alone... 

That is not true. A voice vibrated inside of her mind. That's not true at all! It was screaming, it was crying, and she didn't know why. She felt a strange fear in that voice, a life or death fear, which she had never experienced before. It made her stop, and look around. Who are you? What are you doing here? This is my vision. My dream. You don't belong inside of my dream. She spoke with her mind, and her mind spoke, the words flowed out and it became clear. A person was invading her dream, and as she became more and more aware of it, the more real it became, in till she found herself standing inside of her six year old self, unable to move or comprehend how it was possible. Her thoughts were all hers, as she began to recall things. Why was she asleep in the first place? Then the fear that she couldn't wake up made her heart race as she looked around the abandoned mansion. She began to grow, her legs stretch out, her breasts matured, and her features returned to how they were when she first woke up. The things around her changed as well, the pictures on the walls, the kitchen tiles, the living room, the carpet, it all changed to the present and she could see the rain falling around outside. "What is this? Where am I? Is this some kind of trick?" She asked, hoping to reveal the presence of the voice that so rudely interrupted her dream, and brought her to this strange conscious state. Dressed now in her white sweatshirt, and blue jeans as she had when she first left to chase after the school skipper. That's right. I came to those weird domes...and then, I was shot, but I don't think I died. Otherwise this would all be pointless. She thought, wondering if they could be seen or heard by the voice. "Don't fuck with me!" She yelled as she began to walk around the mansion, which was empty of people, in till she came outside, and found that there was someone standing in her driveway, dressed in a speckled sweatshirt.

As Rey approached the figure slowly removed her hood, and revealed her face to her.

The two girls stared at each other for a long time. "Who are you?" Rey demanded with a frown, and stepping forward deliberately. The other girl had light brown hair tied back into twin ponytails, hanging down the sides of her head. She had removed the hood, and slowly unzipped her sweatshirt, and cast it aside, the air suddenly felt a lot warmer for some reason. There was a reclusive shyness to her as she looked at Rey with a strange longing and sorrow. Those eyes looked weak, and yet Rey couldn't get herself to hate the girl before her, there was fear as well. After her assessment, Rey reasserted herself. "I asked who are you?" She repeated grabbing the girl by the arm, and she pulled back for a moment. "Wait...this is...real?" She asked stepping back, sounding afraid. "This is my dream. What are you doing here, I don't even know who you are." Rey spat, and the other girl shook her head. "No...this is my dream too!" She exclaimed, trying to shove aside her shyness. "So, we're having a dream together, even though we're strangers? That doesn't seem possible." Rey pointed out, turning around to look at the late afternoon sky. It wasn't raining anymore. In this time, the sky was a fine blue, and the sun was readying it's descent into the western horizon. "It feels too real to be a dream." She commented offhandedly, and the other girl nodded. There was a long captivating silence as the two girls stood in the drive. After a while the girl whom Rey knew nothing about stepped forward timidly. "Um...maybe we could talk?" She asked quietly, and Rey slowly turned, keeping her upfront attitude, as she smirked. "I don't know who you are. I don't really care. All I need to do is wake up, and teach that fake-ass teacher a lesson." She said, hoping that somehow a ladder would appear from thin air, expecting to just climb out of this strange dream. "That's not how it works! We have to give them what they want, right?..." She trailed off looking down. It seemed hard for the girl to speak her mind, as if she was afraid to talk to Rey, which wasn't surprising considering her reputation and often degrading attitude. "Like hell!" She snapped, hating being stuck in such a place with a stranger. It made her blood boil and she wanted something to destroy. "Otherwise we'll just dream forever in till we die." The other girl added quietly. No way. No way. This can't be real! I have to get out of it, I have to!  Her heart began to pound, and then she circled around and preyed upon the girl. "Tell me! What is they want! Why are we here, together in this place? I want answers damn it! I can't just sit around here while they prod into my mind!" She began to shake the girl violently, and in response, the girl slipped her legs in between Rey's and sent her to the ground. She caught herself, and shot the other girl a dirty look. Using her own legs, she managed to trip the girl, who also caught herself before falling over completely. Caught in a furious rage, she jumped onto the other girl and tried to pin her to the ground. "You don't get it! If they can peer into my mind...they...they..." She began to feel her anger slipping, and the girl pushed her off and stood up brushing herself off. Rey's eyes were wide with revelation, "I'm...finished...they'll take everything, I'll be all alone..." She could feel tears coming to her eyes and she tried to force them back. Then the other girl placed a hand on her back. "Rey..." She said quietly, and she raised head. "You...know my name?" She asked, and the girl nodded. "Of course I do...because you're the school captain after all." She said quietly. 

That's right... if this person is real...but how can I be sure? I need to know that this isn't some kind of fabrication. She stood up and let out a sigh, brushing herself off. "How can I tell that you aren't just a figment of my imagination? brought about in this dream world?" She asked eying the light haired girl suspiciously. "Because I can change this place just as easily as you can. I can show you things you've never seen. Here...let me show you..." She said and she began to change the landscape around them, and before she even knew what was going on, they were at a different part in Stadweld. A place that Rey certainly hadn't ever been to. "The ghetto?" She asked, looking around at the sunken houses, and the dark alleyways. A stray cat streaked across their path and the other girl nodded. "I've lived in these ghettos almost my entire life. Just me and my mom, and my step dad." She said quietly leaning against a wood fence, and Rey nodded solemnly. "I'll believe you for now. Whoever you are." She said staring down at the dirt path as a young black kid ran past them being chased by his brother or maybe a friend. "Are they trapped in this world as well?" Rey asked and the other girl shrugged. "I don't honestly know for sure. I tried to talk to them, but they just ignore me." That makes sense...it's like we're reliving our memories, and with those memories we have created some kind of world...this is really beyond anything... She couldn't help at marvel at it. She felt powerful, but in the end she knew that she couldn't change what had already happened. "So, what do we do now?" She asked, and the other girl turned to Rey. "I'll tell you what I speculate is the truth. I'm not exactly sure if this will guarantee our release, but at least it's something." The two girls were once more teleported to a different part of town, a place that Rey knew was quite a fine place to dine. Though the thought of eating food didn't seem so appealing. The fact that they could control their surroundings was fascinating enough. They sat down, and even though everyone ignored them, things such as hunger and thirst didn't come to mind as they sat across from each other.

"I think I'll start from just a few weeks ago, when this entire ordeal began for me." The girl was saying. "It all came down to that teacher, Mister Calvin, at the middle school. He had dug up dirt on me, something really important. You know just as well as I do that that man is here in this dome, and he could be watching us right now, somehow..." She said looking around suspiciously. "Let's not think about that." Rey stated leaning back against the diner seat. "You see..." The girl stated, and then she put her head down slightly as if she was onset by a headache. "Are you okay?" Rey asked a bit puzzled, and there were tears coming from her eyes it looked like, but the girl only further buried her head her arms. "What is it?" She asked touching the girl's arm. Slowly, the girl lifted her head, and looked at Rey. "You want to know my name?" She asked suddenly, and Rey smiled for the first time since coming to this strange dream-like world and nodded. "Please tell me who you are." The girl slowly stood up as if to make a proclamation. "My name is Lei. I am the notorious school Skipper." As she spoke the scene changed to the school and it was during the day time. They were in the lunch room, and despite all of the students bustling about, they all walked through them as if they didn't exist. A sudden swirl of emotions began to overtake Rey as she began to analyze just what this girl was saying. The very same girl who was a mockery of her status and power, yet, this very same girl was here inside of her dreams. Why was she sad before? Did she really not want to reveal that about herself? "I often skipped out during lunch, right through that door." She pointed to the backdoor and Rey nodded. "I guess you aren't the best for nothing." She stated darkly, walking towards the door and walking out into the school yard. She held her hands behind her back and stared up at the sky again. "You know Lei...I've been wanting to get my hands on you so bad...it was almost becoming an obsession of mine..." She turned to the girl who had somehow retrieved her sweatshirt again. "So what do you think now? Are you going to seize me right here?" She asked and Rey folded her arms and shook her head. "No...it's not worth catching you in a dream. Someday I'll get you in the act." She held onto her smile as she looked at Lei curiously. "Though I wonder...why is it that you're here. A delinquent like you shouldn't be sticking your nose into something big like this." As she circled around the girl, she looked over the small girl with scrutiny. Lei seemed frozen by her observation. "You're right, but that comes back to the point of what we should do in order to escape this place." She added turning to Rey. "So there's more you're not telling me?" She asked with a look of displeasure. "I suppose there is, but first, I want to see something from your past." Lei pressed and Rey stopped dead in her tracks.

The two girls stared at one another for a long time before finally Rey relented, as the overly serious nature of Lei had somehow struck a note of severity inside of her as well. This wasn't the time or place to think of pride, and she had a sinking feeling that Lei had something very important to tell her. "And what exactly would that be?" She asked, a hint of irritation in her voice. "I...I don't know! But, it doesn't really matter...just think of something." She said quietly and Rey looked genuinely upset. At least you aren't a boy. Otherwise I'd have to kill you after you woke up. She thought, closing her eyes and thinking of a memory, and almost instantly the landscape changed again and they were inside of her home. "There, happy? I'm probably twelve years old here. Just about to enter middle school come next fall." She said folding her arms. There was a dinner table set up and the old man was chewing on his food slowly, as he looked over at the fireplace with a grim expression on his face. Rey was nearby, poking at her vegetables, and looking rather concerned. "F-father...are you..ok?" She asked suddenly, and the man licked his lips, and then suddenly he threw his napkin on the table and stood up. "Damn it! Just forget about this shit!" He shouted knocking the chair out of the way and storming off from the room, and Rey watched him and her look of sorrow only deepened and she slid back her chair, and left the room. The area around them then turned black and the short scene was probably deliberately chosen to get it over quickly. Lei looked down at the ground for a moment, as if searching for something that wasn't there. "Satisfied yet?" Rey asked, and the girl looked up with a bit of sorrow in her own eyes. "Hey, Lei, what's..." The other girl raised her hand up slightly. "Can we go back...just a bit more into the past...?" She asked, and Rey frowned. "What do you think this is? A time machine? Sheesh!" She said closing her eyes and trying to think of something that happened before that, and then she found herself in a different time. I don't actually remember this...place-time...but, I know it happened. Strange...this weird dream can even tap into memories we can't physically recall? She thought as they stood at the house where Rey was a lot younger, and she was playing with a couple of dolls, on the floor. The telephone on a nearby desk began to ring, and her father came into the room then, slowly making his way over to the receiver and picking it up. There was a long pause as he held it up to his ear, and then he looked around back at Rey and sighed. He stepped into a nearby room, and closed the door. The sound had intrigued the girl, who stopped playing for a moment, and she slowly began to walk towards the door and sit outside. "I told you not to call me." He was saying. "I don't care what the hell you do with it. It's got nothing to do with me." He was pacing back and forth. "You should be god damn thankful, that I don't bring my men down to your place right this instant you stupid whore! Do you want me to put an end to you and that little abomination you're carrying around? You have my mercy you dumb bitch. Learn, learn your lesson. Don't ever call this number again, or I won't even bother with threats. Do you understand me? Do you? I hope for that baby's sake you do you little ingrate." He finished his rant as it rose into the rafters of the house, and then the door flew open, and the first thing he saw was Rey sitting there looking at him wide eyed.

"I don't want to see anymore." Rey said suddenly flashing it back to the present. "If you really want to know Lei, I had bruises for weeks." She said with slight sarcasm and the other girl just sat down on the carpet of the school they returned to. Her body was shaking slightly, and for a moment, Rey thought it was because of what she had just seen, and then feeling sorry for the girl, she slowly came over to her and placed her hand on her shoulder. I wonder why I keep feeling that way for a girl I've just met. A girl who is has been my nemesis for all this time? "Hey...what's wrong?" She asked, trying her best to sound sincere, and Lei turned to her, her eyes were red from the tears. She was searching for something inside of Rey's eyes, but then she turned back towards the carpet. 

"I'll show you." 

She then changed the scene and they were inside of a motel. Lei was a little girl here, sitting on the bed, and her mother was standing in the bathroom presumably, and it sounded as if she putting on makeup. "Hey sweetie, just stay there on the bed, okay?" The woman said as she came tapping into the motel room in high heels. She was a fairly young woman, and she bent down and kissed Lei on the forehead. The girl smiled slightly. "Okay mommy." The sweet reply came. The woman then began to walk down the hallway, and there was a sound which attracted Lei for some reason. It sounded like something was happening outside, and she got off from the bed and tip-toed her way across the carpet and into the hallway. The two girls silently watched as the brave and daring Lei walked down the motel hallway, invested with cigarette smoke, and a bit of something else on the air, and downstairs into the lobby. Her blonde mother was standing off to the side at the telephone, and the girl came up to her and tugged on her sleeve. "Oh, damn it all I thought I told you stay in the room?" She said sternly looking down at the girl, and then she adjusted the receiver as it was pressed against her face. The phone was ringing for an awfully long time, and then whoever it was picked it up on the other end. "Hey Charles, it's me." The woman said into the phone, and there was a pause. "Hey, I just thought you'd want to meet your daughter." She was saying apologetically, then she looked around for a moment, a look of worry and irritation in her eyes. She then looked down at Lei. "Go back to the room." She snapped, and then she went back to the phone conversation. "She's your daughter damn it, you gotta listen, don't ya want to see her?" Her mother was saying, and Lei couldn't get herself to walk away. Whoever it was on the other end, clearly didn't want to listen. "I don't want to handle her all by myself--"
"Charles, don't say...that..." Then the woman turned white as a sheet and she then slowly put the phone back on the receiver. The woman then came next to Lei and began to corral her back to the room forcefully. "Damn you little brat, you couldn't have just listened to your own mother." She breathed. The memory vanished, they were back at the school, and this time Rey was evasive. She stood off to the side and couldn't get herself to turn around. She knew her father's name, she knew that it was too much to be a coincidence, or was it just a coincidence? It could be right? "I'm the dirt they want on your father. I'm a symbol of his disloyalty." Lei was saying quietly, and Rey turned around in a flash with anger. A memory momentarily appeared before then that Rey had subconsciously made appear of when she was a little girl and her mother and father were outside, and there was a picnic blanket, and the sun was shining, and there was laughter, and joy and during that time she felt tears rush to her eyes as she dove into Lei and threw the girl down the memory-made grassy hill. The two tumbled and jostled for a while, getting grass stains on their clothes and dirt in their hair.

Rey wasn't exactly sure what she was doing as she held her fist above Lei who looked at her with her own angry eyes and then the two girls stopped, shaking with emotions. "What?" She demanded, as Rey had her pinned to the ground. "Do you think I had a choice of being born?" She asked clenching her fist. "A symbol of my father's disloyalty, to my mother! My mother..." Rey shouted and then slowly grew quiet, the sounds of laughter could be heard on the silent hilltop and Lei shrunk back for only a moment. "You loved your mom didn't you?" She asked quietly. Rey felt a barrage of tears rolling down her cheeks as she fell onto her back looking at the sun, and she convulsed slightly. All the tears I wanted to cry...

Silently, Lei came over to the girl and scooped her up into her arms, and the two girls embraced. Bless you, my darling, and remember you are always in the heart - oh tucked so close there is no chance of escape - of your sister.

"I won't let go of you." She whispered through her tears. "I won't let go of my sister. I won't." She buried her face into the other girl's shoulder, and she did the same. "I won't let go either...I promise..." The two remained there, locked in their embrace, hoping for a chance to be freed from their strange prison of memories and dreams.

I honestly don't know how I feel right now. I feel angry, I feel sad, I feel slightly exposed, this girl, I hold in my arms, she doesn't seem real to me for some reason. I feel like a band-aid has been placed over a scar. It won't stop the bleeding, it won't help mend the wound, it's just an afterthought. Yet I'm hesitating. I don't want to take it off. Not yet. We are bound together in pain, and nothing else rules our lives. We both live in the shadow of the same man. Still, I feel like, I can't call her sister just yet. Lei. You..are strong. Father would be proud of that strength, but your existence...your very existence was a mistake. If my mom hadn't ever died...what would have happened to you? I can only wonder. I feel emotionally compromised somehow. Like the drunken sleep that has claimed so many before...I wonder what she thinks. I wonder how long it took for her to come here. I wonder how long it will be in till we are set free once more into the real world. My mind is so full it almost hurts. Damn it. There is a part of me left that has the strength to move on. I never did like people. So why am I still holding onto her? Why did I even come here? So I could become my own person? Isn't it too late to become someone you aren't? I am Reyna Pichanto. I am the heir to the Pichanto family, the largest organized criminal family in Stadweld, and maybe in this area of the Midwest. The mafias of old have all fallen in time. Yet we took hold in this new era. Unrelenting diligence towards our work. We value strength. But emotions...these are the things my mother was allowed to have. My father...he probably wanted me to cry just so he could wipe the tear from my face. My strength, my weakness, is it so evenly divided between my parents? What now? What must I do with this girl? She knows me better than anyone it seems. We've each stared into our pasts. I feel naked. I feel...bare.

The room had gone black, there were no images left around them. Slowly they separated and their tears had dried. Lei looked down to the ground. "Nothing will change will it?" She asked quietly, her voice echoing throughout the emptiness around them. "Who knows?" Rey sighed falling down onto her back and looking up at the endless space before her. "Are we supposed to wake up now?" She asked, and the other girl fell back as well without a reply. "I wasn't expecting this." She admitted. "I had planned on growing up and moving out, leaving you to your ignorant bliss." Her voice was almost a whisper. Rey thought about it for a while. It almost seemed as if fate had dealt her a trump card, and again the table turned, and she thought she was going to be free of the future. Some fear the future...but what do you fear, if not the future Lei?

 * * *

My story, isn't one I like to tell.

It begins on a rainy spring day, somewhere in the Dakotas. My mother to be was on the run from some law enforcement agency for some kind of hit and run she did a few states down. She had to change her personality, and just so happened to stumble upon a dreary upstart city called Stadweld. Not knowing exactly what to do, the young scared southerner rented a room in a motel, the cheapest one she could find. From there she began her new life, trying to find work anywhere she could. There used to be a bar across the street from the newly built Patterson High School, and with my mom's looks, it was no question as to how she got the job as the evening shift lady behind the counter. That was probably somewhere around twenty years ago now. Whoever it was that was chasing her, stopped. Yet her income never improved, and she began to hate her job and the usual rabble who came staggering in, just asking for trouble. Already a tough, born to be wild woman, my mother was used to the gangs and trouble that came her way. It was growing ever clearer that her life wouldn't be changing anytime soon. Or so she thought anyway.

He, my father to be that is, started showing up at her bar, a place a man like him would normally venture on a week night, and yet his appearance intrigued my mother like no other. The dark, depressed man who had lost his wife in some kind of accident came and left drunker than any other, yet he never spoke his mind. He was quiet, and well kept. That is probably what drew my mom to him. She started talking to him, and I suppose one night, hoping to get lucky, my mom got him to her place, and it was then and there that I was conceived. Unaware of what he had done at the time, my father left my mom and told her to never talk to anyone. It was here that he told her who he really was, and this scared her. A big time Mafia man. Someone who already had a family, and she knew it too when she did him. Yet even after all that, she endured with the single hope that my existence would bring him back to her, hoping that she could worm her way into his family, and even get settled in at long last. Problem is, my birth only ruined whatever chance she had at redemption in Stadweld. Yet my father had some dignity. He decided, against his better judgment to let me and my mom live, in the poorest place of the ghettos, she raised me full of anger. I could feel it pulsing through her veins, and yet, even as a child, I could piece together her lies. My good for nothing daddy, as she would start many drunk rants with, wasn't a bad man. That was just it. He was a man, and he had lost any respect for himself the moment he came banging into my mother's life. I remember growing up, wishing that I could be with him, instead of this lousy bitch who did nothing but complain about how unlucky I was, or how I shouldn't even exist. I was getting tired of it, and when she found a man of her own, I was forced to endure yet another rocky relationship.

I could continue about the personal side of this story. About how many times I had to wear long sleeves in school cause that pot-bellied bastard who resented me almost as much as my mom did. I tried, I honestly tried to salvage some kind of good-will in that woman, but all she did was look into my eyes, and shake her head. Nothing's gone right since you was born sweetie. She'd say in that hideous southern accent, I had grown to despise. No, I won't continue on about those kind of things. It was probably sometime in middle school that I collected the most important information I had ever known. I wasn't technically an only child. Though she certainly wasn't my mother's daughter, the girl I had come to known as Rey Pichanto, the most feared and respected student at our school, was actually my half sister in blood, and not in title. I couldn't help but admire her from the shadows, thinking of ways I could expose the secret to her, but I was also afraid. I had come to understand how things worked in the city of my birth. Stadweld was controlled by only two things. The mafia-run gangs, and the corporate head of Senba. I was a tiny fish in a big sea, and if Rey didn't like my story, I'm sure that man would swoop down and remove me from the picture. The unfair thing was about this, was that my mother wouldn't have given a shit if I came home dead or alive. That is when I started looking out for myself. I tried to find work, but nothing really suited me. I was also afraid. Always afraid that if I did do some kind of work, I would be noticed, or somehow unveiled. Despite my miserable life, I never thought of death as an option. I wanted to live. I felt like I had worked so far for it. And to think that some lousy, good for nothing teacher was going to come in, and take it from me? Not a chance. I came here, to the here and now to end it. But I was still afraid. I had worked so hard, and I finally got to tell my sister everything. I took in those words she spoke to me, holding me there, telling me she didn't want to let go, but I could feel it. She was afraid, and confused.

I knew that things weren't going to be picture perfect in the end.

Or that is what I thought.

Being inside of a dream, neither girl could sleep. Sitting side by side, the two could only look around the black empty space which had engulfed them. They were starting to believe, that nothing would ever change. They got to talking, about things. Things that weren't so involving. Just off-hand topics. Rey never laughed, it seemed, and neither did Lei. Their lives seemed void of any kind of laughter. It wasn't just that, they never pretended to be happy. How long would the unending silence last? 

/End

~Preview~

Next time on Scratch: A Daring Rescue. 

[All text is copyrighted by the author {R.K.} Any use of this text for personal gain is prohibited. You may not copy, distribute or claim this document, or any other documents posted on this blog as your own. However, you may post links to this blog, or quote this blog as much as you wish. This has been a personal reminder brought to you by DRS] 

:)

It's December, so that means the November Scratch Monthly will be posted with the stats and highlights of the last month. [Also, with zero character votes, I'm just going to keep that little poll running in till the end of the year...]

Also: DRS = Dark Ryan Smiling, which is the same as Ryan Dark Smiling. :) :) HAHA.