"Lady, Living in a city
Lady, dressed in frills
with black shawls
and darker memories…"
Rain pouring from the grey heavens above us pounded on the roofs. The noise gave me such a terrible headache that I became irritated in my neutral mood. I’ve started to write again to make a living, that is, since the economy went down low with the basic commodity prices shooting up. The world is even meaner to me than ever. 21 years old I live alone on a shabby but a respectable apartment not far away from the city’s slumps. My home consists of a futon, a writers desk, a lampshade, remote, tv and one bathroom annex to main room. Yes, two rooms but still comfortable. Anyways I used to write for the daily Olympus paper on the editorial section, I used to write alot when I was in highschool and in my college years but due to my lack of persistence I soon stopped and found a stable but dull job in my uncle’s business firm. After three years of working monotonously the firm suddenly shuts down and leaving my uncle with debts all over and his children (already grown) decided to work abroad before the firm closed promising to help they’re burdened father, but as soon as they got they’re first pay they suddenly realized how hard the world was and left a little to save uncle. To me I think it is impossible to save an old man from deadly shark loaners especially when they belong to the most hated slumps of all…And me after the firm was shut down and burned, yes it was burned down by the sharks and the land’s title, taxes and everything else about was taken by them to compensate uncle’s debts. After the building burned I went back home to meet my parents who I haven’t heard for years now. Not suprisingly they were both dead but not literally they’ve already disowned me, So I left again with little money and worked part time for a bar as a receptionist and spend the day working half for a musuem. I know it sounds strange not being able to find a stable home but as of now I really can’t afford anything with leechers and conniving employers…you just can’t be too trustful of any one at all.
"Again…" I blurted as out as I watched the news featuring a notorious serial killer called Bird. The police are led on a wild goosechase with these infamous genius they say that Bird used to be in a local mafia from russia and soon he turned psycho even his fellow colleages stated that Bird had always been unusual. Bird had always love to play the violen on top of high places at night and crows would flutter around him engulfing him in a sea of darkness and in the middle of that he would laugh and shout curses at the enemies while shooting his gun but as crazy as he was Bird always make a clean job. I gulped down my last can of rootbeer then threw it away into the waste basket, I grabbed the styrofoam containing my left overs as I stood up walking towards the window. Upon opening a black one eyed cat came and greeted me, his name is Sun because of his sunny nature it is kind of weird calling a one eyed black haired cat sun…
"You were waiting?" I asked smiling at the cat as I took out its bowl and water. The cat quickly jump to his plate and ate his share. I sit near the opened window and started to talk to him.
"Hey Sun isn’t the weather bad…you wanna sleep inside today?" The cat replied with a strong meow and continued eating until he was finished. He then came in with me and I took out the cat grooming kit. When I was younger I loved cats very much because dad always had two cats with him and soon I started to learn the ways of taking care of cats then started my own business with it, but after awhile I grew tired of it and Jack and Sally had died then I hated it so much that I quit taking care of anything special.
"You know Sun I used to have two cats. They were called Jack and Sally both of them were siblings and were also orphans they’re mother left them as soon as the two were born. " Tears started to well up in my eyes with a quick wipe I chuckled at Sun.
"Heh, I’m still teary eyed even after all these years."
"Meow-ru" the cat smiled as he purred into a ball in between my legs. The television was on and suddenly a news flash came up.
"Good evening this is Anna Marico for Studio Eleven’s flash report. The well known psychotic serial killer ‘Bird’ has been spotted near Turma City’s slump. A child about 3 years and her parents were killed in a firing incident earlier today by a Turma city’s search and capture unit. Bird who elusively snuck into the house had quickly escaped and took the child’s birdcage with two lovebirds inside. Captain Doug Luther head of the firing squad had a short talk with Bird. A video was taken minutes before the firing had started. Here’s what happened."
The screen changed to a familiar scene in the slumps.
My eyes went wide as the shooting started and minutes later I was disgusted to see the bodies of the innocent family the face of the child shone in the video made me angry. I hated to see dead people. I grabbed the remote and turned off the television.
"Hey sun, I’m glad I didn’t turned out a psycho"
I stood up and prepared my bed. "Well sun since tomorrow ain’t a shining day to wake up to."
"meoow" yawned the cat comfortable in his own place. Slipping into my black silky gown I flopped down on bed crawling like a cat and started to yawn. The cat looked up and ran to bed with me.
"now sun if you have fleas please keep them."
I stared at the ceiling I kept recalling about what had happened today though there wasn’t much to be done I still kept on thinking and soon I fell asleep. The black void turned into rings the sound of dripping water echoed. Translucent feet were running and soon I was running then I stopped. I was at the edge of a building looking down I saw bodies pierced and torn apart by large needles sticking out from the ground. Then suddenly I lost balance then fell into it. I thought I was done for but then something soft catched me. I opened my eyes morning had already come and Sun was gone off to somewhere everything seemed normal at a first glanced, but when the drowsiness came off I suddenly realized that doors and windows were closed.
"ah geez I knew black cats were ominous." Without changing I got out of my room and opened the front door. I shivered when my bare foot came into contact with the wet floor. "What the?!" There were a trail of fresh mud leading to the stairs. I quickly followed the trail with my slippers on this time the trail led me up to the 5th floor then finally to the iron door.
