Marcella
I didn’t fight. I never did.
“Who are you! What have you done with my precious baby!?”
Even when the blows fell, I refused to fight. Nothing I did or did not do could change this.
But who was I? What was I?
Those questions followed me as I softly closed the door to my apartment in Brooklyn, New York. Within moments I felt the door buckle as my mother threw her body against the door. Her shrill cries grated my ear drums, yet I hated her silence more than the hurtful words.
"Don't leave me, Marcella. Come back. Come back and let me brush your hair. Mommy will make it all better." Her hands beat at the door like a rabid animal. I could hear her nails gouging holes into the wood instead of my reluctant flesh, but it still felt the same.
"I'm going to work mom, I'll see you," A lump caught in my throat. "I'll see you later." With that, I stepped away from the door and allowed myself to blend into the numbing sounds of New York.
***
"Oi! You're late again, lazy one." Gran, the sour owner of 'Yin and Tang', hissed at me the moment I walked through the back door. She gave me a one-over with her shrewd eyes documenting my scratched cheek and bruising ear.
"It's my fault and I'm sorry, Gran. You can dock it from my pay, but I will work harder to be here on time." I bowed to the cantankerous woman and was about to push through the kitchen door when her gnarled hand fell on my shoulder.
"Look at me." Her beady eyes never wavered from mine, just as her grip never grew weak. "You cannot bus tables with your face like that. You will work with me in the back." Gran's hand dropped from my shoulder and she left me to change into the uniform.
I would never have expected that less than six hours later I would be lying face down next to a wall, burnt beyond recognition.
It all happened in a blur. I remember Gran allowing me to leave two hours earlier than usual, saying something about me bringing bad luck to her shop with my injured face, but when I checked my pay, she had given me 50 dollars extra and a small note telling me to buy something for my brother’s birthday.
Sometimes life could be so beautiful and sweet. But for every good action, there was a bad one.
My life ended in an explosion and a cloud of smoke. Yes. The word was cruel.
***
The first glimpse of my new life was with closed eyes and an unbeating heart.
"Don't touch them Kuma, we're only looking." A deep voice boomed. I felt the shadows behind my lids lighten and finally melt into an unceasing color of white.
"But why can't we wake them up?" The musical voice of a child came from above my head. "They look so sad."
"Do not touch them unless they're awake." The deeper voice reminded.
I groaned and threw a hand across my face. What was with all this light? Why couldn't they just let me sleep? Sigh.
"Look, look. Can I play with this one?" Upon fully waking up, I was met with a bright pair of liquid gold eyes. Hair, not my own, draped over my face and gathered around my head, which I assumed was laying on the ground. Or was this ground. Where was I?
"Step away Kuma, let Cora see." The eyes, hair, and little girl rolled away to be replaced by a man of titanic proportions. Even in his older looking state, he was easily 11 feet tall. Maybe more.
"Are they all like this, Apus?" I shifted my eyes to his side and got my first look at something I had never seen. A woman stretching 7 feet tall, towered next to the stoic form of Apus and looked down at me with a weapon slug across her back. Her fiery hair spilled over her shoulders like a flow of lava and framed her ivory face. Although she wore subdued hues, it couldn't hide the fact that she glowed. In fact everything around here seemed to glow.
"I don't think she likes it here..." I slowly sat up and saw the little girl, Kuma, hiding around the heavy folds of Apus' clothes.
"She just needs time to adjust." Was all he said, not offering more information.
"Adjust to what?" I tried to wrap my mind around the weirdness of this whole situation. Why did I feel like I was on the wrong end of a cosmic punch line?
"To put this gently, you're dead..." Apus looked from Cora to me with pity in his eyes and it was then I felt the deepest sense of demoralization I've ever felt. Nothing mattered now. I didn't. My life didn't. For the second time in the same night I asked myself the same question.
Who was I... What was I...?
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Hullur derrr, errryburrrddy.
Lol sorry this post was rather junk. I had no idea what to write and I think it shows, but hopefully the next post won't be so sucky awful. I wish I could write like WyVy and Byakuya-Chan, but not all of us were born gifted T^T I have yet to hear from little Euphiee, but I think she'll come around soon to waking up her Sentinel~
Oh! Don't pay attention to Kuma, she's just your average Sun Child: nosy and curios. She won't get a profile since she's just a fluffy character, but you can write her into your posts if you want [or other ones you wanna make up]. Hehe is it messed up that I think Kuma and Apus remind me of Sulli and Boo from Monsters Inc.? ROFL I forgot to mention that the Yin and Tang restaurant is totally fake and I just needed a sketchy enough sounding place in China Town that seemed legit! Don't judge me...
