Her eyes were closed as the sudden sensation often
attributed to going over a hill awoke her from her sleep, this transformation
into the world of the wide awake and living was fully complete by the powerful
sensation of her jaw smacking off the cold tile flaw and her teeth snapping
against each other.
Her eyes struggled to focus in the harsh bright light as
people stumbled and tripped over her forlorn body.
Kim reached out to across the floor and dragged herself away
from the cacophony of flying kicks and finally managed to adjust herself
against the cold tile wall, far away from the interest of any other.
She groaned and rubbed her jaw while it throbbed painfully,
she could feel miniscule chips of teeth in her mouth. Kim spat out the nuisance
in her mouth along with a mixture of blood and saliva, making a stark contrast
against the greying tile floor.
She stood by pushing herself against the tile wall and
looked to the steel grey tram that apparently dropped her off, the last couple
of passenger’s footsteps could be heard echoing down the station.
The attendants in their royal red and glamorous suits stood
at each door of the tram, Kim walked closer until she could swear that she
could hear the strain on the suits around their grossly fat pot-bellies.
“ ’Scuse me…. Can you tell me where I am?”
The red-faced attendant closest to hear barked his response,
his beady eyes glaring at her from his behind his puffed up cheeks
“Malvagia ma’am!”
His response seemed to make him sweat, but it could have
simply been the searing hot heat that was becoming apparent to her dazed sense.
“When’s the next train to Brooklyn?” Kim inquired, pulling
up her greying jeans that were almost slipping off her hips.
“End of the line ma’am! Last train!”
“Well Fuck.” Kim thought, she pressed her tongue against her
now faintly jagged teeth, feeling the blood run down her tongue, a headache was
building against her eyes just to add to her annoyance.
She looked to the stairs and staggered up slowly, her hand gripping
the rail for dear-life. When Kim reached the top of the stairs she looked
around, not seeing a car all around the crowded street, an icy cold miasma was
in the air, which while pressing on her face, she still felt intolerably hot.
Neither of these sensations did anything to comfort against the other.
“Yo! Taxi?” she called out to the general population, but as
if she didn’t even exist, not a soul bothered to look up.
She forced her way through the crowd, people bumping into
from all directions, trying to avoid the not-so “stray” hand accidentally
brushing her indecently.
Kim’s brain felt like it was trying to burst it’s way out of
her skull; she swallowed the blood filling up in her mouth again. It seemed
like a good idea to get some place to stay for the night, so reached out and
grabbed a short man with a mouse-ish composure
“Hey buddy, where can I get a bed for the night?” she asked.
The man looked up slowly, his milk-bottle thick glasses
making him seem like a human owl
“Mmhmm… Yes? Well I can see that…. I think books’ lets bums
like you stay, now get your filthy hand off me!”
The small man wrenched himself easily out of her grip and
hurried along his way
“Books huh?.. I’m guessing he don’t mean a Starbucks…” she
thought.
Kim started to wander the street, trying to find whatever
place in this weird town that looked like it might contain books but every
other shop she came across was a hideously lit porn, booze or worse. The dark
cynic in the back of her mind smirked and said, “it’s like they built a city
out of a red light district”.
She sighed and rested against a busted street lamp, the
light orange glow of the light was flickering on and off, making it difficult
to retrieve the packet of cigarettes stuck crumpled in her pocket.
She pulled out the worryingly light packet; she frowned and
closed her eyes. Kim offered a silent prayer that there would be one last
precious cigarette left in the packet.
She flicked it open with her thumb and was momentarily
elated to find a cig looking towards her. She eagerly pulled it out and put the
other end to her lips, only to get loose tobacco falling into her mouth.
Cringing, she looked into the packet to see a pitiful filter
lying in the dark pit of the packet.
“Fuck!” she screamed at the top of her lungs at the now
oddly empty city street.
“Why the fuck does this goddamned shit always fucking happen
to me!” She looked up at the sky and screamed “You cuntastic whore! Give me a
fucking cigarette!” At which point the flickering light above her head burst
out with a flash, enveloping her in darkness.
She took another deep breath to sigh, the anger rising in
her chest but a feeling of cold darkness started to creep over her, the hairs
on the back of her neck raised and her breath iced up in the air.
