Chapter 1:
Gaia stuffed the entire donut in her mouth, stifling her craving. She polished off the last donut in her bag and crumpled the paper up, dropping it in the metal garbage can chained to a pole. Gaia walked off of the lit path of Washington Square Park and into the shadows. Where were all the muggers and rapists tonight? Was it their day off or something?
Her muscles ached for a fight. She needed to kick some ass. She needed to feel the rush of adrenaline through her system. She needed her fix. But, no, she was able to walk all the way to the other side of the park and out onto the street without so much as a rustle in the bushes.
Gaia walked down the street, passing the occasional pedestrian. What else could she do? Go back to the boarding house? Yea. Right. Be stuck in the same building as crackhead Zan and an OCD house mother. That's pure joy right there.
She started to wonder, once again, if there was another girl like her. Someone else fearless. Someone else with a psycho uncle, a criminal mastermind grandfather, a dad in the CIA, and a mother who'd been murdered when she was twelve. Her life in a nutshell. If so, she would really like to talk to them. Ask them what their life is like. How they attempt to go about it normally. What they would do if they were in her position. She found nothing to do but aimlessly walk around.
What time was it anyway? Gaia checked her watch. 11:25. Ed would still be up. It wasn't that late. But Gaia would need to find a pay phone. She didn't own a cell phone. She despised them actually. Why carry something around that can interrupt you at any given moment?
Spotting a lonely phone booth on the other side of the dark street, Gaia walked across. She dug into her pockets for some change. Any change. Nothing in her sweatshirt. Nothing in her jeans. She didn't carry a purse. A bag sometimes, although not when she went ass-kicking. Thinking of herself with a pink Tiffany's bag almost made her laugh out loud. It wouldn't quite match her jeans and sweatshirt. She tried the back pocket of her jeans and managed to fish out the change from the donuts.
But just before she went into the booth, she heard the answer to her pathetic prayers from behind her. Quiet footsteps and a couple seconds later a knife point at the back of her neck.
"Give me your wallet." A smile crept across her face. She turned around, trying to put on her best scared face, to face her assailant. He was a young guy, lower twenties, and was attempting to be threatening by holding the sharp knife up to her throat. Gaia blinked slowly. "I said give me your wallet."
"Oh, I'll give it to you." With that, Gaia grabbed the man's wrist, twisting it, hard. He cried out and his knife clattered to the ground. She snapped her fist up to his jaw in an uppercut and finished him off with a flying kick to the side of his head. He fell to the ground, unconscious, as Gaia landed gracefully on both feet, snatching up the blade. She smiled with satisfaction. That felt good.
But, annoyingly, the darkness started to sneak up on her. Even with the tiniest fight like that, she had to feel faint. She went into the phone booth and leaned against the glass, closing her eyes. After a couple of seconds, she managed to stay fully conscious and opened them again. She looked around the phone booth and saw a ledge at the top. She stuck the knife on it, out of sight.
Bored once again, she went back into her pocket for the quarters.
