Chapter 1
Long sanguine tendrils of hair clung to my scalp as frigid sleet beat down upon me. My arch nemesis trudged towards me, his plate mail clanking out a monotonous rhythm. His greater battle axe slowly dragged behind him like the leg of a wounded wolf, but I know better than to believe his lazy gait means anything more than him wanting to toy with me as a cat may do to a dying spider. That's all I was to him now. A worthless insect, and I would be a fool if I let myself think he held no qualms in squashing me.
As he plodded through the slush underfoot, beams of silver moonlight cascaded upon him like a luminous waterfall. His dragon winged pauldrons greedily drank in the moonlight and spat it back out unto the night like a welcoming lighthouse in the midst of a great storm. Said moonlight played well with his deep olive skin tone and flowing ebony locks. He looked towards me and I caught a glimpse of his stormy eyes set in a chiseled angular face. He was truly handsome and for a second I could remember why I had fallen in love with the selfish tyrant.
I pushed up off the ground from where I lay in the cold mud onto my hands and knees. Wind blew fiercely around me sending my fiery locks to twist around and whip at my smooth ivory skin. I felt the artic bite the winds had to offer from where my dress had been shredded in my recent battle. Goose flesh began to raise along my body in waves. As Cain approached me I felt the ground rumble as if it were protesting to his large stature. "Cain," I spat in between clenched teeth raising my head so that our eyes locked, "so nice of you to have followed me here".
"It's not like I could have let you escape me so easily this time, Zoran," he replied in a husky rumble.
"Hah! And I suppose your honor would not allow a third escape," I mocked trying to buy myself some time to in fact be able to make that third escape.
He glared down at me with steely grey eyes, then grabbed me by my hair pulling me up to eye level. "We could have been so much, you and I. We still can, bow down to me and apologize for all your slights against me and my kingdom and I may just let you come back to the palace." I thought for a moment of what he used to be and all the tender memories we shared, and wanted beyond all belief to just go back to that simple time.
However I had been young and stupid, not seeing what a cruel and treacherous ruler he was. I had not cared for the slaves that were beaten and raped within the palace compounds, because I had not seen it occur first hand. I had not cared how he let the weak fight amongst themselves to death for but the end of a stale loaf of bread while he and his men ate a feast every night. All and much worse had occurred during my stay at the palace but I had simply chosen to live in blissful ignorance of it. I had decided to live in my own little fairytale, me the Queen and he my King; and to this day I have known no greater shame.
"I will not." I hissed.
"What was that, love? I believe I misheard you, let's hear it again." he threatened narrowing his eyes slightly.
"Open your fool ears and listen this time because it is the last I repeat myself for the likes of you. I said I will not now or ever bend knee to you! I won't do as you say any longer, you have no power over me anymore! I. Will. Not. Submit!" As soon as the last words left my mouth he threw me to the ground and belted out a war cry.
"You will regret those words wench!" he screamed in fury and hefted his double bladed axe high into the air above his head.
I stared up at him my ruby eyes growing wide in fright, then quickly reached for the daggers in my thigh sheath. I took hold of my daggers and rolled to the side as he brought the axe down to where I had been not a second before. I threw a dagger, leaped sideways, but suddenly pain seared up my left arm.
FUCKKKKKKKKKKK! I thought biting down hard on my lower lip, whilst only murmuring a polite, "Oh my…" I ran to the sink, turned on the cold water as quickly as possible while trying not to wipe at the hot grease that felt my arm and hand had been a good place to jump onto. I shoved my hand and forearm under the cool water and let out a sigh in relief and mentally glared at the grease.
Asshole, just had to go and shatter my day dream there didn'cha? Tch' it was getting good too. I was just about to kill that stupid king once and for all but noooooooooooooooo, you just had to go and bite me for no good reason! Well now you get to get washed down the sink all alone without any of your grease buddies for company! I will have my revenge! I felt my lip twitch towards becoming a small malicious smirk and quickly schooled my features. Phew hopefully no one saw tha-
Beep Beep Beep Beep
Akkkkk! Dammit! I raged in my mind as I turned to see the fryer I had been cleaning out. It had overflowed the grease truck and now grease was pooling on the floor, quickly making its way towards me. "Now we shall have our revenge!" I could almost hear the pool of grease buddies shouting at me as they charged.
My eyes grew wide in fear. "Nooooooooo", I whimpered behind my fingertips. My manager's gonna rip me to flippin shreds! I swiftly jumped around the pooling grease reaching the red handled lever that would stop the flow of grease in just enough time to…I peered into the fryer to see that it was completely empty save for some weird crusty bits that had fallen off of some form of fried food. Well just shit, I guess I have 'ta clean the fuckin floor now, great! I mentally stomped my foot and pout glared at the hateful grease pool.
Sighing I went to stand but slipped in a spot of grease I has not seen. Instead I saw the fryer coming quickly to greet my face like a dear friend running at me to administer a hug. Why yes I am glad to see you too old friend but, not today junior! Hahahaha! I thought as I grabbed the fryer door catching myself just in time. Oh! I totally just caught myself like a freakin' ninja! Heheheh I'm so cool. I got up more carefully this time and let myself enjoy a small polite smile.
I walked to the back of the kitchen (remembering to "inconspicuously" look around for the kitchen manager, which was nowhere to be found. Score..!) and grabbed a squeegee, scrub brush, mop bucket filled with commercial grease destroying chemicals, and some wash rags. All set to finish breaking down and cleaning the fry station, I headed back to get to work and get the hell outta here.
As fate would have it, just as I was walking into the fry station a polite, feminine voice stopped me, "Ms. Chance, it seems that Mr. Kobayashi got an emergency call from his wife and has left early. I really hate to do this to you but would you mind performing the back of the house management duties tonight? I know you do them frequently and I would ask someone else but you are the only person wh-".
Why in the seven circles of hell would I want to do that asshole's job, like really if he can't manage the kitchen maybe you should just fire his ass already, I swear I do this like every night! Instead of letting Keiko know how I felt about the kitchen manager, I pasted on a courteous smile and said, "No, of course I do not mind Ms. Yukimura. I would be happy to help out any time". Because honestly, to say anything else would be just plain rude.
"Oh, thank you so much! You are always so understanding, sometimes I feel like you are the only person I can count on!" She replied beaming and headed out the swing door to close the front of house.
Dammit I hate being caught in this situation, grrrr. After grumbling a little longer in my head I let out a small sigh and forced another polite smile onto my face. "Alright men you heard Ms. Yukimura. I will be closing tonight, and I hope to be out of here within the hour. Let's work hard together and have a smooth close," I chirped to the other two back of the house employees. Though I could not see the dish washer nor the grill cook I knew they had heard me with their replies of "Yes ma'am". I nodded to myself and took a step forward, completely forgetting about the evil mastermind that was the grease pool and its villainous sidekick the grease truck. With combined forces they took me down easily and I fell hard. Crash, clang, ding, splat, "oooph…." Miraculously I had somehow managed to flip midair like a magical anti-kitty, (a rare beast to be sure) and instead of landing on my face I landed on the back of my skull right into the middle of the grease pool.
DAMMIT! OMFG! IT'S HOT! I'M BURNING! Quicker than I have ever moved before in my life I got up and started to rip off my shirt, but stopped once I had it up to my navel. Wait….hmmmm it's not actually that hot. I must have been zoned out longer than I thought. I then lowered my shirt because well I guess one could venture to say that running around half naked would not be quite socially acceptable. But stilllllll…..That Fucking hurt, what the hell are you even doing in my way you stupid mother fu- hmmmm, I guess I did leave it there. Well you know what, I don't give a rat's ass about that! Yeah, so Fuck you grease pool! You may have won this battle but I assure you, I will win this war! And just to ensure the grease truck knew who was boss too, I mentally kicked it. Hmph!
After dealing with my mini dilemma I finished preparing the kitchen for tomorrow. The other two employees had a much smoother night than I, so I released them once I checked their stations over. I filled out the ordering form, finished off the nightly checklist, washed my hands, removed my apron and clocked out.
I pushed passed the swing door and entered the dining area. Keiko looked up from behind the counter and smiled. As I smiled back she looked as if she were about to ask me to sit down and speak with her, but my appearance must have made her stop. Not that I blame her, I am covered head to toe (not even figuratively this time) in fryer oil. I noticed how she was trying not to scrunch her nose either. Great I stink, I guess you get the last laugh Mr. Grease Pool. Congratulations. I mentally golf clapped for the grease pool and his ally. Maintaining my smile I said, "Well, everything has been taken care of. Here are the closing sheets. Please let me know if I have missed anything Ms. Yukimura". Not fucking likely. I totally close way better than that asshat of a kitchen manager.
"Oh please do just call me Keiko, we have known each other for so long. I hope you consider me a friend by now," she said so sincerely that I actually believe her. Well I have known her for as long as appropriate to call her by her first name. Hmmmm, I deem it socially acceptable.
"If you would like Keiko-san, and you may call me Ashton if it pleases you," I said smiling at her a tad more genuinely.
"Great! Ashton-chan it is! And I am not worried about those silly close in sheets, you never miss anything. Anyways, I really wanted to thank you for helping me out so much so I made some carrot cake earlier and would like it if you would take some." She said beaming again.
"Oh, thank you so much," I really don't want any sweets. How do I decline without upsetting her….wait, I know just what to do with that! I bowed and graciously took the carrot cake from her offering hands. She continued to smile at me and bid me farewell.
After I closed the restaurant doors and waved to Keiko one last time, I started my grand trek home. Now don't get me wrong, I like Keiko, in fact she is everything I strive to be and everything my mother always wanted in a daughter. She is loving, kind, caring, gracious, giving, polite, a good student, talented, and compassionate. To top it all off she is all of those things naturally. It kinda pisses me off, I mean seriously how can one person be so flippin' good? It's like she was created just to torment me! I have to try so damn hard to even pretend to be someone like her and I still fuck up all the time! My mother would always gripe at me and tell me to be better, like all of society will congregate into a flaming mob and prosecute me for not remembering all of my social P's and Q's. There are so many rules for every damn situation! Like smile when someone says this, laugh when they do that, commence some sympathetic emotion when this happens. And it doesn't even end there! Why should it even matter? I went through hell thousands of times to make sure that these rules would never leave me; to the point where I could have called child protective services on my stupid bitch of a mother. However since it was socially unacceptable to do so, I never could manage to make the call. Anywhosit Keiko just seems to naturally come by these god forsaken abilities and it drives me insane with jealousy. However she does have that one thing... I took a moment to maliciously laugh from the protection of my mind.
Kieko has horrible taste in men, her boyfriend is sooooooo beyond the point of socially acceptable that it's not even funny. Seriously a two year old raised in a chicken coop would be more polite than him, or so I have heard. And this is where I beat Keiko, though I don't quite have a boyfriend at the moment, he would be the most gentlemanly gentleman ever. And in knowing I have defeated the queen of benevolence, I suppose she would be a good friend to gain. I could even introduce her to the ice witch (my mother). Whom has been complaining about me not coming over to "catch-up" enough. Ah! This is what I was looking for.
I kneeled down at the small rabbit shrine, placing the carrot cake at its base. The stone rabbit seemed sad to me. It may be lonely because no one walks this way through the park. It must not have any followers anymore. I wonder if anyone even remembers his name or what he was built for. "Are you a god, little one? A forest guardian perchance? A spirit? Who are you, and why do I always feel as if you are trapped?" I found myself whispering. I patted his head even though, really you are not supposed to. It's considered "rude." Okay, maybe a little beyond rude but still, as sad as it sounds, that poor rabbit was the only thing I felt I could be myself around. He has been my only safe haven for many a year.
I continued on my way home, walking through the park making my way to "the slums". Okay I know it's not really safe for me to be walking this late at night in this part of town and it's not necessarily "safe" for me to live in the area either, but hey I'm a college student working as a fry-cook which means I'm dead broke. Also, let's get real, who wants to attack someone who smells like fryer oil all the time. Tch' if I was going to attack someone I would make sure it wasn't someone who I would have to take a bath after attacking. Nope, I would make sure to target someone who was at the very least clean looking.
I made my way up steep concrete stairs to Apt. 204, took out my keys and unlocked the door. It's an "efficiency" apartment which means it has just the one room and a bathroom. The kitchen and the living/dining/bed room are slightly separated by a half assed wall. It wasn't really a full wall because it just stops half way across the room, so I call it Mr. Lazy and find that this helps me with the whole "are you a wall or are you not a wall" issue. I take my shoes off at the door and go around Mr. Lazy to the kitchen. I then open the fridge door and grab a bottle of Sapporo, downing it in one go before throwing the bottle across the kitchen into the trash without looking. Clinck, clank, clinck score and I know the bottle has made it safely into the bin with all of its bottle friends. I then trudge to the bathroom, turn on the hot water, and remove my clothes, haphazardly tossing them into my laundry bin.
I remove the black hair tie from my shoulder length hair and place it beside me on the countertop to the sink. Looking up into the mirror hesitantly, scared to see the true damage that damned grease pool had done to me. I take a breath. Hmmmmm, it's not really that bad, I mean it could be worse, right? My hair was drenched in oil. The soft black strands clinging together to make what appeared to be oily, inky octopus tentacle dreadlocks. Great, just add heat and maybe I will have fried calamari witch squid ink sauce, though that may be a rather appetizing dish and costly at that, I do not want my hair to look like the greasy tentacles of a week old squid! My normally tanned skin was aglow with oil and I had deep dark purple rings under my almond shaped eyes. My irises normally a steely blue had reverted to a mucky depressing grey. The burn on my arm and hand however had turned a happy pink color and seemed to be pleased with the amount of damage the grease pool had caused. It shouldn't scar however and even if it did, my arms were already marred with so many from working in the fry station (burns, knife cuts, fryer cuts, microwave cuts, sink cuts…it's surprising what I can hurt myself with in the kitchen.) that it wouldn't go amiss. Okay no more lying to yourself kido it's pretty fucking bad, you look like something the cat dragged in….okay maybe even something the rat dragged in but then said rat was dragged away by the cat because Mrs. Cat was worried for the rat's health... Oh well! It's fixable! Nothing a nice long hot bad won't cure!
The breath I had been holding rushed out of my lungs and I then continued to breathe normally, I jumped into the shower and scrubbed down. After my shower I dried off and put on an old baggy t-shirt that read "Aperture Science. We do what we must because we can." Then while yawning extensively I pulled out my futon out of its couch position to its bed position and passed the fuck out.