New Beginnings - Prologue
Valentine stares at the door of her new apartment, her stomach churning and the stress headache she'd had on the train ride beginning to return.
"It was for the best love." Her mom's voice comes from behind her, "That old place was filled with bad memories."
Valentine's bright red ponytail swishes behind her as she turns around to face her mother, Leia. The younger bends down and hugs her mother, burying her face into her mother's neck so that the older couldn't see the tears that were forming on Valentines lash line.
"Well?" Leia releases her daughter from the hug after a few minutes, "I'm not going to push myself in."
The redhead snorts at her mother, "There are wheels on it for a reason."
"But my arms hurt." Leia whines, trying to lighten the mood. "You're really going to make your sick mother use her own wheelchair?"
Valentine smiles at her mother before opening the door and wheeling her mother into the apartment.
After three hours of blood, sweat and (mostly) tears Valentine finally finished building most of the furniture for the new apartment. She was screwing the final hinge into her desk drawer when her mom called her from the living room.
"Val? The taxi is here. We can't be late for my hospital check-in."
The red-headed girl exits her bedroom to see her mom trying to lift herself off of the couch. Seeing her mother struggling Valentine runs over, with ease she helps Leia stand up and then gently lowers her into the wheelchair.
Despite her mother hating using it, both of the girls loved the wheelchair. When Leia had been told that she had to remain in the wheelchair for a minimum of six months, she had put on a brave face in front of the doctor though when that night when they got home, and Lei assumed her daughter was asleep, she had cried for three hours non-stop. Valentine didn't know what to do as she sat outside her mom's closed bedroom door and listened to the sobs. All she had wanted to do was go in and hug her mother but due to the chemotherapy, her mom had tried to hide herself from her daughter as much as possible.
It was four in the morning when an idea came to Valentine. She had snuck into her mother's room as carefully as she could and laid it out in the living room of their old home. The redhead began to paint the back of the wheelchair as carefully as she could. When her mother left her room that morning she was greeted with the sight of 'Almond Blossom' by Vincent Van Gogh painted beautifully. Leia had broken into tears again, but this time from happiness.
Valentine smiles fondly at the memory but is snapped out of it when her mother grumbled, "I can do some things for myself."
"I know mama, I just want you to be as safe as possible."
Valentine returns to her apartment that night, the overwhelming sense of loneliness taking hold of her. When they still lived in Saint-Malo she would stay with friends if her mother had to stay in the hospital overnight but in Paris, she didn't know anyone.
The time on her phone read that it was only seven thirty. This meant Valentine had to do something that she had become quite good at over the past year, keeping herself busy. She went around the house collecting articles of clothing that really weren't even that dirty and walked to the laundromat she had noticed on her walk home from the hospital. As she was deciding between lemon or lavender scented detergent an old man she hadn't notice walk in let out a loud sigh.
"Are you okay?" Valentine doesn't bother to turn around but felt compelled to ask.
"I'm just a few dollars short." The man replies.
Valentine digs into her pocket and pulls out the money she was going to do her laundry with and gives them to the man without saying anything, "You can do yours, my clothes can wait another day."
With that, she picks up her washing basket and leaves without a 'goodbye'.
"Are you sure she is the right person?" A voice appears once Valentine was out of earshot.
"Am I ever wrong Wayzz?" The old man replies, almost chuckling at how easy it had been to slip the box in her basket when she wasn't looking.
Valentine decided it was worth trying to keep herself busy. Instead, she changes into her pajamas and digs through her cupboard until she finds what she's looking for. After pouring herself a glass of water Valentine takes three of the sleeping pills and puts them back in the cupboard.
She turns to head to her bedroom but stops when she sees a small brown box on the kitchen bench. She puts her glass down and walks over to it. Without hesitating, she opens the box and a flash of red light shines out, making her close her eyes for a second. When she opens them a giant red bug is staring back at her.
"Hello, my name i-"
"What the fuck?"