Disclaimer: If I owned the game and its characters, would I really be writing fanfiction?
Fortune's Fools
'Where's Daddy?'
Gloria Parson sighed, glancing at her six year old son.
'I told you, Billy. Daddy's gone away for a little while. But he'll be back soon.' The pale boy nodded, seemingly content with the answer, and turned back to his homework. Gloria looked over his shoulder, catching a line. Fortune's fool...
Yes. That described everyone in this city. She moved through to clean the lounge, but stopped, staring out of the big bay window into the inky blue waters and flickering city lights beyond.
Fortune's fools... Everyone had flocked to this flashy, exciting, dazzling place, lured by ideas of wealth, power and freedom. She and Harold had both come to Rapture, seeking a fresh start.
They had met in The Limbo Room, renowned jazz club. They had started dating, going to the theatres to see Sander Cohen's latest works, peaceful strolls through Arcadia. They married less than six months later. Gloria smiled to herself. Her friends had jokingly teased them, calling them 'star- crossed lovers', but had no objections to their union.
Harold had a small bookshop on Paupers Drop, near a popular place for the people who lived there to meet, so they got a reasonable amount of business. Even then, the income wasn't large, but it was enough to get by on. They were happy.
After Billy arrived, things changed. The income was spread thinner than before, and Harold paying more attention to the political movements in Rapture. By the time Billy was five, Harold had started speaking openly against Ryan, and was stocking illegal materials in his bookshop.
And then, two days after Billy's sixth birthday, Harold disappeared. No-one had seen him, no-one had heard from him, there were no signs of a scuffle in the shop; it was as if he simply vanished. Any posters she put up were almost immediately taken down, and the authorities claimed no-one of that named had ever entered the city.
And then there were rumours. Rumours that Sinclair had created an under ground prison that he had offered to Ryan as a place to send "anyone who wasn't working out". Worse, rumours that the people who were taken away and used as test subjects, or turned into those awful 'Big Daddies'. Gloria shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself tightly. Suddenly, she hoped her husband was simply dead, rather than in that place.
The doorbell rang, and she heard Billy run to answer it, but she was too lost in her own thoughts to really pay any attention. After all, it was the little girls being taken, not the boys...
Where was he? Gloria knew she couldn't cook and clean the house, look after a six year old son, and find a way to support them on her own. She wove a strand of blonde hair around her finger. Really, the only thing that had been keeping her sane were her bi-weekly trips to see Doctor Lamb, the psychiatrist. And now she'd disappeared as well!
'Mom?' Gloria was jerked out of her thoughts with a start. She looked down at her young son.
'What is it, Billy?'
He started to gnaw at a hangnail.
'It was Father Wales 'gain. He gave me this.'
He held out a leaflet. On it was a picture of a happy couple holding hands, gazing out at a beautiful ocean reef. Their children sat on a plush red sofa, reading quietly. Above the scene were the words 'Come to Dionysus Park' in gold lettering.
Gloria sighed. She and Billy had been to Dionysus Park before, and she was not sure she wanted to go again. Last time, Billy had been caught staring at one of those freakish little girls and the golem that protected her. When she had questioned him on it, he had refused to tell her what he was looking at. It was then that Gloria decided she would either have to remarry, or actually start searching Rapture from top to bottom to find her husband. She couldn't let her son look up to one of those... those things. He needed a father figure in his life.
'Mom?' Billy was still watching her. Gloria drew in a deep breath. She was over-reacting. There probably wouldn't be another one of those creatures there this time, and apart from that incident it had been relaxing. She smiled slightly.
'I'm fine, Billy. Just tired.' She looked at the leaflet once more. Yes. Perhaps a holiday was just what she needed right now...
Well, that's the story. I haven't actually played the game, so some of the details might be a little off, but I hope it's not terrible.
Reviews are love.