Chapter 1 – Content warning: drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and brief mentions of domestic violence
Music blared all around them. Fast drumbeats, remixed instrumentals, melodic vocals. It resounded in the club, bouncing off the walls as the blue and purple lights flashed around them. It smelled of cigarettes, blunt smoke, alcohol, and a mix of sweat, perfume, and cologne.
Twenty-seven year old Kaia Murakami sat on a plum-colored velvet couch. There was a table in front of the sofa that hosted a myriad of drinks and she carefully crossed one leg over the other and sipped on a cocktail as the group went on about something she wasn't really listening to. She wore a forest green dress that was made of satin and just barely covered her ass. The tiny straps of the dress kept falling down her shoulders until she eventually gave up and left them there. It gave her a sultry appearance and she was fully aware of the looks she was getting from other clubgoers, both men and women. She finished her drink and set it on the table, trying to decide if she wanted to go for another.
"I could go for a joint," Kaia said. She leaned her elbow on the back of the sofa and propped her head up with her spare hand. Her hair was starting to escape the carefully pinned messy bun it was in and more locks fell from the bobby pins every hour. She would need to freshen up in the bathroom if she wanted to stay any longer, but she was leaning towards going home instead.
"I'm all out of pot. Want to do a key bump instead?" one of her friends asked.
"No. I'm trying to cut back on blow," Kaia said. She stood up from the couch, careful to make sure she didn't fall over from the drinking way too much while in ridiculously high heels.
"Where you going, Hon? It's only 1am!" another girl from her group shouted.
"I'm going home. I don't feel so great," Kaia said.
"Text the group when you get home so we know you're safe!"
Kaia didn't respond to any of them. They were too busy snorting powder, drinking themselves into oblivion, and trying to find someone to go home with. She moved through the crowd, shouldering her way around people who were trying to get her attention until she was outside of the club and waiting for her ride.
She kept checking her phone, lingering close to the front doors of the busy club. She sighed and tucked a lock of short brown hair behind her ear and tapped her fingers against her hip impatiently. She wanted to go home goddamnit. She didn't want to be stuck waiting outside in the hot humid Parisian night. She wanted to sit in her shitty apartment and smoke enough pot until she passed out and slept for twenty hours.
"Hey, Baby."
"Not interested," Kaia deadpanned without looking at whatever guy was trying to pick her up.
Thankfully, the guy just scoffed and called her a bitch as he walked away and didn't try anything else. She was grateful for that. Too many times men tried to force themselves on her and it almost always ended with her getting blood on her dress.
She was tired though and wasn't looking for a fight.
Her ride arrived a few moments later and whatever higher power there was must have been on her side because the driver was silent the whole time. And when she arrived at her apartment, all she said was a quick 'merci' before she went into the building.
She got to her little flat and locked the door behind her, kicking her shoes off and flicking one of the lights on in the process. The flat was a studio with hardly any square footage, made up primarily of her white bed being in the middle of the living room and dining area. There wasn't even a full-sized refrigerator or bathtub. Only a tiny shower and mini-fridge. But despite the size, it was still an apartment in the city of Paris.
And at least there was the window with a view.
A big window with doors she could pull open and see the city from her building's fifth floor. She never shut it during the summer and didn't cover it with curtains in the winter. So when she got home, she collapsed on her bed which was pretty much on the floor, and stared out of the massive window and romanticized what it would be like to be with her nonexistent soulmate in the city of love.
Her hands went to the back of her neck and unhooked the elaborate jeweled choker necklace and set it on the nightstand nearby. Her fingers ghosted across the scar on her throat from all those years ago before they went to her hair and began plucking bobby pins from her falling updo. It only took removing three of them for her once thick, now much thinner, hair to fall down just barely beyond her chin.
Kaia rubbed her sore scalp and continued to stare out her window. The lights of the street were yellow in hue and it bathed her barely lit apartment in the warm glow. She liked the hue it gave her shitty little flat, so she flicked her lamp off and worked on rolling a joint with nothing but the streetlights to illuminate her task.
Once the joint was rolled, Kaia turned on her Bluetooth speaker and played a French R&B artist that she heard one night at a club. Her French wasn't as good as it should have been after living in the country for two years, but it was better than the Americans who lived in her neighborhood and it was good enough for her to understand most of the music she listened to. So she hummed to the familiar beats and lit the joint, taking deep drags until she coughed.
She wondered if her mother was any good at French. Probably. Her mother had always been good with the romance languages while her father excelled in the more complicated languages like Arabic and Russian.
An ache appeared in Kaia's gut. Familiar as the rising dawn and as painful as the blackest night. She sucked harder on the joint and turned the music up as if that would make the ache go away. As if she could alter her lucid state enough to forget who she was or where she was.
As if she could alter herself enough until she disappeared.
It worked well enough. A few moments later, the joint was smoked and Kaia's head spun and spun and spun until she passed out on her bed and dreamt of nothingness.
She rubbed the white powder from her nose and sniffed hard, waiting for the effects of the drug to take over. Just a few minutes and she'd be more alert, more awake, and more willing to dance with her friends at the club. She followed Fatima and let her friend lead them over to a set of shots.
Kaia knocked it back in one go, the sharp taste of tequila burning her sinuses. She did her best to not wince and forced a smile at Fatima when a new wave of energy took over as the club played a familiar pop song. Kaia couldn't quite remember the name of it, but it was a song that came out in the 80s in America, and judging by the whoops from the crowd, just about everyone in the club was familiar with it and excited to dance.
She laughed when Fatima and another one of her friends pulled her to the dance floor that was crowded with dozens and dozens of people. The cocaine kicked in and Kaia felt her heartbeat increase and the euphoric high of energy overcome her. She twirled around with her friends and clapped to the beat. The strobe lights painted them in colors of white, yellow, and purple and the music was so loud she could feel it in her gut.
The happiness that was so fleeting stuck around long enough that she didn't even care when a stranger grabbed her by the face and kissed her hard on the mouth.
Kento Nanami grimaced as he read his mission details in the faculty room at Tokyo Jujutsu Tech. It wasn't often he was assigned an overseas mission and it was with good reason too because he loathed them. He hated flying, hated not knowing the language of the country he was in, and hated having to deal with foreign authorities.
"You look pissed. What happened?"
Nanami looked at Gojo as he entered the faculty room with Ieiri at his side. The white-haired man grabbed a nearby chair, flipped it around, and straddled it.
"I've been assigned an overseas mission," Nanami said in a clipped tone.
"That's unusual for you. Where to?" Ieiri asked. She sat down next to Nanami on the sofa and sipped on a mug of hot coffee, though Nanami had half the mind to suspect coffee wasn't the only thing in there.
"Paris. Supposedly, a curse user is running around killing women. He has a cursed technique that uses wind like a bomb. Should be a quick mission. This man sounds completely unhinged, which means he'll be messy and easy to track down," he explained.
"Oooh, Paris!" Gojo said as a big grin overtook his face. "I love Paris. There's great food and gorgeous women there."
"You say that about every city," Ieiri commented.
"Nah, Paris is on another level. I've got a friend out there that I can put you in contact with, Nanami. Her name is Audrey and if you're lucky, she'll show you a great time. I think she has a thing for blonds," Gojo said, the grin on his face morphing into his more standard, more arrogant, trademark smirk.
"Aren't you back together with Utahime? You shouldn't be saying those things. You know how she gets," Ieiri said.
Gojo scoffed, "being fuck buddies is not the same thing as being together."
Nanami pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn't feel like listening to this. He needed to go pack.
"Does she know you guys are just fuck buddies? Because I saw her last night and I don't think—"
"Hey, where are you going?" Gojo asked when Nanami stood up.
"Home. I need to get ready so I can get this mission over and done with," he said.
"Aw, you're no fun," Gojo said with a pout. "I'll shoot Audrey a message and let her know I have a friend coming to town."
Nanami didn't dignify that with a response. He didn't need to anyway. Ieiri was already giving him an earful for being such a dog.
With any luck, this mission wouldn't take more than a day and he'd be back in Tokyo by the weekend.
Kaia alternated between smoking a cigarette and sipping mimosas at brunch with a group of girls a few weeks later. She met them in various places, mostly in the ex-pat community. Ex-pats were particularly easy to befriend because they were new to the area and most of the time they just wanted to party and get fucked up and Kaia liked that. She liked the shallow friendships of using each other for a good time. She liked the lack of pressure of going out to a club with a group of people she didn't really care about. She liked being able to act buck wild and not give a shit about what the people she surrounded herself with thought.
"You've barely touched your food," Sarah, the pretty blonde American from New York said. She was the newest one in the group, having met Kaia and Fatima about six months ago when Sarah had her purse stolen, and when Kaia may or may not have used her cursed energy to stop the thief. Kaia and Fatima had introduced her to the group not long after that. There was Sofiya from Russia, Olivia from England, Kaia from Japan, and Fatima from Trinidad.
They were mostly shallow, but Kaia didn't mind that at all.
"Not hungry," Kaia said.
"It's all the cigarettes you smoke. Makes you lose your appetite," Fatima said.
Kaia shrugged and snuffed out her cancer stick.
"I have an announcement," Olivia interrupted. Her brown hair was in a perfect ponytail that Kaia had never been able to master, even when her hair had been long, and Olivia twisted it around her fingers with a big smile. "I met someone and I'm going to visit him in a few weeks."
Fatima and Kaia exchanged a glance as she downed the rest of her mimosa.
"Of course you did. And where does he live?" Sofiya asked.
"Okinawa. I was reading all about it and it's such a beautiful place," Olivia said with a big grin.
Kaia choked on her spit.
"You okay?" Sarah asked.
"Fine," Kaia said.
"Isn't that where you're from?" Sofiya asked, interrupting the Brit's rambles about her epic love story and how she'd fallen in love with some random guy at some random club.
"No," Kaia said right away. She adjusted the choker necklace she wore to make sure it was still adequately covering her throat. "I'm from Saitama."
"Yeah, but you have property in Okinawa. Don't you? I think I remember you saying that during one of our drinking games," Sofiya said.
"I remember that. We were drinking aquavit with that Norwegian girl. You said something about your family owning a house there," Sarah pointed out.
"It was my father's house. So, I guess it's technically mine these days," Kaia said. She looked at Olivia, eager to change the subject. "Tell us about your guy."
"That's right! Oh, I bet it's beautiful! You should come with me! We can stay at your family's place and…"
Kaia didn't hear the rest of Olivia's words. She just heard the silence of the property and smelled the rot of the pond.
"We can't go there. The house is condemned," Kaia lied. If only. She wished the damn place would disappear. She felt like she couldn't rest until it was gone for good.
Olivia deflated and she said a pathetic little, "oh. Well, that's a shame."
"Not really," Kaia muttered under her breath.
She didn't get much of a response. And when Kaia risked a look at the group, Fatima was glaring daggers at all of them, clearly silently trying to tell them all to keep their mouths shut. Damnit. Kaia hated it when she let dumb things like that slip out and ruin the mood.
She held back a sigh and nodded at the empty pitcher in the middle of the table.
"Another round of mimosas, Ladies?"
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
Groaning and pulling her head out of the toilet from where she was retching up an entire night's worth of rancid vodka cranberries and tequila shots, Kaia grabbed her phone and pressed it to her ear.
"Hello?"
"Baby, where are you? I haven't heard from you all week. C'mon. I thought we were going to work this out," a man's voice said.
She snorted in disgust and hung the phone up and went far enough to completely shut it off and throw it across the bathroom floor. Her head pounded and her stomach betrayed her once again, clenching and churning until she gagged into her toilet and bile dyed red from cranberry juice trickled from her mouth.
She vomited hard enough that she knew the blood vessels in her cheeks had burst and after her stomach brought everything up until nothing was left, she flushed the toilet and laid down. The tile floor was blissfully cold against her cheek and it lured her into a restless slumber.
"So how long are you gonna be in Tokyo then?" Gojo asked as he watched Utahime brush out her long thick hair. She looked at him through the bathroom mirror and smirked.
"Why? Are you catching feelings?" she teased.
He smirked.
"I don't do feelings. It would just be nice to not have to work for sex and find you instead of putting the effort into going out," he said.
Utahime scoffed and went back to her hair.
"You are such an ass," she snapped.
He didn't correct her. He just sat on the edge of his bathtub as she continued to get ready for the day, finishing her hair and applying a light bit of makeup. She watched him through the mirror and when she finished dressing, she walked over to him and sat on his lap. She smelled overly sweet. Almost like brown sugar.
"We should put this to use one day. What's the point of having this huge jet tub if you never use it?"
"Eh. I don't really like it," he said. He nudged her off his lap and stood up. "Shower sex is fine with me."
"Shower sex isn't practical," Utahime suggested while following him out of the bathroom. He plunged his hands into his pockets and grinned.
"It is if you have someone like me who can hold you up."
"Does your back hurt from having to lug around that massive ego?" she retorted.
"Have you ever looked at my back? Of course it doesn't hurt. I'm in amazing shape," he said. He chuckled at the way she rolled her eyes in exasperation. Their little game was always fun. It was so easy to get a rise out of Utahime and she was always so annoyed with him. Plus, the sex was better that way.
All he had to do to keep their little games going was pretend that he didn't notice the longing looks she gave him when she thought he wasn't paying attention. Utahime may not have admitted it, but she clearly wanted something more serious from him and Gojo didn't do serious. It would have been too much when he already had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
He didn't need another broken heart to worry about.
"Let's go. We're gonna be late," Utahime said.
She reached her hand out as if to rest it on his back and usher him out of the penthouse. It could have been beautifully domestic and a moment of romantic bliss if she'd been successful.
Too bad he left his infinity on, so her hand never connected with his body.
Like he said. It was just easier that way.
Kaia wasn't high enough for this conversation. Her sober mind was not up to the task of dealing with a ridiculous man screaming in her face and shaking her shoulders like some rag doll. She watched Charles throw a beer bottle across the small apartment with a blank expression. It whizzed by her face and shattered behind her head.
"You're ridiculous," Kaia said with a sigh. She grabbed her purse and slung it over her shoulder. "Talk to me when you're not strung out."
"Don't you fucking walk away from me, you stupid slut!"
"What a gentleman," she drawled. She started to cross the living room to get to the front door, but Charles stood in the middle of the room and blocked her exit. He wasn't even tall. He was her height, but he was wide. His shoulders were broad and his biceps were massive, probably from all the steroids he swore he didn't do.
A lock of black hair fell across his forehead and it was a lovely contrast to his hazel eyes. He looked like Clark Kent on a good day, but now all Kaia could see was a strung-out junkie.
"Move," she deadpanned.
"Sit your ass back down. We're not done here," he snarled.
She groaned and rubbed her temples.
"Charles, enough. We'll talk tomorrow when we've both had a chance to calm down," she said. Though she had no intention of ever speaking to him again. She planned on blocking him and changing her number if she had to.
He still didn't move but she had enough. Kaia started to go around him and made it exactly one step before his hand shot out, grabbed the hair at the back of her head by its roots, and yanked her so hard that he threw her into his coffee table.
The table didn't break, but the sharp wooden corners of it cut her elbows and legs up pretty good. She broke her fall with her hands and knees, scuffing them up badly in the process. But she didn't think about the sting in her hands, knees, and elbows. Couldn't. She just pushed herself up and wheeled around to ask him what the fuck his problem was.
She didn't get to ask.
His hand that was curled into a fist came flying at her, and thanks to her hangover, her senses were dulled and she couldn't dodge it.
White-hot pain exploded through her right eye and it knocked her off her feet yet again. Kaia yelped and touched her eye, already feeling the bruise forming beneath the sensitive skin there. She distantly thought that she should have started crying or that maybe she should have felt fear or panic. But she felt none of that.
Rage. It was rage she felt. Absolute unadulterated and uncontained fury that had been building and building and building since she was nineteen. He had some fucking nerve laying a hand on her. He had some fucking nerve thinking he could beat on her, a small woman to feed his stupid fucking ego.
She tasted smoke on the back of her tongue.
Adrenaline kicked in and Kaia pushed herself up for a second time. The negative energy that pulsed through her body felt like an old friend. She let it cloak her. Let it give her strength. Let it turn the smoke into flames in her mouth.
"You want some more, you stupid bitch?" Charles asked through manic giggles.
He moved to punch her again but she was ready this time. Had her cursed energy to guide her. And with that, she was able to duck down and punch him with her own right hook that was imbued with cursed energy and sent him flying back and putting a hole right through the drywall.
The flames filled her mouth. They begged to be let out. Blue fire teased the corner of her lips and the desire to open her mouth and let it all out filled her. She so badly wanted to spit the fire. Let it consume everything. Let it consume Charles. The apartment. The street.
But Charles was incapacitated. Groaning on the floor and struggling to open his eyes. She sighed and swallowed back the flames. It wasn't worth the clean-up.
She took long strides out of the apartment and slammed the door shut. Her legs switched to autopilot and carried her onto the cobblestone sidewalk. Blood was soaking through the knees of her light blue jeans and her eye was swelling up. She wiped her nose with the side of her hand, seeing blood speckle the mucus. She didn't care. She knew she looked like a mess walking through the streets of Paris. A too skinny wraith-like figure with bloodied elbows and knees, a black eye, and thin, unwashed hair scraped into a messy bun.
She should have done it. She should have set fire to the apartment. Set fire to Charles.
She should have set fire to herself.
"It smells like something died in here," Fatima said, pushing her way into Kaia's flat and closing the door behind her. Kaia groaned as her friend crossed the room and pulled her window open, letting fresh summer air into the apartment along with the sounds of Paris. She pulled her bedsheet over her face as the sounds of footsteps and commotion filled her ears.
"Kaia, what the hell have you been doing all week?" came Sarah's voice, embellished with a thick American accent. Kaia buried her face in her pillows and didn't bother answering either of her friends. Her high was already entirely gone and she was ready to roll another joint.
"This is a hard time of year for her," Fatima whispered in a low voice, obviously trying to be quiet but Kaia still heard every word she said.
"Oh…"
"Kaia, Sweetie. Let's get you up and get you showered," Fatima said. The bed dipped under her weight but Kaia still didn't feel like moving.
"I'll get up if someone rolls me a joint," Kaia said, voice muffled by her pillows.
"What about mushrooms? We could do those instead. I've never been good at rolling," Sarah offered.
Kaia pushed herself up, knowing full well that her hair was matted to the side of her head and her eyes were puffy and bloodshot from a mental breakdown she had last night.
"What about molly?" she asked.
"The last thing you need is molly," Fatima scolded. She looked at Kaia with the prettiest brown eyes anyone could have and pursed her lips into a firm line. "What you need is a shower and some food."
Kaia waved her hand dismissively and looked at Sarah, knowing full well the blonde New Yorker wouldn't be interested in Fatima's gentle approach.
"Can we go out tonight?" Kaia asked.
Sarah flashed her a bright white smile.
"Of course, Babe. Where to? There's this new club that opened up on Bassano."
"No, you don't need a wild night out. Why don't we all have a relaxing night in and get some dinner and watch a movie? You've been out of control lately and we're worried about you," Fatima tried. She tilted her head to the side and tried to get Kaia to look her in the eyes, but Kaia simply avoided her.
"I'm fine," Kaia said.
"See? I told you she was all right," Sarah said.
Fatima didn't look convinced. Her dark brows knitted together in worry and she huffed in exasperation.
"You've been going nonstop for almost two straight years now. That isn't healthy for anyone," Fatima pointed out.
Kaia yawned and said a casual, "Oh, it's been longer than that. I've been doing this since we lived in Trinidad."
"And despite all of that your skin is still glowing, Babe," Sarah said with a giggle.
Kaia grinned at her and finally stood up, sidestepping Fatima's concerned figure.
"I know you're worried, but I'm fine. I'm gonna go shower. Let's go out around ten tonight?"
"Perfect! I'll invite the whole group! This works out so well since Olivia is leaving soon," Sarah said as she already began to furiously type something on her phone. Just as Kaia was about to disappear into the bathroom, her eyes connected with Fatima's from across the room.
"Are you sure you're all right?" Fatima asked, voice soft as if she was scared of the answer.
Kaia forced a smile on her face. It was painful and she hated doing it, but it was worth it if it put her friend at ease.
"I'm golden."
When Kaia finished showering and returned to the main area of her living room, she was alone once more. Walking around in nothing but a t-shirt and men's boxers, Kaia padded across the wooden floor over to her fridge. She opened it intending to grab some cranberry juice for a cosmopolitan but stopped when she saw a green juice along with a plastic container that was filled with fresh rice and steamed vegetables.
Fatima.
Kaia smiled softly to herself and took the food and drink out of the fridge. The food was still warm to the touch, which must have meant that Fatima got the food only a few minutes ago.
God. Where would Kaia have been without her?
…Probably dead in a ditch somewhere.
Fatima may not have known what exactly happened to Kaia's family, but she knew enough to know what time of year Kaia's mood went through the fucking floor, and she was the only person in their little friend group who had seen Kaia's bare neck before. Fatima may not have known the details, but she'd been around long enough to put most of the pieces together. A scar across the throat. No family. And complete and total lack of any self-preservation?
Yeah. It really wasn't that complicated.
Kaia took a seat at the little island in her apartment that was the only substitute for a table and picked at the food. Her stomach twisted with every bite. Not because the food was bad, but because she'd been surviving solely off of caffeine, drugs, and alcohol for months now that her body felt like it didn't quite know what to do with real nutrition.
She rubbed her throat, hating the way her fingers dipped when they ran over her scar.
Eight years. It'd been eight years and some change since it happened.
Eight years since—
No. Kaia wasn't going to do this right now. She was going to smoke some weed and go back to sleep.
And with any luck, she would never wake up again.
Unfortunately, Kaia did wake up. She woke up to her phone buzzing, jolting her awake an hour before she was supposed to meet her friends at the club. She regretted suggesting going out. It would have been so much better to sit inside and drink her body into liver failure. But no. She had to open her fat fucking mouth, huh?
Kaia went through the motions. She put makeup on that would glimmer in the club lights and accent her high cheekbones. She pinned her short, ash brown hair into a loose bun with pieces left out to frame her face. She donned a strapless navy blue dress that barely even went to her mid-thighs and stepped into a pair of strappy heels. And then she finished the look with one of her many chokers, choosing the one that was made up of five rows of fake diamonds to really cover her neck just in case.
She showed up fashionably late and only got into the club because Fatima apparently knew the bouncer and he waved her in without hesitation despite the growing line. The club looked like every other club Kaia had been to in the world. She'd seen it all at that point. The lighting was always dark as hell, the music was always loud enough she could feel it in her chest, and the stench of pot, sweat, and perfume wafted through the air the way it always did. Kaia opted for going straight to the bar before she bothered looking for her friends, and found herself waiting for not even one minute when a guy cozied up next to her.
"Hey there. Can I buy you a drink?" he asked. He spoke French with a very raspy voice, but his accent was clearly foreign. In fact, it almost sounded like Kaia's accent.
"No thanks," she said without looking at him, though she could see a head of thick black hair and brown sunglasses through the corner of her eye.
"Aw come on. Just one drink," he pressed.
"I'm here with friends and would rather drink with them. Thanks for the offer though," she drawled, trying to catch the bartender's eye when he turned over his shoulder to fill a glass with ice.
The guy scoffed and walked away before he could do anything stupid. And thank god for that because she did not have it in her to put up with one more advance.
"What'll it be?" the bartender asked.
"Vodka club," she said.
The bartender made it in only a few seconds. It was an easy cocktail after all, and Kaia placed some bills on the counter before she took the drink and slowly walked around the club. She looked for Sofiya first. The Russian loved to wear metallic dresses out because of the way they shimmered and sparkled in the lights. She should have been easy to spot.
But then Olivia showed up and linked her arm through Kaia's.
"There you are! I thought for sure you were going to flake," she said. She guided them through crowds of people grinding on each other to a little booth by the DJ's stage. Kaia slid into the seat so she was next to Fatima and forced a small smile on her face when the rest of the group greeted her.
They all started chatting about something Kaia didn't bother paying attention to. She busied herself with her cocktail and looked around the club. People watching wasn't something all that interesting, but something was entertaining about watching people who were all sorts of fucked up trying to impress each other.
"What's so interesting?" Fatima asked.
"Nothing. I'm just people watching," Kaia said, shooting her friend a look. "Your hair looks nice. When did you have the time to get it braided before we went out?"
"My girl owed me a favor," she said easily.
"Ah."
"So," Fatima said. She looked over at Olivia, Sarah, and Sofiya, and when it became clear they were too absorbed in their conversation to listen to Fatima, she went on. "I was thinking of going back home for a few months."
Kaia blinked dumbly.
"What? To Trinidad and Tobago?"
"My gran isn't doing too well and my mother asked me to come home for a little while," she explained.
For some reason, Kaia felt flighty all of the sudden. Her heart started beating a little faster and her nerves felt frayed.
"Oh," was all she could get out.
Fatima's lips pursed into a tight line and her brows knit together.
"Why don't you come with? You love the island and it might do you some good to get out of this party lifestyle. You know you're always welcome with my family and—"
Kaia found herself shaking her head before she could even say anything. Her throat tightened and she gulped down her vodka club to try and loosen it up.
"That's all right. Say hi to your parents for me. I miss your mom's cooking."
The corners of Fatima's lips pulled down into a frown.
"Will you be all right on your own?" she asked.
"Fatima, I'm not a kid. I'm twenty-seven. I think I'll be just fine," Kaia said. She forced a weak chuckle to accompany her words. "I do need another drink though. Want anything?"
Fatima's frown only worsened.
"You haven't finished your first one," she pointed out.
The half-finished vodka club sat on the table, taunting her. Kaia grabbed it, chugged the rest of it with a wince when the vodka hit the roof of her mouth, and slammed it back down on the table.
"I'll be back," Kaia said. She pushed herself out of the booth and took hurried steps over to the bar. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she felt lightheaded for some reason. Fuck, it was so hard to clear her head with the music blaring all around her. She veered on her path to the bar and stormed into the bathroom instead, shoving open the first available stall and pushing her back against the wall.
She felt like her heart was going to burst from her chest and rip itself out of her ribcage. Her breathing was quickly getting erratic and out of control, so Kaia had to squeeze her eyes shut and force herself to take slow breaths in through her nose, hold it, and then slowly release her breath through her mouth.
It was fine. Everything was going to be just fine. She'd been alone before. There were those first few weeks in Trinidad eight years ago when she had no one but herself. She was way younger then and had managed just fine.
But still… That was only for a few weeks. Fatima had been around ever since. She'd been there for Kaia through it all. Through every ugly breakdown. Through every shitty relationship. When the world had caved in, Fatima had been there to help pick up the pieces and slowly put Kaia back together.
It wasn't fair to her. Fatima deserved a break from all the shit, and Kaia knew she came with her own particular brand of bullshit.
It would be fine.
Once she pulled herself back together, Kaia returned to the lively club, bought a tequila shot before ordering a second vodka club, and returned to her friends. She was careful to act happy, especially since Fatima kept shooting her concerned glances.
Eventually, she loosened up. And some point later in the night, after five vodka clubs, three shots, and several key bumps, the group started to dissipate. Fatima took a cab home a little after midnight, Sarah went home with some English guy who bought her a drink around 1am, Sofiya and Olivia went to another club just before Sarah left, and right around one-thirty, Kaia stood outside of the club by herself, waiting for her own cab.
There was a slow trickle of people leaving, but not enough for Kaia not to feel isolated. She yawned and leaned against a street sign to keep herself upright. The cocaine was wearing off and with it came the full effect of her intoxicated state. Damn. She really needed another key bump. Just something to wake her up long enough to get into her apartment.
"You doing all right over there?" a man with a raspy voice asked.
Kaia yawned and blinked slowly to try and keep her eyes open.
"Just fine," she drawled. She checked the app on her phone, wondering where the hell her ride was.
"Why don't I take you home?" the stranger asked.
She laughed, "no thanks. I've got a cab coming."
"You're going to be blacked out by the time the cab gets here. Come on. I'll give you a lift," he said.
Kaia's senses were too dulled and impaired to tell him to fuck off and for it to sound like she meant it. The high from her coke was almost entirely gone and her limbs felt so heavy because of it. She barely even registered a hand on her low back that was pulling her away from the street sign and guiding her down a nearby alley.
Her legs felt like jelly, but they still carried her forward until her balance was lost when she was shoved into the brick wall of the alley, now hidden behind a dumpster.
She groaned from the ground, palms and knees scraped up and bleeding.
"What the fuck," she snapped.
"Shoulda let me buy you that drink," the man said.
Kaia did the best she could to blink away the blurriness in her vision. The world still spun around her, but when she squinted hard enough, the man somewhat came into focus. At least, it was enough for her to see his thick black hair and brown sunglasses that looked like they came straight out of the seventies.
Of course…
"Oh, you stupid asshole," she said through giggles. "You could not have picked a worse person to do this to."
He smirked and his sunglasses glinted in the light of a far off streetlamp.
"I think I picked just fine," he said in that foreign accent.
Something happened. Kaia just didn't know what. If she thought the guy was just weird and rapey, she was sorely mistaken. Because one moment, he was towering over her, just talking. And the next moment, the bulk of the brick wall behind her exploded.
Kaia covered her head with her arms as debris surrounded her. She could feel her arms, legs, and torso get cut up from the blast. The blow sobered her up just enough that she could stand, and when she did, she saw the man grinning and holding what looked to be a little tornado in his palm.
"Curse user," she wheezed, coughing on the dust surrounding them. "Little far from Japan, aren't you? What's someone like you doing in France?"
"Should have let me buy you a drink. I at least would have killed you quickly," he said, completely disregarding the words out of her own mouth.
"You think your little cursed technique is something to be afraid of? Don't make me laugh," she said.
He giggled. The sound was high and manic and it set Kaia's teeth on edge. He played with the little tornado in his palm over and over again. She eyed it up, waiting for the moment when he activated the technique.
"Girls like you always think you're such hot shit. You didn't even look at me when you turned me down," he rambled. He took a step closer. "But you're looking at me now."
He activated the technique.
The tornado in his palm disappeared in one instant, and then in the next, it shattered another nearby wall and knocked her off her balance. A whole brick came flying down, straight at Kaia. It would have connected with her temple had her muscle memory not kicked in and made her roll onto her side to avoid it.
It landed with a crack right beside her head. She huffed.
She was too drunk for a fight right now and no amount of explosions would be enough to jolt her out of her drunken state because the world was still spinning despite the fact that her death was looming nearby.
Kaia began to push herself out of the rubble, but then the guy was there, emerging from the dust and debris, and climbed on top of her, pinning her to the ground. He kept laughing as he smothered her mouth with one hand and started groping her body with the other hand.
It would have been easy to breathe fire and burn his hand to a crisp, but she was still too drunk and Kaia didn't trust her cursed fire when she was intoxicated or high. Her emotions were too turbulent to actually control it and the effect could be devastating.
So fuck it. She was drunk as shit and there was a maniacal curse user on top of her who had a cursed technique that used wind like a bomb and who was trying to tear her dress off.
The solution was so simple that it was comical.
She focused a concentrated amount of cursed energy in the center of her forehead and let the cursed moon technique of her family take over.
The world stilled and everything came into sharp focus. The intoxication, clumsiness, and weakness disappeared from her bones as rage consumed her.
Kaia retained her lucidity but let the angry spirit within the technique take over and control her body. Her legs kicked at the man with an unfamiliar strength and sent him rolling backward, wheezing and trying to catch his breath. She stood up and advanced on him while her cursed energy crackled around her. He wiped his forehead and shouted something she couldn't decipher, causing another little tornado to appear in his palm.
She was faster.
Her body lunged forward and she punched him in the gut hard enough that he went flying across the street. She could see the impact one block away and ran forward to finish the job and end his pathetic little life.
But when she reached the other end of the block, he was gone. All that remained was an impression in the ground from where he must have landed. She looked around but saw nothing, and when she was convinced she was alone, she deactivated her technique and hobbled on home.
When Kaia finally made it upstairs to her apartment well over a half-hour later, she collapsed on her bed and seethed through her teeth at all the scrapes and bruises that now covered her body.
Christ. She couldn't get a fucking break, could she?
Kaia limped into her bathroom and began working on cleaning out her cuts. She sat on the edge of her toilet and examined her twisted right ankle to find it already forming a dark purple bruise. She glared and wrapped it up as best as she could when her eyes noticed the small figure standing in the doorway of her bathroom.
"There you are," she muttered. "I can't believe you were going to let that guy kill me."
As always, her curse gave no response. She just stood there, unmoving with her bloodied blonde hair matted to the side of her head, her white dress brown with dirt, and all-black eyes. Kaia had been particularly bad at exorcising the little girl over the last several years, but it also seemed like the little girl was getting stronger, because whenever she materialized at midnight, Kaia was often out at a club and wasn't able to exorcise her. But instead of unsuspecting clubgoers bumping into her and her ripping them apart, they stayed clear of her.
Pretty common for powerful cursed spirits.
Kaia tried to leave the bathroom when she was done cleaning out her wounds so she could go to sleep, but the little girl blocked her exit. Kaia sighed and against her better judgment, exorcised the little girl with a poorly controlled stream of blue fire.
She passed out face down on her mattress from all the alcohol and adrenaline a few minutes later, dreaming of nothing but a rotten body of water covered in algae.
Author's note
Weekly updates on Sunday as per usual. Estimated 22 chapters give or take a few as I edit. Reviews are so very much appreciated! Please leave one if you are able! Thanks and see y'all next week(:
