Pain, cold, and hunger.
Three words, three ruthless words that made her teeth grit and sunken eyes glared as she continued looking at the newspaper, edges crumpling from her shaking tight grip. Soon she tore the paper, violently, angrily, as if the paper was the reason for her suffering. With a heaving breath, she screamed that re-vibrated through the concrete walls of the alleyway. Her scrawny, dirty fingers continued tearing the newspaper from her remaining strength. Until there was no longer part of the paper to be torn apart. She only stopped when her body grew exhausted from all her pathetic wailing and unheard curses.
When she could no longer trash any junk around the alleyway, she retreat to the far corner of the narrow passage she considered shelter. Her fatigue body slumped down on the dirty floor, leaning her back on another chilly, hard wall, pulling her knees to her chest as her tears began rolling down on her stained cheeks. She wondered what did she ever do that she earned this kind of torment.
Before, Cia once had everything. Another child was born to a wealthy family. She never had to work hard to get whatever she wanted. With the money of her parents she can get anything. Of course, everything changed when her little sister came into the picture. Slowly, everything she knew that was in her possession turned around and took away from her.
And just like now that imp sister of her's successfully taken away not only her life she work so hard to earn, but her sister stripped even her face and name.
In this world, Cia Lockshyn died three years ago.
Now left with only her regrets. But she can’t continue living like this.
The rain poured down, which she only peered between her tilted head and knees. God, she was already tired and cold, but it had to rain again, making her life even more miserable. She stood up, making her buttocks protested from the sudden shift of position. Bitting back the ache, she wince even further when the downpour got heavier. A gruff curse barked out of her mouth when the cold water finally seeped through her cheap, tattered jacket. Running out of the alleyway, she skidded to stop only to trip upon seeing the same man following her for a month now. She dubbed him Alfred before because the old man reminded her of the old comic book that caught her attention before.
The man under his umbrella held out his hands for her to reach, but she ignored it and stood without his help.
“Scram! I already denied your offer doesn’t your boss know how to take a hint.”
She swallowed and she could feel sore in her throat from forcing her voice to go even louder. She glared at the man after she stood up straight again. But the man was still calm, only staring at her soaked figure.
He sigh and shook his head. A gesture she saw so many times before from her father, she knew that gesture very well because every time her father does that from before; she knew her father was getting further apart from her.
“Leave me alone!” She screamed this time. Although it could hurt her throat, she couldn’t keep the pain contained upon seeing that gesture from the man in front of her. That disappointed expression burrow a deeper, sharper pain in her chest.
“This time I am afraid I cannot leave you like this alone, drench and hungry.” The man said.
“Why can’t you understand a simple no as an answer? I repeat, leave me the hell alone!”
But the man stood still in front of her, which only frustrate her. And her being already drenched and cold, not to mention hungry for the consecutive days, gritted her teeth before clicking her tongue from the roof of her mouth. Her tired body shivered. She decided to stop wasting more time on the man, taking a step away from him. A firm hand clasped in her arms pulled her to stop when she brushed past the man. Her attempts to break free from the gripped on her arms failed because of her weak state.
She turned around and tried prying the hands off of her arms while she screamed in panic and desperation. Is he finally gonna kidnapped her and forcefully brought her to his boss?
“Settle down, child, I won’t harm you or brought you anywhere. I simply wanted to talk. How about we go to one of the restaurants and have a nice chat while we eat and wait for the rain to stop.”
It only made her angrier because the invading cold continued to sink into her bones. “No! You wouldn’t fool me!”
She tried yanking her arms even though she was so exhausted that every move of her arms hurt her.
“Please, child. Don’t make this harder for you. If you continue doing this to yourself, I don’t know what would my master do. Please, just this once, trust me.”
Out of pure exhaustion and frustration, she uncontrollably sobbed and her knees gave out that she slowly collapsed on the wet ground.
Her head tilted upwards, glaring straight at the man. “Trust! Look where trust got me into! I got nothing! And you wanted me to trust you!” Her voice sound too raspy that even she couldn’t recognize the voice that came out in her mouth.
The man kneeled on one of his knees, letting go of her arm, and embraced her. With her exhausted body, she didn’t try pushing the man away.
“I know. Forgive me for asking for your trust so easily. Then how about this child? Let me prove my intention to help is purely genuine.” He said while patting her head.
Cia got nothing to lose, anyway. She was tired, cold, and hungry. She got nowhere else to go or knew any shelter to cover her from the rain. With no choice left, she nod and let the man helped her steady her up as she stood and guide her to his car parked on the sidewalk.
When she entered the car, the cold soft leather seat immediately overload her senses. It was such a long time since she occupied something this soft and comforting. The man instantly turned on the heater of the car when he got inside and drive to the nearest dinner they passed through. And when they got inside the establishment he lend her some clothes to change.
It took her a significant amount of time to take the soaked clothes off of her, using the free tissue inside the cubicle to dry her body. It’s been a while since she had a change of clean clothes doesn’t matter if it was double her size. As long as the clothes were clean, she’ll dig it.
After throwing the tattered filled with grime-soaked clothes, she washed her face, wiping the remaining stain off her pale, sunken face. Her dull brown eyes studying her less filth appearance. The blue thick jacket hugged her small stature enough to cover her lower thigh. Well, she went commando all the way down since the inside out of everything she wore soaks from every bit of rain. The dress shirt and jacket were long enough to pass in a length as a dress so she doesn’t have any worries about her lack of clothes in certain parts.
Three years and the changes in her physique were drastic. She barely resembled the woman she loved and well taken care of. Now the woman she saw on the reflection was a mere husk that dried out like a pruned fruit. She turned her head, stepping away from the mirror that only offered an offending sight of her mistake. The hunger pain pangs for the nth time this day making her come back from the cruel reality of her life.