Chapter Two

June 18, 2005

        Serenity awoke from her memory dream due to her own screams. She sat up slowly, pushing her sweat soaked hair from her face and forehead. For the love of God, Serenity thought. She had been reliving that nightmarish reality for the past week of nights. She saw everything happen as it actually had, but almost in slow motion, with her eyes taped open, screaming, but no sound emitting from her bowed lips. His eyes...God, his eyes. Serenity made to stand up, but realized that while she had been restlessly sleeping, she had entangled herself in her sheets, which were damp with sweat. She sighed and pulled her shapely legs from the white cotton sheets and stood up. Serenity popped her back, stretching. She walked to the bathroom doorway but on the way there, slammed her knee into her dresser. Cursing, she walked into the bathroom and clicked on the dimmer lightswitch to full blast, blinking a few times as her eyes adjusted to the harsh light. Pulling her shoulder length cranberry coloured hair into a ponytail at the nape of her neck, Serenity looked up at herself in the mirror. She had slept badly and it was obvious. Serenity moved away from the mirror and bent down to turn on her shower, using hot water more than cold. She slid out of the boxers she had slept in and kicked them away. Serenity peeled the tanktop off her back and jumped into the shower, closing her eyes, letting the water envelop her like a hug from a long-lost friend. Rubbing shampoo into her hair, Serenity let her mind go on auto pilot and before she knew it, she had been in the shower for over half an hour, completely clean. Serenity turned the water off and pulled down a towel that had been hanging from the shower's curtain rod. She wrapped the towel around herself and pulling the shower curtain to the side, stepped out. Glancing at the mirror, Serenity only saw what seemed a shadow of herself in the fogged up mirror. She took a hand towel and rubbed it away, letting the thought that it would just refog barely register in her mind. Serenity pressed the warm hand towel to her face, breathing deeply, pushing back hot tears that were threatening to flow over her eyelashes. She swallowed hard and tossed the towel on the counter. She dried off and wrapped another towel around her hair and she walked back into her room.
        With one look to her bed, using the light that was pouring from the bathroom, Serenity realized she should remove the sheets and wash them, so she could put fresh ones on the bed. She felt too lazy and worn out to do so at the moment, so she stored the thought as a mental note and planned to get around to it later. Scratching at her shoulder blades, Serenity walked to her closet. She pulled open the doors and stepped inside while simultaneously flicking on the light on the outside wall of her walk-in closet. Glancing around, Serenity decided on a pair of worn jeans and a black Avenged Sevenfold T-shirt. She did not have to work today and had nowhere to go, seeing as everyone she knew still went to the Cell, did not speak with her anymore, was working or had passed on to other places
        At the thought of the Padded Cell, Serenity collapsed against her hung garments and slid down the wall, clutching her clothes to her chest. She had not conciously thought of the place since Aiden's death. Serenity sighed deeply, closing her eyes. She gently hit her head against the wall three times, a number that seemed to follow her everywhere. Serenity laughed in the same bemused, almost crazy way that she had done since she had shot Aiden. Shoving herself up from the floor, she grabbed her clothes and walked out of the closet, slamming the doors behind her, not taking care to turn off the light.
        Her thoughts were scratching at even the fuzzy edges of her mind now and it was beginning to drive her insane. Serenity grabbed a pair of black lace panties from her dresser drawer, along with a matching bra. She slid into those, having trouble with the double-clasped bra due to the shaking her hands were doing. Serenity pulled on her jeans, snapping the row of four buttons shut, cinching them with a triple-pyramid studded belt, dimly thinking I've lost weight. These things used to be snug. She pulled her shirt on over the turban that still wrapped her hair and walked back to the bathroom.
        After twenty minutes of using her hair dryer and a comb, her hair was dry and Wonderful, Serenity thought,all nice and frizzy. Serenity pulled her hair into a loose bun at the back of her head and rubbed at her face with the palm of a hand. She searched the counter for her small makeup case. Finally seeing it tucked behind a large bottle of mouthwash, she picked it up and unzipped it. Serenity took out a stick of black eyeliner, a wand of black mascara and a pot of red eyeshadow and applied them all. Serenity never wore much makeup. She thought a lot of it made a female look fake. Humans tend to cake on their makeup, she thought, with only a slight tone of disgust. Serenity inspected her flawless skin in the mirror and on a second thought, rummaged through her case again for a tube of lipgloss. Rubbing the clear strawberry flavoured gloss on, she then tucked it into her jeans pocket and turned to make her way out of the bathroom, not caring for a second look in the mirror. Turning the light off, Serenity surveyed her dark room from the bathroom doorway, not being able to see two feet in front of her, despite the fact that it was seven in the morning. Not even the thin streams of light coming from her closet did much to brighten the room. Serenity kept heavy curtains covering her windows, of which she had two in her room, that were nearly seven feet in height, ceiling to floor. She took slow steps to the window nearest her, taking care to not run into anything. She threw back the vermillion, velour-esque curtains that she had scalped from a store that sold used Broadway props and bathed herself in morning sun. Serenity walked over to the other window, pulling back those curtains as well and turned to look out over her room, which was just barely furnished. A matress and box spring on the floor, a dresser, a bedside table that consisted of a couple cement bricks and a plank of wood, all on a wooden floor. Despite the light load of furnishings, the walls were smothered with posters of Serenity's favorite bands and artwork that she had found in passing or that had been given to her. The room, in retrospect, seemed very empty because of its size. It was about fourteen feet by twenty, perhaps a bit larger. However, this was not unusual for a loft like Serenity had.
        She stepped out of her room and into the hallway that had only two doors, one of which was a second bathroom. The other door was another walk in closet, but smaller than the one Serenity had in her room. She used it as a storage closet and could not remember the last time she had opened it. This was not the morning to change that. Serenity walked past her living room and turned at the counter that divided her living room and kitchen, stepping onto the cool tile. She opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water and a sausage biscut that she had not eaten the previous morning. Serenity tossed the wrapper it was in and threw the biscut into the microwave for about forty-five seconds, Serenity stepped into her living room and turned the TV on, which was on the local news.
        "In breaking news, a man has attempted to rob the Redbank BB&T, dressed as a large female. The man waited in line for fifteen minutes, then, taking a Post-it note pad from the purse slung on his shoulder, wrote a quick note to the clerk. It read 'I'm robbing this bank. Give me all your money. I have a gun in the purse'. The clerk kept her composure as best she could. She pressed the security button underneath her desk and wrote the man a note back, saying, 'You are being arrested. By the way, one of your breasts is on your stomach'. The mans eyes allegedly grew large and turned to flee, but three security officers stopped him and he was arrested under attempted robbery."
        Serenity cracked a smile as her friend, Rob, who was one of the security officers at the scene of the attempted crime, came onto the screen, grinning. "This was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my ten years of serving as a security guard. It will definately be a story to tell for a long time," and his friendly, black face dissapeared from the screen as the showed the man who was the attempted robber. He had on a blonde wig, dressed in a flowered muumuu, with red lipstick smeared across his cheekbones. Serenity laughed and turned back into the kitchen when the news anchor man's face reappeared, his toupee falling off of his head. She punched in fifteen more seconds for her biscuit and opened her water, sipping at it as she only half  listened to something about how yet another NASCAR racer had died.
        "What the hell do you expect to happen? Have fun, driving in circles all the time? NASCAR! The stupidest sport ever," Serenity muttered. She hated racing, except for Motorcross and, unlike some rednecks she knew, did not give a flying fuck if a racer died. Uncaring sure, but hey, it is their own fault for putting themselves in danger's way.
        Her microwave beeped three times and Serenity took her biscuit out, grabbing her bottle of water. She walked once more around the counter and plopped onto her large black couch, resting her toes on the table in front of the couch. Slowly eating her biscuit, her mind traveled once more to her nightmares. It was almost a year ago since she shot Aiden. In fact, the anniversary was coming up soon.
        "Anniversary," Serenity mused, "the irony stings." Soon after, almost two weeks, would have been one year of dating for Aiden and herself. "Fucking Malakai. You just had to up and decide he would make a good feast, didn't you?" Serenity grabbed her water bottle and threw it across the room, watching it hit the wall, water spraying everywhere.
         Quickly shoving herself up from the couch, she walked quickly to her door and slid her feet into her black flipflops. Grabbing her leather coat from the mahogany wood coat rack, Serenity made sure her cell phone and keys were in the pockets. She threw open her door and slammed it behind her, heading somewhere even she wasn't sure of, hoping her angry tears were not making her mascara run.