Glass shattered against the wall of the small family home of the Fosters. Beer and suds trickled down the dingy kitchen wall and dripped onto a sobbing Mrs. Foster who crouched in fear on the floor below. She cowered in her kitchen like she had been doing off and on for the duration of her horrific marriage. This cycle had become a part of the dark reality that was her life. She could no longer remember the good times they had shared in this home. It all seemed so long ago, like a sick joke her psyche had played on her to stay complacent. When she was younger she would occasionally dream of the family she would someday have and the man she would marry, unbeknownst to her that this man would fall far below the standard once set by her younger self. "Please" she choked out the words, her sobs soon became quick desperate gasps for air "Please just stop…". The large burley man she had once sworn sacred vows to stood looking down at her in pure disgust, his eyes void of any affection or respect. Long ago, he did consider this woman to be his true love. But love is a fragile and fleeting feeling, throughout the years his true love had transformed to his own personal play thing. And now, she had morphed into something less than that. He sauntered closer to the shell of his wife that remained on the cold kitchen floor. Her dull eyes stared up at him with no presence, as if she were looking through him. Her devoid appearance infuriated him even more. He began to take small confident steps toward his prey but stoped abruptly once she began shaking fiercely on the ground at his feet. His presence had compelled her back to reality. "Rachel" he sighed, not hesitating to show his frustration "I can't fucking do this anymore, I want that thing out of my god damn house!"
He gestured toward a young girl siting at the kitchen table working on school work. She was the only child in the Foster's home, physically she took after her father but that was their only similarity. She had olive skin and long brown curly hair that could not be tamed. Dark brown and caramel ringlets sprung out of every inch of her head and covered most of her small face. Her mother adored her and her mop head, she always did her best to care for it but most days it was impossible to subdue. Her eyes peered through the strands of hair showing her large doe eyes, one a dark shade of gray and the other pure black. She locked eyes with her father for a brief moment until he diverted his gaze. He always attempted to avoid eye contact with her, something about her eyes made him extremely uncomfortable. Neither of her parents had grey or black eyes, this became a source of contention within the household. Doctors couldn't come to a conclusion as to why the child's eyes were so different, they assumed it was a mutation. The child remained seated at the table unbothered by the tragedy unfolding in front of her. This was a regular school night for her, and her parent's forsaken marriage would not take priority over her schoolwork. "She's a damn mutant" he sneered. Though he was much larger than his young daughter, he had a hard time containing his fear for the young girl who remained indifferent of his desperate attempt to remove her from the home.
"No….no she's not" the young woman began to crawl her way to her child, she was shaken and terrified but remained determined to reach her. "Don't do this Michael, please!" She had successfully made her way to her child and wrapped her weak arms around the chair she sat on. "She's our child, she needs to grow with love and support. We're her family!" Her tears continued to fall down her slender face and dripped onto the wild mess that was her daughter's hair. "Love?" The man scoffed "Support? She needs to be institutionalized !" He hissed his words toward the child and began throwing his coat over his broad shoulders. "I can't do this anymore, I don't have to live this way." He grabbed his keys off the kitchen counter and looked over his shoulder back at his broken family one last time. "She ruined us Rachel, she ruined everything." As he walked out of the home Rachel held her child tightly and tried her best to be strong for the two of them. "It's okay Adriana…he doesn't mean it." She began petting the young girl's curly hair, "he'll be back once he calms down, don't worry my love. Just wake up now". Adriana finally stopped her school work and looked up to meet her mother's gaze. Her mother's makeup was streaked and blotchy from multiple attempts to wipe tears away. "It's time to wake up now" she said with a weak smile.
Suddenly, Adriana's eye burst open, her phone laid at the night stand table next to her with the morning alarm chiming through the quiet darkness that was her room. Adriana rolled over and silenced the alarm, even though she had just woke up she felt exhausted already. She hadn't thought much about her father since he walked out on her and her mother so her dream seemed perplexing. Why today of all days? She never missed him, he was loud and took up too much space in the already small family home. His only saving grace was that he kept his distance from her and never tried to make any meaningful connection. Adriana sighed deeply and sat up in her bed, thinking of Michael was a waste of time and she was already too exhausted to face the work day ahead of her. Before she could manage to roll out of her small twin bed, a large black cat hopped in her lap and began loudly howling in her face. He was a plump all black cat with large green eyes that glowed like emeralds when illuminated by the light from Adriana's phone.
"Hey Lucky", Adriana weakly exclaimed. Lucky the black cat was a gift from Adriana's mother who rescued him after reading an online article about black cats being left in shelters due to old superstitions. She was hopeful that Adriana would open up to him and cherish him after watching him grow up before her eyes. Her plan was entirely unsuccessful, Adriana viewed Lucky as the most inconsiderate roommate. He would often help himself to her food, destroy her belongings, and made noise at all hours of the day. She also found it rude that he would "bathe" himself in the shared common space of their tiny apartment. For a small creature who paid no bills or taxes, Lucky had managed to become head of the household within his first year of living with Adriana. Lucky resumed his howling now at a louder volume. Since Adriana was awake he expected her to feed him immediately. "Later Lucky, Ill go to the store after work." A large drawn out yawn escaped her lips and tensed her whole body. It would be ideal if it was already the end of her work day.
Adriana pushed the fussy cat out of her lap and climbed out of bed. Her apartment was a small studio, and her home decor was nonexistent. Flourishing a studio apartment that was already quite small was not a wise use of space. Adriana turned her focus to necessities. Her twin bed laid in the corner of her main room across from her work station that consisted of a laptop and second screen attachment on a small white desk that she found at a thrift store. Her bathroom was off to the side of the main room and was divided off with a curtain, privacy wasn't much of a need when your roommate was technically always naked. Adriana slipped on a pair of black jogger pants and a white sweatshirt that was a size too large. By the time she made her way to her work station Lucky had already pounced on the desk and resumed his begging. Adriana was far from surprised about his behavior, he had a lot of audacity in his pudgy little body. "Lucky no", her words meant nothing to the glutton in front of her. She shifted her attention down to her phone at her workstation, she had about forty-five minutes until her first morning meeting. "Fine", she groaned and began putting her hair up and sliding her feet into a pair of house slippers. Lucky followed Adriana to the door, his paunchy stomach shifting side to side the faster he walked. He was quite pleased to be getting his way, not that this was a rare occurrence in their home. He happily sent his owner out into the rainy winter morning.
When Adriana walked outside she was met with a gust of wind and freezing cold rain that splashed across her face. It stung leaving her cheeks flushed and burning, she was now officially awake with no chance of returning to sleep. It wasn't an unusually cold winter morning for Chicago, but it was far from ideal conditions to run an errand. The roads may be slick, it had snowed a few days prior forcing the salt trucks to make their rounds. Old left over salt was still somewhere to be found on the dirty slush road, perhaps this would suffice. Adriana carefully made her way to her small compact car without falling in the parking lot. She quickly locked herself in before taking her second assault from nature. It wasn't the best car but Adriana always made an effort to keep it in good shape. The car was a birthday gift from her mother, Rachel had stored away any spare funds she had available and picked up extra shifts at the hospital for the overtime pay. With that hard work, she purchased the car from another nurse on her floor and gifted it to Adriana for her 16th birthday. While it was just a cluster of metal parts, the car itself meant so much more to Rachel. It was the first major gift she was able to hand down to her daughter after a life time of cheap birthday cards and handed down toys. She knew Adriana never cared either way, but she prided her self on being able to provide for the two of them after Michael left.
Once Adriana started the car alarms set off across her dashboard to warn her that her tire pressure was dangerously low in her left rear tire. This did not phase her in the slightest, that tire was always low and was the reason she purchased a tire compressor. Adriana decided buying a compressor and filling the tire up repeatedly was more pleasant than dealing with the mechanics at the nearest garage. The current weather conditions would make airing up a lame tire a miserable task. Between the winter weather and the time crunch before her work meeting, Adriana decided to bypass her car's demands. Thankfully, there was a small drug store that had Lucky's fix just five blocks away from the apartment. Adriana felt confident that she could run her errand without any automotive complications and deal with her leaky tire another day. She pulled out of her parking lot and drove into the storm ahead of her unbeknownst to her that she would never return.
The wind picked up immediately blowing the small car around the slick road. The windshield wipers worked as quickly as possible but the wind only added to the already heavy rain. Visibility was extremely poor, thankfully Adriana had drove to this drug store so many times she knew route by heart and she could get there on muscle memory alone. But soon the car was blown by a substantial gust of wind. Adriana instinctively pulled the steering wheel hard in the opposite direction. She over compensated and skid into the curb on the opposite side of the road. Her seat belt clenched against her chest thrashing her against the seat. All the air was pushed out of Adriana's lungs leaving her breathless in that moment. Once Adriana regained her composure she attempted to pull the car away from the curb. The car was now making a rattling sound that was not very promising and the leaky tire was officially flat. Pumping the gas pedal only made the tire spin helplessly never gaining any traction and made the rattling sound even louder. She was stuck, completely and utterly stuck two blocks away from the drug store. Another groan escaped Adriana, this one came deep from her diaphragm as she again pushed all of the air she had within herself. She would now have to do one of her least favorite activities, she'd have to call someone. Adriana dialed the number of the first towing company that popped up on her internet search. An older man answered the phone, his voice raspy and harsh. She could almost hear every cigarette the man had ever smoked. "Taylor Brother's Towing". Adriana spared no pleasantries "I need a tow to the nearest garage". The man on the other end of the line let out a sigh "roads are bad, news says to stay home. Why are you out in this?" Adriana felt no need to answer the man "Can you do it or not?". Her response must of amused him as he let out a chuckle "not any time soon, you have to stay put". She exchanged information with the tow truck driver and hung up, help would not be coming for her.
Adriana who lacked any form of patience decided to take matters into her own hands and assess the damage. She cautiously crawled out of her car, the driver door was now pinned against the curb forcing her to exit from the passenger side. Wiggling and navigating her body through the small car was harder than she had imagined. Once free from the car Adriana slid down onto the cold ice covered road, she had landed herself on a heap of dirty snow that had been pushed to the side of the road by a snow plow early that week. Before she could get to her feet, Adriana was startled by the loud howl from a nearby car's horn and the sound of tires desperately skidding wildly across the road. Adriana shot up to her feet only to lose her balance and fall against her car, she had officially lost her slipper to the dirty snow heap in this process. Before she had time to move her body, the yellow light was directly ahead of her. She could feel the heat coming off of the car and was blinded by that yellow light that now was so bright it burned her eyes.
Adrenaline coursed through her body only seconds before she was crushed against her car. The vehicle that had pinned her down between the two was desperate spinning its wheels in attempt to move away from her. The driver of this car was frantic, but was unable to move his large car off of Adriana. "Oh my god! O-oh my god…oh god!" The young man screamed into the storm as he fell out of his car in a hysterical mess. His hands shook vigorously as he pulled his phone out to dial for help, three numbers had never seemed so hard to type. After a few unsuccessful attempts he had regained enough control of his fingers to reach emergency services. Adriana remained sandwiched between the two cars while he tried to get her help, she could barely hear the young man pleading with the operator on the other line. He was starting to sound far away and subdued, as if Adriana were sinking down into the ocean leaving him at the surface.
She had always thought of the end, death. Adriana had never fit in anywhere and had a lot of time left alone with her thoughts. From a young age she realized she wasn't like her peers. While everyone around her experienced every spectrum of emotion, Adriana had nothing. Like a blank slate that was never touched she remained numb. The numbness she felt was like a pit within her body that could never be filled. Her mother's love couldn't fill it, neither could her father's verbal abuse and abandonment. There was no person, food, or drug that could ever fill the pit within her. Adriana had accepted this a while ago, not that she ever had a choice in the matter. But acceptance couldn't change the fact that living a numb existence was exhausting. Years of masking and faking had made Adriana tired, she eventually separated herself from the world entirely, it was easier that way. When alone there was no one to disappoint or interact with. It was just her and the pit, so it was only natural for her to daydream of death in her spare time. She had never attempted to end her life or to craft any form of plan, but she often wished that death would come and take her away. She went to bed every night hoping that it would be her last and that her eyes would never again open. It seemed Adriana would soon get her wish, the only desire she ever had was finally in arms reach and she still felt nothing. Not even death itself would satiate the pit.