Serafin Falls - 1. Chapter 1

Serafin Falls

Chapter 1

these awful people

The night was hot, heat that permeated clothes, skin, and made everyone generally miserable; generally miserable being the default position of most people in this place. There was barely any room in the bathroom stall of this warehouse party. I had finished the rest of my cocaine before leaving the restroom when I immediately spotted Jon in the middle of the room, laughing among friends.

Jon moved as effortless as a movie star in a perfectly tailored suit. He entertained all that surrounded him. I stared at him, oddly proud of myself for snagging him. When he noticed that I was back from the bathroom his face lit up, and he excused himself from his friends. -Feel better?-

-Oh yes.- He handed me back my vodka tonic and I continued. -It may have been the sushi we had earlier. No matter. I feel good.-

He smiled. -I’m glad.-

-Listen, I know you need to mingle with these…- I looked around at all the people around us. -awful people…- I flashed him a smile and he smiled back. -so I will leave you to it. I will be here, at the open bar.- We laughed and he relaxed, thankful he didn’t have to tell me himself. But I understood. This was his place, these were his people, he and his brother’s actually, and they were celebrating their mutual success.

He kissed me, quick, like a habit, and walked back to his throng of adoring fans.

I sat down at the bar stool and followed Jon with my eyes for a while, watching him mingle and flirt and generally charm everyone around him. He seemed so loving, and so capable. He was gorgeous. And he was mine.

I turned back to the bar and caught the eye of the bartender, but he immediately looked down, back to the washing of dishes which he suddenly found quite fascinating.

I rolled the glass between my hands for a while before I said -You are incredibly sexy for a bartender, did you know that?

He blushed. -Thank you.-

-Don’t. It’s the truth.

-You’re, you’re Adali Anviere right?

-Yes.- I said with a heavy, world weary sigh. I knew exactly what was coming. -Yes, that is me.- There was one more sip in my glass.

-I was wondering if...

I cut him off -Unless you want sex or you can afford my services, which, judging by those outdated, ill-fitting clothes you cannot, the answer is no.- I raised the near empty glass to my lips. -I don’t do what I do for free.-

He stopped talking and didn’t speak again.

I finished the last of my drink and turned back around to face the dance floor, scanning the room from left to right, settling on the dance floor when I saw Jon. And he was talking to Michael.

I sobered up instantly. The various substances in my system, both legal and otherwise had previously dulled my senses, but I prepared myself for whatever Michael had come to bother me with.

Michael and I hated each other. I thought the man was a complete idiot and a nuisance, and I treated him as such, but he was engaged in a discussion with Jon and it was intense enough to make the glittering assholes around them stop and take notice. Michael had a smirk on his face and that wasn’t good for me. I got from my stool and headed straight for them.

I came from behind Jon, wrapped my arms around him while kissing his neck. He immediately stopped talking to Michael and leaned his head back, to the infinite chagrin of Michael, just as I knew it would.

-I’m sorry darling, is Michael bothering you again? Don’t worry, I’m here now.

I looked up in time to see Michael’s satisfied little smirk falter for a second. I caught it, and he knew it. But he continued.

-Actually, no Adali. I was about to tell your man Jon here that if I were him, I would be embarrassed to be seen with you.

I laughed. -When you’re here Mike, you would do well to remember that no one like you.- I laughed again, and so did a few others who were listening.

I felt Jon flinch underneath my touch. He turned to me. -Babe, don’t be cruel.-

-I’m not, love. I would just like Michael to remember where he is, with whom he is with, he is speaking about, and whether he is really prepared to see it through.

-I don’t talk to trash like you.- Michael said.

-Aww.- I said with a smile. -That almost hurt.-

-Michael, you’re not going to call my…

-I don’t need your protection, babe.- I cut Jon off before turning back to Mike. -Get to your point and leave, hmm?-

-I just wanted to congratulate you on your ascension into this place from the gutters in which you were born, but there’s something I’ve always wanted to ask someone like you…- He took a small step forward. -After you ate all the cats, dogs, and rats, how long was it until you turned to dirt?-

I don’t know if it was just my imagination, but the room fell silent. He continued: -While you were wandering the gardens in Asutern, did you ever grab a bite out of nostalgia? And if you really had Sight why didn’t you see this coming?-

Jon blanched. I flinched. I couldn’t help it. -That is completely ridiculous. Adali isn’t a disgusting dirteater.- Jon said, quick to defend me.

-Well you can just go fuck yourself.- I snarled at Michael. I couldn’t help it. I had a temper sometimes, I knew that. But with it his victory over me was sealed. I could feel Jon near me surprised by my language and in this moment I didn’t care at all. Everything I had built was falling apart. At the hands of Michael. In public. I couldn’t decide which was worse.

The crowd around us was whispering excitedly and growing larger by the moment. -What is going on over here?- Seth, the man whose warehouse we were currently in, whose party we were at and who’s the older brother to my boyfriend Jon, walked up from behind us.

Seth stood taller than us and most everyone he knew, standing at about 6’4. He had steel blue eyes and intense intellectual streak, coupled with his handsome looks, he was secretly hated by nearly everyone, and if those things didn’t bother anyone, the fact that he and his brother came from outrageous amounts of money surely did. -You are at my party, you are causing a scene, and I am asking one of you to speak. Now.-

Seth looked from Michael, whose eyes did nothing to hide just how much pleasure he derived from all this, to Jon, who stared at the ground in shock and confusion, then settled on me.

-Adali.

Seth always hated me. I think it was because he thought I wasn’t good enough for his brother. It could certainly be the case. But that wasn’t quite it. There was something else. There was more. It was because we recognized something in each other. Something we didn’t like. Something dark.

More people around us now. Niki, Seth’s fiancé, who also hated me, had come to stand by her man. Her long dark hair and pale skin was envied by many. She was a second-rate photographer at best, which is how Seth and her had met. She was hired for Seth and Jon’s mother’s second wedding. She stared with those long lashes and for a second I wondered if she thought that vacant, dead look she had perfected was sexy, because it seemed like me to be the look of a lobotomized mental patient. She hated of me may have been Seth’s doing.

-Well?

I lightly cleared my throat. -Michael has found out that I am from Serafin Falls.-

He hitched his eyebrow up, ever so slightly, and I took my leave from these people, these horrible people, this horrible party and went home.

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dirteater

I was pacing on the hardwood floor of our place when Jon walked through the door. I had found my stash of vicodin and took several to calm myself down.

-You cannot believe what people are saying.

I rolled my eyes. I can guess you fucking idiot. -Oh yeah? And what’s that?-

-That you grew up in Serafin Falls! That you’re a dirteater! That everything we know about you is a lie. It’s all completely ridiculous.

-Oh it is? Then why don’t you ask me the question.

-What?

-The question, love, ask it.

-I don’t…

-Shut up! You knew what he said tonight was the truth. You’re just too much of a coward fucking ask me to my face!

-I beg your pardon?

-Beg all you want, you’re not gonna get it.

He looked at me with wild eyes and took a deep breath before he seized on something. I could see it in his face. He looked back up at me before he said with a smirk. -You, you’re gonna get it? Gonna? You’re roots are beginning to show darling, if you want to talk like us then you had better get the language right. Now get out, and don’t come back.-

I was stunned. There was nothing I could say. I turned on my heel and left.

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And you like it.

I walked. For hours I walked, just walking around the city. Eventually I found myself in familiar territory. In Serafin Falls. I knew exactly where to go.

I didn’t know when I decided to come here, whether it was the moment I left Jon’s studio, whether it was sometime while walking around the city, or whether it was decided five years ago, the moment I left Serafin Falls and told myself over and over again that I would never some back. Because I always knew I would.

I had found the large squat brick building without difficulty. It was tough to make out at two in the morning, but the few lampposts illuminated the billboard on top of it, a smog-stained advertisement for a lawyer specializing in “anything” which had been there since I had first come to the city since I was a kid. Straight through the back door in the alley to the large staircase heading to the second floor. From there, I took an elevator to the top, the seventh floor. Where I knew he would be waiting.

Five years ago, a lifetime ago, Samuel and I had been lovers. If that’s really the word for it. We would fuck. Love had nothing to do with it, although at the time, I thought it did. He was a sadistic drug-dealing bastard, a manipulative snake that delighted in tearing down his victims before swallowing them whole. Like father, like son love. You and I are the same and you know it. I heard his voice in my head, always. And you like it.

I sat down on the couch. I couldn’t help thinking of all the times we had made love on this couch, fucked on this couch. He was always the top. Always.

He came from around the corner, shirtless and magnificent as always. A glass of wine in each hand, and I took mine knowingly, silently.

He was wearing white linen pants. He had recently taken a shower. He wasn’t wearing underwear. He always loved showing off, and no doubt didn’t put on underwear just so his cock would be visible through his pants.

-My Adali. To what do I owe this pleasure?

I sighed. It was him I had come to be with, one night, all those years ago. I was young, and foolish, but Samuel taught me how to get by. He taught me how to please a man. I was gorgeous, there was no doubt about that. So I used my looks, wit, and charm to get by. It worked more often then not. But if they didn’t work, then telling my client that I was actually a fifteen year old virgin would work. They couldn’t resist that.

-Samuel. Something happened today.- I took a large sip of wine. -They know about me. Serafin Falls. Possibly everything. I don’t know if they know about you though.-

-Is that it?

-I...I don’t know.

-Come now, darling, what did I always teach you?

He slapped me. Hard, across the face. My wine glass tumbled and crashed to the floor. I was confused for a second, but it took the slap to realize that there was something else, something I didn’t anticipate…the wine. He doused the wine. I had barely felt it when he slapped me.

I turned my head to look at Samuel, confused, this was never quite our game…this was different; he liked knowing I was fully conscious, fully aware of what he was doing to me, but when I did, when I turned my head the world spun around. I looked down to my legs, trying to will them to move, but they were rather foreign to me. They looked like mounds of clay. I was fairly sure they were actually my legs and I couldn’t eat them, but still I was very confused.

In the few seconds after he slapped me he had gone to his bedroom or somewhere farther in the depths of the house, I couldn’t tell, the world had turned. I think I had found myself sideways on the couch. I had fallen over. The world was sideways and I didn’t like it, and trying to keep my eyes open, trying to concentrate on what was happening to me was difficult. It was much better with my eyes closed. Time didn’t go by so slowly then.

I heard sounds of movement around me. Below me was cold and hard, no longer the softness of the couch, and I was on the hardwood floor but I couldn’t remember how long I had been on the floor. For a moment, I had a vague sense of pulling at my limbs then more movement. Thinking about what I was feeling, what was going on around me, it made me tired. The pull of dull sleep, of unconsciousness had been ebbing and flowing for a while now. But one last time it reared back, then crashed upon me with a force irresistible.