How did I get here?

This is for a competition I did on Booksie. Based on the song 22 by Lilly Allen (I didn't choose it!)

Lyrics

When she was 22 the future looked bright
But she's nearly 30 now and she's out every night
I see that look in her face she's got that look in her eye
She's thinking how did I get here and wondering why

It's sad but it's true how society says
Her life is already over
There's nothing to do and there's nothing to say
Til the man of her dreams comes along picks her up and puts her over his shoulder
It seems so unlikely in this day and age

She's got an alright job but it's not a career
Wherever she thinks about it, it brings her to tears
Cause all she wants is a boyfriend
She gets one-night stands

She's thinking how did I get here
I'm doing all that I can

It's sad but it's true how society says
Her life is already over
There's nothing to do and there's nothing to say
Til the man of her dreams comes along picks her up and puts her over his shoulder
It seems so unlikely in this day and age

It's sad but it's true how society says
Her life is already over
There's nothing to do and there's nothing to say
Til the man of her dreams comes along picks her up and puts her over his shoulder
It seems so unlikely in this day and age

[ Lyrics courtesy of www.songlyrics.com ]

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[Music courtesy of youtube.com-playlist courtesy of myflashfetish.com]

How Did I Get Here?

by James E. Green

An entry to Xx DaceyxX's Challenge. Based on the song 22 by Lilly Allen. Please listen to music above.

Delilah Welsh slammed her fist on the mayor’s desk.

“I’m not going until you order them not to cut down the tree!” she cried.

The mayor raised a hand to stroke his hair, before remembering he hadn’t had any hair for 5 years. “I’m sorry miss Welsh but I can’t do that.” he said.

Delilah sighed. “Why not?”

The mayor looked at her. He knew Delilah Welsh well. It seemed to him that for every small thing the council tried to do, Delilah Welsh was there, green eyes gleaming, sweeping her red hair back ready for the attack. She was a stubborn girl. A fighter. She rarely gave up. He was starting to get slightly fed up of it.

“Miss Welsh, don’t you think it’s time you did something else. Constantly campaigning against every little move my council makes won’t get you anywhere. Don’t you think it’s time you got a proper job.” he said.

Delilah stared at him. “You have no right to tell me what to do!” she cried.

He glared at her. “I have a right to never listen to you again.”

She gaped. “What about the human rights act? I have my right to free speech!”

The mayor smiled. “Oh you can come and try to fight me. But whatever you do I won’t listen to you. You might as well give up. Now please get out.”

Delilah just stood there, staring at the man who’d just ruined her life. Fighting was her life. It was all she’d ever done. The idea of getting a proper job was impossible to grasp. But, thought the other side of her brain, he was right. She needed a paid job. She needed to earn some money. Simply fighting wouldn’t pay for all those bills dropping through her letter box by the hundred. She turned and stalked out of the mayor’s office.

Delilah Welsh had wasted her life fighting. Just 8 years ago everything had seemed good. Her life had been great. But then she still had her late mother’s fortune. Now everything was going wrong. She’d barely paid attention in school. She’d dropped out after GCSE, and since then she’d been fighting, constantly fighting. And now, when the man she’d been fighting all her life stopped listening to her, she had pretty much no qualifications with which to get a job.

That had been 2 months ago. Now she was sitting on her own. Cold, hungry, alone. She had 50 pence in her pocket, all that was left of the fortune her mother had left her. She had been desperately searching for a job for the past two months. Eventually she’d been chucked out for not paying her bills. Now she had no home.

That was when the man came. He was fairly good looking, Delilah thought. He had brown hair that needed cutting, but it looked nice. He had blue eyes that peered at her through a pair of horn-rimmed glasses.

“You look cold,” he said.

She nodded. “Yeah. I am.”

He held out a bag he was holding. It a paper bag that appeared to be containing some kind of pasty or something. “I was gonna eat this myself, but then I saw you and thought you needed it more.”

She took it gratefully. It was a cheese and onion pasty and it was delicious. She hadn’t eaten anything in a day, and was starving. He stood there and watched her eating, then he held out a hand to her.

“Come to my place. Sleep warm tonight. You can have a drink.” He said, and she took his hand. Stupidly, she went with him to his house.

“I’m Steve, by the way,” he told her as they rounded a corner.

“Delilah,” she said.

His house was fairly large, and it appeared old. A sports car stood on the driveway. He led her to the door, which he unlocked with a key he produced from his pocket. The door swung open, revealing a spacious hallway with wooden steps leading up .

“I’ll sleep on the couch tonight.” he said, smiling at her. “You can have the bed.”

She smiled gratefully. “Thanks for this. Your so kind.”

He patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. Anything to help. The bedrooms upstairs, first on the right.” he hesitated. “But first, a drink!” he headed into the kitchen. Delilah stood awkwardly in the hallway. She decided to go look at the bedroom while he was getting her a drink.

The bedroom door creaked open. Inside was a double bed, neatly made. She put a hand, cautiously, on the bed. She frowned. Cold. This bed hadn’t been slept in for a long time.

A smell came to her nostrils. A smell like...rotting flesh? She stared around. Where was it coming from?

She opened the wardrobe. It creaked noisily. When it was open she was hit by a blast of cold air. Inside the wardrobe was a fridge. It was hanging slightly open, and whatever was inside it was rotting.

She was going to simply close the door and go down and tell Steve, when she saw what it was that was rotting inside the open fridge.

A body.

A man, with ripped clothes and a ragged beard and dirt all over his face. Obviously a man who had lived rough for quite a while.

There was no sign he had been attacked. She thought about it and realised that a possible cause of his death was... poison.

She ran back down the stairs and into the hallway.

“Got to get out!” she screamed, charging at the front door. It was locked. She screamed.

Steve walked out of the kitchen. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“You’re going to poison me!” she cried, backing away from him.

“Why would I do that?” he asked, frowning and giving her a lopsided smile. “I only want to help you.”

“That body...upstairs. You...you killed him!”

Steve smiled wider. “looks like the game’s up.”

He drew a knife.

“NO!” Delilah was against the wall. She desperately searched for a way out. Steve was almost upon her now, knife outstretched.

Then the door shattered. It was made of one big window with a frame, and the glass in that window now went flying across the room. Delilah leapt away from it. But Steve wasn’t so lucky. A shard of glass flew into the hand holding the knife, and he dropped it, grabbing his hand and crying out in pain.

The man who now climbed in through the shattered remains of the door was the mayor. Delilah stared at him. He ran to her.

“Delilah, are you alright?” he asked, dropping to his knees.

She nodded, shakily. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

He looked awkward. “I’m sorry about what I said a few months ago. The tree thing fell through anyway. I heard about you losing your home. I was going to go apologise, maybe give you some help. Then I saw you walking off with this man. I decided to follow you. Sorry.”

“Good thing you did, I suppose.”

“Well, at least you’re alright. The police are already on their way.” The mayor went through Steve’s pockets, producing the key. What remained of the door swung inside, and Delilah and the mayor stepped out into the night.

“The police are going to want to question both of us. But when they’ve gone you can go do something.” the mayor dug into his pocket and pulled out a wad of notes, handing them to Delilah. “There’s not enough to buy you a new house or anything, but it’ll make you happier for a while.”

The mayor was right. The police did want to question them, but eventually they were gone, leaving her to the darkness. She had her money. It added to about £500.

As she stared at them, she thought about the events of the past few months. She remembered the mayor chucking her out of his office, her desperate search for a job, the debt collectors coming...And none of that would have happened if she hadn’t dropped out of school. But then, this man would never have been caught.

Was it a good decision she made all those years ago? Or a bad one? She shrugged and wondered off into the darkness, stuffing the notes into her pocket. Enough to buy her a proper meal, a room for the night, maybe she could find a cleaning job or something to keep her going until she could afford a house...

The End

Author's Note

I didn't win.
Image ~ fattiefatterton.files.wordpress.com

Reviews

[Jimmy Greenie]

I copied this exactly from Booksie, so ignore any info at the top. I do have a CoS recruiting contest here, but the deadline is the start of June, I think. Please go to MyFlashFetish and add a playlist to your profile or site