Late for Work

Phoenix flailed her arms trying to swat the spirits away. Her hands felt heavy, her legs tied down. There was a scream, it didn’t sound human, but she was too frightened to think straight. Then a ringing in her ears, maybe from being struck or hit in the head.

“Leave me alone,” Phoenix cried out and opened her eyes.

It was light around her, not the bright light of daytime, but a shadowed dimness that shades provided. She looked around breathing heavy, sweating and sitting on her own bed. Her cat glared at her from across the room, probably what she heard scream. The ringing continued, but it was not in her head, it was the phone.

She reached for the phone and answered, “Hello?”

“Hey Nix, it’s Kathy.”

Kathy was Phoenix’s boss. It was 9:30 am, but it was Friday and that was her day off.

“Hi Kathy, what can I do for you?” Phoenix asked.

“Hey listen, Sandra didn’t show up this morning, can you come in today and help out.”

Can you check the temperature in hell, Hitler? Phoenix held in a sigh and looked around her apartment for something that would give her an excuse to get out of working. Friday was her only day off, but an excuse didn’t present itself and she could always use the money. Besides it was not like she had any plans.

“Nix, I could really use you today,” Kathy said.

“Okay Kathy, I can be there in an hour,” Phoenix said.

“Thanks hun, but make it thirty minutes, you’re just on the other side of the commons,” Kathy said and then hung up.

“Sure I’ll just come in my pajamas and make it ten,” Phoenix said to the dial tone.

Phoenix looked over at her cat Taini and said, “I’m sorry girl,” followed up with some kissing sounds that only got a few meows before Taini wandered off into the bathroom.

Phoenix took a moment to sit on her bed. She hadn’t even had time to think about her dream, which in a way was okay. That was the third time in the past three weeks. It was different this time though, they got to her, they never had broken into the circle and now they did.

After untangling her legs from the sheets and blankets she swung her feet to the floor. There were two windows directly across from the foot of her bed, both covered with dingy faded white shades. A corner shelf was beside the window with various knick knacks she had collected over the last two years. They were mainly animals, and most prominent grey wolves. They were beautiful creatures. The wall that the headboard was against was half the height of its parallel wall because of the slant of the roof. She could not stand up straight unless she was more than two feet from the wall and if she sat straight up in bed, she would hit her head.

The rest of the apartment was even smaller. A tiny bathroom that could only fit a shower stall, toilet and sink. Phoenix couldn’t remember the last time she was able to stretch out in a tub and relax. The black and white tiled floor matched the white wall in the bathroom. In fact the walls were white everywhere.

Phoenix stood and straightened her night gown down her legs. Not that anyone would see her white panties, but there was no need to leave them hanging out. Her legs were long and lean and looked tanned, though she never went out in the sun. Her arms were covered to the wrist by the cotton top that looked like an oversized t-shirt.

With less than thirty minutes to get showered and dressed and over to the store she needed to get moving and would have to skip breakfast. Hopefully she would get a break and be able to get something from the coffee shop near the store.

Phoenix entered the tiny bathroom that also had the litter box and she was forced to pinch her nose.

“Oh stinky kitty,” she said flicking on the fan.

The ancient ceiling vent hummed and chugged as if it was being pulled started like a lawn mower. Slowly with each revolution it became quicker until it was making a feeble attempt at clearing the smell. Phoenix reached past the faded pink shower curtain and turned the water on. It began to flow, but it would take a minute to be warm.

She turned to the mirror, and pulled the string to the single light in the bathroom. She looked at herself, but didn’t see what others saw. She was pretty, tall and thin with beautiful long black hair and bright eyes that were a golden yellow in color. She lifted up her nightgown over her head and tossed it out the bathroom door to a clothes basket.

What she saw was a freak. Skinny, lanky girl with the same barely filling B-cup breasts she had at fourteen. Sure back then she had the attention of the boys, until the other girls started to bloom and she became a throw away doll.

Yet it was not her physical appearance that bothered her as much as what had been done to her skin. Just above the wrists it began, swirling and snaking in black ink, like a briar vine choking the life from a sapling. Both arms had the endless twists and turns of lines, some ending in swirls, some crisscrossing and starting new trails, up her arms and all the way to her shoulders.

If she stared at them they seemed to move, shift and twist before her very eyes. Trick of the lights she reassured herself, but it was more than that, something was very wrong with her.

Phoenix slowly turned looking at her profile as she did. Her back was too curved and her backside was not the booty that seemed to be in style these days. As she turned, her head stayed craned towards the mirror to watch her reflection and the marks upon her back that began to blur as the shower water heated.

The lines came over each shoulder, across the blades to fully cover the triangle area above the bones and twisting into a coil of irregular lines down her back to her tailbone. It had not changed in nearly a year, but her twenty first birthday was fast approaching and she feared soon there would be no covering the markings with long sleeve shirts.

She was taken away from her first foster parents, because social services thought the parents took a six year old to get tattoos. When she was a baby there was a line across each wrist and each year it grew winding up her arms. When she was older her foster parents thought she snuck out at twelve years old to get the more tattoos.

She learned that she had to hide her body from everyone which was difficult in school and kids made fun of her for wearing long sleeves in gym class, yet she could not explain the tattoos that grew every year and she was tired of everyone thinking she was a liar.

Tears began to form in her eyes, so she stepped into the steamy shower once again wishing the water would wash the marks away. It was unfair she had to suffer like this, hadn’t she had enough misery in her life, never knowing her parents, jumping between foster homes where the people were more interested in the check she provided than taking care of an innocent girl.

Yet she knew life was unfair and that she had to make the best of it, but it was not always so easy. She had no one to lean on, no one that would even care if she was gone. Her eyes dropped to the razor blade sitting in the shelf made for soap. The thought of ending it passed through her mind more often than she wanted to admit to herself. The fantasy of her being found bled out in the shower played through her mind, but who would find her. Maybe the landlord when her rent wasn’t paid.

Phoenix turned from the blade and dropped down in the shower stall sitting on the bottom with her hands wrapped around her legs and her chin on her knees. It wasn’t fair and she was too damn afraid to do anything about it. Too afraid to end it, too afraid to make a change, to leave the city her last foster family left her in, to leave the antique store and the mind numbing routine that she lived day in and day out. There had to be something better, whether it was a change in life, in an afterlife or maybe it was just a black infinite void of unfathomable nothingness.

Phoenix reached up grabbing at the soap dish and her fingers touched the blade. It slipped to the shower floor before she could pull herself up. For a moment she looked at the silver piece of metal sitting there as water sloshed it towards the drain. She reached down and with a finger lifted the blade and held it between two fingers. It was a simple decision that people made every day, one that she could do and it would be a decision to change her life forever.

Reviews

[Fallon]

Hey John, I'll review both chapters so far here.

First off, I'm intrigued by Phoenix's tattoos/markings, and it was interesting to imagine how one might hide such marks on your body through childhood and adolescence. Something that markedly different about a person is guaranteed to affect their character and how they deal with life. Is this why she's suicidal, or another reason? I have to say, if I had a figure like that I wouldn't be glum about it, lol. I like also that she's of Native American origin; they've always fascinated me.

The first chapter at first seemed a bit odd in how it was structured; like I felt I was missing some vital information or I'd missed a paragraph here and there or something, but from reading the second chapter I realise it's because it was a dream. The recurring dream theme - with a bit more revealed in each dream - is something very creepy and puts me in mind of the Japanese horror Ringu where every time they saw the cursed tape, Sadako climbed a little further out of the well at the end.

Overall, the story's very interesting and makes me as a reader want to delve further into the weirdness surrounding Phoenix. Are her markings and nightmares connected, for instance? I'm looking forward to seeing how her character blooms as the story unfolds.
The only negative things really are a couple of spelling/punctuation mistakes (easy done) and maybe the description of her room was a bit lengthy. Other than that, this has massive potential, look forward to more. Well done. :)