Sinking Fantasies

Cinderella explored again. A pool, a morbid introvert and a rocker model stuck with black boots.

The moon was a bloated orb stuck on a velvet cloth with stars that looked like distant lights of distant cities. Jay stood under the shade of a haggard tree, slumped back against its wrangled, thick branches that had become like a throne for him. He was smoking and it made him look like a shockingly beautiful illusion in the silvery moonlight that covered him in moon dust so that it looked like he had gems embedded beneath his pale skin. His big blue eyes were half shut, sleek, long eyelashes casting shadows over his face that emphasised the sharpness of his high cheekbones and the small and barely noticeable little cleft-like part of his chin. 

He was tired. Unusually so; exhaustion had sunk into his long, lean, lithe and elegantly muscular form like molten lava that had somehow solidified into rock and was now making it very tempting to go to sleep in the boughs and branches of his tree. Crickets kept trying to sing somewhere nearby but the cold seemed to keep choking them brutally. It hardly got to Jay. He felt almost like an ice king; perfectly composed and collected all the time. Casually good looking without having to try. The lemon-scented breeze stroked gently over his face, making him open his eyes wider, taking in the distant bubbling gurgles and twitters of distant conversations spilling out of the large open doors of the manor holding one of the largest parties of the year. 

There was a pool near where he rested. A big, bright oval surrounded by fake white feathery flowers that looked almost like rippling blue tipped flames. The pool was uncovered, the water clear enough to expose the funny dark blue mozaic tiles inside the pool that were shaped like large dollar signs. Why dollar signs? Jay never understood the concept, but it always amused him. People were strange. Strangeness was their normal. At least, that is how it felt to him. 

A small figure dressed in a black fake fur coat and black trousers that showed off her funnily long and skinny legs suddenly strode into view. Tension had her awkwardly slumped over and to one side, her wild black hair badly rumpled by the wind unlike his own that seemed sleeker in comparison. She wore black boots and her face was hidden by the shadows cast on her by the night but he could tell she had sickly very pale brown skin; a bit like the colour of a piece of paper stained by tea but in this case the tea stain had started fading.

When the moonlight hit her face he saw that she had wide, big, mysterious brown eyes fringed by eyelashes and dramatic  black eyeliner. Her cheekbones were sharp, nose long and thin, slightly plump lips, a wide forehead and a mask of blankness on her face, trapping any emotions or feelings. However he could sense unspoken words and tormenting struggles screaming and shouting, fighting to be heard under her forcefully composed surface. 

She was about to do something.

He could sense it.

What he never expected was for her to purposefully stride over to the edge of the pool and peer in. Holding his breath and with a funny tightness inside him, Jay silently pushed away from the tree and was tugged forcefully towards her by a potently strong urge he had no control over. He had to be there. 

She looked around her like a scared kitten about to hunt a leaf for the very first time. Curiosity and expectant wonder had Jay frozen behind her, somehow invisible to her as she stepped forward, onto the sheet of completely still water. And soundlessly slipped through it, straight to the strange dollar signs at the bottom. She left a surge of disturbed waves rippling and crashing in annoyance against the sides of the pool, making the flower-flames flicker and quiver as though afraid of the wrath of the water. 

Jay stepped forward, face caught in a look of complete confusion. He peered in over the edge.

She was a black shape far below the surface of the water, not moving.

He was pretty sure she had not been intending to swim.

Worry and a small spark of confusion made him start looking quickly all around him; what could he do now? Was there anyone around to help her? Why were there no lifeguards? Was there meant to be a lifeguard? Had she drowned already? 

He found himself stepping out of his coat and hanging it on a tree. Grimacing as cold air snaked under his shirt and made his eyes water, he stepped out of his boots as well, unhooked his belt and let it settle to one side like a slumbering snake. He hesitated before realising that it was extremely cold and he had no real choice but to take off as many articles of clothing as he could-without worrying about who saw and what they thought about it-and quickly moved forward through frozen shards of air that tore at his porcelain flesh, straight into water. 

It felt like shards of glass were stuck to his skin, piercing his lungs and trying to drown him. Holding his breath was hard, but he managed, somehow. The water stung his eyes; blurry sight guided him around the empty, alien blueness around him until he saw. He broke through frozen shards of glass, ignoring the exhaustion that had clamped around him and was trying to pull him down. His flailing hands grabbed her, gently steering her helpless form over to him, close enough for her hair to blind him as he kicked off the funny dollar signs and rose to the surface. 

He gasped, sucking in a lungful of fanged cold air that ripped a bark like cough from his frozen mouth. She was shuddering against him, her fur coat and clothes making her weigh the amount of a truck as he fought to get them both to one of the sides of the pool with aching arms and a pounding pulse. He deserved knighthood if he survived this! And he swore to never try to 'save' someone again. 

Grimacing at the effort, he pushed her out, ignoring the flickering flowers that turned limp as water droplets rained onto them. Heaving himself upright, he almost cried out at the unbearable coldness that felt like the air was alive with invisible fanged piranhas and focused on trying to stay upright long enough to get into his clothes. 

She had not moved. But he was too cold to realise that as he fought his way into his clothes, shuddering so much he almost dropped them. He was lost to the cold until he finally got his boots on and then slowly turned to face her, still cold but much warmer to see that she had heaved herself upright and was facing the pool again.

He almost swore. "Don't you DARE..."

She started, surprised by the soft, smooth but slightly deep silken purr-like man's voice that made her turn, almost falling into the pool by mistake.

"Step away from the pool girl." Jay grumbled groggily, scowling at her.

She took in his sharp, high cheekbones, his striking beauty that was like elements of a young Mick Jagger and Patti Smith with aspects of David Bowie as well as Steven Tyler. This man was insanely beautiful with big blue eyes and very wet dark hair. Droplets of water and moondust made him shine. He was almost like a statue carved to perfection out of the finest alabaster and porcelain. He could have been a scarily beautiful nightmare, yet he was very much alive, wet and currently scorching her with his angry glare. 

He was also holding one of her boots, but that was unimportant. 

She forgot how to speak. 

"I have no f*****g idea what the Hell that was but if you do that again...I SWEAR-"

She felt uncomfortably hot. "No one asked you to save me!"

He looked shocked, somehow it made him look even more beautiful and this made her angrier.

"I didn't want to be saved..."

"Well you still were. Because you are human and as far as I know I vowed that no one would kill themselves on my watch even if they badly wanted to alright? Yes life is fucked and s**t and the worst thing ever but drowning yourself in a random pool with weird dollar signs in the tiles is NOT the best was to go and besides...I don't know you but I'm pretty sure you must have like a life and stuff to go and live-" he noticed her eyeliner was badly smudged, she looked even sickly paler in the moonlight now that she was very wet and that was surprising for him because he was always told he looked far too pale.

"What are you meant to be anyway? The love child of Mick Jagger and Patti Smith?" She turned and stomped away, too tired to say anything but pretty sure that she no longer had any insults to offer; besides he was far too beautiful to argue with and he HAD kind of saved her life. 

Jay frowned. She was dejectedly stomping away. For some reason he wanted to help her. He could sense her pain and sadness because of the vast amounts in which it was completely covering her. And yet, he did not understand what to do. Besides, he would probably catch a cold and anything could happen after that. 

"What the f**k are you-" 

He turned to see that his friend; Errin, who always seemed to have good hair had somehow appeared behind him and was watching him in confusion. 

"Erm.." She realised that his hair was wet and tried to ignore the idea that he might have stripped and dived into a pool in the middle of winter. Also, the thought of Jay having stripped made her feel very uncomfortably hot and suddenly she could not look directly at him; even his hands with the rings made her want to melt. "Jay..." She finally saw something she could focus on. "Dude..why are you holding a woman's boot?" Was he cross dressing? Maybe he had come to the party...

He looked perplexed to see the boot, then he burst out laughing, a very soft musical sound that made her smile.

"Is everything ok?" 

He nodded slowly. "This has been weird."

"I can imagine." She offered.

He was so beautiful that she had accidentally looked at him and was now having a hard time looking away. 

"Can you help me out?"

"Of course."

"I need to find a lady. A girl. I need to give her back her boot."

Errin blanched. "And...why do you have her boot Jay?"

He shot her a funny look. "Long story ok? But you might have seen her."

"Ok..." Errin forced herself to nod; why did Jay have a random boot? Was he hoarding boots now?

"Basically I was out here just smoking and she came out of nowhere and jumped into the pool. So I saved her. And then she walked away. Somehow I have her boot. I think she might want it back."

Errin snorted with laughter. "I leave you alone for a few minutes and you start thinking you're superman..."

"Well...I wasn't gonna let someone drown."

"So..what was she like?" 

"Kind of tall...but not...with big hair...wearing a fake fur coat....dramatic eye make up...black hair...erm..."

"That sounds like everyone inside right now."

"No but she was different..."

"I still don't really understand how you ended up with her boot and why she left without it."

"She seemed kind of lost."

"Let's go then...we need to get the poor little birdie her boot."

                                                                         JAY

Errin watched Jay struggle with his long legs and the boot, almost laughing at the absurd cuteness of the situation before he finally managed to fold himself into the car and put the boot down by his feet. He slammed the door to her ancient car behind him and yanked the seat belt out and over himself as she started driving, slowly and carefully to make sure nothing fell off the car again. Last time she had tried to drive fast, her exhaust pipe had fallen off and her number plate had gone missing so they had to roam around for hours trying to find everything. Errin was subborn; her car was like a child and she would much rather give up humans than her car. No one knew that she could never turn the AC or the heater on without first grabbing the hammer she kept in the dashboard and hitting it three times. No one but Jay, that is.

She watched him hit the dashboard with the rusty hammer, his rings glinting in the air. "Cold?"

"Yes." He sniffed. "I can't afford to catch a cold or die."

"We can't play music if we have the heater on."

"I need warmth more than music right now..." He slumped wearily into the seat and sighed.

She secretly admired how strikingly beautiful he was; the sharpness of his cheekbones seemed enough to cut through glass. 

He suddenly opened his eyes.

She quickly looked away, face flushing out of  fear that he would realise she was secretly admiring him.

"Errin? How are we getting her boot back to her?"

Errin stopped the car at a traffic light and something groaned. "Erm..."

Jay rolled his eyes. "This is fun..."

"Let's walk?" Errin shot him a sheepish half-smirk.

He shook his head slowly and got ready to unbuckle his belt when he suddenly froze. 

"Jay?"

"It's her!"

"What-" Errin watched him push open the door, grab the boot and dash out into the cold; a tall black figure battling the cold with a boot in one hand. "Well.." She decided to sit back and stare up at the distant moon that hung heavy over their world and wondered what could possibly happen next.As far as Jay was concerned, anything was possible; from flying pigs to rainbow unicorns. 

                                                                     JAY

Jay had stopped running; his quick footsteps tapping against the pavement and making people gawk in awe at the extremely beautiful man striding purposefully down dark streets with the moon lighting up his face and form, highlighting all of his flawless attributes. The boot perplexed them all; why was he holding a wet boot? Why was his hair wet? Why did he look so purposeful? Where was he going? 

"Hey!" He skidded over frozen shards of grass, past a grumpy looking owlish man and a small girl wearing pink gloves who watched him with big green eyes full of childish mirth, completely awed by this funny man holding a boot. "Hey wait-" he almost knocked into someone, gently pushed past a throng of tightly packed Christmas shoppers eating something sweet that made his mouth water.

He could see her; the long black figure racing the moon in the sky. The wailing, howling wind that kept tearing at him seemed to have no impact on her but she was so fragile, so delicate, so soft and helpless. Somehow she failed to hear him and he was starting to feel a dull throb against his scalp as a head ache stirred and tried to stop him. The weight of the boot weighed him down with purpose.

He followed her past a brightly lit shop where light trickled out onto the streets like sticky honey. The warmth it exuded made him momentarily slow his pace. She was close now, somehow she seemed completely fine with the fact that she was only wearing one boot. No one seemed to notice that about her; maybe her sadness had made her completely invisible to other people. 

"Wait-" he finally got right behind her; it was just him and her standing in a dark alleyway where the wind was at its wildest and kept charging them both like a howling menace, showering them in dead leaves and twigs. 

She slowly turned to him, brown eyes wide spheres of glassy misery. 

"I have your boot."

She frowned in confusion and looked down at her left foot before her face flushed slightly. "Oh..."

He tentatively, cautiously held it out to her as though she was a scared, injured, stray kitten he was trying to coax to trust him so he could help her. 

She slowly took it off him; each movement very careful and slow as though she was far too aware of how easy it was for everything to fall apart. "Thanks..."

He watched her step into it, the heel clacking against the pavement.

"And erm..thank you for saving me." She offered, finally daring to smile up at him shyly.

He just nodded. 

"How can I repay you-"

"Jay-"

"Jay...how can I repay you?"

He smirked; his dimples making her heart stop. "That's ok...honestly." 

She frowned. "How is it ok? You jumped into a pool in the middle of winter to save me and ran down random places to get my boot to me. I think that should be enough for me to owe you something..." "Jay?" Errin has suddenly appeared beside them, both women exchanged a quick glance that made Errin's ears burn. Jay smiled at her. "Errin, hey...look, this is-" "Cora." "Cora." Jay finished, somehow Errin's burning ears had no impact on him. "Cora this is Errin." "And Jay this is now REALLY late. I think we need to get going." Jay glanced one final time at Cora. "I have to go somewhere anyway." She offered, wondering how heavy she must have been when he had to drag her out of the water. "Besides, it's very cold and you deserve to go home and get warm. You might catch a cold..."

Author's Note

Let me know what you think please. This is a draft...errors might be all over the place. Let me know what you think.