Chance by Heir.

3:25am

“But the pleasure isn't owning the person, the pleasure is this. Having another contender with you” - Philip Roth, The Human Stain.

I begin to write, as my cigarette presses against my lips, the only warmth I feel is the smoke against my cheek; Sirens blaring in the distance, and the only sound that can be heard from my apartment is the loud thuds from above and my heavy sighs. I closed my little black book.

My vision slowly starts to blur, ‘Am i tired..’ I think to myself as I start to slowly drift away. ‘Do not fall asleep’... The familiar footsteps I had been hearing upstairs had started getting closer, louder in fact.. A loud bang is heard from my door, ‘my mind is playing games again do not let it come on,come on,come on, this cannot be happening right now’.

The doorknob starts to shake, the bolts popping off onto the floor, a man so familiar but so foreign to me appears before me.

‘I’ve looked long and hard for you Valeria, we meet again.

The life I have tried to avoid, the life I made for myself, collapsing before me.

Flash-back February 1997

Valeria:‘ you crooks you killed my father’

Jason: ‘ We had no choice.’

Valeria: ‘ I should have never been involved with a man like you’

Jason: ‘ you owe me your life’.

Valeria ‘ I don’t owe you anything’ (spits in his face)

Jason: ‘ I'm not disgusted by you, i'm intrigued i think we can keep you around for a little while longer’, it's just too bad that you had to be the daughter of an heir who did us so wrong.

Valeria: ‘my father did nothing wrong, he should have lived on’.

Jason: ‘ That’s where you’re wrong’

That day I felt fire in my emotions, a fire like never before, a fire that broke out and killed every one of Jason’s men.

‘ VALERIA’ he screamed. The Echo could be heard from miles away, the anger and rage spitfires in his voice.

That autumn evening was the last time I saw Jason. I flicked my cigarette As the warehouse lit up in flames, I left peacefully. Never to look back again, I changed my name, signed off, and left the small town that it once was, never leaving footprints, moving towns until I settled into the big city.

A life I lived characterised by cynicism, fatalism and moral ambiguity, and questioned my entire morality, gone in an instance but always followed.

‘I will find you’. Jason's indigatious voice booms through each neuron of my brain.

A nihilistic life to live.

A series of unfortunate events.

A life I call my own.

4:55am

Jason : ‘Are you listening.’ An annoyed look plastered on his face.

So compelled by my own thoughts and memories, I had completely escaped reality of the tall, broad figure standing before me. The man I once knew, had burn marks covering his body, and smirked to myself.

‘VALERIA!’ he screamed.

That same voice that has haunted me day in and day out.

‘I have spent years trying to track you down, so many years’. He says huskily as he cups my face in his bruised hands.

‘So what is it now that you need after all these years Jason. I killed your men to honour my father.’ I said annoyed, frustrated, pushing his hand away from me.

‘Valeria.. There’s something you should know Your mother..’

My mother? My mother abandoned me at birth, what could jason possibly have to say about my mother.

The vision that was once blurry, blurrier, the walls closing in, and my brain fogging up, I started drifting into a slow slumber...

As i listened on to this husky voice go on,

‘Your mother killed your father…she has a hit on you, for $20,000’. He says with the look of defeat in his eyes.

‘You were just another contender,’ I spoke in a hushed tone.

The smell of chlorophyll filled my nasal passages and my body going limp.

I was surrounded by darkness.