C a p t u r e d

12: Spaces Between

The figure came into light of my lanterns. Immediately, the skin is what struck me. The figure's skin is pale, like the whitest rice. It pierces my eyes like a scar. Her veins and her blood are visible from behind her unwrinkled translucent skin.

(Caucasian. White. The first white woman I'd ever seen and I hated it. She looked like a hairless animal.)

Even her hair is awful. It's decolorized into pale, bizarre little strands that poke about her head like little white rats.

The only familiar part of her is her chin. It is so pert, so tucked-in, and the eyes are so wide with feminine innocence...

I say something like this. "A woman? Alone at night? What's wrong with her?"

My friends shrug and say something about stupid foreigners. The woman doesn't seem to care, and keeps standing there like an albino turtle.

I eye my friends but their gazes are calm and causal. Then they give me curt nods and wander away. Since it was night, most of the merchants were gone from the area... Wherever that area was, I don't remember. But bear with me.

This unnatural woman is wearing male clothing, and her hair is hidden under a hood. Her pulsing skin and strange colors lead up to a bizarre combination. I can barely stand to look at her ugliness.

(Obviously, I was shell-shocked. Or culture-shocked. Since I'd never seen people of other races before, her very existence seemed like a deformity. At least I don't think the same way anymore.)

I was still horrified then. Yet I turned on the charm because I needed the money.

"You're gorgeous. A whole other species," I purr to the foreign woman.

"I know," she smiles, speaking all sultrily. "I'm not around here either. And I'm oh-so fast at learning languages."

I begin rattling off my prices, and she nods, thumbing through the various garments. It spends her an eternity to pick out a green and white piece, courtesy of my sister.

"It's perfect," she breathes, and tossed her hair back. "I want it. Or more importantly, I want you."

"What?" I whisper.

She lowers her lashes, and smiles like a prostitute. My smile stays frozen on my face. She pulled out a dainty bag, and pays me more than ten times of what she owed me. My eyes grow gigantic and questioning.

"By the way, I need a place to stay tonight... You don't mind, do you?"

I would likely regret this. But the way she smiles, and her eyes are just so hypnotic...

"Of course not."

By some miracle, I'd managed to sneak the woman in without my family noticing. My grandmother was known for her nosiness, so this was a true shock that I succeeded at all.

The nameless woman rested on the floor, blanketed in Ji's silken craftsmanship. Her stomach kept growling, but I had no idea how to cook.

She would have to wait until morning. I'd come up with an explanation for my family by then.

"Is everyone asleep?" she murmured after a while.

"I think so."

She stands up in the silence, shedding her silken layer. I'm in my blankets next to her, on the floor, and I'm frozen as she darts near me.

"I sensed it the first moment that I saw you," she mutters, "Your family relies on you. You want to run away. You're tired of everything."

I nod wordlessly, and she climbs on me.