A Love To Last

p r o l o g u e

A woman stepped out of her gleaming black limousine, her stiletto heels clicking on the cracked pavement like the ticking of a disdainful clock. She dragged out with her a black leather bag.

Her car, a bubble of luxury, seemed to shudder in distaste as the driver closed the door, separating its opulent interior from the squalor of the neighborhood it had been forced to visit.

Her nose wrinkled as if she had just sipped a glass of spoiled wine, her gaze sweeping over the dilapidated houses with their peeling paint and sagging porches.

Her lips, painted a perfect, unsmiling red, seemed to sneer at the children playing in the streets, their laughter a cacophony that grated against her ears like nails on a chalkboard.

She was in search of someone she loathed, someone who was daring to ruin her perfect life. She couldn't believe that she had to set foot in this... this slum to find her!.

She couldn't fathom how anyone could live like this, surrounded by decay and desperation, the stench of poverty in the air like a thick fog. The streets were littered with the detritus of lives too busy struggling to survive to worry about cleanliness.

A stray dog rummaged through a pile of garbage, its ribs stark against its mangy fur.

She shuddered, her heart untouched by the scene, her mind only focused on the inconvenience of her mission.

She walked as if the ground were beneath her, her eyes cold and calculating, missing nothing, yet dismissing everything she saw.
The people here were invisible to her, just part of the unpleasant backdrop she was forced to navigate.

As she moved through the streets, her presence was like a cold wind, stirring up resentment and discomfort. She asked curt questions, her voice dripping with condescension, as if speaking to the residents was akin to addressing a particularly dirty carpet.

The people answered her, some with thinly veiled hostility, others with a servility that made her lip curl in disgust.

As the sun began to set, casting long shadows over the cracked sidewalks,  her silhouette seemed to loom over the neighborhood, a specter of scorn.

And as she finally found the house of the person she was looking for, her eyes gleamed not with triumph, but with the cold satisfaction of someone who believes they are about to right a cosmic imbalance, to cleanse a stain from their perfect world.

Her arrogance was her armor, and in this place of poverty and pain, it was as out of place as a diamond in the dirt.

"There it is." She smiled a crooked smile. The steps leading to the woman's apartment were life threatening; all slanted and cracked.

"Help me up." She finally took notice of her loyal driver and servant who was following her all this time. The man nodded and took a step up the broken stairs, his heart pounding against his ribcage.

''What if I fall and shatter my bald head?' 
The driver thought to himself.

He gulped and extended his hand for her, palms sweating as he clutched the rusty railing with his free hand.

After sweeping strands of unruly hair from her face, the cocky woman huffed and accepted his hand as he guided her up.

They finally arrived in front of a worn out door, and the driver carefully knocked on it, afraid any hostility may bring it down.

They waited. She fanned the annoying insects flying about her vision. She kept shaking her legs in anger as house flies circled her.

Finally, the door creaked open, an unruly sound that made her angrier. The smell of freshly cooked chicken soup wafted through the open space, as well as a woman's head.

However, her smile fell when she saw who her visitors were.

Brown and grey orbs clashed in a death glaring stare. The driver stood patiently by his Madam. The tension was palpable and he knew the two were about to swallow each other whole.

One was powerful and the other was just a commoner who had finally found meaning in life. Both needed to get rid of each other, in order to live in peace.

"How may I help you, m-madam?." The lady stuttered, standing firmly at the entrance and blocking all view of her apartment. The last thing she'd want is for this rotten woman and her minion to set eyes on her daughter.

TO BE CONTINUED
word count, 812.