Valentine Strain

Chapter 1: Homecoming

It would always play out like this.

In the eerie pre-dawn hours, Lex would awaken from her slumber before everyone else, her heart pounding with the anticipation of a forbidden albeit risky adventure. The orphanage, a place shrouded in shadows and misery, lay silent around her. She'd move through the dimly lit hallways, her steps as quiet as a ghost's, like a spy in the movies. At least, in the ones she was allowed to see.

Approaching the heavily dented front desk, she'd cautiously avoid the gaze of Fat Aldo, the monstrous warden of her confinement and her biggest problem, literally; his imposing figure, a grotesque silhouette against the flickering light. She'd wondered aloud on several occasions how the man even does his job at that size. With a mix of fear and determination, she carefully drops the pill into his steaming, hot chocolate - a concoction as swift and lethal as a bullet, plunging him into a deep, unsuspecting slumber. Just like the doctor ordered. His massive frame would slump forward, a defeated giant, leaving the button open for Lex. When she presses it, the iron gates creak open, whispering promises of freedom on the other side.

Now, only one last hurdle; the bozos waiting for her on the field, standing in her way and threatening a nightmarish battleground. Ivan, Tasha, Kristoff, Karu, and even Deadbeat Benjie. The whole gang was here, armed with a bat, a crowbar, brass knuckles, and shit she didn't even know you could use as weapons. They were ready to fight and so was she.

The gauntlet of terror started with Kristoff, the lumbering brute. She throws a light kick to his knees, staggering him. The kick was light for a reason, it wasn't the finisher. She saved that part for his bat. Seizing his moment of weakness, she bites his knuckles and steals the bat. She swings it across his face. Knocking him out would have been a blessing. But the mercy of unconsciousness eluded him. Now he has to bear the pain and cry like a bitch.

The next ones were easy.

Ivan and Karu thought having a crowbar and a mop handle made them scary. Now, they have to aim. Lex dodges their swings with ease, their feeble attempts laughable against her agile maneuvers and repeatedly found the same openings that Kristoff presented. Only this time, she wonders why the hell would Karu even use a mop handle while wearing brass knuckles. Whatever the dumb logic behind it, it was more weapons for her.

She takes Karu's brass knuckles in one fluid motion while sliding away from Ivan's swing of his crowbar. From a safe distance, she lunges forward and unleashes on both their faces, a blur of carefree violence that she struggled to recall which one of them ended up with a broken jaw. They were both ugly to begin with.

Now, only two shitheads left; Tasha and Benjie. She looks around, wondering where they went. When she doesn't find them, she's sure they bitched out last minute when they realized they don't have the numbers anymore, like they always do. She sets her sight on the path to freedom she's been waiting for all these years; a crawl gap beneath the security fences.

And that's when she hears them, calling out to her, a desperate cry piercing the dawn. Maya and Antoine pleaded for her to come back and help them. Her only two friends in this hellhole in the clutches of Tasha and Benjie. Across the field, she sees staff running towards her like vengeful spirits threatening to undo all her hard work.

She has two choices. Fight them off and help Maya and Antoine but potentially ruin her own escape. Or make a run for it and leave her friends behind.

She never ends up making a choice, at least in this dreaded dreamworld. She usually wakes up around this part, carrying the guilt of the choice she eventually made into the real, waking world.

Lex remembers having to take a moment every time this dream decided to haunt her. She had to remind herself that it was all in the past. The orphanage was behind her and she's never going back. She's never going to deal with those shitheads ever again whenever they felt like picking on the short "Flip" with the funny accent.