A Change of Heart

Chapter 1

Part 1

Three years ago

'I like this one' she said, pointing to the picture of green curtains in the magazine before her.

Ken leant forwards with his elbow on the table, resting his chin on his palm.

'Isn't it a bit too early to start planning things like this?' Ken asked her happily.

'It's never too early' Alyssa giggled, closing the magazine and pushing it to one side. 'I can't wait for us to get a place together; your parents say it will be soon.'

'And are your parents still ok with this?' Ken asked her. 'I mean...they don't think I'm taking you away from them or anything like that do they?'

'You're a good man' Alyssa gleamed at him, 'and your family are good people.'

'Oh stop' Ken mumbled shyly, picking up his cup of coffee and sipping at it. 'You're really too good to me.'

'You're good to me' Alyssa said to him, reaching for his hand across the table and grasping it firmly in her own. 'Very soon we'll have a house of our own and children. Our parents have it all planned out.'

'And...' Ken asked slowly. 'Is that what you want?'

'Yes of course it is' she gleamed without hesitation, looking ever more beautiful as she smiled. Her long corn coloured hair fell about her shoulders, as her blue eyes shone from the light through the window outside. 'My parents said to me it's what a woman should do. Find a good man to marry and have children with. This is my life's dream.'

'As is mine' Ken smiled, grasping her hand in both his own now. 'Have you finished?' he asked her as she dabbed at her lips with her napkin, doing so in a very feminine fashion. 'Would you like anything else?'

'No thank you' she replied, folding up the magazine and slipping it into her bag before rising to her feet. 'Let's go.'

He offered her his arm like a gentleman should, and together they left the coffeehouse.

It was a gentle day outside. It was midday. The sun was warm and the air still. Everything was peaceful around them, even the town itself seemed hushed.

Everything was calm....well....almost.

Ken suddenly heard a ruckus coming from across the road. He turned to glance back behind him, seeing what it was.

From the entrance to a club that Ken was unfamiliar with, out stumbled a small group of male figures, the liveliest of which was a young man with rose red hair Ken would have described as being like a woman's. Short at the top and long at the back, long enough to tie into a ponytail. Ken paused for a moment, watching this lively and rowdy figure as he clung to several of the men around him; clearly he was drunk, as were the men around him.

At midday! Ken thought.

He watched as the man with long red hair straightened suddenly, pulling himself up against the man closest to him. He then kissed him, hand travelling down the man's body and touching his crotch.

Disgusting. Ken visibly flinched at the sight of this. Such sordid behaviour is bad enough behind closed doors...but to do it out in the open....?!

'Are you alright Ken?' Alyssa asked turning back. She then gasped at the sight of the men, hand going to her mouth in shock.

'Don't look' Ken said to her in a sharp tone. 'Lost souls deserve only hell. We shouldn't have anything to do with them.'