Scarlet

00 | Prologue

"Couldn't sleep?"

A faint glow of sunlight creeped in through a small window of a bathroom. It was enough to illuminate the space, albeit dimly. The light managed to outline the feminine figure of an individual that sat in a tub filled to the brim.

The person's body was buried deep within the freezing pool of water, but the height of the liquid stopped at her collar bone. An arm of hers was tightly clutching an edge of the tub. The elbow of her other arm sat atop another edge, and a photograph was pinched by her thumb and index finger. The woman rested the back of her head against the bathtub, and her eyes were clasped shut.

Her cinnamon-colored hair was dark with wetness, and a few strands clung to the pale skin of her face. Fat drops of a clear fluid rolled down her features. She couldn't tell if they were her tears or just the water from the tub, in which she had tried to drown herself not too long ago. Thankfully, it was her lungs' urgent need for air that managed to push her out of the self-inflicted torture.

She was fully clothed. A pair of black leather pants adhered to her submerged legs tightly. A plain t-shirt of similar color, and a blood-red biker jacket that hugged her shoulders were soaked too. The water flowed into every nook and cranny of the black combat boots on her feet, but she paid no mind to it.

"It's not everyday that I meet someone named after a color."

Her eyelids peeled backwards after a moment or two, and she blinked a few times to rid her eyelashes of the moisture. As if on instinct, her eyes darted towards the picture in her hand. Her line of sight scanned the person in the photograph, and after a couple moments of wordless agony, she closed her eyes again.

"Meet my eyes, love."

The photograph slipped from between her fingers when their grip loosened considerably. It swayed like a feather on its way down, before it eventually fell into a puddle of water on the bathroom's floor.

"If only you knew what I'd do to see emotion in those auburn eyes."

The deep timber of his voice rattled in her eardrums, as if he was actually speaking to her. As if he was whispering to her. And she hated it. She loathed her vivid recollection of his voice. She despised how every aspect, every bit about him was etched into her brain. He was carved into her memories, and there was absolutely nothing she could do to change that.

"If only you knew what I'd do to see those cheeks turn red."

The drenched individual began to lower herself into the bathtub once more. Slowly but gradually, the water swallowed up her collar bone, then her neck, then her chin. She didn't even suck in a deep breath of oxygen to pace herself.

"Stop. Moving."

It wasn't long before her entire form was dipped into the water. A burning sensation pricked at her chest as if someone had set fire to her lungs, but she made no such attempt to aid them. She let the merciless liquid fill up her two organs, with the only wish that they'd cut her airways entirely.

"You want to kill me, eh? That's of no use, beloved."

She longed for something her victims were always subject to; inevitable death.

"I died the second I laid my eyes on you."