This world we used to know

DAY 4

She had just left a girl’s company. She was drunk. She was very drunk. The kind of drunk you’d get at a party. But she was at no party.

She was a low life whore; she did it for the money. She had a heroin addiction, and every so often she would meet a man who’d beat the shit out of her in an alleyway. But her life became better as she made money.

She wore nicer dresses. Men started to court her, as part of their little ‘games’, she made more money, better dresses. Eventually she was the nicer kind of slut. Ai had watched the girl from afar since the beginning; he actually once saved her teeth from being knocked out of her mouth. After about 2 weeks he spoke to her, he himself courted her. But it was no game.

They fell in love. Madly so, she still gave ponies her body, she was still courted. He didn’t care, he didn’t think he cared. One night they were together, hugging and kissing, making as much of their time together as possible it was beautiful, their bodies intertwined like vines. That night, he told her he loved, she agreed, she agreed that she no matter what, would always love him.

But one day he ran away. He just left with no indication. Her heroin addiction returned. She cried herself to sleep. She slowly slipped to being a low-life whore again. And there was only one escape this time. Only one possible release.

There she stood on the tallest building in equestrian, wind blew through her mane, and she had wings. But at this point she could not use them. She had just left a man behind, he must have liked her; he had had her several times before. Her body began to fall limp before her, she began to fall.

“You should watch your step.” Said a stallion as he grabbed her and saved her from the grip of death itself, it was him, it was Ai. “You might fall.”

“What are you doing here?” she asked, it came out much more pleased than she was. “You left me, it was you. You did this, you piece of cowshit.” She was crying, tears ran down her face.

“I had to leave, your current boyfriend saw us, he threatened me not only with a knife, but a gang. He was in a gang- and he wanted to kill me.”

She looked away in disgust. How dare he? He left her alone. “You see this” she gestured to the many holes in her arm. “This was you.”

“Please.” He said, trembling now, “do you still love me?”

“OF COURSE I STILL LOVE YOU.” She screamed, her voice rasped. Her throat hurt. “Every day I go to bed and think of you, of your game you called love. I cried at least twice a day, I hoped and I prayed for you to return, every needle I used made me remember you. Of course I still fucking love you. But we seem to have different meanings.” She was crying. Her body shook. Like a fire, not yet stilled, but un-moving.

“We don’t have different meanings, I was going to be killed Natasha, they were going to bloody kill me because I loved you, I spent the last 3 weeks watching over you so you didn’t get killed yourself. I should have helped, but I couldn’t.”

They hugged, both visibly crying. Whispering their love into each-others ears.

But jealousy is an aggressive bitch. The man Natasha was with, he came up to see what was going on- he beat Ai. He kicked the shit out of him until he was vomiting. Natasha ran away. She never saw the man or Ai ever again.

Because that is how the world works.

“Now you know the story, the story of love, betrayal, heartbreak. And now you know my real name.” Delta waited a moment for the story to sink in. But I already understood. I held tighter than I ever have. I put my face against hers. And we slept. Besides, the morning would be a lot longer.

There were many things I needed to ask, “Natasha?”

“Yes.” She replied, speaking higher towards the end, indicating a question.

“Did you ever get over the heroin addiction?”

She waited a second, 2, 3. Then she looked down herself, shame filled her bright red eyes. “No. Look I need to go somewhere, you know where, but you can’t tell anyone.” She then ran, she left the house and ran away. I wondered if I would ever see her again.

Breakfast ran as normal, prepared by Zeta, eaten by all of us, except for Natasha. “Theta, you stayed with Delta.” Alpha said, it took me by surprise. “Where is she gone?”

I shrugged, I was not very good at lying, and this would be much easier.

“That’s too bad.” He said wrinkling his muzzle slightly. “Beta?” he called

“What do you want?” it was clear that he was very hung-over. The way he walked, the way he spoke.

“Do you know where Delta is?”

“Probably some crack den somewhere.” He said with mild sarcasm, it was only mild though, and he thought only he knew that. So he laughed at his own bad joke.

After they all left, Alpha came up to me, he whispered, “I saw that look. That was the look that means he was telling the truth. Go get her. Now.”

So I left as well.

Unfortunately I do not know many crack dens. But after a few hours searching, I found one. In a burnt down old house. It was disgusting; there were needles on the floor, covering it. The sound of breathing was loud enough to be audible. That’s where I found Natasha. Lying on the floor, preparing to inject herself.

There was a crib in the corner of the room. It was empty. But presumably it once wasn’t. There was a particularly pony shaped fire in the corner; I went straight to ask Natasha, “What is the fire?”

“Theta.” She said as she opened her eyes. “What are you doing here?”

I asked again, less patient this time, “what is the fire?”

“Force of old habit. They can’t let ponies find dead bodies here.” She replied quietly. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to get you back.” I said, I then realised that probably wasn’t enough reason, “under Alpha’s orders.”

She injected herself, she collapsed- she had obviously overdosed, which means she had died. I gave a quick primary survey, then CPR, she needed it. She wasn’t moving, she wasn’t breathing. I was crying but I had to keep going. It took at least 20 minutes but I got her back to life. Then we left.

“Never take it again. OK” I said to her.

“OK.” She replied.

Back at the house, things were less perfect.

There was a body in front of the house, the house had 3 stories, the third story window was broken; Beta had committed suicide out a 3rd story window.