The One Chapter 1 (P1)

Authors Note: Please read the Prologue or you will not know what I am talking about. Thanks also please forgive any grammar mistakes. Here is the link to my portfolio http://www.writing.com/main/portfolio/view/klingonwannabe

                             The Child with the Broken Soul

         The year is 1993; a little girl is born addicted to crack in Detroit, Michigan. She barely makes it out of the womb alive. She has yet to cry and is quickly handed over to the nurses where they lay the limp child down on a table with a blanket underneath her and a heating lamp above her. They use suction to try to clear her air ways but still nothing. In all the commotion of the nurses screaming instructions, the doctor trying to control the bleeding of the mother, and the father screaming at his wife out of anger for making him miss something he felt was more important no one saw hazelnut eyes of a five year old girl with long, curly brown hair peering through the doorway watching the baby struggling for life. One of the nurses turned the baby over smacking her back mumbling at the lifeless body to breath. The little girl in the door way sees the baby limp and blue; she starts to cry uncontrollable as if she is watching an old lover die before her eyes. The father was growing impatient he wanted to leave, he told them to just give up, it wasn’t worth his time. They pretended not to hear this worthless excuse for a human being and continued smacking the baby. With one final strong blow from the nurse a little cough came from the baby’s mouth, before anybody realized what had happened the delivery room was filled with the baby’s screams. The little hazelnut eyed girl smiled, happy tears running down her face and before anyone knew she was there she was gone.

         The nurse who had smacked life into the child picked her up to give her to her mother. When the nurse turned around with this little miracle her eyes met an unhappy scene. The mother was shaking, not from giving birth but from withdraw of some street drug she used on a daily bases. The father was screaming his head off, his face was red with senseless rage, and two male nurses where holding him back from trying to get to the doctor; he was clearly high on something. The nurse frowned disapprovingly and quickly walked out of the room, the baby firmly in her arms. She started walking towards the elevator to take the new born to the nursery. Once inside the elevator the nurse looked down at the child who was now very much alive, kicking and looking around with the bluest eyes she had ever seen. The nurse’s hair had fallen out of its bun and chocolate black hairs fell down on the infants’ nose causing a giggle to escape from her little toothless mouth. The nurse smiled and put a finger against the little girl’s belly making the new born giggle even more, then the baby grabbed her finger and she was surprised by how much strength the little one had; she had never felt anything like it before.

         “You are a strong one aren’t you?” Said the nurse to the infant who was now staring at her with the most curios eyes. The nurse looked into those eyes and swore that even though this child was only minutes old she could see such age in them, as if she had lived for many years. “You’re going to need it too,” she sighed, “but I have a feeling you’re a warrior little one and you’re going to make it.”

         While looking down at the baby she notices a birth mark on her wrist. The nurse took a closer look and saw five brown dots in the shape of the red cross that adorns the hospital; the fifth dot in the center. The doors dinged open making the nurse pull away her eyes from the innocent thing she was carrying. She stepped out and started walking to the nursery, once there she handed the baby over to another nurse who placed her in an empty crib. The nurse started crying; she knew this child was destined for unfortunate things.
         
***
         Social Services were called about the new born, but nobody came to take the baby. Apparently her information was lost in a pile of paper work and the call was forgotten about; another innocent life slipped through the cracks of a very broken system. Since no one came the hospital had no choice but to give the baby to her very unqualified parents. The baby was wrapped lovingly in a very thick blanket to keep her warm in the cold Detroit weather and was handed over to her now detoxed mother. They all watched in agony as the mother walked out in the snowy ground knowing full well that the mother would be getting high tonight. The father was waiting in the car impatiently; he was twitching, scratching, and his eyes were bulging out of his head. The mother, before stepping into the car, lit a cigarette and placed the infant girl behind the front passenger seat. The mother thought this was a good idea since they didn’t have a car seat and decided that this was better than the child rolling off the backseat.
         
         The new family left the hospital with the baby, but the parents had no intention of going home. Instead they headed down a street that was rather dark for it only being midday, with broken down houses and smelled of urine. They found a parking spot outside a house that had four other cars around it. The house was at one time a bright red but had faded over the years, it had a rundown porch with steps leading to it, the front yard was littered with trash, and all the windows were covered in blankets with giant holes in them. The parents forgot about the newest member of their family because they quickly turned the car off and headed to the house leaving her alone sleeping soundly inside the car. They walked up to the front door carefully because they could hear the wood creaking warningly under their feet. They were both itching for a hit they knocked quietly but quickly. The door creaked loudly open and a dark eye with red streaks in the whites of them appeared in the crack.

         “Wha’ you want?” Came a male voice from behind the door, it was raspy as if he hadn’t used it in a while.

         “We’re here to see Jimmy.” Said the father, he was looking around nervously and scratching his right arm as if he had been bitten by something. The eye in the door looked from the father to the mother. “She’s with me,” explained the father, “we just need to get healthy.”
         
         Without another word the door swung open to allow them entrance, the new parents walked in quickly smiling as if this was the happiest moment of their lives. Midday quickly turned into night fall and the temperature was dropping fast. The little girl, who was still without a name, tiredly blinked opened her eyes and looked around. She didn’t feel the cold in fact she was rather warm as if a fire was burning deep inside her. However she hadn’t eaten since they had left the hospital; the cold she could fight, hunger she could not. She squirmed in her blanket hoping the sound of movement would get her mother’s attention, when no one came to feed her she started to cry just a little. She cried softly for a while and soon it turned into screams of hunger. The infant screamed for food for nearly an hour before her worthless parents came stumbling out of the house holding each other up. They let go of each other and both felt their way to the door handle; clearly dizzy from being high. Both slumped into the front seats and turned on the car. They sat their waiting for it to warm up not even hearing the screams of their new born. All of a sudden it was like they were pulled from their drug influenced fantasies and they grabbed their ears in pain from the screaming.

         “SHUT THAT THING UP!!!” He screamed at his wife, whatever happiness he felt was gone and his rage was beginning to build. She wiped her head around the seat looking for her baby on the back seat. When she didn’t see it she started panicking, where was that damn baby? Oh yeah on the floor. She leaned over the seat and picked up the screaming infant. She turned back facing the front holding the baby at arm’s length as if it was dangerous.

         “SHUT! IT! UP!” He screamed at her again hitting the horn on each word. She looked at the little noise maker with widen eyes not knowing how to make it stop. She looked back at her husband; he was having a panic attack. He had both his hand in his head pulling his hair and rocking back and forth mumbling words like “bitch” “kill’em both”. The woman became gripped with fear she knew him to well, he was going to snap at any moment and beat her senseless. She had to figure out what was wrong with this thing and quick; she brought it close and started rocking it. Nothing, the screaming continued. She bounced it roughly on her knee, still nothing. She thought about when her brother was a baby, the diaper. She unwrapped her child from the warm blanket and pulled open the diaper, nothing completely dry. But why would it be dry? It’s been hours surely she had gone to the bathroom already, unless…

         “She’s hungry!” Exclaimed the mother to the father.

         “So?! What the hell I’m I suppose to about it? Go to Burger King?!”

         “No you idiot she needs milk!!”

         “I know that you bitch! You should have your own product of milk in those things!” He told her pointing at her chest. She looked down, she had forgotten completely about breast feeding the only thing she had on her mind was drugs nothing more. Forgetting she had just smoked crack she undid her dirty shirt and pulled out one of her breast. She quickly pulled the screaming child to it and it latched on hungrily. Silence filled the car and the husband began to calm down, once he was back under control he put the car in drive and headed home. On the drive home the mother looked down at her newborn. She was feeding with her eyes close and the mother frowned she felt no connection to this child what so ever. Even though she did not love it maybe it would be fun to have around like a pet and every pet needs a name.

         “Lillian.” Said the mother out loud.

         “What?!” He replied irritably.

         “I’m going to call her Lillian, remember Lillian we use to get high together when we first met she died a few years ago from injecting herself with pure heroin. I miss her terrible, she was so much fun.”

         “Whatever that thing is nothing more than wasteful money. We should just dump in the damn river!”

         “No! I can dress her up and play with her hair. It’s going to be so much fun.”

         “Whatever as long as it stays quiet and out of my way you can keep the stupid thing.”

         The mother smiled down at her now sleeping Lillian, she was finally going to have a pet just for her.

                                                    ***
         The year is 1998 and little Lillian is now five years old. She has had a rather hard life so far. Both of her parents were unemployed and hard at work to make sure they were stoned out of their minds on a constant bases. They left Lillian alone most of the time, neither did they feed her, and both were known for being rather ruff with the little girl. The mother mostly just dragged her by the head of her hair when she wasn’t doing what she wanted, but the father was much worse. He would kick, punch, spit, and humiliate her anyway possible; for some unknown reason he hated his child. He loved watching her suffer it made him happier than when he was doing drugs. Once the little girl had befriended a stray cat, he saw how happy she was and wouldn’t stand for it. So he went outside and stepped on the cat’s head. He walked back inside laughing at the girl screams and tears.
         
         Lillian woke up one morning on a warm July day on the floor where she slept. She blinked a couple of times trying to wake herself up. She didn’t know what time it was but she knew she was very hungry. She laid there for awhile still trying to wake up out of her groggy state when her belly growled rather loudly. She grabbed her tummy and sighed, she wondered if there was even food in the apartment for her to eat. She became instantly bitter at the thought of having to go another day without a proper meal; it wasn’t fare she never asked to suffer through this.

         She got up from the filthy floor and looked around; her apartment was a total toilet to put it nicely. It was a one room apartment she slept on the floor in the bedroom, even when her parents were home she slept in there they would crash on the couch in the living room. The walls were blackened from years of dirt and smoke, they had cracks in them, some even had holes allowing the outdoor air to rush in. During the summer this was rather nice since they had no air conditioning but during the winter it made the place ice cold. The only things on the walls were a crucifix and a picture of Jesus; which was in every room in the apartment. She looked at the picture in disgust; she hates Christianity. Her parents are Christian fanatics, using it as an excuse to abuse her, praying to Jesus to find a way for them to get high, and going on angry rants about how amazing he is while wasted. The only time they went to church was to ask the pastor for money; which the pastor always gave and he never once cared to ask about Lillian. For some reason he also didn’t like the girl. He told her parents that he sensed the devil insider her and that Jesus had told him that she was a threat. This did not help the beatings that she received.

         The windows of the apartment were sealed shut by the former owner because of the massive break-ins. The apartment was not located in the best part of town; it was deep inside the under belly of Detroit. Lillian had put a stained sheet over them in order to block the sun. Her parents never had the lights on so Lillian had grown up with continues darkness. She had grown fond of the darkness and actually disliked the light.

         Lillian lifted up her father’s shirt she was wearing, so she wouldn’t trip, and started walking towards the kitchen in search of food. As she was walking she could hear crunchy noises coming from under her bare feet. The carpet of the apartment hadn’t been vacuumed in years; the amount of dirt and rubbish that had gotten into its fibers is unthinkable. She continued anyway ignoring the gross sounds and entered the living room. The blue eyed girl stopped and scanned her eyes across the room searching for her parents. They were nowhere to be seen, they must have passed out where ever they had ‘scored’ last night. The living room was actually worse than the bedroom, mostly because Lillian actually attempted to keep it clean. The couch was an ugly muddy brown with green and red strips, it had holes in the cushions which had stuffing popping out of them, it had a number of colorful stains on it. The floor was just as filthy as the rest of the house. There was a sliding glass door at the end of the living room which led outside; it was covered in dirty finger prints and had dried urine on it as well. The sun light was pouring in giving light into the apartment exposing empty beer bottles, dirty needles, melted candles, and used cigarettes scattered across the room. The little girl just shrugged and skipped into the kitchen. The kitchen was very small no bigger than medium size walk in closet. Just like the rest of the apartment it was a mess. Dirty dishes were piled up and over flowing in the sink. There was rotting food on the floor and on the counters, which were stained brown and black from coffee and other products. Lillian walked into the kitchen, her feet sticking to the kitchen floor, and headed to one of the pantries. She opened it and found one cereal box left. She picked up the box and shook it. The sound of sugary cereal bouncing around in the box hit her ears. Lillian looked at the expiration date; two days old. She thought about putting it back then her belly rumbled louder than before. She moaned, it was either go hungry another day or swallow stale old cereal. ‘grrrrraaawwww.’ Cereal.

         Lillian put the box on the counter and opened the door to the refrigerator.

         “Yeckkkk!” She yelled slamming the door shut as soon as she opened it. Forget looking for milk she could barely handle the smell that had came rushing out of the refrigerator. Whatever was causing that smell had gone really bad; so she decided it was best to just eat the cereal dry. She grabbed the box and started munching on the food as she headed back to the bedroom.

         Once back in the bedroom Lillian sat down on the floor and ate her breakfast in silence. She looked around the room mindlessly thinking about what she wanted to do today. She was not going to be staying here waiting around for her wasted, or worse sober, parents. It was a nice day out so there would be lots to do but she wanted to go somewhere where people wouldn’t bother her; something with nature. The zoo! It was perfect people were too interested in the animals and their surroundings to notice a little girl all alone. Money wasn’t a problem either; she knew how to get in. All she had to do was wait until a family with kids walked up to pay and she would just walk right in with them, no one ever notice her; which was a gift some days and a curse on others. However in order to be convincing she had to look somewhat decent; the kids that went into the Detroit Zoo were wealthy, well wealthier then her. So Lillian decided to see what she looked liked. She picked up a hand mirror that was lying next to where she slept. The mirror was nothing really; it was made of plain wood, the paint long gone, and the mirror was cracked. But Lillian did not complain, she stole it from a garbage can about a month ago and was happy with whatever she got.

         She aimed the mirror towards her face to see what she looked like. Lillian moaned when she saw her face, she was absolutely filthy. She had smudges of dirt on her cheeks and chin; her long blonde hair looked like she had not brushed or washed in weeks. She stared at herself, bright blue eyes staring deeply back at her, if anyone was in the room they would have saw all the sadness in the world in those eyes. The little girl looked away from the mirror, grabbed some dirty clothes that were on the floor, and headed back to the kitchen.

         Lillian started to empty out the dirty dishes in the sink so she could wash her clothes and herself. She put her clothes in the now empty sink and pulled up the faucet handle. Nothing. She put the handle back down then up again; still nothing. She grew angry, her parent did not pay the water bill and it was shut off. In her anger she started lifting the handle up in down repeatedly with all her strength.

         “Ahhhhhh!” She screamed at the faucet in her frustration.

         Damn, no water now what was she going to do? She had to get clean otherwise she might as well just stay inside. An idea popped in her head, there was a house not far from the apartment complex and the owners always left the basement door unlocked. Depending on what time of the day it was no one should be home. She peered into the living room to see where the sun was at. According to the sun it was probable around 10:30am; perfect no one would be home. Living without a clock, any technology really, has taught her to use other resources.

         Lillian quickly grabbed her clothes and headed for the door. She was still wearing her father’s t-shirt, but it was long enough to cover her legs. It didn’t really matter no one would notice her, especially in this neighborhood. The only time people looked at her were physicians and nurses while walking down the street. Lillian’s figure is rather unique. To most people she is just a fat little girl, which is why she no longer ask people for food because they do not believe she is going hungry, however in fact she the opposite. Her body is extremely toned for someone so young; she is bigger and wider than most little girl but can lift almost twice her own body weight. She was extremely strong and her body showed that. 

         Once outside she headed up the hill towards the houses. She shielded her eyes from the harsh sunlight, but loved the feeling of grass on her feet. For it only being 10:30 in the morning it was rather hot outside. About ten minutes had gone by before Lillian was at the fence of the house with beads of sweat on her little forehead; she easily climbed over it. She sneaked up to the house quietly and peered through the window just to double check no one was home. The house was perfectly empty; the house wasn’t much it was broken down and dirty but Lillian envied the people in it. There walls did not have holes, or pictures of Jesus, and had both heat and air conditioning. Lillian crinkled her nose at the thought and headed to basement door. She climbed down the few steps that leaded to the door. Before opening she looked around to make sure she was alone; once satisfied she turned the knob and entered.

         Cold air hit her face; she closed her eyes welcoming the feeling swim over her body. She took one step on the concrete basement floor. She yelped and stepped back quickly, it was freezing. She stepped again but this time she waited for her little dirty feet to get use to the cold. Once they were she started up the stairs to the main part of the house. She knew her way around the place she had sneaked in several times before looking for anything she could, but Lillian only took what she needed to survive nothing more. Stealing made her feel like a snake in the grass, a pathetic creature just like her parents. She went into the laundry room once in the main part of the house. The little girl quickly undressed and threw all of her clothes in the washer; she then poured some detergent in and pulled the knob to start it. Well since that was taken care of she now had time to take a hot shower. Even though she didn’t like showers, now wasn’t the time to have personal feelings and wants, she needed to put them aside in order to complete her task.

         After a quick shower she went back to the washing machine and took out her clothes and put them in a very old drier. She returned to the bathroom and brushed the rather large knots in her hair. After the painful chore of brushing her hair she went back to the drier to see if it was done. Her clothes still had awhile; so while she was waiting she decided to make herself a sandwich and turn on the television set. After making herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and pouring herself a cold glass of milk she sat down comfortably on the owner’s of the house couch then clicked on the television with a large black remote. Lillian began to flip through the channels mindlessly passing many things most children would stop and watch. However despite the fact little Lillian was only five years old she had always felt much older than she actually was. After channel surfing something caught her eye so she stopped. It was CNN news channel and they were talking about how the Unabomber was dealing with life in prison. They brought up what he did and why he did it which made them quickly change the subject to the World Trade Center bombings. Lillian snorted and rolled her eyes. She hated people; humanity was cruel, dark, mean, and downright stupid. Everybody was out for themselves and they all thought that they are right and everyone else is wrong. The entire human race had lost whatever goodness it once possessed; if it had any in the first place.

         “This brings us to our next news of the day.” Said the anchorman, causing Lillian to come out of her darkened thoughts. “Today in Rome 120 countries voted to create a permanent International Criminal Court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.” Lillian had been taking of drink of the milk when she heard this. She laughed and sprayed milk on herself and the floor. She found this absolutely hysterical. ‘Yeah right!’ she thought. Nobody was really going to stop these crimes unless it benefited them in some way, and Lillian was pretty sure that most if not all of these countries had committed at least one of these crimes. People are selfish, that was that. Hearing the buzzer from the drier, signaling her clothes were nice and dry, she got up and put her dishes in the sink. After getting her clothes on she returned to the sink. She cleaned and returned the dishes to their rightful places; no need to get anyone suspicious that someone was creeping around their household. Before leaving she turned off the TV it was time to go to the Zoo.

         It only took Lillian twenty minutes to get to the Detroit Zoo and another fifteen to wait for the perfect family to sneak in with. They were a rather large family; a mother, a father, an infant in the stroller, and four other kids ranging from probable five through twelve years old. The guy in the ticket booth never saw the baby in the stroller so when he saw Lillian walk right in behind the rest of the lot he merely counted five children. Once in she grew very excited. No one would bother her and she loved animals more than anything. Animals didn’t judge her, they weren’t mean to her, and they certainly never purposely harmed her. Not to mention whenever she stared at the animals she felt such a connection to them and most would walk right up to her as if they were close friends.

         She looked around deciding where she wanted to go to first. Perhaps the penguins? Adorable little things, they always made her laugh plus it would be nice in cool in there. ‘To many people.’ She thought to herself, she wasn’t stupid it was a hot day that’s where most people would end up flocking to. In the end she merely shrugged and decided she would just walk around until she got bored then head back to the apartment.

         She visited the monkeys first they might not be the penguins but they still made her laugh. After that she just went down the line lemurs, pandas, reptiles, and so on. When she got to the tigers she stopped to spend some time with them. She loved the tigers, they were her favorite. The tigers were kept in a pit so you had to look down in order to see them. The tigers were lying in the shade sleeping and many people were trying to get their attention but with no luck. Lillian smirked then whistled, the tigers open their eyes immediately. They got up lazily and stretched before walking over to the wall. Lillian whistled again so they knew where she was. The tigers looked up at her and began to lick and rub up against the wall showing how happy they were to see her again. She grinned showing her little teeth at them and mouthed ‘hi’. One of the cubs came up to the wall and tried climbing it when he failed he just gave a little cute roar in disappointment. Everyone giggled and awed at the cub; no one knew why the tigers were suddenly active but they were enjoying it.

         After about a half hour of talking and watching the tigers she waved good bye and sat under a nearby tree. She sat down and heard moans of disappointment coming from the crowd around the tiger pit. Lillian figured this was because the tigers went to lay back down in the shade. A very rude thirteen year old boy did not like this.

         “Hey you stupid cats come back, I wanna see you!” He bellowed.

         Lillian rolled her eyes. The animals were going to do whatever they wanted and they sure were not going to listen to him.

         “Hey!” He screamed. “HEY!” he yelled louder showing his anger. When the tigers did do what he wanted he picked up a rock and threw it in the pit. Lillian’s eyes widen, at first she was shocked but that quickly turned into anger. How dare he throw a rock at those innocent animals! The boy picked up another rock and threw it hard this time clearly aiming for something. A growl came from the pit. Lillian felt her face get hot, it was probable turning a bright red; she was furious. An evil snarl came across the boys face; if he couldn’t get them to come over to him he was going to at least have some sort of fun. He bent down and picked up a bigger rock this time. He leaned down against the wall of the pit so he could get a better aim and then he threw with all his strength. A little cry came from the pit. He had hit the baby cub and it was in pain. Lillian flew up on to her feet. ‘Oh no he didn’t!’ she thought while her hands balled into fist. Her blood was boiling she could feel a fire burning hot inside her. She was going to push that little brat right over the wall and let the tigers take their revenge on him. He deserved it hurting something smaller than him! Wait if she goes over and pushes him she WILL get noticed then. She looked around trying to figure out how she could get him into that pit without anyone knowing it was her. The thirteen year old was laughing hard leaning down into the pit pointing at the cub who was curled into a ball in pain. Lillian looked down and saw a good size rock; if she hit him just right on the head he’d topple right over. She picked it up and looked at the boy. She smiled she was going to get justice for these animals. Lillian aimed then wounded up her arm and…


Part 2 of Chapter One "The One Chapter 2 "