Menewsha Avatar Community - Trust and Betrayal.

The door slammed behind her as she stepped outside. The sun shone down, making her vibrant red hair seem to glow as she let out a sigh. That was the third time this month. Everyone always wanted more from her than she could give.

Shouldering her messenger bag, she started walking home, so that she could start searching for another job yet again. Hopefully she would finally find one that wouldn’t ask for more than she could give.

Maybe.

The redhead continued walking, not once noticing the crowd around her, which was weird. She was usually very attentive to crowds and such.

A strong wind picked up and started blowing around chunks of her long red hair. They flew every which way as the wind wound around and blew from every direction. She reached up to tie it back, and stopped. She stopped walking to look at a flyer that had caught her attention.

Lab Assistant Needed
A.S.A.P.
No science knowledge or experience needed
Call – 621-5213 ext. 2112

She rummaged around in her bag for a moment before she was able to find a pen. She spent another couple of minutes of looking for a piece of paper before giving up. It was getting dark out, and she didn’t like being caught outside in the dark. So she used the pen, and quickly scribbled down the number on the inside of her wrist. It was scribbled, and barely legible, but she could read it well enough. It was a flyer for a job, that no experience was needed for, and nevermind that, they seemed to be desperately needing people if the “A.S.A.P.” was anything to go by.

Something akin to hope was coursing though her body as she finished the trek home, not truly realizing where it was she was going to call to apply for work. All she’d really noticed, other than the fact that they needed someone to be an assistant, was that the building was on the edge of the university campus. Only a ten minute walk from her apartment.

It took her nearly an hour to get home, mostly since it was darker than normal. But, by the time she managed to walk in the door to her apartment, she figured it was already too late to call the lab. So, she resigned herself to doing it tomorrow, and copied down the number on the pad of paper that she kept by the phone. Various notes were scribbled on the pad, but she found an empty space of a good size and scrawled the number down, underlining it and circling it so that it stood out. Afterwards, she headed towards the bathroom, intending to wash that ink off of her hand.

She walked into the cramped bathroom and flicked the switch to turn on the lights. They flickered into existence, bathing the cramped space in almost blinding light, just as a clap of thunder sounded in the distance, causing the redhead to jump slightly.

“I guess there’s going to be a storm tonight” she said to her reflection as she started to smile. Another clap of thunder sounded, and her smile grew. The woman loved thunder storms, why? Well, she didn’t know, it was just something that had always calmed her down, ever since she was a child. Especially if there was lightning. She didn’t question it, just accepted it.

The lights flickered for a second, causing her to sigh. The storm was probably going to knock out the power – which meant that she would be doing her animation homework via candlelight… again. At least she didn’t need the computer for anything for this assignment, it was all just drawing and designing characters and such stuff that could be done on paper.

A sigh escaped her lips as she turned one of the handles on the tap. Some water sputtered out of the tap, but a good stream didn’t come out until she smacked it a couple of times. The sound of the water seemed to be almost as loud as the thunder outside. The contrast between the silence of the room and the sound of the water, caused her to jump slightly before she placed her hands until the running water. While resisting the urge to rinse, at the cold temperatures of the water, she quickly scrubbed off the ink, making sure there was no black remaining on her hands.

After a minute she couldn’t take the cold anymore and, not really caring that there was still a little ink on her hand, she turned off the water and dried off her hands. Another clap of thunder sounded outside, closer this time, obviously the storm was moving this way.

Good, I want a storm tonight. It’s been too hot lately, maybe a little – or a lot – of rain will make the temperatures nicer. She thought absently.

After the material had soaked up the majority of the moisture from her hands, she walked out of the bathroom, turning out the lights as she went.

Walking through the hall of apartment, she started thinking about what to do about food. She hadn’t eaten yet that day, and she was hungry. Granted, she didn’t have much by way of food, so she was limited on what to eat. Also, she didn’t have much money, just the pay check that she’d received today from her last job, that she had just been fired from earlier.

“I’ll have to call that lab tomorrow, I don’t have class, so I don’t have to worry about times” she told the air as she stood in the kitchen, having made her way there. She looked over to the fridge and sighed, knowing full-well that she had next to nothing in there. Same deal with the cupboards. She lacked food, definitely, and she needed to make the hundred dollars that she just received last, for who knew how long? That was going to be hard, she knew, but she had to do it.

“It’s late enough… I’ll just head to bed…” she muttered, just as there was a banging on the door. Jumping slightly, she looked in the direction of the entrance to her apartment, and could hear yelling.

“Open the damn door Keori!” the person on the other side yelled. Instantly the woman, Keori, knew who it was. It was the superintendent of the building, and they did not sound happy.

Knowing she would regret not opening the door, she walked over and opened it, allowing the person on the other side entrance into her apartment. Almost instantly, a squat balding man stormed past her and stood a couple feet away from her. He whirled around and faced her, a furious expression on their face.

“This is the last straw! Keori Kizcys, unless you pay me rent within the next seven days, you’re out of here!” he yelled, causing the redhead to wince slightly. His voice had a high pitched tone to it, something akin to a shriek, and it make Keori think that something was being stabbed into her eardrum.

She didn’t say anything for a minute, giving her a chance to get ahold of herself, so that she didn’t snap or break down or anything.

“Mr. Amora, I understand what it is that you are saying, and I can promise that you will get your rent in a weeks time, at most.” She said, knowing full-well that she sounded calmer and more collected than she actually was. The superintendent just gave her a look that screamed disbelief. She thought for a second before sighing and reached into her pocket, where she had stashed the cheque.

“Look, all I have is this hundred dollars to last me…” she was cut off by the man reaching up and snatching the slip of paper out of her hands. She sighed and didn’t say anything as he just walked past her and out of her apartment. Obviously that had been enough to satisfy him for now. Now she just had to get another seven-hundred dollars in the next seven days. How the hell was she to do that?

Once he was completely out of sight, Keori closed the door and locked it, then stood there. With a heavy sigh, she turned around and leaned against the door, things were definitely looking bleak for her at the moment.

“Now what am I going to live on?” she asked the air as tears threatened to form. She had no money, no job, and one week to come up with more money than she could get… oh how bleak her future seemed. She could call her sister, as for money from her, but that would probably end up just leaving her grave dug a few feet deeper than it already was.

She walked over to the table with the phone and looked at the number on the pad. A sighed escaped her lips as she picked up the receiver, Screw the time, I’m calling she thought as she dialled the number.

The phone rang for close to a dozen times before she decided to hang up, and she was about to, before someone finally picked up.

The conversation had been short, and it was agreed upon, that she would meet the person whom would end up becoming her boss, tomorrow afternoon. Maybe her life would start looking up for once.

“Well… I have an interview at GenTech tomor…” she trailed off, a look of something akin to horror on her face.

Keori was about to go to an interview that the lab that was paid by the government to do biological experimentation. Splicing together human and animal DNA together…