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Prologue
Chapter 1: The Embrace
Santa Monica, one of LA's most beautiful and popular sea side cities. It has a warm, dry climate with a nice cool breeze during the summer that makes living here very comfortable. Unfortunately, this also means it is one of the biggest attractions for drifters, vagabonds and beggars. If you can ignore the homeless, during the daylight hours, Santa Monica is a bustling place of culture, runners and visiting families. However, during the late nights, the place becomes more barren, where gangs lurk about and recently, a place of disappearances and death.
For the first few months, Santa Monica was a fairly safe place for the young runaway street urchin, Sabrina, to spend her time on the streets; collecting a meager sum from the generous tourists and occasional local. It was hard to make permanent friends with vagrants. People were always a bit distant and reluctant to become too familiar. Many she would meet often wandered off and disappeared for a few days, but that was usually because they were off in a drunken stupor or high out of their minds. However, more and more these days went missing permanently or found cold in a gutter. The death of a hobo always overlooked by police, usually quickly assumed it was drugs or exposure. Often they would even ignore obvious signs of violence. Signs that could not be ignored by the rest of those living on the streets.
It wasn't long after things started looking like the were getting better that the city seemed to take a turn for the worse. Homeless people she talked to for weeks, always finding them in the same spots started to disappear. Certainly they would occasionally decide to move on or pass from exposure, but this time, things were different. It was when a friend had been discovered under the pier bloated with water and rotting from the inside that she finally realized her world was changing. Homeless people started hiding out at night, keeping to themselves with looks of paranoia and mistrust at anyone they didn't recognize. Gang members tended to be more itchy fingered and quick to point a gun at anyone that might have threatened them. Petty crimes started to go down, but replaced by an influx of murders and disappearances. Of course, the police take a second glance at the lowlifes, they were too busy worrying about people who mattered most to the public. Investigating the death of a nobody or someone with a criminal background was a waste of their resources. And, of course, the higher population didn't care at all. Unless it was one of their own found overdosing or found as a husk in an alleyway, they didn't bat an eye. Despite their apathy, the effect was similar on them. Night time visitors became less and less, only the brave, desperate or stupid continued to walk the streets at night.
Without a steady income, finding a place to stay was a challenge. On less busy nights, the Surfside diner was usually a good place to spend time indoors, they're open all night and had cheap coffee. Doris, the elderly night waitress was slow to push Sabrina out, as she didn't mind the company. Unfortunately, it was also a fairly popular place for ne'er-do-wells to find themselves after a late night of drinking and getting high. Luckily, tonight wasn't one of those nights. Tonight was quiet, calm and a good time to chill out after a long warm day. Sabrina sat in her usual booth far in the corner, keeping to herself despite being the only customer. She had a warm cup of coffee and an English muffin with butter and a couple complimentary pieces of crisp bacon sitting on the little white dish in front of her. Doris was humming to the radio, quietly playing some classic 50s tunes as she casually polished silverware. The peaceful atmosphere was so comforting, as if things in her life were back to normal for just a little while. Alas, the reminder that she had no idea where she was going to lay her head tonight continued to gnaw at her gut making it difficult for her to enjoy the meager yet, delicious meal. Having to go back out into the cool damp air after would certianly break the illusion.
Breaking the peaceful silence was the gentle tinkle of the bell on the door. An innocent sound; yet, at this time of night it was often a portent of trouble. The woman who entered didn't look dangerous at first glance. She had platinum blonde hair, tied up with black ribbons in pigtails. She wore very little for such a cool night; dressed like a slutty school girl. She wore a white button up, barely buttoned and tied up. Showing off a great deal of cleavage and her midriff. Her red plaid skirt was just long enough to hide her black thong which straps could be seen lingering on her hips. She wore a lacy red bra, clearly visible through her transparent shirt that pressed her breasts up to accentuate her already generous bosom. She wore a crimson silk choker around her neck with a very expensive looking black pearl dangling. She also had a fancy belly button piercing, one that looked as if it should be dangling on the ear of royalty. Her fingernails were long and deep red, on her legs she wore a pair of thigh high fishnet stockings and surplus combat boots. Her skin was pale, but pristine without a blemish like porcelain. She wore dark red lipstick that glistened like blood in the lighting and her mascara was intentionally done to look as if it ran down, making her look a bit loony. The way she was dressed, there was no doubt she came from the Asylum. The club was popular amongst the local goths and she clearly fit the bill. Of course, it had other types of patrons, but clearly catered to the more deviant of the populace. Unfortunately, the high cover charge made it so far impossible for Sabrina to have found her way in there yet. She is often teased by the synthetic dark tones and heavy bass as she walked by the venue.
She walked up to the bar and sat just in front of the waitress. "Hi, Doris." the woman said with a bubbly tone with a hint of sultry. Despite her mysterious appearance, she seemed rather unusually amiable.
Doris smiled at her and nodded, "Hello, Jeanette. The usual?" The older lady asked.
"Please, nice and hot! You know how I like it." She gave the lady a wink and licked her lips with a sexual playfulness in anticipation of the hot beverage.
"Sure thing, dear." Doris turned around and started to prepare a new pot of coffee, setting the temperature way up.
It wasn't long before the young lady, Jeanette, looked around the room and discovered the other patron. With a quick glance Sabrina, noticed Jeanette's eyes. They were big, bright and heterochromic. One was bright green and the other bright blue. The woman would occasionally peak over to Sabrina briefly and look away again when noticed. This went on for a few moments until Doris took notice and smiled.
The girl got her coffee and wrapped her hands around the hot mug and huddled over it as if it was her only source of heat. Things went back to silence, but shortly after, Sabrina's peace was again interrupted. She only looked away for a moment, when she heard Jeanette's voice and realized she was standing next to the empty seat in front of her. "Hi, I'm Jeanette. Jeanette Voreman?" She spoke her name as if she expected Sabrina to recognize her, but she didn't. She continued despite any sign of acknowledgement. Though she seemed prideful, she didn't seem rude or overly arrogant; rather, Her tone came off as very confident. "I feel like I've seen you before. I'm sorry if I'm intruding, but its driving me crazy. I don't think I could have forgotten a face like yours," She was clearly flirting with Sabrina, cracking a smile that would drive any man to his knees "Maybe you could enlighten me. Have we met?" Despite her appearance and cander, there were two things that Sabrina could just tell from looking in the woman's eyes. She was clearly intelligent, yet something about her felt wrong. Something about this woman made Sabrina feel uneasy.
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