Eron often wondered what it would be like to wake up with a smile on his face... to know that he would be waking up into a world where he was genuinely happy, where he would be surrounded by people he loved and who loved him in return. Did fairy tale lives like that actually exist?

Not for him. He woke up on his bumpy bed, in his tiny little shithole apartment, dreading the day ahead. Well... it was 5 in the evening, so perhaps "dreading the night ahead" would have been a bit more appropriate. He had never been much of a day person, so of course during the course of his travels, when finding work was necessary, he always chose overnight jobs, his body having adapted to his nocturnal schedule long ago.

He crawled out of bed still wearing his jeans and All That Remains t-shirt from the night before, and made his way to his craptastic little bathroom, grabbing his cell phone off of the the stand next to his temperamental television as he went. He listened to his voicemail, holding the phone with his left hand as he brushed his teeth with the right. Another message from his dad, wondering where he was and what he was doing, asking him to come home and visit soon, as usual. He deleted the message halfway through. Maybe he'd go home to Joplin,MO at some point, but that wouldn't be anytime soon. He still hadn't found what he was looking for, not that he knew exactly what he was looking for. He was certain that we wouldn't find it there though.

Finishing his teeth, he undressed and hopped into the shower, cursing out loud when he found that there was no hot water again. Washing up as quickly as possible, he couldn't help but stop and examine himself in the mirror as he walked by. He hated mirrors.. hated looking at himself, but for some reason, he still couldn't help it. He hated his crap colored eyes, his plain black hair, his overall lack of musculature.

"Fuck..." He said aloud to the man staring back at him through the mirror, wishing he looked more like his dead mother than his father. Anything to make himself any less... plain.

Feeling suddenly very emo, he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, and went back to his bedroom/living room (stupid studio apartment), and rummaging through his drawers to look for something to wear, finding only a pair of boxers and a pair of mismatched socks.

"Laundry day, it is..." He said to himself, taking the boxers, and slipping back into what he was just wearing. He grabbed his laundry bag, filling it with random articles of clothing that covered his bathroom floor. Just as he was slipping his jacket on to head out the door, his phone went off. He checked the caller id before answering. It was his "friend" Jacob, who he met a couple of months ago when he moved here. He thought seriously about just ignoring the call, but decided against it, knowing that Jacob was the type to just invite himself over if he didn't pick up.

He sighed deeply before answering, preparing to put on his "friendly" act. "Hey, man. How's it going?"

Jacob was laughing like a schoolgirl on the other end. Eron was not surprised in the least to her multiple female voices in the background. He knew where this was going.

"Not bad, man, not bad at all. " Jacob replied. "Listen... I have a date tonight with this chick, Melanie that I met at the concert in Seattle last night. She's got a really cute friend, who's really interested in meeting you. I've been telling her all about ya dude. You game for a double date?"

Eron slapped his palm against his head. Why the hell was this fucker always trying to set him up?! "Well, I was getting ready to go and do some laundry, could we maybe reschedule?" He said, fighting to keep the irritation out of his voice.

"Aw come on, dude!" Jacob said on the other end. "This girl really wants to meet you.I'll make it easy for you. There's an Italian place near where you do your laundry, right? Why don't you go and get your stuff started, and then meet us there?"

"Okay.. no problem." Eron replied, mechanically, suppressing another sigh. "I'll meet you there in half an hour."

"Cool, man. I'll see you th-" Eron ended the call mid-sentence.

" Fuck me..." he said, as he grabbed his laundry and keys.

"Gotta keep up appearances, I guess."

This was gonna be a really crappy night.

Cressida huffed out a breath, wiping sweat from her brow and looked over to her bother, carrying the last box up from the car. Their parents had finally agreed that they could move out, with the only condition being that they had to live together and look after one another. Despite the lack of care for one another over the last few years, they had both agreed, as it was to hard for the parents to watch them like hawks every time they bought their partners home. She smiled at him, her yellow eyes peering eerily through he semi darkness. She was glad to be away, here was somewhere she could study and practice in piece, not a huge house, but three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bathroom. She shuffled her feet picking up the heavy load her brother carried, taking it into the right room and placing it with care on the floor.

“Thanks Cress, that’s great of you” Grene spoke loudly through the hall, wanting to seem grateful for any help his sister gave him. Lucy had been encouraging him to be sweet and kind to his twin, so he was trying his best and to his surprise they seemed to be getting on. He smiled happily at the new house, placing the few last pot plants around the one large window over looking the road. The last of the light was slipping from the windows and he looked forlornly at the bare floor. The furniture wouldn’t be here for another few days, till then he guessed they would spend their evenings at the grotty bar down the road. He picked up a towel, heading to the shower, a small smile on his face, this is were he should be. He couldn’t be happier living with his sister, glad that Lucy could now come and go easily.

She picked up all the dirty clothes the twins had managed to gather together, chucking them in a black bin liner and over her shoulder. She pulled a note pad out of her shoulder bag, enjoying the feel of the course hemp cover against her fingers. She smiled, pulling out her light blue pen and wrote a note to her brother.

Grene,
I’ve gone to clean our dirty clothes, when you finish in the shower, come meet me there… If I’m not there I’l be at the bar, Darren text me earlier saying he wanted to meet me there. Is Lucy coming down tonight or is she staying with her parents? Anyway, I’m going to the take the room at the top of the house, I hope you don’t mind, leaves you with the two bigger ones to choose from. Hope that’s ok for you!
Cress


Then headed out the door, using the new key to lock up behind her; her brother’s own set sitting with her note. She was smooth as she walked down the hall, her slight young curves softened by her big grey woolly jumper. She was happy today, humming a little tune as she walked down the dingy halls, they had one of the bigger nicer apartments there, but the place was pretty much a dump, a cheep place to live though. Her feet tapped down the steps lightly, brown curls spilling out from behind her ears, for a moment covering her eerie eyes as she passed a guy in the hall, obviously going to the cleaners too. She gave him a polite nod, dancing out to pass him and opened the door outside; all the while humming.

He washed slowly, taking his time and smiled to himself. He wanted to look for Lucy later, but wasn’t fussed enough to make an effort, he knew he always looked good. Stepping out off the fall of cold droplets, he pulled the towel around him, unhappy at the last cold bit of water. He stood their for a moment, admiring himself in the mirror before strolling off, towel tucked firmly around his hips. He glanced over his twins letter nodding to himself, he would meet her wherever she was. He was glad at the tightening bond between him and his sister, giving them both the chance to move out. He got to his clothes, pulling the black liner between his fingers and watching it shred. He quickly picked up some jeans and a plane blue t-shirt, pulling them on over boxers and grinned to himself. His hair he have a quick rub to and slipped on shoes without socks.

She pushed into the heavy aired cleaner, breathing in the steam happily, a smile still plastered to her face. The steam muddied her eyes; here no one who wasn’t looking would notice the unnatural yellow. She tugged on her black leggings, aware she was somewhat better dressed than most of the lay about in their, but tried not to think anything of it. She pushed her clothes on to the top of one of the free washers, pulling out the washing liquid from it. Her humming continued here, pretty voice blending in with the radio playing up on the left wall. Her hands were smooth in their actions, all the while in her head she added up the calculations, wondering if she could do so before she finished. The clothes, soil and move all going into her useless calculation; as she always washed it on non-colourfast cotton at 50.

Grene picked up his phone on the second ring. Spoke softly with Lucy, giving her directions, before placing his cigarette back to his lips. He looked out of the large window, watching people pass by. He had no need to rush, knowing Cressida would like the time to herself, wanting to think about the move. She had always been like that. He didn’t understand really, things were much more simple here. He felt a lot more complete living here than alone, many shrinks had told him that was normal, but he didn’t care. He took a deep drag, letting the smoke fill in his lungs, eyes fluttering in pleasure at the feel and breathed out over the streets. The once more he fell to looking down at the street, watching the passers by.

"Tav! Tav! Wake up! Don't make me get the ice cubes!"
"huh...?I'm awake, I'm awake you don't have to get the ice cubes" Tavkhor responded groggily. The last thing he remembered was turning his alarm clock off...
"Tav did you stay out late last night?"
"Yes, No, I don't know"
"Well, lunch will be ready soon."
"ok aunt Josephine"
Tavkhor slowly sat up in bed. He looked over at his alarm clock. It read 12:27pm. As he headed to his bathroom for a quick shower he made a mental list of what he was going to do with the rest of the day. First on the list was lunch. His stomach let out a growl of approval. Then he would start his college search. Why was his uncle so insistent that he had to go to college now? He had never brought it up for two years, then bam, Last week over dinner he made the ultimatum that either he start seriously looking into colleges or move out. And he had to stop volunteering at the free clinic so he could spend the maximum amount of time college searching. Its not fair. He doesn't understand that that is the only thing I really cared about. As he stepped into the shower he let his mind wander back to the night before.

It was still fresh in his mind, well at least the beginning, after the first initial shock it sorta blurred together in his memory. It was eight and he was finishing up his last night of volunteering at the clinic. After changing out of his scrubs he left the locker room and walked into a party.
"SURPRISE!" his co-workers yelled
"but...what?...how?"The only one who was supposed to know he was leaving was Fred, and that was only because someone needed to know he wasn't going to be there. So that meant... "Fred, you didn't! I told you no not to tell anyone I was leaving."
"How could I not, Tav? I mean it wouldn't be fair to them."he waved a hand at the people gathered presumably to celebrate his departure.
"What?""Wait you're leaving?" and a chorus of similar responses arose from the revelers.
"Wait.... if you weren't here to say goodbye then why are you having a party."
"Your eighteenth birthday" someone in the back responded. Oh yeah forgot about that. But if this was for his eighteenth birthday, Fred had just tricked him into telling everyone he was leaving. After that the party started and lasted a good four hours. He left at around twelve claiming that he had to be home for curfew. He drove home and cried himself to sleep, angry at his Uncle for cutting him off from the only thing that let him forget the emptiness inside and despair because he knew the emptiness would return. that night he had the strangest dream he could remember.

Tavkhor turned off the hot water and just stood in the shower for a while. What am I going to with my life. Soon the emptiness will return and then no matter what I do it won't make a difference. Then he remembered his dream. He was standing in a room with only one door. Somehow he knew that the door was the exit not the entrance. The walls were black and white. The paint on the walls was moving, and black and white seemed to flow into one another like a wild dance understood only by the dancers. Then, after he had been standing there for a while, it changed. at fist all he could tell was that something was wrong, gradually the change could be seen. Where it was once fluid and mesmerizing it became harsh and jerky, the flowing curves replaced by jagged lines, and slowly but surely the lack was taking over the white. Inside his head he heard two voices, one low and raspy the other high and melodic, say in unison "The balance has been shifted, if you help us we will reward you." "What is the reward?" "We can give you what you are missing" "How do i find you?" "We will find you" "When?" "that is for us to know and for you to find out". Then he woke up to his aunt threatening to get the ice cubes.

He took the long way to the dining room so he could drop off his dirty clothes in the laundry room. When he arrived his aunt was placing lunch on the table. Uncle George was already sitting at the head of the table.
"Good afternoon Tav, I hope you slept well considering how late you came in last night. I hope you weren't carousing with those friends of yours."He was referring to Jesse and Mark the only two people who he stayed in contact with since graduating high school two years ago.
"No the clinic threw a party for my eighteenth birthday, and to say good bye"
"Good, now you can start looking forward instead of helping those too stupid to afford a real doctor."
"hmf" what did he know? He could live his life anyway he wanted and be perfectly fine. Me, i am most likely going to go crazy or commit suicide.
They ate the rest of their meal in silence. During which Tav decided that he needed some time to himself.
"hey I'm going to down to the house in Montecito, and check out U.C.S.B while I'm there"
"Kay, the keys are by the door call me when you get there."
Tav ran up to his room threw a few clothes into a sports bag, ran back downstairs, grabbed the key and hopped onto his motorcycle. He spent the next two hours on the freeway.