REBELLION

 
“Run!”
 
She bolted past the endless street stalls, making her way through the current of
the shopping crowd with a suspicious black bag, safely tucked under her arms.
Close behind her followed a scruffily dressed boy with a bush of gold curls
springing out of his tiny head.
 
“Jump! Jump now!” yelled Mare as the two of them reached a short brick wall
with a rice paddy field on the opposite side. The gang following them almost
caught up but were tricked by the empty darkness of the farm where the pair
had taken refuge from the red-faced giants that wanted their lives as a payment
for theft and betrayal.

“We did it…again.” said Jake as he tried to get back up on his numb legs after
almost an hour of kneeling down in secret. Mare grinned as she threw the black
bag in the air filled with packets of ‘forbidden’ white powder. This was one of
the only things that excited her. Coming from a shady background, her current
unsteady occupation packed with adrenaline gave her the happiness she had
always yearned for.
 
At the young age of 12, Mare’s birth mother was put behind bars for murdering
her husband. After that, a foster family took her in but that was not her moment
of serendipity. Along with sexual abuse, she was mercilessly used as a pawn to
fulfil her new parents’ sadistic pleasures. Tired from it all, the 17-year-old,
rebellious girl absconded from the deathly chain that tied her and kept her in a
sacrificial place. Unlike most, Mare never used what she dealt with, it was only
for her clients and she had sworn that she wouldn’t ever take those drugs
herself.

After successfully delivering the meds to their buyer, Jake asked Mare if she
wanted to go to the nearby exhibition with him and as always, she refused.
These rejections were normal for Jake, who had liked her since the first day he
saw her. He had introduced her into the inner circle of the drug market after he
saw her stick-like, starved figured begging for food with her large, beautiful
oceanic eyes.

After parting ways with Jake, Mare went to her father’s grave atop a hill, where
she always went after she had finished making a delivery but unlike usual, today
she was not alone. On her arrival, she saw a tall man with a confident stride
standing over the tombstone. She approached him in anger, thinking that he was
trying to harm her father’s resting grounds.
“Get away from my father! Who the hell are you?” she yelled as she pushed
him with all her force causing the man to stumble. However, instead of anger, a
soft gaze replaced the sad one when he saw Mare’s face. He got up and cupped
her tiny face in his large, wrinkly arms as his face muscles twitched as if he was
about to burst into tears. Confused, Mare shoved his hands way from her face.
Grasping the situation, he cleared his throat and in a stern tone, he introduced
himself.

“Hello! I am Richard. I was your father’s dear friend. I had lost touch with him
due to circumstances and only recently heard about his death. I apologized if I
startled you.”, he said.

Now lowering her guard Mare introduced herself and apologized for
overreacting. They climbed down together and talked about her father and
listening to him, she felt a tinge of happiness as she was finally to talk about her
father to someone. It brought her peace.

After that day, they met several times. Mare knew by the way he talked that
Richard was a very important person to her dad. One day, before leaving,
Richard pulled out a business card out of his pocket and handed it over to her.

“I would love to have you as my daughter. Please let me legally adopt you. I
came here hoping I would get to meet you. I think your father also would have
wanted this.”, he said before leaving.

It was the happiest day of her life. She hesitated at first but eventually gave in at
the cost that he would also help Jake. Since then, Mare was able to find inner
peace rather that short-lived doses of adrenaline. It also made realize her feeling
towards Jake. She was really and truly happy.