Neige Rouge
"You bleed just to know you're alive" - John Rzeznik
Stoya:
Oh Clarisse… we came to this place together. I’d always hoped we’d leave together. Earn our freedom from this hole. But when I think about it, we’ve earned our freedom ten times over at least. It isn’t about freedom anymore. It’s about survival. I knew she wasn’t strong enough. I’m sure there was something I could have done. But I will kill that pig for tormenting her. After every appointment she would come home shivering like a raped child… but she never cried. I can only see blurry wisps of her blonde curls as the coroner moves her into the black bag. Human trash bags. My make up is all smeared and I know I will be late for my appointment with Marshal. He will forgive me. He always does.
“Does she have any family?” The coroner is annoyed at having to repeat himself. Dick.
“Yes. She’s my sister.”
“I doubt that. You look nothing alike.” Dick.
“She is my sister. We have no remaining relatives. We are alone.” Dick.
“Very well. What is her surname?”
“We don’t have one. We can’t remember it.”
“Very well. Birth date?”
“We can’t really remember that either.”
“Did you two get simultaneous amnesia?” Dick.
“No! We never really knew any exact details about our lives! Our parents died before we knew how to walk. Dick…”
“Very well. That’s all.” Dick.
“Stoya!” I hear her screeching from below me. I know I’m very late. I get Suzanna to fix my face and I tear down the steps and into the limousine. “Step on it Gustav. To the usual place.”
“Yes.” After a very long time he mutters “We’re all gonna really miss Clarisse.” Gotta love Gustav. He always knows just what to say. We pull up to the gates of my weekly hell and I am ushered through by his private Spӧken to my personal torture chamber. It’s been decorated like a child’s playroom. I’m given a few minutes alone to prepare for the onslaught. He enters. I call him late and spank him with a wooden ruler. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Prime Minister!
HOURS LATER
We light our post coital cigarettes and I talk to him like an adult for the first time all evening. “I’m sorry I was late Marshal. My sister died this evening.”
“That’s quite alright dear. You performed excellently under the circumstances.”
“Thank you.” I can’t hate the man, not while there are worse out there… “so tell me. What has been going on in the State? You now it interests me so.” For a hooker I’m pretty up on my politics. “Have you met with the Tribunal yet on the Casper issue?”
“I meet with them Tuesday as a matter of fact.”
“How exciting! Have you actually seen their faces?!”
“Silly girl, no one sees their faces. Safety reasons you see.”
“Of course. Still, talking with them must be thrilling. Changing the State one day at a time.”
“Indeed. I’m going to propose they give us complete power to kill Caspers on sight and have Spӧken on the streets 24 hours of every day. Safety reasons you see.”
“What have the Caspers done that makes them shoot-on-sight targets?”
“It will keep our citizens safer to have them dealt with.”
“I see…” Typical politician, never answers the question.
“Ssshhh now kitten. You’d best be off. The sun is rising.”
“It’s been a pleasure Prime Minister.” Til next week Lucifer… the rising sun is the same colour as Clarisse’s lips were while she hung there. I fall onto the back seat and cry the whole way home. Now I’m alone. In all the world. I’m alone.
